Jack in the Frisco

"Today, we shall make full use of every single minute. No feeling sleepy okay."




It's been, what... almost three years? Four?

But I've never had Frisco out of my head.

To have the chance to return, albeit for just twenty-four pathetic hours, pleases me so.




From the BART, to the "boutique" hotel, to the Fisherman's Wharf, to the mid-day beers, to the crab cakes, to my beloved Sausalito, to the ferry ride, to the find-the-shop adventures, to the unbelievable cherry blossoms right next to Victoria Secret, to the fabulous Annabelle's and the even more fabulous orgasm-inducing rare steak.

I think we've done a pretty good job, considering we really have only ten hours to do as much as we can.

I have always adored Frisco, tiny and unassuming as it may be. And I think I might just love it forever.




"Jack-on-the-rocks. Jack-In-The-Box. You must really like Jack, huh."

I think nothing's been left unsaid.

Well, maybe just one, or two. But will it really matter anyway?

Dark chocolate, the flavor of my life remains.


I don't think I will ever forget this day.

Reunion

I woke up a very happy girl today.

Firstly, it had been a rather rare occasion these days that I got all my boys together in one tiny smoky noisy room. 'Cept, of course, the little one was terribly missed - by me.

Never mind that it was only a Tuesday night, and I had to get my lazy ass off the couch at five-half the next morning again.

But most of all, I woke up in the middle of a dream, where I was out merrying with my two favorite chicks.


Gawd, I saw all my favorite people last night.

I am indeed very well-pleased. : )

*****

ME: Good day so far?
Muzu: Better than yesterday
ME: Right. Cos they cooked the thai spicy chicken rice better today?
Muzu: How did you know I had it again...
ME: Berry cam
Muzu: What color of T-shirt am I wearing now?
ME: Dark blue
Muzu: WTF?!!!!!!!!!

Strange, but true. : )

I think I am going to bed now, a very happy girl.

Unspeakable Delectable

Tang hoon... check.

Mor kuay... check.

Hei bee... check.

Dong gu... check.

Yes, got the garlic and the soy sauce and whatever necessary seasoning too. I even went out and bought that swanky new wok.

And...?

Fuckin' DISASTER!


Well, okay, not that bad actually.

I gobbled everything up in minutes.



"I think the only person in the world who can appreciate your own cooking is... yourself."

Vase

Vase. V-A-S-E. Vase.

So is it VAR-se, or VAY-se?

If 'base' is BAY-se, why isn't 'vase' VAY-se? And why the heck did anyone teach me 'vase' is VAR-se?


All I had wanted to say was I think I am going to need to buy a bottle or two to stick some flowers in.

With almost everyone out of either town or action, I think I am going to be really, really bored out of my farkin' mind for the next three days.

Collapse

ME Inc.: fuck!
ME Inc.: my couch just collapsed!
ME Inc.: god, and i haven't even had any action on this stupid couch yet and it broke
ME Inc.: fark
Muzukashii: what did yo do?!
ME Inc.: nothing!
Muzukashii: lying
ME Inc.: how do i explain to the landlord that i didn't break her stuff but it's just that she got lousy furniture for this apartment??
Muzukashii: fix without teling her
Muzukashii: 3M scotch tape
ME Inc.: can i fix? it's a metallic leg that broke off
ME Inc.: hahahahaah
ME Inc.: i just stuff it back to prop the couch... it's holding now
Muzukashii: tape it!
ME Inc.: i just can't have any action on this couch now =(
ME Inc.: how to tape?!?!
Muzukashii: okay
Muzukashii: oh what kind of actions were you planning to do?
ME Inc.: aiya not tonight of course
ME Inc.: and i DON"T plan
ME Inc.: just... maybe... you know..


Forget about any 'action'.

It is a bad week. Confirmed.

Fark.

Picture

I am sooooo in lurve with my new toy!

I can't remember already what I had bought to have received it as a "free gift", but I had brought it along with me to the Honks and left the box as originally sealed as it could be for the last eight months.

I don't know what spurred me to break the running record, I suppose I miss the girls too much.

Now, now. I just hope I don't get too lazy to run out and get more paper!

And some frames too.

Luckless

Well, I suppose this hasn't been the best of weeks for us.

One started puking for days.

Another got his leg broken by a four-wheeler.

I guess I'm not really that mucked up after all.



Get better soon, boys. Pretty please.

Kink

"There is no such thing as a 'strong' or a 'weak' person. Everyone is weak."

I don't know what really came over me (as usual), but I found myself weeping in the middle of the work-day.

Someone had probably upset me, just minutes ago. Add that to the incredible amount of workload that has only been increasing since day one, the recent mounting of stress, the growing frustration at the lack of appreciation. How about the nagging feeling that no one at work really gets what I really want to do? And the stubborn need to remain silent, and cheerful? The constant mental note to remember only the happy. The quiet desire of still wanting to be hugged and hushed? The sudden reminder of how I used to have someone to do just that for me?

What am I doing? What am I doing everything for? What am I trying to prove to myself?

I think it all just came up to the brims of my eyes, and just like a fountain, it overflowed.


I sniffled it all back in, and apologized - I must've caused worry.

Almost immediately, I smiled and laughed in my usual madwoman manner. And I remembered my manners and conveyed my thanks.

Not so much for the soy-latte that I got as a result. Not really for any awe-inspiring words that snapped me awake.

But for the realization that I am being understood. For the fact that I wasn't left alone. And for the gentle reminder that I am ME. Strong or not, it doesn't really matter, does it?

It might not be the same, but I do have someone - in a time and place where I would never have expected anything.


It has been amazing.

How I got one of my most peaceful sleeps ever.

PTZ

"Can you order one pei tan congee, BBQ pork chow fun (rice crape?), and shrimp chow fun for me?"

I am very happy indeed that my PTZ friend is back. Even though I realize I still have problems with his Engrish.

One congee and two fried rice? What the fark is a rice crape?

But of course, I never laugh at his Engrish - well, I try not to. I just reply with a question mark. Many question marks, sometimes.

After all's been clarified, we laugh over our BBQ pork cheong fun and shrimp cheong fun, and wash it all down with our PTZs.



Once upon a time, I would never touch a single drop of PTZ.

Today, I suffer from a disease called 'obsession'.

Life in the Tant

Stupid Danish pilot: So. Where's your boyfriend tonight?
ME: HUH?!
Stupid Danish pilot: He is your boyfriend, right?!

OH! The "boyfriend".

ME: Yes, my boyfriend. Not in town tonight.

And then, the stupid Danish pilot proceeded with his wily manners, spewing saliva in my ears/hair, conveniently leaning his elbow on my thigh, caressing my hair even at one point, "Oh, you have such nice hair."

I know I have nice hair, but it's not for you to caress. Fark off.

Finally...

"Hey, I know you have a boyfriend, but if you want, you can come up to my place for a drink."

I just scooted and jumped into the cab.

Farkeeerrrrr.


Sigh. The games we play to get ourselves out of trouble sometimes get us not out of trouble, but into more trouble.

Streeeeesssss

Lyn says: It's been such a dread coming to work....super drag.
ME Inc. says: understand
ME Inc. says: it feels terrbiel
ME Inc. says: what kind of spelling is taht
Lyn says: Feeling of coming to work is terrible just like your spelling.
ME Inc. says: KNS

I would have squeezed you to death with a big grizzly-bear hug if you were right here next to me.

Happy Tired

Weekend after weekend, I become so happy I am actually more exhausted than rested (at all). In fact, I am even amazed I am still capable of feeling happiness in three short days - when really, I should be zombified and lying dead on the bed after the recent weeks of toiling.

(I know, but don't be deceived by the pictures of places I visit "for work". Because market visits are indeed shit-tiring. And your load just keeps piling.)

Then again, I am a pretty easy woman to please.

Just feed me food - yummy, orgasmic food preferably. Then throw in the company - great, but not necessarily orgasmic company, thank you. Mmm... maybe some form of side activity just to keep everyone together - booze, music, MAHJONG.

And last, but surely not the least, the tons and heaps of laughter. Over everything. Anything.


I am still tired, from last week's hard work. But I also found mahjong in my life again - Honky-way no less.

I am up at fuckin' five this morning, to make a train trip at half-past-seven to the factory. But I also have to make it back in time for poker tonight.


No, I'm not really tired.

I am just happy to have a family here.








Yes, I know.

Two meals with the family on Sunday. Two - not one.

Never felt warmth that way since I came. : )

Mrs OBT

I snuck back home over the weekend for a nice cup of kopi-o and some eggs and toast for breakfast.



I joke you not.

But of course, I also had pei dan zhok at the 85 for supper, just about three hours before - just about two hours after I landed.

And then, the party began.












I didn't quite get into the party, since I was stoned maybe more than half the time.

And "stoned" usually turns "smashed" at the end of the night when all the "bottoms-ups" stream in.

Yes, you can picture me alright.


Still, despite the jetlag, I am very proud, very happy, very blessed that I had been there for my babe.

I love you, Mrs OBT!

Of Hard Gays and Gyu Tongues

Quite many moons have passed, and I've lost all words to describe it, but I think I must've had one of my happiest trips ever. : )







Endless meetings. Frustrating discussions. Lousy lunches. Cigars and whiskeys. Crappy massages. Buffet breakfasts. Tomatoes and mozzarella. Berry messengers. Beers and chips. Sleepless nights. Aimless walks. Sex shops. Adventures and surprises. Favorite hotpots. Vinegared pei dans. Bruce Lee. Ticklish foot massages. Hard gays. Bak kut teh and nasi lemak. Questions and answers. Sakes and gyu tongues. Tsing Tao, Tsing Tao and more Tsing Tao.

I am feeling hunger again. : )

The Real Joker

I have been very blessed.

The Big Guy has been very sweet to me. The weather has been absolutely kind to me.

And I think I am going to like Beijing more than the Shang.


In the meantime, I am very, very, very looking forward to Poker Night next week!

I <3 鱼旦

It turned out yet another unexpectedly amazing weekend.

Thanks to a birthday party that I couldn't have missed, yet I almost did because I was just too moodless.

For one, I ate birthday cake so orgasmically wonderful, I think I exclaimed rather aloud in public that "who needs sex when you have chocolate cake this mind-blowing?"

Everyone else mmm'd in agreement with fudge in their mouths - but all claimed later to have lied. Basket.







Oh yeah, we had our usual crapshit, our usual hysterical laughs, our usual amount of drinks... except this time, I had to absenthe the birthday chick. Twice. Heh heh heh.

But the real fun came when we decided to find some food to appease the post-chocolate cake hunger and the birthday chick, in her drunken stupor, decided to buy us gifts instead: oh, that famous Tsui Wah tee-shirt that I've been coveting for months (I swear to God I have been).

Wildly excited, I directed the kids to put on the tee-shirts and I asked the next passer-by to take a picture of us dorks.

But the next passer-by turned out to be Mr Tsui Wah himself.

The next thing we knew, we were being ushered back into the restaurant, and given a whirlwind tour of the entire kitchen and some amazing food-testing of what we seemed to be endorsing.

Yes, of course we got the stares alright.

I don't think it's the pseudo-celebrity atmosphere we created. I think it was those damned tee-shirts.

I wished the ground would swallow me whole, but then the ground was also too greasy, so thank God.





I know, but don't envy me. How many of us get to have a first-hand glimpse of Tsui Wah's kitchen?

All I can say is, it does help to speak crappy Cantonese, bring a Japanese dude around, and have the only local in the group speak in British-accented English.

...

The news came to me in the most sudden of manner.

For days, I still don't know what to do, and all I can think about is death.


A good friend, though not a close one; I feel emotions, yet I know not what to do. What best to say. Should I even say anything?

What kind of words matter now? What is lame, what isn't? What is comforting, what is soothing? And if words do not matter, what else would convey my innermost concern right now?

I know just what I'll do - for now.

I'll just pray .


And then, those familiar sometime-recurring thoughts. About death. About what it means to me, and to the people around me.

Things that people don't usually think about, but I do. And I still think I should, but just don't expect anyone else to really understand.

And that very night, I called Mom.

Even if just on the pretext of asking her how I should boil my congee.


I might have been a lousy friend of late. I might have been too caught up in my own woes, but that's an even lousier excuse.

To everyone that I love, who really matters, I still love you.

Be A Man

We were (finally) walking out of the office when...

"Oh, you just came to work like that?! Sometimes I'm really amazed how you men can come to work with nothing but just your wallet in your back pocket."

"Oh yeah. Of course. Why not?"

"I don't know. I suppose. I haven't thought about that... Yeah, why can't I do that?"

"Yeah, you girls always carry a bag. What do you really need to carry in your bag?"


And so the deal was made.

Yes, tomorrow I will go to work WITHOUT a bag.

Maybe just a coat with deep pockets.


"Yes, and you know, you can always walk in when you're late, and pretend you just came back from the toilet."

HMMMMM...

Dodo-day

Muak muak muak muak muak muak,
Hug hug hug hug hug hug,
Punch punch punch punch punch puuunch punch,
Happy birthday to you (dodo)!

You know I wouldn't have bothered if I didn't love ya.

Have a good one, dodo!

Real Worry

Should I? Should I? Should I?

Should I really get myself that rice cooker?


Then, I can boil my congee with ease. I can make myself endless onigiri too. And I can think of so much other experiments I can possibly carry out during the weekends.

I just think I'm getting so obsessed with being a homemaker.


Should I? Should I? Should I?

I shall wait for an omen.