Bad Day…

What a day it was – last Friday! Farrah Fawcett, best known for her role as one of the Charlie’s Angels in the popular TV series in the early days of television in Sarawak/Malaysia, passed away of rectum cancer…

…and then there was the shocking news that Wacko Jacko Michael Jackson had died of cardiac arrest at the age of 50. I’ve never been a real fan of the King of Pop, as he is often called, but I do not mind some of his songs – solo or with his brothers. I think my favourite by him is this very poignant-sounding one: “She’s out of my life” and I feel having his song performed by the legendary Dame Shirley Bassey and the evergreen and ever-handsome Richard Clayderman would indeed a fitting tribute to the superstar…

I’m afraid the song actually starts much later in the video clip at 5:20 as Richard was playing one of his hits in the first part of it…and still, in my opinion, nobody does it better than Michael himself in his original rendition of the song. Even Gloria Gaynor (I’ve the cd where she does a cover of the song) and Josh Groban is outclassed…and that certainly says a lot about the immense talent of The Gloved One! One thing’s for sure – he may be gone but he will always be remembered, immortalised in his songs.

It was on that same day that I went out for lunch with my ex-student, Xavier, as he would be leaving for his further studies the following day. We went to the Ark but were greeted by some disappointing news the instant we sat down. We noticed that the western dishes on the menu had been cancelled and when we enquired about that, the waiter said that the old chef had left…and the new one just reported for duty two days before.

I ordered the mee siam and this was what I got…

@#$%&*!!! That was no mee siam, for heaven’s sake – just some miserable fried mihun. It tasted so ordinary and was extremely oily, especially towards the bottom. Why, even based on the presentation alone, that chef would have flunked miserably! I really wonder what his credentials are…

Xavier ordered the Korean beef rice and got the rice and this plate of kimchi and stuff…

I am never a fan of kimchi, so I did not bother to try…but Xavier said that it sucked. That plate of cucumber was quite all right but was too spicy hot. He also got this plate of beef…

I tried a slice and I think my simple homecooked fried beef with soy sauce, ginger and wine tastes a lot better.

I wonder where the previous chef has gone to… If this is what the new one has to offer, I don’t think I will ever go there again and take my word for it, everybody – all of you should stay away too!