CNY Problems

As I become ever more decrepit, it seems on a daily basis, there seem to be more and more drugs thrown at me. While this was fun back in the Sixties (those of us who only remember parts of them usually capitalise it), it is definitely less fun now. The latest pills are supposed to provide a decent flow, as otherwise I would be standing in front of something like this for so long as to lead to embarrassment, or possibly the approach of interesting new friends.

However they, the pills, did not impress me as I found myself yawning in the afternoons. Worse, on getting home from work I was falling asleep at increasingly early hours. When we were invited to a Chinese New Year Party and I could not go this made us realise that the disadvantages of the drug outweighed the advantages. I ceased taking it and, lo and behold, I was back to normal, or as close as I ever get. Not wanting to prejudice myself against the drug I had avoided checking on it earlier, but the web tells me it can cause a slow heartbeat which, I figure, explains matters rather.

The good news is that the following day we were able to drive round to our friends and deliver our son's old bike for use by their kids. It was much appreciated and so were the dozen or so gins they forced upon me, much against my wishes as I am sticking to my diet . . . sometimes.

Peace comes to a relative

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,

blessed is the name of the Lord.

Mama's brother, who I knew as Tatay, was taken yesterday night after a very short illness and apparently without pain, I am glad to say. After a perhaps somewhat turbulent earlier life, in the last few years he had become a comfort to Mama and to us as he spent much of the time on our family farm. He was as helpful as an aging body would permit, but Mama was sometimes amused when he had out his sling to drive off marauding goats. His eyesight had become such that he could sometimes fail to see them and hence he was unlikely to be overly effective with a well aimed sling shot.

As his step became less firm we gave him an adjustable metal cane and then had to insist on its use, since he felt it was so impressive that it deserved to be held for special occasions only. Such a small thing for us to do and how pleased we were that he liked it so much. It had been our plan to get him spectacles at Easter to improve another portion of his life, but now that he is in a better place I am sure that his sight is restored.

We are sorry to have lost him and yet pleased that his passing was painless. We are convinced that he is now in a better place, surrounded by angels.

Why Not Me?

My wife, Alice,

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and my daughter, by my late wife,

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are both beautiful

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Why ain't I?

Indian Food Excels

There is no doubt that Alice is an ace cook, but due to the difficulties of getting us all to the table at the same time and being a lover of restaurants anyway, I am often led towards a meal out.

We have rarely gone to an Indian restaurant recently, being too overcome by the recollection of D'Tandoor in Kuala Lumpur perhaps. I do enjoy the food there and always try to have at least one hot dish rather than just the jal frezy and do piazza style (not to mention the tandoor things themselves) even though I generally prefer north Indian cuisine to south. However as we sought out a new (to Alice) condo where she had been invited to play tennis width the Japanese ladies, we spotted a place that caught our eye.So last weekend we made a visit and, as you can see, the selection was great, and we really enjoyed ourselves! And they had an Indian "champagne" at only thirty Sing, which I did not try having already got my Merlot by the time I had found out, but next time, maybe!

High Maintenance?

Just yesterday Alice and I returned to the Condo from a North Indian restaurant and, in the car park, bumped into a really nice friend of Alice. She was with some-one new to us but who was also a keen tennis player and we stopped and chatted for a while, as they arranged a 2 hour game for next Sunday. With no justification whatsoever I referred to Alice as "high maintenance". This is, of course, completely untrue!

As they arranged for the match, I noted that I was having four days off, including the weekend, because of Chinese New Year and therefore there was not a problem. I may not have made it clear to the new lady but there could perhaps have been a problem otherwise.

This is because in fact I am the high maintenance one and want to have Alice with me all the time when I am not at work. Earlier notes have mentioned our walks, and the pleasure we get from being together on them. Just yesterday morning we took the brat and two sleep-over pals from his school to Singapore Zoo. [You can believe the hype - it's brilliant] But whether it's walking or watching the ladies in the Australian Open or anything else, I do like to be near her.

So between her tennis, running the home, the school run, taking our son to his many engagements, all done with only a part time girl once a week to do the heaviest cleaning, she has to squeeze in all the normal lady things like hairdos, while still being free to provide my happiness. And so, quite clearly I am the one that requires so much maintenance. But luckily Alice provides it, and so I remain a contented man, although worried by the nearness of Rabbie Burns Day and my consequent entry into yet another decade.

Cheering the Leader

I glanced at my photos just recently and was reminded of certain of my cravings, how I, and many other, English (I will accept the despised designation for this alone) miss the grand Pork Pie. With a pickled onion or two, maybe some Branston's or mustard pickle and a beer, or twelve, it can really make a charming impromptu meal. I have been known to inform potential visitors from UK, that only provision of a pie or two would ensure their welcome.

I also came across this charming record of an earlier era, when the cheerleaders obviously wore rather more clothing than appears to be the norm today. In fact if you do a search for images I strongly suggest that you have Adult Content blocked or you will be swamped by a seemingly unending number of pictures of young ladies and it is apparently not the cheerleading stunts that get most photographed.

I have no idea why the above ladies should have found it necessary to be out in the rain, surely the match would have been cancelled? But then I don't understand why Americans play rounders, a game played in UK only by young girls. Still it is the diversity of life that gives it an interest after all.

A Caring Andrew

Following my note on food I received a comment from an obviously caring guy concerned about my health (or possibly merely being sarcastic) saying "Have you checked your cholestrol [sic] level? It's probably higher than the Empire State Building. Just be careful." His blog is "Austinites" should you wish to learn about a dog lover, school returnee and new home-owner.

But the real point of this blog is that it reminded me of three things.

1) Americans can't spell, although I have not read enough of his blog as yet to see if that is why he is going back to school.

2) Many years ago in Britain, when they still had a car industry beyond TVR and Caterham, a colleague of mine had an early Austin Maxi. He left it in the street one evening only to find next morning that somebody had failed to notice it, big and ugly though it was. It therefore had a rear right wing buckled and his pride and joy had become an even more horrible sight than normal. So off it went to the Austin garage where over some considerable period it was eventually repaired, with him chasing them almost daily. I am not quite sure if they were irritated by his visits or not but when he got it back he proudly took me out to see the "perfect repair". I couldn't help laughing, this becoming even louder and more prolonged as I realised that he genuinely had not seen the minor spelling error. Where previously the chrome letters proudly spelt out Austin now they read Ausnit. I was well amused, particularly since "a bit of a nit" was a phase often used to comment on someone liable to miss the point.

3) I lived in Nilai in Malaysia for some time a few doors along from an American, married to a Filipina, as am I. When he went on his annual medical check up his wife went along, as I always ask Alice to accompany me. She seemed a bit put out during the doctor's later summing up, and after they returned home she came to see Alice and said "Why is the doctor blaming my food, it's good and fresh and why should it be blamed for his chloresterol levels". Alice got the story out from her and pointed out that the doctor was pleased that her husband's levels were reduced and he was boasting to the doctor that it was due to his wife's cooking. So it ended happily, but it could have caused days of sulks without the explanation!

You know, considering the immense length of time that I have lived, you would think that I would have some anecdotes that are rather more amusing, would you not?

Slimbo

I am rather fond of the first Rambo film, and indeed of the book, although the follow-on films seemed pretty abysmal. In fact I have the first in the series on VHS, VCD and DVD; interestingly enough all three versions differ, particularly as he escapes into the woods and gains clothing.

However it suddenly entered my mind that I was exposing my rather lesser miseries without giving my background. So, being prone to the desire to aggrandise myself, here are a few pertinent facts. Although our house in UK is a little north of London in fact I was conceived in Egypt, but born in Scotland. My father, unfortunate soul, was merely English unlike my full blooded Scot mother. It may be the place where I commenced life that led to my love of heat and sun and I have spent many years in warmer climes ensuring a suntan. In fact I hope to continue this, there is much to recommend the present place of residence, in spite of the comments of the Asian Human Rights Commission, as recorded by the Beeb here at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4619444.stm. So in order to maintain my present enjoyment of the odd "quiet glass of wine" and the many other things that Asia provides, such as great foodstalls, warm climate, friendly people, I therefore rather hope we can remain in the region for some considerable time. The question is whether Asia can cope with the manly essence of so many westerners?

Food, Glorious Food

I have to admit that I am more of a gourmand than a gourmet but having come across this charming escaping snail (although I claim Scottish blood and our kings escaped to France whenever the damned English outfought us, I still see no reason for using French terms when perfectly good English ones exist, escargots - hah! And wine is pink not rose, oh damn, how I do I insert the accent?) it reminded me that I enjoy them, as did George even as a child. Here he can be seen wielding the utensils expertly and enjoying a dozen snails in the Ship (or one of them at least, we used the one by Sogo most) in KL. He looks pretty restaurant trained for a youngster, don't you think?

I am not quite so good and am a total lover of lobsters but need my charming wife to get the most out of the experience. Alice can get the last bit of meat out and I never order it unless she is there to give me the help I need to really get the best. Mind you the size of the ones we tend to order in the Lobsterman (again in KL) means that it takes a time to complete the whole thing and I have been known to require a second bottle of wine. This may explain why Alice always drives home! It may also explain why I had a slightly smaller one on the occasion recorded below, since even then I was vaguely trying to lose a bit of weight. But with all these restaurants, how hard it is. The old pal mentioned in the previous post claims that I have a definite "restaurant mode", I will not argue with that.

Rare delights

As the owner of a fair number of surprisingly effective Ju-Ju bags, bought at the regular big market at the small village at the turn off towards New Marte, from the road from Maiduguri (Nigeria) to N'Djamena (Chad), and also due to my being capable of pronouncing Gris-Gris, it behooves me to listen to the Night Tripper and record my pleasure in getting back in touch with a pal in UK. A lovely fellow, athough with the usual Yorkshire propensity for such faux pas as buying a Westfield instead of a Seven or an Atom.

However I like to think of him back in the UK striding across the moors, black powder long gun in hand and searching out wild Yorkshire P'dings for the pot. These are, of course, such a rare delicacy that they normally form a course of their own in banquets, often made palatable with a special onion sauce. While in Nigeria I was told that onions are the only thing you can eat with impunity anywhere in the world, raw or cooked. As one pal there ended up infested with seven different types of worm, I have always since had a hankering towards onions. And therefore Alice and I, at the instigation of this reconnecting pal, once ate a meal including the Y. P'ding with him. Regrettably it was not actually in Yorkshire so that might explain the time it took to recover.

However I am very pleased to resume contact, not least because he is moulting as fast as me, as this eight year old photo from Kajang, in Malaysia, shows. However since he is clutching a beer in the pool, I do rather wonder why he is not round like me?

15 + 1

Not yet having any photographs for the fifteenth anniversary I could not help but put up this one from our tenth, just to tide over those dreadful days as we wait to see the record of how much older we now look!

Yesterday, when I was off, we first went to Mount E, this being another occasion when it was for Alice and not for me. It is rather nice that the efforts made to date are clearly having an effect and reducing the number of my trips to get painkillers, MCs and the like. But unfortunately Alice has had to wait a few days for the results of certain tests, including those in connection with her heart. So it was a most pleasant visit as all tests are proving that she is fine, and her having cut down on the caffeine has removed some of the most worrisome of the symptoms sufficiently that she was back playing tennis this morning while I was back at work.

With such good news we went for a stroll in the Botanical Gardens, walking up by the Halia but staying very definitely outside (until we can afford it again!). This allowed me to check whether there was a better parking place on the road outside to shorten the walk in. This can be necessary when, as on the anniversary, we were all dolled up and the rain was fair piddling down. And guess what, my belief that we could park better, a belief that Alice did not share and hence made us park further away on the anniversary, was proven correct. But then I am male so do things like read maps!

And as we came back towards the main entrance we stopped at the fast food joint and had a well-deserved double scoop of ice-cream (lemon-lime in my case) a fine end to our anniversary celebrations.

15th Anniversary

I had the afternoon off on our fifteenth wedding anniversary, and also the following day. There was quite a lot to fit into this short break, but having just had a longish holiday over Christmas we felt it could not be extended; quite apart from the lack of cash following Christmas! (But at least Alistair got his PSP, which appeared to have totally supplanted every other such thing, until yesterday when he spent the entire afternoon on computer games - this does not worry us too much since he likes things like the Sims and other planning games).

So it was "get collected from work, rush home, get showered and changed and head for the Wedding/Graduation Photographers for some pictures, one of which would be later framed into a big hang-on-the-wall job, rush home, get changed from evening dress into a suit (Alice) or grab a large Tio Pepe (me!), and head out for dinner".

We had booked at the Halia, next to the Ginger Garden in the Botanical Gardens, we walk there so often that a meal there in a decent restaurant (rather than a snack or an ice cream at the fast food places) seemed worthwhile. We had been to the Halia one evening earlier, dropping in with Alistair on an evening walk, not have realised that it rather upgraded itself in the evenings, and thought it would be pleasant. How right we were!

We were taking photos of each other and were kindly approached to have further photos taken by the very helpful and pleasant staff. The one at the top of these whitterings shows us holding up the free pudding they gave us as it was our anniversary. To the left is Alice, pleased with our "free". What a kind gesture, and although we were quite full, just look at my great main course, we managed to demolish it completely with great pleasure.

And I was impressed by the wine list having a reasonable Chablis, usually not available except in the most expensive places since it is a little dry for the Singaporean taste (this came direct from the waiter warning me how dry a wine I was ordering!).

Finally, back home, where we found that Alistair had lit candles around the place just before we got back to give us a romantic setting! Not a bad finish to a great day.

New Year Lunch

Alice and Flor at Corcini & Flor's delightful new year lunch. I am not a fan of singing and yet again managed to avoid using the microphone, which was a real relief. But what I did manage was rather more food than I usually do and (perhaps) a little less booze.

Corcini can be seen on our website at parties in Malaysia and we had lost touch, bumping into each other again years later here in Singapore. By then he was a married man, and I feel he has been just as lucky as I since she a lady of great charm.

We had a great time with them and others and Corcini amazed me by phoning others from our time in Malaysia so that I suddenly found myself talking to Joy and Ris in Dubai, who we had got along with so

well, for so long, some years ago.

Of course there were also children there, this boy on the left amusing me by his less than subtle method of disguising his lifting sweets from the box. And the young lady on the right being most annoyed with me until I permitted time for her to redo her hair for this photograph.

Besides those of us in the construction business a number of Flor's nursing colleagues dropped by. Since it is Mount E that I usually attend I was pleased to see such a pleasant collection of clearly skilled nurses, and I was even given permission to address the Sister as Mary. However I bet if I am ever in her ward I will not be allowed to reject injections (How I Hate Needles) based just upon that!

2006

There's nothing to add, is there, this covers it all!