Mock Meat

I had never eaten mock meat before; I assumed it would be a bad imitation of the real thing (after all, how tasty could tofu get?)

But the other day we walked into a vegetarian Japanese restaurant (I know!! It sounded wierd to me too!). I tried some delicious mock-tuna sushi & mock-beef teriyaki. Having been so sure that tofu could never amount to anything significant in life; I was surprised by how that piece of tofu was made to look, smell & taste so good & so much like meat!

Its remarkable -- how the things we hold on to as "real" all our lives, turn out to be nothing but a perception created by our own senses! And I don't mean just food.

I love Hong Kong

I really do!!

Its crowded, unpretentious & fun! Its the perfect opposite of Singapore (there is no clean air; no broad roads; it doesn't like rules; and its not pretty to look at). But I thought the city is so spunky & spirited!

"Lan Kwai Fong" is the clubbing area of the city; there's this one street with bars & clubs on either side of it & is the heart of Hong Kong after 10 pm. The place is a riot...people were literally spilling out of the bars & dancing on the streets. And we saw all sorts of people there -- there was a good representation of every possible race -- also, there were freaks in blue wigs, there were the dancing merry-makers, the heavy drinkers, there were blondes with pink bunny ears-- it was a carnival !

I also found it amusing how there is a escalator running through the middle of the city; most people take the escalator from home to work (down the slope) & work to home (up the slope). Its supposed to be the longest escalator in the world & is always packed with people. And at every level of the escalator one can step out & find (again,) bars & restaurants around. SoHo I thought was the most fun destination for such mid-escalator evening drinks.

"My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk

This is the most beautifully written story I've ever read... its a classic.

Here's a love story; accounts of life in 16th century Istanbul; a murder mystery; intelligent discussions on the philosophy of art in an era when renaissance art was evolving in the west & its impact on eastern art; a novel narrative style.

There are way too many reasons to love this book. Its a treat to read.

Clean Desk Day

The Dilbert strip had been running this theme all last week about Carol's cluttered desk; and it inspired me to do something about the piles of loose papers on my desk.

So this morning I pulled out from the stationary cabinet 5 fresh new plastic folders to file away all papers. I spent some quality time setting a strategy for the filing, naming files, and putting markers & seperators in them. I even colour coded them (all pink separators have status reports, all green separators have pending issues and so on). I feel a sense of accomplishment. Setting up the organising strategy is half the battle won, isn't it?

Now all I need to do is go through those piles & put each paper in its right place. Hmmm. Maybe tomorrow? Err, tomorrow after lunch? On second thoughts, maybe I'll give myself till end of next week?