In Transit

2012-01-01T17:06:00.000+08:00

Food For Thought on Vacation

Went to Lombok for a short vacation in the last few days of December. Lombok positions itself as Bali before Bali became commercialised. And it was only in the past decade that tourists have started going there in earnest - thanks to pack backers who led the way.

And to be sure, there isn't that rampant commercialism and development that's descended on Bali. Agriculture is still the main source of income - tourism is only #5. So there aren't the same conveniences, ease of communication and efficiencies that you find in Bali. And it's those little diamond-in-the-rough edges that give Lombok its personality. And keeps mass tourism away.

That's probably the reason villages like Sasak are still around. The Sasaks were the main tribe in Lombok - and now they occupy a series of villages where houses have thatched roofs, mud and dried dung floors, and, according to our guide, is still pretty communal. The money we spent on handmade fabric is to be shared between the villagers, and the money we gave our guide would go to him and ten other that he was training to be guides.

Our village guide spoke really good English - better than most of the staff at our hotel. He learned it from books: five words a day, when he was young he said. He has no e-mail, no smartphone, and is contactable only by SMS. The tribe has no website, even though it gets income from tourist visits (20 a day, mostly from Jakarta). Most of the villagers speak Sasak, not Behasa Indonesia. Kids go to school, but the community inter-marries and no one's left the village yet, he says. Medical care comes in the form of herbal and spiritual healing. It's a close knit community and everything is shared - from income, to home-building, to food.

Of course, education will bring modernity to the young in the village and bring them opportunity. But, in our globally connected world, seeing what others have that we don't also increases our wants, our needs, our goals. It would take a really special education system and community involvement to preserve that closeness and keep the balance between opportunity, community, and our very natural desire to have more, do more, see more.

link to Lombok images here: http://bit.ly/uFCC9j

We are Not Smarter than the Kids We Work With

2011-10-02T13:13:00.002+08:00

Every Saturday, the Whampoa Learning volunteers work with kids that usually don't have the best grades in class - far from it. At age 9, many of them can't spell simple words, don't know how letters sound phonetically, and many of them believe they aren't really smart at all.

And it's easy for us adults, no matter how well meaning, to fall into the trap of our own preconceptions.

Last weekend, we were working with 9-year-old D. He looks like he's 7 and he seems to have a max attention span of 10 minutes - or rather, the longest we've been able to hold his attention is 10 minutes. Mark, a volunteer who is an engineer, had alternated b/t reading to / with him, playing a vowel "hotdog" game in the iPad, chasing him around the room to get back to "work".

Then D saw me playing Memory Matrix with another kid, and wanted to play too. It's one of those games where squares flash on the screen, disappear, then you click on where the square were. We saw him getting up to 8 squares, and then 9, and then 12. When he'd gotten the hang of it - he was using two hands. Fingers bouncing on the screen as if he were playing the piano.

NONE of the other volunteers - engineers, execs - could get close to his score.

So there - D's got an incredible memory. And btw - he also does mental math faster than any of us. But because he can't read, anything above Primary 2 math is a lost cause for him since most everything requires reading and reasoning.

Now - what do we do w/ that information? Where can we get expert guidance on how we can help D learn? Any ideas anyone?

2011-08-28T18:03:00.000+08:00


Chicken Ham, Lettuce and Cheese sandwich comin' up

Learning about Ramadan from the Whampoa Kids

So, the sandwich/ party project last month was a great success. The older kids made the sandwiches in orderly chaos, and the younger kids kid made little crowns, and Cheryl did the games.

Last weekend, we did a session on Hari Raya where the kids did the teaching and quizzed the volunteers. Cheryl did the lesson plan and this was how it worked:

10am - Kids came and did a word search of Hari Raya related words. (There are sites online you can generate search words and crossword puzzles for free)

10.20am - We split the children in 2 groups. Each group had 1 minute (ish) to list as many words related to Hari Raya as possible. Volunteers prompted by suggesting categories like food, clothes, things they do, see, etc.

10.30am - In their groups, kids discussed and prepared a mindmap/ presentation on on Ramadan. 3 aspects: a) the religious significance and Ramadan; b) the prep leading up to Hari Raya which culminates in Malam Raya (the night before Hari Raya); c) Hari Raya itself and the month of festivities that follows.

Social worker Khairun and her cousin were advisers since none of the other volunteers are Muslim.

10.45am - Groups then presented and Volunteers asked questions or clarified.

11am - Kids then came up with quiz questions and quizzed us, the volunteers. They had a blast turning the tables on us. We'd learned a lot ourselves too.

The classes are comin' along. Next weekend we've got a training session with an organisation called Junior Achievement. They're donating a 6-hour module teaching kids about money smarts. Comes with games, lesson plans and course materials. And they'll teach us how to to use 'em.Lookin' f'd to it.

2011-07-27T00:09:00.000+08:00

Sandwiches and sums

This month's theme is food. We're doing a four-week block of related classes.

Week 1: the kids made sandwiches and learned about nutrition. Steve demo'd how yeast makes dough rise. The kids were really into it- making sandwiches for themselves, the volunteers and esp. the social workers.
Week 2: the kids made a list of things they'd need for a party, and went to the supermarket with the volunteers to take down prices of stuff.

"Econ is cheaper than NTUC lah" said a couple of them so they took the volunteers there instead.

Week 3: they did spreadsheets, itemized their shopping lists, totaled up the costs did everything within budget.
They were doing this in groups - so it was really interesting that they proactively went to other groups to
ask what food and drink the other kids wanted.

They were really engaged! They were doing math, making schedules, participated.

This Saturday, they'll come and prep for the party. They'll be making sandwiches, carting stuff, doing decorations. It'll be their party, and we're inviting parents.

As part of community outreach, we're working on getting the town council to OK our doing the party at the
block where most of them live.

So - looking f'd to this weekend. Better go order the cake

2011-04-03T00:21:00.000+08:00

Of Sushi and Schoolwork

When the tsunami first hit, one of the kids came up to one of the volunteers, Mark, and started talking excitedly about it and about the session on plate tectonics we'd done last year.

The boy, 11, was football crazy and usually took us a lot of effort to sit still and pay attention. We certainly didn't expect him to come talk to us proactively about Japan and the earthquake.

So, we decided to plan a couple of lessons around the theme of earthquakes. Last weekend, a group of volunteers who specialize in conflict resolution used the events in Japan in a role play.

The kids had to pretend they were injured the tsunami and had to argue for which of them should be sent to hospital first. Another kid was the "doctor"and had to decide who got priority and why.

It was the first time we successfully got the kids to do any role playing that required speaking. Progress!!

Today, we themed the class around the Ring of Fire. We showed the kids a HUGE atlas and a map of the countries around the Ring. They had to select a place, do research (the vols had borrowed a whole slew of library books) and then do a presentation to the group about their country of choice.

We knew that was kinda touch and go, because it had been difficult getting the kids to speak in front of a group. So, with the books on one of the tables, a mindmap template, off the kids went, each paired with a volunteer.

Boy was I wowed! An hour later, the mindmaps came back with illustrations of sushi, sumo wrestlers, volcanoes...notes on Noh and Kabuki. Of course, most of the kids chose Japan. From the one boy who picked the Philippines, I learned that the country produces the most sailors in the WORLD.

Then the kids presented - most of them paired up with volunteers. Except for one girl, 9-year-old Shaleena, who presented hers on her own.

And finally we had a quiz based on the info that the kids had presented.

PROGRESS!!

My friend Hui is working on a volunteer handbook and her last page asks "So - WHY do we volunteer?"

With today's class, I think I'm a little closer to an answer.

2010-10-30T19:07:00.000+08:00

Gaming the Lesson Plan

Last week, we had a volunteer with 20 years experience in working with Special Needs Children do a workshop with us in Classroom Management. At the end of the workshop, she gave us a BRAND NEW Monopoly set and told us that ANYTHING can be taught using boardgames. "Just replace the Comm Chest and Chance cards w/ your own."

Since she gave us Singapore Monopoly, we used a passage on Singapore from the Kids Encyclopedia Britannica to introduce new vocab and concepts like Economy, Terrain, Undulating, Monsoon, Thriving, Metropolis etc. The volunteers did a great job engaging the kids, age 9-11, to draw them into discussion - including bringing out a huge atlas and have kids find the equator, peninsulas, explaining monsoons, making sure the quieter ones (girls) got a chance to talk.

We had found a Monopoly card generator online, inserted our own text, and printed a bunch, interpersing them with the generic monopoly cards. Eg."Answer the question correctly and each player pays you $50". The quiz content was taken from the reading material. We've also had pictionary and Taboo-type questions in the cards.

It was great - the kids were engaged and they pretty much all participated. It coulda been the prospect of playing Monopoly rather than doing work sheets, or because the older "noisemakers" were offsite - so the younger noisy ones weren't so noisy. Anyway, it went swimmingly. We incorporated vocab, geography, a bit of math "Pay $2000 or 10% of your holdings."

Sunita, one of the volunteers, suggested that we continue with the game next week, picking up from where the kids left off. That way, we can revise the material, the vocab, continue with the quiz and the pictionary Comm Chest cards. So, everyone's tokens and money and property are now separate plastic bags the game will continue next week.

So - great start with the new ways of engaging the kids.

2010-10-28T23:47:00.000+08:00

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

A friend donated a P6 curriculum from a really cool US program called Pathways to Character. The program intertwines academic content, like math and English, with concepts like respect, sharing, family, tolerance. Couple of weeks ago, we used one of their lessons on "respect".

The lesson plan had us find a passage from literature where there was conflict. I took a scene from the first chapter of Lord of the Flies. I read out the conversation between Piggy and Ralph where Ralph is crushingly patronising and rude to Piggy.

The kids made a hand puppet from a paper bag, and I put a jar of marbles on the table. Every time any of the characters said a disrepectful word the kids dropped a marble into the bag. After a couple of minutes the bags had about 8 or 9 marbles. Noisy bag.

Then, we explained that when you're disrespectful or use disrespectful words, people hear only the disrespectful stuff - the noise - and disregard the rest.
And that you have to respect yourself as well as others.

And we started to mindmap what respect means.

The volunteers didn't find it so easy to explain respect - especially self-respect. And while the kids could tell us what it means to SHOW respect - be attentive in class, greet people etc - they didn't know how or why they had to apply it in real-life situations. So it was as if they were dutifully repeating what they've been told but because others in their lives probably rarely show them respect, they in turn don't know how to demonstrate it.

"Why do they continue to bang on tables, yell, swear, and be disruptive - week after week?" asked one of the volunteers later. "Shouldn't they be happy that someone is treating them well and being polite and nice to them?"

Well, I really don't know. If most of the time your life is disruptive and people around you aren't respectful, will two hours a week with adults who mean well but represent a lifestyle that seems really out of reach make that much of a diff?

I think one of the teenage volunteers said it best when she said, "It'll take time."

2010-10-06T08:48:00.001+08:00

Everyday Heroes

So, the kids had a really really cool children's party organised for them by a team at PSA. The games were engaging, the kids were constantly moving, doing stuff, running and laughing - 80% of the kids were terrific, polite, well-behaved.

Three of the kids were being a real pain - esp. on the way back, on the bus. They were rude, one of them had allegedly hit another kid with an empty plastic water bottle, and another one was mouthing off loudly - most of that seemed to be aimed at me as I was sitting right in front of him trying to get him to sit the heck down in the moving bus.

I honestly thought we'd made more progress than that. So, dejected and distressed, I texted the social worker I work with on the program, questioning the effectiveness and purpose of what we were doing. And she emailed me a note I'll refer to every time I'm losing the faith. (Names of kids have been changed)

"I know they still have a long way to go, but they’re slowly moving in the right direction yeah. And honestly, sometimes the work that we do, it’s like if we can save 1 out of every 20, that’s already a success. But that’s the jaded social worker speaking
– it’s good to have those like you who keep pushing the standards so that we don’t get too despondent and lower our standards for the children.

But something small that happened last week – on Friday, we took 3 of the children to an event because their drawings had won prizes. They had loads of leftovers so I came back lugging 4 extra boxes of cake. After dropping the kids off I ran into Nik and his brothers. Of course, as I approached they were already saying “Ms C, give me lah!”, but no matter, I could tell by their surprise when I actually said yes that they were just saying it for fun and didn’t actually expect me to. So they thanked me and got on with their soccer game.

The thing is, the next day was Saturday, our outing. When Nik saw me, first thing he said was “Thank you ah Ms C, yesterday you gave me the cake, thank you.” To me, that’s an important achievement.

Here’s a child who seems to be selfish and self-absorbed, unaware of his surroundings and doing whatever suits him. Yet, he has enough maturity and social consciousness, or whatever it is that prompted this, to come up to me of his own volition one day later to thank me, and obviously with the full intention of doing so and not just accidentally remembering it.

It shows, to me, that it’s somewhere inside of them, and it’s coming out little by little. We just gotta keep reminding, supporting, encouraging, and being there for them when they fall. And of course, role modeling, because how are they ever gonna learn if all they’re surrounded by is negative examples?

But yeah… chin up ok? We’ve really made progress with these kids. We can do it!"

2010-09-30T17:39:00.000+08:00

Tiny Steps in Winning the Education Battle

Woke up this morning to two really cool education stories – one in the NY Times about how big dsn’t mean bad. Very VERY gratified to see that it was teachers who wanted to make the change that drove the change. So much for the excuse that the system’s too big for individuals to make a diff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/education/28school.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Then another one on Mashable on USING Social Media to teach. Beats trying to do a lock down and preventing kids from going online – kids are gonna do what they’re gonna do. And they’re smarter than adults about technology and twice as determined. So there. As a Portland teacher, Elizabeth Delmatoff said, “Don’t fight the losing battle.”

http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/

Personally I’d rather go with the winners and have the kids learn something.

2010-07-28T10:44:00.001+08:00

Learning a Thing or Two About Friendship
Followed the Whampoa kids on Beyond Social Services' Fundraiser Streetwise Run early July, and I learned a thing or two about friendship and determination.

There was the pre-run prep, where kids who showed up a the bus pick-up point early then walked to their friends' flats to make sure they were up and would be ready to leave on time. There were the older kids who were holding the younger kids' hand on the 5k walk - kids that I wouldn't have dreamed would even think of looking after other kids.

And there was the sheer determination on the faces of the runners - the same kids who had problems sitting still to read for any amount of time. Three of the Whampoa kids came in top three in the under-12 category. They were proud, the volunteers and social workers were cheering like mad, and it was worth the humidity and heat.

We're making progress. Last Saturday the older kids actually sat down and participated long enough to discuss vocab for a topic (the Garden Festival - I'm so sorry boys, we'll do something with explosions next time), mind-map, and write about the morning they spent at the horticulture event. Then they had 30 minutes left over and played Risk or Chess or Taboo. Yes, even that was split along gender lines.

Had a meeting with the volunteers as well, to look at gaps. Three emerged. Volunteers wanted:
- a more systematic way of learning more about the kids, backgrounds, and family life
- a better understanding of the school curriculm and skills in planning learning activities for the kids
- skills in managing kids/managing classroom

Then, we divided up the tasks up and are working on a program to fill those gaps.

So now - I'm looking for volunteers with a teaching background who want to help with curriculum planning, and basically, making learning fun and engaging and interactive. And teaching the rest of us volunteers, mostly corporate geeks, to take our programs up a notch. Onward and upwards!

2010-06-24T08:41:00.001+08:00

Things I'm Learning from People I'm Meeting

Funny how things in my work and personal life converge - or maybe they're converging because one's feeding off the other.

Here's what's taking up my time now:
- I'm working on building my own business, LINEA, in communications consulting and training. And meeting some really cool, independent businesspeople.
- I'm taking a REALLY great Travel Photography class with Eyes On Asia, and discovering that there are things to shoot in Singapore, and shooting with some really cool people,
- I'm working with volunteers to beef up the learning program at the Whampoa Family Service Centre and learning that diversity=different points of view=a stronger program.

I actually started off wanting to focus on PR for Very Small Businesses and Small/ Medium Businesses. But I quickly realised that businesses that small don't care about putting marketing disciplines in silos - they don't have the time or resources. They want everything linked together - something some larger companies see as a theoretical thing called Integrated Marketing. So I'm quickly finding other independent partners to work with to meet VSB needs.

The businessespeople (men and women) I've met have an independent streak that's tied very tightly with pragmatism and a link to their business goals. Paradoxically, their business goals aren't measured purely by numbers but whether they're doing something that ties in with their beliefs and ideals and ultimately makes them happy.

Through my photog class, where each of us shoot around a single travel-related theme, I'm meeting independent shopkeepers that are totally going against the grain. I'm shooting Singapore Retail: Beyond Orchard Road. (The food one was already "choped" by a German classmate who speaks Singlish, says AIYOH a lot, and is fast becoming a laksa expert. Singapore cab, Little India, and Skateboarding are some of my other classmates' themes.)

I've been spending a lot of time at the Ann Siang Hill/ Club Street/ Haji Lane area where stores have strong, distinctive personalities. They're run by young people with guts and strong vision that the books, clothes, accessories, homeware that are making them happy will make their potential customers happy to hang out there - and buy stuff - as well.

I'd like to take some of the older kids (ie 11-and 12-yr olds) at Whampoa to visit the area to meet these cool store owners, hang out in bookstores - especially one really cool kids' bookstore called Woods in the Books on Club St. Mostly I'd like them to chat with entrepreneurial young people who aren't confined to the mainstream, so that they realise it can be done.

At Whampao, volunteers who've only been with us a few months have come up with some really cool, specific suggestions to improve the Saturday program. One volunteer suggested we weave in some Math rather than focus on English all the time. So another two other volunteers are building a "manufacturing and commerce" game into this Saturday's program. We're going to give put the kids in teams, give them Monopoly money, "sell" them raw materials to make bookmarks and decorate clothes pegs - and they're going to make goods, price 'em and "sell" 'em back to the volunteers.

So, new people, new headspace, new ideas that are opening a really different world to me. Couple of people asked me if I'm going to take a chunk of time off to travel. I'm thinking - later. Right now I'm just starting on this really cool journey.

2010-06-03T21:42:00.000+08:00

A Step Forward!

The Saturday volunteers continue doing a FANTASTIC job at Whampoa's LIFE program. They're so energising and engaging they make everything fun.

The classes I took at the British Council help a great deal in lesson- planning, and we're building trust and learning about the kids as individuals. Yes, it gets tiring, hot, and humid, and we're getting real life lessons in classroom management and chaos, but it's worth it.

Now that I've left Lenovo, I've been helping out with Whampoa's after school program once or twice a week. Volunteers from SJI and CHIJ come in as part of their CCAs to help out.

Today, one of the 12-year-olds, (not the kid in the photo) who a year ago pretty much wouldn't give us the time of day or even come near us, sat down for two hours and did an English assessment paper including a composition. Then he played a grammar game on the BBC education website on my old work ThinkPad that I bought over and now bring to Whampoa with me. His progress has been a gradual process - thanks to the work of a whole slew of people, from social workers to volunteers.

Because he was so focused and engaged, I lent him my iPhone to play pinball in between doing his work. That seemed to work as reward and a break. So I guess I'll be downloading more games tonight. He's a really bright kid, but I'm worried about his PSLE's since three of his four subjects are in English. A teacher I met told me that with six months to go before his exams, it's "drill baby drill." It's now all about test-taking and not about building a foundation.

For all you teachers/ parents out there - what do you think? Can the two be combined? I'm not a big fan of drills, but if it has to be done, it has to be done.

2010-05-20T18:34:00.000+08:00

Two Steps Back
After-school program at Whampoa program. Had the four boys. H, one of the boys I usually work with, was at school doing his fitness test but dropped by to say hi just before 5.

Did a writing exercise - correction - attempted to do a writing exercise using a Cartier-Bresson image of a group of boys playing near an abandoned building. Thought I'd try out the cool pre-writing collaboration exercises I learned in class.

They were outta control and we were all over the place. Did I pick the wrong content? Have bad classroom management? It wasn't even a classroom - just four boys. They finally settled down to do their mind-map with one-on-one attention from the other volunteers as well. Learning: plan the group work more carefully.

Later Li, a girl who's really good at Chinese, came over to get help researching content for English homework around advantages and disadvantages of the Internet. Of course, the first article that popped up, the P word appeared under Disadvantages. She asked "Should I include this? My teacher is a girl."

She also wanted to know how to score better in Comprehension, which seems to be a common weakness. Kids can process the stuff they read, but drawing inferences is another matter entirely. Will work on that in the next couple of weeks. See if I can put what I learned at the British Council to good, practical use.

2010-05-17T08:08:00.001+08:00

Light!

We had one of our best Saturday sessions at Whampao last weekend.
As volunteers, we're finally getting to know the kids (it's taken us a year!), understand what floats their boats, realise that they have very different home, and probably school, environments than we ever did.

Most importantly, Saturday was the most engaged they've ever been. They're starting to trust us, and maybe realise that we care, and that learning isn't a drag.

We've started dividing the two hours into several sections:
- a warmer, to cater for the kids that are on time and to get them into it as they come in
- a lead-in, to get the kids to guess the topic and get into it and get them engaged
- puzzles, word searches, crosswords, mindmaps, in which the answers relate back to the topic. Sometime its more hands on, like making stuff. The kids get one-on-one attention from the volunteers here.
- a gameshow style quiz in which the answers come from the topic. The quiz REALLY gets their competitive spirit going.
And on Saturday, the two co-ed teams of Ninja Turtles and Barbie Dolls (they chose their own names, we had nothing to do with it) were really close! Just one point difference separated them. Lots of enthusiasm and energy.

It was fun for us adults too! AND I finally get to put my photo and art books to good use. This week, the topic was functions of the heart, and apart from bio, the reading material also included a list of heart-related idioms.

So, as a lead in, we used pictures of Ironman (his "heart" was failing, right?), an Irving Penn image of beef, eggs, oil (too much is bad for your heart), a Cartier-Bresson image of a couple kissing in front of a cafe. Also, one of the volunteers from ACS found a really good site for related reading materials for kids. It's at http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetailsKids.aspx?p=335&np=152&id=1446

Next couple of weeks: WORLD CUP!

2010-04-26T07:33:00.000+08:00

Help Wanted, Help Given

Here's a post from Gerard Ee, the executive director of Beyond Social Services. (The FSC I'm helping out at, Whampoa, is part of this network)

This evening, 6 secondary 2 students will be receiving tuition from some volunteers at a Residents’ Committee Centre. Nothing unusual but over the past month, these students started to ‘repay’ their volunteers with an hour of dance lessons after tuition ends at 8.30 pm. It was not something the volunteers had asked for but it was something these students knew that they could give.

For the past 6 months, these students have been dancing in the street near where they live and sharing their moves with children and others who cared join them. Their energy and enthusiasm have added a vibrant vibe to their neighbourhood which is much appreciated.

Next month, as a gesture of appreciation to the Residents’ Committee for allowing them to use their premises for tuition, these students will be performing at an RC event. I wonder if they will eventually get the volunteers to be a part of their performance too.

Communities have a wealth of resources that just need to be activated. In the neighbourhoods we work in, we have found people to most willingly to step forward despite not having very much themselves. Perhaps, in the absence of material wealth, the value of social capital becomes more apparent. A mother of 2 willingly welcomed 3 young children from a friend who found himself temporarily homeless. Last Sunday, this mother cooked a big pot of stew and brought these children together with her own for a picnic as a farewell gesture to the children she was looking after briefly. She told us of the wonderful time the ‘expanded’ family had at the beach and how her own children have become good friends with her little visitors.

When a 16 year old girl learned that a neighbour had wanted to return to school she arranged for us to meet him together with his parents. During the meeting, she reassured the boy that we only had his best interest at heart and we will not be holding his past mistakes against him. Though only 16, she knew exactly what it meant to be offering non-judgemental support. The school we connected the boy with wanted a letter of intent from the boy which required him to provide the reasons why he had dropped out earlier. It was a reasonable exercise in accountability but the boy saw it as yet another obstacle. Again this young girl offered her support as she really did not want the boy to miss a decent opportunity for furthering his education. She sat with him; spoke to him gently and slowly coaxed out the various reasons why he had dropped out of school. She helped the boy organise what he could say and he penned that letter of intention.

In our work, we build on the positives within the people we serve. We must always remember though that people do not have to be perfect before they can have positives; so there is always something to build on.

Gerard Ee
Executive Director

BEYOND SOCIAL SERVICES

2010-04-21T16:11:00.010+08:00

"Don't Underestimate Kids"

Couple of weeks ago I downloaded a TED Conference speech by 12-year-old Adora Svitak. (Yes! She's 12, and she spoke at TED). It was for an exercise at the Whampoa Family Service Centre in which the kids would have to:

- do a word search puzzle based on the vocab in the speech (thank you free puzzle websites)
- discuss the meaning of the words and form sentences using them
- watch the speech, listen, and hopefully follow along with the transcript
- do an exercise in which they built an argument for, or against, a topic.

As context - Adora Svitak, an American who got her first book published at 7, talked about What Adults Can Learn from Kids. I wanted the kids to be inspired by someone their own age. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/adora_svitak.html.

Some of the volunteers, myself included, were worried at first. These were 9-12 year olds - most with a not-so-great command of English. Would the kids get it? Would they be bored? Lost? Start running around?
As it turns out, there were challenging bits. But for the most part, both kids and volunteers learned from the exercise.

My friend Sunita realised that some of the kids needed simpler tasks. So she's offered to come up with exercises for the kids who're not as advanced for future sessions.

I got an insight into what some of the kids think. One of the 9-year-olds, whose mother doesn't speak any English, wrote "My aspiration is to be a lawyer" after we discussed the word "aspiration".

For "underestimate", 10-year old boy wrote "Adults suck because they always underestimate kids." Interestingly, her sister wrote this about him, "Don't underestimate my brother. He might be lazy, but he's very smart."

I also realised not all kids like this stuff (duh). So I asked one of the kids whose eyes had glazed over what she wanted to do. She said "I don't like reading. I want to do Science."

So THIS Saturday - MJ, a 20something volunteer from Novartis, will be prepping a session on kidneys and doing a Wheel of Fortune-like gameshow/ quiz.

And, along the lines of not underestimating kids, I came across this really interesting story in the NY Times today about how a couple of schools are stretching 8-year-olds by using kids' classics to teach philosophy. http://nyti.ms/9hGLbN

2010-03-28T15:42:00.003+08:00

Musical Spaces

A 10-year-old said to me: "(tea)Cherrr! Today chaos har?"

It had to be true chaos if even the kids from the centre says it's chaotic. It was birthday cake day again (every last Saturday - cake donated by Classic Cakes). And we'd just blown the candles and this time I'd taken it into the staff room to cut and then distribute. The kids were outside clamouring for cake while the monthly awards were given out. Every month we also give out personalised notes written by the social workers and volunteers to the kids.

We were short of volunteers Saturday: 1 in Seramban, another 2 in school, one out sick. So the boys were having a field day with vols Simeon and Ben who, to their credit, did a terrific job. Quite honestly, I was glad to leave them to it, hopping over only when the boys were getting too rowdy.

We did "sound/ pitch" from this really great kiddie Science experiment book. And we did the whole finger on rim of wine glass, different levels of water in bottles, and Ben was drawing sound waves on the board, telling the kids about amplitude and longtitude. AND they were paying attention. Then the boys got bored and started running around. I think they ended up playing Uno with one of the social workers minding them. Nash lost his glasses and I ended up talking to his mother on the phone with her asking me what WE were going to do about it. Luckily, Ben found them.

Considering there were 50 kids: 20 or so in my older group. I'd say we did OK. Getting their attention is a lot easier than it was 6 months ago.

Then I got some feedback from one of the senior social workers via another social worker. We were doing a great job engaging the girls. Now we need to do the same with the boys. Uh...do we have to?

As it was, I had three girl doing pretty well, two girls constantly getting bored, two ultra quiet and lost and unengaged but with potential, and one really really bright kid that would benefit from extra attention. And at least none of the girls were running around yelling and shoving.

So how do we do right by both groups? I don't know - but I'm open to suggestions.

2010-03-17T01:21:00.001+08:00

Magpies and Metros
First time I've been at the centre that the kids didn't fight.

Carrie donated her time and materials for b/t 20-30 bracelets. We did a crossword puzzle on words associated with jewellery, had the kids read a piece about the history of jewellery (tx Hui E for simplifying it and adding images), and then Carrie talked to the kids about what she does and what to do with beads and wires.

She also had them write about their product and "pitch" them to the volunteers. One on one - group presentations way too ambitious. And she had them calculate their cost and profit.

The kids were really focused. OK mostly focused. The boys had chosen to paint T shirts but came over later anyway and made bracelets for their girlfriends and mothers. I never thought I'd see the day. Even the really rough, really ready to fight ones. Making jewellery.

Apart from one kid who said he wanted to put te F word on his T - there was no real drama. He wasn't really going to do it. In any case I'd responded by offering stencils. Nash claimed the extra T shirts and painted them for his younger brothers. (But not his sister, who was making a bracelet and ended up losing it.)

So, the session stretched on for slightly longer than normal, but it was worth it.

I'm still scratching my head on how to make the kids read for a longer period of time and enjoy it.

2010-03-07T23:07:00.001+08:00

Hot Volcanoes and Cool Volunteers

Yesterday's session at the centre was great. We split the kids up somewhat so the boys were in a group with two guy volunteers and less disruptive.Does it send the wrong message when we split up the boys and girls? I don't know but there were no skirmishes to break up yesterday when normally there'd be at least a couple.

Couple of cool things: The pair of 20something volunteers that have been with us for three weeks teamed up with the three teenage volunteers to make a plasticine, baking soda and vinegar volcano as we were doing plate tectonics with the kids. Great demo after the crossword, hangman and reading.

We had a group of new volunteers.
They work in drama full time. They came in and had the kids do tableaux related to tsunamis, volcanoes and quakes.

End note: quote from a first time volunteer (not from the drama grou). "some of my friends have said they want to bring their kids to Cambodia to see what it's like to be poor. They should just bring their kids here."

(Pix: Students in Cambodia)

2010-02-24T23:31:00.001+08:00

“I Want To Be the Strongest”

The photo on this post is badly lit, mis-composed, and has no technical merit whatsoever. But of all the images I’ve taken in the past 12 months: from Russia, Turkey, Paris, Provence, this one, from beautiful downtown Whampoa, is the one I’m proudest of.

The “study” theme at the Family Service Centre last Saturday was the Olympics. I brought in an Olympic torch from the office (yes, the real McCoy. Lenovo designed the Torch at the Beijing Olympics after all), had them play some Olympics-themed word games, got a TINY bit of reading done, and then the kids had a choice of making a torch, complete with paper napkin flames, Olympic Medal, or the Olympic flag.

It was a bit of pandemonium
– one of the boys kept running round to another table to give his younger sister a shove for no apparent reason; a bit of a mess – one kid spilled the water all over the table – no more poster paints please!! But the kids were into it, they were having fun, and the volunteers were great – getting the kids engaged, asking them questions and keeping them focused.

By late morning there were some nice torches and some kids doing Chariots of Fire with their handiwork. Some brought their art work home, some abandoned them. Several came up and asked that their work be put up on the wall.

So – that’s the photo in this post. Every Saturday we hope we give the kids two hours of a view into the world away from textbooks, hopefully get them interested in something new, and something to take home to their parents maybe.

One kid, Nashruddin wrote on his paper plate Olympic Medal “I want to be the strongest.” I hope his parents come in one weekend to see that.

And when Camelia (really cool teenage volunteer) and I blu-tac'd the stuff on the wall last weekend, I finally realised: baby steps are OK.

2010-02-20T20:42:00.004+08:00

More on Whampao: froma fellow volunteer

It's been nearly a year since I've started working with the kids at Whampao, and every Saturday, the place runs thanks to some very very dedicated volunteers.

Here's a post from my friend Koh Joh Ju, who works with the K through P2 kids, and always reminds me that kids need patience and care from us more than they do discipline.

A story about positive reinforcement

On Saturday, we had a group of really sweet n kind young volunteers, eager to please and help. Completely fresh of the boat. Naturally, the kids were on to them and we had a tough time getting the 4-8 year olds sticking to do any reading, writing & speaking.

Some 15mins to closing time, i managed to get a 5 year old to write 'colouring' into his activity file and i wrote in the remarks column GOOD JOB! i showed that to him and read out the words. Then i went to the next kid with this sample. And another kid. I ended up with 3 kids who wrote without coaxing.

(Very unlike Jan 23rd when every kid wld say 'u write for me' or 'i dunno how to write'.)

So, I know of 3 kids who can write COLOURING, GOOD and JOB. woohoo!

You know, this 'positive reinforcement' thingy is quite infectious. i was so positively reinforced by this tiny milestone that i've started work on a series of worksheets for the young ones. (as in, i created 1 worksheet. will need to crank out a few more before the next class hits!)

2010-01-20T00:14:00.001+08:00

Note to Self: Don't Write off "Disruptive" Kids

OK - I have to admit. I was annoyed as hell. It was the second Saturday back at the Family Service Centre, the kids were restless, and the younger of the "L" brothers was running around and being disruptive.

I was really quite glad when he left the group to do his own thing. I had enough kids to work with.

After the morning's session, when all the kids had trooped off home with their Milo and sweets, I went to one of the student volunteers who spent time with L and gave him a sympathetic "you had to look after L huh? How was it?"

"Actually, pretty good," he said, throwing me for a loop. "We took him outside to the void deck. Found out he likes playing Chinese chess. So he's obviously intellectually bright. He just needs the individual attention so he's not bored."

Hmm. So much for snap judgements. Even with kids.

2010-01-02T15:22:00.001+08:00

Not Your Typical Provence Photo

In Avignon now, where it'll a high of 3 degrees C today.

It's been a great week. (Although cold. Cold, cold, COLD! By my tropical standards anyway)
Love the little markets. Great cheese, proscuitto, baguette, fresh fruit and veg! NY Eve dinner in Avignon. Subtle use of truffle. Great service.

So many small towns and so much great food, friendly people. Cute buildings and castles. It's like walking in a page from a fairytale. This was shot at a winery earlier this week. Lotsa fog and tons of atmosphere. Although it warmed up to the teens later in the afternoon.

You wouldn't believe how many "Provence in the winter? Why?????" questions we got. But hey - having a great time anyway. No crowds, lots of parking, no queues for restaurants, and no need to elbow other tourists and their cameras out of the way.

So, maybe sometimes the road less travelled, in the off season, is not so bad. Now - I'm going to find a sweater and bundle up.

2009-12-26T18:05:00.000+08:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

2009-12-03T22:16:00.001+08:00

KIDDIE POLLOCK

The image in this post was the work of one of my colleague's kids from a recent Lenovo Kidz@Work day. (Yes, ALL parents survived thank you, and no conference calls were hurt during the event)

It was a terrific day by all accounts. It was especially amusing to see kids come to their parents desks during break - and if their parents were not there the kids would put on their parent's headsets and pretend to be doing conference calls. Although one little girl did say she didn't want to be like her mum when she grew up because "who wants to be on calls all the time?"

The kids at the Family Service Centre are on holiday break. Last Saturday was the last one for the year, so we had a chocolate cake party. Charles supplied the cake. Before the cake, there was still work to be done.

The two "L" brothers were running around, wouldn't sit still, and one of the other volunteers had them this time. I had a table with five girls aged 7-11, and a teeange volunteer from the uni helping me out. (I love her - she's a brilliant, cool, young woman and she'll do great things when she graduates). We were doing the Human Body - reading about what makes up blood, how long it takes for blood to circulate, sticking femurs, biceps, triceps onto this gigantic sticker book. One of the girls got bored and said she couldn't read without her glasses and left. The others were really engaged. And smart. And I think it took the "L" brothers, who were in another room, a long time to get UNbored.

Their younger sister, who's 7, was in my group, and I have to admit I had REALLY low expectations of her - having worked with her brothers. Dumb prejudice. She totally held her own - she's a really smart kid. So were the other girls who stuck around. So I said to the social worker maybe I should just focus on this group of girls from now. They're interested and they're smart. And I'll know my time's well used.

And she said, in a nice way "well...that's the thing about the education system here. Everyone wants to focus on the smart ones - and who's going to help those who are not?"

Sigh - food for thought. Should I expend my energy chasing the kids around the room who want to be playing with their yo-yo's and bothering the other kids? Or focus on those who are interested in learning something and find it fun? Jury's still out for me.

2009-09-15T01:40:00.003+08:00

Saturday's Kids

Last weekend a bunch of the older kids (P4-6) were lucky enough to be sent to camp. Looking forward seeing the kids again to hear about it.

So, two kids, who weren't at camp, came in. I got to spend some one on one time with Shakila and Samir (not their real names). We read about Africa from the Disney Geography book and then the kids wrote a bit, and then we played Scrabble.

Shakila wants to be an astronaut when she grows up. How do you tell a kid that - well, in the real world - you can't really be whatever you want to be. You don't. You can only believe that they can be better than where they are now and help them believe in themselves too. I think.

So, I asked her what she needed to be good at to get there. And she said Science and Math. I added English - which she said was her weak subject. We went and got a book about Science (NOT a textbook - they're the most boring things ever invented). Someone had donated a really good Science BOOK several days ago. Lots of colourful pictures and decent sized typeface. And so we read about blood cells. Then Shakila checked out a Science book from the bookshelf to bring home - along with a worn, yellowed, Secret Seven novel.

I happened to be at Parkway on Sunday and found some really good phonics books for the younger kids. It bugs me that 7-year-olds can't write their names and no one at home's helping them to. It also bugs me that parents don't see to it that their kids are at the centre every weekend, and that many of them think it doesn't really matter whether they show up or not. Where's the sense of ownership and responsibility?

Anyway, back to the Parkway book sale. Found a REALLY cool book on the human body. Comes with re-useable stickers. So, the kids can do a session on anatomy and the digestive system etc one weekend. (Next week they're doing the Water Cycle and weather.) Psyched about finding the sticker book, but still really bothered about the parents. How do we break this cycle for the kids? How do we help the parents help the kids?

2009-08-24T00:14:00.001+08:00

Green shoots of interest?

I emailed several of my friends to get help at the Family Service Centre while the regular student volunteers were away for exams. I got a terrific response. A couple of them will be staying on to volunteer every other week. Yay! And thank you!

We also had a group from a JC come in to speak about and demo traditional games like chaptek, sepak takraw, and gasing (a spinny, top-like thing like playing with a yo-yo on the ground.) The kids weren't so keen on the powerpoint lecture - but they were more than happy to play the games out on the void deck.

The routine for the past three weeks has been like this: we start with some kind of word game followed by reading - all on the same subject matter. Last week it was The Pharaohs - from a really cool, colourful, history/ activity book aimed at kids. Then the kids write 5-10 sentences about something related to the subject. A couple of the kids wrote about being soldiers or wanting to be soldiers. One of the kids made himself a Pharaoh: King Nashruddin anyone? Ambition is always good.

So, at the end of the session, I asked the kids what they wanted to read about next. "Soccer" was the overwhelming winner. Medieval history didn't quite make it. Wonder why.

Cheryl, one of two social workers there, told me later that one of the boys, who'd never shown interest in books before, took a book on soccer from the bookshelf and asked if he could borrow it to read over the week. She was surprised - and happy.

Last Saturday, the younger kids (ages 6-8) who gave a mini-performance and a bunch of the older (9-12) ones watched. There were rhymes, some singing - one of the songs was Old MacDonald- where the kids would spell out the animal. At one point in the performance, the kids were singing "and on his farm he had a d-u-c-k". And the 9-year-old sitting next to me turns to me and says "Teacher, I know F- *-*-*"

An hour later, as the kids are getting ready to go home, I turn around to see one of older boys, WJ, doing an imitation of a lion tamer, holding out a chair and glaring at someone. Only he wasn't pretending or fooling around. There'd been some sort of argument and on of the volunteers was holding on to him while another volunteer was restraining another boy.

In another room, another boy, S, was staying back doing homework having asked a volunteer for help with geometry, and out in the main area, an 8-year-old was doing the same with English. A contrast.

I wonder about what help they get at home (or not). I wonder what it would take to get boys like WJ interested - and have WJ focus and engaged instead of disruptive. A male volunteer who'll give him some one-on-one time on a subject matter he enjoys? A long term mentor? I'm still thinking. Would love to hear your ideas.

2009-08-02T23:53:00.003+08:00

Busted!

Saturday at the Family Service Centre, the kids in my group played Monopoly - loudly and enthusiastically - and in Singlish, especially when it came to collecting rent. As in "you never pay me my $600," or "you go to jail where got take rent."

So, I'd say to them, "Can you say that again in proper English? I know you can." And mostly, they could.

And after that they read Red Dot, a newspaper for kids. Lots of graphics and maps and big print. There was a global round-up - what happened where this week. So they each picked a country, and discussed current events, and then the kids looked up the country in the Disney Atlas for kids (I kid you not - it exists) and discussed population, capitals...

When it came time to write about what they learned that day, one of the kids wrote:

"I learned not to be a spendthrift" (He was buying lots of property during the Monopoly game and hit a credit crunch)
"I learned that English matters a lot in life."
"This tuition was FUN." (OK, so it's not meant to be tuition, but fine)
"Next week I want to learn about history."

And when the kids were writing, he kept looking at what the boy next to him was writing and telling him to capitalise this, or change that.
So I told him "Focus on your own work and stop kay-pohing him."

And he looked up at me, grinned, and said "That's not English! You said to speak good English."

Busted.

PS. We're looking for volunteers to help out b/t 10am and noon for the next 3 Saturdays: Aug 8, 15, 22. A whole bunch of the regular volunteers, from Ngee Ann Poly, need to take a break to study for exams. Interested? Questions? Please let me know.

2009-07-29T01:06:00.000+08:00

It’s been a couple of months since I’ve started volunteering at the Family Service Centre. And I think I’m finally starting to find my way around.

I’m working with a program aimed at teaching English and social skills to primary school age kids living in one room and rented flats. These are things that I pretty much took for granted as a kid: the ability to use phonics to piece syllables together to make words, understanding grammar, looking people in the eye when speaking, reading, speaking audibly. Come to think of it, these are things I pretty much take for granted in my friends’ kids.

These are smart kids – not kids with IQ issues by any means. Except – I’m pretty sure no one reads to them at night (at least not in English), no one sits with them at the dining table going through homework and explaining why the plural of mouse isn’t mouses, or why we say “an apple” and not “a apple” and that “learn” isn’t spelled “lern”.

Sometimes several siblings come to the centre together. “Why don’t the older siblings teach the younger siblings and make them do their homework?” said a friend of mine whose parents stressed education and faith above all. And who herself was the perfect oldest sister – kind, patient, sensible – if over-idealistic.

Why don’t they? Well, there’s a 10-year-old who comes to the centre with her 2-year-old brother literally clinging to her skirt all the time. She feeds him, minds him, caters to his every whim. Their 7-year-old sister, who will be going to Pr 1 next year, speaks almost no English. They speak Tamil at home. In between making sure the sibs are behaving, doing housework, and getting the time to do her own homework, I’m not sure giving tuition to the younger kids is a high priority. I know it was never mine.

I’ve been helping out with the kids in the K through P3 English enrichment classes. There’s a great group of girls from Ngee Ann Poly who help out there too.

So this week I switched and started helping with the P4s and P5s for the first time. We played Scrabble and Hangman. As the words appeared on the tiles, we talked about the meaning of the words – like “fig,” “fate,” “pate”. The boys got an interesting reaction when one of the girls placed her tiles on the board to spell c-o-c-k. One of the boys started sniggering.

“It means chicken,” I said.
“I’m bored,” he said. “Can I play Monopoly?”

I tried to get them to make up stories from photographs - couldn’t get them to sit still long enough to do that. Instead, they wanted Hangman. OK fine – still a word game, still English.

“Teacher – next week can play Mono-pole-y?”

Fine – this week spelling, next week – real estate.

2009-05-23T00:59:00.000+08:00

Shedding Light on Twilight Years?

The New York Times today did a story on 90+ -year-olds who are totally lucid. The one in 200 people above 90 who don't have dementia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/health/research/22brain.html?em

These people are mentally engaged - a lot. Reading, playing bridge (especially), having lots of social contact, doing crosswords. Bridge especially, because it requires players be sharp, quick, and keep track of the hands that've been played. Make a slip and you risk your partner's irritation or worse - a request for you to downgrade to a more casual bridge group.

Now that my parents are pushing 70, (and my grandmother turning 100) I've been thinking about that a lot. How can my sibs and I make it easier for them to be more active? Do we take turns making sure they spend an hour or two in the gym? Right now it's just golf. Do we go get grown-up, "mental gym" books for them? I'd like to get them to the real gym too, or learn a new language, meet new people.

Staying vigorous requires having strong social interaction, exercise, and mental stimulation, studies say. Right now one of my parents is occupied daily with technical analysis charts and minding a stock portfolio, and is planning on restarting piano lessons. I'm really glad. How about my other parent? Will reading the International Herald Trib and news mags constantly, and playing golf weekly, be enough? Well, they're currently on a cruise in Eastern Europe with their friends. And I'd just brought my dad to Funan to get a new IdeaPad netbook so he could go to Internet Cafes while he's on holiday to stay connected. So I guess we're OK for now.

Still, I find myself thinking - are they slowing down? Are they hangin' out with friends enough? Should I try to get them to meet new people?

These are things govts and institutions are going to be thinking about as our populations get greyer and greyer. The Singapore Ministry of Health is gearing up for the Silver Tsunami. More nursing homes, more healthcare training, insurance and savings programs. Great, infrastructure stuff.

While the government builds up the hardware - perhaps there's a place for private enterprise to deal with the software: set up for-profit businesses for the Silver Set. Kind of like a physical, rather than virtual, social network so they're able to continue meeting new people, do and learn new things, exercise. Because I'd really, really to be able to continue talking to my parents about politics and stocks, go out to try new restaurants, travel with them, and listen to them talk about their golf game - in twenty years.

2009-05-13T19:50:00.001+08:00

Turning Into A Pumpkin in The Big Apple.

Downturn or not, New York is still buzzing along.

New Yawkas walk just this much faster and with more intent. And they never, EVER take up the entire pavement - uh - I mean, sidewalk, by walking shoulder to shoulder with their pals and family like they do elsewhere. And woe betide you if you do. (Wanna heah a really cranky tri-state accent? Try blocking the other pedestrians)

Restaurant reservations are STILL hard to get. Per Se's booked up while I'm here, and I'm having problems adding more people to my reservations at Nougatine. But, Chelsea is still humming with really cool stuff. Humming, but less crowded. The really good shows - and I'm not talking Shrek, the Musical - are still really packed.

The Yayoi Kusama show at the Gagosian really wowed me. The three giant Pumpkins outdoors were cute, and the art inside was cool, but her installation, Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, really floored me. You on in to this cube-like structure, and all around you are glittering lights reflected in the mirrors around you, and water below you. http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/2009-04-16_yayoi-kusama/

Worth the trek to Chelsea just for that. Also in Chelsea, a European "street food" fast food place that New York Mag rated as best Take Out. The nicest counter staff I've ever seen in any fast food place. I had the lobster and crab roll, but shoulda skipped the fries.

Saw Nathan Lane and John Goodman in Waiting for Godot last night. WOW. What great performances. Beckett was never this interesting in High School in Vancouver. And tonight - Mahler at the Carnegie Hall? Or Britten and Brahmns at St Ignatius?

And then there's jazz which starts at 10 30pm. But I've got timezone issues and I've been getting up at 5am every morning. Will I be able to stay up?

2009-04-14T08:06:00.000+08:00

Weekend in Hong Kong

The Asian city that never sleeps still doesn't need any sleep. Causeway Bay was bustling, the tramcars (now partly French owned) were teeming with people, and the salespeople in stores are incredibly helpful and friendly. Even my mother was so impressed she wanted to write a letter to the Straits Times - and 20 years ago she'd be saying that this is the city with the crankiest service.

Went to Hong Kong with the parents for my friend Hedy's baptism. Great running! Ran in Victoria Park on Friday - watched the little old ladies do their tai chi, the kids playing basketball, saw a couple of other runners, "do not litter" signs in English, Chinese, Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesian (anyone guess why?)

Visited a relative I had last seen when I was in college and she was still in San Francisco and driving me around to see Coit Tower and finding me great dimsum. She's in a wheelchair now and at a Home. Her other rellies came to visit that day as well and we went for lunch. I'll never take pork chop rice or mobility for granted again.

Went to Stanley, where the shopkeepers were saying there are fewer visitors while I'm squeezing my way around supersized Midwesterners and still chic-in-the-crowd French ones. Drove around Repulse Bay and had serious real estate envy. Hedy brought my parents and I to Times Square then we had Szechuan food at a private dining place and numbed my tongue and stomach for hours.

Ran 5k along the Harbour, listening to an NPR story on the Guys and Dolls revival, went to Tea House in Hedy's neighborhood for a "pineapple bun" and found out there's really no pineapple in them. Hedy's Baptism Mass at St Margaret's was great, although the air-con was extra hardworking and freezing. Her priest was from Brooklyn. Of course.

Everyone's "been" to Hongkong if they're from around here. Kinda like everyone's been to NY and London. But Hong Kong's like Madonna, the great re-inventor. Always the costume change, never dull.

2009-03-16T23:55:00.002+08:00

Neighbourhoods

Who says Singapore has no character?

Here's Joo Chiat Road on a Sunday afternoon. Hotel 81 in a conservation shophouse. room by the hour anyone? And who needs a hotel bar when you have a karaoke lounge right downstairs?

All those indie stores - old and dusty bike shop, old fashioned bakery, Chinese medicine shop with meds on a rattan shelf straight from the 70s. Don't know how it'll stay that way. But I'm planning on hangin' out there and shooting a lot before it all changes.

And of course, the food at the kopi tiams there are great. What a bonus.

2009-02-27T01:04:00.001+08:00

In Praise of the Staycation
Here's what weekend aren't anymore: shopping sprees, chi-chi restaurants, spa trips to the Banyan Tree, frequent short holidays around the region. Well, not too much anyway.

So, last Saturday, I decided to go take one of the free Walking Tours the National Library organised in conjunction with the Society of Tourist Guides in Singapore. Did a 45 minute tour around the Middle Road, Purvis Street, Beach Road area, learned about the Hainanese (and why they make such good pork chop) and then I had chicken rice at Yet Con on Purvis - the guy still uses the abacus when he does the bills. Picked up lots of great trivia, and even went to the library to borrow a couple of books. (Yep, less of Borders for me, but that's another story.

One of the books I brought home was Discover Singapore on Foot. It's a coupla years out of date, but fun nonetheless. And it came in useful when I took a photo class on Sunday around the Joo Chiat area. Four hours circling four streets: East Coast Road at the Junction of Marshall Road, then Joo Chiat, to Koon Seng and Tembeling, and then back to Marshall.

There's a ton of restoration that's been going on. OK, so the shophouses aren't as luxe as the ones on Neil Road, but they've still got more character in a 1 sq km area than most parts of the rest of the island. Art Galleries next to bars. And get this: a Temptations bakery next to a girly bar called I Love You. Of course there are the peranakan restaurants - where a couple of months ago you could walk in and get a table for dinner with no problem, but thanks to the Little Nyonya, reservations are now required.

I'm definitely going to be spending more time doing some neighborhooding on weekends. And Joo Chiat still has no Starbucks, no chainstores, no Gap, no Zara. Long live independant businesses and 'hoods with character.

2009-01-24T21:54:00.000+08:00

Ipoh Kway Teow

Am in Ipoh for five days for the Chinese New Year. I don't think I've spent this much time here since I was in secondary school and didn't mind not being out and about.

But this is fine. My grandmother's in her 90s and still has the best smile ever. And the food's still the best.

Ipoh looks like the 70s came here and never left. Although Starbucks has arrived. Otherwise, it's narrow streets, grey shophouses, nice sized bungalows built from old money in town, wood and corrugated iron huts on the outskirts. And still better hawker food than anywhere else I know.

The best prawn mee hor fun I've had: Restoran New Hollywood at Canning Garden.

Best wonton mee: In Greentown, at the block of shophouses across from New Town White Coffee.

More food tomorrow. But, for now, I've hocked my privacy in return for WiFi at Starbucks - I mean - do they REALLY need to know my gender, race, country of origin, income and the some? I'm OK to watch that 70 second ad at log-in, but really. Then again, there's no broadband at my grandmother's.

Five days in Ipoh. I'm hoping to get a lot of reading done. I've got The Economist and four books. I've just finished Towelhead, and I'm starting on Slumdog Millionaire. And my iPod is getting lots and lots of use. God bless Steve.

2008-12-22T11:20:00.001+08:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

2008-11-20T00:24:00.000+08:00

Water and Views
Cecilia, Fann and I went to the Marina Barrage last week. It's Singapore's newest reservoir, right smack in the middle of the city. I mean, it's just a place to store water for goodness sakes. And it's a public works project to boot.

But what a nice job they've done with it. It's got a great view at night, and they've made really good use of the water theme. Couples were out walking next to the reservoir, kids were running in between the water sprays at the fountains, along with some parents.

And now young dating couples have one more place to make out.

But seriously, we used to be such a pragmatic, utilitarian society with no use for design or aethetics. (or for conservation, but that's aonther story) I'm glad it's changing now, and I'm glad we're combining form with function.

Most of all, I'm glad that even public projects are getting a soul.

2008-11-20T00:15:00.002+08:00

Xmas Desserts

Charles has a new cake out for Christmas at Classic Cakes. Comes in plain custard, chocolate (YUMMY!! I'm not just saying this because I'm a chocoholic), and uh...Durian.

Sweeeet!

2008-10-14T04:35:00.000+08:00

Lion Getting Ready to Have Giraffe Steak for Lunch

We were in the jeep following a giraffe when suddenly Floris, our guide at the S African Game Reserve, notices two lions coming out of the bush. The male stays behind, the lioness slowly prowls toward the giraffe.

"The lioness is going for the kill," he says.

"Should we warn the giraffe?" someone says.

"No! This is nature. Besides, the lions have got to feed. I'm not sure if this lion will get the giraffe though. She's very young, not very experienced."

We watch, silent. We're probably all hoping the giraffe gets away. The lion comes in from behind. The giraffe spots her and gallops. They're almost neck to neck - or rather, fang to hoof. But the giraffe is faster. He gets away, this time.

"Would the lioness really have gotten the giraffe?" someone asks. "The giraffe is so much taller and faster."

"Yeah if she were smart," said Floris. "If she had jumped on his back while he was drinking and got him into the water, he'd have been finished."

And that's how the game is played. Even if it's only in a Game Reserve.

2008-08-23T15:06:00.001+08:00

Peking Duck Fusion

Yesterday a Beijing cabbie asked me which part of CHINA I come from:
"You sound like you're from the South," he said. "Guangzhou?"
Nope. OK - so I AM Cantonese, technically.
"Fujian."
Nope.
He went on with a couple more provinces and finally guessed Singapore when I told him to guess a country.
But yay! He didn't think I was a banana! PROGRESS! This is big deal for a CHIJ girl - a school that created fear and hopelessly among Chinese teachers - our Chinese was so bad. And where a friend of mine who got an A in Chinese hid it from everyone else.
That afternoon, I was able to tell another cabbie which route I wanted him to take (4th Ring Road - it's further but faster). And believe me, they don't speak English.
I guess after three weeks here I SHOULD sound less rough around the edges, and I found myself writing an address for the cabbie in Chinese, I'd seen it so many times in tiny type on the guidebook. And I surprised myself by using a colloquial phrase to respond to someone who wanted to exchange pins.
My Chinese is no where near some of my Beijing colleagues' English. One of them half jokingly said I was OK for a foreigner. Maybe if I stayed here longer I'd be passable.
But the point is this - learning Chinese now seems a lot easier than when I was in school. It's not because I have to, I don't. All my work is conducted in English.
I think we put so much pressure on kids in school that learning isn't fun anymore. It's just something we have to do - like eating cod liver oil - the barf-inducing liquid kind, not the capsules. We'd probably go further if we took ourselves less seriously.
It's like my highschool social studies teacher told me: Don't let academics interfere with your education.
My Chinese was hopeless till I went to grad school and in Washington DC, I dated a Taiwanese IP lawyer. The next time my Chinese improved was when I went to New York and had a Beijinger for a colleague two-desks down.
Neither of my Chinese skill spikes happened in Asia. Go figure.

2008-08-17T23:09:00.003+08:00

"We Are the Champions"

1. Saw my first Olympic sport live last week: Beach Volleyball.

As far as firsts go - that was really, really fun. I didn't expect to see quite so much...uh...dancing. The Fu Wa's danced, the audience danced (kind of) and the international Beach Babes danced (if you stretch the definition of dance).

2. Saw my first Peking Opera. The New Mdm White Snake Chronicles. It was at the Egg, which is a really cool building inside as well as outside. During the performance, there were subtitles in three languages. And in the first few minutes, I kept thinking of Ye-ye - my dad's dad - who used to watch Cantonese opera on TV. I was wishing he could have been here to watch the opera too. Crikey, it's been more than a decade since I lost him, my paternal grandmother, and my maternal grandfather - all in the space of 18 months. I miss them. I'd like to have been able to ask them what they think of today's Beijing.

3. Watched Singapore get it's first medal in 48 years. On TV anyway. Table tennis, silver. Some of my colleagues were at the stadium. SMSed them to cheer for Singapore. Wish I'd known about the embassy party. According to the WSJ, they were playing We Are the Champions at the embassy. And why not.

2008-08-09T23:30:00.002+08:00

My New Favourite Building in the World

Tried to get last minute tickets for the ballet at the National Centre of Performing Arts tonight. Of course they were sold out - which meant I had time to wonder around the theatre watching people and watching the building.

Designed by French architect Paul Andreu, the building really seems to float on water.

Throngs of people were there watching a laser light show appearing on the building. Then I walked to Tian An Men square. Man were there lots of people walking around. And I saw maybe three non-Chinese tourists in all. OK ... maybe more than three - but still - I think my definition of "crowd" got redefined tonight.

2008-08-09T00:06:00.006+08:00

Nest at Night

Just back from watching the Olympic Games opening ceremony at a colleague's house. Pizza and Wings - including a flavour I've never had before ... tuna pizza. My takeaway? Tuna's meant to be on sandwiches.

On the way there, we saw throngs of people lining the streets, waving flags, waiting to watch the fireworks. Lots of energy, lots of anticipation. When the cabbie dropped us he said "You might have problems getting a cab back until the end of the Opening Ceremony - a lot of us are going to be home watching it on TV."

At Bob's place, it was really cool to watch my colleagues get all excited when they saw atheletes they've met or helped out at our iLounges - internet lounges - at the Athelete's Village. One of my colleagues video skyped his wife and daughter in Raleigh to say good-morning, which was really cool. I saw Leander Paes, the tennis player, march in with the India team. I had met him at the Torch Relay in India where he was carrying the Torch for Lenovo.

The best part of the night: watching the final Torchbearer, Li Ning, run suspended in the air to light the cauldron, holding the torch my colleagues had designed.

Tied for the best part - Amy had gone to the grocery store to get some more drinks in the middle of the evening. Came back, and handed me a jar of peanut butter. I'd offhandedly mentioned at breakfast I was bummed that there was no peanut butter in our breakfast cafe. So...wow! Thanks Amy!! Appreciate this!!

It's the little things that are big - especially when we're away from home for a month.

2008-08-03T18:16:00.004+08:00

Beijing Duck

First day at the Olympic Green today. Media are beginning to trickle in. At the Oympic Green early this morning, saw a couple of runners and cyclists. Four more days to opening and already things are buzzing.

In the meantime, Beijing is a long long way from when I first came here a decade ago. The only similarity is that the streets are still really, really wide. Although not as wide as I remember, since it's now streaming with cars.

Friday night after work went to Bookworm Cafe at San Li Tun - Russian 20somethings at the table in front of me; a mixed group to my right; two Japanese girls with cosmopolitan American accents; three older Brit guys at the next table. And lots and lots of used books. No Shepard's Pie though. Was expecting Brit food. Had a fried goat cheese salad called Einstein, and my colleague had a Cervantes. For a moment I wasn't sure if I wasn't in Ropponggi Hills.

Last night we went to Li Qun Kao Ya at 11 Zhengyi Lu near the Qian Men Dong Da Lu. In a hutong, kinda rustic, value for money. Still prefer Da Dou and Made in China, but Liqun's a lot easier to get a reservation in, and it's really homey - no attitude. It looked like the Chinese diners came during the early shift and after that it was all Lao Wai.

At the subterranean mall under the hotel, a gym that wasn't open when I visited (so I ended up running outside), a supermarket with an emptying bin of White Rabbit candy and ... DURIAN! Also got my Singaporean Khong Guan raisin biscuits and the wrong type of oatmeal that said Quaker but tasted like jook/ congee. The last time I was in a Chinese supermarket was in...White Plains New York!

Bumped into a friend I hadn't seen in oh...8 or so years at the corner of a San Li Tun crossstreet. Heard this Singapore accents, turned around, and there he was.

Geographical divisions mean less and less. The only Borders I'm quite familiar with is the bookstore. Come to think of it - I hung out at Borders in Mt Kisco in NY, and now I hang out at Borders at Wheelock Place and in Parkway in Singapore. The only difference is I never have to wear at winter coat at the one in Singapore.

2008-07-31T23:11:00.003+08:00

Beijing 08!

Arrived in Beijing today. Already the q's were already quite short at immigration. But I went into the even shorter q - for people working on the Olympics.

Saw the Lenovo "Powering the Biggest Idea in the World" ad and the image of the IdeaPad U110 staring out at me the minute I got off the plane. It felt like I went straight from the plane into the office. Which was kinda cool. (I wish I had shot the image of the Olympic Torch on the left, unfortunately, it wasn't me)

Even cooler cuz I had seen/ heard my colleagues working on the new campaign at inception.

Saw the Singapore Olympic Sailing team right after going through immigration. Wished them well, wished them good luck. They looked so fresh and excited. Way cool.

Got my bags the minute I got to the baggage carousel. Pleasantly surprised. As efficient as Changi Airport...well almost.

In the cab on the way to the hotel the radio DJs were talking about the Olympics. Big, big buzz. Lotsa energy.

2008-01-01T18:36:00.000+08:00

Fish and Water in Aveiro, Portugal

Arrival of luggage meant end of cranky spell. What a difference having my own stuff around me makes. Had no more excuse to go to Zara, which was fine by me.

Coolest moments:

Ordering food not really knowing what we were going to get. Faves: Octopus, cod, and uh... that one kidney dish in Porto.
Drinking Port in the Douro Valley.
Free wireless and Weekend FT in Coimbra hotel.
Simple but really great breakfasts in Coimbra and Porto - esp the fresh fruits.
Our new friends from Brazil on the same tour us us to the Duoro.
Catching up with Hedy and having a really simple holiday.
Time away to think.
Finally, FINALLY getting my luggage.

2007-12-26T03:56:00.001+08:00

Santa Finally Brought my Luggage!!

I'm now in Coimbra, Portugal, where it's kinda rainy and everything's shut down for Xmas ... well, ALMOST everything. Fortunately this one restaurant was open for lunch and Hedy and I had the best cod ever.

It was simply done...a huge honkin' piece of fish, battered and then surrounded by a light broth, with boiled potatoes all around it. It tastes better than it sounds. Lots.

In Lisbon we went to a little restaurant called Fidalgo in Bairro Alto. I had a dish called Black Pork and Hedy had Rabbit in Red Wine. And some really good fries. Earlier that day we'd gone to a little restaurant in Alfama where no one spoke English, so we basically pointed at drawings on the menu. Hedy went to the kitchen with the owner and she came back saying "I ordered Octopus and some fish. I don't know what fish it was but it had two eyes and a tail and it looked fine to me." (Rough translation from Cantonese. My Cantonese has been steadily regressing since I left New York.)

Tasted fine too. Octopus with boiled potatoes and cabbage; fried fish with fries and salad. And little old ladies at the next table wondering where these two Chinese girls came from.

Went to Xmas mass this morning. In Portuguese. Then walked around this old university town. It's now 8pm - hardly anything's open still, I swear. There's a Spanish girl surfing the web next to me and an Aussie kid just asked for paper at the reception. It's for his art homework.

And Santa had a special delivery. After four days in Portugal, my luggage finally arrived. In the meantime, THANK GOODNESS for Zara and H&M.

2007-07-22T16:29:00.000+08:00

Floating on the Mekong
Two days floating on the Mekong...no Blackberry access, no cell signal, no phones whatsoever - just a vast expanse of green hills ("on your right is Thailand, on your left is Laos"), very fast-moving brown water and outcrops of rocks. And every few kilometers a village on stilts on the hills.

It was a really weird feeling to get used to. My friends came to visit me from NY and we decided to go to Luang Prabang in Laos. And not the fast, direct way by plane. Nope - we decided to go to the Thai/ Lao border in Chiang Rai and take a slow boat down - going South, and then East.

http://www.asian-oasis.com/Luang.html

At first I felt really restless. Two days on the boat? What was I thinking when I booked it? (Overnight in one of the Luang Say hotels - but still, no phone signal whatsoever) I was really looking forward to getting back on land - going to Luang Prabang, a National Heritage Site where there'd actually be things to DO. But as I got used to it - sittin' on the chaise longue or a chair on the boat, talking to the other, very cool, very interesting passengers, the wind blowing in our faces, and all that open space around us ... that turned out to be the best part of the trip.

At Luang Prabang we alternated between visiting temples (14th century), and visiting rural villages.. Our itinerary included visiting a waterfall in the countryside - lush green vegetation punctuated by brilliant red flowers, and crystal clear, blue/green water. Hard to reconcile the quiet tranquility of the place with the violence and turmoil of the seventies there, and the extreme poverty there today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1154621.stm

Back in Singapore now... last night. Ian McKellen and Royal Shakespeare Company performed King Lear to a full house at the Esplanade. The scene in which the Earl of Gloucester's eyes are violently gouged out brings a collective gasp from the audience. My first thought - thank goodness we're not living in the 1500s.

But later, I was thinking...who am I kidding - sixteenth century...twentieth century...greed and lust for power are still very much part of our make-up. We haven't gotten any wiser, merely more technologically advanced.

2007-07-01T10:21:00.000+08:00

Moving Right Along...

Three days in Raleigh, NC; two days in NY; one in Singapore, and then three in Seoul.

The two days in NY were my first two vacation days of the year. Didn't see as many galleries and museums as I would have liked to. Mostly I went from one part of Manhattan to another meeting my friends.

Saw McCoy Tyner and Joe Lovano play at Blue Note last Friday. (WOW. Yeah, Blue Note is ridiculously expensive but they bring in some really cool stuff.) And on Saturday Terry, Bim, Mark and I went to MOMA for the Richard Serra exhibit. These are HUGE metal sculptures that you look at from the inside, outside, from around. Serra's work was some of the first that I saw when I'd first moved to NY in 2001. At that time it was an exhibition in Chelsea and we could actually touch them. His sculptures are so richly textured you just want to. But at the MOMA, the guards will come and lecture you because it really can damage the metal.

After that we had lunch at The Modern. Great service, great decor, great food - just the right portions. Had this great cocktail with rose petals called Coming Up Roses (it sounded so sissy I was thinking...how strong could it actually be!) But took three sips and had to give it to one of the guys. The room was turning clockwise. Bim's foie gras was excellent, Terry's duck was great, my oysters/ caviar was great. The pannacotta was kinda icky and runny. But man- everything else! Even the loos. Really good way to cap off a morning of art.

Also made it to the ICP. http://www.icp.org/site/c.dnJGKJNsFqG/b.1196903/k.692/Current_Exhibitions.htm

Saw a Stephen Shore exhibit called Biographical Landscape. Landscapes are not usually my "thing". But Shore's bare, stark images of American towns and cities, shot b/t '69 and '79, felt like frozen slivers of an era. It was almost impossible not to pause at the large format images - mostly absent of people - and think about the invisible lives behind them: an empty highway, a despondent looking car next to a kerb. Totally worth a visit.

2007-06-03T12:07:00.000+08:00

This is Not a Food Blog, But...

My cousin Peng sent me an email saying he's just landed in Chicago and he's there for a cancer conference. So, being the sucker for foodie hype that I am, I googled a Ken Hom column that I saw in the FT a couple of days ago in whichHom mentioned a Singapore chef who's all the rage in Chicago right now. So, at some point, Peng'll be having dinner at Shanghai Terrace at the Peninsula Hotel.

I've been having some incredible food lately.

A week ago my friends and I stumbled into Yanqing's Shanghainese kitchen cuz the tables at Sun Japanese Restaurant next door were all filled. (No reservations on a Friday night? What was I SMOKING!) The service wasn't so hot. I think one of their gas burners was down so the food took forever. We were there for almost TWO HOURS. But the food was really, REALLY good. The xiaolong bao was soupy and delicate, and not oily. The steamed/ fried buns were fluffy, and the black pepper beef - which I used to think was a guai lo dish was really tender.

Then I spent most of last week in Beijing, where we had some really good food in Made In China at the Hyatt. it's kinda modern Chinese cuisine, with these semi-open kitchens. Kinda looked like Mezza9 at the Singapore Hyatt, but the food was 20 times better, at the same prices. Our favourite was the Beijing Duck.

My other favourite BJ Duck place in Beijing is Da Dong. My friend Yvonne took me there and we could only get into the 5 30pm slot. ("As long as you're out by 6 30pm"). I confess I haven't been to Chuan Ju De - which even the cab drivers were telling me about, but Da Dong had the best pancakes I've ever had...and a really crispy, yummy duck skin.

And finally, for dinner last Wednesday, we went to the Courtyard restaurant right next to Forbidden City. If you get a table next to the window, you can actually look into the moat surrounding the Forbideen City. My Filipino reporter told our waiter, in Mandarin, that he looked like Yao Ning. Our waiter responded in English that other diners have told him the same thing.

I also bumped into my friend Christina there. We worked together 10 years ago in Singapore, then she moved to HK and then to NY. Last time I saw her, in NY, we went to Gramercy Tavern. Christina now lives in NY but goes to BJ a lot.

So, I'm back home and I decided to cook my own lunch Saturday. There were chicken legs in the fridge, so I marinated them with five spice powder, salt and pepper. Then I fried an onion and some garlic, and fennel in an oven proof pan. Fried the chicken, skin on, on moderately high heat. After the skin browned, I added some sun dried tomatoes and baby asparaus. Put the entire thing into the oven at almost max heat for twenty minutes. It was actually quite yummy.

And now I've gotta go to the dishes. But first, there's some lychee martini ice cream from Daily Scoop calling my name.

2007-06-02T12:38:00.000+08:00

Busy in Beijing

Been to Beijing twice since my last post. (Yes, I know it's been a while)

It's only on this most recent trip that I've been able to see more than just conference rooms and airports. And I'm getting close to changing my mind that Shanghai is the way cooler of the two.

Shanghai's overt. In your face. Shanghai is Jessica Rabbit in a cheongsam at a smoke-filled bar. Beijing's the quieter, more intellectual older sister that you've got to spend time to get to know. (I still prefer Shanghainese food. Also, Shanghainese guys dress better.)

So...I'm with a bunch of reporters from Asean and we've just had dinner around Hou Hai. So I get into the cab with them and tell the cabbie, in Mandarin, that I want to go to the Hyatt. I'm pretty sure I said jun yue jiu dian. But he's like going on and on about directions and stuff and says the address on the Hyatt card is too small for him to read, so I ring up the Hyatt on my cell and pass him the receptionist.

The cabbie's hangs up after speaking to her for a while and he's like "You mean JUN YUE. You said JIN YUAN. And now you're taking me out of my way and I'll never get a fare at the Hyatt at this time of evening." And on and on. I'm pretty sure I said jun yue...but anyway...we're talking and talking (and I'm trying to prove that I'm not really a banana and that I do speak half decent Chinese...) And he says to me I've got a Southern Chinese accent. Uh...OK...and when I tell him I'm Cantonese...that clinches it. Definitely a flawed Mandarin accent. Er...Ok. Whatever. So anyway, by the time we get to the hotel I feel so bad I gave him 30 kuai instead of 15.

The next day one of the reporters and I, after work, go on a hutong tour. OK so it's really touristy but it was the COOLEST non-work part of the trip. One of the hutong owners was of Manchurian descent. And he's turned his hutong into a B&B. Pretty cool. Think I'll stay there the next time I'm there with a free weekend. Later we went to a larger one and were told how traditionally, the oldest son got the choice East-facing bedroom, the younger son got the West facing one (harsh afternoon sun - what else). And the girls? Well...uh...they had the smaller back rooms with the flat roofs. They were only girls, after all.

One of the reporters summed the hutong visit this way, "I'd rather see the hutongs than the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City will still be around the next time I visit Beijing. But I'm not so sure about the hutongs."

2007-03-31T14:10:00.000+08:00

Saturday at Starbucks

I'm sitting at Starbucks logging to free nationwide wireless. OK, it's only 11Mbps but I think I'll live. I just won't be downloading any HEROES off iTunes in the next hour or so. If the sun weren't blazing away outside I could easily think I were in some other country. There's a mixture of skin and hair colours and accents in here - and lots of laptops.

A guy in a Delta Kappa Epsilon T shirt just walked in, reminding me that I haven't seen anyone in a frat T shirt for a long time. I can't believe I used to cover fraternities and sororities for the university newspaper. A little foreign girl, fresh off the plane, with fewer prejudices than the rest of the reporters at the Bruin maybe? But uh...I had just seen Animal House and Revenge of the Nerds. I was definitely on the nerds' side. And probably on the nerdy side as well. Yep, that was me in California.

This morning I woke up listening to Terry Gross on Fresh Air played off my iPod. A couple of hours later I felt like I should have been on my way to the Tarrytown train station to catch the Metro North into Manhattan.

My ex roommate in California. Fahti, who now lives in Menlo Park, just had a birthday this week. I sent her an e-card telling I've just been back from a hectic India two-cities-in-two-days work trip, and I added "we've been friends for TWENTY years can you believe it?" And she replied and said it's been MORE than 20 years. She expects me...the only Asian in a college remedial math class...to know how to count?)

And by the way, she said, her daughter's first grade teacher also likes this Persian chicken/ pomegranate rice dish called Fessenjoon that Fahti cooked for me the last time I saw her. I miss Fahti a lot. She was soooo part of my growing up. She was was there through my first apartment, my first boyfriend, my first major heartbreak (different guy). OK, she warned me, I never listened.

When we were teenagers we used to joke about babysitting each other's kids one day.

In her email last week Fahti said she sometimes envies my travelling. I told her I envy her having her two beautiful kids.

2007-02-17T11:04:00.000+08:00

Saturday Morning in Siem Reap

Saturday morning and I'm at the Blue Pumpkin at the Old Market area. Breakfast is a croissant, toast, marmalade with HUGE chunks orange peel, a small cup of coffee.

There's wireless, and upstairs is white, modern, minimalist. People with laptops, people with backpacks (expensive ones), people caffeinating. There's a N American couple next to me with a Lonely Planet Vietnam guidebook. next stop Saigon? Taiwanese couples on the table behind, with their guide. In front of me a Western guy, my age, hops on a motorbike with a takeaway cup of coffee and a bag of Blue Pumpkin pastries. Their breads and pastries are as good as any I've had in NY and better than many places at home.

Last night I took a tuk tuk back after dinner and there was this old couple getting off the tuk tuk behind me. The guy was trying to pay the driver 1USD instead of 2. It's like DUDE! If you can afford to stay at the Grand Angkor - you can afford the extra buck.

Next door at the high-end craft store Kokoon there's handmade soap for three bucks a pop, place-mat sets for 12, silk handbags and scarves for a lot more; across the street the storekeeper's sweeping. In the front of the dark, narrow store, is a dusty glass cabinet with detergent, anti-perspirant, and stacks and stacks of film. Who uses film anymore?

A guy with no legs is on a "bike" he's peddling with his hands. He goes to the table next to mine and holds out a card to ask for money. I stare, more intently, at the Gish Jen novel I've been carrying around. He leaves, and goes to the next restaurant.

2007-02-16T01:09:00.000+08:00

Indochina ... with a difference

We're in Cambodia for a regional meeting. After our meeting this morning we all went to do volunteer work at a village school as a team building event.

Cuz of my broken foot, I went to the reading room to read to the kids while my colleagues built a fence with concrete poles and barbed wire.

The kids were like - shoving at each other to get to me and they kept bringing books to read to them. The books were seriously-old, English language kiddie books. Many of the kids didn't understand anything beyond "Hi" and 1-10 and maybe the first third of the alphabet.

But they totally wanted to just hang out and repeat what I was reading to them. One of the boys ... he was, maybe 7...was trying to hand gesture "hot" and started fanning me with a book. Broke my heart. I almost started crying. A kid in a developed country would be too busy watching TV or playing X Box to want to do anything like that.

2007-02-11T20:06:00.000+08:00

Life as a Klutz

Three broken metatarsals, Christmas Eve, DEFINITELY no alcohol involved. Although I do remember there was lots of sugar. Christmas cake from all over and macaroons from Paris.

Anyway, it was 2 30 in the morning and I slipped on a wet sidewalk going to my car. Carrie comes and picks me up, takes me to A&E at East Shore Hospital where I expect to see a bunch of drunk people but no, I'm the only idiot there.

I'm in a backslab for 10 days - that's like half a cast and lots of bandages; the doc removes it, which makes me really happy and hopeful even though I'm still on crutches, and when I see him a week later, he says the bones aren't healing and puts me back on them again. Lemme tell ya - hobbling on crutches, showering with a plastic Kinokuniya bag up to your knee, and depending on everyone else except yourself for transport and everything else is no walk in the park. In fact, there's no walking involved at all. it's mostly hobbling.

Anyway, six weeks later and the backslab's been off for like...two weeks now. I'm still on crutches although less and less. I can drive. My foot is slowly starting to look normal again. Until recently it looked like I had elephantisis. Last weekend I was able to buy a pair of closed toe shoes - OF THE SAME SIZE! Now THAT is a major milestone. This weekend I was able to hobble around DKNY. Except the shoes cost like $400 Sing and up so that's out. Next week Ferragamo? Looking only...no buying.

So...since the gym and the running track have been pretty much off limits for me, I decided to take an online writing class from UCLA Extension. It's a TON of fun. Been reading a bunch of short stories for the class - Tobias Wolff, Joyce Carol Oates, Eudora Welty, and I mean really, really reading - and discussing plot and character and all.

I figured taking a class would beat Mike's suggestion of taking up competitive eating. Less damage to my wardrobe that way.

And yes Gene, I did travel. Was in Tokyo for work. Try hobbling around Ropponggi and Chiyoda on crutches. I dare you.

2006-12-10T10:52:00.000+08:00

More Running Around

Did a Half Marathon last Sunday. YAY!! Was slower than when I did one in NY...but ...uh...I'll blame the humidity...

Got back from Vietnam on Friday and the run was on Sunday. So had to do a few runs in Hue and Hoi An.

NO ONE runs in Hue and Hoi An, I swear. People were totally staring - wondering who that crazy, sweaty tourist was.

Unlike in Hanoi, where I could do a few laps around the lake across from the Zephyr Hotel (and across from Bobby Chinn's from those who would find it easier to have a BAR as a landmark), I pretty much had to run along the main roads this time around. So, in Hoi An, I ran from the old quarter...past 18th century houses, padi fields, rickety shophouses, uniformed schoolkids on bikes...towards a bunch of newly-built resorts beside a beach.

Hue was very, VERY cool. I ran across a bridge to the ancient Citadel and Imperial Palace and ran around the palace. Something about running around a really, really old pile of stones.

So this year, I've run under the Sydney Harbour bridge, across from the Opera House in Sydney; I've run along the designer stores on Via Nationale to the Roman Forum and a lap around Circus Maximus; and around the Imperial Palace in Hue. Way cool.

And oh - Vietnam photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/geri.wanjun/HoiAnAndHueVietnam

2006-12-02T16:29:00.000+08:00

Goooood Morning Vietnam

Went back to Vietnam again for a vacation with my NY friends Adam and Lauree. This time I went to Hue and Hoi An, in central Vietnam.We were walking by the river in Hue one night and saw this girl, reading, by herself, under a bridge. She looked like an Edward Hopper painting.

Hue's the old capital of Vietnam. The main draw's a citadel and a huge palace that's survived a number of wars. Walking into the palace was like walking into the set of a Chinese Kung Fu movie.

I was half expecting mandarins and swordfighters. Didn't see them, but did visit a temple in the palace that was a memorial to the emporers - thirteen of them including a couple who were exiled to French colonies in Africa by the French after Vietnam was colonised.

2006-11-05T11:57:00.000+08:00

One Year On...

This time last year I'd just landed in Singapore. Spent my birthday in a plane in between timezones.

It's been a year. Wow.

Had a really good birthday party last night. Really good caterer, two great birthday cakes. yep - TWO cakes. One chocolate and one mille crepe.

Cool new things in the past 12 months:

I'm working with some really cool, really, really smart people. It's crazy, hectic and sometimes scarey - everything's kinda new. But it's never, ever, dull. Plus we have a pool table at work.
Asia's totally buzzing. I don't feel like I've moved to another country as much as I've moved continents. Everything's so intertwined. I work with colleagues from 5 or 6 countries at any one time. Walk down my aisle at work and you'll hear English, Chinese, Thai, Korean, Behasa.
Plus Singapore's so centrally located - fly a couple of hours in any direction and it's a whole different world..
The Esplanade in Singapore: a really, really terrific concert venue. The Arts Fest and Dance Fest brought in some really good arts groups. I keep telling my friend Carolyn who used to be the program director there that the Esplanade's saved my life. OK - slight hyperbole - but it's a great place.
People! New people...people I used to know before I left... This place has become a lot more mixed in the past five years. It's never been a big deal to hear say...French or German being spoken here. But I've started to hear a bunch of Eastern European languages too - which is kinda cool and new.

So, yeah - it's been a pretty terrific year. And yes, I still miss Manhattan. And I miss people.

Oh - and here's a nerdy post-script. The photo on the post is Tsutaya - a bookstore in Tokyo that's open till like, 3am. Lots of coffee and cake and art books, mags and CDs. My favourite last night spot in the city. Yeah yeah...I'm such the party animal.

2006-09-23T07:04:00.000+08:00

Cool Running

Have been running quite a bit in the past few weeks, starting with Italy in August.

Air France had lost my luggage for an ENTIRE week - running gear and all - and finally delivered it the day before I was about to leave Rome. Scott, who had been running every morning in Rome, mapped out a path for me that went from our hotel, to Via Nationale, to the Forum and Colisseum, and finally Circus Maximus where the chariot races used to be.

It was the COOLEST run - going past the Fendi and Stefanel and the other designer stores, past the art museums and to ancient, ancient Rome. The best part was doing a lap around the Circus Maximus. Felt great to run after all that eating, and eating, and eating - tried to do some healthy shopping so one morning I went to Campo Di Fiori (photo) and bought some fruit back for breakfast with Terry, Scott and Hedy. The figs there were sooooo gooooood.

Back in Singapore, I did a 10k at the Sheares Bridge run with 65000 of my closest friends. It was the longest distance I had run in this humidity. And I was actually glad when it started drizzling halfway through. It was probably good practice - cuz when I did the 9k Terry Fox run it was drizzling the ENTIRE way.

In Tokyo now. Been doing my running on the treadmill in the gym before work. Amazing. At 7 am when I get there, it's already crowded with other business travellers.

The food here is pretty incredible too. Went to Gonpachi earlier in the week - George Bush had gone there when he was in Tokyo. Went to Cafe Bape in Aoyama (it was in a book on Design) and I swear my friend Cynthia and I brought up the average age by a good ten years. Then we walked around Harajuku.

2006-08-26T09:53:00.000+08:00

UMBRIAN WEDDING

My friends Jim and Francesca got married in Todi in Italy a couple of weeks ago. Todi's in Umbria, next to Tuscany. Several of the New York gang went. It was great seeing everyone again.

I thought Chinese weddings were food-filled. But man!! I hadn't been to an Italian wedding before.

After the church service - fantastic choir - sermon in Italian...bilingual readings...really nice old church... all old, grey, stone...we went to the Relais Todini - a hotel up on a hill, and ate from 1 in the afternoon till 6 30.

To be fair, Jim warned us not to eat too much of the antipasto and keep room for the main courses...all uh...five of them. But hey - bruschetta with truffles, lots and lots and LOTS of Procesco, fantastic cheeses, prosciutto e melone...come on! Then we went indoors for our mains. Three hours later, they had to rolled us out for the dessert buffet. I had the best panacotta I've ever had. Wish I had had room for the other stuff.

2006-07-02T15:40:00.000+08:00

Better Than Chocolate?

Was running along the beach and listening to a podcast of NPR's Leonard Lopate interview Anthony Bourdain a few days ago. Lopate asked Bourdain (who often raves about Singapore being one of the best food places on the planet) if there might be a link between Singapore's reputation for being authoritarian and the great food.

To hear what Bourdain said, check out the interview: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2006/06/21

(OK - if you want a preview, the answer was "no")

But, it was kinda trippy listening to the very New York-sounding interview when I was running past the Singapore Seafood Centre.

And - here's a message for my friend Lisa, who is always trying to tell me to "slow down" - and gave me a "Slow Down Kit" a few years ago. Today I discovered that the tunnel outside my condo that leads to the beach aka my jogging track also leads to something comPLETEly different. Utter calm and quiet.

Instead of hurtling from appointment to appointment this weekend I decided to walk over to the beach to watch the last of the Singapore International Triathletes finishing up their races.

After that, me, my ipod, the weekend edition of the Asian Wall Street Journal and Monica Ali's new book - Alentejo Blue- went and lay on a park bench under the shade and hung out. I ended up not even turning my ipod on - having the waves in the background was really, really cool. I had never quite understood why Central Park was always crowded with people sitting still on weekends when there's so much to do all around in Manhattan, but now, I'm startin' to get it. Almost - better than chocolate.

2006-06-04T08:23:00.000+08:00

Food, Friends, and Music

Spent the whole of last Saturday grocery shopping and cooking. Had people over for dinner. No, the chocolate on this page isn't mine - it's Charles'. He's a REAL pastry chef - as in - he makes his living from it. And he was nice enough to let me photograph him at work.

My Dinner Party Menu:
Watercress/Mango salad (from epicurious.com)
Braised Spare Ribs - from Simple to Spectacular
Carrots Simmered in Orange Juice and cumin
Wasabi Mashed Potatoes

Ming Ruey brought roast duck, Wolf and M brought dessert and Tom was the bartender/ ipod jog-dial jockey.

The best part of the afternoon - being in the kitchen chopping, cutting, browning, and listening to Daniel Barenboim, this year's Reith lecturer, speak about the connection between life and music.

There are five lectures, each done in a city that has figured heavily in his life: Chicago, London, Berlin, Ramallah (that was later switched for security reasons) and Jerusalem. How better to spend a Saturday than listening to a very intellectual, very thought-provoking conversation in anticipation for an evening with some really good friends.

Daniel Baremboim is the Musical Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He also started the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, made up of equal numbers of Arab and Israeli young musicians. The CSO contributed hugely to my classical music life, and by extension, my social life, when I was in grad school in Chicago - thanks to five-dollar student tickets to the performances. So, it made the lectures, streamed in my pre-dinner party kitchen, all the more relevant. I highly recommend the taking a listen. My faves were lectures 1 and 4.

Check them out and let me know what you think. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2006/lecture1.shtml

2006-05-27T18:20:00.000+08:00

Hello from Hanoi

Went to Hanoi over the weekend with Carrie, Michael and Tom.

Hanoi was really different from Saigon. Where Saigon felt fast, practical, commercial, Hanoi felt more rooted, with a stronger sense of place.

Tom wanted to go see Ho Chi Minh in the Mausoleum so off we trekked Saturday morning, in torrential rain. When we got there, I found out I wasn't dressed correctly (I was in a sleeveless tank and shorts. The rest of the crew was in jeans and Ts.)

"Miss cannot go in," the guard said gruffly. So, Miss had to buy a sarong (USD5) and borrow a T shirt that's left there for ...well, people like me who don't read guidebooks carefully. So, the four of us queued up for 30 minutes in the long, snaking line, with some protection from the storm by our $3 Hello Kitty umbrellas from the store next to the hotel.

We eventually into the building - and were herded in and out in about three minutes.

Spent the rest of our time at art galleries and in search of great pho. Found a really, really REALLY cool gallery that showcases new Vietnamese artists. (Art Vietnam 30, Hang Than); went to a show by art school students, complete with cheap wine and New York-like conversation, and some really promising art.

Had pho at three places. And the last place was the best - according to pho expert Carrie. Unfortunately we can't tell you the name - cuz we never found out what it was called. We saw this looooong queue outside this pho stall on our way to a cafe called La Place for breakfast. (Had decent crepes and very good coffee, great service and a good view of St Peter's Church). And being dutiful foodies, Carrie, Tom and Michael trooped back there for their second breakfast while I wondered around with my camera. So, all we can say is - this really cool pho place is around the corner from St Peter's someplace.

Best restaurant that weekend: Green Tangerine, for contemporary french at really reasonable prices
Best drinking place: Bobby Chinn's for atmosphere and for drinks that are uh...truly lethal.

2006-04-18T01:06:00.000+08:00

Pigging Out in Cambodia

Last minute decision to go to Cambodia over the long weekend with a couple of friends.

We stayed at really basic places - backpacker hotels at US$15 a nght.

OK...so it had a homey B&B feel to it. And there was that massive brownout l

It's been five years since I last went gto Angkor Wat and I can't believe how many hotels there are paving the road from the Aiport.

Once you get past those cookie cutter guest houses, the temples are magnificent, the food is cheap, and (I don't think we paid more than $5 each for any meal). so that we could eat lots
, and the nightlife is really revving up.

I wish I could go there just for weekends / evenings and the come back in time for work after .

2006-04-10T03:23:00.000+08:00

All Moved In

It's SO nice to
*wake up in my own space - even if the apartment's mostly empty
*have my own stuff around me again
*be able to have friends over
*wake up to the sound of birds chirping (man are they loud)
*be a five-minute run away from the beach

I'm all moved in! Albeit sans furniture. The photo's the view from my room at around midnight.

The past few weeks have been a mad rush of work and dealing with the apartment. I think I've seen every furniture store on this island. And then some.

Unfortunately most of them seemed to stock the same stuff as everyone else, but I managed to find a few places that design and build their own stuff. So I'm happy to say that, apart from a couple of pieces (including a red, peanut-shaped desk from Ikea), the rest are Singapore designed and constructed.

Found interesting furniture at Evov on East Coast Rd, Air Division in Changi, and Urban Foundry at Purvis Street. Always interested to hear about others if anyone has suggestions.

Saturday was a frenzy of apartment-related activity:

The storage guys came at 9; the air-con guy at 10 30, sometime in between, the contractors came to finish the cabinets in the kitchen, then my mother came with the cleaning lady at 1. Then there was Ikea at 4 30. For less than $10US, Ikea assembled my stuff in minutes (must have been the power drills)

Most of my furniture's not all in yet, so when a few of my friends came over Saturday after dinner, we used my sister's huge beanbag, and what little furniture I brought back from NY. (A West Elm chair and a Thai cushion.)

My friend Charles, a pastry chef, brought over Black Forest Cake, Mango Cheesecake, Marble Cheesecake and Chocolate Cake. I meant to serve ice cream as well, but it got all melted because I uh...put it in the wrong compartment in the fridge. What can I say - new, unfamiliar fridge...it turned out the freezer was on the bottom-most compartment!

But man, it felt good to go grocery shopping and get my own stuff this afternoon. At least now I know where everything goes in the fridge.

2006-03-12T18:59:00.000+08:00

Another Weekend, Another Train

Was in Bangkok Thursday and Kuala Lumpur Friday.

Here's a globalised, mobile workforce for you. When I was at my meeting in Bangkok my sister was at her meeting in Pattaya. Different ends of the same country. Photo's from the hotel in Bangkok.

A couple of years ago, when I was still living in NY, my brother came over on a business trip and I had to meet him at La Guardia Airport or not see him at all. I was flying back to NY after a vacation in Santa Fe and he was flying back home to Singapore after a meeting in NY. (Actually, it sounded more like lots of golf in Jersey on an expense account.) My plane was coming in a couple of hours before his was due to leave - so we grabbed a quick dinner at some chain restaurant.

So...last Saturday, I was taking a train in from my hotel in Sentral to the KL Airport, and if I closed my eyes, I could almost pretend I was on a Metro North going from Westchester to the city. It was 3pm on a Saturday, I had my iPod in its pink case (except it's now a nano), and I had Jay McInerney's latest book, The Good Life, on my lap. It could have been a typical NY weekend commute into Manhattan, waiting to get off at 125 St or Grand Central. Except that when I looked up from listening to SiSe while reading about discontented upper middle class New Yorkers, I saw ... coconut trees and the thick, unrelenting equatorial rain.

My favourite line from the book is a description of a couple with two kids who live in loft in Tribeca. The male protagonist works in publishing - as opposed to finance. "They felt like paupers living in a town of zillionaires."

Oh yeah - that's NY.

2006-02-26T23:25:00.000+08:00

Running East

It’s been four months since I’ve been back. Unbelieveable huh?

Of course I miss New York – but not in the ways I expected. Most days I’m working so much I don’t have time to think about anything else anyway. (EVERYONE works like mad here…my friend Khor Peng says he’d like to cut down his hours – to 12. Carrie goes back into her office practically every weekend.)

So, a couple of nights ago, I’m lying in bed, about to fall asleep, when this image of NY Route 134 – my drive home from Somers to Ossining – just slams into me. And there’s this sudden, intense longing inside my gut. For what, I don’t really know.

I’m trying to get back into some of the routine I had in NY – the running, the tennis, …oh jeez it’s humid here. I barely do 3km and I’m drenched. DRENCHED. I do 5km and it feels like a major accomplishment. Don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do another half marathon. At least this close to the equator.

And – I found a running group that meets every Saturday on East Coast Park. But they run pretty late. 8am. It gets hot. My ideal is right before 7. And I run along the beach listening to Leonard Lopate podcasts on my new nano (my old iPod isn't working so well). It’s not quite the same as running in Central Park (see photo), but still…

Of course, I’m trying to replicate one of my favourite NY staples here – FOOD! Cool restaurants but without the attitude. And there are more and more good restaurants sprouting up here. Now if the wait staff were as good as the chefs…

So, last night I organized a dinner party at one of the hottest new restaurants in town – PS Café. (For review, check out Chubby Hubby’s blog at http://www.chubbyhubby.net/2005/12/new-it-restaurant-in-town.html) It was tough enough getting a reservation. But the REAL tough part was trying to get some kind of a gender balance. Also wanted to make sure I didn’t put together a table where everyone already knew everyone else. Anyway, the place, the food, and company, turned out to be great. So, all the agro was worth it.

Plus my friend Carolyn brought along her friend Charles, who’s a PASTRY chef. SCORE! Can’t wait to try out the stuff in his shop.

The weirdest thing is, you know what I really, really, miss? The weekend Metro North train rides along the Hudson into the City, with the Sunday NY Times and especially the Sunday Times mag for company.

2006-02-07T07:29:00.000+08:00

Schmoozing in Sydney

Spent Australia Day in Sydney a couple of weeks ago (Jan 26th).

Food was great, guys were cute, and running in 20something degrees celcius and very very low humidity around Darling Harbour was terrific.

Oh - and a waiter tried to convince me to have Lambingtons for breakfast in honour of Australia Day, but I settled for toast, jam and cappucino instead. I'm not quite into having coconut-covered chocolatey cake for breakfast yet. Plus, I think it was Australian humour.

Sydney's always had great restaurants: innovative chefs incorporating cooking styles and ingredients from the many ethnicities living there, fresh ingredients, cool restaurant design and terrific service.

NY Times late last year had a feature on how the best food in the world is now in Sydney. It's also gotten a lot more expensive in the time I've been away - can't have it both ways I guess. Sydney's now one of the costliest places in the world to buy property.

Ate at:
Est - http://www.miettas.com/Australia/New_South_Wales/Sydney/Est.html
Consistently listed as one of Sydney's top restaurants.

Sugarroom - dinner was good, but dessert was even better. We had actually finished dinner and was on the way out the door when a Japanese co-worker reminded us that we hadn't had dessert yet so we went back in.

Ripples - right under the Sydney Harbour Bridge with a great view of the Sydney Opera House.

2006-01-21T10:40:00.000+08:00

Wi fi's a Piece of Cake In Singapore...

OK - fair disclosure - the terrific fruit pie and pot of earl grey in the photo wasn't shot in Singapore. It was in Tokyo - of course. In a terrific patisserie called Qu'il Fait Bien.

The fruits were fresh, juicy and substantial, the custard was light, and the crust...buttery and crisp. One thing though, get there before 3pm or you'll be queuing like mad.

Am in Singapore now. Just finished a tennis game (it was sooooo humid by 8 30am) and now I'm at a cafe at the beach wi-fi-ing and watching the terribly toned roller bladers go by while I'm having an Ok Earl Grey. (oooh, cute french guy with motorcycle helmet just walked by. No, Lauree and Michelle, I didn't have guts to chat him up.)

And of course, this being Saturday, I HAVE to read the NY Times. Even if it's only online. And I thought this little segment from the arts pages might amuse you. (Richard Serra sculptures were one of the first things I saw in Chelsea when I first got to NY.) Well, here it is:

Lost: 76,000-Pound Sculpture
Say, has anyone noticed a homeless 38-ton steel sculpture lately? If so, the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid would like to know about it. The sculpture happens to be the work of the American artist Richard Serra, and the museum paid about $220,000 for it in 1987. Now it seems to be missing, The Associated Press reported. The four stark steel slabs were exhibited and then sent to a warehouse run by a company specializing in large art. The company was dissolved in 1998, the daily newspaper ABC said, and when the museum's director, Ana Martínez de Aguilar, decided a few months ago to display the sculpture again, it could not be found.

2006-01-17T20:48:00.000+08:00

Blogging from SQ 11 flying from Narita to Singapore

So - I'm on a plane right now listening to Vengerov play a Beethoven Concerto, connected to the web thanks to Singapore Airlines, Boeing, and er...my Mastercard.

Priceless? Well, actually, $30 for the duration of the flight. Or as long as my Thinkpad T42 battery lasts.

And, the photo on this post isn't airline food - especially not on Econo - although I have to admit, SQ food isn't bad at all. Dinner was soba, rice, veg, chicken, and strawberry ice cream. Oh, and a half decent riesling.

The sashimi was part of dinner on Sunday night with my friend June and her husband. She and I had been talking about hanging out in Kyoto together for years (thank you Pico Iyer) but we've never quite made it - so she did the next best thing and took me to a Kyoto restaurant. )(It's so trad it doesn't have an English name. Really.) Dinner was fab, of course, along with the company and the view.

Tokyo feels like it's on a total revival kick (although nothing like the energy level of Shanghai yet). Construction everywhere, new buildings, ... green tea latte...people lining up to get into the new Chloe store in Aoyama...and actually walking out with shopping bags. I mean...CHLOE? Front page story on the Asian Wall St Journal today: "Mitsubishi UFJ plans to raise its Global Profile" - targetting to be the world's top five on profitability w/in 3-5 years. Yep...it's coming baaaack.

I was in a cab on my way from TCAT to my hotel after my overnight (econo) flight, and I was thinking, after having left NY for two-and-a-half months, I don't feel like I moved home to Singapore as much as I am part of this large, inter-connected place called Asia.

Seems like a pretty cool place to be exploring right now.

2006-01-07T00:49:00.000+08:00

How's The Future?

I received three Asia-related emails and IM's within a space of a few weeks that I found pretty interesting.

"How's the future? I'm back in the past." - a ping from a friend of mine who went back to San Francisco after hanging out in Singapore and Saigon over the Xmas break.

"Taipei has become very posh and reminded me of New York in some ways." - a Taiwanese friend who has lived in the US for more than a decade and was back in Taipei for a visit.

And, finally...this is from one of my favourite bosses ever (even if he DID go to University of Chicago instead of Northwestern). He's lived all over...Singapore, US, Hong Kong, Beijing...and he moved to Shanghai a few years ago.

"Eleven months ago, [my wife] was deciding between Siemens and HaiEr for the choice of washing machine and dryer. Not finding any functional differences between the two brands, she opted for the cheaper and younger brand of HaiEr. A couple of months ago, one of them broke down and KB called their service center which promised to send a technician out the next day by noon.

Half an hour before noon, the service center called KB to ask if the technician called. Apparently he did not. The service center called back shortly that the technician would be in touch with us. He called immediately to apologize because he believed he was close to our house. He called at noon to tell us that he would be at least an hour late because our house turned out to be farther than he thought. The service center and the technician kept us informed of any delay and the reason in the next hour. After it was fixed, the service center called the next day if the machine was OK. Since KB had to ask Ah Yi, they called back again the next day. It is service which is unheard of and unmatched in all the major cities which we have lived in. And it is now happening in China. "

And that...I think, is a snippet from the future.

2005-12-26T18:58:00.000+08:00

Christmas in Saigon

Saigon isn't as much a photo as it is a soundfile. Got here yesterday, Christmas, and careened straight into the cacophony of a gazillion mopeds whizzing around. Oh, and everyone's really liberal with the honking.

There's a lot more movement here than there is in Hanoi. A city in perpetual motion. Six million people who all seem to be on the streets, all in a hurry to go someplace, all at the same time.

The streets kinda look like Singapore in the 60s. Well, except for the mopeds. Storefronts that are a mess of goods, street-vendors balancing baskets of coconut water, fruits and other edibles on their shoulders. Then, suddenly, in between a row of dusty stores, bursts of cool modernity punctuate the street - Decor stores that look like they came right out of Manhattan, chill clubs. It's like NY's Nolita and Chinatown sharing the same street.

Faves so far: Gaya - for really, really urban, very pricey furniture, clothes and decor; Saigon Kitsch - for, well, what it says, Lost Art, for really cool modern furniture with a retro twist.

2005-12-09T07:36:00.000+08:00

View from my hotel room at ANA Hotel

Makes it easier to work late when you get to look out on a view like this. It was strangely peaceful looking out into other office buildings late at night, and a freeway of cars still busily zipping around.

2005-12-09T07:21:00.000+08:00

The View: Mori Museum of Art

Went to this place called The View when I was in Japan. It was in Roppongi Hills, in the Mori Tower. All new and very shiny.

Went there on the way to the Mori Art Museum. There happened to be a Sugimoto exhibit here. http://www.mori.art.museum/html/eng/

I've seen some of Sugimoto's stuff in NY but this is the first time there's been an exhibit of this scale. (It's on till Jan 9th in Tokyo and then it goes to the US. It's totally worth catching) His images play around with themes of perception of time and space - you might have seen large B&Ws of what looks like empty cinemas. But it's a movie theatre whose audience has come and gone because he's exposed the film for like...two hours. So much for photography capturing one point in time.

He also had images of sculptures that represent mathematical theories and equations. Really clean, sleek...you might have seen it in the NY Times mag a couple of months ago. I actually saw it on my usual train ride from Tarrytown to Grand Central.

Man do I miss that - the NY Times mag. Soch gave me her copy of the New Yorker last week to help me miss NY less. But, what I do miss is that Hudson line train ride with my Sunday NY Times and my iPod.

2005-12-02T07:27:00.000+08:00

Harajuku

Was in Tokyo for a meeting Monday and Tuesday, so hung out in super-trendy Harajuku Sunday afternoon.

Teeming with teens - the vast majority of them so stylishly dressed (short skirts, brightly coloured stockings and boots are so in) I felt like some old dowdy aunt.

Lots of boutiques, pseudo-Italian cafes, Zara, and Gap... (Can't escape the Gap).

For a great description of Harajuku, check out Gwen Stefani's single "Harajuku Girls".

2005-11-26T01:07:00.000+08:00

Work Life Balance

People work really hard here. My co worker in Beijing took off early today - 7 30 on a Friday. He and his wife were meeting friends for dinner.

Thursday night I was pinging a colleague about something at 7 - and she was going to the gym after.

I went to a wine tasting organised the Young Professionals Chapter of the Singapore Computer Society tonight. It's for IT professionals under 40 to network - useful - since you really can't get by without partnering with your counterparts from the other IT companies. And a glass of Shiraz and Merlot and Cab Sauv makes it go down easier. Hmm - wonder why they were doing all reds t'nite.

When Howie asked me if I wanted to go I thought it would be full of stuffy, buttoned down...nerds. But it was really quite a lot of fun. We gotta get more women to attend those things - it was 70% guys.

7am tennis game in the morning. Gonna get some zzz's now.

To the NY/CT crowd: happy thanksgiving. BTW - it's 30 degrees C here...it's about 30 F there? Hee hee.

2005-11-23T06:40:00.000+08:00

Test Drives

Test drove two cars over the weekend. Both Miatas. One was the new 2 litre and the other was a one year old 1.8 litre.

Does anyone REALLY need a Miata or is it one of those that fall squarely in the WANT category?

Haven't decided if I should or shouldn't yet. Yeah, they were much, much cheaper in NY but there was no way I was going to risk driving a light, low, small car in the winter on icy roads. Driving in the snow freaked me out enough as it was.

Had dinner last night with a couple of people I worked with 9 years ago. (Curry soft shell crab at Thai Express. Yummy. That place is great for a semi-fast food / chain joint - not as good at the no air-con laksa/ kway teow places on East Coast Rd - but they're two different things). Been otherwise catching up with various people and it's been great. There's something to be said for friends whom you know will be there for you but wouldn't hesitate for a second to let you know when you're full of shite.

I guess that's the thing about being a nomad. It's not the physical location but the people around you that populate your map.

2005-11-18T23:02:00.000+08:00

This Other Life

So - I went to a chamber music concert by the Tang Quartet Tuesday. Was at work late and didn't make it there till the interval. Missed the Schubert but at least I was there for the Shostakovich. I used to go to their gigs when they first started. Four cute guys who wanted to make classical music more accessible. They were like - the rock stars of the Singapore classical music world. Teenage girls would occupy a large part of the concert hall and throw the guys bouquets and bouquets of flowers. Hey - whatever brings classical music to the masses has my vote man.

http://music.nus.edu.sg/faculty/bio/tangquartet.htm

Played tennis Thursday. Ran earlier in the week...ran again this morning but late. 8 30am instead of 6 30. I figured it wouldn't be too hot since it was cloudy - but man, it was soooo humid I ended up going back to the air-conditioned gym and doing cardio on the machines instead.

So - I've been trying to replicate the things that I was doing in NY - running, tennis, restaurants, classical music - and it's not quite the same. I miss the NY gang. Like the ability to play the game Taboo with all those shortcuts and in-jokes. Doing the Nikon D 70 thing, having dimsum at Aberdeen, Malaysian at Nyonya.

Missing the NY crew doesn't mean I don't appreciate the Singapore crew. Everyone's been great here - hangin' out, including me in their stuff, taking me out to lunch/ dinner. I realise I've been away a while and it'll take some time to build up a tight circle of friends again. I'm just workin' on getting my new groove going. Wish me luck.

Oh yeah. I made an offer on a place. Condo, running distance from beach, 5 tennis courts (OK, there are hundreds of units in this development so I'll have to share) pool long enough to do some decent laps. It's a two-bedroom so the NY crew will just HAVE to visit and make use of the spare room. As for the Singapore crew - I'll cook for you once I move in.

2005-11-12T01:49:00.000+08:00

2005-11-12T01:26:00.000+08:00

It's been a week since I left NY.

Been mostly working and apartment hunting.

The great thing about my body not having adjusted to the time yet is that I actually get out of bed when my alarm goes off at 6. Been running / swimming before leaving for work. It takes me just five minutes to run to the beach from here. And the running track already has people by 6 45...and lots of senior citizens doing qi gong.

Oh - and my stuff hasn't been air-freighted yet (read clothes) which means I have an excuse to go shopping. And I don't even particularly like shopping.

T'nite was the first break I got. Went to an art gallery reception at the Esplanade with Nae, Johj and Shan. Ran into Mush and Nick. Wow!! People I actually knew! The exhibit, Pop Puri Singapura, was really cool. I especially liked Ketna's Patel's Asia Pop.

www.ketnapatel.com

Then we had Thai food. My soft shell crab curry was excellent. We spent almost $30 a person and that's a LOT of money to spend on food here. We ate like mad. Yep - that's one thing that's been consistently good here - the food.

2005-11-05T00:38:00.000+08:00

So guys, this is it. I'm on an SQ flight from NY to Singapore. And after living in NY for almost five years, it feels kinda weird. BUT biz class seats on this flight FULLY recline! So at least I'll sleep OK.

There are like - 100 movies and TV shows, a small record store full of CD options, and games and all that on the SQ entertainment system.

Dinner was a crab/ lobster salad, with lamb shank (there was a bunch of other main course options). And breakfast this morning was a really good ricotta blueberry pancake and sausages.

In between you can order maki, beef noodle soup (surprisingly good), asparagus omelette, chicken breast with mash potatoes - and you can order that any time you like which is kinda cool since it means you don't have to wake up on someone else's schedule to eat. And everytime I go to the loo, which near the stewardess' station, they're like "would you like another Earl Grey, Ms Kan?"

Saw three movies, read the FT, and am 3/4 way through Freakanomics - a lot of fun, as expected.

So guys, how do you think I'll do on the East West transition this time around? The third time...but I'm not sure it gets any easier, leaving friends and places behind.

I'll miss you guys...I'll miss Manhattan - the theatre, the restaurants, the attitude, the neuroses, the music...and my second home Grand Central. How WILL the Hudson Line stay afloat without me?

I guess I'm leaving the buzz and energy of the capital of the universe to a place where it feels like a new universe is just forming...especially in places like Shanghai...and even Singapore feels a little different.

But you guys WILL be visiting - so I'll make sure I keep a spare room for available.

Oh yeah - I skipped my birthday since it was Nov 3 when I left NY and it'll be Nov 5 when I land. Does that mean I'm still...uh...21?