Boo and Birthday

I love kids. I honestly do. They're adorable, they smell nice (most of the time at least...), they gurgle, giggle & gasp at all the right moments, and they pretty much love you unconditionally. But when they come into contact with candy- or the prospect of candy- they turn into maniacs! I swear, it's like a Pavlovian reaction to sugar of any form and they descend upon you like locusts- cute, fluffy locusts- but locusts nonethless. For a half-hour, I was like the greatest, favoritest lady on the block with every conceivable kid (and that odd adult) grabbing at me for Tootsie Rolls, Hershey Kisses, M&Ms and White Rabbit sweets (Can you believe they have that here?! Jude found them at the Chinese grocery store. Some of the kids from China were really quite thrilled.) I think there're going to be some very sick kids today. Parents too.

But this Halloween was fun- it's the first time we had trick-or-treaters come by our house. There weren't that many kids living around our old apartment so it was quiet last year. Check out the costumes these parents prepared for their children- they either had a whole ton of time, money or imagination. But there was one poor boy whose mum I suspect really couldn't care less- he came in a piece of white cloth with two holes cut out for eyes, which is fine until you realized it made him look like a Klan man. Wait... maybe that was the point- now THAT's scary... Jude & I were really quite amazed at what a big deal Halloween is here, especially with the kids. In Singapore, Halloween is just that night when clubs hold huge vampire-fest parties where grown men & women go to in various states of gothic undress; while over here, adults like Jude & I spend $20 on candy only to see it run right out in less than an hour...

On another note, we went to a Malaysian retaurant yesterday to celebrate my birthday. Jude had already brought me out for Italian on Tuesday so last night was more just to hang out with the gang. It's called Penang and it was a pretty nice place. None of that tropical-palm-tree-coconut-bowls decor. There were some pieces of wayang kulit and ikat here and there although their choice in music left much to be desired. There was the token "exotic" music of Anya and Enigma (how they are South-east Asian deludes me...) but also Moby and Sarah MacLachlan which prompted someone to comment,"I didn't know Moby was Singaporean." Then it occurred to me, I don't remember ever yearning to hear "Dayung Sampan" and "Rasa Sayang" so desperately.

Anyways, Jude & I were "this" close to tears when we opened up the menu, for two different reasons actually: seeing words in Malay again after so long was very very comforting, even if it was just things like "roti" and "goreng". Then those tears turned into sheer disbelief when we looked at the prices. Get this: ONE Roti Prata for $3.50, Murtabak for $5, ONE piece of Keropok for $1, four sticks of satay for $7, and this takes the cake- ice-kacang for $5! And I'm talking US dollars people... And you thought paying S$10 for prawn-mee was exhorbitant. But on the whole, it was nice- I think our friends enjoyed the "oriental" experience and we satiated out craving for SEAsian food. In the spirit of true Singaporeanism, we would have smuggled their sambal belachan out if only we had the right container...


wayang kulit