the movie 'troy' based on homer's illiad


'troy' synopsis:
the passion of two of history's legendary lovers, paris, prince of troy and helen, queen of sparta, ignites a war that will devastate a civilization. when paris steals helen away from her husband, familial pride dictates that an affront to menelaus is an affront to his brother agamemnon, king of the myceneans, who soon unites all the tribes of greece to steal helen back from troy.

watched the dvd of the movie at home with ida. i seldom watch movie at home, much less at a cinema. in fact, have not stepped into a cinema for more than 20 years. my being able to sit through the whole length of this movie has to be the historical connection. in my school's history lesson, we had seen illustrations of the trojan horse. the other reason is that i wanted to affirm that the weakness of achilles was his heel.

though the scenes were quite brutal and in some instances quite heart-wrenching, i enjoyed watching the show. i was warmed by the gentlemanly and honourable way they went about fighting, even though there was a lot of killing. they would not attack a man when he was down and defenceless and they allowed the enemies to retrieve the dead after a battle.

i was impressed by the scale of things, especially, the ten thousand ships, even if it was a computer assisted creation. i also learned how the expression ' a face that launches a thousand ships' came about.

suan lum night bazaar in bangkok





suan lum night bazaar is located at the south-eastern corner of lumpini park, 'suan' is the thai word for park and 'lum' is the abbreviated version of lumpini. open 7 days a week from 3:00 pm to midnight – some spots until 2:00am – it is so convenient and easy to find. to get to suan lum night bazaar take the skytrain to s2 sala daeng station (silom line). walk about 100m and you will see si lom mrt station. take the train to lumpini and you will see suan lum night bazaar. or just take a 15min walk from sala daeng to suan lum night bazaar.

it is a clean and well organised place for food and shopping. you will feel safe here. there are different areas for different types of dining - hawker stalls, restaurants, fast food. the food stalls at the food court sell thai and western food. there is also free entertainment with singing and dancing on a big stage.

this shopping area has many shops selling craft and clothes as well some selling packed local food like dried durian, dried jackfruit etc. prices quoted are reasonable . some shops sell boutique quality clothes. there is a money changing facility available (run by a bank) until 10pm. metered taxis and tuk-tuks easily available for your return trip.

compared to chatuchak, suan lum offers the same distillation of thai creativity and handicrafts in a much more manageable atmosphere. more organized and spacious, the feeling is relatively relaxed and it is much cleaner – even the bathrooms are clean!

this place is more refined and genteel, with a cultivated and cultural aspect as well: a marketplace for gentlemen, as it were.

definitely prefer this place to chatuchak. we took a taxi, from outside the hotel, there and returned also in a taxi.

thieves' market @ sungei road

of all the flea markets in singapore, the oldest one is the thieves' market at sungei road. so called because in the olden days, thieves would often come here to dispose of their stolen ware. while there may be no more stolen ware to be found here, the stalls continue to be set up in a haphazard manner, as it is not an organised affair and no licence is needed. while things may be cheap, more likely than not they are broken and they need to be repaired.

sungei road has probably been around for a long time. the only other place in singapore that has similar activities is at mohd ali lane near club street. in fact, the activities do not take place only in sungei road itself but also in the vicinity, namely weld road, pitt street, pasar lane and larut road.

you can see lots of old things, a good place to go if you are hunting for a bargain and hoping to find a bit of the past that you miss. last sunday, when i was there, i saw irons - those that use charcoal - lined up for sale. used shoes are priced at $10. i suppose if you bargain, you may be able to get them for less. foreign workers go there to buy old clothes, especially jeans.

in the past, you hardly see women or ladies at sungei road. just like, you do not see them along the back lanes of desker road. these days, quite a number of them accompany their spouses or boyfriends to browse at the open-air market. i even saw one woman stallholder selling trinkets next to a makeshift stall selling adult vcds.

the thieves' market is open 7 days a week, from about 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. it is especially busy on weekends. on saturdays and sundays, certain sections of the roads are closed creating a pedestrian mall where food and drink stalls are set up to cater to the throngs of browsers and shoppers.

$3 books from carrefour @ plaza singapore

yesterday took bus service 190 to scotts road. walked to tanglin mall, past tanglin shopping centre and forum galeria. walked back and headed for plaza singapura (ps). huge crowds everywhere, which is normal on a saturday evening.

browsed in a few shops but did not buy anything until i got to the bargain section in carrefour hypermarket. new books, some very thick ones and some hard cover ones were going for $3 a book.

there were titles like 'the princess diary' which ida and ivy bought some years ago for more than $10 each. also on sale were computer books and non fiction tales like 'the history of singapore'. some volumes by stephen king were really thick. if you go by the amount of paper used, it must be worth the money.

instead of buying those that i have mentioned, i bought titles like 'the song of silver frond' by catherine lim, 'with love & irony' by lin yutang, 'china's sorrow' by lynn pan, 'a place of hiding' by elizabeth george and 'ready or not' by chris manby.

overflowing water cisterns





i have been plagued by this problem for quite sometime - i think it has been more than 3 months already - by not one but two overflowing water cisterns; one in the toilet upstairs and the other in the toilet downstairs.

i have tried adjusting the screw on the valve and the washer assembly. i have tried varying the position of the float (ball). i have even tried replacing the ball - which i thought could be damaged - with a new one. i also tried cutting down the rate of water flow into the cistern. i even tried flushing the whole system. nothing works.

the problem is the water level goes above the outlet valve and this causes the overflowing. so, this is not a problem of a leaking washer on the valve.

i think, short of replacing the whole cistern/system, there does not seem to be a solution in sight.

i have since fixed the problem of the overflowing cisterns. simple. i just used a piece of plastic and covered the outlet valve in each case. so far, so good.

kok fah technology farm @ sungei tengah

kok fah technology farm, a leafy vegetable farm of nearly two hectares, is located in ava's sungei tengah agrotechnology park. it is one of the more well-established farms doing soil cultivation of leafy vegetables under protected netting.

the farm has been in operation for seven years and supplies about 900 kilogrammes of leafy vegetables daily. the varieties grown include bayam , caixin , gailan , kang kong and xiaobaicai .

the vegetables are packed and sold under the "pasar" brand by a leading supermarket chain. the farm has installed an overhead water sprinkler system for automated irrigation of plants and it uses composting to enhance the quality of the soil.

i visit this farm quite often, sometimes to buy vegetables and at other times, to buy potted plants like pandan and orchids. the vegetables are fresh but the prices may be higher than those sold in ntuc supermarkets and sheng siong. for example, today's price of tomatoes is 10 cts/kilo at sheng siong, 11cts/kg at ntuc but 20cts/kg at kok fah.

unlike ivy's bollywood which charges $2, they do not charge you for looking around the farm. in fact, they are quite accommodating and allow you to browse undisturbed. the farm is very popular with organised groups from schools and community clubs. this is the farm that also grows enormous gourds, huge aloe vera and the dragon fruit.

driving singapore style

i may seem an aggressive and a self-righteous person when i am behind the wheels. this is because of my low tolerance for certain types of drivers.

those who do not form up and who try to squeeze in at the last minute. should we be courteous and give way to such drivers? they know they have to turn left and yet they keep to the right lane; they stay in the right lane until the last minute, then they make their move.

the other type that i abhor is the one who drives very fast and tailgate you even when there is no chance for you to change to the left lane. or those who tailgate you when you are in the middle lane, even when the right lane is clear and safe for overtaking.

then there are those who keep switching lanes. without bothering to signal.

i also cannot stand the flashers. they flash their lights at you even when you are going as fast as you can - within the legal limit - and have no chance to move to the left lane.

there is also this class of drivers who mistakenly believe that they have more rights on the road just because they are providing a service, for which they are paid. they cut into your lane without warning, without signalling their intention. they move out or off without care for other road users. they go over the speed limit on the way to and from the airport, as if they have a mission to accomplish.

ching ming - grave sweeping festival

ching, in chinese, means pure or clean and ming means brightness. most people call this holiday grave-sweeping day because people head to the cemetery to clean graves.

there are many ching ming rituals which include pulling out weeds around the headstone, cleaning the stone and replacing wilted flowers with fresh ones. people also burn incense and paper money. the paper money is for the deceased to use in the afterlife. some place colourful strips of paper on the mound. food is arranged on the headstone but it's not a picnic. the food is an offering to the spirits.

every year, at around this time, my siblings and i will descend upon our father's grave off sime road to pay our respect and to remember him. my mother does not go with us these days because she is not so mobile. we usually try and make it on a sunday but this year we chose to go on a public holiday - good friday. it seemed a lot of other people had the same idea.

i once suggested to my mother - why don't we make the visit in the evening? it would not be so crowded and the weather would be kinder. she vetoed the idea saying it was going against tradition.

ching ming is one of the few instances in a year when we get together as one extended family. it is not just a time for remembrance but also a time for the living to catch up and bond. we come from our respective homes in different parts of singapore and meet at the cemetery along khiam hock road.

meeting chef wan @ straits kitchen

last night, a group of us had buffet dinner at hyatt's straits kitchen. it turned out to be quite a stirring time for us, especially for the ladies and especially for normala and jameela. first we found out that megawati, the former president of indonesia was dining in the same room, just 2 tables away. then, the mak chiks' idol, chef wan, came over to our table and chatted with the two excited ladies.


chef wan, a household name in malaysia, has been featured in various cooking programmes on television, delighting audiences with his wit and humour while demonstrating his cooking prowess. he has appeared on malaysian television programmes, including his very own show, chef wan. he has also hosted shows in singapore, australia, norway and the united states and appears regularly as a guest chef in many other countries. chef wan in an accountant by training but gave up the profession for his greater love, cooking.

straits kitchen is a halal kitchen and the spread of food is representative of multiracial singapore. they have chicken rice, roast duck, tandoori chicken, naan, prata, satay, laksa and bbq stingray, among others. there is also a wide variety of dessert to choose from. the food is good but the price is a bit on the high side.

i think, dinner came up to about $44 a person. still, the place was packed last night.

driving in malaysia (2)


they say when you are in rome, do as the romans do. when we drive upcountry, we change our driving style somewhat so as to blend with the locals. those days driving on the trunk road was very much a waiting game. you wait in line, wait for gaps to appear and you wait for clear way ahead.

you wait in line until gaps appear for you to squeeze in and clear way for you to overtake and move ahead. and you do not overtake one vehicle at a time, sometimes you may have to overtake a chain of four or five cars. we have ever overtaken ten vehicles at one go.

there is some kind of unwritten code among the drivers. if it is not possible or hazardous to overtake, the leading vehicle will take the responsibility of having his right signal light blinking. when it is safe to overtake, the driver will switch to his left signal light.

when you are about to overtake, you move up to the tail of the vehicle infront (tailgate) and shift to a lower gear, overtake fast and move into line as soon as possible. sometimes, when two cars overtake at the same time, you have to move fast enough to leave a gap for the car following you to cut in.

when you on the trunk road, double white line does not mean anything unless a policeman is on duty. one thing which the malaysian did and still do which we are not bent on following is overtaking off the road, on the left; it's like overtaking on the shoulder on our expressway. we are quite averse to doing that.

it's most agonising when you are stuck behind a long line of trucks transporting timber. they tend to travel in a convoy and they cannot speed. it's also dangerous for them to brake suddenly. we have to minimise our own risks by making very sure that there is sufficient space to cut in before we start overtaking these monsters.

best chicken rice stalls in singapore





for health reasons, i have not been eating chicken rice as often as i used to. i cannot afford to raise my cholesterol level any higher. at one time, i never tire of eating chicken rice; i could eat chicken rice every day of the week. these days, the only stall that could tempt me to eat chicken rice again had be the best chicken rice stall i have eaten at and that is the one at margaret drive - sun kee chicken rice on level 2 of the food centre.

i heard that the original sun kee chicken rice stall has now shifted to mei chin food centre, and the one still at margaret drive is now operated by the former employees.

sun kee is a name that has been around for almost 40 years and this chicken rice stall probably has become a landmark in itself in margaret drive. a lot of customers have been going back for the fragrant chicken rice steeped in chicken stock, as well as the succulent chicken and garlic infused chilli sauce.

customers spill over to almost one entire row of the second floor, although the stall per se is located at the corner. do not be surprised by the large number of stall helpers, who keep themselves occupied with cooking, chopping the meat and dishing out the rice.

okay, lah, if i cannot have the best, i do not mind settling for the second best ...boon tong kee at balestier road. i have eaten there a few times.

adam road food centre




one of my favourite places for malay and indian food is the adam road food centre which underwent upgrading a few years ago (2001 - 2002). it is located at the junction of adam road and dunearn road. used to be a haunt of singapore university students when the campus was at bukit timah. the upgrading also saw an increase in the number of parking lots. but i often free park at a side road near the bus stop.

many years ago, after my morning exercise at macritchie i would drop in at this place for the roti prata and the teh tarik. the teh alia (ginger tea) is quite authentic; one of the best i have tasted. used to prefer the one from sultan stall at tekka food centre.

there are a few other good stalls at this food centre. the nasi lemak stall, which even the sultan of brunei patronises, is the 2nd stall from the left. the owner is called yusof. the $3 nasi lemak comes with chicken wings, ikan bilis and one fried egg. in place of chicken wings, you can ask for kuning fish. there are two stalls selling nasi lemak and they are side by side.

the mamak's mee goreng stall. there used to be more than one mee goreng stall, both equally good. i like the way the noodles are fried, not too damp and not too dry. we usually 'take away' the mee goreng for ida.

the mee rebus and mee soto stall. this one is operated by a plump malay woman. the stall does not open early.

the prawn mee stall is recommended by ong hong ghee. it is stall no 27, noo cheng adam road prawn noodle. closed on mondays. opening hours: 9 a.m. - 3.00 p.m., 5.00 p.m. - 11 p.m.

the tau suan from the dessert stall is also above average.

there is also the franchised yu kee duck rice stall.

the bbq stingray and the roti john are also recommended.

some of the stalls are open way past midnight.

driving in malaysia (1)



i first drove into malaysia in my first new car - a daihatsu charade. it was a few months after i got my driving licence. i went with my former balestier hill secondary colleague, mc wong. he had his family, comprising his wife and his two young children, in his car, also a charade.

we were a bit cautious in our driving on the outward journey, towards kuala lumpur and then penang. the north-south highway was not in existence then; we used the trunk road. but on our homeward journey, we were so confident of our cars that we were overtaking every car in sight. of course, the faster cars were out of our sight. those that were going below 120 km/hr were those within our sight. we even overtook a porshe driven by a lady.

subsequently. i have driven in malaysia many times, either with friends, colleagues or on my own. and we do drive above the speed limits at times but, up to now, - touch wood - i have not collected a single speeding ticket in malaysia.

my former principal - who is now a superintendent - took to driving into malaysia after hearing so much about my experiences. he has since gone on self drive holidays in malaysia and new zealand. the first time he drove to kuala lumpur, he collected two tickets.

i have heard stories of how the malaysian police indiscriminately book singapore cars for speeding. i do not know how far this is true because, so far, i feel that i have not been discriminated against because of my 'singapore' registration plate. the last trip when i drove to kluang, i saw the police flagging down a few malaysian cars and two singapore cars for speeding.

how did i escape the dragnet? i knew that there could be a speed trap ahead because the signs were there. some vehciles travelling in the opposite direction had been flashing their head-lights.