The short weekend in KL was mostly spent with family. Did not have time to meet friends, sorry J! Maybe next month...
Some messy pictures of meals eaten with family. Second sister has given birth to her third child, so that makes me aunt to a total 2 nieces and 3 nephews. The children are growing up quick and developing their personalities and quirks. Her eldest son M, age 4, says the most amazing things. On the rather long walk from the carpark to the playground at Lake Gardens, M went philosophical on us, saying in a resigned tone, that "we'll get there when we get there". Yet when it got quite hot and sunny, he sat down at the park bench and said "I want air-con." He is also developing a sophisticated palate, preferring block cheese to Krafts, and he has a thing for salamis. So the kids enjoyed udon with chicken and salami casserole for lunch, made by their doting aunt my third sister.
And then there was the raucous dinner with mum, dad, my brother, his wife and their kids at a Japanese restaurant in Sri Hartamas. Now there are so many restaurants in this area which gets me confused, not to mention how frequently they come and go. So Sugimoto's must be doing something right. It is not even located on the ground level and yet it was full on the Monday night we visited. Their menu is wide ranging, one can get sushi, sukiyaki and more modern fusion type dishes. Some dishes were a little over-salted and messy but there were some tasty dishes too. Vigra rolls, not sure if it was meant to spell that way, have loads of avocado strips on top which won over everybody. Spaghetti mentaiko was superb with plentiful amount of the spicy cod roe. My little nephew was very naughty and noisy, so I called him Denise (after the Menace). His father, i.e my brother was not amused. Anyway we ordered a vast amount of food and went home with protruding bellies.
Finally saw Sepet. A sweet and unpretentious movie dealing with a potentially touching subject. But the ending sucked. It has Harith Iskander in it, never a bad thing, but his role in the movie was kept very low-key. There were two songs in the movie which I discovered I liked very much, turned out they were by Sam Hui; ignoramus me is not familiar with his songs which was a pity because he is really talented, his lyrics deep yet not preachy, funny and thought-provoking too. To make up for lost time, husband bought me the double-CD of his greatest hits. I am learning how to sing Long Ji, Sam Sing.
Went shopping and discovered a new snack. These traditional handmade Japanese crackers embedded with nuts (pistachio, cashew, walnuts or macadamia - my favourite is pistachio) are snappy-crunchy-yummy. A little expensive but it is Japanese, see. At the Isetan supermarket, 3rd Flr, KLCC shopping centre.
KL is finally coming into its own and I am really pleased about it. It used to be that friends and relatives come to Singapore and get a bit awed by our seeming trendiness- the shopping is supposed to be better, we are soo hi-tech, also can catch mega- musicals at the durian, Breadtalk. Of late the tide has been somewhat reversed.
For one thing, their TV seems better- Astro's remote-controlled TV guide was in place long before SCV revamped theirs, and their run of Jewel in The Palace was finished while SCV is only showing it here next month.
Their economy looks a little more robust. Lots of tourists, especially the freely-spending Middle-Easterners. The property market is still quite hot especially in the serviced apartment sector.
Their newspapers are better. The Edge beats our Business Times flat out and it even comes with colour supplements at the weekends. The Star feels a little tabloid-y but it compensates with its thickness. And I can only guess that the Chinese papers are full of insighful writings and bursting with latest news, because people even go out especially to buy the evening editions.
Food is another example. RotiBoy of course. The Japanese nut crackers which Singaporeans remain ignorant of. And that to die for roast duck in PJ that my colleagues cannot stop going on about. Restaurant trends are evolving at a dizzying speed- Shangainese, Arabic, kopitiam, Penang, cha charn tng. In less than 4 months One Bangsar has sprouted a brave colony of trendy dining spot, similar outposts were spotted in town. Most of the new places would be more good looking than good tasting, e.g. picture above was of a salad of young jackfruit served at Cungdinh at One Bangsar. The salad tasted fine, but the other dishes we sampled did not really rise above average. But after that lunch I could still go across and buy cucur udang for 40 cents a piece from the makcik across the street. The prawn fritters were bathed, no, flooded with plenty of lipsmacking enak chilli sauce whick soaks into the delicious fried dough to imbue it with more deliciousness, the whole treat just as satisfying as I remember from my childhood days.
The atmosphere in KL is different too. It has a little more purpose and confidence, minus the stress factor. People do not seem so obsessed with being seen in the right clothes or toting the latest gadgets. Not like the locals are ulu, many high street names are in town. They do know how to pamper themselves, some of the malls have dress designer shops and cigar purveyors and even art galleries.
My regular manicurist has been lured to KL to help her friend set up a nail studio in Bukit Bintang Plaza. I could not get an appointment with her in Singapore so I went to have my nails done at her KL place. She was supposed to stay till she has trained a team of people to do the job, and then return to Singapore where she still maintains her own business. But while talking to her, all I heard from her was how much she likes being in KL and how convenient and cheap everything is. People are so nice, workers have very good attitudes, and the food,wow. I asked her, so when are you planning to come back to Singapore, because if she doesn't who can I trust with my nails right, and she went a little sheepish on me and didn't answer me just kept erming- and -hmning, turned out she has been seriously considering uprooting her life in Singapore and starting anew in KL.
That made me envy her quite a bit and wished I could do the same. Life in Malaysia seems more pleasant, especially when contemplated from the comfortable lounger in the cool white space of the nail studio. I am not much of a social commentator but I do get fed up of life in Singapore. For example, I am irked that just because traffic is bad, they raise ERP charges. Apparently motorists like myself deliberately use the roads and cause traffic jams. It is not because I need to go home after a long day at the office. Is this type of arrogance better than the inept ways of their Malaysian counterparts?
At least in Malaysia people get left alone. No ERP, therefore no one knows that you went to Kajang to visit your mistress/geomancer/ favourite satay stall. In Malaysia they have tollbooths too, but mostly at newly built roads, not the main expressways.
If you graduated overseas and did not return to the motherland, you don't get labelled quitter. Sometimes I check myself, in case whatever I am doing can get me fined or worse.
It is not that it is easier in Malaysia but over there, people just deal with it (watching a bit too much West Wing), whatever the problem, they don't whine and expect the government to solve their problem and in return the government doesn't bother them much. Here the government cannot even trust its people to cross the street. It isn't that I am bashing the country that has given me my husband and my career, but I wish those in public service here will stop patronising the public, stop taking the dubious moral high ground, stop reinforcing their delusions of power (fines! litigations! wishy-washy talk!) and do some actual work for the taxpayers (like me) who pay their salaries. Because this country prides itself on its meritocratic principles and never loses an opportunity to trumpet this ideology. Prove it, and maybe I will complain less.
