Guide to "Lo Hei"

Tossing "Yu Sheng " 鱼生 is a practice peculiar only to Singapore and Malaysia. I heard this is now catching on in some restaurants in Hong Kong. My first memory of this goes as far back as 1970s when my father told me this is a dish which businessmen celebrate with to beckon in good luck and is a commercial practice. Today as we become more affluent, this is a dish we can prepare at home or buy at the supermarket and share the fun of "tossing" with our friends and family.

The ritual of eating "Yu Sheng" or "Loi Hei" involves utterances of auspicious sayings while putting the ingredients of the dish together on a big plate and also during the tossing of the ingredients to mix the flavours. Most of us can only remember a few of the common sayings and go dry in the throat struggling to recall the other sayings with our rusty chinese. SO, below is a guide which you can print out and use. *grin*

Step 1:
-------
New Year greetings to everyone around the table
"Gong Xi Fa Cai" 恭喜发财
"Wan Shi Ru Yi" 万事如意

Step 2:
-------
Add fish which symbolises having abundance & excess to spare every year.
"Nian Nian You Yu" 年年有余
"You Yu You Sheng" 有余有生

Step 3:
--------
Add lime for good luck & auspiciousness
"Da Li Da Ji" 大吉大利

Add pepper to beckon or attract money and valuables
"Zhao Cai Jin Bao" 招财进宝

Add oil to gain profit of 10 thousand times and for money coming from all directions
"Yi Ben Wan Li" 一奔万里
"Cai Yuan Guang Jin" 财源广进

Step 4:
---------
Place a chopstick full of shredded carrot on fish to shower yourself with good luck
"hong yun dang tou" 鸿运当头

Place a chopstick full of shredded green radish on fish to be blessed with eternal youth
"qing chun chang jiu" 青春长久

Place a chopstick full of shredded white radish on fish for promotions & thriving business
"Bu Bu Gao Sheng" 步步高升
"feng sheng Shui Qi" 风生水起

Step 5:
-------
Add peanuts for a house full of gold and silver
"Jin Yu Man Tang" 金玉满堂

Add sesame for a flourishing business
"Sheng Yi Xin Long" 生意兴隆

Add crackers to signify piles of gold at your feet
"Pian Di Huang Jin" 片地黄金

Step 6:
------
Everyone tosses "yu sheng" saying any auspicious Chinese New Year greetings at each toss.

春节 Spring Festival

Gong Xi Fa Chai! I think I must have watched 3 dvds last nite (while typing out my last blog) till 2 in the morning and missed most of the festive fanfare on tv. It was so quiet in the neighbourhood. No crackers popping.

My first day of CNY and as usual, we don't know who would be visiting. Or rather, we don't know if our usual visitors would be turning up on the first day or the second day. If we don't see them on the first day, we can expect they will only be able to make it the next day. So we just sit at home in anticipation and wait. In the meantime, we watch tv and snacked.

I poked around my cabinets and found an old autograph book from junior college. My gawd, such a long time ago. The entries made me smile, a lot of my classmates have very funny sense of humor. Such bittersweet years. So filled with laughter and yet, so much angst over feelings of inadequacy, like an alien in a foreign culture. Drawn towards these creatures called boys yet repulsed by their swearing and vulgarity. Many of us feeling for our own path that I feel we struggled to be best of ourselves but still not our true selves. It was a strange time. A time of over-stimulation and disquiet. I wondered what I had written in other people's autograph books but do not think they would even be half as interesting as what my classmates wrote in mine.

The morning and afternoon passed uneventfully and I almost fell asleep until the call from my cousins at 5pm. They are all the relatives from mum side - three generations - 8 adults and 5 children. Most of them I have not seen for more than a year. They stayed for dinner. The men are all good cooks. Ah Gi enjoyed telling me how to prepare kangaroo dishes and make indian mutton soup, like I would be cooking. Not that I don't want to. I just don't get a chance. I have concluded I am not destined to be in the kitchen for somehow fate has mostly led people to make my meals for me.

My evening concluded with another dvd viewing - Zaitoichi; the blind japanese swordsman.

I like CNY, it is pretty relaxing. :-))

The Tao of Philosophy

by Alan Watts. Another interesting read which I must share, an extract of it below:

"We speak of coming into this world... we go on to talk about the conquest of nature, the conquest of space, and view ourselves in a kind of battle array towards the whole world outside us...first, I want to examine the strange feeling of being an isolated self.

..it is absolutely absurb to say that we came into this world. We did not: we came out of it! What do you think we are?..Surely everything that we know about living organisms - from the standpoint of sciences - shows us that we grow out of this world, that each of us is what you might call a symptom, of the state of the universe as a whole...

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these." Then Jesus said, more or less,"And if God so clothed the grass or the field which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you faceless ones? So do not worry about tomorrow saying,"what shall we eat? What shall we drink? Or how shall we clothe ourselves?" All the rabble seek after these things and sufficient to the day is the worrry of it."

....Well, what do you suppose the Gospel was? It was the good news, but it never got out! You too, are the boss' son: that was the gospel.

If Jesus had lived in India they would not have put him to death, because everyone in India knows we are all God in disguise. So if he had said,"I and the Father are one," in India they would have said,"Hooray! You found out!"

...Imagine that most of you know the old story about the astronaut who went far out into space and was asked on his return whether he had been to heaven and seen God, and he said "Yes." So they said to him "Well, what about God?" And he said, "She is black." Now although this is a very well-known and well-worn story, it is very profound.

...by the pressure of social consensus it is very natural for us to assume that when somebody uses the word "god" it is that father figure which is intended. Even Jesus used the analogy "the Father" for his experience of God because there was no other one available to him in his culture, but these days we are in rebellion against the image of the authoritarian father. However, to reject the paternalistic image of God as an idol is not necessarily to be atheist, although I have advocated something called "athesim in the name of God" as an experience, a contact, or a relationship with God that is the ground of your being and does not have to be embodied or expressed in any specific image.

...We all think we are alive...Now how could you have experience that as a reality unless you had once been dead? What gives us any ghost of a notion that we are here except by contrast with the fact that we once were not, and later on will not be? Life is a cycle, much like the positive and negative poles in electricity. So this, then, is the value of the symbolism of "She is black." She is the womb principle, the receptive, the instanding, the void, the dark and so that is to come into the presence of the God who has no image.

Behind the father-image, behind the mother-image, behind the image of light inaccessible, amd behind the image of profound and abysmal darkness, there is something else which we cannot conceive at all.

Saint Dionysius called it the "luminous darkness."

Nargajuna called it sunyata, the void.

Shankara called it brahman, that of which nothing at all can be said,
neti-neti, beyond all conception whatsoever.

However, this is not atheism in the formal sense of the word. On the contrary, this is a profoundly religious attitude because it corresponds practically to an attitude of life of total trust in letting go.

When we form images of God, they are all really exhibitions of our lack of faith. They are something to hold on to and something to grasp. How firm is the foundation that lies beneath us, the Rock of Ages, or whatever you want to hold on to? However, when we don't grasp, we have the attitude of faith.

If you let go of all the idols you will of course discover that what this unknown is, which is the foundation of the universe, is precisely you. Yet it is not the you you think you are. It is not the opinion of yourself, it is not your idea or image of yourself, and it is not the chronic sense of muscular strain which we usually call "I".

Of course, you cannot grasp it, but why would you need to? Even if you could, what would you do with it..? You can never get at it because it is the profound central mystery. So the attitude of faith is to stop chasing it and stop grabbing it, because if that happens the most amazing things follow.

....."The Tao which can be spoken is not the eternal Tao" - Lao Tzu, 400BC

..The principle of Tao is spontaneity and that "the Great Tao flows everywhere, both to the left and to the right. It loves and nourishes all things but does not lord it over them. It accomplishes merits but lays no claim to them." "

Countdown to CNY: 1 day

Sweets made of all types of paste (bean paste or sesame paste or walnut paste) wrapped with a glutinous skin, imported from Taiwan where they call this "muah chee". It similar or cheaper version of the Japanese mochi.






Crackers and stuff











Cookies on sale; unbelievably cheap!





The food street; Diners on the lift and food stalls on the right side.






Stall selling chinese greetings and couplets for decorations






Rain threatening to fall

Nameology

So what is in your name?

http://www.paulsadowski.com/Numbers.asp

Nevermind, a rose by any other name will smell as sweet..

CNY countdown: 7 days

Wei Leng is back for a visit. We plan to meet today and I think I will take her to Chinatown for a look.

^ The (Yum Cha)restaurant on the upper floor advertises a dish on each panel of its window: mushroom chicken rice..buns..thai-style crispy chicken...pepper crabs...

A shop here selling chinese new year decorations. Aren't these colours hot.

F A M I L Y

Today, I learned the word FAMILY stands for Father And Mother I Love You.

The movie "I Not Stupid 2" moved my tears to flow uncontrollably.

Countdown to Chinese New Year: 12 days

12 days to Chinese New Year and I have barely done anything! In the past years, by this time I would be all excited, shopping goodies for myself, shop goodies for my family, shop goodies for friends, buy decorations, attempt to make paper lanterns, plan flower arrangements, do major springcleaning including replace curtains with brand new ones, wipe every shelf in my cupboards, etc.

This year like super bochap. Not quite myself. CNY seems far away. My mind is still on how to clear the beer and alcohol from my last party, seems like I still have a lot edible stuff in the apartment lei. I remember throwing away tins of cookies and mochi which I was unable (to get my guests) to finish after last CNY. So really, why repeat the wastefulness again this year.

This CNY, instead of trying to do everything, I think I will just focus on a few things : buy only mandarin oranges, have a loi hei with friends, play mahjong, play xbox, pay mahjong again, oh - and collect ang baos, of course (..yah not shy; the older you are, the more thick skin). The rest will be bonus.

I did good to visit Chinatown. Hope these photos rub some mood onto to you..

I call this the waxed duck stall (click on photo to zoom in).

The strings of chinese sausages, Lap Cheong, are hanging on the left and right

The yellow round stuff in the middle are actually ducks cut open, flattened, waxed and preserved. I don't know waxed with what. This is popular with the Cantonese I believe but I don't remember ever tasting it. My family is not Cantonese so not in our custom to eat this and the other exotic type of preserved meat. I am only familiar with the Lap Cheong.

Here a glimpse of the crowd mingling in the streets with the most colourful shop houses in Chinatown as backdrop.



More photos later.

Ang Moh stall in Chinatown

For one quite jaded by stalls selling the same-old same-old goodies at Chinatown, to actually chance upon this caucasion stall in the midst of the Chinese New Year festival fair has been a treat for my visit to Chinatown.

I read about this fellow last year but didn't get to notice his stall until this time. Erich Solbock is an Austrian who was formerly a chef in some 5-star hotel and has lived in asia for 16 years. He now sells traditional bratwurst amidst local hawkers. His stall at the fair enjoys brisk business and a queue as you can see from the photo. I didn't want to join the growing queue so didn't get to taste his sausages. I will do that in my repeat visit to Chinatown which will be soon. :-)

He does not just sell sausages but adds much colour and atmosphere with his personality and adaptability. His stall is decorated with a mix of Chinese colours, hotch-potch of austrian and elvis memorabilia, chinese calendar, beer advertisements, display of newspaper writeups, a side 'bar counter', jap style decor of hanging lanterns over the counter. When I dropped by, a tourist was actually having a beer at the bar counter while watching on.

He also dresses up in old Shanghai garb, complete with a cap. I am amazed at his ability to stand the heat from the cooking while in such clothes.

Is it 'beng' enough for Sporeans? I think we give it the thumbs up.

Lion Dance

Happened to be at Centrepoint at the right time of a Lion Dance performance, held in the atrium. Many shoppers gathered around the railing from the ground floor all the way to the 5th level. I was lucky to get a spot where I could lean over for some photos. It was not just any ordinary lion dance, they were to do the dance on tip of poles elevated about 2 metres from the floor. Here are some photo highlights:

^ The Lion shyly peeps from behind the curtains before sauntering in.

^The Lion in a ball of fur as it moves too fast for my camera.

^With a leap, the lion was on the top of the poles. Their agility and coordination moved the crowds to huge applause.

^Posing left

^Posing right.

The joyous performance came to an end unexpectedly when the front dancer slipped and fell off at the last pole, near the stage. His team members thought he would recover but he did not. There was a pause of inaction before they rushed to him and carried him backstage. I felt quite sad. It was a reminder of how dangerous these stunts are. The crowd dispersed reluctantly and expectantly, with concerns on our minds about the well-being of the dancer.

Feng Shui

Went to Liza for my back massage today at Miracle Gardens. When I walked into the room, I felt some dismay that she had re-arranged her room.

Her table used to be next to the door but now, she has moved it to the back so that her back is to the wall and she faces the door. Not surprisingly, she says she feels the energy in the room improved and her business has picked up since. However, I felt it to be less cozy and more business-like. I do not like it at all. It is not a big room, so the position of the bed was also adjusted and now perpendicular to what it used to be.

We started on the session and about 15 minutes before the session end, some dust seemed to have gotten into my throat and agitated it, I got into bad fit of coughs. That was no good.

A strange thought crossed my mind from something I have heard before. I had not noticed this about the room before but now it bothered me. I decided to raise the matter after our session.

[Me]: Liza, did anyone suggest or advise you to arrange the bed this way with the head pointing to the door?

[Liza]: No, I put it facing that way because I could have some space to move around when I do the head massage for the customers.

[Me]: Well, I am not sure if this has been mentioned to you before, but in the hospitals, when nurses move patients around in beds for surgery etc, they take a lot of trouble to try to turn the bed around so that the head goes through the door first, whether into the lift or into the room. That is treatment for living people. In the morgue, the head is allowed to face the door. If you watch movies, when they pull the body out of the drawer, where is the head pointing to..

[Liza]: Ah..Patang* ..no good har..

[Me]: Yar.. you may like to reconsider...


* - offences which invite bad luck (in this case, bad luck to the customers)

MOG

Attended the premiere of "Memoirs of the Geisha" tonite. It is two and a half hours' movie. So, do I recommend it? - Yes. Yes. Yes. MUST SEE!

I have never seen Michelle Yeoh more regal and actually alluring. Gong Li doesn't talk as in purrs and seems to caress her words. I don't usually like Zhang but her performance here is believable. They have indeed worked hard on their English.
All the men in this movie appear gallant and protective of their women, Wahhh. It is more about the politics of the women where they draw blood from their rivals while praising them with a smile.

Beautifully filmed. All in all, a magnificent movie.

Jap Surnames

While wandering through other people's blogs, I stumbled upon this interesting comment (or theory) about the origins of jap surnames. Rather dark but seems plausible too. Not sure if all of it is true or just someone trying to be mischievious. According to Fyen, the Germans had a similar policy during the war and the women had to consider it a national service. The blogger had taken to write this in chinese so I am doing a translation of it here for benefit of those who struggle with chinese.

"Emiri's jap name... 吉川 エミリ一 ... lucky river work three ? one...Weird right?! Well there's a reason why the japs have names like that lah.
日本人姓氏来源...
日本古来多战戈, 少壮男丁都征軍, 没结婚生子便战毙, 矮倭人丁日愈稀少。
天皇就出了一个国策, 让所有的男人不论何时何地, 都可以随便跟任何女人发生关系, 来保持人口的出生率。
女人都习惯了"无论何时何地"的那种方式, 乾脆就背著枕头,被单出门。後来就成了现在所谓的"和服"。
女人被人"无论何时何地"後，不知对方姓氏就生下小孩, 只好以被肏场地为名。
结果出现了"井上"、"田中"、"松下"、"渡边"、"山口"、"竹下"、"近藤"…等等。"

Translation:

"The origins of Japanese surnames...
Japanese feudal times were fraught with wars, strong young men were enlisted into the army and died at battle before they married or have children, leading to reducing numbers of men as days passed.

The emperor thus devised a national plan, to permit all men at any time and any place seek a physical relationship with any woman, to keep up the population figure.

As the women resigned to the way of "any time any place", they simply piggybacked their pillow and bed sheet along when they leave the house. Eventually, that became the present day "kimono".
After a woman having been dealt with at "any time any place", gave birth to a child with no idea of the name of the other party, was left with no choice but to come up with a name for the child based on the scene of the encounter.

As a result, the appearance of surnames in kanji such as (which in chinese reads as) above well (井上) 、within field "田中"、beneath tree "松下"、alongside crossing "渡边"、 mountain opening "山口"、 under bamboo "竹下"、 near rattan "近藤"…etc."

The life for people in those days must be surreal. Can you imagine what if you discover your first traceable forefather was a ..um..arh..bastard conceived in ..uh..exotic nature. (Die lah, now cannot let my jap friends know about my blog already. Sure lose friends wan.) What a history to have and to bear in your name, though it might not be any fault of your fault. Some people probably don't care.

I imagined I would be quite disturbed, especially having been used to the idea of having a recorded family tree going back some 17 generations in China, which look quite respectable. It spreads over several books and the family published multiple copies some years back to have them distributed to the various households of the relatives. Anyway, it probably isn't surprising if there are a lot of unwritten stories. After all, the genealogy only recorded sons. Funnily, I have been added, the very first female child, honoured for having finished university education. (sigh, so now I have to behave). We even have a family motto (somewhere) from which each character becomes the middle name of succeeding generations. Let me encourage you all to start your own book of family tree. It builts an identity which your future generations can refer back to. I think it is quite powerful but most people take it for granted or unwilling to do what is necessary to honour it.

On another track, it would be interesting to ask various other nationalities how surnames originated in their culture. I heard the English took theirs from their profession. In China, I think it was given by the Emperor (at least some were; will have to ask my father about that). The Indians have their link to the caste. Hmm..I wonder if any academia has done studies in this area. It would be intriguing.

Selamat Hari Raya Haji

....... [Sultan mosque].........[Tasekutara mosque]..........[Bidadari mosque]........

Today marks the muslims' "Festival of pilgrimage", also known as the "Festival of sacrifice". It falls on the 10th day of the last month of the Islamic calendar and celebrates the conclusion of the pilgrims' trip to Mecca. Male pilgrims are given the title of Haj, while women pilgrims are called Hajjah.

The mosque near home has been broadcasting prayers most part since the wee hours of the morning. However the noise from the rain drowned out some of the 'singing', so it has not been as loud as usual. This is also the day when the sacrifice of goats are made and distributed to relatives and the poor, done by those who can afford it. It is not a compulsory religious duty. It commemorates the obedience of Prophet Abraham to God, by his willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail.

...........[Assyakirin mosque].....[Darussalam mosque]...........[Malabar mosque]........

Wet day

[Today ] [Typical Day] It has been raining non-stop for the last 24 hours. Unusual for January. A friend pointed out the monsoon is turning up later and later each year. There was no thunder, no lightning, just this relentless weeping.

True Colour

LY sent me this link to a test to uncover one's "true" colours. Try this yourself:
http://web.tickle.com/invite?test=1108&type=t

In an email I responded to LY some months back (one of those 30 questionaires for your friends to know you better), there was a question which asked - "if you are a colour, what would it be?" and I had written: Orange.

Interestingly, this colour test deduced me as an Orange! It says here:

"You're a bold, confident orange. A warm, powerful color that indicates a strong, welcoming personality, orange is the mark of people who are social and extroverted by nature. Vibrant, with an upbeat attitude, you have a bright, inviting demeanor. Energetic and fun-loving, you're a real friend-magnet. Your easy charm and unassuming manner make you the sort of person people want to meet and get to know better. Well-rounded and fun to be around, you enjoy helping others, so it's no surprise that orange also symbolizes attraction. Orange is an extraordinary color — for an extraordinary person."

One of my wall panel at home is painted orange and I also added dabs of gold to it.

Unveiling of Brown

Ade showed me a picture of Mr.Brown with his two kids, in today's Today's Papers. We studied his picture at length, and it was quite a big pic too, and compared it with the handsome caricature of him which usually accompanies his column. Ade asked, "Are you disappointed?". Well, I think I am more like puzzled. Puzzled that he looked nothing like the caricature, or should I say it the other way round. How did the artist see chiselled jaw, the rugged frame and all that?

Either the caricaturist is damn good or damn bad.

I have to say his mum is prettier than he is.

Fever

Poor Kit. He caught some infection and has been having a mild fever the past three days. At the doctor, amongst the babies with the same infection, he cried the loudest when they treated him. Like the lusty cry of a warrior. The family is supposed to fly back to UK tomorrow, Sat afternoon. Now his mum has to postpone their flight for another week. This aunt is secretly pleased. So, the poor father has to fly back home himself.

I tried to persuade the mother to stay till Chinese New Year is over. I tried to excite her with the idea : Kit's first chinese new year celebration!! But no, she would not hear of it.

Why? I asked.

Cannot. He starting to forget his father already. He crys when his father trys to carry him.

Alamak.

Drink a lot

Fyen introduced me to this blog by Miss Drink-a-Lot. Almost SATC.
Check it out via my list of links at the side.

Cease the DrooL

Today on Jan 2, Kit turns 4 months.

My mum decided to carry out a little ceremony which is supposed to rid or reduce Kit's habit of drooling. She had just learned it from my cousins. Apparently, one of my cousin's two boys went through it and they stopped drooling early while another cousin did not carry it out for her daughter and the poor girl continued to drool till she was over one.

Folk legends you say. Hey, this is totally new to me too!

Mum came to me in the morning to borrow some red cord which I use for tying my chinese knots. Then I saw her use the ropes to tie the ends to the drumsticks. She also strung up a row of plain biscuits.

Poked a hole through the biscuits and put the rope through them. The whole thing was bizarre. Bizarre, even hilarious but fascinating.After that, Fyen took Kit out to the corridor where it was cooler and my mum started the little ceremony. (For those trying this at home, you can do this in any part of the house).

First she hung the cord with the drumsticks around Kit's neck and then took the drumsticks and gently touched and swiped them on Kit's mouth while talking to him, saying something like," Okay, you are a big boy now. ..Be a good boy...Time to stop drooling... Drooling is for hungry people. May you never be hungry and be well-fed and have not need to drool". So on and so on.

After that, mum repeated the same thing using the biscuits. I don't know if she did it right but anyway, what do we have to lose. It is fun just to test this out. It is funny that she herself only half believes it and half hopes it will work.

Mum said if anything, it is a symbolic affair which the baby might catch some significance of. Perhaps he might just understand in his own baby way and try to learn not to drool. Interesting theory.






So, if you learn this the first time from here and you try this too on yourself or on your baby and it works, donch forget to come back to my blog to thank me.

In the mean time, drool on..

Chris Hall

Ah, it says somewhere on the internet that Chris Hall is "arguably the world's best known private collector of symbolic chinese textiles" and is a Hong-Kong based English tax accountant. According to him, when he looks at a piece, he looks for four things: rarity, beauty, condition and age.

A starting price of a Qing imperial robe is $250,000.

Sheesh, they pay accountants THAT well?

A memorable New Year's Eve

Happy New Year! How was your celebrations? I had a fantastic time on new year eve.

Hsin is in Singapore this week so we went to see the Power Dressing exhibition at the Asian Civilisation Museum at Empress Place.

We had a promotion postcard which offered free entry "1-for-1" ; it was actually misleading because it turned out to mean one person pays $8 while the guest is free when it should really say "2-for-1". The textiles and Chinese robes came from Chris Hall collection (not that you will be interested to know) and consisted of Chinese imperial and religious robes. I enjoyed their colours the most. There wasn't much embroidery to look at which I would have liked since I take up the needle on the occasion. A lot of patterns looked woven into the fabric. I don't know anything about weaving, unfortunately cannot appreciate the work as much.

The exhibition rooms were also very dim which made viewing sometimes difficult and a bit of a strain. Anyhow, it was very pleasant wandering around the rooms, looking at these beautiful artifacts and chatting away without the intrusion of the crowd. We ended up in the museum longer than expected because of the unexpected heavy downpour. The day had started off so hot that we did not bring an umbrella.

Once the rain thinned, we left quickly and made our way to Chinatown to have a look, which meant dropping by Yue Hwa . We had only two hours there before rushing off to attend Hsin's parents' dinner party. Hsin and I must be like the youngest ones at the party but I guess when people are young at heart, what is age but a number. Everyone was in good spirits at the dinner. There were lots of banter going on in the gathering which could only be possible from honest friendship shared over decades. I sat next to an attractive auntie, whom I was told, is the mother of the famous local blogger - Mr.Brown. What a surprise! I had just read his stuff the day before. She was very chatty and has a very bubbly personality.

After dinner, we decided to see Kumar at Gold Dust instead of squeezing with the masses at Marina South area for the fireworks. The last performance I saw of Kumar was over 5 years ago. But not much has changed from his formula used at Boom Boom Room, where his shows used to be.

The show came in three sets of half hour with one hour break in-between. Each segment consisted of cabaret dancing and some stand-up comedian act. The first set started at 11am. Soon after the first segment, the whole room celebrated the arrival of the new year. The house went crazy with lots of noise completed with popping paper and sprayed party flakes. Our drinks ended up covered with it.

Kumar's act was in the second segment. As usual, he was rude, vulgar, funny and just being a diva. I teared from laughing too much at his lines even though there wasn't that much surprise in his deliveries. As Fyen puts it: soup changed, but not the medicine: 换汤不换药 - Different taste, different packaging, same result. I did notice he did not pull any audience up on stage to get involved this time. By the time all the sets finished, it was near 3am. But the nite was not over yet. We met up with Hsin's cousin and her friends at Brix and proceeded to Newton Hawker Center for supper.

One of the cousin's friend was Wendi Koh . She had just performed to 100,000 at the Esplanade for the new yr eve celebration! Oh, I had missed that.

Whenever Wendi is mentioned, my first impression of her would come to mind, which was the time I saw her live on stage in the late 80s at some club in Holland Village. I remembered being very impressed by her stage presence. She was so comfortable up there and commanded the stage. Now after two decades, she still looks so young! Like a cool 25, a pixie with her big eyes and short curly hair. It is when she speaks that I sense an old soul. She is very feminine yet her spirit seems masculine; of someone not easily fazzled. Her voice is low and melodious and she speaks with a measured pace in a very slight but natural accent that hinted of a posh education. I thought she only sings and perform live and only found out she has some albums. I should go buy them and support support local talent.

I was surprised I was still not tired when I got home. I had a shower and even read(!) a little. By the time I turned out the lights, it was 5am.