Doing the part for charity

The day of social services arrived in the office yesterday where we, as a company, had dedicated the entire day to do charity work for the community. It was a company's global effort, so every offices from around the world was activated on this mission.

Our day started as early as 7 am and we had to travel about 2 hours upcountry to Srinawa Community School, Nakorn Nayok. The school has up to 130 students and 8 teachers. There is only one class for each grade with 18-20 students per class. However, the conditions of the classrooms are under-developed. The library is bare with the most updated publication being that of celebrities' magazines. The playground is filled with broken pieces, no longer usable. most unfortunate is that their annual lunch budget of 25,000 baht (~SGD 1,050) usually provided by the government, is being delayed due to the unstable political situation. All of the lunch is currently supported by people within the community.

The agenda for the entire company really was to surprise the kids by taking them out to Siam Ocean World, while at the same time, revive the condition of the premises. That means, we were split into teams to clean and paint 6 classrooms, nursing room, library, canteen and playground. Necessary children’s items were also donated to the school along with some cash.

No one from my company was spared on this day and I was assigned as part of the team to clean and paint one of the classrooms. It was a really hot day and not the most sanitary of conditions. Bless you if you had diarrhoea (which I did, but luckily wasn't a bad one). But we pulled through and boy! it was a lot of hard work. By the time the kids came back from their outing, we were all pooped. I'm aching all over now from the constant bending and painting the walls. We only arrived in Bangkok at 8-ish pm. So that's more than 12 hours travelling and purely physical labour!

It does feel quite rewarding to be a part of it, though. Only, I felt that the kids are probably too young to understand the significance of it and were more excited by the physical gifts we brought them. Here are some pictures.

On the way, poster in the classroom, starting the clean-up

Almost there, resting (and the only girl wearing heels!), a startled-looking me

Job done, the actual classroom tables and desks

In and around the school

Giant speakers, antique stencil (?) and typewriter, the library, another classroom

No flush latrine, Parade Ground, Playground, Canteen

Kids coming back from outing, message on the board

And finally, a really exhausted looking me!

Bummed Out

Why oh why am I so cursed? I can't believe they had closed down the one and only Indonesian restaurant in Bangkok! Probably the only one in the entire country! Clearly, I'm super bummed and completely peeved. Thought it was a rumour when I first heard it today and I quicky called up the number I had to check if it's true. Sadly, it was true. Bali Restaurant, located at Soi Ruam Rudee actually served decent Indonesian food and has been our favourite eatery for a while. It certainly satisfy the occasional cravings of stuffing ourselves silly with proper Indonesian food. The only place that actually served up home-made Rendang and fantastic Goreng Pisang too.Since it's certified halal, it is also one of the few places to take my parents to when they are in town. See! I swear there's a conspiracy...whatever I like, they take it away.

What makes the blow worse is that Bali restaurant has recently been replaced by........get this: ANOTHER Thai restaurant. Isn't there already enough Thai restaurants around already, given this is frigging damn Thailand? The notion of Thais only liking their Thai food seems to hold true. I wonder if the restaurant went bust because it didn't suit the Thai palate or if there were other reasons. Whatever it is, it's such a shame. . Here I am, jinxed again. No more authentic Indonesian food in Bangkok...sigh!

Chicken Casserole with Creamy Pasta

A weekday dinner that couldn't be any simpler. Yummy and fulfilling meal which had been improvised. The baking time ain't that quick, but the prep was simple enough and it doesnt' feel like it had taken a long time when it's all being chucked in the oven. It was my first time making this and there's an in-house affirmation of this dish being repeated. Woo hoo!

Ingredients:

• 800g chicken parts
• 6 slices turkey strips (I had used Deng-Deng here aka halal beef Bak Kua from SG)
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup/cream of chicken or cream of Potage, undiluted
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoon Djon mustard
• 100g macaroni or other pasta, cooked
• 1 Onion - sliced
• 1 garlic - chopped
• Capsicum - sliced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• minced parsley for garnish, optional

Preparation:

1. Coat chicken with salt and pepper and arrange chicken, skin-side up, in baking pan. Cut turkey strips in 2-inch lengths; place over chicken. Bake at 180°c, uncovered, for 45 minutes; pour off excess grease in a separate container.


2. Boil macaroni till al dente and drain. Heat up skillet with olive oil and browned the chopped garlic. Add in sliced onion and stir fry. Add in macaroni and mix them together. Then add the excess grease from the baked chicken and turkey into the skillet. Lastly, add in sliced capsicum and fry on low heat for a couple of minutes and set aside


3. Separately combine soup and sour cream in another pan. Add in mustard and stir well.


4. When ready, pour over chicken. Continue baking for another 30 minutes. Transfer chicken pieces to a serving dish and mix macaroni with the mushroom/potage/chicken-sour cream sauce. Arrange on dish with chicken. Garnish with parsley.

Enjoy your meal!

Snapple Fact

Real fact #33 from a Snapple bottle cap: Termites eat through wood 2 times faster when listening to rock music.

Hilarious. Whoever did this experiment is damn bo-liao, with too much time on his hands.

Becoming Bestfriends

Animals don't judge...neither do they have any prejudices nor hold a grudge when things don't work out. They go on own their merry way in their confined environment, carving little safety zones for themselves or just trying to get along. Like humans, they stick to those who would accept them as they are.

Fudge, our interminable talker has found herself a bestfriend in Donut. She is everywhere he is. Despite her crass behaviour, uncivilized etiquette and vociferous antics, Donut has find it in his animal instinct to humour her. Donut has found his match: Where he used to steal Andy's food at lightning's speed and taunt her to no end, it is now Fudge's turn to give it all back to him. Blimey! Multiply that by 3 from Fudge to Donut, and Andy didn't have it all so bad from him. Yet, we''ve been noticing Ah-Nut relenting and giving in to her nuances. It's almost endearing to see these 2 get along so well.

Only in the US

An article of an 11 YO boy charged with murder, using his own "youth model" shotgun. How bizzare is that! Perhaps it's time for the Obama Administration to curb or even ban the ownership of guns in the US, regardless of age.

Wrong Number!

Was rudely awaken at 7am this morning by not one, but THREE consecutive phone calls from the same person. Needless to say, the 1st call was already a wrong number as the bugger had rattled in Thai as soon as I answered it. Being unceremoniously jolted out of bed annoyed me, and so I had told him curtly that it was the wrong number, hung up and even rejected the subsequent call. I've seen this number on my mobile several times some time last week registered as missed calls. I remember picking up once and the line went dead. I'm sure whoever he/she was, he/she was not looking for me.

On the 3rd call, smokes were already coming out of my ears. So I picked up and shouted a "wrong number!" At this point, he asked me in English "Are you a foreigner?" I am, I said, and added strings of expletives to that and all he said was "Oh! Sorry." Oklah at least he did apologize, but how does it matter if I'm foreigner or Thai? I could be a Thai and it still will not be the person he was looking for at bloody 7 am!

I don't know what is it with the Thais, but they can be so bloody persistent. Did they think that the callee would somehow miraculously change to the person they are looking for, had they called 5x to the same number?

Missing treats

The last time I checked just a few days ago, this package was still full with crab meat cat treats. As of yesterday at the time where I had felt generous to give the furries their treats, I was quite apalled to discover that the contents had all gone missing.

All that's left on the 3-feet high shelf of the laundry room was an empty pack with a big, gaping hole. The hole was nicely traced up with little, tiny teeth marks and so far, there has only been one suspect who actually knew where the treats are kept.
ARGGGH!! FUUUUUDGUE.......!

When the web fights back

Threats of social networking sites are escalating. Postings of thoughtless information has recently caused many more unprecedented issues to users personally or socially. It crossed my mind to close my Facebook account. I'm still contemplating, especially with the recent news of the company in question sneaking changes to their TOS.

Another article, also posted by Barcajax on his blog, to remind us that malware threats are real.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I don't know what it is exactly about this film, but this is one rare occasion where I had shed some tears while watching a movie in the theatre. It is quite rare of me to be moved to the extent where there were actually tears trickling down my cheeks several times. I'm no cry-baby but I felt dizzy as we made our way out of the theater, sniffling away with a heavy lump in my throat. I don't remember feeling so affected like this by a movie before. It is an extraordinary film with a great cast, great cinematography and storyline articulated with profound scripting. The scripted words felt lacerated to the soul; yet gently tugging your heartstrings. I especially love the following quotes:

• "You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went, you can curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go.”

• "For what it’s worth, it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit... start whenever you want... you can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that stop you. I hope you feel things that you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."

I'd watch it again. I think this film has the potential to be a classic in the long run. Tips: If you are the kind to shed buckets, be prepared to bring plenty of Kleenex.

Organic Vacuum Cleaner?

Discovered and witnessed an organic vacuum cleaner at work. I happened to hear a puking sound, usually from Donut, since he always is the one either purging from hair-balls on occasion or simply because he ate too much, too fast. The realization of cat vomit blotches somewhere would usually come later. This time, I was a little too late to realize it and next thing I knew, Fudge was already sniffing away and having a go at it. Goodness! She seems to relish it and I had to quickly clean it up before she gobbles up everything that's on the floor! Looks like Silver Bullet's earlier suspicions were spot on. There is now an official hoover of a trash-can around the house. A true-blooded street cat. Sigh! Maybe she does like her food warm...

Poor Cabbie!

My cabbie got fined by a damn annoying traffic police on my way home from a client's place this evening. It seemed like he violated an invisible traffic law. I'm vouching that it wasn't the cabbie's fault at all.

As soon as I got in the cab, I had told him to keep right. Tried as he might from quite a distance to get into the right most lane - but a bunch of arsehole, inconsiderate, rat-sucking pigs of Bangkok drivers had simply refused to give him even a wee bit of space. As a result, he had to keep to the middle lane. But while nearing to the junction where he had to keep going right to get to the correct lane, another idiot decided to zoom right past him and moved towards his left as he was going right. He reacted by swerving a little to the left most lane to avoid the freaking car. At this point, he had almost missed the junction where he was supposed to keep right because of the retarded driver. He managed all right, but was promptly stopped by a pappadum-brained traffic police within 30 meters of that junction. It is the most annoying position to be stopped as it is the intersection from the expressway towards Sukhumvit, merged by 3 lanes of on-coming traffic towards one direction. Pappadum-brained policeman then gave him his fine and it took him only 15 minutes to check his license and issue him the papers.

Poor cabbie - he wasn't very happy and started to grumble and explained to me, in Thai, no doubt, of where the mistake was. Shaking his head in despair, he said that it was his 2nd ticket today and I did see him fussing about with another set of similar looking papers as we were waiting for the traffic light. I really felt sorry for him and I know I'm not obliged to pay for his fine either. Not that he asked me to anyways. But really, a cabbie doesn't earn much in this country and I have no idea what the fine would have costed him. Besides, it was not his fault. He just pointed to the fare on the meter as I got out of the cab, but I gave him 140 baht for my 50 baht fare. I know it's not much, but I hope it lightens his burden for the day.

A sight to behold?

In PCsaviour's words, here's a snapshot of my Powerbookasaur with its bottom panel removed, suspended and HP laptop optical drive substituting my faulty one. He is currently fixing my G4 Mac Powerbook which will be handed down to my brother. His initial task really was to wipe out the hard-drive and re-install the software so it will be "brand new" for the new user. In truth, this machine used to be held in high regard and has now been relegated to the status of Dinosaur. The built-in CD-ROM drive has gone kaput for a while and PCsaviour had to try every possible means to get the OS installed; which of course will not be possible without a drive! He couldn't resist sending me this pic and even proudly showing the installer running. I had to laugh really hard when I saw what he sent.

Here's coming to you soon, bro!

I'm Yours

An awesome, awesome pick-me-up song that I'm currently addicted to. This is one song which I don't mind being played in my head over and over again. It sends me to happy land and brightens up my day. Hope it does the same to you as it does to me.

Cross-eyed Andy

A picture of Andy taken at randon when she was still a kitten turned out to be one hilarious surprise. Nobody is perfect and this is no exception. Still, this image sends me into bouts of plentiful laughter!

Model Ah-Nut

A picture of Ah-Nut taken randomly had a cool reverse effect of his reflection. Just loved how it turned out.

Ass kisser

It was one of those days today where I decided to skip lunch and go for an hour of a well-deserved foot massage, 20 floors down from my office. Ahh! The convenience of such luxury...

As soon as I plopped my ass on the comfy massage chair, I would promptly closed my eyes to avoid the inane chit-chatting with the masseuse. More often than not, I'm just pretending to be asleep, although my mind tend to wonder off to La-La Land. Strangely, although I go the same place quite often during my lunch break, I never got the same masseuse. It is also one of those days today where my masseuse was trying her darnest to get some reaction from me by telling me a few things as she started working on my feet. Henceforth, forcing me to open my eyes and give her a weak smile each time she said something.

What made me more uncomfortable than anything was when she decided to tell me "Khun same same Thai. La gôr, Khun sŭay nah...sŭay mak ni, more beeetifut than Thai" several times over and over. Generally, I don't deal with compliments of my looks too well. Especially, when I know that most times, I look like crap when I'm in the office. I have zero make-up on and unless I have to go for a meeting, I would only prim myself up on the way to the client's place. I'm baffled by all this nonsense, but already a few masseuses have said that to me. Honestly, I do look like a car wreck on most days and I don't give a rat's ass. So, for anyone to compliment me like that on my normal working day, while I have to admit is rather flattering, is really a big, fat liar. I do think though that they are just kissing my ass - probably hoping for a big, fat tip at the end of the session by their senseless compliments. Well, when they asked me how the massage was for me after the time is up, I said it's good. Sometimes, I give them a big, fat lie.

Short Quip

A remark from some junior staffs amidst economic recession: "I've been working for 1-2 years, and so I should be promoted."

Right. If I have to be promoted for every single year just because I've added another year to my employment history, they would run out of titles to give me soon enough. By the same illogical token, a lot of us would be CEOs by now since we have contributed to more than 10 years of our lives working in the corporate enviroment. Where got logic?!

Craving for Mee Goreng

Suddenly hit by a pang of intense desire for an Indian Mee Goreng that I immediately hit the Google image button to refresh my memory of what a good Mee Goreng would look like. Found this to be the best looking image since it seems to have all the ingredients of a proper Indian Mee Goreng. It's bright red and greasy with plenty of meat bits in there.

Must..must..must have Mee Goreng. The craving will intensify and in the next few days, I'll be completely pre-occupied with thoughts of sinking my teeth into a greasy plate of Mee Goreng. I'm up in shit's creek to satisfy my cravings in this country. Can someone please Fedex me a fresh plate of Mee Goreng, please. Preferably the one from Shah Alam in Boat Quay.

The Rascal

Came home and almost shredded my feet while I was trying to retrieve cat food in the dark. Turned out there was a broken bottle shattered into pieces on the floor of the laundry room. Good thing I realized just in time or I would have pierced my food right into an upright bottle broken at the neck. Suspect it was Fudge trying to get to the cat treats which were left on the counter. She has obviously attempted this stunt in the last few days and know where the good stuff are kept. Only this time, she has brought down an empty glass bottle with her from about 3 feet high when no one is around to shout after her. Both Andy and Donut have never rummaged through food stuff, let alone trying to steal cat treats. She's street-smart, all right...but apparently being street-smart can be quite dangerous too. Fudge' a clever girl, but what a rascal!

Roti Jala

Made Roti Jala over the weekend. Looks like a simple, simple meal but it does take quite sometime to whip it up. Good thing I enjoy cooking tremendously and if it means spending a little extra time in the kitchen to dish up something yummy, I'll gladly do it. There is also a feeling of satisfaction to see other people enjoying the food you prepared. It's worth all the effort.

When I was living at home, mom sometimes make Roti Jalas over the weekends and I would help her with the task of jala-ing. That means, I have to be on my feet for a couple of hours making individual lacy crepes till all the batter are done with a special Roti Jala cup. This cup has 5 small holes. To get the lace-like pattern, you have to move the cup with some batter in it, in a circular motion onto a non-stick hot pan. Once it's cooked, you can fold it into a rectangular or triangular shape.

Roti Jalas are usually eaten with curry and I prepared a beef curry with taters right from scratch, to be enjoyed with the Rotis. Another of Mom's recipe on the table!

This dish is usually hard to come by commercially and I don't know that many places in Singapore which sells Roti Jala on a regular basis, either. I reckon it's usually being served up at home for a fancy-free, humble meal. This is one of the dish I know which will get Aunty Antsy salivating, for sure.

Cocktail of meds

Not that I enjoy pill-popping, but that's my stash for the week. 3x a day. At least I no longer sounded like a rusty and pathetically-tuned trombone. My voice is now back to almost normal. Already I have started to feel much better than I did a week ago. I'm only gonna miss my sexy-sounding voice :p

Snapple Facts

Real fact #107 from a Snapple bottle cap: You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.

Perhaps, if you attempt both at the same time, you'll burn even more! Who says you need to hit the gym to burn those calories, eh.

Guess...

Exactly what do you think is wrong with this picture? Look really, really hard. Or take a wild guess.

The picture from this angle seems to suggest that the old guy is just being a chee ko pek*, staring at her ass. But that was not the point I was trying to make - he just happened to be in the way when this picture was taken. What's really wrong in the above picture is this:

Why the hell would she join a queue meant for foreign passport holders at the airport? This had me completely baffled for the following reasons:

• Unless she can't read the signs, one would think that it is blindingly obvious that these 10-15 counters were meant only for foreign passport holders
• There were at least 4 other counters specifically for Thai passport holders
• There were less than 2 or 3 people queuing at the Thai passport counters at any one time. Some of the counters for Thai passports had no other people queuing up and were practically EMPTY. (give those officers some work, will you!)
• The queue at the foreign line was horrendously long. Each and every counter opened had people queuing up to the brim, with each wait lasting at least half an hour before they stamp you through
• As a local at your own airport, wouldn't you be beaming at all those "express" priviledges which allow you to clear immigration within the shortest time possible? Hell, I know I would!

This is not the first time I've seen this. If they are with some friends, they usually tend to dress really fashionably and even speak some English (to each other) while in queue. Each time I searched my thoughts on a logical and plausible explanation for such illogical behaviour. I do have a few theories:

1. Herd mentality - just follow the crowd, don't ask any questions and obliviously blur
2. Illiterate or deaf or mute or blind or a combo of these.
3. A high need to be seen and establish herself as non-Thai (this is sad, if true)

Still, one can speculate the theories but I simply can't fathom this strange Thai antics. I mean, who in the right mind would want to spend hours queuing up at the immigration if you can avoid it, especially if you know there's always a special lane for you?

Although, I had to laugh witnessing the fact that she was turned away as she got to her turn. The officer had refuse her entry at that point and she was promptly told to go to the Thai counter. (snigger)

* chee ko pek: Singlish for dirty old man