It’s only ..

 100 days to Christmas ! 

Omg! The year is flying by so quickly. 

Probably the year in how many years (?) we are finally in Singapore for Christmas. 

Another day of whisk whisk whisk

We all know that the quality of milk make a difference in taste. So my question is - is there any difference between this よつ葉　

and this milk? 

I thought it doesn’t taste as creamy when I made it with this milk. I bought a small pack to try and also coz I didn’t want to force myself to finish up the carton of 1litre milk, each time each cup I only use 60ml of milk.  

We saw this too in Donki and NTUC. And it’s also よつ葉 but coz it’s difficult to keep it sealed so decided not to buy this to try. Bought back the first よつ葉 milk. 

At che-che’s suggestion, I decided to make a few portions. Made x5 portions which means I had go use 15g of matcha powder. 

Quite a challenge to whisk 5 portions in the chawan 😂, had to split into two portions and whisk. 

Into the fridge

When lil’ one saw that I had prepared matcha latte asked me if I’m going to make one for myself. I offered to make it for her. Only to have requesting “can I have a little bit of sugar?” 

“Who drinks usucha with sugar?”

Made me think how matcha has evolved to keep up with times. People who heard about the benefits of green tea jumped into this matcha bandwagon and make various combinations. Soon you have blueberry matcha latte. Huh? But I cannot blame anyone. Just that why bother to buy expensive good matcha when end of the day you are going to spoil it by adding milk sugar and all? Why bother to drink matcha in all its good benefits when you are adding calories, sugar and fats in your drink? Most matcha latte recipes proportion has more milk than the plain tea itself 😢. 

Matcha in my conservative old fashioned simple mind must be drank on its own. 

🤣🤣 I talk as if I can taste any difference. Haha! 

Honestly I think this is why few generations people die faster or have health problems, cancers etc… In my ah-ma time when food is eaten as it is, no preservatives no enhancers etc..no wonder they tend to live longer than people now. 

Drink more usucha and maybe I can live longer. ✌️

Verlangen nach

Pics from Mr Google

Suddenly craving for currywurst and … 

Yup! I’m still missing Germany. Been 7 years. Missing Christmas Markets where strong glühwein permeate the air. Adults drinking laughing and talking. Oh! How can I forget my gebrannte mandeln ? 

Aw I think I should go down to German Market soon for that short quick immersion even if they only have not that much German and Netherlands products compared to Lidl or Kaufland. I think that will make me happy right? 

Think coz it’s only 15 Mondays nearing Christmas 🎄so I’m starting to get into the Christmassy mood. 

I really need to drop by German Market, I need to get my curry powder. Please take note and I hope I remember to come back and edit my blog to see if I really went to buy just curry powder or I returned back with 10 other rubbish things I don’t need 🤣. 

Coz I needed to find my picture. Found my FB post 11th Feb 2021, it wasn’t the last time I had currywurst prepared at home but certainly I didn’t have this for 2yrs at least. 

Sprinkle with curry powder bought from German Market

CURRY POWDER

Isn’t all curry powder just curry powder and the same? Nope. It’s different. I bought the curry powder from German Market donkey years ago and it tastes different from Indian curry and Japanese curry powder. In terms of ranking the subtle to ‘sweet’ from gentle to extreme I would rank Indian, German followed by Japanese.

This tune

This tune just keeps playing in my head the whole morning, infact it’s just a few notes. All I can remember is che-che singing this song into my phone recording before. Now where is the recording?

The lyrics starts with “first light” but can’t figure what song it was. Thankfully AI is able to capture my humming and turns out it is an NDP 2012 song - Love at first light. Ahh….that makes sense. She was a 10 yr-old 冬菇头 so obliging and self recorded the song herself. 

Suddenly craved

for Moonlight cookies when we were having dinner at Sushiro.

Went upstairs to Donki to grab what I wanted and of course majority of other things (che-che’s snacks) that we weren’t there for 😂. 

Moonlight cookies - used to be available EX-NGO if I remember correctly. We would usually uplift for the return sector crew. 

I saw the grape jelly beans and had to get it. Che-che lamented that they don’t have mango ones - the one that she bought in her recent trip. Suddenly exclaimed “I want to go back Miyazaki again.” I also in my heart wants to go back Japan. But hor….. the world is so big there are many places countries I haven’t been to yet. 

Couldn’t find the milk I wanted. Managed to find it in NTUC, I took the last pack. Then will hv to try to finish it asap once I open it. 

Anyway talking about Japan, while waiting to be seated in Sushiro I made a count on the number of prefectures I’ve been to. 

Not a lot 😢 covered. Need to 頑張って

Matcha II

Took me so long to finish the first post on matcha and now I’m drafting my second post. Will see when I’ll start opening these coz I’m still halfway thru my previous purchase 😂. 

¥20756 price after tax-free. Think the most expensive one is the one and only organic

Oono kakegawa, Shizuoka ¥1620/can with tax

This is a canister of Rikyuen Matcha, a Japanese powdered green tea.

• The text 初昔 (Hatsu-mukashi or Sho-mukashi) likely refers to a specific grade or type of matcha from Rikyuen, a company with a history dating back to 1626.
• Matcha is made from shade-grown green tea leaves, ground into a fine powder, and is known for its vibrant green color and rich umami flavor. *
• Rikyuen matcha can be purchased online through various retailers, including Shopee Singapore. ®
• Different grades of Rikyuen matcha, such as Mukashi-kyo, Mukashi-ima, and Mukashi-rikyu, offer varying flavor profiles, from balanced to rich and umami.

Review from someone 

Based on the photos she sent me, I saw one and requested to get one organic matcha from Kagoshima. But when I checked, it’s from Uji. Maybe she picked up the wrong item? Maybe the signages are misleading? Whatever it is, mai hiam, just drink. Gives me a chance to find excuses to go back Japan. 

Supposedly from Kagoshima ?? But it says here Uji. Oh well! There goes my chance of trying matcha from Kagoshima and even Saga, Yame etc..

Ok, time to post this as I have too many unposted posts in my draft folder. 

Tamagotchi

I really wonder what happened to che-che’s last Tamagotchi, the P’s, where I bought a few pierce attachments. It’s coloured and so pretty pink. She kept saying I threw it away but I’m sure I didn’t. I’m pretty sure I gave that back to her after her PSLE.

I went to find in my FB on my past entries. 

Then, they were only allowed to play with it during school hols which explains the demise of so many pets 😇 when school term commences. 

7th May (Sat). I checked Easter Sunday was 24th Apr (Sun). Easter hunting at home was on 22nd April. Read blog HERE. It was in the fridge for 15 days!  

Bought this in Tokyo. In Harajuku? where there used to be a Tamagotchi shop. 

The Aikatsu アイカツ is so colourful. Then they were into Love & Berry and then アイカツ . They would bring their cards whenever we went to Japan, and start collecting newer cards in Japan. 

You may think that che-che forgot about this. But she was really happy when she saw it in Canal City, she remember their names! 

Saw this when che-che and I did our 2nd mother-daughter trip to our favourite city. 

FAST FORWARD TO 2025

8th Sep (Mon)

I think che-che wants to keep her mom busy, as if I'm not busy enough 😂 . Does this give me the excuse to starve my kids and leave the house in a mess to take care of this?  🤭

I don't think it's that bad right? I don't have to deal with fur flying around the house, no asst books or Shichida to go thru, no PSLE. How hard can it be?

The most die then I re-start lor which most of their Tamagotchi went thru last time 😬

Then …busy and was keeping the luggage in bomb shelter when che-che came to me with a smile on her face "your tamagotchi is making noise." So fast?! I barely left it for 20mins. Wah this one is more 麻烦 than lil' one Aricia Ting.

Named it Aricia the 2nd coz i think this is going to be as noisy and nottie as her.

#childrearing#

Named it Aricia the 2nd coz i think this is going to be as noisy and nottie as her.

#childrearing#

This sleeps early. I noticed it at 9pm. Good! And it woke me up at 9am the next day. Not sure if it woke up earlier than that but coz ah-nia is still Zzzzzz so I don’t care. 

9th Sep (Tue)

Woke me up at 9am. Realised it didn’t poop, is this Tamagotchi constipated? How come no shower buttons? Don’t understand this new one that I had to google search on how to earn “Deeds”. And someone said technically we need to watch it 24/7 every second. As long as you see something appearing, you need to quickly ‘praise’ it. Wah….where got time to keep watching this? I only feed it when I’m happy and free lor. 

 

At 5.53pm, suddenly I heard a funny noise and this transformed into Tako-ken. So ugly 嘴凸凸 like baby Aricia likes to do last time 😆

When I looked at this at 8.09pm, it was already Zzzzz

There are so many kinds of Tamagotchi that one is spoilt for choice in Japan. This Gen 3 I have is really small but it comes in black and white. I wish they have eye appealing coloured ones. 

我要出国！

Sob sobs. I want to go back Japan, I want to go Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, 

Made me long for this more when it’s playing this now. 😭

Dying to travel 🧳 

My Spotify account

My Spotify account follows so many artistes. Can you believe that I follow Hey Say Jump and なにわ男子 as well? Haha! I can’t believe I did that, all thanks to che-che who keeps playing their songs. 

Who am I following in Spotify? Lots! Jazz, classicals, German/swiss folk songs, Italian/french/korean cafe, easy listening, spa relaxation etc.. I prefer to instrumental music instead of vocals. I do follow a few singers too. Lately just followed these ladies Utada Hikaru and Aoi Teshima coz of their sweet soothing voices. 

I only knew Utada Hikaru’s name when che-che had the song First Love in her playlist. Music amplified the house while she was in the living room working and I was cooking in the kitchen. I found the song so familiar and only after some time I recalled hearing this song when I was viewing the Inside Flow videos. I followed her after that. 

I began paying attention to Aoi Teshima coz I found this song 森の小さなレストラン so cute. I got the scores and started playing on the piano and electone. Followed her and now listening to this

This song こころをこめて　is so nice. Let me tell you my Japanese is very very lousy now, che-che’s competency is much better than mine (she reads faster than me, esp kanji). But hor.. I listened to a part of this song

 “ こころをこめて あなたに伝えたい

               "愛しています"届きますか” “

 

I thought must be some love love thing coz こころを　is something like heart. Haha! If I can grasp the whole song just by one liner will be a miracle man! Obviously I’m quite dumb so I still need the translation help. Ok lah! Not bad lah! I only understood 1% of the song. 

** edit **

Omg! I just realised that the electone book I had been KIV-ing : STAGEA エレクトーンで弾く 8～5級 Vol.60　エレクトーンの定番&ザ・ヒット30 Vol.7 ～平成スペシャル～ has the song First Love ❤️ 

Click HERE for the ymm jp link 

Click HERE for the song, First Love, played on stagea 

Actually the reason why I KIV-ed this book was coz I wanted this song Everything by Misia. I watched a drama that played this song. Thank goodness I’m able to search what drama it was, coz I vaguely remember it has something to do with a stewardess finding love. Wow! 2000 drama, Ah-nia that time still flying ✈️. And it’s playing on Netflix now, I found First Love too! Now I have dramas to watch 

Nice sister

Went to pick che-che up at the airport and che-che upon seeing her little sister passed her her Teriyaki burger in the car. Lil’ one was too hungry and wanted to eat it so I can only take this photo of her with her burger, while she ate it otw home. It’s cold but warms our hearts. Took great care of the burger but her own onigiri is all flattened. 

Back at home I can take photo of che-che’s burger 

It’s so nice that che-che thought of her sister who had complained she misses the burger 🍔 . It’s heartening to know of their good relationship. 

I can’t help but think how good elder sister che-che is. I came across a video recently where a young girl was crying for attention when her younger sibling was crying fighting for attention. Che-che, although 3yrs 10mths older didn’t cry or fight for attention. Or maybe I addressed the issue even before she could throw tantrum or throw things around the house to get our attention. Although I must admit there were days when che-che started baby-ing, wanted to sit in the stroller, sleep in the crib 🤣 (So worried the crib cannot take her weight.) I let her be, coz luckily lil’ one likes to be carried/slinged so I do bring a baby carrier along and let che-che sit in the stroller. Only when I needed her to come down coz maybe it’s difficult to manoeuvre then I’ll ask her to come down first, no complaints from her. She comes down and then when it’s safe I let her go back on. Plus at that time we had KZ so it was easy for 1 adult to 1 kid if I’m with KZ. 

Through their growing years, they fight over sweets or snacks. Other than that, now that they’re older they get along well. At least che-che didn’t give her sister a kick down the stairs 🤣.

I pray that they will continue to have a special best of friends relationship forever. Yup! Siblings trip, no matter what will let them go. 

盛り付け Moritsuke

Japanese takes pride in their food presentation and plating. Perhaps that’s why it helps to evoke our appetite, I only wonder why the greens don’t evoke any of my girls’ appetite 😂. 

Anyway in my bor-liao thing I did today has no serving tray (wah….i really want to buy those wooden trays and nice crockeries) but just a small bottle 🤭. 

I like these bottles. Pity I can’t eat anymore after two that night (had to leave next day morning and can’t buy anymore pudding the next day). I kept the bottles for home. Keke! I collect rubbish. 

So inspired by my host who prepared a nice home cooked breakfast and on the tray was this yoghurt

Wanted to eat my yoghurt and did the most bor liao thing. 

Digging out the things and …wah my ingredients are ..😂

Although I like strawberries, I don’t know why I always prefer to eat my yoghurt with blueberries. Maybe I startee to like this when I was on keto - Greek yoghurt and I’d throw blueberries. 

I always eat the yoghurt just from the plastic container itself but don’t you agree with me that by a simple change of presentation, it levels up the food? 

Can’t really see the ブルーベリージャム coz the bottle opening is small. 

Bon appetit 

Ok, after doing this bor-liao thing I have to wash 2 spoons and the bottle. 🤣

Finally!

After a year plus later, I managed to get this display box from Daiso. Been oos for the longest time 

The two figures are from two different blind boxes. Ducky ducky is from Spirited Away