October 2019

October seems to be a month of food, both making and eating. Seems the 3 highlights below are all about food. I must have been really hungry! 

After attending a wagashi making workshop in March 2019,  and after coming back from Japan, I have bought back some wagashi making ingredient, mainly red bean paste. And for some reason, strawberry was really cheap in October, like two punnet for 5SGD? So I decided to make some Ichigo Daifuku, which is strawberry wrapped in red bean paste, wrapped in mochi. Above was there result of the first batch. It was delicious! And so easy to make than what I expected. I normally don't buy or eat this outside cause I think they are rather expensive and not really that nice anyway. But those that I make fresh from glutinous rice flour was so soft and chewing and absolutely delicious! This will become a common dessert I make at home. I love the fact that you attend one single class, and a thousand ideas start forming in your head! You will get what I mean when I reach the December 2019 post in just a few more days :)

I also invited my high school friend and family to my house in October. Her son for some reason, love meeting me, and I've been putting off this meetup for the longest time due to my hectic travel schedule. I think it was my time to cook as we usually just visit each other's house and take turn cooking. I actually prefer such meet up as its a lot more easier on the pocket, plus you can experience something totally different. Above was what I made on that day: Japanese vegetarian curry, tempura prawns, and chicken karaege, and salad. Lovely meal. And we played board game and talk through out the night. This is my kinda gathering. I wish more Singaporean would go for such meet up instead of always gathering at some generic mall and eating at some generic restaurant. How boring.

I also celebrated my 15th wedding anniversary. After being married for 15th years, there isn't much we haven't tried. So for 2019, we just decided to dine at my favourite South American restaurant that we discovered accidentally during one of our morning walks in Jewel. We initially just went in for the view since they have a great seats facing the waterfall. But the food there really surprised us and we've been back a few times every since. I've always knew I'd loved South American food even before ever tasting it. I used to watch Anthony Bourdain's travel show and the way he describe how the food was cooked there just make my mouth waters. That was one reason I was so interested in my current job anyway, to be able to work there. Sadly, or not, depend on how you see it, I will be leaving the company in January 2020 and venture into the new year with more adventure planned ahead! Stay tune!

September 2019

September was an awesome month. Travelled so much and had such a wonderful time. Both were unplanned travel, but awesome all the same. I don't know how I managed to travel so much while still having a full time job sometimes. But I guess if you love something that much, you will eventually find a way. I used to laugh when reading about this guy who was semi retired and travel every 2 months. Apparently that is a very manageable target after all! 

So here are my top 3 highlights for the month. This blog is starting to resemble a family blog, what with so much family photos!

Number one highlight is of course visiting my favourite country - JAPAN! I didn't actually planned for this trip. My husband happens to just be going there for a fermentation workshop for 3 days, and since the accommodation are paid for, I just needed to pay for my air tickets and voila! Kyoto and Osaka! I've been putting Kyoto off my list of places to visit for a long time now after hearing so much horror story about it. It's all true! Especially if you don't plan your trip properly and only visit the famous places. For me, I'm happy to walk the other way if I see a crowd of tourist before me. I'm also happy to wake up at unearthly hours to visit a place if it means I can avoid the crowd. Will for sure dedicate a few dozen post on this soon! 

The 2nd highlight was celebrating my Mum's birthday with her. Now my Penang annual trip has been shifted to September. And since I was going to be back for only a short weekend, and prices for E&O seems affordable, and I've always wanted to stay there, I decided to have a one night staycation in Penang with my Mum at E&O hotel. We did nothing at all but just check in and spend the whole time at the hotel. No regrets. It was lovely. For me the room was super elegant, and I especially love their music selection which was so classic. Top notch one of my favourite hotel to stay in even if I don't speak to a single person. It was hauntingly beautiful.

Last but not least, again I went to the theatre, and again watching a play I've seen before. Actually, this was the first play I've ever watched when I first landed in Singapore. I love Ivan Heng. If he is in drag, for sure I would go watch. And it's not just a gay thing either. I just love how elegant he carries himself as a lady. And most of the play I've watched him in always brings a tear to my eye. Lovely performance. 

Pardon me if I overshot my journal blogging as it seems I will overshot the new year at this rate! But someone once told me, Get it Done is better than Perfect! 3 more months to blog about and I can finally go back to easy going days! Gotta be discipline people! Shape up!

August 2019

Month of August no longer see me traveling annually back to Penang to celebrate my Dad's birthday with him any more. For this August, it seems that I spend a lot on my laptop watching online entertainment. We have a HD Smart TV at home, but for some reason, we're always watching shit on our handphone, tablet, PC etc. 

For the month of August, the first two highlight on the list are actually entertainment watched over the internet. Guess this shows how much I really need a life outside of my home, haha.

For the very first time, I was hyped up over Youtube Live Stream. I actually tuned in live to two concert that One OK Rock releases on Youtube before it came out on Blue Ray DVD. Both shows were amazing. I absolutely enjoyed the first Japan Dome Tour concert, watching it with my headphone on my mac and didn't move from my position once the concert started. For the second Orchestra concert, I didn't enjoyed it so much cause I find myself observing whether Taka lip sync at all through out the concern because his vocal was simply just too perfect for a live concert! This is one group that I will always watch live! I did eventually found those DVD in Japan, but it was so expensive that I couldn't bring my self to buy it :(

My husband re-contracted something in August, and he informed me that we now have HBO GO! After watching Good Omens on Amazon Go 30days free trial, I was psych when he told me the news. I spend a few good weekends and weekdays watching movies and documentaries and mainly Westworld. It has been 4 months since now, and for some reason, I never did finished the last episode of Westworld Season 1. I never did continue watching Games of Thrones. I have this idea to watch all the Harry Porter Series. But nothing happened. I recently watched around 3 movies in December, and that's about it. Guess I'm just not much of a TV junkie. 

Last of the highlight was a team boding activity we had which made me realise how much our colleagues hate each other. We went for a paintball outing, or painball as we all found out just how painful it could be. I still have the mark on my right thigh to this day! We played two rounds, and I am happy to say I won both rounds. I was an excellent snipper. I love shooting at target, but I tried my best not to be hit cause it's so damn painful! Plus, memories of falling on the ground was still fresh from my last year's Laser Tag team bonding activity. I love war games. I love strategy games. I just wish it wasn't so darn painful. I prefer Laser Tag for sure!

July 2019

July was another busy month full of travelling. I was away 1.5 weeks conducting UAT in Brazil. I will write more about it below and also in it's own dedicated post. So let me just get started on the summary of the month.

Above list is actually based on what is the most highlighted event, and no actually in actual sequence of event. So I've decided to share the photos below based on sequence of event instead since it's easier for me. Don't mind me and my non-standardisation. It would just seems weird to split out Brazil and South Africa into two parts when it's actually in a single trip. 

Anyway.... for some reason until now, my husband told me his friend can get us free stay at Hard Rock Hotel at Sentosa. Free with just the room though, and check in Sunday and check out on Tuesday. Since it was free, I decided to take a day off for this. It was a nice short staycation, so much better than Bay Hotel for our 10th anniversary or something. We even went to another W Hotel for buffet lunch. And since it was a weekday, I got a 1-4-1 offer too! 

After the staycation, I was off to Brazil for 1.5 weeks of UAT. This time I travelled with my boss, hence the business class ticket on SQ, and we even stayed in Marriot Apartment! Although it was a stressful business trip for me, I did work my butt off for this whole trip! The photo above is of Rio De Janeiro, and not Sao Paulo where I work. We flew past it on our way home, and I thought it was so beautiful that I took a snap shot of it. My boss wanted to visit there during our weekend there, but we heard so much about how unsafe it was that he decided to forgo his trip and spend it in Sao Paolo with me instead. I forgo my Iguazu Fall trip too. It was too expensive, and too rush a trip. Sigh. 

The other highlight of the trip was our stopover in Johannesburg, South Africa. The airport was amazing there as compared to Addis Ababa at Ethiopia. And I was such a fan girl of Nelson Mandela that I kept taking photos of his merchandise. Needless to say, I also bought some of his mercehndize home, hahaha. It was an unforgettable trip, and I am glad I went for it. It was a trip of a lifetime. When I was back, I earned enough point to be upgraded to Krisflyer Gold Class! Need to fully utilise this privilege which I would probably not get again. It expires August 2020. 

June 2019

I'm actually writing April, May, and June's post on Christmas Day 2019, and I thought all of them would be the same, but boy was I so wrong! Every single one is different! And June is no different, cause I don't even know how to find any photo to mark the highlight for the month of June.  So I actually decided not to, with the exception of the last highlight. I will use my words to explain the first two points instead. 

For the first highlight, I finally made an appointment to go for a full body screening. I've always wanted to do that after I've turned 40, and have been putting it off since. Now, at age 42, I decided to go for it since it was covered by the company. I went to Raffles Hospital for my checkup, and it actually only took 2 hours or so. I even did a Pap Smear and Mammogram which I was expecting, but to my surprise, the doctor also did an rectal check on me! Is that what anal sex feels like! Totally shocked! Except for the usual cholesterol issue, slight overweight, and a slightly dense mammogram, I was totally fine. I was supposed to do a follow up on my mammogram in December again, but I skip it cause after being stress about it, my period actually skipped a month, and after that I was kinda fine with no issue. So I think I can wait another 5 years or so to do another follow up. 

The second highlight is actually a milestone for me. And that is achieving financial independence in the sense that I now have sufficient fund to last me till retirement and after (baring no financial emergency that is unforeseen and will wipe out my fortune). I've also managed to hit a 7 digit net worth in June. I was happy about the achievement, but I though it would just be temporary and didn't want to get too happy about it unless it maintain it's status for at least 6 months. Well, I am blogging this 6 months later, and I am happy to confirm that the status has maintained and improved along the way :)  I feel less pressured to work these days, and take life a lot more easy. You can expect lot's of change coming up in 2020.

Lastly, I had an awesome time dancing at East Coast Park by the beach with my favourite zumba instructor. He did ask me to dance with him for this event, but I told him I was busy (which was kinda true at that time). But I still turn up to support him, and got this nice photo together :) He always makes me happy whenever I attend his class, but I hardly ever talk to him. That's just me. Socially awkward and totally antisocial. It's amazing I still dance after all these years. But it is one thing that makes me the most happy on a daily basis. Keep on dancing Cordy! Dance and be free :)

May 2019

Just as I was catching up on my monthly summary, I have to come across a month with 5 highlighted moments.... I mean, it's a good thing of course. May was such a busy month! Almost madness. And I guess I should be grateful for having so many interesting thing happening to me in a single month alone!

Above are the 5 highlights of May, and there will be no personal photos for this post as I find that keeping things mysterious is much more fun. It will also motivate me to blog the details faster if I want to share my photos on this blog. Photos that made it here are actually the ones that get remembered and view the most. The rest just dies in my hard drive or NAS. 

Guess which play I went to watch, AGAIN. This time I even got VIP seats! Hence the free mask and free program given. Went with my weird movie buddy to watch this legendary play. No matter how many times I watch it, I am always moved to tears by it. I don't know whether it's because of my link to it in my past, or the play is just too awesome. We sat in the 2nd row of the theatre! And it was an amazing experience being so close to the stage. Especially for this play what with all the costume and props and candalier just above our head! Bravo Bravo Bravo. 

As mentioned in April's post, I had a short 4 day trip to India. It was a rather last minute trip, for goodness know what reason. But since it was to a new part of India I've never been to, of course I look forward to it. This time it was to Bangalore. I even travel alone there and reach in the middle of the night! I spend 4 days there visiting my company's office as well as vendor's office. Since it was with my boss, and it wasn't a serious trip, I had quite a good time there, with good food and shopping. One day.... after all my India's post, I will post about Bangalore too! 

After a month staying in Singapore with me, I send my Mum back to Penang. It was another one of those Saturday reach, Sunday leave trip. And again I met up with my friend Pei Shi for some cafe hopping. This time we went a bit overboard and visited to many cafe that we were really tired by the end of it. So I decided to end our misery and went to the airport earlier just to sit down and be alone with my thoughts after a long day of drinking too much caffeine and sweet cakes!

After coming back to Singapore, it was UAT period for my project. Since the project was Brazil based, I had to follow the user's timezone and so I worked from 2pm to 11pm and had the morning free. I went out almost daily, to all the places that would have been crowded on weekend. I went for a walk around CBD area and met up with my friends for lunch. Above was one of my favourite shot of the Helix Bridge at Marina Bay Sand. I also went to catch a movie at Jewel, went to the gym and did some personal banking etc. Love every minute of my free day time!

Lastly, we also managed to find time to spend a weekend in Johor Bahru at our favourite hotel, eating our favourite Ramadan buffet for Hari Raya. My husband actually drove in, and the ride back was rather stressful. It has become an annual affair now, and apart from the traffic, it's really relaxing to be back in Malaysia always. 

April 2019

Wow, it has almost been 8 month since I last update. And as 2019 comes to a close, I am now franticly trying to at least post out all my monthly summary of 2019 before the year ends. Good luck to me! As of today, I am lagging behind 2 months, but I am catching up, so bare with me as we do a last daily dash to end 2019. So let's continue from month of April 2019.

My top three moments are listed as above, and for this post only, all three moments will have photos of me in it! As one ages, one is no longer shy to show one's face since everyone dies in the end, so there really isn't much to it (although you still won't find a photo of me on my Facebook profile pic, like EVER!).

I decided to go back to Penang for the weekend to bring my mum to Singapore to have a break after handling all the stuff for my Dad's funeral. I though she needed a change of scenery anyway. While I was back, even though it was a rather short stay where I rush back on Saturday, and come back on Sunday night, I still managed to meet up with my old friend Pei Shi for some cafe hopping. We actually did quite a lot of cafe hopping in 2019 as I was back in Penang more often to accompany my mum to Singapore and back again. Above is us having "lunch" at one of the fusion cafe in Beach Street Georgetown. 

The other big event was the opening of Jewel at Changi. Since it was so near my home, I think we went there on a weekly basis after it opened. But to avoid the crowd, I always go on unearthly hours like morning 7am, or late at night, or during weekdays when I am working at home on Brazilian timezone. Above is me and my husband with the famous man-made waterfall. You can expect more detail post of Jewel in the near future. I always say that, and then find myself posting events from way back when..... it's just that, there's so much to post! 

Lastly, I managed to spend a month with my Mum in Singapore. She didn't like it much, but it was nice having her around. In the middle of her trip, I actually left her alone as I went on a short business trip to India. It's a pity she can't wake up early, and she can't walk much. Singapore is a nice place to visit actually, but you do need to be able to walk a lot. I'm not sure if she can come visit me again. Guess I'll just go back to Penang more often. Yay more cafe hopping for me!

Swiss Role from Malaysia

My husband came back from Johor Bahru recently, and he bought three rolls of swiss cake home. Each roll consist of 5 slices of cake, and we had to finish them in 4 days. I had so much fun taking photos of them whenever I eat them. They are so pleasing to the eyes. We even bough out my husband's Muji-like tray to make the photo more awesome like the arial view one on top. 

The matcha red bean flavour one was the very first that I tried, and sadly I didn't like it. Probably because the matcha tasted artificial, and the cream was filled with sugar and not of the fresh cream type which I like. Still, it make a nice photo!

The second one I tried was the cheese flavoured swiss roll, and this once was much more acceptable than the matcha one. The cake was actually nice and dense. It's just something about the cream that I didn't really like. But after putting it in the fridge, the cream kinda harden and make it easier on the taste. Again, it make a nice photo.

The last flavour I tried was Orea, and this was probably my favourite even though I hate Oreo biscuits. At least this one has chocolate inside I guess. They go very well with tea cause the cake is sweet, and the tea pairs with it nicely. Above photo shows a cold brew black tea accompanying the swiss roll. 

Since there were so many to finish within a limited time, I had them for tea, breakfast, and dinner. Above is a cheese swiss roll as dessert for my full meal of mushroom soup and tuna croissant. I just realise that the tuna croissant I make at home taste so much nicer than the one I had in Delifrance last week! I get my croissant from Giant, and they are currently selling 5 for SGD3.50. Normal price is SGD4.00. 

Last is a bonus photo of the matcha azuki bean pound cake which I got from Muji last time during my AWESOME day walk. It is same flavour as the matcha azuki bean swiss roll, but what a world of different! Guess my tastebud is all spoilt from real stuff now....

Audio Book and eMagazines

Recently with the new job, my commute time is around 1.25 hours each way. That gives me about 2.5hours of reading time. I started of reading physical book, but it was heavy to bring around, hard on the neck always looking down and with the motion train painful to the eyes as well, and people could see what you are reading all the time. So recently I have taken well to audio books.

During the weekend, I would do a search on any interesting book, and download them at home. Some books last only 30mins, some can go up to 12 hours. Usually I just download enough to take a screenshot for record sake, and then those books should be enough to last me for 2 to 3 weeks, which would just nicely reach their expiry date. Unlike physical book, you can't renew your audio book. 

The bad thing about audio book is, you have to really concentrate when listening to it else you'll be lost. And it is easily to get distracted if the subject you are listening to is not of your interest at all. But if it's an interesting topic, 7 to 12 hours of audio is manageable for me so far. It's great to put you to sleep at night too! Usually I leave it on for 15 mins, and I'd usually be asleep by then. If not I just extend it another 15mins! But when listening on a train, I have to turn up the volume whenever the train is in a tunnel as the surrounding gets kinda loud. It doesn't help if your passengers are loud as well. It really does damage your hearing! But it has been great! I actually learn my Portuguese on the plane on my way to Brazil like this!

As you can see, I've downloaded a lot of audio book so far. I've only been in my new job for 5 months. I don't really listen to everything I download. I realise there are many audio books that are Christian related or motivated. If I happen to download one of those, I would immediately return it the moment it's clear to me that everything in it was about God. Ever since my father's death, I  have been rather against religion.

And if you scan my list in this post, you can see that I mainly listen to non-fiction. Even physical library book, which I still borrow, are usually made up of non-fiction. But the thing with audio book is, you can't really download recipe books. So I kept those for physical library instead. I've even ventured out to Chinese recipe book recently as they are of better variety. Too bad I can't really read them or understand properly 

So while I'm wasting so much time commuting, I guess these audio books will continue to accompany on my journey. You can't listen to audio books while working. To be frank, you can't do anything that needs concentrating while listening to audio book, cause you tend to lose track of what you are listening to after a while. So note that if you are thinking of trying these. 

Above is my latest download. I can't wait to start listening to them starting the new week.  I've actually already used one of them to put me to sleep at night cause sometimes the reader's voice is just so calming. 

Apart from audio books, I've also recently discovered newspapers and magazine. I love that I don't have to spend money on magazines any more cause now I can just download them. Not only that, I can also download magazine from other countries! This is a great companion when you are chilling in a cafe by yourself or even with your grumpy husband. I've also used this as inflight entertainment on my 24 hours journey to South America. At least you know what you have is what you are interested in as compared to whatever they offer you on the flight. Love this! I love NLB!

Books and the Thirst of Knowledge

Not only do I like reading book, I like taking photograph of them. Especially with a nice cup of tea, coffee, chocolate, ice cream, cakes, sake etc. It is pleasing to the eye to look back later on. It helps that my house is full of beautiful things that goes well with book photography. I guess the reason I like these is because it looked so relaxing, and it captures the moment of me doing the things I love: drinking stuff, reading stuff, taking photo of stuff. So starting of with the above was taken last year November. Beautiful tea cup from Metrojaya Penang and probably green tea, and some sea salt dark chocolate! Sinful. Sea salt chocolate has a special place in my heart. I don't really eat them that often, but it brings me back to that day when someone share some leftover sea salt chocolate with me. That was just sweet...

The next two books were recent read as I got these only last week. The first one is a comic scribble of feminine sarcasm. It was a lovely funny book, but capture all the trouble with women accurately. While I was reading it, my hubby serve me some chilled sake, and our house was filled with these rose like flower of white and purple, and one full bloom was resting in a chola cup. Everything about the above photo is just beautiful, even the wooden fish shape coaster.

Last is this book I just finished on Sunday. I was sick a few days back, and was having an irritating cough, hence the pot of houjicha tea. The back drop is our wooden freeman-style coffee table. And the book is a philosophical writing on frugality, which I am totally in to. I am not a poor person, but in my new workplace, most people think I am because of the way I behave and my spending habit, the way I dress, the things I eat I guess. But when I do occasionally join them in a restaurant meal, I get irk our by their less than perfect dining etiquette. Guess sometimes I can be a snob. Lol.