The day started with Blinkymummy and GF taking me to Holland Village for lunch. Holland Village reminded of Bangsar in KL with its eclectic mix of yuppie shops, antique and hip furniture shops, boutiques, nail and facial salons, and eateries. Except I would say that the parking at Holland V is way better organised than that of Bangsar’s.

Being the anti-yuppies that we are, we ate at the local hawker centre. We had Katong laksa (yum), Singapore fried kuay-teow (yum), and curry chicken with rice (yum).

After lunch, we went walking around an old-school shopping mall – the layout, the narrow corridors, the seemingly unsystematic mish-mash of shops, and even the smell of the air-conditioning, all of which brought back fond memories of my childhood.

When we left Holland Village, we also took a drive around more yuppiefied goodness – Dempsey Village with its “atas” restaurants, wine bars, antique furniture shops, and a super expensive looking salon.

Then we headed towards Novena Square to visit BM’s entrepreneurial friend, Daniel who opened a place called “Bread Bar” that sells unique variations of the traditional Chinese snack called “youtiao“. They are basically deep-fried dough sticks. We shared a couple of sticks and had some soy-milk drink.

As a fellow engineer who went into the F&B business briefly, I understand and admire Daniel’s entrepreneurial spirit.

Suitably stuffed from lunch and the youtiaos, I got dropped home to rest up a bit before the festivities that were to follow that night.

For dinner, Rob and I headed to the nearby hawker centre (can’t get enough of hawker centres) for some grub to charge up for our partying ahead. I had chicken rice (again) with teh-ping, an iced tea drink.

After heading back for a quick shower, it was on to Bellini Room at St James Power Station. Rob and I had to be there real early at 9:30pm to secure the table which we had reserved.

BM and GF arrived about an hour later. The four of us had a great time chatting about the different working cultures of Singapore and Australia, how the women and their attitudes compare, and our jobs (Rob works with one of BM’s exes, and is going to his wedding – freaking small world).

With alcohol being plied, and the place getting more crowded and noisy we started to get into the partying mode.

Later in the night, the other old school friend of mine from Perth, Vincent (left) turned up with some of his colleagues and friends. The three of us have known each other for almost 20 years. Here’s to our friendship ever lasting!

BM and GF left shortly before 1am, and Rob and I parted ways with Vincent sometime around 2pm. We then headed to this place near Keong Saik Road which sells porridge. By now you would realise that porridge or rice congee is a favourite supper food for the Chinese.

After supper we headed home and crashed. ‘Twas a good night, shared with friends old and new – relatively speaking anyway because I’ve now known BM for 2 years and a bit. Here’s her entry of the events on this same day.

On Saturday night we headed out to St. James Power Station, so-called because it was a power station which has now been refurbished into a complex of very hip and stylish inter-connecting clubs with different themes. An awesome concept – I love it!

I’ve been here once before in November last year when I checked out Dragon Fly – the Chinese pop songs theme room. They have cover bands and singers performing Canto and Mando-pop songs, with dancers on a big rock stage. I felt very Chinese in there – it was great!

After that, we checked out the Latin room – Movida. The immediate thing that struck us? The singers on stage. Latin girls, latin girls. Mmm.

And Latin music is so infectuous – I moved parts of my body which I never moved before. Or at least I think I moved them anyway. Other people around me might have been wondering wtf is he doing?! Hahah!

This is the bar in Movida. V. pretty.

We had so much fun in there that we thought we’d try our luck and book a table for NYE. At first, one waiter gave me the card for his manager and asked me to call the next morning. Give up? Never! So I flag down another waiter and asked the same question and bingo! We got a table for NYE! Woohoo!

Next up on our crawl was Bellini Room – the jazz theme club.

As the night wore on, or should I say as the alcohol got piled on (we shared a bottle of Jack Daniel, with green-tea mixers), we felt more and more festive. I remember singing along to the lounge singer’s rendition of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab”.

They tried to make me go to rehab
I said no, no, no.

Very loudly I might add.

We had so much fun in here too that we thought, “Hey! Let’s ask for a table for Xmas Eve!” Got talking to a waitress and booyakasha – we got a table for Xmas Eve! Tonight! Woohoo! What dumb luck we have.

In our high, happy and drunken state we hopped into a taxi to head into Geylang – Singapore’s famous red-light district – for … frog porridge. And yes the thought of availing ourselves with the services of professional working women did cross our minds. I would be lying (and not a man) if I said otherwise.

Anyways, frog porridge is yum – what does it look like???

A piece of chicken really and it tastes like it too. We ordered one with ginger and spring onion and the kung-pao one. Kung pao one was super hot!

Geylang is not only famous for being the red-light district of Singapore but it also has a lot of good restaurants and eateries. Food and sex – two of our most basic needs.

After the food, I took Rob on a tour (ironic since I’m the tourist) of the infamous Geylang lanes where the women stand in a row along the street. I told Rob that if he gets tempted, just say so and I will wait for him at a nearby kopitiam. Hahah! But we both settled with just gawking and looking at the women – some of whom are very pretty.

Later at home, a cold shower was very much needed.

Day 2 was a very sedate affair compared to the previous day’s shenanigans. I headed out to my cousin’s place and spend the afternoon and evening with her parents and her husband. And I enjoyed it thoroughly. I have always been a very family-oriented person so I enjoy every single bit of time I get to spend with my relatives.

The day consisted of catching up with news about almost every single person in our large extended family (mom has 9 siblings), whilst watching TV and having drinks and munchies. Simple things in life are really the best.

After a nice home-cooked dinner, I sat on the porch with my uncle and discussed Malaysian politics with him. Even though I’m now Australian, I still get moved by the problems and frustrations that my uncle relates to me. Singapore is great but if Malaysia ever gives its ethnic minorities a fair go, it can be just as good if not better. But that will probably not happen in our life times. Shame really.

Then we caught a Manchester United vs. Everton match on TV. Not being a football fan, I enjoyed it actually. It was probably the company, and watching and hearing my uncle and cousin-in-law shouting at the TV.

After that, I headed back to Rob’s place on the MRT. And so ended Day 2.

I landed late last night, and by now I’ve already ate, drank and perved. Here’s a quick recap. Blinkymummy picked me up at the airport at around 10:30pm and we went to have Teochiew porridge at Oasis.

I got back to Rob’s place two hours later and had some beers with him and another highschool friend from Perth, Vinnie. We caught up with each other and chatted till about 2am. By then I was totally exhausted and crashed. And stupidly I forgot to change the timezone on my phone and set the alarm for what I thought would be 11:30. Instead I actually woked up at 10:30am Singapore time. Darn you, Australian daylight savings!

No matter. We shared a plate of fried kuay teow for breakfast, relaxed and showered before heading out for lunch and perving, and also to get my prepaid SIM card and changed some money. Word of advice to would-be travellers – change most of your money at the city that you are holidaying in. The rates work out a heck of a lot better.

We had chicken rice at the food hall in Bugis Junction, and then some frappacinos at Starbucks on Orchard and people watched. We also did the touristy thing and went by the gigantic Christmas tree in Ngee Ann City.

After a spot of grocery shopping, we headed home. Tonight we should be having some seafood – chilli crabs maybe – and then heading out to either Clarke Quay or St. James Powerstation. Most likely we are heading to St. James because Rob’s a member to something at United Overseas Bank that entitles him to bring in two guests for free to any of the clubs at the complex.

More drinks and perving tonight then. Yay!

I’ll be in Singapore till the 2nd of January, 2008. While I’m there, I will be meeting up with friends old and new, going out partying and drinking, and eating lotsa yummy food so I should have lotsa pictures to show and stories to tell.

Blogging may or may not be sporadic … ah heck, who am I kidding?! Of course I’ll be blogging! The best way to know when I’ve updated is to create yourself a feed reader account (Bloglines or Google Reader) and subscribe to my RSS feed.

If that is too much hassle, you can also receive my updates via email.

My friend Robert in Singapore was kind enough to offer his place to stay at for my entire trip. Him and I go a long way back. He was the first other Malaysian migrant kid that I met on my first scary day in high school here. So that would mean that we’ve known each other for close to 20 years now. Along the way, we went to different unis, worked in different parts of the city, and then he’d move to Sydney for a couple of years. And now he’s working in Singapore.

It’s pretty amazing that we are still good chums and have not lost touch.

Among the gifts that I bought for him include a DVD of “The Castle” – one of the quintessential movies about Australian life and it happens to be bloody funny as well. This is to remind Robert how the Aussie accent sounds like and the proper social context to say things like, “Tell him he’s dreaming!”

The other is a stubby holder. For my non-Aussie readers, it’s basically a piece of insulated foam for holding your cold beer cans or bottles in. It keeps your hands dry and your drinks cold. Top Aussie icon! And I chose the word “Bugger!” on it because Robert likes to say “bugger” a lot. In fact, it never ceases to amuse me to see that word constantly fly out of a Chinese face. High-larious.

Thanks Rob and seeya real soon!

Tonight I caught up with two couples whom I see for dinner 3 to 4 times a year. The women are good friends from uni and over the years I’ve gotten to know their partners very well too. When I was running my restaurant, they would even make the effort to come have dinner there so that they can catch up with me as well as have a meal together. They are good to me like that.

Every time that we’d catch up it’s like time never passed and we’d carry on our conversations from before. I’m very blessed to have plenty of friends like that. One of the guys travel for his work quite extensively and he’d always have great stories to tell. And the girls will have gossip about people whom I don’t know at all, but is extremely entertaining nonetheless. Maybe it’s the way they tell it. We always have a good laugh.

Besides other conversational fillers like our jobs and money, the topics of sex and relationships come in from time to time too. The ladies are kinkay. Oh yes they are.

At the end of the dinner as we said our goodbyes and well-wishes for Christmas and the New Year, I wonder how fortunate I am to have friends like these not just in Perth but in other places as well. Tomorrow I’ll be travelling up to Singapore where I will meet up with more friends who are as excited to see me (I hope!) as I am to see them.

I’ve said it before, “I don’t need love when I’ve got great friends“. And to have them in more than one place makes me feel truly contented with my life.

p.s. Thanks for the gift tonight, Jennie!

Back in December 2005 I read a post about the passing of a blogger and remember feeling how surreal it was for her photos and words to still live online. In that post, I had summarised what I would like to see happen with my blog and that I would give the passwords for all my online accounts to my parents sealed in an envelope along with instructions on what to do and who to contact in the event of my untimely death.

And as I’ve later realised, doing up a will is a very comforting feeling. Because even though we won’t be able to control how and when we’d die, at least we can control what happens after and how we would be remembered. With my funeral in particular, I want my smiling face plastered everywhere. Even better if the photos show me drinking and partying with friends because that is how I had live my life and how I would like to be remembered.

Going through my list of friends to contact also gave me a very warm feeling. I feel blessed that I would actually have so many friends whom I want to be contacted in that unfortunate event.

Plus until you actually sit down and do it, the number of online accounts which you have may surprise you. Besides the obvious stuff like your email and blog, there are bank and superannuation accounts, medical insurance, and share holdings. In an emotionally taxing time, I would prefer my love ones to have access to all that information to better deal with the situation.

So for two years now, I’ve been updating my “to-do” list every time before I go on a holiday. In fact I think it’s good to have it updated at all times anyway. Not only is it piece of mind for everyone concerned, I also think that it’s being considerate. Unless you don’t really care what happens to your stuff, virtual or otherwise.