Classmates turned relatives

I have 2 classmates from school who became my relatives. They don't know each other, but they married into my large extended family.

The first to marry into the family was my classmate Lilian who married my uncle Sam and that makes her my aunt. My Uncle Sam is my grandmother's brother's son. Uncle Sam is an after-thought child. His parents had a son who died when he was quite young. Then after some long stretch, they decided to have another kid and voila - Uncle Samuel (or Sam-sam) appeared. Uncle Sam's parents had him in their later years. Uncle Sam is the youngest of all my father's cousins and he is even younger than me!!

When we were kids, I never referred to Sam as "Uncle Sam" - in fact none of my older cousins did address him as Uncle since they were older than him. Then of course, it was a case of follow the older cousins, so he was never Uncle Sam to me - just Sam or Sam-Sam.

Anyway, when Lily and Sam got married - I believe it created an uproar of sorts in the family. Lilian was the older woman with her own money and could be quite dominating as well (from what I am told) but then girls from my school do speak their mind.

I never met them when they were dating, never heard anything about this girl and since I wasn't invited to the wedding (I am one generation down) I never knew that my classmate had become my aunt until grandmother's sister (Ee-mah) returned from USA to visit the family and I met Lilian and Sam together was man and wife. Boy was I stunned and I certainly kept away from them.

My Kim-mah became the maid in the home - she cooked and cleaned at home when Sam and Lilian went to work and also looked after the grand-daughter. My poor grand-aunt looked really gaunt when I met her a couple of times at family get-togethers.

Have to admit that I am not hot about Lilian even in school because she seemed like the really bitchy char-bor type.

BTW - since I have never addressed Sam as UNCLE, Lilian does not warrant that same courtesy from me to address her as AUNTY!

The next classmate to marry into the family was Corinne. She married my nephew Eugene who is about 10 years older than me. I know that my mother is Eugene's father's aunt. How we are related along this line is a little vague but I know that Eugune addresses me as AUNTY and he is so polite and addresses my mother as GRANT-AUNT!!

This gets even more hilarious. For many years, Eugene dated a much younger girl because he had this theory that he had to marry young eggs for his kids. His mother didn't like the young girl he dated and showed her displeasure.

I was invited for Christmas lunch at The Tanglin Club by ST (Eugene's mother's brother) - and was informed that the usual Christmas lunch suspects would be around the table. Then ST casually mentioned that Eugene would be bringing along his new girlfriend and that they would be getting married. I paid no attention to the statement other than something along the lines of "That's great - your sister approves I assume". ST told me - come and see, my sister approves!

So I turned up for Christmas lunch at The Tanglin Club with a small gift for my prospective niece to be - hmm...

When Eugene arrived with Corrine, he introduced me as AUNTY C and Corinne dutifully noted the relationship. Then during lunch, I whispered to Eugene: your Corinne used to go to school with me and was my classmate. She wasn't Corinne then, but I can give you her name in school. He looked at me stunned. Then he said to Corinne - Aunty C here says that she knows you from school. Corinne looked at me for ages and stared and stared for a good minute but she could not make out what I looked like in school. It just didn't strike her that Aunty C here would be her classmate and she demanded that I say something about our lives in school.

After a couple of recollections about school (the stink bomb explosion and the horrible teacher in Primary 6), Corinne let out a squeal (typical of girls from that school!!) and said - YOU ARE MY CLASSMATE! I AM NOT GOING TO ADDRESS YOU AS AUNTY - CANNOT!!!

We both burst out laughing and started exchanging notes. In all honesty, I hadn't seen Corinne since we both left school at 16 so it had to be nearly 20 years!!

Eugene still insists on addressing me as AUNTY - I think Eugene does that to make himself seem younger; and Corrine doesn't bother. I'm OK with that too!

Laksa yong-tau-fu

HH has to have his regular laksa yong-tau-fu fix on Saturdays every week! However now that he spends to much time in Manila, Philippines he doesn't get it so often.

This is our Saturday morning routine - get up, feed the doggies, get the newspapers and stay in bed to read then get up and about around 10 am to walk the doggies,. Then it is BRUNCH and we head to the laksa stall. Sometimes I do ask a really stupid obvious question: WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO TO EAT?? Actually there was no need to ask THE QUESTION - HH just smiles and we head off to the laksa yong-tau-fu stall.

We are so regular that we just pick the stuff that we want and hand our bowls to the lady and a few minutes later - the ambrosia arrives at our table.

HH usually has his see-hum or cockles added to his bowl of stuff and I think that is part of his addiction.

Mine is full of cuttlefish tentacles and kang-kong and whatever else that strikes my fancy.

There is also the regular soup or dry noodle yong-tau-fu as part of the menu. I sometimes have the cheapest "yau yi ong choy" in town - $2.50 for 7 pieces of cuttlefish tentacles and kang-kong together with my rice noodles - yummy!

Apparently this stall has been here at the same location for over 20 years.

This corner coffee shop is like something out of old Singapore - it isn't much renovated - the tiles are old and the large drinks fridge has seen better days and the formica counter is well weathered. There are old stone tables dotting the open area in front of the coffee shop and there are large leafy trees to provide shade to supplement the Tiger Beer umbrellas.

The best part of this deal - it's not listed on any food guide that we know about - not in MakanSutra or HungryGoWhere or any other food guide portal on the internet. No accolades plastered on the pillars or anything like that. Just a quiet little corner where the food is good and cheap.

So where's this place - Jalan Wangi off Macpherson Road, along the same row of shophouses as United Overseas Bank, next to some community centre.

Try it sometime - I don't think you'll be disappointed.

New Western food outlet

Today is HH's brithday - don't ask how old he is but just be content with the knowledge that he looks older than he actually is.

Anyway, for dinner tonight we decided that we should go out and HH decided that he wanted to go to that coffee shop next door to Courts at Ang Mo Kio after our usual Sunday activity of doggie training.

We were wondering what sort of dinner we should have when we walked into the newly renovated coffee shop when I spotted this Western food outlet that seemed really interesting. There was a Western food joint in the same spot previously, but this was totally new with a different chef.

We decided to have our dinner from this stall - and what a delightful dinner it was. We both settled on the New Zealand rib-eye steak. The steaks were a little thin compared to what I cook at home but I wouldn't expect a hawker stall to give me thick chunky steaks like what I would buy!

The steaks were well cooked and excellent. The presentation was simple - mushroom sauce or black pepper sauce on the steaks. We had steamed veggies and pototato wedges and mash potato. We also had some sort of Wardolf salad of red and green apple, raisin and strawberries tossed in light mayo.

I would say that this stall is worth a second and third visit.

Junior's little pleasures

Our golden retriever Junior is a doggie with simple pleasures. He loves sleeping in bed with Mama and Papa - especially in December when the weather is slightly cooler and there is plenty of rain, thunder, lightning and wind.

Actually he is terrified of rain, thunder, lightning and wind!!

He also loves having us run our fingers through his fur coat to look for ticks. Some folk may think this terrible, but it is really a time where Junior gets all the attention from either his Mama or Papa. No distractions from Torrent, just Mama and Papa running their fingers through his whole body and his paws and tail to hunt for ticks.

Walks (for pang sai) and car rides are his greatest joy - he gets to go out. The walks are great sniff sessions. He gets to smell the air outside. He also gets to sniff for rats in the bush line and maybe get a little excitement in trying to terrify them. He also get to meet people on his walks and say "hello".

The car rides promise greater adventure - he may get to go to church, or the laksa stall when we have lunch, or to the office, or even the beach!

He loves going to church because he gets to praise God. The laksa stall is great for observing people. The office where he gets to spend more time with Mama and Papa in cool air-conditioned comfort. The beach is great for the sea and sand and smells.

Such are Junior's simple pleasures - no worries in life!

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Christmas Day

We had a wonderfully lazy Christmas Day - there was no church service so we stayed in bed and caught up with our sleep.

It rained the whole of Christmas Eve - it was a cold wet miserable day. The sky was gloomy!

The newspapers were already delivered on Christmas Eve so I brought them up the bed with us. We tumbled into bed after coming home from Christmas Service around 2am.

We stayed in bed till 3 pm (yes! 3 o'clock in the afternoon!!) with FatBoy, Junior and Torrent. We really caught up with our sleep - I would say we slept about 12 hours, but it was really good to catch up on the sleep debt.

Intermittenly, we would rouse and look around and ask each other - have you had enough sleep? Then we grunt an answer so some sort and return to our slumber.

I did wake up to read the newspapers because they were conveniently in bed with us. Then went back to sleep.

The doggies were so happy to sleep that they forgot about their breakfast or going out for pee or pee. I guess FatBoy was a little peeved that he didn't get breakfast, but since he's so fat - the "starvation " was no hardship.

We realised that we could not sleep the whole day away. We got up and had bacon butties for our tea. Yummy sreaky bacon with salad sprouts on wholemeal bread was good and simple.

Then the great activity - we went to the beach at East Coast with the doggies.

We encountered lots of people, but we managed to get to a spot where we set up our beach mat. Junior remembered the beach and went running into the cold water.

Torrent just sat at the top of the beach and barked - we figured that it would be a hassle to give him a bath if he got dirty.

It was a lazy Christmas Day for us - wonderfully laid back and lazy with no need for any other human company.

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Rude folk

I have had enough of rude people in church - the kind of people who have no respect at all for the activities and think themselves very high and mighty.

This is what happened - we were having Christmas Eve service in church. There was this group of people sitting outside in the atrium making a lot of noise. I went out to ask them to keep the noise down since their activities were distracting.

The kids were running around and making a lot of noise. There were some adults around, one of them was the grandmother of the biggest trouble maker - Mathias, the son of the fishmonger in the church. She did absolutely nothing to control her grandson's bad behaviour.

When Mathias was reprimanded for his rude behaviour, she chided me in Hokkien for telling off her precious grandson for his bad behaviour.

I can only say that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.

This sort of grandmother will the the downfall of the next generation - who knows, he may become a delinquent because he doesn't know what is discipline and how to behave in church.

We were always taught that when we visit a place of worship, we should be respectful of the activities going on. No extreme behaviour or rudeness.

In all honesty - I have had enough of such ill mannered people in church. They should just remove themselves if they have no respect for God.

Domestic Goddess

I have become quite a bit of a domestic goddess these days with HH away in Manila for two weeks at a time. I have to clear the pee and poo and mop the floor - have to admit that these are jobs that I am not hot about!!

Actually I am not hot about housework - it has never been my forte and I don't expect it to be. I grew up in a home where Mum went to work and the household chores where left to the old black and white amah who cooked and cleaned. So my whole idea was that I should work!!

Have to be honest - I have no idea how to clean the toilet at all. I am OK with mopping a floor if there is nothing in the room. Just one large area and I can mop that!! Put other stuff around like furniture and whatever else and I have no idea where to begin.

When HH said that we should get married - I had to confess that I was a hopeless housekeeper. Before we got married and I had my own apartment - I persuaded my aunt's Filipino maid that she could do with the extra cash and clean the apartment for me. What bliss! Espa would come every two weeks and she would clean everything for me.

OK, my forte is cooking!! I love eating and cooking althought I can get quite boring sometimes with whatever I cook. Then I don't have a problem clearing and cleaning the kitchen, but I really don't enjoy housework.

HH's absence is really making me clean the apartment since Espa has gone home and I have no idea who we can leave the apartment to since we have two dogs and 3 crazed cats.

Any suggestions for better housework flow?

Our chicken rice stall

There is this chicken rice stall that we have gone to for the past 30 ++ years. It's along Tanjong Katong Road, along the same side of the road as the Katong Post Office, next to the Caltax petrol station. It's part of my growing up years in Singapore.

It's at a coffee shop known as Keng Bee and it is still in it's original condition, as I remember it from all those years ago. There are still those bent wood coffee shop chairs for seats. Where they make the drinks at the back, there is this gleaming hot water dispenser - also been there for years.

This chicken rice stall serves the yummiest chicken ever - smooth moist chicken with a delectable layer of skin on the "white" chicken. Then there's the crispy roast pork and delicious char siew. The roast duck is also excellent. The rice is well flavoured and fragrant, but not oily or greasy. The simple chilli sauce is also more-ish when added with minced ginger and dark soy sauce. What can I say - ambrosia? Manna from heaven?

The boss who owns the stall only works in the day. Dunno what time he goes off. In the evenings, there is this surly, churlish balding guy. He never smiles, just chops the stuff you want and serves it to you. However, over the years I have managed to wrangle a smile out of him. His sulleness is well known with the regulars - never smiles, just growls at you and serves the food.

One evening, HH and I turned up for dinner. When I got there, I told him our order and smiled at him and asked if he had struck the lottery last week. Then he smiled back!! Wow! Then the guy behind me said - he never smiles but he has smiled at you.

When we were young(er!) we would be at this stall at least once a week. We would troop into the coffee shop and Dad would wave at the chicken chopping man - the boss! In a short while, we would get a large plate of all the yummy stuff on our table and we would be tucking in.

I could say that I grew up in the coffee shop with the coffee shop owner's kids - BTW they now run the place and it has gone into the second generation. The coffee shop boy would promptly deliver Dad's "kopi o kosong ice" whenever he walked into the shop. My parents have not lived in Singapore for over 20 years, but when Dad goes to the coffee shop for chicken rice - his coffee comes automatically.

Good huh?

The morning routine these days ......

HH has been going off to Manila for the past 2 months - this is his 3rd sojourn there since October 2008. We expect this madness to continue for another 3 months till the mess in the office or operations in Manila is sorted out. So in the meantime, I continue with my walks with the dogs and get the exercise going.

OK, the good thing about the walk is that I actually get some exercise and work up a sweat. My metabolic rate has gone up I am sure. My blood sugar levels have also improved a little I am sure. But all the eating that I do in between is not going to make it any better! ;-p

So our morning walk routine is like this - we all get up at 5:30 am (yes, it is a little crazy!). The doggies and meows get breakfast between 5:30 and 6. Before we leave home, I will pop my bread into the oven on a slow setting to toast. I will also take out my butter and the kaya and leave it on the table. Make my tea and leave it to cool.

Then we go for a morning walk and walk all over the estate. Junior has to go out to pee and poo-poo, so the morning walks are for him to smell around and be happy that he's got some fresh air and managed to chase some rat somewhere. He is really animated in the morning - he must be refreshed after a good night's sleep! Torrent is just happy to go anywhere that his kor-kor goes.

We get back from our walk at around 6:30, and I will sit down to my still warm toast and slather butter and kaya on it. I will also read the morning paper with my breakfast.

Then it is upstairs to get a good scrub and shower and get dressed for the office.

I guess this is a good routine to get into. Morning walk for the metabolic rate revved up. Breakfast of yummy things that put back the calories expended from the exercise, a shower to wake up and then drive to get to the office.

Of course I go to bed early because I am sleepy from waking so early!!