When we were growing up, my grandmother was hell bent on us kids learning how to cook. It's not just a 'take care of the family thing' no, according to grandma, if you can't cook, you might as well not live.

These bibiks, so bloody dramatic. Haha...

But then again, if she wasn't or my mum didn't bother, I'd be starving here. The funny thing about Dubai is that this place is so new, so modern, so bright and so shiny that they have no street food culture. While they do have all the food courts (and some that serve really good food) and of course, world class restaurants, there is no decent place that serves the food I grew up with. Wait. Let me rephrase...they probably do but they'd also charge an arm and a leg for something really simple to make. So what the hell does a girl do to satisfy some home food cravings?

From top left (clockwise): mee goreng, ayam pongteh (I am part Peranakan after all), the great SG cookout and carrot cake with my first crack at self-made frosting. It wasn't half bad!

Well, apparently, if you want something. You really, really want something... you make it at yourself. The great thing about Dubai is that they have good raw ingredients. Sure, you have to make sure you don't pick some exhorbitant exported mushrooms but otherwise, the grocery stores are pretty decent. And they have really, really good meat. So making steaks, stews and casseroles are not a problem.

The slight problem comes when you are looking for condiments. There is almost no fermented soya beans (tao cheo), hardly any hey bee (dried prawns) and sambal (ground chili paste) is totally foreign unless you make it yourself. I was over the moon when my fellow Singaporean took me to a Japanese supermarket that had soba sauce, fresh miso and that superb Japanese mayonnaise. Mmmmm...

The great Japanese experiment (from top left, clockwise): miso soup, cold soba noodles and pan fried miso tuna steak. Heaven!

Sure, there are some Singaporean delis or Thai supermarkets out here but you have to hunt them down, which can be a real pain the the ass. So I cheat and either get people to buy some of my condiments OR I make them. Making stuff like sambal or paste for your food is really easy. You just need some time to look for the ingredients and be willing to peel, prep and chop for half a day. Ok, I exaggerate. You need about 2 hours. Heh.

Thus far, I've only made the paste for the chili crab which we made for what we termed, the Great Singapore Cookout. If anything, Dubai can be pretty funny. On the day we deceided to make chili crab, the supermarkets that we went to, all three of them, happened to run out of fresh red chilis *facepalm* so freaking annoying! Lesson learned... you can use fresh chili padi as a substitute but you have to make sure that you remove all the seeds before hand. Oh and have lots of tomato sauce on stand by.

Chili crab...all you need, is the right chilis

Next time, I'm going to be a good bibik and grind up a whole pot of chili paste, or whatever paste and keep it in the fridge, for kicks. Just so that I have the right paste when I need it for my dishes.  Growing up in such a food-crazy household has certainly made its mark on me :) There is always substitution but then again, when you have the right paste or ingredients on-hand, cooking is so much easier.

• 2011 - a fall (more like a slip and crumple to the floor) while practicing for a performance caused near panic when I couldn't get up from bed the next morning. Three weeks of physio and stretching to sort out my back.
• 2012 - rib cartiledge sprain sustained post performance, during the India Fiesta Latina. This was after 3 days of intense classes and about 4 nights of dancing till about 3am. How painful was it? Despite a really relaxing trip to Goa afterwards, I wasn't able to sleep or turn over and coughing or taking deep breaths felt like my rib was about to bust open. Fun times.

Which brings us up to this year. Post injury last year, I was in physio for another 4 weeks and then, I found Trigger Point classes. I finally got on track to strengthen my body and also work out all the kinks so that I will be less injury prone. I got stronger, which means I danced more and stayed mostly injury free :) Yay!

Fast forward to this year and a few weeks ago where Dubai felt two pretty big aftershocks. When the second one hit, my boss bolted down the stairs. Now, I know my body and just the effect of running down the stairs like that meant bad news. News that manifested in the form of a kneecap sprain that had me limping around in Jordan. I wrote to my physio back in SG and got a recommendation to see a local physio who worked at a clinic called Up and Running here.

Taped up and roller-ed

The physio, Jac was mildly horrified at my seemingly endless litany of injuries and she was almost beside herself (and so was my SG physio and V) when they learned that I did not bring my roller wtih me to Dubai. GAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! Hence the pain and malfunctions! It's a wonder you could still dance and go for freaking Zumba! Ok, ok....

My new best friends

Well, it's been a painful road to recovery and I'm back to using the roller. If you've never tried the grid before, it's something new to explore. It works out the kinks, kind of like a massager. You use yoru body weight for pressure. For recoving people like me, it is also used to strength your body. That said, the roller will now be part of a new routine. My advice? If at any time you feel that some body part or other is not working, get it checked out. Because if you don't do it now, it may get worse down the road. Such is the life of the injury prone :p but then again, if I don't take care of me and mine, who will?
 

When I was growing up, one of our favorite childhood traditions for my sister and I was to huddle in front of the TV watching the X-Men. animated series Now this was back in the day where cartoons were stand-alone episodes focusing on comedy or satire. Unlike anime which seemed to border in the ridiculous at times, this series followed some of the more serious story arcs of a comic book that had crossed its 30th anniversary by the time we got into it.

This is the Wolverine that many were familiar with

Artwork by Andy (this picture) and Adam (above) Kubert were our favourites

And so, it’s back to being singleton again. For some reason, this time it doesn’t feel as bad. I went from being very upset to really angry and then…nothing.
 
On the other hand, the eventual apathy is nothing new. Even when coupled up, he was always busy or too busy or travelling and I continued with my dancing, work and friends. The thing that really stuck in my craw in the end was: If he can stay things that are true to himself, then why can’t I say mine and get an acknowledgement or a decent argument out of it? So much for communication... pfft. More like two idiots just blabbering with no one listening.  The thing that probably galled him was that I didn’t just want to sit around wondering, I dumped him. That is me, being true to myself.  

• If you don’t stand up for what you believe in, no one else will do it for you. It’s not about being selfish and only wanting your end of things but making a point. Then hopefully coming to some sort of compromise that both parties can live with


• If things are worth fighting for then do it. If there is no fight or you just grunt and give in. It doesn’t mean that things are ok. It just means that you end up resenting each other over time
  
  
• Things are your fault too. A part of what happened is my fault. I let things carry on, I talked things over with him with the hope that I would get through. In the end, I learned that he is holding on to an idea or rather ideal that neither me, nor anyone else can crack.

From top left, clockwise: the great goulash experiment, paragliding, check out the sandstorm, ayam masak merah and some party animals