Malacca, West Malaysia, just 2 1/2 hours from Singapore.

The Resort Hotel next to Holiday Inn by the beach

Just 2 and a half hours drive from Singapore is this World Heritage town (small city) called Malacca. It was once a fortified port of first the Portuguese settlers and then the Dutch. It is roughly half of the way by car from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore by the North South Highway and is a gem of a town with a decent beach (not too good for swimming)facing  the Straits of Malacca, one of the world's most populated waterways linking West to the East.  On a clear day on the high floors of the hotel, you can see Indonesia island of Sumatra in the distance. That is how close the 2 countries are.

The Infinity Pool on the 3rd Floor of the Hotel

Malacca is famous for its Portuguese food, in the Portuguese settlement. It also is famous for its Peranakan (local Baba Chinese, this is the intercultural Malay - Chinese) food featuring classic dishes such as Ayam Buak Keluak (Chicken with the spice Buak Keluak in currry), Item Thim (Duck in Giam Chye soup), Otak Otak (Fish mackerel spicy cake wrapped in banana leaf), Babi Ponteh (braised Pork stew) amongst others.    

          Most of the Peranakan food restaurants are located along the main street called Melaka Raya. There are easily 10 such joints from the famous Ole Sayang, to Bibik Neo to Makro. Each has their own special offerings of Peranakan food, and many Singaporeans who are retired take the time to make a 2 days 1 night trip by car just for the food, away from it all feeling and decent shopping at the Malacca Raya mall.

          

          Historicallym there is the St Paul's Church which has some ancient cannons. to protect the city. The Stadthuys (or Red building) is the old administrative center when the Dutch where the rulers some 300 odd years ago. There is also a Portuguese Man-o-War warship museum docked by the riverside. Cruises along the Malacca river are also popular for the tourists.  

          The cultural mix is very similar to Singapore as there are majority Chinese, some Malay and Indian citizens living in the vicinity of the city. Give it a visit, you will be pleasantly surprised !

4 months till the Marathons silly season

      
          It will only be slightly more than 4 months till the Silly Season of the year end Marathons for me. This year, I promise it will be different. I want to be fit enough to run 2 or even 3 marathons, some of them overseas. So I am prepping myself physically and mentally to get the body conditioned to be able to run the whole 42.195km for at least 2 times this year.

        Provided I take care of my limbs, have the daily supplements, and not over-exert myself, I believe I can achieve this goal without too much of a stretch to my system. I recall today while running, that 10 years ago around this time, I was getting on the road to my physical peak of my 40s (that was in 2006 - 2007), so this time 10 years later, I am again trying for one last hurrah - in my 50s. So 2 marathons this year would be my target. Normally the body would then indicate to my it was overstraining itself, and naturally I would return to my lazy self.

     If I can maintain my fitness level at this peak for about 6 months after the year end, there are 2 wonderful marathons I would love to try 1. Paris (April each year)   and 2. London (May each year).Then I would really have the bragging rights to say I have run International marathons !!

     Boston, Chicago and New York would then be achievable goals.  

     I believe I can achieve it with the correct planning, determination and resilience as before. 

5 km run is my Constant

         This morning, I finished my second back to back 5K run in the early morning. It is a whole new world for those who remain sound asleep at 6.00 am in the morning, dead to the world.  I normally start my day by waking up at 5.30 am, do the toiletries, drink 2 glasses of lemon infused water and off I go into the darkness.

         I am not blessed with good cholesterol levels, my HDL and total LDL levels will scare even the most experienced of heart surgeons. So I take my medications (Lovastatin 20 mg) faithfully, every evening before bed, and with the buzz of my sportswatch at 5.30am, I am up and preparing. I intend to continue this regimen, hopefully every day except Sunday (when I have my 1 1/2 hr Karate session at the CC). 

        This is my constant, every thing else may change around me, the business model, the children growing up, the family and friends aging, but 5K is still 5 K. Nothing else matters, it is the fixed distance whether you are in Frankfurt, Paris, Budapest, Rio de Janerio, Luxor, Cairo, Shanghai, Chongqing or Delhi.

       Respect it. 

Friend or Enemy ? Your Phone

Downhill somewhere in Tomamu, Hokkaido

          The world is experiencing massive changes in very short time periods. Product booms and busts are going from 10 years to 8 to 5 to 3 to 1 year.  Computer hardware like PCs and Laptops are like  throwaway cameras, use it for 1 max. 2 years and out into the trash can. PDAs (Palm Pilots), SLR cameras, pagers, fax machines, voice recorders, CD and DVD players have long since died. The list of dead or dying products is growing steadily. 

          

           Your phone is not just a phone, it is your digital office, your entertainment center, your access to the world. People put up what they had for lunch, where they had their party, or finished something mudane, or significant all through their Bluetooth, 4G enabled wireless phone - organiser - bank ATM - TV - social media platform. Everything is an app nowadays.

           So, people like me are befuddled by the new media, and connectivity. Use it and be connected, but people can then trace your every desired activity, hobby, purchase, location where you had your holiday or dinner. Its Orwellian 1984, but without the unwiedly cameras following you at every turn.

          Your phone is your best friend and your greatest enemy. Like fire, it can be controlled and used to good benefit, out of control and it will ruin your life. 

'Mutt Dou Chee' and 'Mutt Dou Oi'

                                                With my then manager and friend, C.H. Teo 

        We all have at least one such friend who is a Mr. or Ms. 'Know it All', the Cantonese Phrase for this is Mutt Dou Jee. They are the little irritating but generally nice people who happen to know the exact value of Pi till the last 20th decimal.  (pi = 3.14xxxxxx).  

         These people somehow stay up late at night mugging about any useless details about when the next fun runs to get goodie bags and where the best char kuay teow, lor mee or bak kut teh  and prawn noodels  stalls are or when the free $4 coupons come available from the Shell stations. They are by no means penny pinching, but looking out for the best deals.  
        
          In short, they are the Penny Wise people. Good for the details and small numbers. Useful to have around and makes life interesting for Big Picture folk like me.

         Mutt Do Oi are people who want everything in life and more. Again I know my fair share of these people. They scrimp and save and eat the cheapest hawker foods, only to then invest in multi-million dollar properties and continue investing in them ad nauseum like there is no tomorrow.

       I want everything and more. Free is better. 

      Again, they irritate me, but then they are harmless to me.

     To these people, do learn one thing, you are not rich till you start to spend on your family and friends.  Life is indeed short.

     Seize the Day.

       

'At the end of the Day' and other Useless Expressions

          A good friend of mine, James from Australia is very fond of using the phrase 'At the End of the Day'. This in short means, "so".  I have resisted rebutting him as he finds comfort or solace in uttering this phrase so that he ends up sounding like an archaic professor in life.  But when I do get to retort him, it will be either of these 2 below, but I do not want to spoil his
satisfaction from saying it just yet, so I politely listen : 

a) At the end of the Day..... it becomes Night

b) At the end of the Day..... everyone dies 

      Here are a list (not exhaustive by any means) some more of these meaningless phrases of words which are used by people unknowingly as time fillers or wanting to sound learned.
The effect on me is the exact opposite, as it gives me the impression that the person  is trying to sound like and failing to impress the listener. Here goes the top 10. They can be replaced by one singular or two words and I have added them at the end of the sentence.

1. At the end of the Day  ..................   so

2. To be honest  .......................  frankly (you mean to say, everything else you said 
    beforehand was  Bullshit ?!!) 

3. After all thats been said and done ...... finally

4. Let me say something ...........     (man, what have you been doing all this time ? Sleeping)

5.  Lets be clear ..........................  (this is a very common phrase used by lawyers and   
                                                          politicians when they want to fudge something, 
                                                          hopelessly ending up trying to sound articulate.
                                                         This ends up confusing more people, and leaves us the 
                                                         viewers feeling stupid,whence in essence, the onus is on
                                                         the speaker to speak clearly in the first place.

6. Specifically .............................. (sounds impressive, but just get to the point)

7.  So as to achieve ..................... (again another impressive, but leading to some lofty ideals 
                                                          which 99% of the persons hearing it would have some 
                                                          vague or no idea what these ideals are or stand for

8.  More or Less ..........................   its More or its  Less. Not More or Less. Argh ! 

9.    Can I ask a question ? .....................  hey you just did. Next question please ! 
                       
10.  Cut to the chase.................... (what in heaven's name is that, an American poorly made 
        movie cuts to the chase, when the plot is hopeless and hence have to make do    
        with the mandatory car chase, which gives everyone some satisfaction that $11 goes 
         to see some heavy metal getting crunched - its a mind numbing but somehow 
        hypnotic feeling watching cars flipping and getting crunched, and inevitably exploding 
        into a gazillion million pieces with fire, sound and oh so handsome lead actors and 
        voluptuous actresses walking away and fire in the background. 

        So you mean,when I speak, you want me to cut to the chase, and what ,feel satisfied ?

        Americans are so painfully stupid in expecting a car chase or machine mangling scene, 
       so much so it is called a Blockbuster and it has creeped into our everyday language. 

        If it was a period piece with only witty dialogue and some scenery, it would be called a 
        Mind Bender          




         

Wooloomooloo SteakHouse at Raffles City, Singapore Aug 10th 2013

Wooloomooloo Steak 250 g

        On the 3rd Floor of The Westin Hotel, Raffles City, nestled in the corner is a gem of a steakhouse called Wooloomooloo Restaurant. Based on a suburb of Sydney (I am told by a gracious gentleman, Mr. KC Boey), it serves great mouth watering steaks which frankly require no condiments or sauces. We had a fine feast last Saturday 10th August to 'celebrate' the National Day holiday the day before. We ordered 3 steaks and had the Crab Cakes and Scallops as starters. 

                                          Crab Cake with Mayonnaise and Tartar Sauce

      This was my second visit with the family to Wooloomooloo and the experience was just as wonderful, to be absolutely honest. One would think that this restaurant originated from Austalia, but no, this was formed about 8 years ago in Hong Kong, taking the Australian (and American) Black Angus, Wagyu cows as their staples for the steaks. And they did not disappoint. The best of the 3 steaks was the Ribeye, (picture 3 below) flavourful, when done Medium Well, ie. there is a hint of the blood in the center of the 2 inch thick chunk of meat. For medium or even medium rare, be prepared for blood ooozing out once you cut into the steak. 

      Ribeye 250g is good enough for a large person to handle, in my opinion, but as there are 4 of us relatively small eaters, 3 steaks were good enough to fill us, together with starters which incuded 2 servings of French Onion soup. This soup was nothing memorable, and one might be better off ordering the oysters freshly air flown from Australia instead of the soup. The flavour of the Ribeye is one of slightly smoky and salty beef, but with the marbelling (fat), the meat melts in your mouth. Osu !! 

Scallop wrapped with Bacon

2nd favourite (anyway by me) is the Wooloomooloo, which was another Ribeye but done with the Ranch style barbecue flavour which oozes out with every bite. Again, another fantastic steak which requires no condiments or steak sauce, and can fill any large person's stomach quite nicely. The condiments are the mushroom sauce, mustard, red wine, we used them sparingly, such was the quality of the meat. Side dishes would be french fries which I felt was rather small and not bite sized. There are numerous sides such as baked potato in their skins, mashed poatatoes and even some long grained rice for must have rice eaters. 

                                                         Ribeye Steak 250 g 

      The Filet Mignon was the 3rd steak had by us, and it was with little fat, so all lean meat. I would say it is good for people who want a 'healthy' steak. This, we ate with the condiments and sauces.  Portion is 200 g which is also a decent sized one. Flavour was not as tasty as the other 2, because it was lean meat, but a good steak nonetheless. 

My son Andrew and I 

Finally, the house wine (I had the Shiraz) was palatable and the dessest was their signature upside down Brown Cake with ice cream. This was the ultimate in terms of calories, so we ordered just 1 and shared by the 4 of us. Then our weighing scale would not complain the next day !

     Damage for the 3 steaks, 2 starters with 2 soups, 1 wine and dessert came to $440 or roughly US$ 350 for  4. Its pricey but well worth the experience.