Year: 2012

  • The Christmas Fire At Robinsons

    The 21st of this month will see the 40th anniversary of the horrific fire that destroyed Robinsons Departmental Store at Raffles Place in 1972. Nine people died in the blaze that morning, which was large enough to be visible from Jurong. Those who are old enough to remember the event have had memories of this…

  • Grandmother’s Tales

    My paternal grandmother passed away 13 years ago at the age of 100. I was blessed to have spent a fair bit of my childhood in her company, where she’d regale me with fabulous tales of China, my grandfather whom I never met, of how my father was when he was a child like me,…

  • Fool For A Cigarette

    I keep saying that people don’t make a big enough deal about how much of an addiction smoking really is. Calling it a “habit” is really understating it, unless you were talking about a heroin “habit” or a cocaine “habit”. And while I’m sure there are people who’ve used weaning methods like nicotine gums, patches…

  • Europe 2012: What The Doctor Ordered Me Not To Order

    I’m back on my regular low-carb, low(er) fat diet, but my stomach had a really good holiday:

  • The Only Celebrity Sighting Worth Having

    We had several celeb sightings and near-misses on our trip. Our traveling companion L found Kanye West blocking her view of some freshly launched merchandise at Colette; her husband S found himself gushing about some ‘famous French actress I forgot her name but she is very popular’ after dinner at Hélène Darroze; I cursed about…