Much About Munch

Soo, I'm back in the capital of Tweetless land, as I like to call it. Haha. I'm also doing it here as I've become just ever so slightly paranoid after spending about 4 months here and hearing stories of censorship and the like.

Anyway. Just to ramble somewhat incoherently about being back here.

I have to admit I wasn't entirely thrilled about the prospect of coming back. There were many many other places in the world I'd rather have been jetting off to.

That said, it's not like I despise this city and wish to stick voodoo pins into everything about it.

It's just that there are a number of things about living here that just really got me down.

One of the most fundamental 'Boooo'-inducing things about life here for me is the food. Perhaps it's a sign of age, or the seeping influence of the mother, but it bothers me a lot when I'm unable to procure proper food.

A lot of the food here makes my stomach turn when I think about it, and sometimes, I'd really just go without eating rather than put that stuff into my body. Even if it tastes good, I think it's probably not doing your health any wonders, what with the oozing oil and artificial tastes and textures. I swear some of the fruit actually taste chemical.
Horror stories that really seem true about how 10% of cooking oil in this country is recycled from sewage really do nothing to bolster my confidence in eating here.

I didn't have a proper kitchen last semester, and only owned a saucepan (which I set on fire one evening. Haha) so after a while I gave up on preparing my own meals and relied on eating out and take out food.

The good thing was that I lived in 'Little Korea', and so there was this wonderful little Korean diner that dished out yummy Korean food that received the stamp of approval from the Koreans too. I ate waaaay more Korean food in those few months than I did in my whole life up to that point!!

Took the bus to my old neighbourhood last night to be reunited with my old haunt. :p
Where I got off, the 'fish man' was there!!!
No, I'm not referring to those peddlers with carts of tanks crammed full of goldfish and poor bunnies in horrifically tiny cages and other inhumanely housed pets.

It's this fish!!


A lovely snack that here, is sold with a milk chocolate or white chocolate filling. I believe they originate from Japan where they're usually filled with red bean paste.
The 'fish guy' got his equipment from Korea, which is this round implement with many molds and a gas fire.


Yesterday's fish was nice and crispy. ^-^
I tried not to think about how the oil he coats the molds with is probably the dreaded sewage oil.

Maybe I'm just over-paranoid. Or maybe the problem isn't so much with the food in Tweetless land but lies with me instead. Hmm.

Anyway, for dinner I had a wonderful bowl of pollack soup, which was bean paste based and spicy (surprise surprise. Haha) Good stuff!


Right. Time to put an end to my whining about food here.

PS: Typing 'Tweetless land" is probably useless, given my tags. Dorh.

Rainy Day Blogging

I keep meaning to blog, but have been distracted by other corners of the internet whenever I get online. Well, to beging with, being back has rather cut down the number of hours I spend with my digits being glued to the keyboard. I'm still ill and so have not gone into full 'I'm back!!!!!' mode, but there're enough engrossing diversions and delightful distractions to be had within under my roof and within the confines of my room. I rather enjoy conducting what I like to think of as self-archaeological digs - sifting through my drawers and going through the material goods that are now remnants of the years I've spent taking in oxygen and consuming resources on this planet.

But anyway, there's much that I'd love to write about on this blog! I keep blogging in my head, but never actually get down to doing it. Let's draw up a little list and see how much I can get through..... eventually? Haha.

♣ Impressions on China.
-This is something I really want to do, but don't feel quite up to the task just yet. Hmmm.
♣ More on hutongs.
-I have some pictures from a sunny afternoon spent traipsing around the hutongs of Beijing. Would like to put some up. Or I could just dump them in a Facebook photo album. Haha.
♣ Tianjin
-Took a day trip to the city of Tianjin a while back, but never got round to writing about it and putting pictures up.

♥ Two years ago.......
-London, Norway, Paris, Iceland. I miss Europe so!

♠ Uniquely Singapore
Haha! That's our tourist promotion tagline. Right. Haha. But yes, it'd be nice if I could actually get down to posting about places I like in the Spore. I don't think I've ever done that before. Heh. ^^;

♦ NicoNico Video music!!!
Remember when I complained about not having new music to explore? Well, all that has changed now!! Whoo! Haha. Lots of lovely cheesy electronic Vocaloid music, and Utattemita ('I tried singing it') music. Nya~! =^.^= Happily spinning!



Mmm. I think that's about it? For now? Heh.

Anyway, I need to gloat!!


I am now the proud new owner of happy, happy, shiny, colourful hair!!! Whoo~! о(ж＞▽＜)ｙ ☆

Or as the speshu Shu puts it, I have shanny, colourful hair!! xDDD

I was getting so sick of my old hair and one of the first things on my list to do after getting back was heading to the hairdresser's.


Have I mentioned how much I love my hairdresser??? If not, I am now!!!

She did a much more amazing job than I would have hoped for!

It's this old, pokey place in a sleepy neighbourhood with interior designs straight out of the 80's. It's like stepping back in time.
I sat there for four hours with the classical channel on the radio piping into one ear, and a cheesy Chinese period drama on the TV into the other, with the sweet fumes of chemicals drifted through the blocked clogness of my nose as she put aluminum into my hair and we talked about Europe and Monet, Millais, and Munch.


The final result had me grinning like an idiot!
Four colours - red, brown, blue, and purple.
The last two will fade into pink and copper with time. Wow! It's like magical changing hair! Two for the price of one!! xD

And she charged me a really, really reasonable price - no, it's actually really rather cheap!!

I can't stop looking at my own hair. Haha. Apologies for the pic-spam!!


The last time I did anything fun with my hair was over two years ago. Wow. o.o

Good times, good times. ^.^

Anyway, the poor long-suffering Shu had to put up with my silly real life spazzing over my hair (and other various spazz-spasms. Haha.) when we went out for Ramen and sweets.


Was very glad to set eyes on the Singapore River again. This is one of my favourite mainstream Singapore places. Haha.


The Japanese Ramen boom shows no sign of slowing down in Singapore.....? This one's Santouka, which hails from the northern island of Hokkaido.


On to Canele for desert!! Oh, my Passion Fruit and Milk Chocolate Macaron! How I have pined for you!!!
Haha.


The other two I went for were Mandarin Orange and Black Forest. Good stuff! Though they still can't knock Passion Fruit and Milk Chocolate off its throne. Haha.

Evil thing about Canele is that now they "only serve still and sparkling water". No more normal (tap) water provided. Money-grubbing bastards. This would be against EU regulations, right?
Ah well.


In other news, more stations on the new MRT (Mass Rapid Transport - our subway/tube) are now open, and I felt like a mountain tortoise (Chinese/Hokkien expression that sort of means 'hick' or er..... Too lazy to wrack my brains to come up with a good explanation for it. It can be used as a noun or an adjective, if that helps. Lol).
They also started saying 'Please mind the gap' on the TV screens on the train platforms, which is just weird. Haha.

Anyway, it's been a nice, rainy morning so far. A veritable tropical storm which has now mellowed into a patter with distant rumbles of thunder. I'm on to my second pot of tea (LUPICIA peach-scented Darjeeling). The cat is cosily curled up on the chair under the table in the yard, and I haven't the heart to disturb his soporific state with a camera in his nose.


So what I'm going to do is throw you a Vocaloid song instead. Haha. 'Yowamushi Mont Blanc' (Literally - 'Coward Mont Blanc'. Mont Blanc here isn't the mountain, but that cake you see in the video with oodles of spaghetti-looking cream piled on top. It's made of chestnuts. I'm not a fan, as I don't particularly delight in the taste of chestnut confections.)

Composed by DECO*27, featuring the Vocaloid GUMI, who uses the voice of Anisong singing sensation (at least in 2008? haha) Nakajima Megumi.

It's a wonderfully cute song with a cute video too. If you listen to it with good(ish) speakers or earphones, you'll hear that the arrangement is actually pretty good as well! Love the string-instrument-like melody. (Fails at musical description)
I also like how GUMI sounds. I'm not a fan of some of the other Vocaloids as their tone is too shrill or cutesy sometimes. But GUMI sounds good here. A bit husky and not grating on the ear!

Well, after so much typing, here it is!! Enjoy!!!

My song of current loop, both in soundwaves and in my head. Heh. ^-^

The best kind of rainy days are those when you have nothing to do but laze around the house with the sound of raindrops providing background music to all the lazy lazing you do.

The Return of the Brat

I'm back!!

Germ-y, phlegm-y, sleep-deprived and sweat-slicked, but I'm back!!

Feels good to not have a shower that suddenly subjects me to spurts of scalding water, a toilet bowl that wobbles and is inapt at flushing, and clear, non-murky water running from the taps.

Bless you, you little pocket of sanitary, functioning orderliness, Singapore!

Last night, I was reunited with my black blob.
He seemed to remember me. Either that or he's just being his usual shameless self and throwing himself at any human being for the prospect of scratchies.
I subjected him to a flurry of snaps worthy of a paparazzi, and he looked suitably bewildered and annoyed at turns.


Had the most splitting headache last night, and that combined with adrenaline from the excitement of being back deprived me of slumber till about 5am.

Got up after 10, and then had to go to the supermarket, as the fridge and larder resembled deserted streets with the sporadic clump of tumble weed in Westerns. Was pleasantly surprised I not only managed to not deal any damage to the car, but also parked rather prettily!

Now equipped with milk and other random items, I could proceed to partake in my morning pot of tea.

Mariage Freres' Marco Polo.



I'm usually not a fan of flavoured tea, but Marco Polo is an exception. The fragrance is lovely! Heavier on the floral side, but fruity as well. I'd heard much about it, and finally got to have my first taste in Kyoto last year, at this cute little cafe I chanced upon.


I was sold immediately after the first whiff and the first sip.

It leaped up to occupy the first place on my tea leaves shopping list that trip.
Unfortunately, my tea has lost most of its fragrance by being left on the shelf for about four months. My blocked nose might have something to do with it too. However, since there're only about two servings left, it wasn't too much of a waste. It doesn't look likely that I'll be able to get my hands on more of the stuff anytime in the near future, though. Ah well. There are always new tea horizons to explore I suppose! ^-^

I also treated myself to some walnut cheese. It looked yummy, and it was yummy. Apparently it's a Bavarian cheese.
Cheese and crackers.
Cheese and granny smith apples.
Pure bliss.


Carr's table water biscuits have been a favourite of mine since toddler-hood. Or so I have been told. ^^

Later on it was strawberry time. With 'The Time Traveller's Wife', which I have just started reading today. Oh, and that's white fungus drink in the mug. Muaha. Apparently it's good for coughs. I actually rather like fungus. The black variety is absolutely delicious as a component of a dish or as a starter on its own. They had a lot of it in China. I think calling it 'fungus' in English (well, it probably is fungus) makes it sound rather unappetising, if not revolting. However, the Chinese name, muer, can literally be translated to 'wood ear' making it sound much better, and even a little cute.


And just now I had some genmaicha, Japanese green tea with roasted brown rice. Put too much tea leaves in the pot, so it was rather too bitter.


The cat joined me at the dining table and dozed a little, purring all the while, as I read my book and sipped on tea. He really enjoys just being in the company of another sometimes. :)


And so my day's been an immensely lazy one with much to please the palate. Everything's been wrapped in a sticky film of humidity, though, and the weather has been strange and ever-changing throughout the day.

Hopefully I'll manage to get a good rest tonight, and make it into town tomorrow.