Heavenly ones. Painful ones. I had them both this past weekend.
Saturday afternoon, I spent a good 2 hours at the Red Dot Museum. I'm talking about a particular spot across from the Pacific Coffee Company. It's the first weekend of March, hence the 'flea market' was on. Not many stalls though, and although there were some attention-grabbing creations (mostly stuffed toys but that's really just me going for anything cute :), others were quite unimpressive. The Red Dot Design exhibition was not great either. Plus the price tags were pretty hefty too. By my standard, anyway, even for limited edition handmade pieces.
Ok, I'm very giam alright ... I have better ways of spending my dollars and more sense than cents to spare, so there. Especially now that I am reading The Famished Road, a beautifully worded and thought provoking novel by Ben Okri about the miserable lives of post-colonial Nigerian society seen through the eyes of an akibu (spirit child) called Azaro. Ultimately, it is about human strength and survival but into the fabric of Azaro's detailed narration is infused African mythology, customs and traditions, heightening my fascination with the continent. I must visit it soon! (I was researching for a project when I came across a website that documented a traveler's journeys to the great wilderness. His pictures of African and Asian elephants were AWE-INSPIRING! -- absolutely my favourite-est animals!)
In a way, the Red Dot Museum (which I've nicknamed The Oasis since my first visit there as it is a basin of tranquility lodged in chaotic CBD) amplified the magic realism of The Famished Road. Even the grafitti on the wall (though a little too 'organised') seemed to draw me into the mystical realm that straddled the platforms of life and death.
In the solitude of the Red Dot compund, I found this paragraph from The Famished Road especially inspiring -
In the middle of the clearing, a solitary wooden pole had been stuck into the earth. The pole had burst into flower. Little buds had grown out along its length and some of the buds had opened into the beginnings of branches. Dad said:
"This is what you must be like. Grow wherever life puts you down."
Xiaoming, Chevy, Elaine and I had an awesome time at Chongqing Huoguo. The steamboat soup came in 2 flavours which we got to choose from a menu. It was Chevy's first time having steamboat and she's gonna bring her family there when they visit at the end of this month.
Since XM definitely cannot take spicy food and Chevy can only take not too spicy ones, we had a portion of chicken soup and a portion of tom yum soup. The latter was the shiok-est thing ever! But only for the first round when it was so super spicy it made my nose run ... hehe. But after several rounds of soup top-up, it was no different from the chicken soup.
Yesterday, my sisters craved for soup from The Soup Spoon at Raffles City. This is another new addictive discovery that we have recently. The soup's awesome and comes in huge portion so we could drink to our heart's content. When upsized, we get a drink, a sandwich/wrap and a little chocolate bar. Yummy!
After downing the hefty meal, we decided to head for the Happy Place (Carrefour) for some cupboard/shelves shopping as we just 'unearthed' some paraphernalia that we had no idea where to place. That's where I got my second red.dot. I swear I didn't even touch the bloody cupboard, but I guess perhaps someone had brushed against it and the loose glass front crashed down on my foot!
There was no pain. I didn't think I was hurt until I looked down. There was a nasty gash. Funny it wasn't bleeding until some seconds later when blood started oozing out that I realised it was actually kinda deep. I started to panic. I worried about glass shards trapped in the wound. Luckily, Hui Ling had tissue to suppress the bleeding, and plaster to cover the wound as we headed for the doctor's. It was only later last night that some form of soreness and tingling pain set in, perhaps due to an accumulation of acid there? Not sure. Anyway, the doc said he doubted there's any debris in the wound but asked me to observe and see if it starts to show any symptoms of inflammation or infection over the next few days. Hope that won't happen!
So today, I'm blissfully on MC. Photoshopped my pictures and patiently waiting for the last episode of Happily Ever After. Ok, sure I've watched it on mobtv, but still nothing beats seeing Elvin on tv. Sigh, after tonight, it's gonna be many boring nights till June! Hmm... then again, it's good that I'll be able to resume my nightlife - haven't been to the movies and anywhere else in ages! Time to stop obsessing about Elvin and start on more serious subjects - hmmm ... like what to eat tomorrow?
Au revoir for now!
