mass call 2011, incidentally post #200!

"I can think of perhaps 2 other occasions in your lives that will rival this day in terms of significance and honour. One would be the day you take your marriage vow and the other, the day you become a parent and hold your baby in your hands for the very first time..." - excerpt from speech by Vice-President of the Law Society Lok Vi Ming, S.C

was called to the singapore bar on saturday 27th august and am very glad leave the profession, ironic as that is, on a high note. having finished what i started, it was fine and fitting closure to a good five years. enjoyed every moment of lawsch and have been incredibly blessed with wonderful people along the way. pupil-ing on the team i pupil-ed on was a privilege, and hand on heart i can say the chances of ever working with an (almost) perfect team like that again are very very slim :(

grateful for the mentorship i've received, and even more grateful for the support and encouragement of those i respect. my lawsch dean was my referee for medsch applications and i am convinced i was accepted because he wrote so nicely. yay to the close of one chapter and the beginning of the next. i leave in exactly two weeks and am excited beyond belief.

"This is a profession that leads you to be involved in the lives, businesses, the hopes and aspirations of people from every level of society; from the weakest to the most powerful among us; because the law is part, and rightly so, of every aspect of our society. This is a profession that allows you to be a teacher, a counselor, a protector, a healer and a friend to people who seek your help and to people you are paid to oppose." also from Lok S.C.'s speech.

 

 so with that, it's goodnight but not goodbye.

p/s on an unrelated note, 27th august was really a day of milestones seeing how i also voted for the first time! 

p/p/s have a soft copy of the law soc veep's speech so if you were at call and are interested, drop me a line and i'm happy to send it over.

tbc

breakfast

one of the (many) upsides of calling a tropical isle home is being able to spend a leisurely saturday morning at an awesome place like this. 

was admittedly more than a little slow on the uptake, but so glad to have finally visited. christian was sucha sweetie and gave us a tour of the place :) have now done the singaporean thing and locked in a booking for three weeks time to return with some friends, both canine and human, in tow. and, of course, the luxury of a leisurely weekday lunch is not lost on me and i'm going to make that happen very very soon.

roadhouse

while i was at cocotte with yvie, nabs was having a dimsum lunch with some associates and their interns. in true singaporean style, they were talking about their next meals over lunch and nabs recommended the roadhouse. blessed with impeccable taste and one of the most discerning palates around, anything that nabs recommends is guaranteed to be worth a visit. speaking of which, i hit up his malacca recommendations and they were golden. anyhoos, tried to get a last minute reservation at the roadhouse but they were full so decided to stroll in fashionably late at nine and hazard the embarrassment of being turned away at the door. thankfully, the restaurant gods were kind and the effervescent french proprietress ushered us right to the bar top overlooking the kitchen. gotta love eating the italian style where the best seat is the one facing the oven! but oh wait, this was fancy diner food...

we'd the buffalo wings and grilled squid. they've this contraption called a josper grill that cooks the meat / seafood without drying it out, yet gives it this wonderful smokey, slightly charred flavour. what a winner! but the piece de resistance has got to be the 600g wagyu burger. yep, you heard right folks! nowhere near the mammoth that biscetta is, but still a force to be reckoned with. there's this crazy challenge where if one person can demolish the entire burger in under six minutes, he/she gets his photo on the wall of fame - and the burger is on the house. we spent more time seriously considering taking up the challenge than we should've, but decided that 1) won't enjoy burger 2) would just end up ordering another right after to savour. which would be pretty pointless! so we took our time and our polaroid nevertheless went up on the wall. oopsy :)

had the s'more cake for dessert (yum!) but what really sweetened the deal was the 20% soft launch discount, and the additional amex discount so we ended up saving something like 25%. being the cheap date i am, this thrilled me almost as much as the burger did ;) and boy, did that wagyu baby make me happy. 

the lunch set looked really good too! for $28 you get a four course set and i can't wait to return with a girlfriend. after all, being done with pupilage means leisurely lunches all the way till departure.

birthday (kaya) buns

for the birthday boy.

happy happy birthday :)

happy birthday E

and thank you for the most fantabulous meal ever.

quite accidentally

 (photo from pooja)

i happened to be a small part of history.

well, sort of.

had a hankering for crab bee hoon and met some like-minded friends for dinner at ghim moh block 10. it was a short trip down memory lane, having gone to a high school, that used shipping containers as classrooms, in the very same neighbourhood.

sometime between slurping the xo soup and chomping on har cheong gai i heard the horn of a train that had my hair standing on end. hadn't planned on being around to witness the last train out of tanjong pagar, but on my way to the red house bus stop i used to have to cross the train tracks and the old rusting trains were a big part of my going home routine.

the railway is also part of another important memory to me. the first holiday i ever went on with just friends i.e. no adults was to KL before starting university. being the backpackers on a budget, the eight of us took the overnight train there and i was almost refused entry into malaysia because in my excitement i went a little trigger happy at the customs checkpoint. oops. not one of my prouder moments but a milestone all the same. 

then i suddenly realised i'd friends on the last train and thought of them clinking flutes and sipping their champers. suddenly my xo fish soup didn't cut it anymore :(

hummerstons

isn't it beautiful? 

chanced upon this newbie gem at robertson walk and it felt like i'd stumbled upon a little secret because it was definitely under-patronised for such a lovely place.

loved the interior and extensive bar, in particular. they'd a wide selection of wines which were fairly priced. always a plus in my books! 

ordered the poutine - hand cut home made potato fries with montreal sauce (foie gras and truffles are but two components of this very yummy sauce!) and much as i'm a sucker for soggy maccas shoestring fries, these babies were absolutely delish. dinner could have stopped right there and i'd have left satisfied :) however, being the greedy glut i am, i also had the prawn pavoratti (al dente perfection!) and mushroom with garlic confit. 

when i was done with the mains, i couldn't say no to the tarte a roon which was the perfect finish to an already decadent meal. just think: walnuts, vanilla ice cream with vanilla beans (ooH!) and apple on a macaron shell, surrounded by concentric circles of caramel. it was tasty on a plate and i was sorely tempted to lick the plate clean ;)

p/s if you, like me, thought there was something uncannily familiar about the place - you're probably right! at the end of the meal, i was talking to the waiter and discovered that the chef/owner used to work at ps cafe! and suddenly the whitewashed brick walls, chalk board, simple lines and big leafy features all made sense.

eskimo, my newfound love

My ears aren’t very long so I hadn’t heard of Eskimo till I saw @plongin’s tweet. However, one look at Paul and beautiful lady on his arm and you’d know he’s a man of impeccable taste. So when he raved about the assam black tea with pudding and coffee jelly, I knew I had to try. As luck would have it, a different P who happens to be interning and seated next to me, texted the next day to ask if I’d like some Eskimo. My usual polite self-restraint was cast to the wind and I semi-demanded two cups, one for me and one for cubby buddy.

One sip and I started grinning so wide that cubby commented she’d never seen me that happy, not even after the S$9.3million ruling.

It’s been awhile since I had a brand new drinking experience. I liked that the tea wasn’t too sweet and how well the contrast of textures in each sip worked. The mildly bitter coffee jelly and smooth as silk pudding has me thinking about it even now. And hipster as this choice of tea sounds, it was well and truly a winner.

MOF

 

one of the things i really like about the firm is the work hard play hard culture. sure, that's how most places like to sell themselves but this one really puts it money where its mouth is. 

another really nice thing is how inclusive they are - everyone's invited from the directors to the interns. in fact, i remember receiving the invites while during the bar course, before i even started pupilling at the firm. this friday's event was no exception. gotta love the firm tab, which translated to the liberty to order "one of everything" for the table. it's such a bonus to work with (for?) people who are genuinely good and people who are more friends than colleagues. needless to say, the view was amazing and i never tire of oggling mbs from across the bay. had heard many good things about kinki and was glad to finally check it out in person.

yay for the ministry of fun!

next up, pupils' bash. DUNDUNDUNNNN. a time-honoured tradition with every pupil going down. defo mixed feelings of anticipation and apprehension! looking forward to finishing pupillage on a high note, although not literally, and just might have to defensive detox this last month in the run up to the bash.

kilo

it's no secret that i'm a huge fan of raw kitchen bar. in fact, it's one of the places i recommend most frequently to friends looking for an unordinary dinner place. so you can imagine how distraught i was when i learnt that raw kitchen bar had ceased to operate out of the old fire station it once did!

a few months went by and i was resigned to never having salt and pepper squid again :( but then, most miraculously, i got wind that raw kitchen bar had relocated to kampong bugis (also home to loysel's toy and 13wives) and couldn't wait to visit a new old haunt. 

it's also no secret that i'm a huge fan of surprises and surprise dinner reservations thoughtfully made for late because i'd team drinks till 9+ go a loong way :) 

sat at the bar to watch the action, but they'd the most eclectic mix of table tops, too!

love the grungy feel about the place!

kinda sore that i didn't have a good camera because the iphone flash makes the meat look brown but the steak tartare was divine and i felt so very sorry for the german expats who sniffed, 'looks dangerous...' after a sideway glance at my plate. they don't know what they missed! will be absolutely crushed if i can no longer eat raw food one day :(

if you do go to kilo, do try the salmon sushi with deep fried chicken skin and the stuffed figs. the carbohydrate queen in me vouches for their pastas, and you can't go wrong with the ahi poke!

plus as an added bonus, here's a cute story behind the name! 

this is the kilo flag taken on another day. so, wiki (and the lovely proprietress told me) that...

Combinations of alphanumeric characters are assigned as codes for various standardized messages. For instance, the master of a ship may wish to communicate with another ship, where his own radio may not be working, or the other ship's call sign is not known, or the other ship may not be maintaining a radio watch. One simply raises the Kilo flag (see diagram at the top), or sends the Morse code equivalent (dash-dot-dash) by flashing light; this has the assigned message of "I wish to communicate with you."

isn't this nifty?! betcha didn't know that!

antisocial maxx

have lost all hips and haps urges since the pups were born. in the week, i'd rush home from work and spend the rest of the night hovering over their pen just watching them sleep. didn't realise how big a toll they'd take on my pseudo-social life when i spent my previously sacred friday evening passed out on the day bed with an equally comatose pup on my chest. 

love how we begin belly to belly (see previous post with black puppy), and end heart to heart. consistently, the pups wriggle and squirm until they've made their way to my heart, then they stop and sleep ever so peacefully right there. might've woken before the puppy but not wanting to wake her, i did my very best to lie stock still until it was time for their next feed. 

on a separate note, the 'white' pups are getting more golden by the day!

in other other news, maybe i'm just a teensy weensy bit excited to go to butter for the first time ever tonight. 

a race a week

in hindsight, this sort of looks like a makeshift memorial... but yay to surviving a race that neither of us trained for! and for completing it in 37minutes (brag brag) without stopping. in the grand scheme of things, we probably aren't very fast. and relative to vidz and her weekly 15km runs, we're certified unfit. however, surely there's something to be said for last minute stand ins...

quite unfortunately, cubby buddy's fit (doctor) friend had a nightmarish call and still had to vote post call. so cubby buddy called me, her unfit fellow pup and i thought, 'what the heyy...'. famous last words! the weather was ghastly! blistering hot heat and i'd a headache from the sun before we even left the figurative starting blocks. it was solely pupil solidarity that got me through. as i thought of all our late nights holed up in the office, i figured physical exertion is no sweat compared to the mental marathon that is work. 

so we huffed and we puffed and we made it to the finish line, and then proceeded to cam-ho in true pseudo-teenage fashion on the top of marina barrage. props to xj for doing so fantastically well despite being swamped with trial after trial, and having to be on standby for a superimportantabsolutelymustsucceed matter this weekend... respect!

 

plus, for the rest of the week, i get to brag that i've done 2 races in 2 weeks. teehee!

uncharacteristic

so this year, i told myself i'd try new things. something i've never ever done before is run competitively. actually, i don't even run, but that's another story. am still perplexed as to how i somehow ended up representing singapore (!!!) in a cross-country race. ok, tell a lie. it wasn't really the olympics but hey, i did run for singapore against our malaysian counterparts.

knew i was in trouble when the brisk walk from parking lot to starting point left me gasping for breath. 

V, my race buddy gifted with long indian legs and lightning speed, was the 3rd faster female runner whilst i was very proudly 3rd from the back. however, even completing the race was an achievement! after the dust had settled, i found out that my steadfast, stalwart V was surprised i outran the malaysian machiks. she was also afraid that i'd collapse half way and only have my remains discovered by an overenthusiastic group of girl guides months later. in the alternative, she pondered the possibility of my drowning in the reservoir, subsequently to be devoured by the resident crocs. 

needless to say, can you imagine my complete mortification when she spontaneously ra-ra-ed a bunch of (much faster) participants to cheer me on at the finish line? there i was hoping to slip past unnoticed, a good half hour slower than the rest but noooo... when i was in the throes of physical agony and existential angst, questioning my judgment and masochism, i was greeted by a personal cheerleading squad telling me to run like my life depended on it. paisehhh maxxx...

the only plus point, besides winning of course, was carbo-loading with truffle fries the day before. 

because truffle fries make everything right with the world :)

now to get off my behind and do some prep for that 10km run i signed up for in july...

oopsY!

pigeonhole

guess who's in town!

kenchy's back for a few days and what better way to celebrate his brief return than to visit a new cafe. so after some minor miscommunication (with him stranded at palais and me at TC) we did link up and somehow made our way to pigeonhole at duxton. 

a bit slow on the uptake but i just learnt of this cool cafe :) particularly appreciating the activism and awareness raising it promotes. 

they'd a good selection of cider - i'd a pear & lemon cider while kenchy had a "black latte". get this! a black latte uses warmed, frothed chocolate milk instead of regular milk! a must try for the chocolate lovers out there :) their fresh OJ was as fresh as it gets, and their black iced latte equally delectable.

the place is tastefully done up and exudes an effortlessly hip vibe. enjoyed thumbing through the old but well preserved books on display, whose racy titles belied a more thought-provoking tome of respectable gravitas. truly, never judge a book by its cover ;) there was a rocking horse that i almost tripped over, and kenchy the pseudo heartlander sat on the reddish stone bench (first photo!) possibly pilfered from a void deck some where. 

definitely going back :) do swing by if you're in the area.

for those in the +65, have a lovely long weekend.

tweet tweet!

the plain

continuing with exploring singapore series, here's a quaint cafe we chanced upon at craig road. noe had really kindly forwarded a friend's hitlist of must-visits and we've been slowly making our way down the list. the coffee was -really- good! and the pastrami ciabatta (in photo) was the first sandwich that made me go WOW in a loong time. in fact, i can't remember when my last WOW sandwich moment was. so this was some seriously good stuff :)

because, after all, to quote liz lemon,

that's it for now! peace.

pig party

this celebration was some time coming but what better way to commemorate the biggest deal in my life so far than breaking out the suckling pig :) i suppose biblically, they would slaughter the fattened calf but i don't know any cow farmers. however, on D's recommendation i've been introduced to the bestest suckling pig seller ever and am fast gaining 'regular' status at his stall. at the expense of my expanse, of course. but sleep is for the weak, and diets begin tomorrow because there was a pig to triple-handedly demolish at this partyyy. 

and, i'm almost not wanting to share this particularly juicy secret but this was suckling pig like never before. gracious host D lovingly hand carried century eggs back from yung kee in hong kong and introduced me to the most gourmet combination ever. a sliver of these babies oozing their molten yolk goodness on the perfectly crisped roasted pig with a corner of preserved ginger and ohmyword, what a Moment. the hipsta colour is a bit off but i was convulsing in gastronomical glee. 

we'd kailan blanced in spiced water and drizzled with macadamia oil and a good white wine to round things up. 

such a simple pleasure, easily replicable and a truly memorable meal.

fried mee sua kuala lumpur

reason enough to make the hike.

belly good dubai

:)