nattie's adventures

Is it sad that the highlights of my days now evolves around the office? Like for example, I overhear...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 18:04:55 +0800

Is it sad that the highlights of my days now evolves around the office?
Like for example, I overhear the ladies (or the aunties) in the other
department talk about sales and of their shopping goodies they bought
during lunchtime (usually shoes but once in a while they get things like a
stuffed toy dog for a little human). When their male boss walks pass them
and notices a shopping website on one of their screens, he goes on to say
in a very singlish tone, “What are you doing? Shopping ah?”

And then once in a while, I hear them complaining about their embarrassing
in-laws or family members. I make a mental note not to speak so loudly my
office.

One thing about being in the marketing communications division is that we
sometimes receive goodies (which we declare with HR before ripping them up
of course), which reminds me of my short stint in fashion magazine world
where editors and other writers alike receive beauty or fashion goodies of
which sometimes they sell their souls away to.

Lately, I’ve been sent on many wild goose chases but have been enjoying
conversations with and meeting up with many external vendors, even though I
sometimes find myself being put on hold with ‘creative’ ringtones ranging
from oriental chinese music to heavily serious contemporary piano to the
cheap fur elise ringtone which I cannot stand. At the very least, these
phone calls and visits have been a great time away from being desk-bound,
at least for now.

It’s one of those mornings where you get out of the wrong side of bed, and you’re running late. The...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:13:24 +0800

It’s one of those mornings where you get out of the wrong side of bed, and
you’re running late. The bus that you take to the train station comes later
than usual. When you get into the train station, you cram in with others on
the train with just enough space to breathe when all of a sudden another
commuter with those heavy backpacks starts pushing in to make space for
herself. When you finally manage to reach some peace and get out of the
train station, you realize that you are already 10 mins late for work. You
walk as fast as you can, climbing up and down stairs and escalators instead
of just standing there, only to have an idiot stand on the walking side of
the escalator lane, happily chatting with his friends.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath for 2 seconds. It’s not worth it to
get all worked up. It’s not worth it to shout, “Move it!” I managed to calm
myself down and kept walking on, only to stagger up the last of the
escalators to my workplace to find that… my water tumbler had been leaking
bit by bit as I had shoved my way through from the train station to my
office building. MERDE.

I’m in the office 20 mins late and most contents in my bag by then has
gotten wet. Great. Suck it up. Good thing our dollar notes and my namecards
are nearly water proof. But I had to throw a nearly full pack of mints away.

Have a happy Tuesday y’all. Most of your days can’t start off as terrible
as than mine at the moment.

This is what you call ‘yu sheng’ in Singapore - a...

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 23:26:49 +0800

This is what you call ‘yu sheng’ in Singapore - a tradition to welcome in
the chinese new year. As you add the little ingredients in, you say
auspicious chinese idioms meant to bring all sorts of blessings. When all
ingredients have been put in, we get ready our chopsticks to lift the yu
sheng as high as we can, as we continue to say more auspicious chinese
idioms. They say that the higher it is, the better it will be. Whatever it
is, some people just use this as a great excuse to get the table really
dirty.

I’vr never realised that yu sheng (or lou hei in cantonese) was a
Singaporean thing only until my English boss who had lived in Hong Kong for
several years mentioned that they do not observe this tradition in China.
They are missing out the fun.

Steamboat!

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 08:40:43 +0800

Steamboat!

Reunion lunch with the family on the eve of chinese new...

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:06:00 +0800

Reunion lunch with the family on the eve of chinese new year.

What goes on in a singaporean chinese new year meal is that we welcome a whole mix of cuisines, hardly sticking to the traditional! I remember once explaining to my french landlords in France that Singapore grows few crops in our farms and we largely rely on international exports. Our meal today truly illustrates that.

For one, even though the loh hei (or yu sheng in chinese) tradition is a singaporean thing, we bought ours from a japanese restaurant, and couldn’t resist getting some sashimi and sushi along the way. Those big succulent prawns you see are probably not grown here because truth be told, you’ll only get small puny ones at our prawn farms!

The abalone in this soup dish is probably from australia, and the shark’s fin too, is also imported (there are no sharks near our island). Those big cherries you see? New Zealand. Red sparkling wine - Italy.

Perhaps the fried rolls you see, known as ngo hiam may be considered Singaporean origin as they were homemade by a friend, but the meat in it was probably imported too and I can just go on and on about it. And oh, I almost forgot that we had green japanese seaweed udon noodles with crabmeat instead of the traditional chinese noodles!

It was only until at my french landlord’s surprised expression of how a country can ever survive without much sustainable farming systems that Singapore is truly an amazingly city that could function even without such precious resources.

Happy Chinese New Year from Singapore!

Flower crab party: peeling flower crabs for the new year. Last...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:11:37 +0800

Flower crab party: peeling flower crabs for the new year.

Last night, my family gathered around the kitchen counter to peel these
9-10 odd flower crabs. This was all in preparation for our chinese new year
reunion lunch tomorrow. What my mom woyld then do with the crab meat is
cook it to me shark’s fin soup. Yum.

Flower crab party: peeling flower crabs for the new year. Last...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:10:56 +0800

Flower crab party: peeling flower crabs for the new year.

Flower crab party: peeling flower crabs for the new year. Last...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:04:23 +0800

Flower crab party: peeling flower crabs for the new year.

Chinese new year goodies received in a dim sum basket at the...

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 08:06:07 +0800

Chinese new year goodies received in a dim sum basket at the office
yesterday and really cute kittens!

A little shout out from my office - a breathtaking view of...

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:50:00 +0800

A little shout out from my office - a breathtaking view of Singapore’s Marina Bay.

Little would I know that I would be working in this area three weeks before when I was at vivit’s birthday. It’s a nice place, and a really good vibe. The best part? There’s much more space to breathe here as it’s tucked away from the usually crowded Robinson Rd, where buildings tower over you and you see nothing but concrete (and the occasional Singapore trees, of course).

When I came by on my first day, it suddenly dawned on me that all these space that I am on reclaimed land. Rewind back 50 years, I would have been walking (or drowning) on water if I had been on the same position as I was today.

I’m just settling into work this week. Will definitely update soon about Singapore’s working culture. First week of the job and I already have stories to share ;)

When I was in India chomping down the spicy sambar curry and...

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 14:14:01 +0800

When I was in India chomping down the spicy sambar curry and mutton curry,
what I really craved was the fish curry made in Singapore.

This is really yum! I got to learn how to make this for myself.

setting sun of 2012 Here’s a picture of the sun setting at...

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0800

setting sun of 2012

Here’s a picture of the sun setting at the Ganges river at Rishikesh. The most amazing thing that happened to me in 2012 was India. It had taught me many different things about life, love, family, languages - and to find balance, peace and patience in a complicated environment.

I welcome in 2013. It’s yet going to be another exciting year and I’m looking forward to it. Happy new year ;)

happy birthday avivit! had fun ;) xx

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0800

happy birthday avivit!

had fun ;)

Lantern, Fullerton Bay

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 23:51:00 +0800

Lantern, Fullerton Bay

happy 21st birthday Sheena ! xx

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0800

happy 21st birthday Sheena !

Youth Camps Where you get dirty and have a mass water bombing...

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0800

Youth Camps

Where you get dirty and have a mass water bombing sessions. Medical people are a must. Photographers too.

I had two camps in a week. The first, had lots of running, lots of screaming, lots of youth with bouts of never ending energy. I hung out with the older crowd - from facilitating games, to buying and preparing a mass hotpot session for 115 hungry youths, which we filled up two big supermarket trolleys.

And the second, for the leaders - we were barbequing in the heavy rain, with a threatening knee deep flood almost coming up towards us. This time round, grocery shopping for fruits were only needed. Soon, we had watermelons rolling up and down the church van, and I was catching each one to put them on the seats next to me to prevent them from rolling any further. We had once used watermelons for ‘food bowling’ (just saying), but there weren’t any that night except for a watermelon eating contest in the night, in which three guys lost to a skinny girl. Surprise, surprise.

Sembawang Beach Hardly anyone comes to Sembawang Beach, except...

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0800

Sembawang Beach

Hardly anyone comes to Sembawang Beach, except for people who like to fish, and random families who enjoy camping on hard cement floors over the weekend.

This is me getting distracted in Botanic Gardens . I was to...

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0800

This is me getting distracted in Botanic Gardens .

I was to meet a friend for brunch at Food for Thought. When I arrived at the main Tanglin gate, I got distracted by the christmas trees - I went walking straight instead of making a right turn. In my 30mins of wandering around, I spotted a nice lizard, witnessed yet another wedding photo shoot, tourists and more trees.

Ronald McDonald in Thailand Visiting Phuket this December marks...

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:00:00 +0800

Ronald McDonald in Thailand

Visiting Phuket this December marks the second time I’ve been into Thailand. The first trip I made to Thailand was to Chiang Mai as a fifteen year old girl on a school community service trip with an orphanage. And the souvenir that I brought back was head lice.

This time round, it wasn’t something live I brought back, but somethingunprocessed. Upon touch down, I puked out my breakfast on the airplane. My sense of smell heightened that literally every bad thing I smelt gave me a bad headache as I struggled not to vomit. Within the next hour, I found myself at the floor of my bathroom puking out the subsequent lunch that I barely ate. The rest of the day and night was spent lying weakly in bed and forcing the constipation out every hour or so.

Never a good experience coming back home from Thailand.

sending love lanterns into the sky It is a very touristic thing...

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0800

sending love lanterns into the sky

It is a very touristic thing to do. You light up a mini hot air balloon made of cheap plastic, and you see it float up to the sky, and hope that love never dies.

There was an evening wedding on the 12th (some believe in the auspicious date 12/12/12), and on the far end of the beach, we saw about 20 to 30 love lanterns being sent up into the sky at a go. That was a pretty sight. Add in the coolness of the night, and the quiet sea waves tiding in and out peacefully at the beach, you cannot help but smile at the simple pleasures in life. That evening became even more special, as it ended off with a symphony of fireworks. To the happy couple, thanks for the wonderful evening.