Cavalock and The Mirrored Hallows of Lloyd Manor

It's that time of the year again when straying outdoors without an umbrella is almost unthinkable. Monsoon season is upon us and although the weather may appear dreary, a part of me does look forward to a cooler climate change and the coming holiday season is always an excuse to revisit my Christmas playlist. Despite the constant afternoon drizzle, we did managed to drop by Mezza9 at Hyatt Hotel for lunch just the other day.

Was in the mood for something Japanese that day so the bento box was an obvious choice. I was also a little hungrier than usual, well, an entire morning spent at the old family home rampaging through a ton of vintage curios does tend to whet one's appetite. So I chose the yakitori pork set as well. Glad I did too cos it certainly saved me from an otherwise mediocre lunch. The S$44 bento set wasn't bad but just rather reminiscent of any other bento set that one can get for half the price. Now the yakitori pork set on the other hand was great. It arrived on a little smoking charcoal grill, and every morsel of skewered pork was delicious and so were the mushrooms, corn and asparagus. Will definitely try something else on their lunch menu on my next visit, just not that bento set again.

So remember my childhood teddy bear that I found in the old family home? I managed to do a recording of the lullaby using my iPhone (in the old family home itself!). Like I said, the audio is still quite crisp and clear even after all these decades. Best listened to at night, alone with the lights turned off.

Another haunting remnant from the old family home is this century-old marble top dressing table. On evenings when the air is deathly still, one can may catch more than a faint whiff of sweet almond oil and rosewater scent. An unnatural lingering reminder of an early Victorian embellishment that continues to lend an unholy presence in the now dusty bed chamber.

If one dares peer into the mirror, never look away from one's reflection. For the sake of one's sanity, stay strong in one's gaze. Do not glance at the shadowy form that shimmers in the corner of one's view for some say that all it takes is for an innocent soul to glimpse its eldritch shade, and to grant it the freedom it craves.

Place one's palm on its cold marble top and do not be alarmed when on rare occasions, one would actually feel the hard surface gently pulsating with life. Mayhap an unnatural resemblance to life as we know it but still a grim reminder to who or what may actually reside within the hallowed mirror.

Cavalock and The Cross Border Cookie Raid

Slipping across the border was such a blast the last time that we decided to do it again! So there we were, back in Tijuana Johor Bahru on a sunny Wednesday morning. Our first stop was the massive supermarket Tesco at KSL mall and as expected, we were treated to several rather interesting tidbits that I believe one cannot find back home. We have seen their regular butter cookies sold here but Kjeldsen's appears to have a more impressive selection available in neighboring Mexico Malaysia.

Check this out. Hazelnut, pistachio nut and macadamia nut cookies from Denmark. Pretty neat, eh? Betcha don't see them at your local Fairprice or Cold Storage. Got a tin of pistachio nut cookies for only about S$8 plus. Had several for tea and I'm afraid it was way more chocolate chips than pistachio nuts. They weren't bad but not as nutty as I would have liked.

Also spotted at Tesco were these handy Kewpie salad dressing bottles. Now I have spotted their roasted sesame dressing on sale at Cold Storage here for over five bucks but not these two. According to their website, there is still an elusive sesame soy sauce that I have yet to encounter. I like their famous Japanese mayo dressing but I'm not so sure bout these.

Lunch was just across the road from KSL mall at the popular Soon Soon Heng bak kut teh restaurant. You can tell it's a crowd favourite cos it was already packed with groups of senior citizens from Singapore even before noon. I especially like how one can choose from an array of delectable ingredients like meatballs, mushrooms, liver etc. and then customise your very own bak kut teh soup. And yes, it's the darker, more herbal and certainly more flavorful Malaysian broth that I have yet to find back home.

With the spotlight on the Ebola scare in New York City, I thought I'll just share some stuff I found in the old family home. My late uncle's health papers from his stay in New York during the 1970s. I definitely wasn't handed one of those Health Alert Notice cards when I was in the Big Apple a few months ago. The retro vaccination booklets (yes, I actually have an extra blank copy!) are pretty awesome. I got kinda choked up looking at the World Trade Centre ones.

 

Then there's this white envelope filled with crisp two-dollar bills from 1976 that was tucked in the back of my late uncle's desk. Go figure. I swear to gawd the bizarre things I continue to find in the old family home never fails to amaze me.

Cavalock and The Rise of The Nightjars

Its been way too long since I had a Japanese meal that I had actually enjoyed. Well, thank the stars I stumbled onto the new Saboten restaurant at 313@Somerset last weekend. With over 500 cutlet stores around the world, I guess it's safe to say they know a thing or two bout serving crispy Japanese tonkatsu dishes.

Sure they got the unlimited cabbage and rice servings that most other tonkatsu joints have as well, but it's their sesame dressing that made the common cabbage simply irresistible. There's a bottle of it and another bottle of orange peel dressing at each table so you could pretty much douse your cabbage shreds with as much of it as you like. And I sure as hell liked it a lot. 

So right now they are having an extremely tempting oyster promotion and if you know me, you'll understand that there is no freakin' way I can turn down cheap oysters. Ordered the above oyster and tenderloin set, and like I said earlier, it was the best Japanese meal I had in a long while. The pork tenderloin was ... well, for lack of a better word, remarkably tender. The oysters were gratifying too but that tenderloin was just too damn good especially after dipping each crispy slice in their dark luscious tonkatsu sauce.

A nightjar. That's what it is. Never seen or even heard of one until my 81-year-old Dad showed his latest wildlife shots to me about a week ago. He knew what it was. I helped him sort and then upload/download about 2,000 shots of the tiny mommy nightjar and her two nestlings several days ago. Look likes he spent the last couple weeks staking out the nest from before the little ones were hatched until they were scurrying around mommy nightjar. There were more than a few decent shots in the lot, figured I'll post some of them here. I guess it shows that if you keep your eyes open you can spot all kinds of pretty cool or weird stuff on this little island.

Cavalock and The Spooky Frozen Halloween Special

It wasn't an easy week when it came to my caregiving duties but I made a promise a long time ago, for my own sanity, to not harp about what ails me here. Instead of our Halloween cookies this year, we managed to bake these iced cookies *see what I just did there?* in our tiny apartment kitchen and handed them out for free to some of our friends' kids.

When the opportunity to do a Frozen cookie theme set came along, the tough part was figuring out what kinda images were the easiest as well as most attractive to design. The sisters' faces were too complex to recreate with the icing, so it looked like the next most identifiable trait were their outfits. The dresses weren't exactly easy but they were at least manageable and we thought the ice sprinkles on Elsa's gown was a nice touch. Check out the hand drawn pattens on her sister's dress, that wasn't exactly a piece of cake either.

And there's Olaf of cos. Believe it or not, according to the baker at house, Olaf was the hardest to create as he was all freehand and without the aid of any tracing lines to guide the design. Good news is we just got a video from a little recipient of the Frozen cookies and she absolutely loved them!

Since this is a special Halloween post, I thought maybe I'll post some of the more creepier things I found recently in the old family home. Can you guess what's in the little plastic tumbler? I couldn't at first, until the baker in the house told me what they were after examining them for awhile. Answer at the end of the post! ;)

Now what we have below is apparently a pack of animal claws. Could be tiger or bear? After some research, it appears that back in the day, they were commonly used in pendants to be worn by children as some sort of talisman to ward off evil. Since I'm the only child in the family, I would assume that these claws were meant for me but as far as I can remember, I never worn any talisman when I was a kid. So who or what were they exactly for?

Well, this is to some people probably the creepiest thing I found in the old family home (yet). My old teddy bears! I believe they are at least 70 years old as they were already rather 'seasoned' when I had them as a child. Don't ask me how but they were still in such an uncannily sanitized condition when I found them in an old suitcase about a month ago. Neatly wrapped with no foul odours or blemishes and like captured in an almost bizarre state of suspended animation. They were just like the day I last saw them decades and decades ago. The blue larger one below is actually a wind-up musical bear that plays a lullaby when you turn the key behind him. I got chills down my spine when I heard how crisp and clear the music was again. There were no creaks or lapses when the lullaby was playing. Extremely eerie but equally cool.

In case you are wondering, I never named them. A trenchcoat-wearing practitioner of the occult once said that there is "power in naming". Maybe as a child I did the right thing by not naming them but that is not to say that someone else in the past didn't name them.

Alright, as for what's in the little plastic timber, those are .... gold teeth!!! I have no freakin' idea who they belonged to. Maybe my granddad or someone further down the family tree. I dunno but ... geez!

Cavalock and The Case of The Curious Mementos

I must have strolled past Maison Ikkoku a dozen times over the last few months but never found a reason to drop by this popular bar cafe along Kandahar Street until last weekend. A casual suggestion by a friend and we soon found ourselves heading to the cafe for a lazy late breakfast. It's a pretty small and comfortable joint which I suppose puts it in the cosy category. Wasn't in the mood for anything too heavy so I picked the french toast with berries from their all-day weekend menu. It came nicely drenched in maple syrup with a generous serving of berries on the side as well as a dollop of creamy vanilla mascarpone. Yup, it's tenaciously sweet but not that much till it overwhelms me. A very satisfying breakfast that is now giving me ideas to drop by again to try their bar selection one evening.

Now my Facebook friends would likely have already seen this, but I thought I'll just post some of the more intriguing items that I have recently uncovered in the old family home. Shifting through a rusty tin box filled with dozens of faded black-and-white photographs and enigmatic handwritten notes, I found an official-looking document that I believe is of a sea-faring nature from 1938. Travel papers for a ship? I seriously doubt if they mean someone somewhere owns a ghost ship? Well, I do know for a fact that my granddad was in the merchant marine trade around early last century and that some of the stranger, older artefacts could well be picked up by him during his travels. But it still gives me goosebumps whenever I stumble upon an unknown piece of arcane history.

From 1923, here's a German "Weimar Dresden Devil Satan Anti-Semitic Coin Inflation Money". On the front, it reads 'Whether Jew, whether Christian, the usurer is a scoundrel". On the back it reads, "In bad times, no doubt, is a man of many other devil". Having read books and watched countless documentaries on Pre-World War II Nazi Germany, I am a bit familiar with how such a coin or medallion came about, but what I cannot even begin to fathom is how a member of my family got his (or her?) hands on it. Man, if you think that's the most bizarre or even macabre find so far, well, I got news for you. Not today but maybe someday I'll post a couple of the more outlandish ones here. I have encountered mystic relics, Eldritch tomes and enigmatic maps. Some of which I was discreetly but firmly advised against taking photos of. Really.

A little closer to home now and I still couldn't believe how I dug this out from the bottom of a cardboard box of old books. I was going "WTF?!?" when I pulled it out and only recognised it as the original edition of a book that has been hogging the local headlines for almost a month now. It's the hardcover first print copy of The Battle for Merger written by Singapore's most famous Prime Minister back in 1961. A nice little propaganda piece that has been in the local news lately. To be honest, if not for all the recent publicity, I wouldn't had known the significance of it. It's still in a remarkably good condition, seeing that it's over 50 years old. Better shape than the author I guess.

One last thing. I am thinking of setting up an Etsy page soon. Several friends have mentioned that I should try to sell my wares there instead of just plugging them all on Facebook. One of the reasons is that I have noticed that most locals aren't interested at all in such remnants from the past. Here's hoping that I can raise a little cash by casting a wider net overseas but do let me know if there's anything you fancy!

Cavalock and One Week in Sillypore 11

Some ups, some downs. I guess you could say that this past week was just like any other week and you know what that means! Yup, the perfect excuse to do another of my 'One Week in Sillypore' schtick. On the home front, it was a visit to the Dark Side as we got these Darth Vader butter cookies rolling outta the tiny apartment kitchen and to another little kid's birthday party. We just got the Star Wars cutters earlier this month but each piece here still had to be individually hand-painted. Sure hope the kids like them!

Being home alone means another chance to put together some easy dishes. I know the below pix ain't gonna win any points for plating but it sure tasted great. My own version of cioppino. Thanks to the Internet, putting it all together wasn't that difficult. Mine was a fisherman's stew filled with chunks of codfish, scallops, prawns, onions, potatoes and a carrot. It was a hearty dinner for one and it certainly kept me from going to bed hungry that night. I sure miss cooking at home!

Never been a fan of Korean food but I'm slowly getting there. After my brief Korean immersion in New York, I kinda developed an affinity for their BBQ beef. So here's a nice Korean joint in Tras Street called Sodam that I would seriously recommend, great sizzling BBQ beef at a reasonable price and really friendly service. To me, it's always a good thing when the native Korean staff recognises you.

Another unforgettable meal of the week was the buffet lunch at The Lime restaurant at ParkRoyal hotel. An enticing Peranakan and Western spread that had me stuffed for the rest of the day. Had the table by the large glass walls facing the sidewalk and observed the many office minions scampering off for their midday meals. Like hordes of mindless rodents fervently searching for their next feed. So animated in their brutish movements and behaviour but still soulless in all their inane conversations. Was rather amused to glimpse a past life that has somehow now slipped beyond my grasp, for better or worse.

Picked up some of the new Lego Series 12 minifigures this last week too. Now I'm talking about the real deal original Lego here, not the usual fake Lego minifigires that I usually buy. ;) Really was looking forward to this latest set simply becos of the facial expressions on some of the new minifigures. Mixing and matching the new and old minifigures' body parts in my collection till I achieved a 'fresh' one. The winking look, the kissy face, the new hairdos, they were all perfect for coming up with wacky dioramas like this Lorong Lego in Geylang. Well, I expect local guys would appreciate this little pix.

So my 80-year-old Dad bought a new Nikon V2 recently as his previous Canon camera was getting too heavy for him to lug around the island. He's still learning to use it and I have been going through some of his wildlife pix. I'm not much of a camera guy, the only V2 I know are the World War II German rockets that rained down on London during the infamous Blitz.

One more thing that caught my attention last week was the news of the hacking and leaking of certain celebrities' nude selfies. Yah, I am aware that the incident was a month ago and it's probably old news by now but I was just reading several articles about it, and noticed something was severely lacking in them. Now I want to say that I do agree that it's a horrible crime and we shouldn't watch or promote the images. 

But no one in the news stories was saying that one shouldn't be taking nude selfies in the first place. I mean I know it's not against the law or anything, and an adult should be free to do anything he or she wants with his or her body. I also know the main message is about the violation of one's privacy etc. and not whether one should or should not take nude selfies in the first place. But shouldn't someone, anyone at least mention in all those articles that maybe (just maybe!!!) taking nude selfies might not such be a good idea to begin with? 

Remember not too long ago when politicians in different countries were caught and chastised for taking nude selfies? Seems like while everyone back then was screaming that politicians shouldn't be taking nude selfies to start with, apparently no one is saying that to the celebrities now.

Far as I'm concerned, taking a nude selfie ranks up there with common sense things you probably shouldn't be doing, like 'get a full face tattoo before a job interview', or 'go skateboarding in the middle of the highway during rush hour' or 'pretend you got Ebola on a crowded plane'. It's common sense advice that any sane mom in the world would tell her kids, "Girl (or son), don't you go taking naked pictures of yourself! Y'hear me?!?". 

Unless there's a mom out there who thinks it's perfectly alright for their children (grown-up or otherwise) to take nude selfies, then I say folks (men and women) shouldn't be taking nude selfies. I think that's a pretty reasonable benchmark, if mom thinks it's wrong, then it usually is! But seriously, are people really that daft and not see the downside of taking nude selfies at all? Or at the very least, stop reporting like it's a normal thing everyone should be doing on their coffee break.