1. I bumped into a friend at a club on the weekend. I said to him, “Where’s your wife?” He replied, “Don’t have one anymore.” And for some reason, I wasn’t shocked at all.

   His would be the fifth divorce that I know of in my social circle. I think that’s quite a high number of divorces for an average person to know about, don’t you think? Luckily I never had to do the “my friends vs. your friends” bit because I’m always closer to just one person in each couple.

2. If I meet the the right woman tomorrow and if I say to her,
   

   I live with my parents, and the only things that I own are my computer, my car, a mobile phone and an Xbox 360.

   And she replies, “I don’t care”, then I’m marrying her. Oh she must like Snoop the dog too, natch. I don’t think I’m that fussy right?

3. Speaking of living with my parents, I think I’m ok with still living with them after I get married. Not that much a far out idea to fellow Asians, and maybe even the Greeks and Italians. And why I’m ok with it? Because it’s really really comfortable. Cooking and cleaning aside, it’s also nice to go back to a lively house after work.

   I guess it also helps to have fairly liberal parents who respects my privacy and who don’t nag me about “sex in the house” anymore. And the house is big enough after the extension to afford everyone their little corner of personal space.

   Now if the girl in #2 is also ok with this, then I’m set for life.

The aquariums in Bali Hai restaurant on Gurney Drive - if it swims and you feel like eating it, chances are that you will find it here.

A road-side stall selling one of Penang’s signature dishes: orchien, or oyster omelette. Also sold in places with Hokkien Chinese presence such as Singapore and Taiwan. See the wiki link above. Prices displayed here are RM5, RM6 and RM8 for different sizes - one place I went to which was famous for this charged double those prices.

A road-side bootleg DVD stall - buying bootleg DVDs is an activity that can be enjoyed by all in the family. Unless you think the following is bad …

Bootleg porn - DVDs displayed as openly and as naked as the ladies on the covers. That sure is a lot of porn.

I like going to the foodcourt of a big shopping mall. It’s not because of the food because most of the time, I can get the same things better elsewhere. However, there are not many places where you get masses of people sitting down to eat a big variety of foods - people from all walks of life, of different ages, and race and of different social statuses, blue-collar vs. white-collar.

Therefore it is also the best place to people watch. It is on one of these lunch time sessions that it struck me that a foodcourt is one place where multiculturalism has worked out really well without the problems seen elsewhere in the society at large.

And a requisite of any Australian foodcourt is a kebab stall - not to mention that it is also a staple fixture around city nightspots. In fact it’s so popular that even the most ignorant do not mind or care that it is a food of Muslim origin and that the people serving it are usually of “Middle-Eastern appearance” - a much used euphemism in Australian media.

So we may not like each other all the time, but we sure love eating each other’s foods. It’s as good a starting point as any. Food for thought indeed.

(via monkeyc @ flickr)

The iPod interfaces with the Zune.

iPod: Don’t you think I’m prettier than the iPhone?

When you are out this weekend, remember: safe sex always.

(via Valleywag)

Pulau Payar, near Langkawi, 2003. One day before my 29th birthday.

Karen has turned 29 this year and posed an open question to her female readers about what’s it like to turn 30. I’m not female but I thought it was a great topic. So here is my response.

That it takes another person’s prompting for me to write about what is supposed to be one of THE big milestones in a person’s life: when they turn 30, is telling of my attitude towards age.

The concept of age is different for women, especially to those who want children. To me it’s really just a number. I had settled into the person that I am now at the age of 25/26 and from then till I was 30 I hadn’t changed much.

My views on life were the same and still are - I cherish the important things such as family and good friends. I enjoy the simple pleasures of eating and drinking, and playing with my dog and relaxing in front of the TV or computer. And as long as my body holds up, I will still remember to party.

Society has certain expectations on both men and women, and a lot of people have a checklist of goals to achieve before they turn 30: see the world, do amazing things, marriage, kids, house, cash and assets rich. Me? I don’t have a list. The only significant event when I was turning 30 was that I had just restarted my IT career, after having run a restaurant for 1.5 years. My impending 30th birthday and what I was supposed to have achieved as a 30 year old man were not priorities.

The day came and went without fanfare. Not many friends know my birthday, not even close ones because I don’t make a big deal about it. And my parents just happened to be away that time. So it was that I woke up the next day not feeling any different. No imaginary milestones have been passed, and my life continued as before.

I’m now turning 33 in December and how have I changed since I was 30? Erm, not much. I still view life as a meandering journey with no set destinations or timetable, and that the only things that matter are the journey itself and the people whose lives that I have touched and vice-versa.

And to answer one of Karen’s questions in her post,

Should 20-somethings just get over it and save the brain cells for something more important?

The answer is yes - don’t live your life to other people’s expectations; live it to yours and at your own schedule.

At Ruvinda’s wedding July 2005 - 30 turning 31.

The next day after the wedding, what did we do? We went eating again. Woohoo! This time it was at a new hawker food hall near the famous Swatow Lane. It’s a completely different feel to the traditional road-side stalls on the same road which I went to last time. The place was built as much for locals as it was for tourists.

There are nice big English words on the signs, so tourists would know what they shouldn’t be ordering. Heheh. Yes, you read right - there’s cubes of congealed pork blood in them laksa, or “curry mee”. Authentic. Slurp.

In attendance were Shane’s family, their family friend and his wife, my family, sixth-grandaunty, and my dad’s cousin and his family.

And another two pics to add to the food porn. This is the aforementioned curry mee.

And this is sar-hor-fun, a stir-fried noodle dish. Yummo.

I had a lot of visitors and a few reciprocal links because of my previous post about donuts, “More donuts than you can swing a stick at“. This clip is a continuation of the donut theme and gives you a look at how Krispy Kreme donuts are made.

I especially like the “glazing waterfall” (woo). I challenge you to not salivate.

Donut King has a similar automated process which I’ve seen at a store once, except theirs is based on frying dollops of batter formed into donuts, and then dumping those into a bed of cinnamon and sugar mix (woo x 2). As opposed to Krispy Kreme’s where a doughy mix is allowed to rise before being fried, and then glazed over by the aforementioned “glazing waterfall”.

Whichever way they are made, me likey donuts yum yum.