Musings by Grace Chng

Just got back from watching Transformers. Great movie, fast spaced, action-packed. Excitement starts right from the start. Special effects is great. Watch the machines transform into metal warriors - it’s jaw dropping awesome.

It’s so fast that you won’t realise that it’s almost a 3-hour movie.

Thanks to Digital Boomerang who invited me.

I’m sure many have read about Hort Park. It’s supposed to be part of the South Ridges park which starts from somewhere in Mt Faber to Kent Ridge and West Coast Park. I’ve never been there until last Saturday when my friend celebrated her 40th birthday there.

Not at the park of course. It’s really hot day to be out there. But Kha Thai restaurant has a wonderful ambience. Sit alfresco and you look out over a shallow pond to greenery. So peaceful. You see trees and flowers. And it’s not crowded, so it’s rather quiet.

In fact the next table was a Caucasian couple enjoying a bottle of white wine. Very Jane Austen like kind of setting if you like. But take away the PSA Tower that intrudes the view on one side and you can be somewhere else. It’s really not like Singapore at all.

Pity we’d to move inside with the first few drops of rain. Still the ambience was worth it.

As for the restaurant, the food is good. Prices are above average but the service and food is good. The crab cakes are good, so is the duck salad appetiser. The steamed sea bass is done just right and the duck curry is not too spicy. I had a bit of the mango sticky rice dessert - very nice. Not too sweet.

Service out in the open is a bit slow because fewer staff outside. So have to exercise patience. Otherwise, if you’re looking for a quiet evening and good food, try Kha. Worth every cent.

The last time I took part in a car rally I didn’t finish it because my 2 friends and I gave up trying to decipher the clues. The rally was part of SPH’s 150th celebration and we thought it would be fun.

So when I saw the Singapore Cricket Club car rally, I thought it would be fun too and signed up with 3 other friends to form one team. It’s a good team, all could read maps, and were good at deciphering clues. It was based on F1, so we were sent to look for the info given at 5 locations which were car showrooms and service centres.

So on an overcast Saturday June 13, we sat out at 3pm to drive  all over Singapore. We’re expected to finish in 2 hours and we did it in 2.20. We’d to look for the information at the Toyota, Mercedes Benz and Ferrari, drive down Singapore’s old grand prix road  - the winding road that led to Pierce reservoir - and then to Ritz Carlton opposite where the F1 car pits were located. Nearly 100km but was quite fun.

In the end, we’re came 3rd and got a bottle of wine for our efforts.

Lesson I learnt was that in car rallies, you need people who can read maps and navigate, know who to call to get info so that you can decipher clues faster. Because we’re also racing against time and trying to solve the clues, the ride is often bumpy as the driver (I was driving) must speed, stop suddenly and turn. So your friends mustn’t be the car sick type. No fun to have someone barf in the car, not that anyone did in this rally.

So I was in San Francisco earlier this week. Landed on Sunday and what a change the city was from Singapore, I mean in terms of temperature. In Singapore,  where 33 degrees Celsius is sweltering and made me run into the air-con all the time, a cool 15-18 degrees Celsius and windy at that, was so, so welcome. It was like walking in the air-con room. 

But San Francisco isn’t the same in some ways. As in January when I was last there, the younger beggars I’d seen then, were still around. Workers made redundant perhaps? 

Also the popular stores like Virgin Superstore and Disney have disappeared. So sad because Virgin was the place I bought my DVDs. It’s a store I simply had to go everytime I was there. Disney store right in the middle of Union Square is also gone. 

These two places were landmarks in Frisco. Don’t know where Borders in Frisco is? Look for Disney and it’s next to it. If you don’t know where the Apple store is, look for Virgin, it’s across the road.

Some things don’t change, however. Victoria’ Secret in the same building as the Westin Francis Drake hotel is still there. But the B&O audio shop two doors from it is gone. Not that I’ve entered the 2 shops but they’ve been there for as long as I’ve remembered. 

One thing different in Frisco is the shoppers. The taxi driver I spoke to said business has fallen by half. Macy’s and Nike superstore are not as brisk as they used to be. 

What was brisk was business at the Apple store. When I went there on Tuesday, the day after Apple announced the new 13″ Macbook Pro, there were tons of people there. Everyone was buying Macbooks and iPods and accessories. It’s the same when I went to the store in January. 

Some things don’t change, thank goodness.

Finally, Zach the white russell terrier, is now … somewhat …. become … more or less …. part of the family. Nearly 12 months ago when he joined the family, he was one angry dog. He didn’t like to be touched on his backside, any side where he can’t see you coming. He sat by the front door hoping to go out. If I wanted to go out he would become aggressive, showing his teeth and growling quite loudly. If I approach him, then he would attack, ie bite. And I’ve been bitten by him 4 times already.

He looks really cute but in reality he’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. He would be lovey-dovey one moment and the next, he would be growly, showing teeth. Trainer Alfred came and saw his behaviour. He said Zach is showing insecure dominance. He’s unsure so he’ll try to dominate first, be bigger than the bigger dog.

So to teach him to be submissive, his possessions - his bed in his basket, his toys - were taken away from him. He had to sleep on the floor and he wasn’t allowed to spend the night in the bedroom.

Zach and I were to go to Alfred to get training so that Zach would be more controllable. Turned out our busy schedules didn’t allow us to do that. So both of us learnt to live with each other. I learnt that he doesn’t like to be surprised, neither does he want to be threatened with the cane. So I’d to use voice ie tone of voice to tell him I’m angry or happy with him.

So I raise my voice if I’m angry that he’s barking too much. I let him know when I was going to touch him, and I would stroke him firmly and I wouldn’t pull his ears or his tail. So now he’s much better and I can actually play with him. He would give me his toy and we would play fetch and retrieve. He would turn turtle and let me scratch his belly.

On Sunday came a tipping point. He’s in the kitchen when I was preparing dinner. I told him to go out of the kitchen and he did. Backed up and sat outside the kitchen and acted as the door guard.  I’m quite happy that of the progress we’ve made but still the lessons with Alfred will start next Sunday.