2008 in Perspective

2008 has been a fairly remarkable year for me. I started my yoga teacher training, wrote my MBA dissertation, got a new job, passed my MBA, passed my teacher training......and became proprietress of an online store - the latter being the final culmination of my MBA and yoga training combined. The year started out very challenging especially at work, but like the saying, "trial by fire", well it's through fire that moulds character. With all the extra activities through the year it's also a test of physical limits. Outcome of this test? One needs a lot of collagen supplements, face masks and plenty of retail therapy.

2008 is and was a good year. Because of all the learnings I've encountered. Yes economy sucks, but even from that there is a lesson to be learnt - 1) no money is safe, except under the pillow, and 2) it's probably better to invest in a birkin bag vs any other stock.

Size matters

C remarked to me how he doesn't understand why a small little bag would be housed in such a huge box (alongside with stuffing paper etc). It's very simple really - because size DOES matter. Not size of the designer bag, but size of the designer PAPER bag that the item is put into. The bigger the box encasing the designer item, the bigger the paper bag, the better.

C: So you mean so say, the doesn't matter if the item inside is a tiny keychain, it's more important they put the item into a huge box??
Me: Yep.
C: err....and why?
Me: Because the size of the box and the corresponding size of the paper bag gives the illusion that the item inside is a big and expensive item.
C: So literally you can have nothing in the box, as long as there is a huge box and a huge paper bag?
Me: Yep. Not just a paper bag, but a paper bag with a sticker or ribbon sealing the top.
C: and why??
Me: Simple. So this way we get much better service when we walk into other designer stores.

Yes, it's a fact of life. People judge you by appearances, and yes, the number and size of the designer paper bags one carry. The service is attentive and prompt, you can almost see the quick calculative gleam in the sales assts eyes when they spy you walking into the boutique with 'bags' in tow. So in our shamelessly materialistic society today, size does matter. Nevermind what's inside.

Gastronomic Orgasm

How to achieve G.A. (and I don't mean general anesthesia):

1. Read Chubby Hubby. Orgasm ultimate via food sex on a blog.
2. Subscribe to Appetite magazine. The oh so ooh la-la food styling on the cover is always a trigger for rapid heartbeats and orgasmic bloodrush.
3. Watch Nigella Lawson. Need I say more?

Today my haul at Borders equals 2 cookbooks, 2 food periodicals (Appetite and Singapore's Best 100 Restaurants) and 1 yoga book. Hmm, maybe that's the way life is - I enjoy my yoga very much but maybe because I'm at practice so regularly I feel less desire to possess much reading material on it. On the other hand, the dream kitchen and the dream food are things I don't use much but highly covet. Life is about wanting what we cannot get. Only then will we desire it more.

Speaking of yoga, since I've completed my teaching certification, I'm suddenly struck with the reality that I do have to write my sports resume. I've got a career resume I'm really proud of, and to suddenly have to write another resume as a rookie is almost stunning. So out come the stash of certificates of workshop attendance etc etc. One thing good about being anal and having a rather neat filing system since my school days, is at least I know where everything is kept.

Cooking up for lost time

It seems in the last 10 days I have cooked up enough to make up for the lost 1 year of kitchen time. On my accomplishment menus were potato skins (Gary Rhodes), couscous salad (Tessa Kiros), Vietnamese fish cakes (Red Lantern), Hot german potato salad and Kimchi fried rice. The latter 2 are self-adapt recipes. All in, I must have cooked for over 20 people. Most went well except the fish cakes which went somewhat too liberally with the fish sauce, oops.

My poor dogs are wondering how come they don't get a piece of all these action. But just as my friend John noted when he saw both Bis and Hol recently, they kinda look like chunky monkeys already.

Ok time for dogs to diet.

Blend blend blend

My newest acquisition in kitchen equipment - the Philips HR2068 blender which suceeds the my old Philips blender which met an unfortunate and untimely demise when attempting to obliterate fish paste for Xmas dinner. The old faithful had served me well for over 4 years, nevermind that in the last 1 yr I hardly cooked. The adrenaline and excitement of standing in the household section of Takashimaya with all these beautiful offerings of kitchen gadgets and once again I began to dream (and oh so dream) of my dream kitchen which would be the size of a 3 room HDB flat (it's only a dream ok!!!). Ok dream aside, it's a nice feeling when brand promoters rush to attend to you in hopes of convincing you their products are the best for your needs. The HR2068 costs twice the old faithful did, but it's more powerful and more zippy. Oooh I like.

When in Recession...

When in Recession, spend spend spend. Apparently this is what Singaporeans do. Recession? What recession? Looking at the tremendous crowd at the Isetan VIP preview, it looks like half of Singapore is a Isetan VIP. It's so crowded one does not walk - one simply gets pushed around by the hordes of shoppers. Recession?? Cashiers are ringing up purchases non-stop it seems everyone is buying enough to populate half of China. Even worse, there's no service when you want one. I feel sorry for the poor sales assistants.

I love retail therapy, retail is good. But going to a sale so crowded is no therapy. My total damage at Isetan - $18 for groceries. I guess I'm one of the few genuinely 'recession' customers of Isetan.

Peripheral Vision

Guys generally do not hae peripheral vision. They see straight ahead, focus, and zoom. Girls on the other hand, have in born ability of 180 deg pheri vision, can see left and right and center, focus on SALE sign, and zoom all over the place, and still remember which shops on left and right still need to check out.

But recently have found out there is maybe 1 exception for guys - that pheri vision is possible for them (or maybe it's only for C) when guy is driving the car down the expressway, and female passenger flashes body part at the same time a red sportscar is zooming down on the right lane. C's apparently has very superior 180 deg vision; in that 1 split second, identify the make model and even exact car plate license of the speeding red car, as well as identify the flashing body part.

When female tries to do the same thing, she gets a hole in the retina. See lah.