Abstract artist in the family

A few nights back, we left Velouria to play on her own. She was up to her usual tricks, dragging out her Play-Doh and what nots while we were chilling in our room.

Then she called out to us, asking to look at her 'boy and girl'. Curious, we went out of our rooms to where she was and when we looked down, we saw this little 'sculpture' that Vel had created with her Play-Doh. Her abstract impression of a boy and girl.

I'm so proud of my daughter. Dude's hairdo is a little freaky though.

Another one bites the dust

In my honest opinion, we are losing our Singaporean heritage and identity bit by bit as our country morphs into a thriving metropolis in an attempt to keep up with the rest of the modern world. Modernisation is just not a good enough excuse in my books to remove old architecture only to make way for more contemporary ones.

So far, we have lost the National Theatre, Van Kleef Aquarium, the blocks of flats at Outram Park, Taman Serasi hawker centre (previously opposite the Botanical Gardens), Satay Club and most recently the old National Library to make way for that silly (and absolutely redundant) tunnel along Stamford Road!

Another location that looks set to join these pieces in the history books will be the tiny hawker centre at Labrador Park. Tucked away in a corner of Pasir Panjang just as you make a right turn from Alexandra Road is a small, unassuming hawker centre that is known only to people frequenting that area. Looking like something that was left behind from the 1960s, this edifice greets you as you turn into Labrador Villa Road while you make your way to Labrador Park.

Famous for its nasi padang as well as other Indian and Malay fare, this place is popular during lunch with the office crowd working in the area. However, come end August, this hawker will cease operation as the National Environment Agency has decided to shut it down. Most of the hawkers we spoke to have no intention of carrying on their business, citing old age and higher rental at relocation premises being the main reasons.

I recall those days when I was still living in Telok Blangah, my friends and I would stop here for a bandung on the way into Labrador Park to ‘catch spider’, climb trees and try to make sense of the random concrete structures we came across (little did we know then that these were actually WWII monuments). Labrador Park has sicne then been revamped into a new swanky seaside chill out place, complete with BBQ pits, playgrounds and even restaurants and a spa at the top of the hill. If my memory serves me correctly, they probably reclaimed some land as well when restoring the surroundings.

Anyway, there we were having a little meal of nasi padang, nasi bryani and mee goreng before finishing it off with some goreng pisang. There’s nothing like a dirty, old and smelly hawker centre to add some flavour to your otherwise unexciting meal!

Kids will soon have to grow up in Singapore with only shopping malls, mobile phones and the internet. They will soon not know how it feels to graze their knees while climbing trees to pluck rambutans, or their hearts pulpating with excitement as they rummage through undergrowth for spiders to catch.

Major bummer.

New boots

Guys are such klutzes when it comes to shopping. We never buy anything unless we really, really, really need it. Like when holes start appearing on our boxers, our deodarant starts spraying only cold air or our wallets start getting warped out of shape. And even when we finally do, we just head straight towards that particular department where we are seeking our wares and get the deed done. Go in, get the stuff and get out. Like a Navy SEAL rescue mission.

So it was really unglam for me to become all 'kuniang' after I set my eyes on a particular pair of boots at Primavera. The design totally rocked; it was gaterised so no fumbling with laces, it was high cut so my pants could fall nicely around the shoe (I'm anal that way) and had nice little details that you would hardly find on a pair of, say, Bata shoes. It could go well with jeans too for a smart casual look! But the price was way too steep for me. At $229, it was way over what I would usually pay for a pair of shoes. My most expensive pair cost me $150, and they were a pair of skating sneakers I bought from Australia.

When the Primavera outlet at Marina Square was having a 'Closing Down' Sale, the boots were slashed down to $169. But I still managed to convince myself that I don't really need another pair of shoes and just walked away.

So there I was at Vivo City with Vel a couple of weeks back. We passed by the Primavera outlet and the were having a sale. The boots were there staring at me AGAIN! So just to satisfy my curiousity, I walked over, picked them up and looked at the price tag.

$99!

Without hesistation, I beckoned the sales assistant and asked for a size 8. Perfect fit! Naturally, I bought them (after eyeballing them for so many months).

Moral of the story: never buy anything during GSS, buy them AFTER. *snigger*

Punch Buggy redux - continued

We finally made arrangements and got down to jamming at Mel's place. After going around in circles (why do all these private housing estates all look the same??) I found Mel's place and went up to his 'studio'.

I was really taken aback by the state his drum set was in. And to think he paid $800 of his gig money to get it! The metal parts were all rusty, the bass drum sounded like crap and it came with one 10" splash and 18" ride cymbals. It made me sad just looking at it. I mean, what was I supposed to do with only one 10" splash? The least they could do was throw in a 12"!

Then I was reminded 'In all things give thanks', so I thank the Lord that at least we had a drumset to use. Selwyn, our bassist, turned up a short while later so after the usual pleasantries we got down to it.

Although I screwed up a little here and there (Mel and Selwyn had already been playing together for a few years prior to our reunion), overall it was quite a good jam. Mel was up to his usual nonsense (the chord structures for all his songs are more or less similar) and it felt like how it was 12 years ago. We covered about four songs within an hour and a half so it wasn't that shoddy at all.

I'm so looking forward to the next jamming session. Drum set needs a little maintenance though.

Hungry + tired = angry

I've just realised that Velouria has one more thing in common with me. She gets REALLY grouchy when she's hungry and tired.

On Tuesday, she spent one whole day with her school mates at the Hort Park and only came back close to 4pm. Naturally, since it was past her afternoon nap time she was feeling very sleepy by the time she reached home. And because she only had 4 pieces of chepati for lunch, it obviously wasn't enough to fill the insatiable and bottomless pit that she is and so she was also hungry when she came back.

Coupled together, it made her one grouchy little girl! I had to coax her with seaweed, peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a cup of Horlicks just to get her into the house. After sitting at the door to gobble up two packets of seaweed, she finally took off her shoes and went to the room. I made her the sandwich and Horlicks, but the poor girl kept nodding off while seated at the side of the bed. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore so she decided to lie down and it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that she would soon fall asleep with the half-eaten sandwich in her hand.

I then took the liberty to finish off whatever was left of the sandwich and Horlicks.

Yikes! Big mistake. Imagine the monster she became when she awoke and found her sandwich and Horlicks were gone.

Chepati and dhal

Penny has found a new love. She has moved on from her Korean craze and is now into chepati and dhal curry. She apparently got the recipe from a true blue Indian native and has been dying to try it out as chepatis are supposed to be healthier than pratas since it uses whole wheat flour and isn't fried with ghee. So we went on a wild hunt for the ingredients (lentils, mustard seeds, Indian sesame oil, etc) at KK Market and Little India a couple of days back since we had not much to do.

It was all flour and curry when we returned home, with Velouria even chipping in to make mini chepatis proportionate to her small frame. But, praise the Lord, it all turned out pretty well and we wiped out all the chepatis.

In fact, it was so good that Velouria even requested for more of it to bring with her on the school excursion the following day. She probably wants to show off to her friends that she has something different to eat.

Yummy.

Punch Buggy redux

Singapore is such a small, small place. Just about a week and a half ago, I found a long lost friend through Max, the media planner in the agency that was doing stuff for us. The first time we met, I found his persona strangely familiar, like one of those things you seem to remember from a dream you had the night before. It was only after taking a second glance at his namecard that I realised he shared the same family name as a friend whom I'd long forgotten.

I took a stab in the dark and asked Max if he had a younger brother named Melvin and, true enough, he said yes. Max immediately gave his younger brother a call and there we were, Melvin and I, trying to catch up on what had gone on in the past 12 years since we last met.

In 1993, Melvin and I found each other through the free ad postings in the now defunct BigO magazine. He plays the guitar and was looking for members to form a band; I was just starting to play the drums and was looking for a band to really jam with. So, voila, Punch Buggy was formed.

We had the same kind of musical tastes which were, at that time, mainly made up of jangly stuff like Teenage Fanclub, Weezer, The Posies, Lemonheads and the like. We were also skating buddies who would go everywhere on our skateboards - jamming, skating to his place from Sunset Way (they used to reside at a condo called Bradley Ville or some fancy name like that opposite Clementi Park condo). Somehow after I graduated and Melvin found his niche with another local band (Silverspy which then evolved into Suchness) and we lost contact.

Upon catching up, I realised that we still have more in common than I thought. We both wear skating shoes to work (despite being frowned upon by our bosses), we love buying Bata shoes and (this one takes the cake) both of us relish the sound of this band called Silver Sun because we are of the same accord that our band then would have sounded like this had we continued to master our craft.

Anyways, it turns out Melvin still writes songs and is a bedroom musician now. Not that he wasn't back then; we used to fool around with a 4-track machine which recorded on a cassette. Which in turn is unheard of anymore. He's turned one of the rooms at his (parents') place into a jamming studio so we're getting together this weekend for a little jam session.

Can't wait.