Weekend

Porridge.  With a dollop of condensed milk.

That's what I am having for breakfast this morning.

No, my Singaporean readers, before you go off on a tangent, Porridge here is Oats Porridge. Not Porridge, as in Rice Porridge.  Although, having said that, it should be quite welcome in the coming winter months.

The only thing I miss of Singapore are my family and friends and the food.

Singapore Food.  The phrase conjures up of oily hawker food that one jostles in non-airconditioned hawker centers or coffee shops.  I think it is an institution in itself.  No where else on this globe can you find the actual concoction of my favourite Fried Carrot Cake, Char Kway Teow, Lor Mee, etc etc, ad naseum.

For a more detailed article please check out here.

Also do check out the following blogs on Singapore Food here too.

Ah, food glorious food. One of Singaporeans' 2 main hobby.

I leave you with the Chinese Saying:

"To Be Able to Eat, is a Blessing."

So EAT!

Looking Forward

We need to look forward my boss says.

Well, as I remember many donkey years back, a close friend of mine, who sat on the debating team in my secondary school, argued "Without our Past, We have no Future"

So, yes, we have indeed to look forward and not the past.  But how many of us still languish in the past, wallowing in the bygone era.

The Future is Bright, someone once proclaimed.  The Eternal Optimist?  Hardly, but with so much negativity in the society around us,  we need "Hope".

Hope Floats as the movie title goes.

So let us all hope against hope, that all hope will bring us "World Peace"

An Eventful Week

It has been quite a long week, in my opinion.

The curve ball mentioned in the previous post still haunts me.  But it is a cross that I need to deal with and hopefully find an amicable solution to it.

It is however quite heartening to hear that my much desired gadget will be available in South Africa quite soon.  But in my opinion, not soon enough, nevertheless, soon!

The Apple iPhone.

The mention of it elicits a a sly seduction of the senses and awakening of one of my, er...Terry calls it fetish. Phones.  Mobile Phones to be exact.   I have long been a Nokia fan but the Finnish company has disappointed me in recent years.  I am currently using a rather well built phone, a brand which I think is a serious contender to the Nokia's dominance in the mobile phone market. It is Sony Ericsson and my phone is the K800i.  It is a great phone, solidly built, but I think the trend is now hurtling towards smart phones. 

And the King of them of - the Apple iPhone.

I am a convert.  For years innumerable, I have been a PC user.  But I have since Dec 07, ditched PC for Mac. And never looked back.  But that is another story for another post.

Vodafone has announced that they have been given the license to sell the iPhone in 10 of their world market and South Africa's Vodacom being majority owned by Vodafone will be releasing a statement next week apparently to announce the date in which they will release the iPhone here.

I am ready.  More than ready for this coverted piece of gadgetry, voted Invention of the Year 2007 by Time Magazine.

i am ready for the i.

Life

Life in all its myriad of guises tends to like to throw a curve ball at one.

We need to have a certain grit in order to deal with those surprises.  Today a curve ball was thrown at me and my colleague Daylene.

But being pragmatic people, we both are adopting a look and see attitude and try to see the silver lining in the dark (well not that dark) clouds.

But at the end of the day, Daylene is really a great and big hearted person.  I'm quite privileged to call her my friend and I really treasure her friendship. 

Long may it last and hope she will feel the same.

Cheers.

Monday Blues

Monday.  Why is it that its always have a tendency to be black or blue?

Why can't there be Blue Tuesdays or Wednesday and so on?

Anyway, its one of those Mondays, to put it mildly.  Running around tying up loose ends from the super long weekend we had.  Putting staff who are still in "holiday" mood in line.  Dealing with all the "kak" as the locals put it.  

But then, hey, isn't that what life is all about?  Dealing with problems?

On another note, in view of the local issues with an "elite" crime fighting squad to be / or not to be incorporated into the actual main police force.  Numerous opinions as to why the ruling party has passed a resolution to dissolve the elite crime fighting squad.  Though some say that the elite crime fighting squad has employed questionable means to achieve their ends.

But at the end of the day, I pose the following question:

"Who watches the Watchmen?"

Cheers.  

Cold Wet Weekend

It has been a cold wet long weekend here in Johannesburg.

It rained continually for almost all afternoon and early evening yesterday. And again it rained this morning again.  Many Jo'burgers would say that this is rather unusual for such late rains in May.

Daylene came over for dinner last night and I cooked a stew-ish dish that I remember my Mom used to make.  Its minced pork with potatoes which we stewed for all afternoon in the slow cooker.  Spiced with oyster sauce, soy sauce and a cube of chicken stock, it did turn out rather nice I must say.  Terry made his childhood hearty vegetable soup too. So it was a rather heart and stomach warming dinner we had last night.  Aryton (Daylene's son) and his girlfriend, Vashni also enjoyed it. Nothing like good food on a cold evening, enhanced by good company.

We have a slight health crisis at work today and I know my staff Cosmo will be alright and that the contagion will not be as wide spread as we fear it will be.

And also what about the fallout of the fact that Microsoft has seemingly decided to walk away from its take-over of Yahoo?

What would have been the Internet been like should Microsoft have succeeded?  What now for Microsoft to take take on Google?

Final last words: "Only Time Will Tell"

Cheers

Public Holiday Part 2

Waking up to a dreary cold grey morning today.

It has been declared a public holiday today 2nd May under the persuasion of the Unions in the Rainbow Nation.

I think looking at the weather system, majority of the Highveld and the Coast is under threat of rain this superduper long weekend.  The rains came finally last night, a soft misty rain as we came out from the Cinema.

We had gone to watch the local premiere of Iron Man starring Robert Downing Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow last night.  Must say that it was a thoroughly enjoyable movie.  Great body armour CGI which the producers dished out in great heapful.    The writers tried to amalgamate the Iron Man characters into a 2 hour movie and manage a relatively good tie-in.  For a good read up on the story of Iron which incidentally first appeared on the comic scene back in 1963, go to here.

Ok, having my oats porridge with condensed milk for breakfast now and will leave you with this thought.

When you arrive at a car park of a shopping center that is busy, why is it that you rarely find a empty lot close to the entrance on first passing, and when you finally find something and its rather long walk to the entrance, and on your walk towards the entrance you suddenly see an empty lot close to the entrance?

Profound?  Murphy's Law?

Cheers

An Islander living in the Rainbow Nation aka South Africa

Howzzit,

Simon here.  An Islander living in the Rainbow Nation aka South Africa.

I have been living here for close to 4 years, and I must say, it is quite a blast living here.  Very different from my birth country of Singapore.  Well, it is not too fair to compare, as one's a Goliath and one's a David... at least in terms of size.  But I have grown accustomed to the size and expanses of this beautiful country.  I distinctly remember going home to Singapore for Chinese New Year last year and felt the closing in of the buildings, cars, people, especially when I was doing my pilgrimage to Champs-Elysees's twin street, ie Orchard Road (Oh, you didn't know that?, shame on ya!)

I live in the Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg, or Jozi or Jo'burg or Egoli depending on your perference with my partner Terry, 2 Labs - Max and Gobi and 2 Evil Ones...oh sorry, I mean Cats - Leo and goose-stepping Harry.  We all live in a feng-shui harmonized house which we bought last year.

I run a busy 31 room guesthouse with my close friend/colleague Daylene located in Bryanston.  We were recently given the reins of running the guesthouse by the owners are moving to the Coast.  It is a huge honour and pleasure to be doing what we are doing.

I hope to put my xenophthalmia take to my life here in the Rainbow Nation.

Welcome and Enjoy.