Category Archives: Friends

Friends

Let Us Take You to A Place We Know…

“Let us take you to a place we know…” So often we’ll begin a conversation with a friend like this, for we have just discovered a new Thai place that serves yummy tom yam with pork trotters or a café where the siphonists make your cup of coffee right in front of you (but not

Routines

It’s morning where you are. Your husband is at work, your daughters at school. I imagine you at your kitchen table with some weak sunlight barely seeping in and a cup of hot coffee by your side. I am not entirely sure you drink coffee in the morning or tea, but I guess I impose

Viola Davis Eyes

You ask me who I think will win Best Actress at the Oscars. I say I think it’s Meryl’s year again, finally – but I wish it was Viola Davis. You hmmph and say your guess is the reverse – you feel Davis will win but think Streep deserves it. And we argue. It doesn’t

Durian Virgin

We sit in the car. There is no where else to go. The girls have you boxed in, a prisoner-of-war in the backseat. We turn from the front, wielding our weapon of choice, a small silver box. I open the lid and the treasure within is gleaming under the interior light. A simple scheme —

Itinerary

Three friends from abroad visit us. Touchdown. Arrival hall. Hugs and kisses. Next: What’s on the itinerary?   Village Park nasi lemak with fried chicken. Tom Yam Ka Moo (clear tom yam soup with braised pork trotters). Berry-mint lemonade. Sicilian apple cake. Spinach-wrapped veal sweetbreads with asparagus cream & broad beans. Peter’s pork noodles. Club

Valentine’s Day Card

We open our mailbox and there are the usual flyers and bills. And an envelope in the shape of a Hallmark card. We dump the flyers in the rubbish bin and carry the rest with us back to our apartment. Once inside, we drop our bags to the floor and settle onto the daybed. An

Paparazzi

We are at dinner with your colleagues, a sort of post-Chinese-New-Year reunion for one of them who has just returned from Houston with his wife in tow. The first dish arrives – a platter of yin/yang prawns (half cooked in Marmite sauce and the other half in what resembles an oriental Thousand Island dressing) –