Visas, Pancakes, and Jam

A client needed me in India in ASAP, so a client-side secretary rushed out the application for my visa while i was out at meetings.

me: Thank you for doing this, but why does it say my religion is Buddhism?
secretary: Oh, they needed this to be filled in so I just put anything!
me: ………….

Because i was nursing a fever, stayed home to recuperate before the trip to that sub-continent. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the fridge but Bob’s Mill’s 7 Grain Pancake and Waffle Whole Grain Mix, a surprisingly un-expired carton of milk, and several bottles of half-finished jam (and alcohol). The pancake mix fared well without the addition of eggs, imbued with a light citrus fragrance from substitution of plain oil with Nudo’s Stone Ground Olive Oil with Mandarins.

Carpenter & Cook‘s Creme de Cassis & Pinot Noir jam beat out competition from The Hawkshead Relish Company‘s Superberry Jam (blueberries, blackcurrants, cranberries, goji berries and pomegranate. available at Cut The Mustard, Greenwood) and Daylesford Organic Damson Jam (very sweet, strange agar-agar-like texture) and Daylesford Organic Blackcurrant Jam (winner of the 2011 Great Taste Awards. available at ThreeSixty Marketplace, ION Orchard), to be the best accompaniment to the rather rough-looking carbs. Not on par with the Rosol – Nadal upset at Wimbledon or the Spanish tika-taka fluidity that won them the Euro 2012 finals, but we take all the faint sickbed excitement we can get.

Quaker Quick Cooking White Oats + Daiso Ground Black Sesame Seeds + Hot Water from Klean Kanteen Insulated = breakfast in the office

Henry Congressional

Dropped by Henry Congressional (facebook. Smitten Coffee & Tea Bar‘s pop-up shop/cafe at Henry Park Apartments, 44 Holland Grove Road, next to Secret Recipe) on the way to a late dinner. Minimalist decor as befits a temporary space. Loved the half-curtained windows, aluminium door and window frames, menu painted onto main wall, hanging naked light bulbs (that C & J say they popularised in Singapore).

The tight menu offered a good selection of teas, coffees (fixed prices for black and white, brew bar, cold drip), beers (Mikkeller! Moor!), sandwiches, scones, and some sweets.

The tuna, capers, cucumber sandwich (panini) was toasted to a good degree of crisp without being dry or rough enough to cause abrasions to the roof of your mouth. The balance of flavours between the tuna and capers was excellent. The flourless chocolate cake (with lovely crackle crust) and MIL pineapple tarts (buttery and crumbly, semi-sweet pineapple interior, made by the baker’s mother-in-law) got the thumbs-up. Thumper blend (refreshed?) x Darren x Henry the Kees Ven Der Westen Speedster = a satisfying complex (yeah very descriptive) milk coffee.

(Went back the next day to take away a few slices of the pandan chiffon cake – sans green food colouring, commendably fragrant if no flavouring was added, very light, and as Singaporean aunties would say by way of compliment,”not oily and not too sweet!”)

We two pre-dinner diners had had a trying week. I’d spent the last two days/nights yelling down the Polycom at South Asians, in deference to the cultural norms of negotiating in certain countries. We had a laugh at how difficult it was to snap out of this mode of communication: I have been known to accidentally scare a few Japs by irresponsibly getting on a call with them fresh out of a preceding call with the Indians; someone else could not stop himself from answering phone calls with “Tell me, tell me!”.

Dinner, dessert, and a very serious talk till midnight. Wonderfully timely call not to have a world view restricted by present experience (however pleasant or miserable), but to renew our minds, according to God’s truth, to interpret current reality in a gospel-shaped God-centered manner. For one day will come the Lord, to whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is the Lord. The practical outworking of our understanding of the second coming is that we persevere in fighting the good fight; that we not be idle slackers but be diligent in keeping up His good work and being faithful to his purposes.*

Now i’ll have to haul ass to bed before wedding photog duty in a few hours. To add more later (or never)!

*Teaching The Christian Hope, David Jackman

Songkran Weekend in Singapore

We might have had to pull a work weekender last week, but were saved by Thailand being on a no-negotiations Songkran break. So there was time for brunches and coffee stops:

crostinis: duck rillette, green apple, fig compote; soppressata, gorgonzola, roast tomato

late brunch at Min Chan’s Club Street Social (facebook, 5 Gemmill Lane, off Club Street) – Italian-inspired menu with New York interior and service that could not be faulted. The crostini bread was fresh and crisp, and in the lobster panini, chunks of crustacean were pan-fried in butter and paired with grilled avocado (the yuzu mayo might have been too subtle);

in comparison, brunch at Privé was rather dismal – limp sausage of doubtful texture and taste, soggy maple-syrup-laden bacon. Perhaps they were overloaded during Boat Asia 2012. Lovely waterside dining though with adequate ventilation and breeze;

coffee at the Aussie Kokka Cafe (facebook, 18 Purvis Street) – organic Fairtrade Coffee dark-roasted and decent. Opened by the same Lauren and Marcus of the Chalk Group; and

coffee at Viking Coffee (facebook, 56 Kandahar Street), just down the road from Maison Ikkoku, where many visitors were friends and there was Zenith Cans spray paint for sale.

Also, William Taylor of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate on 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 the iPod:

¹¹ Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. ¹²  We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. ¹³ For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. ¹⁴ For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; ¹⁵ and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

¹⁶ From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ¹⁸ All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

• The judgement of Christ governs the style of ministry – Paul said he will concentrate on plain-speaking proclamation of the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:2). He was permanently homesick because his real home was in heaven, and he was longing to be with the Lord in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1-10). And he knew when he met the Lord, there would be judgement for the believer in heaven. This certainty of future judgement impacted the style of ministry then as it should do now. While false teachers had great CVs, and looked successful in the context of the 1st century where being a great orator was thought of as extremely glamorous, Paul said because he knew that he would be laid bare before Jesus, he would simply proclaim the gospel without sneaky methods or trying any funny gimmicks. It is the proclamation of God’s word that the Spirit will use. So where is our confidence – in music concerts, in funny anecdotes, or…? Since we fear the Lord and want to please God, we must work and sweat away at preparing for Bible studies or talks because we want to proclaim him plainly. And we will not be side-tracked by a group member who wants to talk about his sick parrot or how tough his work is.
• The love of Christ impacts the shape and scope of ministry (2 Corinthians 5:14-17) – the scope is anyone anywhere and the shape is at any cost. Because Christ died for us, therefore we can no longer live for ourselves; we can do nothing else but bring the gospel message to others. We are a new creation brought from death to life so that we might live no longer for ourselves but are compelled to live for Jesus. The false teachers looked only on the face of things, but Paul was unable to look according to the flesh, he saw people from the gospel point of view as someone for whom Christ had died, who understands that others too will face the wrath of God if they do not repent. And do we regard group members from human point of view or gospel point of view? Do we see them from the love and judgement of Christ, or do we just see whether they contribute well, or prepare their studies, or are boring?
• The commission of Christ is the subject of ministry – God has given all of us the ministry of reconciliation.

More Draw Something!

I arrived at the office to news that the Middle East needed an urgent look at.

Having to get up to speed on the not-so-invisible hands of Iran and Saudi Arabia, Sunnis vs Shi-ites, and in the whole Arab Spring uprising, recalled the days we acted as naive players in GEP‘s mock-up of the Arab-Israeli conflict. At some point, to everyone’s bemusement, there was a political incident involving a plague of cockroaches in Egypt – some harsh words were exchanged about pests but in the end, it was all good fun.

The reality of human relationships is that where there is any form of serious (or mock serious) communication, there will inevitably be conflict. So communication taken to its most superficial level has been been nice to chill to – OMGPOP‘s Draw Something app (even with fat fingers attempting to navigate the smaller iPhone screen), where the most annoying thing encountered has been people cheating by writing words on the screen:

For the avoidance of doubt, these were meant to be:
ALONE
MADONNA
JUSTICE
SEASICK
BEATLES
HORTON
THELORAX
GANDHI
OBAMA
PEETA
VOMIT
ARIEL
HOMER
LIONKING
VADER
ASTERIX
ROCKET
TOMS
AVATAR
EFFIE
KUNGFU
BECKHAM
JOKER
MARGE
ELTON
BRADPITT
LADYGAGA
COWBOY
MOZART
BRUCELEE
TINTIN
TRUMP

MU Parlour, Strangers’ Reunion, Fraud and Truth

Last week, with China closed for Ching Ming/Qingming, finally got round to spending some time with India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Japan, and Vietnam, and watching the Myanmar elections, and having strange vivid dreams about attending the official show-and-tell of North Korea’s rockets. Then back to China this week for insider news on political maneuverings, and also updates from the US on the whole Rudy Kurniawan wine fraud saga.

In the midst of all this, was pleased to have wandered into two new cafes/coffee places:

MU Parlour in the space previously occupied by Anthropology at 16A Lorong Mambong – a decent cup of MU Blend No. 21, not quite as citrusy or chocolatey as described but really quite decent; and

Strangers’ Reunion (facebook) at 37 Kampong Bahru Road (just a few doors down from Highlander Coffee), where Ryan Kieran Tan helms a Synesso Hydra II 3 Group, the first of its kind in Singapore (HT: Colin Loh), and takes Papa Palheta‘s Terra Firma blend to the bright side.

Coffee hasn’t begun to fetch the sort of prices that result in the coffee equivalent of dodgy DRCs. But come to think of it, brinksmanship, character assassination (by both the incumbent and the opposition), conveying words that are technically accurate but intentionally set in a context that encourages the hearer to understand them to mean something else etc, are all variations on fraud, yet are par for course in social, political intercourse.

I was trying to explain this, over lunch, to a pastor recently: if God is a God who is insistent that humans should have faith in him and trust him because he is unfailingly trustworthy and his words are always true, then we who profess to follow him must not be any different. The command not to bear false witness (Exodus 20:16, Exodus 23:1, Deuteronomy 5:20) isn’t to be read restrictively just to mean not to say anything untrue in a court of law, but that one’s whole character must be one of integrity (cf. Matthew 5:33-37).

There has arisen a strange practice in some Christian circles where a more knowledgeable member of a bible study group asks questions of the leader, giving the impression that she would like to be enlightened, when she actually hopes that others will benefit by her query. The motive for this is a good one, but the constant practice of this sort of behaviour does not help in building trustworthy character. This became evident recently when I asked one of these helpful people about something she had said to someone else, her first instinct was to deny vehemently that she had ever said anything at all, though this was later shown to be untrue.

This is why Paul was keen to emphasise his trustworthiness (and therefore the trustworthiness of God’s word through him):

…we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:2 ESV)

In inviting people to events where the gospel will be preached, it appears to be the common practice to downplay the talk and emphasise the good music or the fantastic meal as the main attraction. Before i became a Christian, i was leery of this sort of trickery; and now i realise it possibly dishonours the very God we claim to exalt.

Signs That It Has Been A Long Week At Work #1

In the lift at lunchtime:

Colleague 1: So, are you going for lunch?
Me: Err, yeeees?

Then, thinking i was being slightly rude, i decide to extend the conversation:
Me: So where are you going for lunch?
Colleague 1: Err, around herrreee?

Colleague 2: I don’t why both of you even bother.

Working The Ground For Food

You would have thought that after a really crazy week of late nights negotiating until your anhs and khuns get addressed to the wrong nationalities, overnighters accompanied by the glow of the Shell refinery burning on Pulau Bukom, that there might be a trustworthy place to feed a nutrition-deprived digestive system with comfort food.

We’d previously enjoyed the food at Le Bistrot. Lee Chin Sin’s been dishing up good French stuff since its Joo Chiat days. At its Singapore Indoor Stadium home, “Oignon Farci aux Noix de Saint-Jacques Grillées et son Velouté de Maïs” (“Hokkaido scallops served in a salt-baked onion, with a corn velouté and toasted pinenuts”) was a firm favourite for starters, with “Confit de Cuisses de Canard” (“duck leg confit with honey-mustard vinaigrette and creamy potato purée”) and Steak Frites (“chargrilled beef steak with pink peppercorn beef jus served with pommes frites and mesclun salad”) for mains. However, despite checking out most of what they have, the “new” menu desserts never quite hit the sweet spot.

We hadn’t grown tired of the whimsical decor – astroturf as wallpaper! fairy lights! walls of framed pictures! unsuspecting diners framed as wall decor via mirrors and windows!

Then early this year, friends broke the news that standards might perhaps have slipped. There was a collective groan and verifications were quickly conducted…

…

Why is it that we work? Is it merely for the pragmatic reason that if we do not work, we do not eat, so we work to buy food, to pay for our accommodation and medical expenses and to send our children to school (so they can learn enough to get work), to purchase material objects that are either necessary or frivolities, to buy experiences (like travel or entertainment)? Well, it is patently obvious that this is the way the world operates. And the church certainly doesn’t encourage slackers – with or without pious excuses like “Oh, i would rather devote myself to meditating on Scripture” or “The end of the world is near, so i won’t bother with such superficial drudgery as work.” Says Paul rather matter-of-factly, “if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat”. Even though as teachers and preachers, Paul and the disciples had the right to be fed by believers, they worked while they were in Thessalonica so they wouldn’t be a burden to anyone (2 Thessalonians 3:7-10).

So is there more to work than just getting paid for what we do/what we sell, so we can pay others for what they do/sell? If we have cash and assets enough to last us several lifetimes, would we then be happy not to work, ever? Is work the source of our unhappiness? Those of us who slog know that it’s not just putting in the hours with an eye on the bank account; there’s also a measure of satisfaction that we get from our jobs, which is why we are sometimes willing to take a pay cut to work at something that interests us.

One of the things i like about Christianity (other than the objective veracity of the Bible of course) is that it doesn’t over-spiritualise matters, as if its adherents needed to travel to the outer regions of sanity to accept any of its teachings; it quite blandly states reality as all humans everywhere in the world, throughout the course of human history, experience it, then it explains why things are this way – and i find its explanations also corroborated by experience.

This is what David says in Psalm 8:

Psalm 8
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.

1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honour.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

1. We have a God who works (Psalm 8:1-3). He worked to create the universe as we know it (Genesis 1-2), and on the seventh day, though he rested from his creative work, he did not stop working within what he had created. This is quite obvious from all God’s acts recorded in the Old Testament, so certain Jews should have known better than to persecute Jesus because he was healing on the Sabbath (John 5).

2. God made humans to work within his creation (Psalm 8:4-8). God created Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it (Genesis 2:15) and made Eve to help Adam do his job (not because Adam was lonely. Genesis 2:18-21). Working meant not just gardening, though there was that (Genesis 2:5), but also ruling rest of God’s creation (animals, birds, sea creatures) under God (Genesis 1:26-28, Genesis 2). Our work is one aspect of what this rule looks like in this age – so we find some measure of satisfaction in it because working is part of our human specification.

At the event now known as the Fall, Adam and Eve allowed the serpent to rule over them and they in turn thought they could rule over God instead of be ruled by him. Ever since, things have been bad:

• we have had to struggle not to be overwhelmed by the rest of creation (“nature”) that we were meant to have dominion over – not to be killed by earthquakes or tsunamis, or have our legs bitten off by sharks; and
• the rest of creation has had to suffer the abuse of our environmental neglect and, sometimes, outright cruelty.

What hope is there? How can man and all other living things live in harmony and peace, with man ruling properly over the rest of creation and creation submitting to man? We know that all our efforts at protecting ourselves against tsunamis, preventing deaths from infected insects, stopping global warming, halting the rampant logging of rainforests, jailing nasty individuals doing cruel things to puppies in HDB void decks etc, are the equivalent of putting plasters on gaping wounds.

This failure is inevitable because all of creation is in rebellion against their order in God’s creation. Man will only be able to exercise perfect stewardship over nature when man himself properly submits to God, as per original creational order (Romans 8:20-23). And obviously, man can’t do this of his own accord – he can hardly keep his own new year resolutions. Our only hope is to trust that God himself (Jesus) paid for the consequences of our own rebellion, so that when God recreates the universe (the Bible speaks of the “new heavens and new earth” – Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22, 2 Peter 3:13), we too can be part of it.

It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Every now and then, I get asked to speak at industry conferences, especially those with a focus on India. Am not an off-the-cuff sort of speaker and the mild bemusement that greets the invites has not been enough of an incentive to prepare an hour’s worth of material. Anyway, what do i know?

(Was then amused to read Gilbert Koh’s post on a similar subject. Am sure he would be a very compelling speaker indeed.)

This feels all so grown-up. If I were writing a bildungsroman, I would, at this juncture, add news that bands from the protagonist’s childhood had broken up.

Thanks for the memories, R.E.M. – especially those Document, Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster years.

The Walkman radio/ Discman soundtrack to those sepia-tinted days: