Rain

"Rain"

I feel it, it's coming[Chorus:]Rain, feel it on my finger tipsHear it on my window paneYour love's coming down likeRain, wash away my sorrowTake away my painYour love's coming down like rainWhen your lips are burning mineAnd you take the time to tell me how you feelWhen you listen to my wordsAnd I know you've heard, I know it's realRain is what this thunder bringsFor the first time I can hear my heart singCall me a fool but I know I'm notI'm gonna stand out here on the mountain topTill I feel your[chorus]When you looked into my eyesAnd you said goodbye could you see my tearsWhen I turned the other wayDid you hear me sayI'd wait for all the dark clouds bursting in a perfect skyYou promised me when you said goodbyeThat you'd return when the storm was doneAnd now I'll wait for the light, I'll wait for the sunTill I feel your[chorus]Here comes the sun, here comes the sunAnd I say, never go awayWaiting is the hardest thing(It's strange I feel like I've known you before)I tell myself that if I believe in you(And I want to understand you)In the dream of you(More and more)With all my heart and all my soul(When I'm with you)That by sheer force of will(I feel like a magical child)I will raise you from the ground(Everything strange)And without a sound you'll appear(Everything wild)And surrender to me, to loveRain is what the thunder bringsFor the first time I can hear my heart singCall me a fool but I know I'm notI'm gonna stand out here on the mountain topTill I feel yourRain, I feel it, it's comingYour love's coming down like[repeat][chorus]Rain, I feel it, it's comingYour love's coming down like[repeat]Rain

By Madonna

Natural remedy to beat the flu

I have been fighting the flu for 5 days now ever since the morning of the Christmas bazaar on saturday and this morning was the most difficult one. I woke up with a sniffy nose and breathing was difficult. I decided that I had taken enough cirrus for now(besides I ran out of it) and decided to reach out for my natural remedy--eucalyptus. After boiling some water, I poured the water in a mug, put 2 drops in the water and inhaled deeply. A very cooling sensation hit my nose hard. After a few more deep sniffs, I decongested it and the walls of my mucus broke free bringing with it free-flowing mucus. I sniffed a sigh of relief. However, it was not fully decongested yet so I decided to take a eucalyptus shower. 1 drop went into my shampoo and another into my shower gel. After rinsing with lots of hot water, things began to look better and after a few quick blows into a tissue, my nose was mucus-free again. Yay.

I am currently selling my top-grade essential oils at flea markets but if you can't wait for the next flea market to come up then you can get it directly from me.(Only for those living in Singapore.) I am retailing it for S$9.90(transport cost not included in price) Gift boxes available at a small fee.

At 60, your life begins all over again.

We threw a surprise birthday party on saturday for Papa who is turning 60 this year. 60 is apparently a very important year for the Chinese as some believe that at 60, life begins again. According to 2nd uncle, your life will unfold the way it did when you were born so if you can remember how it began, you will be able to predict the events. Unfortunately, most of us will be suffering from Amnesia by then. Brand new babe or 2nd reincarnation? It is an interesting thought. So if you see someone throwing an elaborate banquet of 200 tables for an elderly member of their family, he/she must be turning 60!

Pop the champagne and raise your glass for a champagne toast. Clink!

Tim Sum at Wah Lok

Char Siew Sau

Tim sum is one of the wonderful inventions of Chinese cuisine. You gaze adoringly at little morsels of food on plates and make eyes at it before you gobble it down.(At least that's what I do, I have been told) I had the pleasure last thursday of participating in this wonderful ritual at Wah Lok, my favourite tim sum restaurant in Singapore with a friend. Steamed carrot cake served in a glass bowl, har kow, jiu cai dumpling, century egg porridge, egg custard and char siew sau... we had it all. Even my hard-to-please mother had no complaints. She was full of praise for the char siew sau which was chockful of char siew and char siew sauce. Another dish I would recommend that I normally have is the sharks fin dumpling soup.

76 Bras Basah Road
Carlton Hotel
2nd Floor
Tel: 6311-8188/9

Wild Rocket

There have been several mouth-watering reviews about this restaurant sitting on Mount Emily that serves up a mean Laksa Pesto Spaghetti, a strawberry cheesecake and a dark chocolate gateau so I thought it was time for me to make my way up the hill to try it.

My sole mission was to test out The laksa pesto pasta. The miserly portions of prawns and bland tasting quail's eggs did no justice to the dish. The dish fell pretty flat at first taste and went pretty much downhill after that.

The strawberry cheesecake with marple walnut was equally disappointing. Aside from looking really pretty, served in a martini glass, the cake was too rich. I am not a big fan of cheesecake though. The crabmeat pasta tasted really weird too. The chocolate cake was nice but then again, you can get really nice chocolate cakes down the hill. Perhaps it's early days yet.

Musings

I have noticed that there are people who are not happy with themselves and like to tear others into pieces. Some are plain unreasonable. I was told today that I do not evoke enough emotions. Well, I can be hot and cold at times, in fact I like to be hot and cold and never lukewarm. That would be the death of me. Multiple personality? Hmm... Surprisingly, I was not mad about it.(real proud of myself) Sometimes, direct attacks of my ego do get to me but I am trying to get more edgey these days and care less about what people think and live more. (Think anthon bourdain... cool edgey, devil-may-care. How can anyone get sick of watching him?) Or maybe because I have more empathy these days for people who work long hours, have difficult work conditions and are hence bouncing off the walls. Perhaps, I drank coconut juice yesterday(hah!hah!). What relation is that? Well, Hindus crack a coconut at the entrance of the temple before entering it to show that they come before God without their ego. Ain't that beautiful? Didn't crack mine though. Maybe it is the thought that counts :)!

On a different note, for the first time yesterday, I had the most frightful experience during a storm. A powerful bolt of lightning lit the sky in the middle of the night and sent a frightful tremor to the ground. Even though I am somewhere half-way up a hdb block, I felt as if someone with that amount of rage that only prolonged time in eternal hell could accumulate had just been let loose from his cell. He screamed a powerful, agonizing scream that resonated in my ears and let out multiple ground-shaking vibrations on the tile that I was standing on.

Coincidentally, I read this interesting paragraph from Paulo Goelho's "The Devil and Miss Prym" which describes evil forces of nature.

"It doesn't take a devil much time to bring about destruction; they are like storms, hurricanes or avalanches, which, in a few short hours, can destroy trees planted two hundred years before."

I will now leave you to contemplate while I read books by authors who evoke extreme emotions to make up for my supposed/real shortcomings in emotions.

Copyright © 2005 by Lee Sui-Lynn

Halo around the moon

According to information from Wikipedia:

Halos are also optical phenomena that appear near or around the Sun or Moon, and sometimes near other strong light sources such as street lights. There are many types of optical halos, but they are mostly caused by ice crystals in cold cirrus clouds located high (5-10 km, or 3-6 miles) in the upper troposphere. The particular shape and orientation of the crystals is responsible for the type of halo observed. Light is reflected and refracted by the ice crystals and may split up into colors because of dispersion, similarly to the rainbow.

Mid-Autumn Festival

For the last two nights, sightings of the moon have been spectacular. On the eve of the mid-autumn festival, there was a huge rim surrounding the moon. Yesterday, the rim was much smaller and only a little way outside the circumference of the moon like a highlight. Best place to observe the moon: in a very dark place.

The sea was very rough yesterday. On the way to Coney Island, Amazing Grace 2 bobbed precariously up and down. Angela was enjoying the rough ride though sitting at the rail by the front of the boat and she kept asking me to join her.

The sky was overcast and the clouds threatened to hide the moon in it's cloak. Fortunately, they drifted off in a different direction after a while and moon started peeking shyly from it's veil.

We started with steamed yam first while waiting for the water to boil. The yams are round and look a little like the crust of the century egg. Then we all tucked into the simple steamboat dinner and watched the prawns boiling with anticipation. The mooncakes and tea came out after that. Two types of tea were served. One tasted like a bittergourd tea while the other had a rather fragrant and smooth feel. My mini durian snow skin mooncakes from Hyatt were wilting in the ice-box. Like a flower breathing it's last glorious moments, it sat vulnerably on the palm of my hand before I set it down on the chopping board. Like the sagging skin of an old woman, it collapsed with it's last ounce strength when cut. I was warned about it though. The sales staff at Mezza 9 instructed me to keep it in the freezer and take it out 15 to 20 mins before eating. The taste was light without being coying heavy with a lift to it. I would put it down to 90% pure durian.

Then we took the paper lanterns out and lighted it. It was really pretty with the orange, yellow, pink, green and red lighting up the boat. Off went the lights once they were done. Angela did most of it while Karen and I watched. The guys helped to tie the lanterns up all over the boat. Angela was like a mummy most of the night tending to her babies(the lit' paper lanterns).

I looked at the moon and watched the moonlight falling over the water. There is something very therapeutic about moonlight. It has a calming quality to it. Coupled with the gentle roll of the waves, it was a formidable combination. It is pleasant to look at without hurting your eyes yet powerful enough to light up the ripples of water in it's path. We sighted a school of fish in the distance.

I thought about several songs during my quiet moments: yue liang dai biao wo de xin and shi wu de yue liang. We used to play the latter during harmonica practice as it was one of our signature tunes for the concerts. I reminisced about the times when I used to play in a harmonica band and the days when my cousins(u know u are being thought of, sweetheart) and I used to carry our paper lanterns along the corridor of my grandma's Toa Payoh flat.

Before long, it was time to pack up. Watching the moon is one of my favourite Singapore pastimes. The other is watching a tropical rainstorm.

This trip was made possible by Captain Lee's Sail Excursions.

Copyright © 2005 by Lee Sui-Lynn