Not lost in translation

Just over 1 month in and our first actual holiday in Asia. Japan! Trends in Tokyo and meetings with my team providing an opportunity for Roby to come and join me for a week of exploration. And what a country this is to explore....

It has seasons! We walk to restaurants, wearing a jumper in the cold evening air. As we enter all be staff say hello. Leaving the same restaurant all the staff say goodbye, in both instances like a chorus of singing.... arrigato sai mass....our Japanese is not sufficiently advanced to catch the words clearly. But that doesn't matter, the bowing and kindness are overwhelming.

Then the transit system. We are in Tokyo, the most populous metropolitan area in the world; over 37 million people living on top of each other, and it shows. The sense of claustrophobia we feel in Harajuku as we are going to the Meiji Shrine. Imagine Kings Cross station. Now fill it....fit people in until they can only shuffle slowly forwards. A domino chain, it would only take one person stumbling to send us all falling. And yet we all shuffle slowly and calmly out. Until... now imagine Oxford Street, and fill it. Pack people in until you can't physically change direction while walking, you flow with the people-stream towards the crossing. Then to Shibuya - one of the famous Japanese road crossings. I stand mesmerised, videoing the hundreds and hundreds of people crossing the road every 3 minutes, crisscrossing the junction until it empties, road traffic moves, people volumes build, cars are stopped, whoosh.....repeat...

Tokyo is huge, it's full, and yet it is clean and it works. And while people rush to get to where they are going, it is not in any way unpleasant. People try to help; the language may be a struggle but they never, NEVER simply shrug their shoulders, say "can't help mate" and walk off. 

We are lost in Tokyo central, and a member of Japan Rail approaches us. Need to find the Shinkansen to Kyoto. He helps identify the platform we need to get to, he tells us we will have an amazing time, he pats us both on the shoulder. I want to hug him back! First days wandering Kyoto, watching  someone cook using chopsticks, an expert as he turns a splot of batter into a small fried ball. I'm intrigued, I want to taste it. What's in it? The lady doesn't speak English....but she picks up a toy octopus, indicating that all their products have octopus inside. Not tonight, I'm sushi'd out. But maybe tomorrow. This country has been amazing so far! Can't wait to see what the next 5 days bring.

KL and back

First trip to Malaysia ticked.
Went to KL for a day and I've seen absolutely nothing.
Petronas Lubricants is no longer in the famous towers. Obviously!
So I have seen even less than in my day trips to Wolfsburg.
Had lunch at a French brasserie in a shopping mall and after the meeting (2 hours spent agreeing, literally repeating the same shared opinion!) went back to the airport. Not even a glimpse of what the life across the border of my city/country looks like. Not impressed.
Managed to snap this picture from the lounge where we were doing emails while waiting to go and see Petronas, where I did something embarrassing. Something that might have changed my colleagues opinion of me (thank god PLI wasn't with us...) We were marvelling at a video of the customer which was filmed in Turin and the same guy kept appearing over and over again. Someone important I thought, and instead ok biting my tongue and smile silently (like beautiful Asian ladies do all the time) I talked... And the important person in the video was Lewis Hamilton. I feel sick at my ignorance. Marco, and all of you boys reading this post, please forgive me.

P.S. I lied, on the way to the airport I have seen lots and lots of Palm trees.

Never trust the queue

So, as the days pass and our adventure continues, the thirst for new things does not appear to decrease…

But I might have found a way to quench it… I might have tried a few things that did not only displease my palate but left me feeling weak, irremediably western and in need of something strong to mask the taste left in my mouth…

Last week, after a full day in the office M and I decided to eat on the way home, so we stopped at Crystal Jade in the Westgate shopping mall… hungry, excited and curious we ordered a few dishes, a mixture of dim sum and main dishes (with the unmissable chicken rice). We ordered the Carrot Cake, which is not a cake and does not contain carrot.. and these simple facts are responsible for me wanting to try it so badly… well, the experience was not that good, the texture was kind of soft with dry bits in it, and the taste was fishy and milky… tried to mask it with delicious pork dim sum, tiger beer and fruity mentos… Crystal Jade ticked and not rushing back any time soon.

The weekend comes and our first visitor joins the Bomparradis in their new Singaporean life. We managed to do lots in a very short time frame, walked through the Quays to MBS, visit the temples and the streets of Chinatown (one of my favourite spots in Singapore, that by the way, as discovered last night, means Lion City, even though there are not lions in the area…); went to Sentosa island and Mount Faber with the cable car, finally convinced myself there are no beaches in the city (so Thailand here we come!) and did the night Safari.

Now the night Safari is a pretty amazing experience, or at least for me.

Seeing the animals at night, with the sound of the forest was a calm balm for the soul and made us forget for a while the unpleasant dinner that we experienced just before the zoo.

Again, my fault and I am afraid M won’t trust me for a little while.

We went to our local Hawker centre, where street food is served in a modest, low cost and no frills manner (literally NO FRILLS, not even a tiny tiny one, not even a tissue paper to tap your nose dripping for the spicy food)… anyway this Hawker centre in Zion road seems to host a famous Fried Kway Teow place… people queue to eat there and because we did not eat there during our first visit, last night I pretty much forced my way in the queue determined not to eat anything else.

It is important to mention that I did not know what to expect and even now I still have not googled Kway Teow.. what I know (from the picture) is that is a noodle dish…

So, Marco, Danny and I sit down with three medium spicy Kway Teow dishes and eat in silence. Not a word. We finished our meal quickly, blessing the chillies that completely masked the taste; not sure I am ready to know what those little clams-like (I wish they were clams) things were… I think I closed my eyes at some point…and swallowed without chewing..

No need to spend time describing what we did after dinner… some of us had McDonald’s chips, other ice creams and strawberry chewy candy…

So famous Zion Road Hawker Centre Kway Teow place… ticked. For ever ticked.

If you think you know Asian food from your restaurant in the western world, well I can tell you for sure that whatever noodles or rice dish you had is closer to a pizza than to the real Asian food.

I don't want to say this, as it sounds ungrateful, wrong and small minded (exactly like my taste buds) but Wagamama is good.

P.S. The queue at the Kway Teow place is due to the fact that the cook is very very slow.

The shopping has begun!!

How can you not fall in love with a city that has every shop you can think of. Bought some nice shorts from Banana Republic in America? Buy some more from Banana Republic Singapore. Thinking of a little Liu Jo outfit that you saw in Italy? Pop along to Liu Jo Singapore and see if they have the colour you want. And the choices... it took coming to Singapore, but I am now a Ted Baker loyalty card holder, and not soon enough. And in June we have GSS - the Great Singapore Sale. Bargains, bargains, bargains to be had...

Week's grocery shopping achieved at 9pm on Sunday evening. Waitrose branded goods, local produce.....provolone and fontina valdostana!! 

I was mildly worried by the chicken balls, but Roberta spotted the larger fish balls and persuaded me they aren't actually balls. 

I wouldn't have been that surprised though. It's all about the choices.

Old friends, new places

10900km later, the chance to see old friends again.... at a Mexican restaurant in Robertson Quay. Annalisa from Roberta's Imperial days, who was at our 35th, with her husband Massimo and a crowd of expats and localised friends. Academics and architects, marketing advisors and Milanesi. Talking into the night, eating the smallest Mexican meal most of us had ever seen. Seconds were ordered. They were as small as the first round, gastronomic satisfaction barely, but sociably, achieved. And Simon Chung....great to see him again, unchanged since the last time, maybe a bit rounder and wobblier at the edges. Middle age comes to us all. But still climbing. A hobby born in Oxfordshire, but being practiced in Asia. People travel, but so do their lives and pastimes. 

Rice rice baby

Dopo giorni di riso mangiato col pollo in tanti modi diversi (cinese, teriaky, all'indonesiana, alla messicana...) stasera l'ho mangiato a modo mio, risotto alla zucca.
Semplice, senza pretese, quasi innocente ma catartico (diobono!)... Con questo risotto mi sono ripulita di tutte le tossine del mio corpo (tutte tutte proprio), mi sono ripulita i pori del viso e del décolleté, mi sono ripulita il karma e gli occhiali...
Cucinare in una cucina del sud est asiatico senza aria condizionata é un'esperienza rivelatrice.
Ho capito perché mangiano tutti fuori SEMPRE, ho capito che sono una viziata del cazzo abituata a mangiare 'cose fresche' quando fa caldo e le minestrine quando fuori piove, ho capito che la vita é ingiusta per quelle "helpers" (aiutanti) delle Filippine che dormono in una stanza senza finestre e senza neanche un ventilatore vicino alla lavatrice nella parte esterna della casa, per non dare fastidio alla famiglia che servono per pochi dollari al mese.
Ho capito che il mondo é grande, e noi siamo piccoli, attaccati alle nostre abitudini, ai nostri agi da gente privilegiata che non si rende conto del culo che ha a viaggiare e conoscere una cultura opposta alla propria.
Ho capito che mi piacciono i dumplings e che i noodles nel brodo hanno un loro perché. Ho capito che tutto sommato mettersi l'anti-zanzara tutti i giorni non é la fine del mondo e che vivere in città mi piace abbestia.
Ma soprattutto ho capito che mi manca il bimby.

Hot & Humid

Approaching the end of week one....the sense of excitement and opportunity is still there, as is that heart twisting sense of loss, missing home and the home comforts, of a life being slowly evolved, then shock! Perturbation!! We are now in the serviced apartment, so living out of a mixture of suitcases and wardrobes. House hunting and orientation is in full flow, which with the recent May Day bank holiday means there hasn't really been much time for work. Word association - Singapore.... heat & humidity of course!! Our minds tell us that in the morning, as we look down on a bright day from the 22nd floor, there's fresh air to be had outside. Lies! Today meant a 10 minute sweat-walk to the bus we had already missed, a short and cheap taxi ride to get our employment passes, where we first had to sit in an office where air-con doesn't switch on until we have opened up our pores further. MRT to work, including another 10 minute soak from the station to the office. Then blissful air conditioning.... ice cold air.... jumpers on. Colleagues wearing jackets in the office are common-place. The peculiarity of taking clothes off to go home. Our apartment is not conveniently located for the MRT but  we have the bus / train combo sussed now. Sightseeing has been stop-start; Little India, Mustafas, Marina Bay Sands, Orchard Road, ticked. So much more to do....house hunting and work must not be neglected. Tough to keep that clearly in mind most days so far.

M, 3/5/16