Hmm, 10 days into 2020.

I couldnt take it anymore.

Due to reservist, my income is greatly affected.

With that my bills are piling up, my premiums are pilling up.
My expenses couldnt be cut. 
And I think back again.

No.

I can no longer be a BD.
I can no longer do status quo.
My survival, my passion is after all still guiding.

I was promised a stake,
I was promised a fix,
but it was all but plain words,
and this time it's time for me to make plans for my future,
make plans for my survival,
make plans for the happiness of myself.

It's 2020!

Well, not gonna post long long thankyou notes for people etc etc,
at least not 2019. I guess all of you know each and everyone is precious to me.
But things change, don't they?
Looking back at some FB-triggered memories,
Where I am secretly hoping to build a family in workplace,
to always have a dedicated day of celebration for the team,
but not this year, as it just seems so different.

Well, instead, on a brighter note,
So in workplace we had 2 chats,
One used for stats back in those days, one titled "Rants and Resources"
So I thought to include freelancers on one,
But the team is too literal,
Somehow thinking that all TG come together will only rant,
OMG how shallow......

So come to the point,
Do I really need this company to be able to nurture a
Bunch of new-gen TG that look out for each other and shares knowledge?
Not really, so instead, I spearheaded a TG Resource Chat.
This way, I am not alone too, I have many veterans inside to help nurture the industry.
This is perhaps closer to my ideal.
In this couple of days, valuable resources are shared.
Due to the massive numbers I set boundaries too,
and yea towards a better 2020!

This is the 5th day of 2020,
I feel major changes happening.
Catch up with a lot of people before going into reservist later,
But it has come to the point I prolly need to think harder on my future.
Because people change,
So do priorities change,
And expectation is piling,
And deliverance is failing,
Promises are clouding,
Hope is fading,
Empathy is declining,
And I am finally stopping......

So towards the half of the year, it would probably be the end of this chapter.........

December have been a whole lot of fun for me!

While taking the back seat on guiding, and working on another project, 

I get to spend more time to reconnect with my friends. 

Had a gathering with TG04 once again. 

Full of laughter as always! 

Full of educational as well as nonsensical dialogues.

We started talking about Briyani and the different styles, 

and then moving on to Pork Chop and all,

then north south indians,  

then for some reasons into Punjab culture,

and wedding rites, 

then chinese ink painting, 

and PDCs, etc etc, 

never ending topics and fun! 

So heartwarming to see everyone excelling in their fields, 

in their pace, yet coming together once again to gather.

Then 2 occasions I went to JB,
One with SS and her friends, a simple cafe hop, ktv and massage kind of day,
then one with SY just a day trip of shopping, bak kut teh kind of day.

Then would be Wilson's 27th. 

Booked a staycation at Oasia for that.  

Thankful for Colin to help open up a table 

for Xi Yan, a popular dining place. 

Great food, great cocktails and top notched service. 

He brought a giant rubber duckie over, 

spent 1h getting to pump it up manually, 

using breathed balloons as a medium.

Then the entire group came at night, 

was really fun. A moment to chill. 

Then it's BDS gathering. 

We played Off Track for the first time. 

James was a great host and gamemaster. 

A simple gathering, leading on to a major one next year, 

wanted to do a BDS 10 anniversary if possible. 

Again reconnecting and updating. 

Met up with some wushu peeps too, 

and also connecting with a kid and his family, 

kids are adorable la! but I can imagine the toughness, 

to raise 3 kids of different personality....... woah........ 

Met up with CH too for a quick shabu shabu, 

a man with little words, 

but very grateful he always took the effort to catch up. 

despite my busy schedule. 

Yesterday was a super impromtu Christmas gathering, 

because DQ commented feels weird 

that we have always been celebrating christmas at my place annually, 

so then they did a party last min, 

bring different food items, drinks, wine, logcakes, 

I didnt need to do a thing! amazing.  

Very very touched that this group of people, 

after so many years, 

now have a unspoken culture with me, 

knows what i want, knows what i need, 

always there when i needed them most. 

and I watched many many movies too! 

Ip Man 4

The final installation of the series. I thought it kindda deviate away from Chinese Martial Arts but into more discursive topic and cliche plot. They touched on the topic of suppressed minority and the mindless competition to be number 1, or to be superior. About suppression, it's funny at certain parts they mentioned about who are the native people. The entire movie look into the concept of "winning", is it really that important? Ip Man has to tackle his parent-child relations, is it important to dictate your ideals rather than understanding your kids? The industry tackles on having Bruce Lee as a representative of Chinese Martial Arts, is it that important to have equal representation or is 1 style good enough to get people curious to find out more? The marines tackles on acceptance. Is it that important to have 1 superior style or is better to look into shortcomings of every style by cross referencing? It's a good closure however, for everything. I thought it was a good time to spin off to the different masters of different styles and go back to the promotion of Chinese Martial Arts again. As the series, I thought 2 was by far the best, as it does highlight lesser known styles of Chinese Martial Arts, and had good character development, a good build up, and side stories are completed. It brings out emotions and juggled well with pace. 

Cats 

was weird, but to me, it's not that bad that was slammed int he internet and reviews.

Appearance: there are in musical costumes, meaning it's not a full "cats" rendering but still humans in costumes. I am totally chilled in this because I dont actually expect full cats in the movie that it may take away the facial expression of the actors. by not having full cat, they retain the essence of musical actually. 

Format : to me, the point of movie is to be able to do what musicals cant? Like greatest showman or les miserables, to blend the environment, to switch scenes seamlessly, to create impossible props. But the CGI rendering supposed to create a more realistic environment or to do the impossible, became amateur, very haphazard work, like the cast set into a template background of a video arcade game. 

Cinematography: certain parts I thought was out of focus. Camera angles seems to unnecessarily move around too.

Acting: amazing! the cast team is just too solid, the reason probably they cast them in the first place and loose all budget for a proper production team 

Songs: Objectively its great. The nostalgic viewers wouldnt like it if you are anchored to the original music. The modern teen wouldnt enjoy it, as it is a rather weird blend of genre from classic musicals to pop. But I appreciate the effort actually, to reinvent. 

Jumanji 

Hmm, a guess it's the same format as the first movie (referring to the same cast). Enjoy is as a family movie, it's not meant to be a sophisticated movie. Every now and then I enjoy this kind of adventure action movie with slapstick comedy here and there. It's entertaining! Life is hard enough that we dont need too much realistic movies but occasional guffaw-inducing entertainment. 

Knives Out 

Truly amazing piece! Didnt expect a crime thriller to be so entertaining, full of twists and turns, and red herrings here and there too. I always thought the twist was that the movie tried to convince us murder is fine but turns out to be part of her sinister plan all along, but the plot didnt go that way, but instead turned into something I never thought of. Must watch! Hard to put the piece in words.

These days working real hard, though I always felt lots of redundancy. The feeling of helplessness, and that nothing is productive.... that sucks.

Anyways, so went to a Philosophy Discussion group.

Glad to be there again, but as usual there is always some kind of dominant figure.

Had a 2nd round after the event and I thought it was so so much better with proper discussion.

The topic was "Free Will".

What I thought, was that we have 0 to maybe a little bit of Free Will, as most of us are influenced in our decision making with external factors such as culture, marketing, environment and induced emotions. Strip away the idea of influence then yet we always have a "Choice", but that's not Free Will.  But there's this lady for every perspective she would jump in a bite on the speaker's flaw to say that whatever points does not affect Free Will.  IRRITATING!

Actually, through the discussions, I saw many interesting views on Free Will. Some argued that there's a matrix of "Consciousness vs Unconsciousness". We think we are exercising Free Will but at the bigger picture we see just how little it is. Supporting cases included AI who could predict choices, and Business Marketing practices.

Some argued that everyone has a Free Will but it ties with the responsibilities or consequences that comes with it. So therefore none of us could do whatever we want lawlessly.

Some argued that the notion of "Free Will" is an act of "Egoistic Nature", because we start to associate with "I". Humans love to be in control, to feel that they are in control, to try to attach meanings to things. This is reinforced by the point that do we FIRST make choices, THEN justify why do we do it? So the intrinsic nature causes us to act, then we rationalize it?

So then on the wine table for 2nd round we went further. We went into Personality. There is actually a C.S Joseph type Grid based on Myers Briggs. It's interesting though about the order in which we make sense of things. I am a ENTP, so it was said that I listen and absorb everything, then sieve out only what is necessary based on my own world view.

Then we discussed about entity. How whatever we perceive, the tables, chairs, etc, are made out of atoms, but our mind uses senses to form images. That the idea of consciousness is like a brain trapped in the skull, using signals and organs to function and make sense of things.

We moved on to Hedonism and Narcissism, and eventually to meaning of life and happiness. The idea that Perfection is a goal for a process, and that it leads to boredom, and on one point we should have Existential Peace. About the idea of knowledge. Knowledge can be scary. Do we still pursue knowledge despite knowing Ignorant is Bliss, so we instead gets Anxiety of Knowledge? Then Escapism.

Woah, after a loooooong day of tours, meetings and philosophy, went to just chill and unwind with the kampong at Punggol Container Park. Got home at 4am, up by 9am due to work. Sigh.

On a movie spree....

Felt long since i went to the cinema.

Had a no show tour, so decided to catch "Wet Season", a local production.

The director of the movie directed Ilo-Ilo the last time, where it explores rare topics about Domestic Helpers. This time round, the movie theme is rain, intergenerational ties, and teacher-student relationship.

After all it was still a arts film genre so do not expect to have exciting pace or heart thumping climax. The movie spotlights on the protagonist, a Malaysian Teacher, who faces humiliation of many levels - child bearing, desperate wife, unsupportive family, foreigner, trivial subject, and a less-dignified job. While the intergenerational ties between her and the grandpa is strong, I like how it kindda contrast a dependent elderly to an infant, both of which have similar caretaking needs. As they always say, circle of life.

What was not very accurate was how close the teacher-student relation goes. While this would be impossible at today standard, lets give the scriptwriter a break to assume that this takes place in the olden times when the age gap is not too drastic and there are less strict laws on civil servant behaviors. I thought that their relationship should be developed further as I felt there is a fluctuation of being childish and mature in the personality of the student. But overall, I guess in the end what the teacher taught was not chinese but rather his first heartbreak in the forbidden love affair.

Other than that I thought the cinemagraphy was rather well done. Mundane shots were reiterated to portray the relationships between the characters such as teacher getting closer, roads getting longer, eating sessions, and also the degree of rain. So much so that I loved the ending where the grandma washes her "blanket of hundred blessings" (personal identity) as if cleansing and then the sun ray shines on her face as if liberation from all the torment. Subtly, I guess there is also a shed of light on the "burden" of societies such as caretaking and strained relationship that people tend to refuse to let go. 

Then, the next movie is "Frozen 2".

This is where my opinion is gonna be unpopular. While retaining the good o disney feels of musical numbers and heartwarming family friendly moments, the movie did push through typical cliches into some thought provoking topics. This movie relooked at "history" and ask what is the "right thing" to do. The sisters are forced to search deeper into the past, to find out truths of governance, and to venture into the unknown, face your fears. Their personalities are reflected again and again, the roles and responsibilities, sense of inferiority, purpose, and ultimately is still friends and kinship.

On a light note, the movie uses Olaf alot, to look at "deep inspirational quotes" or just being plain annoying. But as I always believed, we need people like that sometimes, someone that is full of nonsense, that you just cant get angry no matter how annoying he/she is, but because the intention is just so pure and innocent and selfless.

But then, this movie, unlike the previous one, felt like there's no punch line, there's no easy-to-singalong-and-catchy melodies, there's no emotional roller coaster. Perhaps the lyrics to "Next Right Thing" was probably the coolest song there but I would not forsee kids running about saying next right thing take first small step and step by step kindda thing.

The movie was not satisfying that I decided to jump straight to the next movie, "Last Christmas".

This movie attracted me as I thought it would be a light hearted holiday season home along kindda of comedy movie. Yet it wasnt. I guess this is a less popualr movie but Henry Golding and Michelle Yeoh is in so woohooo support local! Call me biased but I think Michelle Yeoh is the best actor there, with her infatuated face, her motherly love, her typical asian behaviors, and her stares.

Last Christmas is basically a romance drama of some girl that seems constantly on her bad luck, failure to see all the good friends around her, and indulge in a false sense of hope that she will one day find someone that discover her talents and make her big but blame on her illness; who say a too perfect to be true guy who is very obvious the plot twist as it was given away too fast at so many scenes.

But then again I thought a few quotes are rather nice in the movie. "Look Up" is what the guy keeps asking Kate to do, is to notice the beauty of the moment, the subtle details of the environment, constantly. SO comforting though, when the guy spoke : "There's no such thing as normal. It's just being human is hard."

As a holiday movie, they also focus on the theme of forgiveness, handling mothers, friends, relationships and work. To the sense Michelle Yeoh commented "you were great, but you stopped caring", see most people lost the joy they had at work and that's where the spirit will die.

However, this move got a feel good ending. Last christmas, I gave you my heert, but the very next day, he gave it away....... this line is soooo literal!

The Sorrows of Work:

Work disappoints us, not by coincidence but by necessity, for at least eight central reasons:

1. The demand for specialisation limits our potential.

2. The needs for standardisation kills the need for autonomy by personal initiative.

3. The extent of consumer choice forces us to commercialise our work beyond what feels tolerable.

4. The scale of industry robs us of a sense of meaning when we are distant to the end user.

5. Competition generates a state of perpetual anxiety.

6. The requirement for collaboration maddens us.

7. Our high aspirations embitter us.

8. The notion that the world is meritocratic imposes a crushing burden of responsibility on us for our defeats.

https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/sorrows-of-work/

So a friend of mine officially joined my company.

Well, I was exhilarated about the news. This is probably the first step towards a mindset change of Tourist Guides. As I always mentioned, if you step into a secondary school and asked "Who would like to be a Tourist Guide" and no one raise up their hand, there is something extremely wrong about the mindset about the industry being a retirement job. Even the definition of it is often mis represented as a Tour Leader (Tour Leader leads locals to overseas and incharge of logistics).

Then again on another hand, Im opening up my vulnerability and persona in front of him. From young I have always portrayed a strong front around my friends, many people see me as a fighter, as a successful man. But behind that, lies so much burden, so much expectations, so much emotional roller coaster. I warned him not to be alarmed if you see a very different me in work, against outside. I'm someone who takes work more objectively regardless of friendship and whatever. But ultimately, I also told him to watch for my psychological wellbeing. He just entered the Adulting World, I really hope I can groom him more like me, or better, surpassing me. I think people around me had so much potential that can be harnessed and molded into a greater being. All they need is a little confidence, a little resources, and a little opportunity. I hope to be the one providing that.

Then I remembered "3 Idiots", when a quote goes like "Your friend fails, you feel bad. Your friend tops, you feel worst.". But it doesnt really seem to affect me that much. I actually love to see people around me succeed in life. It's that touching moment, that heartwarming moment, where you see their talents utilized. But to be honest, it's always that one aspect of life that I cant help but to envy, where most people around me seem to always have that charm, that magnet, that attractiveness, that I probably gotta change my face, my shape, my voice to attain. But bright side is, if fate throws me a girl, thats probably "The One".

Well, gonna be a busy year ahead, cant be too distracted. Another friend of mine seem to step into my world a little more. Have been meeting up since last Saturday. I feel young around him, though being sleep deprived of 2-3h a night, but the kind of madness, the youth, the energy, havent really felt that for a long time. Got to know him more ofcoz, and thought that he had such an interesting life. Then along the way, another friend was being very very very kind to make the effort to come over and tried bonding. Really grateful for people like that. I always considered myself very lucky, to get a group of friends like these. Many criticism ofcoz, people claiming that I'm often used, or buying friends, but the kind of effort they showed me is definitely more than just a motive-filled friendship. I am rather sure, this is the bunch that will stay by my side 50 years from now.

They probably seen my worst, and probably seen my best, someone that has flexibility to be impromtu, someone that I can be comfortable with even in silence. Though some of them expressed their lost of friendships before, I really really really hope I would not be that kind of person to them.

So I went to watched "About Time (2013)" for the Pop Up Cinema, this time, hoping to get some more people around me than the usual solo screening, I got 5 tickets. Of course, the ones that came only 2, but I am very much grateful already. 

So here is the summary of the movie: 

- Tim Lake was told by his dad that he can travel in time, but can only change what's around his life. 

- So Time decided to redo some of the "regrets" in his life, starting from trying to get a girl he loved. He failed, thus “All the Time Travelling in the World can't make someone Love you.".

- Whenever he tried to solve a problem such as his sister, his dad, his wife, etc, some things are actually changed due to butterfly effect, especially his kids. 

- Death is inevitable, cherish relationships

- His dad told him his Two-Part Secret. First is to live ordinarily, feel the stresses and emotions. Second is reliving the day again noticing the smallest detail and the joy of existence.

- His "power" can solve small bumps, but inevitably the bigger problems in life cannot be skipped. 

- Living in the past wont move you forward

- There are life decisions that cannot be undone

- Tim decided in the end to not travel anymore, but to enjoy as if it was the last day. Thus "We're all travelling through time together every day of our lives. All we can do is do our best to relish this remarkable ride". 

So since on the topic, I casually asked about my friend's "Regrets", and realised his regrets usually revolves around friends. Means he holds on to Friendship very very dearly. Kindda feel very honoured to be one of his. I really really hope I would not turn to be a "regret" eventually. 

Friends around me are really really great. I will never dream that one day I actually had friends who water my plants while I'm away, who helped take care of me in events, bothered coming down for a tea no matter how tired, and even to the point to travel 1h back 1h forth for a couple of hours talk cock sing song only. At this point, I kindda question myself if I could even "match up" to the "intensity" of friendship I am receiving. Did I actually do that many awesome things for my friends? 

Maybe my heart is semi hardened? Or too liberal? Cuz I remembered I did teared for lost of friends before, and had a few sigh that some friends I couldnt help and eventually drift; but eventually, some decisions that I thought would lose people, was not too bad in the end. I had always believed  

I used to say in the past, that I have no regrets. I am who I am today, due to the product of all the trivial decisions and events that happened in my life. But ofcoz, at times I would look back and think about "If Only". Literally my funeral song would be, "Regrets, I have a few, but then again, too few to mention". It's however, extremely hard to embrace some regrets. Yet these, are the things that would push you out of your comfort zone, to instill a weird sense of fear that you may end up regretting, and thus you learn to make better decisions, you learn to sacrifise for the sustainability of a relation. That's why the famous "20 years down the down yoou will regret the things you never did rather than the things you did." comes from. 

No 2 person is the same, even the same person in different timeline is different, we are all but Beings being Constructed from the different Fragments of Experience, World Views and Emotions. But I guess, nothig is lose that is born of the heart - the sincere affection.  

People who says "we have the same 24h" obviously had no idea of the money and opportunity cost disparity that causes much time constrain in most people. And yet, in this 24h, we gotta juggle so many aspect of our lives, I really appreciate when I get friends who calls me before bed or between chores just to update, chat, laugh, be nonsensical, cuz seriously, how precious those little moments are! 

Or sometimes, just doing nothing, makes me relaxed too, though more often than not I would strike a conversation, but I guess I have this concept that “True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.”. In this era of ever stimulating and ever flooding information though, how many people learn to just appreciate each others presence without the need to look at your phones, or to guffaw away?

Well, though in every relationship, kinship, friendship, all feast comes of an end, but I hope I can cling on to whatever remaining I have. To some, I did not care enough, I did not help enough, or I gave up before solving issues between, or Im simply selfish to only make effort for those who cares. I am though, very thankful of the small talks that eventually ignites our friendships. I noticed in the end, it's these randomness that creates my stronger group of friends. 

Every social group has its own dynamics though. I can only hope that the intergroup relations gets better and expand the Social Support system of each and every one of us. 

 

One of these days you probably grow up, and then it's time for you to manage your own finance, and it would mean you gonna start worrying about dollars and sense, how to cushion bad situation and all.

Im gonna list down whatever I know so far. So basically there are a few types of Insurances:

Health, Life, Wealth Accumulation, Income Protection

Some terms are :
Premium - Your monthly/yearly fee to incept the policy
Premium Term - How long you wanna pay for
Maturity - When the policy reached its maximum purpose/potential
Annuity - Yearly payout

HEALTH 

This basically means Shield. Due to the expensive Healthcare cost, most of us are automatically enrolled into a state insurance Medishield through Medisave allocations. This money is a form of Forced Savings only to be utilize for Healthcare so why not make sure we get the best coverage in times of need. This is personal comfort with Hospital Ward you would like to be covered for.

LIFE

Life Insurances mainly focuses on the sum assured on TPD (Total Permanent Damage) or Death, it's about how much money to leave behind for who, and how much you think is enough. (number of years to support through grievance period x cost of monthly living). Then, there's a choice between Term Life Insurance (Just have insurance for whole life, high sum assured but no cash returns) or Whole Life Insurance (After certain years will have cash returns though most of time no profit).

I would choose Whole Life Insurance, because the premium I paid the cheapest is Aviva Whole Life Plan, the most comprehensive coverage value of money is Manulife Life Protect Plus.

Some people have multiple Life Insurances, it's called Laddering. This is a way to cover a larger sum of money in case of death while keeping the premium lower, or to "upgrade" sum assured by purchasing additional Life Insurance at different stages of life. Some policies have multipliers or Stages of Life bonus options. Whole Life could act also like a Savings Plan since you receive lump sum upon maturity.

WEALTH ACCUMULATION 

Then depending on your priority, whether you wanna accumulate wealth first or is income protection is more important,

For Wealth Accumulation, you have Endowments (savings plans) and Investment Link. There will be a lot of people to tell you do not mix Insurance with Investments. If you know other platforms, then do not go for ILP (Investment Linked Policies).

Endowments on other hand, is like a "Savings" plan, at the end, you probably cant combat inflation but you start having the savings habit. There are many kinds of savings be it for yourself, or for your younger generation. Usually you will need to pay for certain term and then when the policy matures there would be a lump sum given back to you. For this I have PruWealth and AIA Smart Flexi Rewards for this.

ILP would be like ProAchiever, where half of premium is for insurance half is for investment but they do it for you. This is for people like me who know nuts about Investment so a famous firm will do it for you. Usually the first few years your money is more for upkeep than to invest, and thus you will see results only in long run. There are however fixed premium term, but in a way no limit as to how long you want your money to roll, even after maturity. AIA Pro Achiever is an example for this. Of course, I have now been educated to alternative options such as Stashaway.

INCOME PROTECTION 

For Income Protection, then you gotta think lets say some bad luck falls upon you, how to get through it. So you think about disability income, hospitalization income, hospitalization payouts, accident payout and daily cash. Some policy only covers upon employment, some have waivers for unemployment, some are to cover freelancers, etc etc. For myself, I got the AIA Solitaire for Accident coverage to cover daily payouts upon hospitalization as that would be basically my income line. In case of an accident, my income is directly affected, so at least I can claim money for every hospitalization day, and also every week also have compensation. Post and Pre care is claimable too.

RETIREMENT 

For Retirement, there are also several ways you can go about it depending on what stage of life you are in. Payouts would be either Lump Sum or Annuity. Some would like to stretch the Premium Term while still in the workforce. Some would do a Single Premium so that they can right away get Annuity until certain age. Some people plan for retirement step by step like having Wealth Accumulation first until retirement then take up Single Premium.

OTHER INSURANCES

Then lastly is every other insurance for your assetss (car, house, travel, etc etc).

USEFUL LINKS to understand more, or just find your Insurance Agent friend :

Ultimate Insurance Guide
https://blog.seedly.sg/working-adults-key-insurance-policies-singapore/

For Whole Life Insurance
https://www.moneyline.sg/4-best-whole-life-insurance-plans-singapore/

For Hospitalization (Shield)
https://blog.moneysmart.sg/health-insurance/integrated-shield-comparison/

For Endowment
No perfect guide due to too many complicated variables

For Accident
https://blog.moneysmart.sg/personal-accident-insurance/best-personal-accident-insurance-singapore/

For Retirement
https://www.interestguru.sg/2019-in-depth-comparison-3-best-retirement-plans-in-singapore-with-high-income/

I did about 6 tours now in Vietnam. Most by students, they dont have structure and they dont have the opportunity to mingle with other prof guides. They were simply given a chance to show tourist around to improve their english. Most of them are very passionate but content wise are so so. Several historical points, food etymology, or which cultural influences were not explained. Very personal touch though, sharing what they do on everyday basis.

The food tour yst was about exploring Famous Local Eateries which many chefs and culinary experts have visited before.

"Summer" is a head chef of a fine dining and turned tour guide to introduce her favourite local eateries. She have since took few "Masterchefs" all over the world on her tour.

Very structured, well researched and well planned.

Each stop was introduced with :

1) Passion Story - History of the Eatery (how long, by who, why)
2) Etymology - Origin of food item (if applicable) and what it means
3) Essence - Comparison with variations of it at diff states or why this stands out
4) Technicality - How to eat it and whats the ingredients inside.
5) Etiquette - When to eat, usually paired with what food or drinks, what superstitions or beliefs

5 stops, 12 dishes of food,
Value for money, and quality commentary

A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON FOOD

Food is a staple of life, but also a collective compilation of culture. From the Hunting and Gathering days, we have evolved into a complex series of sub-cultures when we look into Methodology, Taste Blends, Etiquette, Festivity, and more. We will be looking into a specific topic of Food in terms of Culinary Experience.

Culinary Experience, refers to when the chef intentionally take the patron into a wholesome journey to present a certain message through medium of Food.

Functionalist

Culture is shaped from Culinary Experiences.

While most of the time, there are some universal standards and taste to food items, it is also an opportunity of Dysfunction, whereby a Chef creates seemingly contrasting flavours, or savouring a certain dish at unusual timings.

Conflict

Eventually, Food creates Power Play too. Inevitably, yardsticks, competitions, ratings and reviews emerge as means of giving uniformity and structure to food. Some Culinary Experiences takes you to the best form of Food Handling or Preparation Skill; eg de-toxic-fying Pufferfish, Sea Urchin, or preserving the beating heart of an Eel, or the Michelin Ratings. Conflict perspectives also looks at how Humans exerts dominance for Culinary Experiences such as eating worms, dogs or monkey.

Symbolic Interactionist

Food presented in a certain personal way is a form of self expression. It may be an act to document a certain event or a certain someone. With this, some form of Culinary Experience evolves taking nostalgic taste, forgotten recipe, or a chronological evolution of a certain cuisine.

Culinary Experiences

Casual Dining
Fine Dining
Royal Cuisines
Competitive Cooking
Speed Preparation
Theatrical Dining
Traditional Dining
A Journey through Time (one dish diff styles)
Contemporary - Fusion Culture
Contemporary - Plating and Presentation
Contemporary - Senses (dark, smell, taste, touch)
Molecular Innovation - Elemental
Futuristic - using chemicals to recreate dishes
Health Conscious