February was a short but eventful month. I spent half of it in Singapore and half of it in Penang for Chinese New Year. The latter included a weekend trip to Hatyai for lots of shopping, eating and sightseeing – the highlight being a morning out to Samila Beach in Songkhla.
Penang was a great time of meeting up with friends and family, baking a butter cake and my first New York baked cheesecake, attending a Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, hiking to Monkey Beach with my sister and our cousin, and the most fulfilling of all – writing in Starbucks Pulau Tikus!
I was also being a tourist in my own hometown – had afternoon tea at Macalister Mansion, took the new furnicular train up Penang Hill, traipsed around good ol’ Georgetown with a bottle of 100 Plus and made nostalgic shopping trips to Sunshine Square and Komtar.
No trip to Penang is complete, of course, without eating all my favourite foods – Perak Lane’s fish porridge, Hameediyah’s murtabak ayam and ais bandung, Kayu’s roti telur and teh tarik, Relau’s Ramly burger and Batu Lanchang’s duck egg char koay teow.
Back in Singapore, there were two trips to the movies to watch Inherent Vice starring Joaquin Phoenix (thumbs down) and Focus starring Will Smith (thumbs up), two writing sessions with my partner and a Writing The City class where we focused on characterisation.
I also had my first Lo Hei with the church family on Luxus Hill Avenue, made a first visit to Potato Head Folk on Keong Saik Road, got teased at Comedy Central’s Talk Cock Wednesday at BluJazz Cafe and went to Temasek Polytechnic for a bit of writing and ronda-ing.
I have loads to look forward to in March, mainly working on my writing projects, and seeing incubus and The Prodigy at Future Music Festival. I also left my job at AsiaRooms after an amazing five years of working with The Laterooms Group and I am now ready for something new!
Wan Phing Lim 