siblings day

While the cats were away, the mice spent labour day having a ball of a time together lunching on crabs, catching a movie and whiling the afternoon and evening away playing assorted card and board games. After a lovely day, I thought I would share the good stuff.

First, we had an excellent lunch at Dragonfly Inn in Serangoon Garden where they are having a special offer on crabs. Each crab of approx 500g is $14, buy two get one free! Another highly recommended dish was their homemade toufu. Overall we spent $70 for 4 people, including the three crabs and were hugely satisfied.

And while I cringe and hide everytime my fiance mentions the dreaded words chick flick, I was cornered into watching 200-pound beauty because my baby sister wanted to. The Korean movie is about a fat and ugly voice-over artist who undergoes plastic surgery and becomes a star in her own right. Interwoven into this is lots of drama over her love for the director, and lots of philosophical views about plastic surgery.

The movie sums up the common man's view with the words it's ok as long as it's not my girl. Very apt.

I've never thought much about plastic surgery before, because it is certainly far less common in Singapore than it is in South Korea (where people give surgery as presents). But it reminded me of a conversation many years back with an acquaintance in Britain. Over beer, he looked me squarely in the eye and asked me if I had ever had a girl with a boob job. He then proceeded in graphic detail to explain how unpleasant it was to encounter the hard texture of silicone implants, and how much he hated them. But of course, without them he might never have got into bed in the first place. (Aside: it was conversations like this that formed my opinion that while Americans get a lot of bad press, the British are far more promiscuous. Or at least they are more open about it.)

So the interesting thing is the plastic surgery isn't even just physical beauty. It is even less than physical beauty; it is merely visual appeal. Because once you enter the tactile domain the illusion vanishes and reality bites. How ridiculous then, to dream of changing one's appearance to romance a man, when the secret would never last beyond the first one night stand.

I guess plastic surgery is practical for those who make their living on magazine covers or motion pictures. But I can't see how it would fit into a healthy relationship.