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.

Free Things in Singapore

Freedom is a wonderful thing in life. No attachment, feeling free without a care in the world. That's how I felt like when I'm on a swing. Not only does it make me feel young, it also make me feel free, cause you have to have a lot of free time before getting a chance to get on a swing. Above photo was taken a few days ago after a rainy evening, where we took a walk to the housing estate in front of our flat and played in the playground after the rain. Ah.... the smell of fresh air after the rain, and the freedom from office work hour.....

This post is about being free, and mainly on the free things that you can get in Singapore if you only look out for it. For instant, in January 2019, while walking home from the carpark, we found two bags of original CDs on the void deck. So obviously we took it home. CD used to be so expensive last time, and now people just leave them out for free! How time has changed. 

I selected about 10 CDs from the bag and my husband helped me converted them to mp3 for me. 10 CDs would have easily cost me more than SGD100 last time! I love free stuff. After we both took what we wanted, the 2 bags were given out again to anyone who wanted them. I love free stuff. Remember those books I got for free in 2017? You can read about them here.

During the last weekend of March, I also signed myself up for a talk and a body combat session at my gym. It was a Menstrual and Aromatherapy talk and participant would get a SGD130 goodie bag for coming. I went mainly for the goodie bag, and an excuse to exercise was always good. During that day, there happened to be a Hawker Culture exhibition there as well, and I took part in some of their promotion and got my self this neat NatGeo cutlery set. 

Apart from the NatGeo box which was already a collector item, look what is inside! A totally full set of cutlery! Folk and spoon for the ang moh kia, chopsticks for us Asians, and even straws and a straw cleaner! To think I spend almost SGD10 for my stainless steal straw last time! And I got all these for free!

And this was the SGD130 goodie bag. I was really stunned that they actually gave full size supplementary bottle of their products. I did a quick search and the total of these product in Qoo10 came up to SGD100. Sadly I don't take supplements. I believe more in natural food as supplement. So I gave it all away to my colleague in the office who was thrilled to get it. 

So who says you can't get free stuff in Singapore? Ha!

Sake Tasting

Yesterday I was bitching about the 2019 Sake Festival in Singapore. I thought I'll write another blog entry on a Sake Tasting session I had last year 2018 October in Takashimaya, you know, so that you know I'm not just bitching about a lousy event without actually knowing what I'm talking about. 

We actually chance upon this event by accident. I forgot whether it was Buddhist Fest that we were in town, but we were walking at Takashimaya, and there was a Japanese festival at the atrium, and one corner of it was a Sake Tasting stall. I was really captivated by the beautiful glasses that they serve th sake on. My husband asked if I wanted to try it, so I said yes. We were told to pick 3 sake we wanted to try, and you pay for it on a per glass basis. 

You then take a seat at the bar, and they serve you the sake with the bottle nicely displayed in front of you. They also ask that you drink in a certain order so that you can best taste each sake properly. After that you were left to enjoy the sake until they need the bottle back for someone else. There were even food stall with normal priced stack you could buy to go with your sake tasting, which we did. 

Not only was the sake delicious, it was served in sufficient quantity to actually enjoyed it, instead of the miserable few drops in the Sake Festival. The glass ware adds to the experience, and even the sake bottle art was lovely and captivating. This is Sake done right, even in a food hall. And the price of 3 sake was roughly same as one ticket to the Sake Festival. 

They even have a 5000SGD sake on displayed there. My husband did purchase a "chinese" tasting sake at the fair, but for me, this was by far the first and best sake tasting experience I had in Singapore. So you see, you can stop ripping off your customer, and learn from this and give them a proper tasting experience instead!

Singapore Sake Festival

I attended a Sake Festival in Singapore one Saturday in March. It was so bad that it didn't even make it to my highlight of the month. I'm just blogging about it to get it out of the way here. My husband actually treated me to this even, which cost around SGD37 per person? It says that you could sample 200+ sake in the event, and it was held at UE Square from 2pm - 8pm on a Saturday. It sounded promising enough. I was excited about it seeing how I enjoyed Beer Fest so much last year. 

When we reach the place, the venue was out door in under a glass protecting us from the hot sun. There were only two island of stall selling sake. Each selling a few of their brand. There were also some food stall with over priced food, and although the organiser did gave us some discount coupon, you can only use it if you spend like SGD100 or something, on overpriced food? No thank you! 

Upon registering, you are given a glass, and with it you can go around sampling the sake. I guess that was the start of the problem cause I though the sun was still acceptable, but a wine glass in a sake festival? Come on!

I tried some matcha sake, and do you see how much I get per try? No, that is not a half drunk glass, that is basically how much you get per sample. And you had to fight through the crowd to get a sample! And some stall attendance would even talk to you for ten minutes before pouring you a few drops of the sample! It was totally not worth it. We stayed till 4pm and left. In total, maybe i drank only 1 full glass of sake? It was a frustrating event. You get dehydrated easily.

My husband couldn't stand it any more at the end and bought a glass of beer to share. Ironically this was the best drink I had in the even, cause it was chilled, and most of all, sufficient for a hot Saturday afternoon! On a scale of 1 to 10 for the event, this event gets a 2 from me. Totally not worth it. 

My hubby treated me to cakes after the event, which was a bonus for me. I pick this seasonal Sakura swiss roll, and it was so delicious! We had it at the cafe at Liang Court. I always forget the name of the shop, but it's the one at the corner after uniqlo.

Hubby bought two bottle of sake at the event, the Yuzu Sake was for me. it was delicious but cost around SGD45. At least I got a nice photo out of the event. Can't believe I still look like a kid at my age.....

March 2019

Although I don't have the time to update this blog on a daily basis, at least my scheduler book reminds me to update it on a monthly basis. Cause every time I come to the end of the month, I have to update my scheduler book and closes all the account in it. That is also the time I do a recap of  the highlight of my month, and that subsequently triggers this urge for me to share it on my blog as a documentation of my little life in the little red dot. 

Coming to the highlight section, for the first time, the highlighted includes a no-big-deal day out with my husband in town one Saturday morning. Nothing was planned, just a scroll through Marina Bay Promenade, and some window shopping and two awesome meals. It deserves a 3rd place on the highlight list cause it was just such a simple and wonderful day that I even blog about it here. This is a reminder to myself that every highlight has to be extraordinary, or cost a bomb, or requires a plane ticket to achieve. Gotta also learn to appreciate the simple things in life. 

With all being said and done, my number one highlight was a Party Jam session with Matthew in Orchard. When he message me one day in office and ask for my number, I thought he wanted to add me to his whatsapp group. But he ask if I could be his backup dancer for this event in Orchard. I said yes mainly cause after what he has done for me, it wasn't right to say no. After only 1 practise session and 2 usual zumba session at the gym, I went with him and the rest of the gang to perform in the road of Orchard on a Chingay event, on stage! I will dedicate one blog on it soon, but it was something I never imagine I would enjoy so much, and with no stage fright what so ever. It was exhilarating! Thanks Matthew!

The number 2 highlight was attending a Drip Coffee and Wagashi workshop at a CC. It was taught by Okada Coffee owner, and it was held just at the CC next to my flat. It cost SGD 45 after I signed up for a 5 year Passion Card membership, and it was so worth it. Mainly because if I had done the same course in Kyoto, it would have cost twice as much just for the wagashi making. Okada-san also taught us a bonus of how to make matcha. I really like making the wagashi by hand, and hope to try it on my own one day. I think it's such a lovely gift to give to people cause it's so beautiful, colourful, delicious etc. Will also write a blog about it soon. 

As for the cost per hour of exercise, March was super efficient with just SGD5.5 per hour exercise. But this was mainly due to rehearsing for Party Jam, Matthew threw in a free 2 hours practising session at Kampung Glam CC. He also provided T-Shirt for us. And at the end of the month, I also attended a body combat session just to get free goodie bag worth SGD130! Will write more about that one day as well.

Looking forward to April as my mum will be visiting Singapore, and I've planned some activities to keep her occupied. Stay tune!