So many babies, so little time

Never before did we have friends giving birth consecutively. About a month back, my secondary school mates Kenny and Belinda were blessed with Faith, their third child after two boys, on 1 December. A day later on 2 December, Michael's (my primary school mate) wife, Cindy, gave birth to Aydan (or, according to Michael's hilarious cyber-speak SMS, the Aydan 1.0 system came online), their first after the months of anticipation since they first broke the news to us.

So fast forward a month later, we suddenly had two one month baby showers to attend. All because the Chinese are a superstitious lot when it comes to such things and firmly believe that birthdays should be celebrated earlier as doing it later was taboo.

We rushed off from church at 12 noon and headed to Aydan's first, which was held at Persimmon's at the new Link Hotel. Nick and Pat, along with Grace who was ecstatic to see Velouria, were already there when we arrived. It was a nice place with a rather nostalgic feel to it. The rattan chairs and marble table tops used were reminiscent of those old coffee shops that we rarely see nowadays; the buffet spread included the red eggs and ang ku kuehs (must have items that are traditional to Chinese one month old baby showers) as well as herbal tea and chendol; an old spitton was also used as an ornamental flower vase, which I thought was quite creative.

More friends arrived later (Jenny, Alaric and Wai Min) and it was great catching up (and gossiping!) with everyone while enjoying the rest of the simple fare that was offered at the buffet spread. I particularly enjoyed the sweet and sour Thai style fish and the mushroom soup with shao shing cream.

We didn't have the time to touch the dessert as it was soon time to leave for the next baby shower. Fortunately for us, it was only around the corner at Teresa Ville. This party we attended with a certain tinge of awkwardness as I haven't met many of my friends for the longest time (about 20 years?) and I wasn't sure if all of them would remember me, coupled with the fact that Belinda and I almost had 'something' going on but neither of us had any follow-up or closure to that issue (it was just 'one of those things' that was forgotten as time passed). By the time we arrived, the party was almost over and it was a pleasant surprise to meet so many of my old friends after such a long time. Apparently, they had been organising reunions for quite a while now since finding each other again on Facebook; I had already missed a couple and this was my first. This was, again, a sombre reminder for me of how time flies. Major, major bummer.

Too stuffed to eat anymore, we just hung around to take photos (many of which have been uploaded onto the Facebook group) and catching up with my old friends. Many of us took our turns carrying Faith, some albeit rather awkwardly, while she just slept throughout. I reckon she must have been tired and confused by the array of activity going on around her along with all the screaming, jumping older kids (Velouria inclusive).

We left a while later together with most of the group, only to get stuck at the playground for another half an hour after promising Velouria 5 minutes. She was only willing to leave after her skin had broken on her hand from all the swinging from the bars.

The harsh reality of Christmas

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

John 3:16-18

It's that time of the year again. Frantic last minute shopping, lelong sales everywhere, rehashing old unwanted presents for office gift exchanges, ugly Singaporeans exhibiting the worst of themselves at shopping centres across the island and that unmistakable monster of a traffic congestion at every corner of Orchard Road.

For all intents and purposes, I believe that Christmas started off with the right note. Although some reseachers believe that Christ was born in late October, everyone knows that Christmas is celebrated to commemorate His birth. Along the way, however, a jolly, fat, bearded old man with a hearty laugh and dressed in a red suit flying around in a sleigh driven by reindeers gets thrown into the picture. Then all hell breaks loose and people start buying presents not only for children to keep the story of Santa Claus alive, but for grown ups as well.

People know that Christmas is the time for giving, but many do so miserably more for the sake of conforming to society while missing the driving force behind the spirit of giving.

God gave His ONE and ONLY Son to die for the world, to redeem us from our sins so that we may come before Him, spotless and free from sin. Imagine that – His ONE and ONLY Son. The Lord of heaven and earth, with all the power that created the universe, who created man and everything around us, He could just give up on us and let us revel in our sin. Or worse, he could just smite us out of our very existence. But instead, He sends His Son to die for US so that we have a Way to Him, His Kingdom and hence, eternal life.

He loved and He gave. So that we may believe and live eternally. For those who don't, I can only say 'What are you waiting for?!'

How cool is that? Think of that tonight as you’re exchanging gifts.

Merry Christmas.

Proud parent moment

There are various landmark occasions that that would denote your journey through parenthood as you observe your child growing up. Crying baby out of the womb in the delivery suite? Check. Baby starts walking? Check. First birthday with lots of fanfare? Check. First day of school with video camera and grandparents in tow? Check. Second birthday with even more fanfare? Check.

Today, 1838 days after God blessed us with Velouria, marked another significant proud parent moment for Penny and I. Today was the day we decided to remove the training wheels from her bicycle. I figured since she could handle her skate scooter with ease, that same sense of balance would augur well for her when handling her bicycle on two wheels. So off to the void deck we went!

She did have some problems starting out and we had to support the bicycle so she could concentrate on getting her balancing act right. Being a proud little girl with her own ego, she did give up (albeit only for a short while) and went back to her skate scooter for a few rounds when we teased her about not being able to handle her bicycle. Within these first few tries, she did manage a short straight which ended when she reached the wall as she hadn’t figured out how to turn yet. Naturally, she got tired after a while so we decided to head for lunch.

Reluctant to give up, she requested that we continue with the cycling at the playground. Her excuse was that the many pillars at the void deck were distracting her and she needed an open space. True enough, she did manage to get it right and she couldn’t stop going on and on around the playground even as the scorching afternoon sun beamed down on us. Her bum was starting to hurt (the seat was in an awkward position) so she stopped on and off to get a few drinks. She only agreed to go up after promising her that we would come down again at night when it wouldn’t be so hot. Which we did, and she went round and round and round again.

Praise the Lord for such a wonderful daughter.

In retrospect

Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions.

Ecclesiastes 7:10

Of late, I have been constantly attacked by pangs of nostalgia, wondering about where my life has gone the past 11 years since I graduated from poly. Perhaps it is my passing 30, or realising that Velouria is already five and she’ll be in primary one soon. Or maybe it’s just paranoia setting in with the silly notion that my career is going in circles (after wasting six years of my precious youth with the RSAF). Obviously, life gets more complicated as you grow older and I’m at that point where I’m wondering to God every day, ‘Why must everything be so damn hard?’

It just dawned on me that Penny and I have been together for ten years now, which have been filled with laughter, tears, frustration and anger, along with numerous instances of almost parting ways. We have come a long way and as I look back I can’t help but admit that along the way we have changed somewhat (I always saw myself remaining 20 forever). Friends that knew me from way back always seem to say ‘You’re still the same guy I remember, but yet different at the same time’ – as the Vietnamese are likened to saying ‘Same, same; but different’ to illustrate two distinctly different entities that originated from fairly similar circumstances. I suppose some hard knocks in life will do that to you, and over the years I’ve come to terms with the fact that these hard knocks are just God’s bizarre ways of whipping you into shape.

Along the way, God blessed us with Velouria to remind us how much he loves us. She came into our lives at the most unexpected and under the most unfavourable of conditions – I had just left the RSAF and was still jobless, halfway through my Bachelor’s; someone had just jumped out of his kitchen window, landing on our car and totaling it the process, which led us to rake up some debts; Penny’s job was in limbo, her boss was on the verge of losing a battle with cancer and the future of the company was uncertain. However, as she grew, we noticed that Velouria was actually a combination of Penny and I – she sleeps like a log, enjoys fellowship with senior citizens, eats like a bottomless pit and is a true-blue couch potato who can recall any jingle, movie trailer/sequence/dialogue. Only a Creator who knows us better than we know ourselves could take the best (and worst!) of both of us to create such a bundle of joy.

The other indication that triggered my nostalgia was also seeing the 25th Anniversary G.I. Joe: a Real American Hero 3¾” action figures on the shelves of several toy stores. I remember clamouring to grab every single figure I could get my hands on – from Metro, Daimaru, Yaohan, OG, Kiddy Point (at Centrepoint) and Kids’ World (Wisma Atria and United Square) 20 years ago. This went on well into my poly years as I acquired figures and vehicles that friends had understandably couldn’t wait to give up. With the advent of technology, these figures have now been rescuplted with more detail and given a make-over to bestow upon them a more contemporary look (it has, after all, been 25 years since the first obiang-looking series of figures was launched). More figures are in the line-up, as Hasbro seems keen on revamping all of the figures by the time the G.I. Joe movie hits the theatres in August 2009.

Being on Facebook has also been a double-edged sword as I soak in my ostensibly retrospective take of life. I have, for the longest time, tried my utmost to resist conforming but the resistance was ultimately futile as my curious search for long-lost friends ended up with me starting an account. And, boy, did I find some friends and tons of old photos! It’s amusing to find old friends, get an update on what they’ve been up to, look at photos of their children and hallelujah at every single one that, like me, have turned to Christ. Comparisons are almost inevitable as I begin to look at each of their profiles and realize how everyone has grown, despite being the angst driven youth at one point of our lives, proclaiming proudly how we’d ‘stick it to the man’. Everyone expected me to turn into some arty-farty, skater-type, struggling rock musician/DJ/comic book illustrator/toy sculptor; but somehow I morphed into a God-fearing, corporate ladder-climbing, family man. Conversely, the shy and quiet, studious types have transformed into chain smoking, alcohol guzzling, Zoukout-type party animals.

Which leads me to ponder about the jungle path that I always imagine my life to be; along the way there are many junctions, forks and small hidden tracks. How different would my life have turned out if I took a different turn at one of the junctions, or decided to follow a small, hidden track along the way? Am I back on the main path now? And more importantly, where is it taking me and what’s waiting at the end for me?

Am I complaining? Not really. Am I truly happy? I would be lying if I said I am. Truth is, I’m still struggling to be content with whatever God has blessed me with ‘for he knows the intents and desires’ of my heart and be grateful that He has sustained me thus far.

What do the next ten years have in store for me, I wonder? Only God knows.

Bible insights

The Bible is one tome that never ceases to amaze me. At times placidingly simple, it can also be deeply profound and rudely awakening (in a good way). Nevertheless, it has provided me a wealth of information with regards to the puzzle we call life and often provided a direction amidst the confusion that surrounds us. It is not surprising to feel that the Bible speaks to us as John 1:1 says 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God'. So as we pray and seek God, He speaks to us through His Word - the Bible.

Recently, I came across some study material which dwelt into the ten plagues that hit Egypt when the Pharoah refused to release Moses and the Israelites. Having watched the Ten Commandments (with Charlton Heston - woo hoo!) as a kid and later on the cartoon (or 'animated feature' as they like to be called these days) Prince of Egypt as an adult, I always wondered why those specific afflictions. Were they just random outbreaks designed to badger the Egyptians to the utmost? Most definitely not.

I've always been told that every single detail recorded in the Bible was allowed by God to happen for very specific reasons. Similarly, these outbreaks were purposed to attack the spiritual heart of Egypt as each one of them had a specific relation to the nature-based religion of Egypt. Through this, God would prove His authority by using His creations to wreck the idolatory beliefs of the Egyptians and the so-called gods that were supposed to protect them.

So for the beneift of everyone (myself inclusive lest I forget this), these are the ten plagues and why God brought them upon Egypt:

1. The Nile turned to blood (Exodus 7:14-25)
The Nile was the centre of Egyptian religion and the agricultural lifeblood for the nation. The gods Hapi and Osiris supposedly protected the river.

2. Swarms of frogs (Exodus 8:1-15)
In Egypt, Heqt, the frog god, was the symbol of fertility and resurrection.

3. Dust became lice (Exodus 8:16-19)
The Hebrew word for lice, kinnim, refers to gnats.

4. Swarms (Exodus 8:20-32)
The exact nature of this swarm is not certian, but some commentators believe it was the dog fly, a bloodsucking insect that laid eggs on other creatures and "swarmed with a voracious appetite, attacking every man, inflicting painful wounds". Kheper, represented by the scarab beetle, was the insect god shown to be impotent by the third and fourth plagues.

5. Pestilence (Exodus 9:1-7)
This was a fatal disease for cattle, which were also considered sacred and supposedly protected by the bull-god Apis and cow-goddess Hathor.

6. Boils (Exodus 9:8-12)
These painful sores were seen as a failure of their personal god of healing, Thoth.

7. Storm and hail (Exodus 9:13-35)
This plague destroyed the crops and food supply. Nut, the sky god, failed to stop this weather-borne disaster.

8. Locusts (Exodus 10:1-20)
A locust can eat its own weight daily, and locust swarms of 400 square miles have been recorded (a single square-mile swarm could contain 100 to 200 million locusts). Osiris, protector of agriculture, was seen as the ineffective god in this plague.

9. Darkness (Exodus 10:21-29)
Ra, the sun god of Egypt, was the god mocked by this plague - a plague of darkness that was so thick it could be felt.

10. Death of the firstborn of man and animal (Exodus 11:4-5; 12:29-30)
This plague marked the failure of Pharoah himself, who was considered a god. He was powerless to stop it - even losing his own firstborn.

The above is an excerpt from the Discovery Series booklet Moses: His anger and what it cost him from RBC Ministries, publishers of Our Daily Bread.

Vel turns five

Five years ago on this very day, God blessed us with a little baby girl that we would later name Velouria. Looking back, it seems like only yesterday when we were frantically driving to the hospital as Penny's water broke, then the seemingly nerve wrecking 12 hour wait as I went walking around Orchard to while my time away.

We woke up a little late - our initial plan to go to the zoo were hampered by the rain that had been coming down all night. I reached for my guitar and sang a 'Happy Birthday' for Velouria as she woke up. She thought it was quite amusing so she decided to reach for her toy guitar and joined me in a (mock) attempt to play something.

It was already quite late by the time we had washed up and packed the house a bit, and since it was a nice, lazy morning we just decided to head to McDonald's for breakfast. Being Velouria's birthday, Penny and I made a pact earlier to accede to all her whims and fancies as long as they were within reasonable means. No better way to perk up her day than to start off with a Hotcakes Happy Meal!

After a roundabout to the Science Centre and back (the crowd there was horrendous!), we ended up at the McDonald's at Jurong Green Community Centre. Tempted as I was, I decided to have my usual SME instead of the Mega SME (after the disappointing BK stacker, I had but lost all hope in these supersized burgers). Velouria, as usual, couldn't decide whether to play with her toy or gobble down her Hotcakes. I guess she enjoyed the latter more as she ended up with margarine and maple syrup all over her cherubic little face.

It was back home after that. I had to take a crap and Velouria wanted to take her ang pao that Uncle Mike had blessed her with a day earlier before we went shopping. We had promised her that since the money was hers, she could buy whatever she wanted. We never made it for our shopping trip - the lull of our comforting home coupled with the cool weather made it difficult to leave again.

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch! Already quite tired of outside food which was deepened by the thought of dining at a restaurant that night, Penny and I just raided the fridge and dragged out whatever we could to whip up a simple meal. Which consisted of (among other dishes) a minced pork omellette, stir-fried celery with crab stix (we didn't have chicken to go along) and boiled brocolli.

Tired out by the array of activities (we seem to get tired easily nowaday), we decided to take a little nap since it was still drizzling outside. We planned to hit the Toys R Us before we to Liang Court to meet Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai for dinner, but our little afternoon nap took a little longer than originally planned and we only awoke at about 6PM. A little freaked out, we quickly washed up and changed before zipping out of the house.

Liang Court sort of took me by surprise when we walked in. The last time we were here, it was still the dead town that had become so familiar ever since Daimaru and the flea market at Clarke Quay ceased their operations. Confused by the shiny bright lights it took us a while to finally figure out how to get to Dragon Phoenix where we were suppose to have dinner.

Everyone was already there by the time we found the restaurant, so the dinner got underway a short while later. The food was, no surprises here, of a standard expected from such retro restaurants i.e. yummy! We started off with sharks' fin soup, had a yam ring, Peking duck and a crispy roasted spring chicken along the way.

Velouria, of course, had fun opening all the presents bestowed upon her, among which were tau sa piah from Hong Lim Complex - my mum's idea of a prank (yes, Velouria enjoys such traditional snacks that appeals largely to the senior citizen crowd) and a colour pencil set that strangely had a price tag of £1.50 still attached to it from my bro.

After opening all her presents, Velouria got bored so she dragged me outside to the hotel's kids' corner where there was a PS3 hooked up to a plasma TV (it was very well concealed behind the TV - the only reason I knew it was there was because I saw a kid playing there as we walked into the restaurants) while everybody else was chilling inside. The only game in the PS3 was Sonic, so I turned it on for her to entertain herself.

The game pretty much sucked so she got bored after a while. Fortunately, by then it was time to head for home anyway.

As we hit our beds, I thanked God for the fabulous five years that He has blessed us with Velouria as I looked back at all the ups and downs we went through while raising her. My prayer every day is that we will raise her to be a God fearing child who will bring glory to His kingdom.

Hopefully, I will be able to attest to that a decade later when I look back.

Burger no enough

Of late, two major burger chains have been duking it out with each other for who has the most monstrous burger in town. I reckon they are feeling the heat from Carl's Jr, the chain with the REAL monster burgers.

I've never been a big fan of Ronald, so we decided to pop into a Burger King chain last night. I've always favoured BK as their burgers seemed to have that freshly grilled taste as opposed to others that always had that pre-cooked, microwave taste. Being someone with a rather big appetite despite my slim frame, I was gunning for the Quad Stacker. But since Penny also ordered a Whopper Jr meal and even upsized it, I relegated it instead to a Triple Stacker.

Imagine my surprise, horror and disappointment when the burger arrived on the tray. My first reaction was 'Huh?! So small?!' This reaction was echoed further when I unwrapped it. Firstly the beef patties were wafer thin, nothing like what was being pictured. In fact, they were so thin I had a problem figuring out if there were indeed three patties sandwiched between the buns! They had to rub salt into the wound by even running out of the so-called 'special' Stacker sauce that was supposed to be added.

Sorely dissatisfied with our dinner, we grumbled that we would have been better off at Pepper Lunch. So much for being Brave. I suppose it wouldn't take more to be Ballsy.

Back to Carl's Jr for me!

Napoli - il giorno sei **Naples - day six**

We barely had 6 hours of sleep before we got up. Like our flight from Singapore, I reckoned we could sleep on the flight back. Our flight to Munich was scheduled to leave at 6:30AM so we were just being typical Singaporeans and wanted to check in 2 hours before departure time. I awoke at 3AM to wash up and pack up all the things one final time, trying desperately to shove all the junk food that we’d bought without crushing the two huge bags of potato chips into our hand carry luggage (we could munch on the plane!). We bid our final farewells to our nice cosy room and headed down noisily (our luggage was damn heavy) to the reception to check out. Within five minutes, our cab to the airport arrived and sent us there in another fifteen since the streets were dead at this time of the morning.

When we arrived, the departure hall was dead quiet, save for one uncle mopping the floor. There were other travelers sleeping on the benches, perhaps in an attempt to save themselves from paying for an extra night at the hotel. My watch read 4:15AM, but yet signs of life were minimal. Being so used to a bustling Changi airport, the least I expected was some airport staff milling around. About an hour later, when my watch read 5:20AM the staff manning the check in counter finally came. We proceeded to check in to get our boarding passes for our flights to Munich and subsequently back to Singapore. Not knowing what else to do in the otherwise activity-deficient airport, we headed towards the departure gate, but even there the staff were just waking up and hadn’t even unlocked the doors yet. It took them another good ten minutes before they woke up, unlocked the doors and got the X-ray machines powered up.

‘What’s up with these people?’ I wondered to myself. Our flight was less than an hour away and these people seemed to care less. As we approached the boarding gates, I realized that the clock hanging from the ceiling read 5:15AM but my watch was already reading 6:15AM, just like the TV clock back at the hotel. I thought my watch had died on me without my knowledge again. Since, according to the clock, we had about an hour to go, we went up one level towards a café for some light breakfast. It was there that Penny learned the time was turned one hour back on Saturday (the day we were in Rome) as it officially marked the beginning of winter. But nobody told us, which meant that we had been living an hour ahead of time all this while. Which suddenly made sense now with the long wait at the check-in counter, the clock at the hotel, the café staff getting mad at us when we went down waaaaay too early for breakfast, etc.

Finally at 6:25AM, the boarding gates opened and we boarded the bus that would take us to the plane. As the plane took off, we could see the sun rise beaming down on Naples to wake the city up. We bid our final farewells to the city that was etched so deeply into our memories for so many different reasons. The in-flight snack came next before we could get some shut eye – it was that same sandwich made with parma ham, but without the accompanying chocolate bar this time round. The bread was so hard that you could probably hijack the plane with it, so I only took two bites of it and went to sleep. Next thing I knew, we were in Munich.

It was drizzling when the plane landed and the cold 10˚C temperature sort of took us by surprise – we expected it to be cold, but we didn’t expect that it’ll be made colder by the rain. As we got into the main building, we headed to clear the immigration and asked the information counter for directions on taking the subway to town. We figured since we had 4 hours to kill, we might as well see some sights in Munich. But the €18 ticket and the thought of scuttling around again made us rethink our plan. Fortunately, the airport had another shopping area attached to the main building so we headed towards there in search of ‘breakfast’ (it was only about 9AM by the time we got out) and hoping to kill some of our 4 hours. We found a little Nordic seafood shop and ordered some hot soup which I’d been craving for since our second day in Naples (contrary to what I thought, minestrone is NOT Italian) along with some tea. We never felt shiok-er (for lack of a better word)! After slurping up every drop of soup and wiping the bowl dry with the piece of bun provided, we proceeded to explore the rest of the shopping centre - stopping by a toy shop to purchase a Playmobil set for Danielle, Grace’s daughter; hanging out at a book shop browsing through comics and cookbooks in German and some German porn (segregated into different categories depending on your fetish!). We ended our shopping at a supermarket to buy even more tidbits (chocolates for me and a Wall-E Pez dispenser for Velouria since we’d promised her a Wall-E toy).

As we reached the boarding gate to our flight, we realized how crowded it was and were quite gloomy with the possibility of the flight home being full – which meant we didn’t have the luxury of spreading ourselves over 4 seats to snooze like our flight from Singapore. How were we going to while away 13 hours of flight time without being able to lie down and sleep?? True enough, it was indeed full and we were shoulder to shoulder with a plane full of Ozzies and Kiwis (they were continuing their journey on a connecting flight in Singapore to Australia and NZ respectively).

The flight was rather uneventful. We couldn’t really sleep as we were seated upright, so we just dozed a little here and there. We couldn’t stomach another meal of meat and potatoes and since we were craving for hot soup, we requested for Nissin cup noodles, which the attendant was nice enough to bring back later (try that on SQ and I’m sure they’ll tell you ‘Sure, we’ll stop the plane and you can go buy your own’). We managed to sit through Meet Dave which was quite hilarious (albeit a little too short to burn a substantial amount of our 13 hour flight) but the rest of the movies we’d already seen on our flight from Singapore.

Funny thing was (perhaps it was my dozing), the flight back was not as painful as I thought it would be since we were seated upright all the time. I didn’t even get out of my seat the entire flight - something I’d never accomplished before on any flight, let alone a 13 hour one! We landed in Singapore at 8:30AM and we couldn’t be happier to be home.

I can’t say this enough, but praise the Lord for this wonderful blessing that He’s given us. We just wanted to head home to sleep, and then probably head to Redhill for a hot, steaming bowl of our favourite fish soup and a nice massage to soothe our aching backs and necks.

Napoli - il giorno cinque **Naples - day five**

On our last day in Naples, we woke up really early since we went to bed rather early as well the night before. We wanted to hit the markets first thing in the morning, and since breakfast was served at 7AM we were up at 6:30AM having gone to bed at an unlikely time of 9:30PM the night before. We had to go down three times just to get our breakfast – at 7AM only to be told by the reception that breakfast was served at 7:30AM; again at 7:30AM only to be told by very grouchy café staff that they weren’t ready till 8AM; finally at 8AM when everything was ready. In between we just passed our time watching He-Man and the Masters of the Universe on TV. In Italian.

Breakfast here was simpler, not as fancy as Grand Hotel Oriente. Only one type of everything - bread, biscuit, tart, juice (orange from concentrate; it wasn’t even freshly squeezed!), ham, cheese, cereal, tea. But praise the Lord, they had cappuccino and Nutella! That was all I needed. Nutella with bread, Nutella with biscuit...

Crossing the road from our hotel, we decided to hit the supermarket first. Needed to buy something for the folks back home, and what better to give than local produce? As usual we just ooh-ed and ah-ed (being the Singaporeans that we are) at all the assortments of hams and cheese at the delicatessen counter, along with all the other merchandise on offer. We ended up with only sweets, chocolates (all the Ferrero stuff, with a dark chocolate version of Rocher!) and other manner of tidbits because everything else was just too damn expensive!

After heading back to our room to lighten our load, we went to the bus stop again (this time knowing full well where to get our bus tickets from!) to make our way towards Via Antonio Ranieri, the Napoli version of Hong Kong’s Temple Street. We got off the bus that travelled along Corso Umberto after spotting some stalls at a little lane off the main road – I still couldn’t figure out where the street signs were and the map didn’t make much sense to me. We followed the lane and, voila, found ourselves right smack in the middle of a horde of stalls peddling shoes, clothes, handbags, sunglasses and other fashion apparel. After circling the whole market, we only managed to find a pair of Converse-esque sneakers for Velouria. Dissatisfied that we still hadn’t satiated our craving for street food, we crossed Corso Umberto to head towards another market around the Via Rafealla Conferti area.

On this side, the market was older skool. The streets were lined with quaint little shops selling bread, groceries and gelato, among other things. The buildings here were older but still retained a certain charm about them. It was like one of those old neighborhoods that you’d see in an old black and white movie with Sophia Loren in it. Out of nowhere there was even an arch – a lovely piece of architecture that you’d least expect to see in an old, ramshackle neighbourhood.

Then, by the grace of God, we finally found one! An inconspicuous, kopitiam style shop in an unassuming corner with a little counter at the front selling pizza by the slice (at €1.50 a pop) and other fried fritters. With the help of a nice Italian lady who was also there buying some stuff to munch, we ordered some mashed potato fritters (something like a croquette) and some corn fritter (we heard the Italian lady say ‘mice’ initially, which had us taken aback for a while, but she actually meant ‘maize’).

Satisfied with our loot, we made our way back to Via Anotnio Ranieri in search of a some running shoes for Penny as her feet were beginning to hurt. Although we didn’t manage to find anything, we did have time to stop by a funny little toy shop – it was almost Halloween so there was plenty of amusing items being merchandised. We ventured further into the neighbourhood as I wanted to search for the Spacconelli - the longest and narrowest straight road in Naples that apparently split the city between the ‘old’ from the the ‘new’. However, after walking around in circles again (the map said we were there but I didn’t see any long, straight road), we decided to call it quits as we needed a toilet break. We ventured down one of the streets that I reckoned would lead us back to Corso Umberto (where we could hop onto another bus) and found an Asian supermarket selling stuff you’d normally find in your neighbourhood Econ mini-mart – Yeo’s Asian Drinks, Lee Kum Kee Oyster Sauce, Lee Chee Seng Sesame Oil, Royal Umbrella Rice, etc. Purchasing a can of herbal tea, we made use of the opportunity to borrow the washroom. Penny (as usual) struck up a conversation with the store owners and we found out they were from China (there they are yet again!).

We continued to make our way towards Corso Umberto again take a bus to the other side of town (we were what was considered the ‘old’ Naples, there was another street market at the ‘new’ Naples). It was a long wait for the bus as every bus which we could take seemed to be packed to the brim! When we finally got on one, it was a huge squeeze and Penny almost died being crushed by all the bigger, taller ang mohs that surrounded her. A change of bus later and we found ourselves at Villa Communale, the huge park by the sea looking out on to the Bay of Naples, where the famous aquarium was (though we never went in). Our stomachs were already rumbling despite the fritters we had earlier, so we decided to head towards our lunch venue first before hitting the street market.

Having had Italian food the past few days, we were craving for a thick slab of juicy steak so we headed to an American joint called Bar-B-Qool. Sources tell us that the American Consulate was in this area, so this was where all the cool restaurants and hang-out joints are since the Italians are so enamoured with all things American.

True enough, the Bar-B-Qool didn’t disappoint. We sat outside since it was such a fine day (but the wind nearly shrank my b***s). The staff spoke really good English, so we indeed got what we ordered (no surprises like the lobster spaghetti here). The appetizer of some chicken wings made with their home-made sauce and our main entrée of a ribeye steak was nothing short of fantastic. To top it all, we had live entertainment in the form of a road accident happening right in front of us (though we didn’t actually see it ‘cos we were so engrossed with our grub) – two scooters had crashed into each other and one rider was flung from his bike and quite badly injured. Interesting thing was, everybody just rushed out to help – passers-by got off their vehicles to help the victims, while others helped to direct traffic; the manager from the restaurant went out as well, with one of his staff bringing water to the victims. If it were to happen in Singapore, people would just stand around waiting for somebody else to do something, while they are copying down 4D numbers instead. Within a minute, the police and ambulance arrived. Impressive!

Satisfied with our lunch, we went off to hunt for our market. We went down the (in my opinion) wrong street where all the luxury boutiques were – Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, et al. The staff were surprisingly friendly, unlike those in Singapore who would give you that ‘get out if you don’t have money to buy’ kinda look. Yes, true, we didn’t have the moolah to buy anything, we were just there to check out the designs so we could buy the fake ones later. We got lost for quite a bit as, again, I was confused by the map and all the street names. We did pass by some interesting monuments though, like a statue in another piazza and some embassy where security was tight.

We sauntered on and finally stumbled upon the market we were looking for. Unfortunately, it was already quite late so most of the stall holders had already begun packing up. Here, more clothes, bags and other fashion apparel were on offer but looked more fashionable than the ones earlier. Penny almost picked up a bag for €20, but later changed her mind when I concluded it didn’t make sense since she bought her fake Gucci for the same price as well.

Disheartened by the lack of any bargains, we stopped by an espresso bar for some cappuccino to take a break after all the walking (again!). And, wow, was the coffee wonderful. Perhaps it was the chilly air, or maybe it was just the ambience (the very being of in a streetside café in Italy) that made the cappuccino taste exceptionally good! We took a break to take stock of where we were heading for next. First thing we needed was a toilet break – public washrooms are hard to come by (we Singaporeans are so spoilt) - so we decided to walk back to the restaurant we had lunch in earlier (luckily they remembered us, else we would have just peed in our pants) and proceed our walk further back down Via Parthenope by the sea to see Castel Dell’Ovo.

It was beautiful as we strolled by the sea. People were hopping out onto the wave breakers to just chill out and we were tempted to do likewise. But we didn’t have the luxury of time to chill out on rocks so we proceeded on towards the ‘Oval Castle’.

A really long walk later (the entrance to the castle was actually below it near the back so we had to cross a bridge and walk around the side), we finally entered Castel Dell’Ovo and just blur our way around. Somehow or other, we found our way to the top and we did the usual touristy things, taking in the view that the height of the castle provided (we must have been about 15 storeys high – I almost fainted when Penny told me to sit on one of the side walls to take a pic of me with the city in the background), snapping photos of some strategically placed cannons and such. It was quite an amazing sight as the castle was quite huge – with its own streets and all – and it was being refurbished into an office building.

That was the last stop for the day. The next mistake I made was to walk down Via Parthenope to the bus stop to catch the bus back to our hotel. I had misread the map and miscalculated our distance. And, schisse, was it a loooooong walk. We ended up circling the entire seaside before reaching the bus stop when we should have just walked back to where we got off earlier to get on the bus (where the bus would cut through a tunnel to shorten the distance). Quite obviously, I was given an earful by Penny about making her walk miles and miles since our first day and about how her legs were aching. Oops, my bad!

We finally got onto the bus in one piece and got off at Via Medina (where we had our ketok case lobster spaghetti) to walk (again!) back to our hotel. On the way, we passed a street kiosk selling freshly squeezed orange juice (strangely, we never noticed the guy before despite passing this spot on numerous occasions before this). It had a tinge of lemon juice in it too and it was a welcome refreshment to our parched throats after all that walking.

We took a short break in the hotel room to wash and pack up, not knowing what to have for dinner – contrary to what I thought, we were quite tired of having pizza and pasta at every meal. There was a Chinese restaurant across the road but it just seemed so silly having to pay a bomb for what we could normally whip up at home (that meal at the Chinese restaurant in Gold Coast which cost us an arm and a leg came to my mind). We decided to just walk around and walk into the first restaurant that looked enticing to us.

Surprisingly, many restaurants were closed (it was only about 7PM) and the streets were starting wind down. We passed a McDonald’s and saw a poster which featured a Quarter Pounder made with ciabatta bread and Italian cheese, so we thought ‘Hey, why not?’. It may seem silly to be munching on a burger when we were in a city that had so much more to offer, but I had no regrets ordering that burger! The combination of the ciabatta bread with the parmaggiano regianno cheese, along with the thick beef patty, was something extraordinary that you would perhaps only find in Italy. It was a delightful shock to the palates with all the different sensations that the ingredients offered – a tad bland with the bread; the rich savoury taste of the juicy beef patty; the amalgamation of sauces and the light, sourish note of the cheese – which makes me drool just thinking about it.

After the wonderful meal, we took a really slow walk back to the hotel. It was, after all, our last night in Naples. We took the effort to breathe in the chilling night air and remember every sound that the city made. Over the past few days, we had meandered around the city so much that we seemed to know it at the back of our hands (more or less).

We packed our things one last time as we reached our room – our flight was at 6:30AM and we had to be at the airport really early. We were really grateful that God had blessed us with this trip and couldn’t have asked for more. We fell asleep with that thought, grateful that we were blessed enough to be flown halfway round the world into a country that we would have least expected to visit.

Napoli - il giorno quattro **Naples -day four**

After two days of intense walking and tons of activities, we decided to sleep a little later on Sunday. Spent some time with God after waking up since we couldn’t find a church to go to; it was Sunday after all. As usual, we headed downstairs for breakfast – our last in Grand Hotel Oriente since we were going to check out from here and move down the road to a cheaper hotel, Hotel Executive (rooms here cost S$240 a night, compared to S$117 down the road).

We gobbled down our breakfast and proceeded to bid our farewell to the hotel, paying €2 for a bottle of sparkling water we took from the fridge (they don’t serve complimentary bottled water here). Dragging our luggage down the street was more difficult than I thought with the cobbled stones on the pavement and the tiled roads! By the time we reached the next hotel, my arm had almost gone numb. But we couldn’t check in till after 12 noon, we were told, as the rooms weren’t ready yet.

So off to the market we went again. As we walked around, we realised that everything around us was closed. We thought it was a morning thing but later found out it was a Sunday thing. Even the McDonald’s next to our hotel was closed! It was like a ghost town.

According to the guidebook, La Pignasseca was the only market that was open on Sunday so we headed back there again. This time round (probably because it was quite late) more stalls were open. We relished the sight and smells of more live seafood, fresh flowers and delectable confectionery and pastries. There were more fake handbags on sale too – guess all the peddlers were eager to cash in on the weekend crowd. We walked along and found a fruit stall, so we bought ourselves a pear and some strawberries since our diet consisted of nothing but junk in the past few days. Gobbling down the sweet strawberries, we reached the end of La Pignasecca without coming across anything else that caught our fancy.

With everything else closed and nothing much else to do, we decided to do the customary tourist thing and see the city via the Napoli City Sightseeing bus (similar to our Hippo Tours, where all the ang mohs would hop on to see Chinatown, Esplanade and other such touristy places) . We took a walk towards Castel Nuovo where the bus terminus was. We sauntered around Castel Nuovo a bit and snapped some pics, since it was one of the many legendary, must-see sights in Naples. Never in my life have I come up close and personal with so many castles within such a short span of time (this was the second one after Castel Sant Angelo in Rome the day before).

The bus that we wanted to take, the route that travels along the bay of Naples, came by but it was too full to get on. I suppose we were not the only ones who wanted to see the postcard picturesque view of Naples with Mt Vesuvius in the background. After a few no-goes with the next few buses (credit card machine not working, too many people, among other reasons we couldn’t fathom because of the guides’ atrocious English), we were starting to get impatient so we just hopped on the next bus (the historic route) that came along.

We got off at Piazza Dante, after passing by some sections of the ‘old Naples’ with the chapels and medieval buildings, which is supposedly some intellectual corner with all the old bookshops (probably an equivalent of our old Bras Basah) and Speakers’ Corner-esque activities at night. We got on to another bus (the artistic route), which brought us past the Museo Archelogico (an archeological museum with artefacts excavated from Pompei and Herculaneum), the Sant Gennaro chapel (with the catacombs underneath, yikes!), the MADRE art gallery (some hip-and-happening contemporary art place) and the Museo e Bosco di Capodimonte (their national museum?). We got off the bus near Hotel Executive as it was past 12 noon so it was time to check in.

Our new hotel had a classic, rustic charm to it. It gave a homelier, cosier feel compared to the hotel we were in the past few nights. At S$117 a night, it was also relatively smaller than the previous S$240 a night room. But who cares, we only needed a place to lay our head and shower. After checking in (our luggage had been brought up to the room once it was ready) and going up to our room, we asked the guy at the recep for a recommendation for lunch. We were famished! He pointed us towards Ciro’s, a tratorria along Via Medina, a street perpendicular to where we were and just a 5 mins walk from the hotel. Along the way, we gave a quick call home to Vel who was at my parents’ since it was Deepavali back in Singapore.

The lunch, as expected, was fabulous. We realised that it was a norm to have pizza as an appetiser before the meal. Knowing that the pizza was too much for either of us to finish, we ordered one to share. The shocker of shockers was our main course of spaghetti. When we asked for a recommendation, the head waiter told us of their ‘special of the day’, with tomatoes from Vesuvio and something which we couldn’t figure out ‘fresh from the sea’ (we thought it was clams or something). It turned out to be lobster. Penny couldn’t stop laughing when she my face as I thought to myself, ‘Jia lat, kena ketok liao’. Praise the Lord the bill only came up to about €50, considered a reasonable amount for a decent meal.

We left Ciro’s feeling absolutely delighted with our lunch and headed back to the front of Castel Nuovo to wait for the Bay of Naples City Sightseeing bus. Surprisingly, it was quite empty now, perhaps because it was already rather late in the afternoon (it was about 3:30PM by the time we boarded the bus). We found a good seat on the upper deck and couldn’t wait for the bus to move off.

It plied along Via Parthenope by the sea, passing by Villa Communale along the way, before we hit Via Posillipo where the swanky residences are. From the top deck, we could see boardwalks extended from people’s houses and there were actually people sunbathing in the 20˚C weather! Insane!! It was windy as hell and it didn’t help that in our haste to fill our stomachs I had forgotten to bring my sweater with me! The bus came to a stop at a point that provided that typical tourist postcard shot – a full view of the Bay of Naples with Mt Vesuvius in the background. The bus moved along after everyone had their fill of snapping. On the way back, the bus plied along the sea again, passing Castel Dell’Ovo along the way and finally coming to a halt at the front of Castel Nuovo.

We took a walk back to Piazza Plebiscito, where the concert was a few nights back, since it was nearby - we wanted to take a look at it during the day. We hung around and snapped some photos and made our way into the Royal Palace. To our surprise, the ineterior had actually been converted into a museum.

Arty farty sculptures aplenty, we walked further in and ventured into the museum which housed displays of items and artefacts that were used in previous productions staged at Teatro San Carlo, the oldest theatre in Italy. We milled around a bit, being our usual nonsense self and trying to make sense of the arty stuff.

Though we failed, we tried to sneak into the Teatro San Carlo for a peek. Unfortunately, it was under renovation and the fursthest we went was the stairs at the entrance. As we made our way back, we strolled pass Galleria Umberto just to gawk at the intricate architecture. This was another old, colonial building refurbished to house high-end designer boutiques today. With nothing else to do, we made our way back to the hotel to get some rest before coming out again to hunt for our dinner.

We set out at about 6:30PM and decided to hit the streets again. We were not very hungry as the pizza and lobster spaghetti we had for lunch was still very much in our stomachs. Since we were quite tired with restaurant food, we walked down Corso Umberto in search of a small café or pizzeria to junk on some nonsense. Unfortunately, everything was closed as we trudged along although it was only 7PM. We finally decided to call it quits when we walked two-thirds of the looong Corso Umberto and reached Piazza Nicola Amore. As we circled the square, we noticed lights coming from a small shop selling cigarettes and titbits (kinda like a mamak stall). Delighted to see that something was open, we walked in and bought ourselves some titbits to bring back to the hotel.

We munched on our crackers and Tronky and washed it down with Coke as we vegetated in front of the TV. What a way to spend a Sunday evening when you’re halfway round the world. Penny was quite tired so she slept early. Me, I spent the rest of the night watching Back to the Future II in Italian. It didn’t matter thatIdon't speak Italian as I’d seen this movie umpteen times and knew the dialogue at the back of my hand.

As I went to sleep, I noticed that the clock on the TV read 20:32 while it was already 9:30PM on my watch. Strange…