k r i s a n d r o

Many moons ago, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling extremely thirsty and feeling the need to suck on a straw that leads to a freezing cold drink. I walked groggily to the kitchen in the dark, feeling quite confident that I won’t stub my toe into a wall or my dog, and headed for the fridge. As I approached one of the greatest invention of all time, the underside of my right foot rolled over something that seemed very much like a rubber band. 2 minutes into waking up had my brain telling my foot to roll over the ‘rubber band’ a few more times just to make sure that it is one. It did feel like one and I stooped and picked it up to find out that it was a…

…Baby LIZARD!!! (a very deformed baby lizard after all that rolling)

And yesterday, as I was walking KuKuNehNeh home, I had another run-in with a lizard. As I walked up the stairs near a bus stop in Ang Mo Kio, a pair of lizards dropped from the ceiling with a loud ‘TWACK’ like a pair of wooden sticks. Of all places that they had to fall, they fell right below my landing foot. One escaped in the nick of time but one ended under a good 70-80% of my weight. The lizard was huge! I could actually feel it’s body crushing under my thick dress shoes and seeing it’s bodily fluids ooze out right after I crush it wasn’t helping either.

Let’s do this together.

EEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwwww~~!!!!!

I was probably a mosquito in my last life and had 251 members of my clan eaten by a hungry lizard but I FORGIVE YOU LIZARDS. STOP DYING THROUGH ME DAMNIT!

KuKuNehNeh(KKNN) and myself were at Ang Mo Kio Hub yesterday for dinner and apart from filling the ever-growing tummies of ours, we were also there to buy tickets for Watchmen. At this point you’ll be thinking, “why the hell does the tech savvy Krisandro need to buy movie tickets off the counter when he can just buy it off the net at the comfort of his computer?”.

Well, for a long time now, UOB credit card holders can actually buy tickets from Cathay Cineplexes at a great price of $6 per ticket for weekdays and $8 for weekends. The weird thing is that one cannot enjoy the same offer using a UOB credit card when purchasing online. *facepalm*

As I was thumbing down on the iPhone checking out the movie timings for Friday, KKNN turned to the posters to check out the other movies that were showing.

“Eh Dear!” KKNN called for me with the usual urgent tone that could mean that she needs saving from a zombie.

“What?”

“Do you know who the director of Marley & Me is?”

“Er…. No.”

“He is the same director that directed the movie ‘The Devil Wears PRATA.”

I jerked up from my mobile’s screen and stared at her for a split second.

“WAHAHAHAHHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAA~~!!!”

There is particular topic that has came up quite a few times in my conversations with KKNN; the possible death of delicious hawker food.

This topic is close to KKNN’s heart as her Dad & Mum runs a prawn noodle stall at Whampoa. The receipe has been passed down for 3 generations so far and like many other hawker businesses in Singapore, we feel that they face extinction.

The level of education in Singapore has improved by leaps and bounds for the last decade or so and the pursuit of acadamic qualifications has made other interests like cooking a tertiary skill. Most of the people around my age or so (myself included) probably have the culinary skills to ruin instant noodles. Not that people like us have no interest in good food; we still want awesome food but preparing it ourselves is a place where we seldom thread.

I am sure all of you guys have favorite hawker stalls littered all over Singapore like some of mine: roti prata at The Prata House @ Thomson Road and the carrot cake in Changi Village. Go look at the people who are running the stalls now and don’t you realize that these cooks are almost all of the older generation and has no hints of a younger generation taking over. It also doesn’t help that most of them would only pass on their recipes to close members of the family.

I think it is rather safe of me to assume that most delicious hawker food will die off in my generation and the rest will also go by the next.

There is still some ray of hope for hawker families like KKNN’s as she is more than willing to take over her Dad’s stall due to her strong interest in cooking. Her dad isn’t willing to pass on the ladle to her as he wants her to experience the world first before deciding if she wants to walk in his path.

In Singlish terms he is saying, “WAH LAU EH! Spend so much money to let you study and you want to sell HEI MEE after you get your degree? YOU SIAO AH!“

I hate to say this when I can’t help the situation myself but for those who has an interest in cooking and has a family hawker business, why not consider taking over it? If you have a hawker business but have nobody to pass it on to, why not find a disciple? Getting a person with love for cooking sure beats passing the business to a son/daughter with no interest or bringing your recipes to the grave.

Save our Char Kway Teow! (So that I can still eat em..)

KKNN has been clamoring for a baby Lovebird and it didn’t help that there wasn’t any stock for the creatures at Goodwill Birds Trading when we visited the popular and highly rated shop in December. They were plenty of beautiful adult Lovebirds there but she only wanted baby ones because she wants the Lovebird as a pet; and according to one of the friendly workers there, they don’t have an estimated time when they would get them because the baby Lovebirds come from their customers.

KKNN spent the week after moping at not being able to buy the bird and we resorted to calling up Goodwill Birds Trading every other day to check and also calling up other shops to check if they had any Lovebirds but to no avail. I had to appease her by offering to color my bird in the shades of a Lovebird.

Of course I didn't color my bird.... :p

I am quite the animal lover but I have never had the thought of having a bird as a pet whereas she had 3 chickens as pets before. My thinking is that cats/dogs make better pets as one would be able to walk them out without worrying if they are on the wrong end of the food chain and having them eaten up. I also feel that dogs/cats are more fun to play with considering their size and intelligence. But after reading more about the Lovebirds online through sites like Wikipedia, my perception of having a Lovebird as a pet has changed.

Here are some interesting facts:

• They are actually miniature parrots
• 8 out of 9 species originate from Africa
• They are very affectionate and social creatures
• They live as long as 10-15 years
• They have the intelligence of a 3 to 4-year-old child
• They can be toilet trained and be taught how to speak

Just last Saturday, we took a chance and went down to Goodwill Birds Trading and there was a dozen or so baby Lovebirds! KKNN was super elated and was super confused on which one of them to choose especially since the baby Lovebirds do not have fully grown feathers and it’s hard to tell how they will look like when older. We settled on a Lovebird after awhile and brought it back home with some supplies.

Introducing….. (for the lack of an imagination)…..

BLUEY!!!

Ain’t Bluey super duper cute! We spent a lot time cuddling him, playing with him and even more just staring at him over the weekend.

For all the ‘hims’ that I have used, we actually do not know Bluey’s gender because of it’s age. KKNN think Bluey is a girl and I think Bluey is a boy but gay.

What say you? Make a guess!