Chilled Out Sunday...

I'm headed back to work tomorrow, so I decided to go as far as West London this evening! Was tempted out of South-East London by Cait and Ee to meet them for drinks at the Mandelville Hotel! They had some pretty funky lighting effects going on at the bar...

We decided to go from posh West London drinks to gritty East London KFC afterwards, where Ee and Cait rather disappointingly ordered measly bits of Hot Wings and a Zinger Burger. Sigh, I say, if you want to do the whole KFC thing, you should just go for the classic Original Recipe Fried Chicken and Fries. Me? I had KFC vouchers in my car, so it turned out to be 4 pieces of chicken and 2 portions of chips because it was a one-for-one offer. 4 pieces of chicken later, and I am feeling slightly sick. Definitely cant wait to be cleared to start hitting the gym again. 2 months of inactivity have made me slightly heavier I think...

Oh, and I also caught Avatar this afternoon - it was wicked! Storyline was a bit disappointing (OK. I actually thought that there was no storyline), but to be honest, the storyline was quite irrelevant I thought. I actually thought that the movie was a cross between the storylines of Pocahontas (the love triangle, and the idea of a settler switching sides after falling in love with his cultural guide), any of Reymond E. Feist's novels (the concepts of being one with the forest and mind-linking with dragons) and Al Gore's An Incovenient Truth (the subtext of needing to be more appreciative of our natural environment).

But bah! The show could have been a romantic comedy, and the movie would still have been impressive because of the 3-D effects. Ok, maybe not a romantic comedy, but you catch my drift. Nonetheless, it was beautiful - the easiest 3 hour movie that I have sat through. Even Lord of the Rings left me slightly tired and wanting to stretch my legs towards the end. Even when nothing significant was happening on-screen, I was quite happy to just let my eyes wander and take in the landscape. Like I said, the storyline didn't really matter for a movie like this one...

So there we go, it's back to work tomorrow now, and back to the London grind...finally! =)

Out and About...Finally!

So I managed to get out a little bit over the past few days. I've never done very well at the staying at home bit, so I decided to try going without the painkiller meds and walking about a little.

Thursday saw Joii pop over to have lunch - we walked (I hobbled, of course) to the nearby farm round the corner (the Surrey Docks Farm: http://www.surreydocksfarm.org.uk/), where the cafe is supposed to be run by an ex sous-chef from the Ivy. To our chagrin, the cafe was closed! Nonetheless, it was kinda cool (and surreal) to be in a proper working farm with pigs (Joii was pretty terrified of the pigs as some of them were pretty huge!) - take a look below.

In the end, we couldn't find anything that was still open. So we ended up going to Burger King where I had a XXL Double Cheeseburger with Bacon. My appetite is a bit odd at the moment - most of the time, I cant really keep much down, so I end up eating just plain cereal and fruit. But then there are other times where I crave junk food with lots of salt - Burger King, fried chicken, french fries, etc.

But today was a big day for me - I finally left the confines of my neighbourhood and made it all the way to Tower Bridge where I met Anuj and Azeema for lunch. To humour Anuj (I was actually terrified of his aggressive Aryan tendencies), I agreed to meet them at Dim T, where I must stress that they do not serve REAL dim sum. Instead, its some kind of bastardised dim sum-ish type of food. Basically, everything pretty much looked like a modified siew mai. The closest analogy that I could think of was a Singaporean Ah Beng taking a bog standard Mitsubishi Lancer (or a Perodua Kancil in the case of Malaysians), and attaching a (far too) large exhaust pipe that makes too much noise, a massive spoiler, and flashing blue LED lights at the bottom of the car.

In this case, the restaurant took siew mai skin, and stuffed ingredients like spicy beef, peanuts, coriander....you get my drift right? There was absolutely no hint of the original siew mai ingredients like pork and prawns. In a weird way, if you closed your eyes, the food actually tasted good if you completely ignored that it wasnt really proper dim sum. I guess its the same if I saw a modified Mitsubishi Lancer - I would probably think it looked cool in a far-out, alternative reality kind of way, if I didnt know that it was actually a wannabe car. And wannabe, I suppose, is what Dim T was.

Nonetheless, the company was fantastic, the chat swell, the different types of Chinese Tea were great (just about the only authentic Chinese item on the menu), and the view of Tower Bridge was stunning. Pics of the happy couple (Awww moment on the way) and Tower Bridge are below:

And then this evening, I headed to Cafe East for Vietnamese Food with Xulin, Polin, Noel, Sam and Hoong Wei. Take a look at this funky picture of my favourite set of twins checking out the same menu:

After that, everyone came back to mine for fruit, oats, ice cream and cheesecake while we watched the 2009 Victoria's Secret catwalk show on my widescreen TV. Miranda Kerr, Adriana Lima and co. never looked better in their widescreen beauty. Only problem was that the show lasted for just 40 minutes! Yikes! Heh, Noel and I were tempted to let it repeat itself for 1 more viewing, but we decided in the end not to torture the rest. But bloody hell it was brilliant! Definitely need to watch it again with a few of the guys - with some Domino's pizza and beers to round it off. I've never been one to appreciate installation or abstract art, but...ummm...natural beauty is a different matter!

So there we have it! I finally made my way out of the apartment, and am gradually getting more confident in walking about. Now for my next challenge, I'll be trying to make it into work in one piece, and surviving the treacherous journey on the London Underground.

Wish me luck!

Drugs, DOH!

I woke up this morning and ordered a taxi to come pick me up for my 11am physiotherapy appointment. I rolled out of bed, hobbled to my phone and called the taxi company to book my cab to come pick me up at 10.15am . I then rushed desperately (the term "rush" is a relative term for me nowadays) to wash up, change and eat some cereal so I could top-up on my pain meds. Managed to do all this in 20 minutes before my taxi was due to arrive.

I then hobbled out of my apartment to the roadside and waited..and waited..and waited. Waited for 10 minutes and the cab never arrived. So I called the cab company up and asked what was happening:

Me: Hi, I ordered a taxi for 10.15am. It hasnt arrived yet - I was wondering whether it was on its way?

Cab Company Lady: Ummm, you actually ordered the taxi for 11.15am?

Right, I'm sure Confucius at some point philosophised that one needs to give the correct timing to the taxi company to ensure a prompt pick-up no? So the taxi eventually came to pick me up at 10.35am. I arrived at 11.15am, which left me a grand total of 15 minutes with the physio. This meant that these 15 minutes cost me the princely sum of 108 pounds, including taxi fare! Yikes - I swear there is a very strong inverse correlation between the swelling of my left leg and the size of my bank account at the moment...

As I hobbled into the examination room, completely drugged up and blur, Ciaran (my physio) took one look at me and said "And this is why you were given time off work". Heh! As soon as I hoisted myself up onto the table, I then realised that I had unwittingly put on a pair of odd socks - one black and one blue. Sigh. And for my next stoned incident at the physio, I proudly told Ciaran that I had an appointment scheduled with my surgeon on Wednesday, to which he looked at me with a very puzzled expression on his face and said "Are you sure? That sounds a bit too soon". So he calls the nurse on my behalf and is promptly told that my appointment is scheduled for next Friday instead. Sigh, why on earth do these nurses try and schedule appointments for me when I am under the influence of narcotics??!! It was never ever going to properly get through to me!

So the good news is that my movement and strength in the leg seem to be good. Only thing is that I have a numbness in the lower part of my leg, which is probably a result of a nerve having been accidentally clipped during surgery. Apparently, the numbness may or may not go away - oh well, its more like an irritation rather than a disability. Small price to pay.

After physio, I managed to hobble very slowly to St John's Wood High Street, where I decided to take in the St John's Wood air and have lunch at Cafe Rouge.

I found a table by the window and watched a lady try to parallel park her Porsche...really badly. After all that effort, her car was parked so far forward that her bonnet was almost touching the car in front of her. If my leg wasnt injured, I probably would have rushed out to offer to park the car for her - thats how frustrated I felt on her behalf. Its a shame when people drive such nice cars, and are unable to properly drive / park them. A bit like the rich kid in school who had the latest Air Jordan sneakers, but couldnt play basketball to save his life. Anyway, take a look at the car and her bad parking for yourself - the car should be half a metre further back... =)

OK, excitement over and after the woman parked her car, I ordered a salmon pasta for lunch. As soon as I gave my order, I thought to myself "Why the hell am I ordering pasta at a French cafe chain?" Its like going to Mcdonalds for breakfast and ordering Chinese porridge (Did any of you try the Chicken porridge that McDs were serving in Singapore a number of years ago for breakfast? It surprisingly wasnt that bad!). My only consolation was that there was Gruyere cheese melted on top of the pasta. Actually, come to think of it, Gruyere is actually a Swiss cheese, so the cheese fails in the nationality stakes as well. Never mind, at least it was tasty....

My cab driver came to pick me up after that and I spent the afternoon chatting (coherently enough, I hope) with people back home. So all in all, that was my day. Pretty foggy and drugged up. I actually sent out a fairly technical email to my boss at 7am this morning - I really hope that it made sense, and that I didn't ask him to invest in glass sliding doors with peepholes or something. Im pretty sure that I added a disclaimer that I was under the influence of drugs, so I should be covered! My previous life in law does come in handy sometimes....

Groceries Hurrah!

I ordered groceries online for the first time the other day. Quite swakoo - especially since Trish and Sandra have only been using Ocado for years!

But its pretty neat - you order on the internet, and they deliver it to you at the specified time. They even separate the groceries in different coloured plastic bags representing 3 categories - namely, those that need to be refrigerated; frozen; and those that just need to be placed in the cupboard. Amazing huh? They even gave me an instant refund for my eggs because 2 of them arrived slightly cracked. And they even threw in a free copy of the Times for good measure!

Its amazing what you discover when you are homebound....

Knees....

I checked into hospital on Wednesday morning for my first ever major(ish) operation. Prior to this, the most significant op that I had undergone was to remove an ingrowing toenail - hardly anything to really write home about. But this was far cooler. I had never gone under general anesthetic before, nor have I ever had an IV inserted into my hand before. (OK, lets put this into context-given a choice, I would prefer to have never ruptured my ACL. But since I already have, I prefer to look at the positive side of things).

So I arrived at the Wellington Hospital for my op, expecting a smallish room with a bed, perhaps a 14-inch tv and not much else. But hurrah, the room turned out looking like a bloody hotel suite! Take a look below! It was larger than most European hotel rooms, had a sofa and armchair, a 32 inch LCD TV and a massive balcony with a view to boot! The bathroom was even outfitted with a full set of Molton Brown toiletries. It sure was better than anything I could have expected!





My surgeon came in before the op to employ his extremely scientific method of making sure that he operated on the correct leg - taking a black magic marker, and painting a large arrow pointed towards my left knee. I suppose that its the simple things that work best sometimes, no? I was eventually brought downstairs to the preparation room where my anesthetist unsuccessfully tried to insert an IV into my left hand...twice! Eventually he gave up and just inserted it into my right. He started talking to me about the banking sector - he seemed pretty interested to hear what I had to say but then proceeded to quickly inject the anesthetic when I started talking about Collateralised Debt Obligations. I don't blame him for wanting to shut me up really. Last thing he said to me was "This will happen pretty quickly", and I remember saying "Yes, I can feel it....." and then zzz....

Next thing I knew, I was waking up in the recovery room, seeing everything as a blur, and having the nurse ask me how the pain was. I think I replied that the pain was bad, because I saw / felt her inserting a vial of some narcotic (at least that was what they told me). Then she asked how the pain was again, to which I replied "still bad", and she gave me more of the good stuff. Then I think I was brought back up to my room where I vaguely remember saying some things to the nurses that I probably wish I didnt. I sort of remember waking up and noticing that my (embarrassing) hospital gown had slipped off - which led me to crack some stupid joke to the nurse about how I was revealing some cleavage (not my finest moment, I know). To which she replied "Yes, very sexy" while trying very hard not to laugh at her patient. I think I replied with something even dumber, which went along the lines of "Look, my white (circulation) tights match my hospital gown!). Sigh, I shan't give up the day job I think...

I had Anuj and Charmaine (Thanks for the flowers!) visit me later that evening. I cant remember what I said to them or what we talked about. But I think they didnt stay very long because I was drifting in and out - I hope I wasnt conscious for too much of the time that they were about because I probably would have said something pretty embarrassing. Then Ee and Cait came about - except that Cait wasnt as kind and nice as the rest of them. I vaguely remember her laughing at me being all drugged up and looking for a camera to take photos. And then hearing Ee telling her not to be so mean. Of course, when I asked her about it the next day, she insisted that she was holding my hand to offer comfort, and reading me poetry blah blah blah. I should never have listed her as my next of kin! I shudder to think what kind of evil procedures she would have asked the doctors to perform should she have had to make decisions on my behalf! =)

I woke up feeling much better the next morning. I actually could eat something without feeling completely nauseous. I remember the nurse trying to persuade me to get an injection for the nausea, and me resisting because I really did not want anymore drugs! Peeing was difficult - apparently GA does that to you. And somehow the prospect of peeing into a bottle in bed really doesnt help things at all. And dont even get me started on Number 2. GA completely screws that up as well! Thursday night had far nicer people (take note Cait!) coming round - Patrick and Joyce brought me Chelsea Buns, Bananas and Lucozade, while Jini and Yung brought their great company with them. It actually felt a bit like hanging out in a living room - that was how nice the room was! It really didnt feel like a hospital room at all!

Only thing is that I wish the nurses were a bit younger and hotter. Maybe they reserve those ones for the pro footballers who come in for their procedures. Damn....

On Friday, I checked out of hospital! Made it into the taxi pretty drugged up and was woken up by my boss who called to see how I was doing. He cracked some joke about me apparently placing a 50 million order for structured products with Anuj when he came to visit me because I was so drugged up. You know what? I was talking so much crap that I probably wouldnt have been surprised if I had? I eventually had to hang up because I was too fuzzy to talk.

So all in all, its been pretty good all things considered. The leg is now a lot more mobile - Im actually able to (sort of) move around with only 1 crutch now. But the leg does seem to be getting better day by day. I still am quite drugged up, so not up to doing very much for the moment. The left leg is still twice the size as the left one (see below), but that will apparently take a couple of weeks to come down. It's quite interesting because the left leg was actually quite a bit smaller than the right one prior to the op, because of the atrophy. But at the rate things are improving, I expect to be sprinting by the end of the month!




Thanks for all the concern everyone. Sorry I havent been able to reply all the messages and emails - Ive been quite out of it the past few days. Ill be in touch soon.... =)

Back in Singapore

Im sitting here at good ol' Book Cafe seeking solace from the humidity in air-conditioning and free wi-fi. Yes, Singapore is hot...very hot. It's particularly uncomfortable after a rain-shower on a hot day, as the increased humidity causes the air to become thick and muggy. As great as it is being back at my old place, the lack or air conditioning does get me a bit cranky from time to time. Nonetheless, my grandmother and Rei have been spoiling me silly - I'm getting Babi Asam, Hainanese Pork Chops and other Peranakan food cooked to order on the dining table, and my laundry miraculously gets done every day! Amazing!! I've even managed to persuade my grandmother to make some Pulut Kaya on Friday - Heh!

But its been great being back. This house is the only family home that I have known in recent times. I don't know why I never stayed back here whenever I returned to Singapore. I now have the entire 2nd floor to myself, since no one lives up here anymore - kind of like a temporary bachelor pad, except that the place is pretty spartan. Its wicked to see the bookshelves with all my late grandad's physics and chemistry books. Its also cool to see my old room again, even though its now completely empty and refurbished. I remember chilling out in the garden in the evenings, watching the rain come down, or popping to the nearby Caltex petrol station to buy milk. Nice! I've missed this house - I definitely need to come back here to stay more often...





Jetlag surprisingly hasnt been too much of an issue on this trip. I think the fact that I was out till 3am on my first night back probably helped adjust my body clock. It was Lizzie's 31st (I mean 25th) birthday - so how not to stay out??!! Besides, it was completely worth flying back and staying up just to see how funny she gets when she gets wasted! I almost completely forgot! Highlight of the night was definitely the ride home, where she complained to Alex that I was "a bad friend who was keeping her from her slumberrrrrrrrr". Heh! And then there was something about monkeys who stick thumbs up their bums? Or something like that? Heh!

Here is the birthday girl in the middle -



And what she looked like the next morning - Im sure there was a Confucian saying, which went along the lines of "Dont get hammered the night before you are due to take a boat ride!"





Bintan was brilliant! The beach was really nice, although not fantastic. I got lots of sleep in, both in the room and at the beach itself, which was swell. Endless drinks and snacks at the beach bar. I even managed to get a beach run in at 6am where I had the entire beach to myself with the sunrise as a backdrop. To be frank, there isnt very much to do at Bintan, so we kept on having to find ways to entertain ourselves. We ended up trying to do our best Bollywood dance routines around the coconut trees - I think the other guests were very amused....





We rounded up the weekend and celebrated Singapore's National Day by doing dinner at Banyan Tree on Sunday - it was actually really very good. There was even a Ricemaster who was a sort of sommelier for rice, if that makes any sense? Cynical me had to bite back a bit of a laugh when he told me that the Nasi Kunyit went really well with the Ginger and Tumeric Chicken. Sigh.. But nonetheless, the food was great and the resort itself was even nicer. Definitely a place to come back to in the future, I think...



I now only have 3 full days before I head back to London, so its going to be a case of maxing out all the breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner and drinks slots that I have before then. So many people to catch up with and so little time. To round this post off, I thought I would end with an awwww moment - a Lizzie and Alex (who are getting married in December) starfish shot, which turned out incredibly well I thought!

Slumdog Millionaire & Baptisms

Just watched Slumdog Millionaire. I must admit that I was slightly afraid of coming away disappointed after all the hype. But the film was absolutely brilliant!

I loved that the writers had added suitable amounts of brutality, which was paced evenly throughout the movie. I loved the intelligent way that they told Jamal's story of life in the slums. I loved the bright colours that were used to mute some of the more heavy sequences (like the different coloured saris that were on display as the Muslim Indians were slaughtered). I loved the serendipitous love story that was the main centrepiece of the movie.

But most of all, I loved that the writers made the lives of the 2 brothers diverge as the story progresses - with Jamal retaining his innocence and belief in love despite his ordeals; while Salim loses his innocence pretty early in the story to look after himself and his brother. There is an underlying love story here between the 2 brothers. While Salim's character appears to betray Jamal and Latika midway through the movie, the conclusion seems to show that Salim had, in fact, done everything to salvage his his younger brother's innocence. After all, his final sacrifice is what allows for the happy ending.

Completely worthy of its 8 Oscar awards! Plus Freida Pinto (who plays adult Latika) is absolutely stunning, to say the least.

Ive had a crap time over the past few months. This was a fantastic pick-me-up - am feeling more perky now... =)

Oh yea, Im now officially a godfather! Who would have thought, eh? There was a slightly uncomfortable moment at the altar (in front of the 30 or so guests in attendance) when the priest asked "Are all godparents Catholic?" - to which I replied "Umm, no?". 2nd question was "But you are Christian, right?" My brain went into overdrive trying to think of what I should say.

Thought processes went something along the lines of "I can't say no for the second time, because that would a) get me kicked out of the church; and b) embarrass Rach and Stephen for choosing a religous pleb as a godfather". I figured that since I do believe in the presence of God anyway that I should just say "Yes". It wasnt an outright lie - perhaps I just havent found my calling yet? Of course, Leonie (Sarah's godmum) didnt have that problem because she actually is Catholic - i.e. the bona fide godparent as opposed to me being the fake one... =)

In any case, the most important thing is that the kids and parents appeared to have fun. Check out the photos below:








I have now attested before God that I will support Sarah's faith throughout her life. I better dig out my bible - been meaning to do so for a while now, anyway... =)