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 :)