teddy-risation™: Design of a minimalist, content of a maximalist

Dining at IKEA

To many, IKEA is simply an oversized furniture store that is designed as a maze to entrap innocent customers like us. My parents love IKEA though, because they would take a long time going through each of the display rooms and check out how they use space so efficiently and yet comfortably. For me, I always go to IKEA for one thing and only – food, that is.

Bregitt and Rick at IKEA's cafe.

A few weekends ago, Bregitt, Rick and I headed over to the IKEA outlet at Queenstown to look at their displays and more importantly, to eat. All of us share this love of their food – from their Sweedish meatballs to their local delights. Not to mention their $1 hot dogs on the ground floor! Everyone can have themselves a very generous helping of mustard, chili sauce or tomate ketchup – all in the goodness of a dollar.

My lunch - poached salmon with black pepper sauce.

That’s my lunch – poached salmon with black pepper sauce. I am a big fan of boiled baby carrots too! Of course, IKEA food fans like us will never miss out their meat balls – Bregitt got a huge plate of it and we shared the dish among ourselves.

Sweedish meat balls

One thing I like about IKEA is their effort to incorporate local dishes into their menu. In Malaysia, breakfast will usually be nasi lemak¹. I’m not very sure of the menu in Singapore but I do know that on a few occasions, they do sell stewed beef as lunch and dinner in their cafe.

Dear readers: At what unique places do you enjoy eating?

With roots in Malay culture, its name is a Malay word that literally means ‘rice in cream’. The name is derived from the cooking process whereby rice is soaked in coconut cream and then the mixture steamed. Sometimes knotted screwpine (pandan) leaves are thrown into the rice while steaming to give it more fragrance – Wikipedia ↩

Posted in General \ 4 Responses

Revisiting Hwa Chong

Jan 29, 10 \ Photography, Reaching Out \ 8 Responses

Clock Tower Building, a HDR.

I grew up in Hwa Chong Institution – since I very luckily scrapped the bottom for a candidature slot for the Singapore Mathematics Olympiad and found myself in Chinese High School in 2001, I decided that I will spend many years of my future in Singapore. I ended up, again, very luckily snagging a slot in Chinese High School from 2002. I graduated in 2005, moved on to Hwa Chong Junior College in 2006 and then graduated with a Cambridge A Levels certificate in 2007.

In the 6 years in HC, I witnessed many changes made – from the construction of the new boarding school to the tearing down of the ricketty, old, demure hostel that made way for a new CCA building; from the celebration of the 85th anniversary of foundation of the high school section to the ultimate, prized merger of Chinese High School and Hwa Chong Junior College into a single, functional entity now known as Hwa Chong Institution.

I could still remember how terrified I was of my history teacher Ms Teo. I never quite passed a history test in my first two years of secondary school much to her disappointment and my frustration. My English was in shambles when I first arrived, and under the tutor (and frequent scolding and cudgeling) of my English teacher Ms Kalavathi, my English improved gradually over the years. However, she made me hate reading novels – I only regained my love for reading in the recent years after being introduced to White Oleander a few years back.

Another teacher that really left a lasting impression in my mind was Ms Esther Cheong. She first came across as the fierce and loud teacher that scared all the young, immature secondary school kids shitless *laughs* but after she taught my class geography, she’s actually one awesome teacher. She’s a very nurturing and kind teacher inside. Her screams and howlings at bad students still haunt me till today, though :)

College years were marked by frequent and short-lived bouts of depression – an undesirable manifestation of adolescence. I am not ashamed to admit that I felt that I needed counselling, and the horrible thought of actually ending one’s life did, for a very brief moment, emerged from the sea of darkness. For most of the time I seeked solace with my Malaysian friends who have a much kinder demeanor than many others, and that was it.

Ms Kwee and Ms Wong were one of the teachers that made me feel better about college life. Ms Kwee was, is and will be, without doubt, the best mathematics tutor I have ever come across. She voluntarily stayed back on school days, working way past her working hours without any concern of monetary remuneration to help students who were weak in maths. She selflessly conducted revision and remedial classes, dished out maths questions quicker than the fastest printer. Her caring demeanor helped a lot in convincing me to anoint her as the best teacher ever.

Ms Wong was the funny, down-to-earth biology teacher. She gets very strict sometimes (especially on timing, you wouldn’t want to know what happened when we ran late for lectures and tutorials) but then again, that’s what makes her a great one.

In a flash, I graduated and left HC for good. Or that was what I thought.

Soon after, I started to miss my life in HC a lot. I was dumbstruck by the newfound freedom in university – in terms of my life and academic pursuits. No more curfew for the hostel dorm, but I had to make do without a shared refrigerator and a microwave as provided in college dorm. No more compulsory lectures and tutorials, no more attendance taking of sorts. If you don’t motivate yourself in university and watch your back, you’re a piece of dead meat.

So last Friday I actually took the liberty to travel all the way back to HC, just to relive that very few moment of bliss of which I can now still remember.

Just so in case you’re wondering, the first photo is the clock tower building which sits on top of the gentle hill overlooking the tracks and the soccer field. There’s where I spent my last year in high school in – fully air conditioned (but stinky as hell) classroom :)

The central courtyard.

This is the place where we had our daily flag raising ceremony in the morning, except on Mondays where we will have to proceed (and we do it very sluggishly, much to the dismay of our teachers) to the high school field. Every morning you’ll see people rushing like madmen towards this very courtyard because after the bell rings, latecomers will be considered as absentees. That day the courtyard seemed to be deserted, besides three guys playing frisbee.

The new administration office.

You wouldn’t believe this but the new administration office (which also holds the principle’s office) is actually converted from a rather old building on campus. What they did was to totally knock down the interior, build a huge roof extending from the front of the facade, some really decent paint job and voila!

High school section

The high school section has a really nice water feature running along the blocks of classrooms and it ends up at a fountain near the old administration block. I spent my first two years of secondary school on the block to the left, and then my third year in the white block far right.

Boarding school, a HDR.

The boarding school, containing seven halls of residences, was designed by renowned architect Kenzo Tange in 2005. I believe it is one of the last works of his before he passed away in March 2005. The blocks were clustered around a central courtyard or festival garden, complete with a meandering stream. I spent my first 6 years living in this place. Don’t be deceived by the good looks though – as far as I could remember, the food can only be described by a word – bleagh. We were served the same common fodder everyday, and I clearly remembered how sick I could get by just the mere thought of canteen food, so much so that for most of my college life I actually dined elsewhere before returning to my room.

Looking up a void in one of the halls.

The style of the boarding school differed remarkedly from Kenzo Tange’s older style though. I adore the high ceiling heights and generous space in the form of voids that were included in the design – this made the entire complex rather windy, especially during stormy nights. It also helped that the boarding school was located on top of a taller hill behind the school, and many of us actually land a room with a great view of Bukit Timah and the town.

There were rumours circulating that the school was intending to auction this very plot of land off to private corporations – that came at no surprise to me due to the pristine location. Good view, check. Great location, check. Famous school, check.

I left the school around early evening to avoid the evening crowd. With a heavy heart I bid HC goodbye, and I’m sure I’ll return to my alma mater some time in the future again :)

Posted in Photography, Reaching Out \ Tagged Boarding School, Hwa Chong, Photography, Singapore \ 8 Responses

On Tumblr

Jan 22, 10 \ Daily Life, Food for Thought \ 20 Responses

On Tumblr

After contemplating for ages, I finally decided to get a Tumblr account and start a Tumblelog. I have to admit that I was partially driven by John Grogan’s comment in his best selling book Marley & Me, that how keeping a daily log of his life actually helped a lot in recalling things that he believed he had far forgotten. His entry on Jenny’s miscarriage was so detail and in depth that he didn’t do much editing to his log before publishing it as a standalone chapter in that book. That is the power of a diary – and I was convinced.

So on impulse, or rather, after thoughtful consideration, I conceived a Tumblelog. I decided to name it Soliloguy, because I frequently find myself engaged in a monologue with my inner self. It is an abbreviation of “A guy’s soliloquy”, substituting the ‘q’ with a ‘g’. It was actually decided on the spot since a quick check revealed that the ’soliloguy’ address was taken, apparently by yet another domain parker.

It’s available via soliloguy.tumblr.com or simply jotter.teddy-o-ted.com.

Ember was kind enough to warn me that I might end up killing this main blog. He uncovered by deepest fear and I have to admit that I did worry that the new Tumblelog will drain me of all my energy, ideas and creativity that is keeping this blog alive. However, I will try to maintain Soliloguy as a separate entity – a place where I write about my daily ramblings, thoughts and experiences. This blog will still remain, very solid-seated, as a photography and design site of mine. Photo journals, tutorials and other things I dig up from the Internet will still find themselves here.

After a three-day test run I am sold. Tumblr is indeed, awesome.

1. Tumblr keeps me thinking. I have committed myself to write a meaningful entry a day. It’s not an easy task to juggle, especially when my lecturers demand undivided attention and being a guy it’s hard to multitask *laughs*. I keep short notes on my iPod touch whenever an idea strikes me, and I try very hard to observe things around me. It made me think more in depth, to appreciate certain moments that are seemingly dull and bland, and to be aware of my surroundings. I actually kept a close watch on how my classmates reacted during a dissection of an unfortunate lab mouse today. I would not have done that if I didn’t task myself to come up with something by 12 midnight.

2. Tumblr takes my camera out of the drybox. There’s an entry about a person literally spraying excrement all over (not as if he wanted, I believe that it was purely an accident, a manifestation of, perhaps, an acute food poisoning) the cubicle right opposite my favourite shower stall in the communal toilet. I tried to append an image to every single entry and I actually made myself to take a photo of the cleaned toilet (no way I’m going to photograph a soiled toilet) – something that I wouldn’t even consider doing because I initially believed there’s nothing to photograph in a restroom.

3. Tumblr motivates me. In order to tell a good story, one has to have a good grasp of the language. Since I started Soliloguy, I have been actively combing through novels that I have read, and learned to appreciate how different authors describe certain scenes in detail. In White Oleander, Janet Fitch describe how moon light filtered through the window drapes. What a lovely adjective to use. In Marley & Me, John Grogan used words like “rambunctious” and “impudent” to describe the seemingly uncontrollable Marley filled with truckloads of puppy energy, and “torpid” to describe a lazy, lethargic summer afternoon. They seemed so foreign to me that I made myself to check up dictionaries and remember by heart how to use them when the context calls for it.

I guess that’s all I could say! I shall not kill this blog simply because I have started a Tumblelog. More updates to come, no worries!

Dear readers, if you have a Tumblelog, do leave your address behind so that I could follow you. Thanks!

Posted in Daily Life, Food for Thought \ Tagged Diary, Personal, Tumblr \ 20 Responses

Saccharine

Jan 18, 10 \ Food, Photography, Reaching Out \ 7 Responses

Pronounced as \ˈsa-k(ə-)rən. It is used to describe something that resembles the taste of sweetness or something that is overly, sickeningly sweet. Of course, I steer clear from the latter definition and would very much prefer the former one.

To celebrate the end of the first week of the semester and one of the few four-day weekends that we have, Bregitt, Rick and I decided to make a trip to town to get some good food on Friday. Over the dinner table at Thursday we laid out plans on how to spend this Friday together and what we did was to dismiss and laugh at each other’s silly ideas. Rick piped up, we should go Genting!. Bregitt suggested that we could go skating when Rick retorted, but it would rain in the afternoon (and he was bloody right).

It was only on Friday morning that we decided to go to this place somewhere near my junior college, from which I graduated two years ago, that serves really great Thai food. I took me awhile to figure out that they were talking about Thai Noodle House – the place where my classmates and I used to hang out after school especially after being brain dead from all the studying and tutorials.

At Thai Noodle House

Bregitt ordered olive rice while Rick settled for a bowl of tomyam seafood soup and a bowl of rice. I decided to have my all-time favourite, tomyam seafood noodles. It has been two years since I last dined at Thai Noodle House but the aroma of the soup immediately remind me of the times when our class scampered out of school during breaks for a taste of outside food.

I apologize for the lack of photos from Thai Noodle House because we were all furiously gulping down the amazing food and before I knew it, I’ve polished off the last noodle from the bowl – even when Rick tasted my soup, which I’ve requested to be not as spicy as usual, commented that it tasted like plain water. I’m so used to people poking fun at my low spiciness threshold anyway, hah.

A sweet-sour Thai lunch made us crave for ice cream even more. We walked over to Island Creamery for dessert. That’s when I took a photo which I named this post after:

Coloured rice and very berry ice cream.

Saccharine. Very berry ice cream with a generous topping of coloured rice. Now that’s one photo opportunity that no decent photographer would want to give a pass. The ice cream cup was placed on a wooden table and was naturally-lit from the floor-to-ceiling window to the right. Perfect.

One thing I love about Island Creamery is how they really took great lengths to make you feel at home – from the earthy-toned interiors to the walls full of photos taken by patrons, the place exudes this unique warmth of snuggling in the comfort of your own home – with the luxury of enjoying home-made ice creams at the same time. We took a photo of ourselves at the outlet before bringing it for print. I dropped the photo in a tiny plastic box where the staff would help us paste it on their wall. Looks like we’ve got a lot of searching to be done during the next trip to Island Creamery again because we will have to find our faces in a sea of photos. Ooooof.

Our group photo at Island Creamery.

Posing with our printed photo. Ready to go onto the wall!

Since we were already in the Bukit Timah area and the Botanic Gardens is within reach, it didn’t take us too long to decide that having a short afternoon walk in the garden isn’t half bad. It drizzled sporadically throughout the afternoon during our visit to the Botanic Gardens, and we find ourselves constantly ducking from a few miserable raindrops only to discover shortly after that the rain had stopped yet again. It’s like playing hide and seek with the rain.

Gazebo at the Botanic Gardens.

We also visited the heritage tree, which was featured on the back of the Singapore $5 note. There were a group of teenagers underneath the tree so we took a breather on the lawn instead. In the distance, kids frolicked under the cloudy sky and on the endless carpet of grass stretching over the hills and into the woods. A group of four kids were having spaghetti – I couldn’t help but to stare with great envy when my stomach starting growling again.

On the lawn, in the setting sun.

On the low-lying branch of the heritage tree.

We left the Botanic Gardens and headed to town for finger food before deciding on where to have dinner. We alighted the bus at ION Orchard and headed straight for the food hall. Bregitt and Rick bought takoyaki¹ but I didn’t fancy the amount of mayonnaise added, so I gave it a pass.

Takoyaki madness!

Before we leave for cheaper food in the outskirts of the town, we had fried chicken from 4fingers. After tasting their wonderful delicacy I told myself that KFC is nothing compared to 4fingers. You should really give it a try if you drop by the ION Food Hall in the future!

4fingers chicken

We foolishly decided to take bus instead of train back to the university campus, and we ended up failing to find any bus services that would bring us there – and I later realized that we were boarding the bus from the other side of the road, which explains our frustrated attempts to get on one. So, we took a long detour from town to the northern part of the island, and then immediately hopping onto another bus which whizzed past army camps, jungles and grave yards. As the bus zipped through the empty traffic light junctions I started to wonder whether we were still in Singapore, where bumper-to-bumper traffic is a common scene on a Friday evening.

I reached my room late at night, collapsed in a heap and drifted off into my dreams.

Takoyaki (literally fried or baked octopus) is a popular Japanese dumpling made of batter, diced or whole baby octopus, tempura scraps, pickled ginger, and green onion, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, ponzu, mayonnaise, green laver, and katsuobushi (fish shavings), first popularized in Taisho-era Osaka, where a street vendor named Endo Tomekichi is credited with its invention in 1935. ↩

Posted in Food, Photography, Reaching Out \ Tagged City, Food, Ice Cream, Singapore, Thai \ 7 Responses

Happy belated 2010

Jan 7, 10 \ Daily Life, Emotions, Music, Reaching Out \ 10 Responses

Sorry for not updating for the past 9 days! It was a really exciting, heart-warming and tiring journey as we left the previous decade behind and embrace the new one ahead. I went on a roadtrip with a handful of close friends I’ve made in university, and I’m still struggling with the 800+ photos I’ve taken throughout the trip. Post-processing really kills! :)

Before I start blogging about the roadtrip, here’s something to keep you entertained: a song titled United State of Pop 2009 (Blame It on the Pop). It is a remix made up from the 25 top billboard hits in 2009 by DJ Earworm and I think it’s a perfect way to celebrate the new year (and the old one as well).