Stash of baby food

This was the stash of baby food my parents hauled from Singapore when they came by for a visit a couple of weeks ago. Stuff which I have not seen anywhere in Bangkok, and stuff which Spud, so far, loves very much.

While she loves those baby foods, she was, quite unfortunately apprehensive about her grandparents. While she was quite friendly and takes to them okay, she was not too keen to interact with them if neither of us or the Nanny was there with her at any point in time. And given such circumstances, it was also quite hard to take any pictures of her with her Nya-yi and Yai-yi!

In fact, Spud was clingy towards us almost the entire time they were there; especially so with Silver Bullet --- something which she has not done before.

But as luck has it, Spud warmed up a little eventually. And that was on the 6th day of their visit; the very day when my parents were due to leave…

The thought of being able to leave Spud with her grandparents for a day when we go back to Singapore for a visit over Hari Raya seems very bleak indeed.

Bangkok Taxi

It was raining, I was stuck in traffic and I had nothing better to do but stare at things around me before I decided to take a picture of this sign plastered on the window of a cab I was in:

Clearly, a bunch of No signs, and while I can decipher most, I still struggle to understand the significance of some. From left to right, this is what I can make out:

• No Buffalo (Well, at least I think the picture looks like a Buffalo. And, in Thailand, to call someone a buffalo is extremely insulting.)
• No Weapons (I can understand this)
• No Screwing (Seriously. I mean, seriously!)
• No Dogs (OK. I understand. They stink)
• No Bottle of alcohol (an irony, because I swear sometimes I think the drivers are drunk themselves!)
• No Durians (Completely understand. I don’t like them too.)
• No Smoking (Yep. Agreed; although, some drivers still smoke and drive at the same time)

Signs like this are actually not uncommon in Bangkok. And, honestly, I think the signs are just taking the piss, and put up for aesthetic reasons only, with no direct consequences.

Next time you are in a Bangkok taxi, pay attention to some of those quirky ones you might just encounter!

Sneaky Murphy

At about 11 am on Friday last week, I faced a bumbling IT homosapien, who, much to my annoyance decided that he would stand right before me and smiled away for a good 10 minutes while looking AT me as he held my damaged hard drive in his hand.

Yes. My hard drive completely crashed the night before unexpectedly, after waiting for a few hours for the IT guys in my company to attend to me since 8 am on a Friday morning, they finally sent me a rather junior person 3 hours later, only for him to come back to me within the hour, (get this!) grinning from ear to ear as he informed me that the hard drive was “very damaged”.

Yes. I knew that could have been the reason (or why else had my laptop decided that it will no longer boot up). But what I wanted to know was if it was damaged, what can they do to help restore my data or, given that it was all my fault for not backing my stuff up, what steps should I take from there on. I knew it was my fault and I am willing to pay for any external data services required if deem so, and all I needed was some concrete info which I can follow up on in my time.

Unable to answer my question and instead of getting someone else to attend to me, there he stood, smiling his million smiles, scratching his head away and continue smiling as he struggled to tell me in English that it was damaged as he kept on pointing to the drive on my laptop.

I kept my cool, but I was seething. And for the 10th time, explained my questions to him. Slowly and as calmly as I possibly could. And all he did was continue smiling. There and then, I wanted to wring his neck and throw him out of the 24th floor!

Excuse me, I’ve been racing against time working on a deadline and just lost 10 years of work plus personal stuff which included my CV and pictures of Spud that was categorised by weeks and months from the time she was born, and then, all this person did was just returned my hard drive and grinned from ear to ear because he could not answer my questions?!

It was probably the most annoying reaction a Thai can give to anyone. They have no solution and no clue, so they smiled, hoping that the other person (me in this case) would just go away and move on. (They finally got another IT person to attend to my case after I lodged a complaint right after. To cut the story short, Super IT Guy reverted to me just a couple of days ago with a brand new drive in my laptop AND managed to save 100% of the data in my damaged hard drive (YIPPEE!), for which I am really, very thankful for!)

So, one of the reasons I have been quiet in the last one week was simply because I spent last weekend moping over the unprecedented incident with no laptop whatsoever. Technically, I went through the 7 stages of grief (shock, denial bargaining, guilt, anger, depression, acceptance & hope) within a few hours the moment Super IT Guy came to take back the drive as I mourned for the loss of my hard drive. In fact, I think I went straight to Stage 5 & 7, skipping the rest altogether.

I got angry mainly because of the fact that only the night before, Silver Bullet and I, both agreed to set some time after work the next day to back up all my stuff into his workstation. Funny how Murphy likes to show up at the most appropriate time --- my laptop crashed while I was working in the taxi; I was less than 10 minutes away from home!

Come to think of it, despite getting to the acceptance stage, I actually have lost all hope of getting any of my data back. At that point, I started psyching myself up to move on and be prepared to start building up everything again as there was a big chance that I would lose everything. Those very thoughts also made me lose further motivation to blog like I always do.

And then, since then, I just have been insanely busy with no time to spare for anything else since I got my laptop back.

Now I’m back!

And I make sure that I have everything backed-up. TWO locations no less! All I need to do is to remember to do so frequently before Murphy does another unexpected visit.

Saltine snacks

Who would have thought that something so simple such as these can turn out to be so, so good!

Nothing fancy, and nothing too difficult. These are just a combo of saltine crackers, boiled eggs, about half a teaspoon of "spiced" mayonnaise topped with a dash of paprika powder and chopped chives as garnish.

These delish snacks were actually introduced by my mom-in-law when we last visited Holland, and only recently did I remember how good they were!

Hence, inspired by my mom-in-law's creation, I figured I'll give it a go at these yummilicious snackables.

They are really easy and quick to prepare and the only thing that will take time is waiting for the eggs to boil and then having to peel them. Perfect for when you have guests or just serving it up for tea-time.

Me being the chronic recipe-modifier, I decided to give this snack  a little twist by adding a clove of pressed garlic and some cumin powder (to taste) to the mayo. 

Verdict:

Can be extremely addictive! 

A warm welcome home

I was in a little bit of a daze as I walked out of the office to make my way home the other day after a very rough day at work as my mind kept on going back to a very unpleasant (and one that was below the belt!) incident which occurred earlier in the day.

I remember that I was still in a far-away land when I took the elevator up to our apartment as I continued reflecting on my horrid day at the office. I did everything without being conscious of anything around me…but the moment I opened the door, there was this little girl flashing her biggest grin, smiling away as she immediately left her nanny’s side as the door opened and came (almost!) running towards me. She had both her arms open wide and when she got near me, she immediately grabbed my legs, still flashing me her contagious smiles!

In my somewhat dazed mode, it took me a little longer to realise what had happened! In all that excitement of seeing such a happy face, I had immediately forgotten all about my work woes as I frantically tried to let go of my bags before scooping Spud up in my arms.

I then noticed that Spud looked a little odd; and as soon as I realised what it was, I burst out laughing.

The nanny has tied up her tiny bits of hair at the top of her head, and I thought it looked a little silly! Silly in a funny way as it was a look I was not used to.

Spud on the other hand, probably reacted to my big outburst of laughter and started to hyper-ventilate in excitement; prompting her to look happier than she already was.

There and then, I melted.

I realised I had just received a very warm welcome home.

Indeed, after a long (and shitty) day at the office, I really do not mind coming back home to that and the sight of this.

I have surprised myself yet again for feeling this way. It certainly was very heart-warming for me and I could not resist planting loads of kisses on her fat and squishy cheeks!

Bo-liao stuff

Be warned. What you are about to read is super lame, corny and divinely bo-liao*. But they cracked me up so much that I have tears welling up in my eyes. I stumbled upon this randomly while surfing something on the internet, and since it cracked me up so much, I thought it is worth sharing:

Silver Bullet rolled his eyeballs big time when I read it to him, but at least he laughed at its bo-liaonesss.

You have been warned. Read it at your own risk:

• If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, does he become disoriented?

•  If people from Poland are called “Poles,” why aren’t people from Holland called “Holes”?

• When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?

• Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist, but a person who drives a race car not called a racist?

• If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?

• If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn’t it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, and dry cleaners depressed?

My bet is, somebody out there has too much time on is his/her hand to be thinking about such things.

Okay, Okay. I know it's lame, lame, lame. But it's really funny! (At least I think so!)


* Hokkien for idle, nothing better to do.

Fruity season

My favourite fruits are currently in season and are back on the streets! The rambutans are sweet and juicy while the longans are simply scrumptious little things.

It has been more than a year since the last fruit galore post and oooooooooooh! A lovely morning sight as I make my way to the office, fresh, street fruits in Bangkok are the best find ever!