10 Signs of Midlife Crisis

1 Job Change:
This is a terrifying early warning sign that meltdown is imminent. When he comes home and announces he is leaving his 30-year career in insurance to open a home-brew supply business, you know you're in for a bumpy ride.

2 Death-defying behaviour:
And potentially widow-making. This is when he comes home and announces he is going to take up rally driving/BASE-jumping/big wave surfing. "Life is short," he philosophises. "I don't want to die without ever having thrown myself off a cliff."

3 Grooming:
When one day he looks in the mirror and sees some old guy looking back at him. Eeeek! He panics, ditches his trusty barber for a stylist who does highlights, books in for a back wax and buys a new wardrobe and some musky scent.

4 Reverting to twenties behaviour:
This classis attempt at recapturing lost youth usually involves the suddent desire to go to music concerts, drink excessively, and live on nothing but junk food and two-minute noodles. This will ultimately undo or lead to point 5.

5 Exercise frenzy:
He's at the gym three mornings a week and watches his reflection in the window as he lifts the new flat-screen out of the car. One of the few MLC symptoms to be encouraged.

6 Outrageous purchases:
You come home from work to find a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy/Hummer parked in the driveway and a 65-inch flat-screen TV installed in the shed. That money was supposed to last you until your were 90, but it's nice to see him smiling - for a change.

7 Flirting:
The old "have I still got it?" trap. It's a nagging question that leads many a man of a certain age to drop his voice an octave, lean casually on reception desks while flicking back his newly highlighted hair and say things like,"Let's hook up for a Cosmopolitan," to girls younger than his own daughter. Mostly harmless but can lead to over-inflated egos and/or arrest.

8 Seeking out old loves:
This is either in the obvious form of finding his first girlfriend on Facebook, rediscovering the rush of skateboarding or digging out his old amp and bass for a jam. This is a desperate attempt at reminding himself of who he used to be and why people liked him. Can lead to bouts of self-absorbed nostalgia and using words like "cool" a lot.

9 Irresponsibility:
He get the words "free spirit" tattooed across his shoulders, starts paying for everything on credit and stays up until 2am watching soccer.

10 Excessive reminiscing:
"Remember that time when the band played and we all stayed up all night drinking beer and talking about how one day we'd ... blah blah blah."

courtesy of Reader's Digest, August 2009

Newbie Catch

On a day when all and sundry, and that includes yours truly, caught nothing - not even a bite - Yan Jean had every reason to grin from ear to ear with her very first catch, a peacock bass. She had everything against her: her rod was medium-action, she had no lures, she was using a 30 lb line, her old reel had malfunctioned.

This would have discouraged many a novice on their first outing but not her. Initially, she had WeiHao instruct her on the basics of luring in fresh water and as she whipped her first cast into the air, she cast (pun intended) her wary eyes around embarrassingly hoping no one would have noticed her short cast. After several such casts, her spinning reel jammed because of the backlash in her line. She sat quietly for half an hour at the edge of the water to sort out the 'birdnest', but the more she tried the worse it became. She finally decided to discard the line and use one of my reels with an 8 lb line.

From the legal spot, she moved surreptitiously to an illegal spot deeper in the forest with WeiHao, QiJian and Yeshun in tow, while I remained 'legal'. Half an hour later, I heard a commotion and when I turned around, Yan Jean and her male escorts returned and she proudly announced, "I have a fish!". After a round of congratulations and good wishes, I got her to pose with her first catch. Embarrassed at first - notice her expression in the second picture - we had to coax her to smile. By jolly, she really smiled. So, what did she do with her first catch? She gave it to a fellow fisho. Great catch, Yan Jean!

My First Peacock Bass at Lower Peirce Reservoir

Lower Peirce Reservoir is a relatively new spot for me and imagine my excitement when this critter was hauled out of the depths, more so because that's my new $40 Shimano rod and spinner lure I was using. For me, it's a baptism of sorts to ensure that I land something with my rods and lures. It's an initiation ceremony, I guess.

And now it's my turn ...

This is my very first catch at Lower Peirce Reservoir on a new spinner - just next to the mouth of the peacock bass. We had been luring all morning and had packed and were ready to leave for Lower Seletar Reservoir when I decided to do a few more casts. It was released back into the waters after this picture was taken and I can tell you that this denizen heaved a sigh of relief when it found itself in familiar surroundings. Without batting an eyelid, it took off into deeper waters to live another day. Well, I'll be back at LPR when you weigh 2.5 kg, then. Bye ...

We had two but the others had none

This peacock bass took Wei Hao's white fly as he was reeling it in. PBs are taken in by flies and they chase them on a quick retrieve. We were fortunate because two were landed while other anglers stared blankly at their triple hooks wondering what went wrong.

My PB, my rod and reel

You just can't help but notice that Wei Hao is grinning from ear to ear, lying next to his 2-week-old Shimano Bassteria bait-caster, a low-profile Seahawk reel and his second landing of a peacock bass at Lower Peirce Reservoir on 5 Dec 2008. He had just switched to a white fly with a small weight, after casting the better part of two hours with various lures, including a popper when he first started. His luck went with the fly and the PB was landed within minutes. When I suggested he lie on the grass with his rod and catch, he was taken aback because he had never seen an angler pose in this manner. However, the good-natured Wei Hao relented and I believe he is going to love this picture, not to mention the catch which was released.

Behold, The Artist!

The stunning, natural colours of the setting sun at Sungei Rengit were arresting enough for me to stop my car by the roadside and fire off a couple of quick shots to capture God's artistic handwork. Every sunset is different and this must surely be the most memorable for me. Every minute, the intensity of colours changed as darkness filtered in. I had no more than five or eight minutes to think of composition, evaluative mode, white balance, ISO and other technicalities before shooting. Thank God, I was at the right place at the right time.

Dusk

As daylight gradually fades and the insidious darkness fills the skies, the iridescent colours of nature play out their last symphony in a myriad collage of beauty for those who have the eyes to behold.

Foul-Hooked

This close-up picture shows how a peacock bass is foul-hooked just outside and below its lower mandible. Usually, PBs are hooked either on its upper or lower mandible as they snap at the lure. Most of the time, the rear triple hook ends up in its mouth though at times, both triple hooks are taken.

Unhooking a Peacock Bass

This PB was foul-hooked - the triple hook lodged at the gills rather than the lips. The caliper-type device at the top of the picture is known as a boga. It is used to lift and weigh the fish; in addition, it comes handy with a measuring tape which serves a useful purpose in establishing its length. The long-nose curved pliers is used to unhook the fish.

The Equipment

This peacock bass was landed with a 6-foot Shimano Bassteria rod on 15-pound mono-line and a low-profile bait casting reel. The lure with two triple hooks is still attached to its mouth. This denizen of the Lower Peirce Reservoir was caught and released on 2 Dec 2008.

Peacock Bass

This was the first PB landed on 24 Nov 2008 at Lower Seletar Reservoir and released back into the water. Most of the anglers at LSR practise catch-n-release (CNR) mainly because luring is a recreational sport; besides, I'm told the Chinese and Malays don't eat PBs because of its 'muddy' taste' - it being a fresh-water species. However, several China foreign workers fish regularly here using baits, though this is illegal in our reservoirs. They rake in small and medium-sized ones and cart them home to eat.

One For The Road

Guess you didn't know I'm into fishing as well! This 1.2kg peacock bass was landed at the Lower Seletar Reservoir with a lure on my 6-foot Shimano Bassteria rod, a low-profile Daiwa multiplier reel and 15 pound mono-line. This was the first of three PBs that I ripped from the waters on 24 Nov 2008. The first one, weighing 1kg, was released while this one was given to a Chinese father and son team who was fishing nearby. I had earlier landed a plate-sized PB which was given to three China youths who had a luckless day angling.

Guess some people have all the luck, right?

GOODNESS, GRACIOUS ME! - The Campaign

Goodness but not Gracious! What are we up to, or more specifically, what have we come to? After more than 20 years of our 'Uniquely Singapore' Courtesy Campaign, we have been found wanting in a large swathe of incompetencies in our Ps and Qs. But why?
Many blame our competitive society and the stress-driven life we're leading - but, we do have a choice, don't we? Others are quick to point their finger at the fact that both parents are working; so, they claim, parents have no time to teach their children well - absurd, I must say.

The Straits Times is the protaganist behind this latest campaign to get our people - and that includes foreigners, as well - to return their utensils and other paraphernalia after their meals at fast-food outlets, food courts and even the ubiquitous hawker centres dotting our little island. I read a comment by a Caucasian, a foreigner, I believe, that everywhere else in the world, except Singapore, in Macdonald's outlets, customers return their trays after dining. He added that perhaps it isn't our culture in Singapore to do this! Goodness, gracious how audacious, Singapore!
Many of us have also seen, and been partisan to the mess that's left behind on the table by diners. We have no qualms about this but more importantly, we don't seem to understand that we are being rude and discourteous to the next diner. I'm sure we have found ourselves in situations where we had to occupy a messy and filthy table, and must have cursed either our bad luck and timing or the previous diners for leaving behind the filth and grime. So why do we need to perpetrate this perpetual cycle? There is a need to break this cycle.
But, of course, there are many who believe we are doing the cleaners a great favour: Their belief systems is so ingrained with the wrong notion that if they don't leave their mess, crockery or utensils around, the cleaners will end up unemployed. So, what's wrong with helping them out with a steady job, right? Wrong! Cleaners will still have a job; it's just that they will now have a lighter load, less stress, more time to do their job better - and it's all for a cleaner and healthier dining environment; that's exactly what we're seeking, a more pleasant and conducive dining experience, aren't we?
Let's do our part, even if there are no stations for us to return our dining paraphernalia, the least we can do is to keep our tables clean - I hope we're doing this at home?

Stone Forest - Yunnan

This is my favourite shot taken in the Stone Forest, though I must admit that it doesn't do justice at all to the magnificent and natural stone formations in this very popular and crowded tourist attraction.
We were trekking up and down through the narrow paths that run between the tall stone formations when it opened into an expanse of flat terrain. The light was brilliant and brought out the richness of the yellow leaves on the tree on my left. On the right was a bicycle - heavens know who it belonged to or how it got there - parked at an incline with the front wheel pointed in the direction of the narrow path, as if saying, "Ride me, please. I'm yours."

All the elements added up to a great picture, so I paused momentarily and triggered my shutter. I had to stop anybody and everybody behind me so they didn't appear in the picture - what arrogance, they must have thought, a photographer with the temerity to halt their natural progress through the Stone Forest?
I shot, thanked them - some were from my group - and moved on to marvel at my good luck: the light changed to a dismal overcast immediately after this. So, it was my good fortune, wouldn't you agree?

Opportunity Comes But Once

This photograph aptly demonstrates once again that rest stops can often provide not only the opportunity to recharge ourselves with the long-awaited stretch of our limbs, the call of nature or even a drink and snack, but also the precise moment to capture the all-evasive shot especially when the lighting is smack-on.

We had stopped in the middle of nowhere for the group to unwind after being cooped up for two hours or more in the coach. With my Nikon in hand, I had alighted and noticed that just across the road on the top of a knoll, a magnificent scene was bursting at its seams and inviting me to capture it. Capture it, I did, with a reduction of a 0.7 stop in the exposure compensation and spot metering since the scene was backlighted. As is my habit, I shot several frames using different exposures.

I like the way the tall weeds are highlighted against the darkened sky. The diagonal, silhouetted slope and trees adds an enigmatic touch to give it a perfect finishing. Wow!

Barren But Not Empty

This is a grab-shot taken from my coach as we headed for Shangrila, Yunnan in December 2007. We were high up on a mountain road and the weather was balmy but chilly.

The coach had slowed and I had strapped myself down illegally in a single seat right next to the entrance meant for the coach attendant. It wasn't the most comfortable seat, I can tell you; but there I was with my Nikon D200 and my Sony video-cam, alternating between the two, taking in the scenery that unfolded before me. The rest of the tour group were either asleep because it was an extremely long journey, or chatting with the curtains drawn since the sun and the UV rays were playing havoc with our skin.

I noticed the long shadows on the surface of the road and the barren trees framing the road. "It has to be an evocative shot," I told myself and fired away. The lightly-tinted windscreen gave it a welcome colour cast that enhanced the picture while the low-angle of the sun's rays added an elaborate flare to put the finishing touches to nature's brilliant work of art.

A Toast To Roast

Ms Tan Hsueh Yun, The Sunday Times columnist has more than a couple tips for those who would venture into roasting their own chicken. Read on ...

1 Tuck some fresh thyme into the cavity of the chicken together with a cut-up lemon.

2 For something really fancy - slip sliced truffles and butter between the skin and breast meat.

3 Season the chicken with Maldon salt, available in some Cold Storage and Market Place superkmarkets and a few turns from one of those mixed spice blends that come in disposable grinders.

4 Paprika gives the roast chicken a great colour.

5 Two important points to note:
Get a good chicken - the larger NTUC supermarkets stock Sakura chickens from Malaysia, which are not injected with growth hormone or given anti-biotics. Instead, they are fed a srain of probiotic called Sakura lactobacillus which keeps them healthy. The chicken is larger and stays juicy no matter what - perfect for roasting!

Secondly, make sure the bird is at room temperature when it goes into the oven; this is crucial, or the chicken will be pink or red in the middle. The trick is to rinse it under running water then leave it to drain for at least 30 minutes or until the chicken is at room temperature. Pat it very dry with paper towels before proceeding.

6 A stainless steel roasting pan from Ikea is ideal. One chicken can fit snugly in it and the pan can go from oven to stove without buckling or warping. The drippings don't burn as the pan isn't larger than the bird itself and they stay brown and is a good foundation for the sauce.

7 Pour some wine into the pan, bring it to boil, scrape up the brown bits and let it all reduce a bit. Then in goes a knob of cold butter which melts into the wine to create a quick sauce. It's more tangy than gravy but you can fix that with some sugar.

8 Buy one of those mini bottles of wine available from the wine section of many supermarkets.

9 The skin isn't going to stay crispy forever, so after resting the chicken for 15 minutes, eat it.

Make Your Own Roast Chicken

Ingredients:
1 Sakura chicken about 1.5 kg - available at NTUC
1 large or 2 medium onions, cut roughly into chunks
1 large carrot peeled and cut crosswise into 6-7 equal pieces
30 gm salted butter, softened
2 tsp pepper, paprika or other spice seasoning
1 lemon
180 ml white wine or chicken stock
20 gm salted butter, cold

Method:
1 Preheat oven to 200 deg C
2 Using a pair of kitchen shears, cut off the neck and feet of the chicken. Discard or use to make
stock. Rinse chicken thoroughly and leave to drain until it gets to room temperature.
3 Sit carrots in the middle of a roasting pan. Scatter onions around the pan.
4 Pat chicken very dry with paper towels. Gently separate the skin from the breast meat using your fingers or the blunt end of a wooden spoon. Do not tear the chicken skin.
5 Slip half the softened butter in between breast meat and the skin. Massage to spread the butter over the whole breast area.
6 Mix salt and spice seasoning together in a small bowl. Rub half all over the cavity of the chicken and the other half over the outside. Cut lemon in half and put into the cavity. Rub the rest of the softened butter all over the chicken, then sit the bird on the carrots, breast side up.
7 Roast about 1 hr and 10 mins until chicken is golden brown. Check after 1 hr. Wriggle the drumstick. If it moves easily, the chicken is done. Or pierce the thickest part of the thigh. If the juices run clear, the bird is ready. If roasting a smaller bird, check after 50 mins.
8 Remove roasting pan from oven, move chicken onto a large plate and set aside to rest 10-15 mins. Add the carrots to stock pot if making stock.
9 Place the roasting pan with the onions on the stove over medium high heat. Pour in the wine or stock and bring to a boil. Using a wooden spoon, scrape up brown bits on the bottom of the pan. When the sauce has reduced slightly, add cold butter. Swirl it around the pan, stirring constantly to make sure the sauce comes together. When all the butter has been incorporated, taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. If the sauce is too tart, add a little sugar. Pour into a bowl.
10 Carve chicken and stir any acumulated juices into the sauce. Serve chicken with sauce on the side.

Serves 3-4 persons.

Courtesy of Ms Tan Hsueh Yun, The Sunday Times, 20 July 2008

Cook Your Own Crab Bee Hoon

Chef-owner Jason Tan of Ya Kwang Dai Pai Dong in Geylang, shares his recipe:

For the chicken stock:
1 chicken carcass, cleaned and chopped
2 tbs dried soybeans
4 tbs ikan bilis
5 rice-bowls of water
Place all the ingredients in a pot and boil for 2 hours.

For the noodles:
2 tbs oil
6 slices of ginger
4 cloves of chopped garlic
1 medium-sized yellow onion, sliced
800 gm Sri Lanka crab cleaned and chopped into pieces
3 tbs Hua Diao wine
1/2 tbs fish sauce
2 1/2 rice bowls chicken stock
500 gm dry bee hoon, soaked
1 tsp powdered dried sole fish
salt and pepper to taste
1 stalk spring onion, chopped
1 stalk coriander, chopped

Method:
1 Add oil to a heated wok and fry the ginger, garlic and onions till brown, over high heat
2 Add the crab and Hua Diao wine. Stir till the wine evaporates.
3 Add the fish sauce, chicken stock, bee hoon and powdered dried sole. Stir well and cover. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes.
4 Lift the lid and add salt and pepper to taste.
5 Stir in the spring onions and coriander and serve.

Serves 2 or 3 persons.

courtesy of The Sunday Times, 27 April 2008