September 2020

2020 has been one hell of a year. September ended, and I have officially not left Singapore for the past 8 months! Probably my longest for a very long time. As Malaysia government officially announced that the country is closed till end of 31-Dec, I decided to start utilising my leave since I wasn't going back to Malaysia till next year. In total I cleared 3 days in September, spending it eating, shopping and visiting places I normally don't. 

My monthly schedule book seems to be heavy on the right where all the weekends are. Notably I have started to slowly go back to the gym this month, clocking at least 1 session per week. Hopefully this will increase to 2 next month, and also to increase the intensity as I find that my weight is harder to go down these days. I am not sure if it is due to the increase in process food I have been eating since we stocked up so much of it, or was it just old age. A part of know the answer, but it is just too hard to change habits....

One of the most satisfying accomplishment I achieved in September was finally finishing up my Italian Riviera paint-by-number painting. This painting was started like 7 or 8 years ago! When I try to finish it, most of the paint already dried up. So I used some of my extra water painting just to fill in the colours. This painting was definitely worth it's value as it inspires 2 Italy trips before it got completed, and totally changed my perception of Italy. It is currently sitting on my study room desk. In future I'm gonna bring it back to Penang with me to hang in my retirement home :)

The other first for me was ordering and paying for a 100drip coffee from Japan to be delivered to me as my coffee supply runs low. I was trying to find ways to cut my coffee habit cost, and have grown to like Fujita drip coffee which was like 40cents per pack and I tried it during the start of Circuit Break. But sadly every site I search shows that it was out of stock. However I saw this Doutor coffee which I've tried before and like, selling at Qoo10 for 31SGD for a 100packs. With delivery charges, my coffee now cost 35cents per pack, which is an improvement! The only downside is, the coffee varies in quality. Some packs are fragrant, some are not. 

And in case you are wondering, this is what a 100packs of drip coffee look like. It was delivered to me on a Saturday night and I was so happy to receive it cause it would mean I don't have to worry about sourcing for coffee again until at least next year. Hopefully by then, the borders are open and I can go to Japan and buy $30kg of coffee home using my Krisflyer Gold Class privilege, lol.

September also saw me starting to expend my garden. I got a cute air plant on my 2nd visit to Garden By Bay for $2.70SGD. Original price was $3, but with the appl, you get a 10% discount. And the holder was from Daiso for $2SGD, something I got long before cause I already have a vision of an air plant in my home. I took a picture of it last weekend, and just love this photo of it. I hope it will last and propagate. I also got two small spinach plant from my friend, and bought some pots and soil to start my vegetable garden outside. I have sow the seeds of tomatoes, chillies and also xiao bai cai. Some seedlings are already coming out. I hope they can grow to harvest cause that would be so exciting!

The rest of the pictures are of food adventure I had that are worth mentioning for the month of September. My first leave was on an adhoc basis when my ex-ex-colleague/weird friend ask me to take leave to go out with her. Heck, why not. We went to a French Restaurant at Tras Road for a set lunch. It was rather expensive, costing around SGD$58 per person or something. We also added a cheese platter. She treated me for the meal, so all was good. The name of the restaurant was Fleur De Sel. I don't think I will making a repeat visit there. I much prefer my usual Bistro Du Vin which I will be headed next month for my anniversary. I was last there just before Circuit Breaker started, and the beef there was just lovely!

Speaking of beef, I got to know about this place call Yakiniku Like, and have been in love with it since. I've been there two so far, on continue Friday when I am off. The queue is always long, and they only allow you to dine for 40mins, but I just love this place. Probably because I get to cook my beef on a fire grill to my own liking. The look, the smell, and the taste is just so heavenly. I even tried their wagyu set at almost 30SGD. The juicy meat from grill to mouth is hard to beat! Will definitely go back again. I don't need a chef to cook for me, I can do it on my own!

And on the other extreme, I also found a vegetarian restaurant that I love, somewhere in the very ulu place call Boon Keng? The restaurant is call Boneless Kitchen, and it is a social enterprise, so I am more than happy to continue returning to it. The food was excellent with almost minimum or no mock meat at all. In fact the only mock meat I found was fish cake which they threw into the Soondobou. I don't even feel that it was needed. The tofu was good enough on it's own. This place serve eggs, so it's totally suitable for me! I may love beef, but I am also a natural vegetarian even though most of my friends won't agree. 

That's all for September. I might post more on local context as I have been visiting so many places lately, and all the photos need to end up somewhere! Else what is the point!