Daffy went to Geylang

We wanted a bite of supper.

And because we wanted to go have it at a place where we'd never been to or hadn't been to in a long time, there was a long list of possibilities.

First up was Downtown Shenton Way- maybe we can go for satay! 

Then we thought about Kallang- biryani, maybe?

But we didn't quite want biryani for supper so we considered Aljunied and Tai Seng- nothing there- and Simpang Bedok- prate- and East Coast Park Lagoon Food Center- char kuay teow and chye tow kuay.

But everything seemed a tad too far for a quick bite of supper and so we finally decided on Geylang.

Specifically, the soy bean curd shop in Geylang, which we googled just to get the exact location, and the exact name. 
Now, if there's one thing that Yong He Coffee Shop at Lorong 22 is pretty famous for, it is their savoury soy beancurd.

But because we'd tried it last year when we were hanging out in the area, we decided we'd go for the sweet one this time.

So we ordered one big bowl of sweetened beancurd, one stick of youtiao and one plate of pot stickers.

The beancurd was really bobbly and nice to carve, the youtiao was large sized and crisply fried, and the pot stickers we ordered were super original with a chewy skin and lots of filling inside.

Sad thing is, I didn't get a picture of the food- I should have- but I got a picture of what I was looking at from my roadside table seated on my stool. :)
 

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biking for Prata

 
There're two routes I can take if I want to have this murtabak and The Tarik for dinner. I can either take the Changi Road route and then zip through Opera Estate- of which I will most likely get lost-, or I can go by Telok Kurau and East Coast Road towards Siglap. I prefer the latter. The route's easier, wider, more comfortable, more straightforward and I don't like making too many twists and turns to get to my dinner. 

What I simply do is to turn onto East Coast Road, trundle past all the cars stopping to buy durian and roast duck rice, keep going forward past Frankel Avenue and all the way until I reach Siglap Center. Then it is a left turn into Jln Tua Kong where the east side outlet of Springleaf Prata is somewhere inside.

It's a short ride, not too many cars, and the absolutely fantastic Prata plus well pulled Teh Tarik make the bike ride to and fro worthwhile.

But I do try to take the alternate route on the return trip sometimes- gotta work off the prata- which, honestly, I do find a little more complicated.

Let's see if I get it right.

I go to the end of Jln Tua Kong, turn into this little pedestrian park walkway that's really the back alley between two rows of terraced houses, turn out onto a park connector and then go all the way straight until a curving ramp upslope leads me to the spot opposite Decathlon. Here I push my bike- too lazy to climb the famous Chai Chee Hill- and then head back past the Kembangan stretch, the Kim San Coffee shop and one half of Geylang Serai. 

yes, we really need AI

Not too long ago I needed to make an enquiry on a banking transaction-basically I needed to find out the process if I wanted to do such and such.

 

And because it seemed more convenient, I did it the old school way and called the customer service hotline at the bank.

Bad mistake.

 

Three times I enquired, three times I got three different kinds of answers.

 

First customer representative told me that I needed to inform the other party three details.

 

Second customer representative told me that in order to get what I needed, I was required to inform seven details.

 

Third customer representative told me that in fact, for this particular transaction, I didn't need to inform seven details, or even three. All I needed was only two.  

 

Needless to say, I got extremely confused- and very embarrassed.

 

Because I'd informed the other party the necessary information each time and it was beginning to look like I didn't know my own banking s***. Worse still, it was coming out like my own bank didn't know their own banking s*** either! 

 

By the time the third enquiry came into place, I wanted to go thump the bank teller's counter and ask them would they please tell me what in the high heavens was I supposed to inform the other party and would they please give it to me one shot just so this d*** transaction could go just right!

 

Of course they could say that I should b***dy well know, but I also wanted to tell them that, look, this might be second nature to you, and this might be second nature to many a person, but it is not necessarily the same for everyone, and so there will be customers who will either be doing this for the first time, or who have not done it for a long time and thereby forgotten how to go about doing it. Let's not assume.

 

Well, I'm glad to say that the matter is settled now, it's all clear and we're all good.

 

But this has started me seriously pondering about the use of AI, Machine Learning, Intuitive Websites, Apps and Avatars in corporations whose industries involve plenty of enquiries, explanations, clarifications, introductions of business offerings and the like.

 

I'm talking telecommunications, financial institutions, hospitality, government bodies, insurance corporations and the like.

 

This isn't an epiphany sort of perspective.

 

With AR and VR coming about, with blockchain and bitcoin and Machine Learning and AI being the buzz for a while, it's already been explored and already been discussed, and many a corporation are already using chatbots and analytics for customer engagement, still, when it comes to situations like what I've experienced, a d*** solid AI could be well put to use.

 

It's like, a website can be more than a website. After all, there can only be that many questions when it comes to certain transactions. Sure, there are many, many, many questions for the many, many products, and there are many, many clarifications for the many, many transactions, but I'm quite sure there is a number to it all.

And if it can be quantifiable, it means that all of it goes into a single set manual or if I may boldly interpret it- Artificial Intelligence- where keywords are recognized, interpreted, confirmed and then key answers made available.

 

Unless the AI decides to curate the information(!), I'd think a simple "how do I do it" question would fit easily into the standard AI manual which would then generate me the standard answer to which I'd have a full and complete direction as to what to do.

 

And not have three different answers on three different occasions for the same d*** question.

 

It irritates me no end, I'm telling you, even thinking about it. Because it's time wasting when things get held up and when you can't move forward or backward because there'll be implications and you're just sitting there prepping, prepping, prepping.

 

And neither is it a situation where you either have no bank, a bank, or a bank that exists but is so complicated that everyone openly says they don't want to use.

 

It is a situation where it's strongly believed that processes are streamlined and oh, there's no problem anywhere and we just have to do this and do this and do this and we'll be fine.

 

But it's not.

 

And so maybe this is a great opportunity for AI. Will there be anomalies? Will there be that one weird question that pops out from a customer somewhere which the AI hasn't figured out? Sure. Most certainly there will be.

But that's where the human touch comes in, and hat's where Machine Learning comes in.

There's this overwhelming (but valid) concern that AI and Machine Learning will overtake the human element. I cannot say for sure, but there's also the possibility that instead of overtaking jobs, it may enhance the human experience further- because it takes the pressure off the employees and customer service person- and so the staff can really focus on doing what the AI cannot do- be the guiding point to the AI manual, be the  emphatic human, be the listening ear and be the helping friend customers will definitely need.

siew mais at Home

 

You know what's the most beautiful thing about this (simple) home-prepped dish of cuttlefish balls, shredded lettuce, ngoh hiangs, cherry tomatoes, fish cakes and siew mais?

It's not that The Parents suddenly decided on a whim that we hadn't had supper together on a weekday for the longest time and today was as good a day as ever.

It's also not that we were all seated around the dining table armed with mugs of Nescafe and plates and forks and that we had the radio playing our favorite night time program at the side.

But it is that I'd casually mentioned to The Parent a few weeks ago that we hadn't bought frozen siew mais from the supermarket for a long time and that I kind of missed eating it- and The Parent actually remembered.

I didn't burst into tears upon seeing the siew mais- that would be drama queen- but I did squeal happily and plunge my fork into the first one, and then later after I'd finished my equally divided portion, exchanged half a fish cake for another one. :)

It's times like these that make you thankful for family and loved ones, because we live in a world where there's so much talk and so much communication and so much noise clutter that having someone who really listens to you, processes it, keeps it in mind and then acts on it is truly a most pleasant surprise.

pretty foods: the steamed stuff

 

What's a person to do when you're at lunch in a random food court in a random shopping mall and you don't feel like having the typical choices for your meal?

 

What's a person to do when you've got a variety of stalls offering chicken rice, duck rice, yong tau foo, economical rice, fishball noodles, porridge, nasi padang and ban mian- but you don't feel like eating any of them?

 

You go straight for what's familiar to you.

 

You go straight for what makes you think of home.

 

Steamed egg and steamed pork were family favorites for weekend dinners. The Parent was fond of preparing seamless, easy-to-prepare meals and between the stove, the rice cooker and the slowpot cooker, the latter two were her preferred.

 

If we were making steamed egg, we'd beat the eggs together, pour them into this special enamel plate and place it in the rice cooker. If we were making steamed pork, then we'd go down to the wet market downstairs, buy xx grams (I never knew how heavy) of minced meat from the butcher and then bring it back home, marinate it, pour a beaten egg over it to make it stick, pat it into the special enamel plate, tear up some strips of salted fish and then put it into the rice cooker.

 

I can't say that the prep methods of the stall in this food court are the same, neither can I say that the texture of the minced meat is as well balanced as the way we do it at home, and we don't put a salted egg in lieu of salted fish, but when you really don't want noodles or yong tau foo or economical rice but want something steamed with a slight vibe of home even during lunch time, well, these two dishes just gotta do.

Strolling Sights: UIC-Bestway

 

So I don't usually get down at the bus stop that grants me this sight, but two bus stops before, just at the very moment when I was about to alight, I'd discovered that my phone had somehow fallen out of my jacket pocket, and so I stayed on the bus until I finally found it on the floor underneath my seat.

 

How it happened, I don't know.

 

One minute it was in my pocket, the next minute (thanks to the weight of the phone), I felt my pocket lighter than it should have been.

 

I'm glad I managed to discover it in time.

 

A much greater hassle it would have been otherwise.

 

I'd have to report the loss to the police, report the loss to the bus company, and by the time all that was done, the phone would probably have been gone for good.

 

So I'm thankful for the miracle that on this day I had my wits about me, I wasn't in some sort of dreamy daze, and I wasn't rushing to whatever it was I was supposed to do. 

 

Thing about me is, more often than not, I'm either so hamster-like or so muddle-headed that I simply move from one thing to another without realizing that something's missing or that something's gone.

 

Guess that's the same for many of us too, especially us who live in an urbanspace like Singapore.

 

But sometimes, it does us well to stop and remember how we are, how we used to be, how our landscape and urbanscape has changed, and where we are now.

 

Sometimes it is good to live in the moment.

 

Because we are a place where infrastructure changes regularly.

 

We are in a place where roads get rebuilt, where estates pop up from empty spaces of land, where buildings get demolished and which get replaced by new ones.

 

And we don't know just when it will be.

 

Was it less than 10 years ago that the UIC Building stood in this very spot where these glass skyscrapers are now? Did it not feel so long ago when there were all these new office buildings coming up on Shenton Way and Anson road and Robinson Road, and that to be able to work in an office was a very progressive thing for the family and for the country? Was it not so long ago that the building was new, and then it wasn't so new anymore, and now it's so not new that it needs to be torn down and a new one built in its place? 

 

But that's just how this area is.

 

The UIC Building where a loved one used to work in is gone. The Telok Ayer School is gone. And now there's just a huge hole where the CPF Building used to stand.

It's unbelievable.

The CPF Building, mind you.

A new building will soon rise in its place, the same way new skyscrapers have risen from the plot of UIC and the Telok Ayer School.
 

In the meantime, there's still Shenton House. There's still Bestway Building and International Plaza and Temasek Tower, so I suppose it's not totally bad and we'd be better off being glad for those, shouldn't we?

TEXTures @ The Arts House

For someone whose first full-time job was in the local theater scene, it is kind of embarrassing to say that it has been a long time- years- since I made a planned, intended attendance at an arts festival or even an arts event. 

 

Sure, I've kept myself in the loop with brochures and flyers and all, but most of what I've attended has been merely in-passing, where, drawn by the crowds, I manage to catch only the tail-end of the performances.

 

Life got in the way, I suppose.

 

But Life is a mandela and She has an interesting way of bringing you back to where you began. It doesn't matter how you've lived your life, how you've grown, how you've pivoted or varied or whatever, Life just somehow finds a way. 

 

Which is how I found myself at The Arts House on a particular Saturday afternoon. 

 

I hadn't quite thought about it, but a colleague of mine suggested going together to this one TEXTures event- "it's a Writing Festival!"- "it's about a movie!"- "it's about autism!"- and because I'm interested in books, movies, special needs, society, meaningful movies etc etc, on we went.

 

It was a pleasant time.

 

Seldom is it when you get to go to an event where the author of the book and the director of the movie sit together on the same stage and talk about both the book, and the movie.

 

Often it is either one, or the other.

 

Not so here at this TEXTures event.

 

Because even though this was technically a celebration of words and the written expression, there was room for performance. room for the cinematic expression, and listening to them both speak on "Open" and "The Wayang Kids" gave me a resassuring nod that regardless of expression, regardless of the medium, regardless of art style, writing style or cinematography, Storytelling and Character and Personality form the foundation of them all.

 

I wasn't there very long, two hours maybe, thereabout.

But long enough to make me think of another black box theater, another room, another staircase, another time.

The black box theater is still there.

And I hope it continues to remain.

Because there is something really beautiful and timeless about architecture. Every wall, every room, every foyer, every stair, every staircase landing, it all possesses a story of its own.  

 

I cannot imagine what memories they will hold, what stories they will tell.

Who entered this place, why he or she entered this place, what they did, who they met, who they greeted, what did the foyer look like, where were the chairs and tables, where was the drawing room, was it a residence, was it a waiting area if it was not a residence, were there pets, were the interiors beautifully done, what was the river waterfront like, were there parties, who went up these stairs, where did they go, what were the rooms like, what was the view like, were there bedrooms with four poster beds and linen drawers and curtains, was it an office, were there desks, what kind of desks were they, and the light, what about the light, did they use gas lamps or candles, were there horse carriages, were there motorcars, what was the kitchen like- if there were one.

The questions are endless.

Of which I presently yet have no answers but which I think must be sitting quietly somewhere waiting to be dug up and filtered through.

Maybe one day.

One thing though, Life really does go in a circle.

I'm talking about this mobile snack truck parked right outside The Arts House.

You see the Sawadeee Cup on the door. #sanook

You also see the statue of an elephant in the background.

An elephant gifted by Thailand's King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) in the year of 1871 to commemorate his visit to Singapore.  

An elephant that has been around the same space for 147 years.

That's a long time.

But you know what, they're still here.

However the world has changed, however the world has pivoted and transformed and shifted and the technology has advanced and the climate has changed, they're still here, and I don't think they're going anywhere away.