Confessions of a City Slicker

Right, Benjamin Buttons. The movie that was slated as the biggest rival for Slumdog Millionaire to snare the best picture Oscar.

The movie sure is a curious case, alright, not because the central character was born an old man then ages backward. It’s curious because after watching the first half hour of the movie, one starts to wonder why the makers would want to put their audience through this boring monstrosity. Is it really necessary to make it this long?

I’m so glad I didn’t buy tickets for it but watched the DVD.

Shortly after the opening credits, my mind started to fire questions.

“Where exactly are they going with this story?”

“What’s this scene about again?”

“So we’re at this part of the story now. What was going on before this?”

“Umm…can we move on with the story now? How many years is he younger by now?”

“No, seriously, can things move on a little faster here? Why am I sitting here watching this thing?”

“This is so excruciating. How much longer is this movie anyway?”

Mom couldn’t get over that clock that moves backwards.

It’s no wonder that I can’t find a single coherent review for this movie.

The reviews that I read mostly praised the movie for its “beauty”, whatever that means. If they were referring to the background and artful use of colors then yes, they were beautiful. New Orleans of old was quaint and charming.

Other than that, I believe that the slow pace killed the message of the story because seriously, before I even got to the halfway point, I had lost interest.

Truthfully, I never made it to the part where we get to see the gorgeous Mr Pitt sans old geezer makeup. Oscar for best makeup a well deserved win for Greg Cannom.

I had found it more interesting to look at Mee running around her makeshift obstacle course before deciding to give myself a late night facial.

The story actually moved back and forth, between Benjamin’s love interest, Daisy, getting her daugher or is it her granddaughter, to read Benjamin’s diary to her.

If you want a story about old people reminiscing about their old loves, I’ll recommend you watch The Notebook. At least that one can extract a tear or two.

And yeah, seriously, what is it about that clock that moves backwards?

There sure are lots of them and you don’t have to wait till the Hungry Ghost festival to encounter them. They are everywhere.

Penang was voted one of the top 10 places to eat in the world by New York Times magazine. I wonder if the reason could be because Penangites have a very refined taste in food, or everthing to us is about food? Every type of function must see the mandatory tray of food being the center of attention.

It’s like without any food being there, people wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. They’ll be lost. Chaos will reign. Fire will rain down from the heavens and the world will end.

OK that last bit was for dramatic purposes lah. LOL.

I came to this stark realization during the workshop last weekend. A few people kicked up quite a fuss when they found out that food was not provided.

Some even went as far as picking up whatever scraps that were leftover from a fuction in the next room. That’s kind of poor taste, if you ask me.

When we organized functions in our nearest neighbor, Singapore, they were perfectly fine with no food being provided. A woman told me point blank that you can’t compare Singaporeans and us. Here in Malaysia, food is a must.

Seriously, do these people show up to learn stuff from the workshop or the free food?

Here’s another thing. If we just provided them with some very basic type of food like say, char koay teow, they’re gonna complain anyway.

They don’t just want free food, they want a free buffet!

Been super busy lately organizing a workshop that I have been neglecting this space. Just wanted to leave a short note on this pair of pants that sure came in handy when I had so much on my plate.

I’m referring to my cargo pants. You know, those pants with lots of extra pocket space that were such a welcome.

Normally, for these types of functions, I try to dress professionally, preferably a 3 piece ensemble. But when one is the equipment transporter, coolie, technical personnel, reception, receiving line, hostess, debt collector, cashier, hampelang pau one-man show type of crew, well, some things just had to go out the window.

The Armani jacket is a must, though. OK, that was a joke. It was from Nichii I can’t afford an Armani on my salary. But I keep that jacket for workshops and seminars.

The point is, with so many things to bring to the venue on workshop day, a handbag is just too cumbersome. The pockets on my pants saved the day. I just take the necessaries along that fit into the pockets.

Pretty cool, huh?

It’s tiring organizing a workshop, both physically and mentally. Now, I just want to kick back and relax a little, maybe take a few days off work to do nothing but laze around in bed.

I treated myself to a relaxing spa session yesterday. Was happily floating around, both mind and body, in the jacuzzi when the timer stopped.

Now that this event is over, I better really get back to working on the WBDD video. Gonna need them for the coming outing.

She’s had money invested in her. She doesn’t understand what that means, but she knows that her status has changed.

She carries herself differently nowadays, the tilt of her head is nothing short of haughty elegance, or elegantly haughty.

Her nose is always a notch higher than her sisters and she walks around on her tippy toes. Gracefully and lightly, she glides across the floor.

When Her Ladyship wants a cuddle, the look in her eyes will say, “If you’re too stupid to recognize what an honor it is to be allowed to cuddle me, then you are too lowly to be in my presence.”

Yes, she’s different now, and she embraces that difference.

Here she is, in yet another hidey hole she found.

LOL, I don’t wanna be one of those Mommies who share pics of their precious darlings to all and sundry, but when your precious darling looks like this, you just can’t help it

People have pointed out that we carry her around like one would carry a baby. Yeah, I guess she’s our baby.

And I screwed it up! :p

Conny selected 6 of us from our class to perform during a bridal fair at Traders Hotel. She didn’t mention it at first, but this will be a paid gig. That’s a nice bonus. We really did it for the love of the art, not to get paid.

But somehow, the nerves got the better of us and a few of us somehow managed to forget our steps. Or is it the lack of practice to really gel our chemistry?

The thing is, there’s really not a lot to be nervous about. It’s not like there is a room full of audience looking at us. In fact, there was very little spectators.

Overall, this is probably our worst performance.

I managed to forget my steps early in the routine. The others, during various parts. We were not really synchronized, some moving faster, some slower and definitely not to the beat of the music. The feel of moving together as a tribe wasn’t there.

We definitely have a long way to go before we can call ourselves professionals.

There was a photographer from Guang Ming Daily taking pictures. Not sure if they will publish our pics.

I think I will finally treat myself to Francis’ sirloin steak with my share of the fee.

After a little over a week at the vet’s, Mee is finally released home.

We got a surprise when we went to pick her up. Seems like she has been living it up that whole time. She’s bigger than we remember. And heavier too, the result of a sedentary lifestyle of eating and sleeping in her cage. She eats a lot, according to the vet, a very healthy appetite. Overall, she’s gained a hefty 0.5 kg.

Her Ladyship doesn’t seem to miss us. As far as she’s concerned, we could be any stranger that she allows to pet her. Boy, that hurts, considering how much we miss her. This is definitely due to a cat’s independent streak.

The vet’s mom, who helps him run the clinic, couldn’t stop gushing about how affectionate she is, her soft fur that is like the lushest carpet and how well behaved she is. I’m so proud of her. She’s a real darling alright. It’s no wonder that we love her so much.

Of course, after more than a week, I wanted to lavish her with lots of cuddles to make up for the lost time. But, Mom beat me to it, cuddling her all the way home while I drove.

It’s OK, my darling. Now that you’re home, we have all the time in the world

Our relationship is strictly professional, although, I must admit, I would enjoy getting a cup of coffee with her and listen to her talk. The problem is, she talks all the time.

I usually spend around 45 minutes talking to her on the phone every time she calls to ask a simple question that would require just 5 minutes of my time to answer.

So it was somewhat a surprise the other day when she called to ask me if this space is mine. I was surprised that in all the millions of blogs in the world, she found me.

When she started rattling off about the topics that I write, my hopes that it was somebody else’s blog started to fly away.

I’m gonna have to be careful and more discreet about what I share here in the future, especially if it’s work related.

Anyway, glad you liked it

It’s Eleen’s b’day celebration and I decided to surprise her with homemade Hock Jew chicken. I remember her disappointment at not getting to eat the famous one at Kedah Road and since this is a traditional b’day dish as well, I thought it’s just perfect.

I’ve never cooked this dish before but after watching my Mom doing it, I was confident that I can pull it off with her supervision.

So here are the main ingredients:

Clockwise from L-R:

1 big piece of ginger
1 whole chicken
Fermented red rice
Chinese red wine (tastes like sparkling grape juice)

I got my chicken from Tesco, which is the only place I know where to get chicken from. Sorry, Sei Lou doesn’t know how to go jalan pasar :p

I’m not sure where to get the wine. The ones I used were given to us by relatives in Taiping. They are homemade, by the way, so the people who got to eat them that night really yau hau fook The bottle of wine Mom got earlier had the wine and paste already mixed in the bottle.

I was supposed to do the cooking, but because Mom had an appointment in the afternoon and I can only get home from choir practice late morning, she decided to prepare everything and do the cooking while I watch. Guess it’s a good thing because it will probably take me a few hours to cut up all those ginger :p

So first, we must fry the ginger. Heat enough sesame oil to fry the ginger until golden brown. Once done, remove and drain.

Leave the oil in the wok and saute some garlic. It’s not necessary to wait until they are fragrant or browned. You can throw in your chicken straight after that.

Let the chicken cook in the wok for a while then add in the fermented red rice paste. How much depends on the amount of chicken. Just go with your instincts. Stir in until all the chicken is coated with the paste then add water.

Again, this depends on how much soup you want to end up with. If you want more soup then add more water.

Give it a good stir then cover to simmer for about 10 minutes or until chicken is almost cooked then add the red wine. For the extra kick you can also stir in some Hsiao Hsing wine.

Add salt and sugar to taste.

Ta-dah…the finished product:

Garnish with the fried ginger before serving.

Mee is in heat.

We suspected this when we see a tom cat hanging around her. He’d stand at the glass door of our front porch and yowl at us every time we take Mee upstairs with us.

Being first time cat owners, we didn’t know what was in store for us with a female cat in heat.

After Googling it up did I realize that Mee had been displaying all the classic symptoms for weeks. They include:

• A tendency to rub herself against anything, be it the walls, cupboards, furniture or my legs so she can leave her scent for the tom cats to follow.
• Frequent meowing. We thought she was just trying to get our attention to play with her. It was really frustrating when she continued to meow even we were showering her with attention. Turns out this is her natural instinct to announce her availability to potential mates.
• Mood swings. Yeah, I have the scratch marks to show for it. It’s amazing how she can turn from this affectionate, docile kitty into a total shrew the minute we took her out of our front door. Guess she didn’t want anyone around to stop her suitors from approaching.
• Lifting up her butt whenever we stroke her.
• Keeping her visits to our apartment short. These days, she will follow us upstairs, have some food and walk around for a bit. After that, she will ask to be let out again so that she can go out and attract potential suitors.
• Spraying.  Female cats spray their pee on surfaces for tom cats to follow.  Thank God this has not happened.  Mom will throw a fit.

My research also tells me that the only solution is if she gets pregnant or we spay her. If she doesn’t get pregnant at the end of this season, she will start to be in heat again within 3 weeks. Yikes!

And get this - a famale cat can start to be in heat again within 7 days after delivery of her kittens. That’s quick!

I took her to the vet today. He was recommended by my cousin. Upon first meeting him, I thought he’s a little young, therefore a little inexperienced. But my uncle’s 2 precious dogs are his patients. He seems to be able to connect with animals better compared to the other vets I took my pets to in the past, so that’s a plus point.

Because Mee lives in the streets and we are all working, there won’t be anyone to take care of her until she recovers.

Therefore, she will be staying at the vet’s for about 10 days to recuperate.

I reckon these 10 days will pass by real slowly. It’s for her own good, but I’m gonna miss her so much. I’m gonna miss that sweet little face peeking at me on top of the flowerbeds or seeing her there waiting for me when I come home.

Gee, I didn’t realize how attached I’ve gotten to Mee until I broke down at the vet’s office.

I don’t think I will visit her because I don’t want to have to see her face as she sees me leaving without her, thinking that I had abandoned her there. The next time I see her, it will be to take her home with me.

But I promise you, Mee, I will come back for you. Then we can go on with this adventure of ours.

I’m very sure you will open up my eyes to so many more things that I have to learn to be worthy of you. I promise you, I will work very hard to learn as much as I can.

Promise!