Nothing Beats a Simple Nasi Lemak

Home made Nasi Lemak
cook the rice with coconut milk and pandan leaves
looks like fried worms, it is the fried ikan bilis with peanuts (anchioves)
Today's menu is Nasi Lemak. A malay-Singaporean dish that is so simple, yet so yummy. It is probably not very worth the time, effort and money to cook up a Nasi Lemak, unless you cook for a few dozens. Because you can buy it for just $$1:50 from the coffee shops/ hawker centres/ even mama shops. But those are usually cold by the time we bought them home.

So I cook a piping hot dish of Nasi Lemak. It is easy, but it requires alot of a-ga-ra-tion (singlish for esitmation), especially for the rice. You need to have the right amount of coconut and pandan flavours. The chilli is the most important part of the dish. Singaporeans swear by the chilli. If the chilli is not appropriate, the dish would not be complete. I would have made my own chilli but I was missing an ingredient, belachan. This dish goes best with belachan chilli.

Come Fly With Me on the Singapore Flyer

boarding...


we are reaching the peak...
almost there...
almost almost there...

When your child "mirrors" what you say

No one can deny that parents are role models for their child. And that's why we are always careful about the words we use, the way we explain and phrase, and god knows how many times I have to be "politically correct" with what I say. But how do I know to what extent he would model me? Until today.

Me: How's school? Please don't tell me it is FINE, again.
Tobey: Ya, it is not fine. All my teachers scolded me today.
Me: I know you are not telling the truth.
Tobey: How do you know?
Me: Because I am your mother.
Tobey: Do you know you are not answering my question?
Me: Huh?
Tobey: "Because I am your mother" doesn't answer my question.
Me: Okay, because I know you best?
Tobey: Yes, that's better.

Surely it won't take you long to figure out why I always pose that to Tobey, "You are not answering my question". I call it an occupational illness.

Advice from a sleep therapist

I have been having a hard time trying to get to sleep lately. And I had a good advice from my sleep therapist (aka Tobey) who told me,

"Try closing your eyes and replaying movie scenes you like, I always do that and it works."

Hmm, that's something new, besides counting sheep...

Vain and paranoid

Age is really catching up fast. I told TS the other day, "I think I need a face lift".

I am vain. But more importantly, I am starting to fear the process of aging. I don't need to be as plastic and preserved looking as Nicole Kidman, but at very least, I would want to age gracefully like Cate Blanchett or Helen Mirren! I used to think people are crazy to go under the knife. But I understand it now. I am observing lines, creases, spots that were never there before, I start to dig out my past years pictures and see what difference has taken place, and I am starting to frantically apply layers to cream and lotions to reverse what age has done to me. I am vain, and paranoid.

So I decided to throw out all the "useless" tried and tested creams (including SK II) and opt for a set of new facial regime. Five steps, and it doesn't come cheap. I am on this for 2 days and already, I am annoying TS by asking every other few hours, "How, got any difference, got any difference?"

The Bane of Digital Age

We have seen how kiasu Singaporean parents can get. Yesterday, we were kind of flabbergasted. We were having our dinner at the Marina Square foodcourt and a family with their maid in tow, were waiting rather impatiently for a table. When they got a seat, in front of us, the mother said to her son, "Okay, time to eat" and dished out from her a bag....a portable television/dvd/vcd player!

TS said, "At least it is educational."

But that's not the point. She probably thought she is quite smart to have this idea to keep her four-year-old occupied whilst having dinner. Whatever happens to inculcating values and family eating time?