Music + Jap gf + headset

A chapalan blog post today. 

The music I played today while working around the house. I didn’t know what to play and was scrolling thru the lists of albums in my Spotify when AKB48 songs blasted out from Che-che’s phone. 好吧 I shall listen to my Japanese songs then. Moving to the music just makes housework less mundane. 

Have I mentioned about Hikaru Utada before? Her song, First Love, was a tune I loved. When I was watching those Inside Flow yoga moves (I really want to go for the class) and they kept playing this song. I didn’t know the title until one day che-che played it on her phone. I was doing something in the house and shouted excitedly to ask her for the music title. Only then did I know it’s from a movie. I watched it, I cried and wonder why no happy ending for the two people. Sigh…

Anyway, I only listen to the songs and not that crazy over the artistes. 

Changed to this album. 

Aoi Teshima has some really nice songs. This is one of my fav

When I’m working, the phone is away from me so I don’t check what song is being played. The album plays the music randomly and somehow I must have been paying attention to the words when this song came along. 

Ok, some words like maybe only 5% I catch some words I understand. I don’t know why but I suddenly thought of my Japanese girlfriend. It’s like this song suddenly is reaching out to me and giving me a message. I went back to the phone and screenshot the singer and song title

Since I have my phone I sent her a message just like that, out of the blue. I dunno why prompted me to do so but … I think the words hit me or maybe not 🤣 since I only picked out 5% or maybe 1% of the words 

So out of curiosity after I had finished my work, I had to find the lyrics of the song. AI summary was given as : 

"Himawari no Yakusoku" (Promise of Sunflower) by Motohiro Hata is a poignant ballad that focuses on finding joy, warmth, and hope through deep, unwavering, and sometimes bittersweet, human connection

. Released in 2014 as the theme for Stand by Me Doraemon, the song uses the imagery of a sunflower—representing loyalty, longevity, and honest warmth—to illustrate the comfort of having someone special by your side. 

Key themes regarding joy and warmth in the song include:

• Warmth in Everyday Moments: The lyrics emphasize that seemingly ordinary or "useless" days become treasures when shared with someone special.
• Warmth as Comfort: The song likens the love and kindness of a partner to the "upright gentleness" and "warmth" of a sunflower.
• Finding Joy After Sadness: It explores the transition from loneliness to finding true happiness, with the singer expressing a desire to return the warmth and support they received.
• Hopeful Future: Despite themes of potential separation and, the song promises that even if paths diverge, the memories and connection will remain, providing comfort and a "bright future".

The song's gentle, nostalgic melody, often featuring acoustic guitar, is specifically designed to evoke feelings of comfort and emotional depth, similar to a "warm hug". 

So did I get the correct interpretation of the song to suddenly send her a message? Did I understand 5% or 1% or none at all?

I miss Mio, I haven’t seen her since July 2024. Che-Che and lil’ one met up with her last year during their siblings trip. I should make my pilgrimage this year. A friendship which I truly cherish even though we’re miles apart.

Unknowingly almost 3hrs with the headset on and off my ears, ears still feel hot. Needed to clean my headphone. and feeling 

So in love with my new headset. Need a break coz putting pressure on my not so big solitaire.

Nintendo switch game

I haven’t played Nintendo switch with Che-che for more than half a year. 

The girls started playing Overcooked first. 

I see Che-che keep running around. And lil’ one keeps running in circles. 

Athena to Aricia:

"The kitchen is on fire 🔥”

"Ay! I gotta pick up the extinguisher."

"You must cook the tomato you know?!"

"We only served one dish!"

"Ay! U only have one job to do. I'm doing all the other jobs."

"Ay! Can you go and wash the plates?"

Aricia to me : "mummy do you want to play?"

Me : "no i dowan to get scolding from che-che." 🤣

#bossysister#

The 3 of us started playing Mario game. Wanted to ask hubby to play but he was 😴 . We were so noisy. 

We're not supposed to say inauspicious words during

CNY but we were playing the wrong game. We said

"Aiyah! I die/lose already" so many times 🤣🤣. Che-che won the game. 

I had a good laugh when they commented that I "perplexed your opponent". How can I confuse them when I was completed baffled myself? I didn’t understand what I was doing. In one game when I was  one against the other three. I had no idea what the ON/OFF button was for so I anyhow jumped to hit the button to ON/OFF and then can kill my opponents. Let’s just say in my blur-ness, I really killed them so fast!! “Ay! You all died already?” “Ah then?”, Che-che answered.   I won that my position jumped two steps overtook Che-che to be in the first position. Eventually I was the last coz che-che can steal something from someone so she chose to steal from me 🤭 and next Luigi also switched my coins and stars with him. 

In one game we had to capture lil’ one, Che-che and I worked hand in hand to win that game. We had such good fun playing together. 

CNY 2026

I’m getting more and more lazy each passing year. I think come 2027 I will only have one Happy New Year deco and order Grab food delivery or maybe should just fly out for a short vacation. 

Decorations

I didn’t want to stick anything on the wall incase I peel off the wall paint. This year's deco is minimal. The glass sticker set I bought for my balcony is too small.😂

Used to put table runner on the coffee table, now don’t coz hubby always flips the thing aside when he sits there for his meals.

Flowers

Last time I used to make an effort to buy ang ang flowers to put in balcony. This year I couldn’t be bothered. My plants always end up dying on me. However for the sake of having something auspicious, I bought the lucky bamboo at last minute. 

NY snacks

越买越少。本来都不要买 but since I was at Kim Choo once I just picked three items. Bought my every year must buy Julie’s love letters. That’s it! 4 snacks only. 

Mandarin oranges

We haven’t been buying the huge box of mandarin oranges for many years. Always a lot of wastage. So just these few we have at home, anyway after we exchange we get back our oranges🍊🍊 

In my mind from last year or was it previous previous year I’ve been telling myself to make carrot yam cake for CNY, to make agar agar using the fish mold, to make orh nee (I love orh nee!) maybe I should cook dish for reunion dinner or first day lunch. But as usual, I always like to daydream only 🤣

As for baking - I did want to bake peanut cookies, coffee cookies BUT ….. I always like to daydream only. 

Too much of daydreaming, too much of thinking that my brain makes me tired lazy tired 

Reunion dinner 

Didn't join bro and family for reunion dinner, hubby wants to have it by ourselves. We barely bought any ingredients. Just cabbage, mushrooms, crabsticks and fishballs. We have pork and chicken at home, scallops too. Another day hubby went to Sheng Siong and bought 7 prawns. Haha! We had to clear our fridge. 

Went to SH house to play cards the day before CNY eve so this year he didn’t return home late, or rather early at 4am

My own ‘decorations’

I’ve never had the practice of going to the hair salon for haircut and colour, nail salon for manicure pedicure. Cheapskate me will always do it on my own at home. But this year I didn’t even bother. I’m lucky at this time my white hair didn’t show much 

 Never colour hair, never paint nails, never buy any new clothes or red underwear (no wonder I’m so poor)

First day (17th)

I woke up late and prepared simple CNY stuffs for the family. 

 

Girls bai nian with us. 

Wanted to start cooking the peach gum dessert to bring over to bro's place. To my horror I realised that I mistook my hawthorn for red dates. Turns out I didn’t have anymore red dates at home. Hubby went out to help me buy, at the same time he said the snacks are quite filling so wasn’t hungry we swooped the idea of cooking simple lunch to just getting snacks. 

Cooked, cooled and then packed 

Went to bro’s place late, just nice for dinner, coz hubby needs to Zzzzz first. As usual, tossing yusheng. I wonder how many times we will toss yusheng this CNY. Once? Twice? Surely not as many times as most people but no love lost as we don't really fancy all these sweet things.    

Catered dinner

Then it's the end of Day 01 🐎

Second day (18th)

Over the years many eateries open on the second day with the changing dynamics of these youngsters and people my age range. We don't cook as much as our parents generations do. 

We headed out for lunch at Sushiro in Jewel. So many parking spaces.  

Che-che wanted to play Switch so we played with her. We were so noisy.

Dinner is us trying to finish that little ingredients we have left. Kept the dual steamboat pot in the bomb shelter and took out the single pot for this. Lots of commotion during this meal "open the door, we need to air the house." "cooked already?" "wait lah". It doesn't matter even if we're eating expensive food, cheap food can bond the family together. 

Sukiyaki 

 

That sums up our boring two days of CNY. Then it's work day the next day. 

Doing Takaoka iMovie

Doing Takaoka’s iMovie as needed to clear the phone. These are screenshots taken from my phone 

I playbacked the picture of the information board. Yup’ they indicated as Platform 1 so why did I go to 4?? Silly mistake 

Matcha III

On a Monday just doing the most borliao and time-consuming thing 😂. Filming editing and all I can say is “thank goodness I wasn’t interested to be an influenza 😉/ content creator coz my editing/content is lousy/boring.”

Took me an hour from taking videos all the way to the final video product. It was a good break from the break I was taking. Actually it was a good mental break for me coz I’m feeling shitty.

The behind the 🎬 scene :

1) messy kitchen so trying to move things away out of camera view

2) I just push the matcha powder out from the bag to the bowl after that few spoonfuls as seen in video (so leychey to scoop bit by bit with the wooden scoop). And I forgot to sift the powder 🤦🏻‍♀️

3) suck in tummy & make sure only hand in view

4) aiyoh! I’m left-handed 🤦🏻‍♀️, blocked the camera. Shadow on kitchen top.

4) “ay! How come the colour looks dull? 😳”*panicked and checked the can 

5) after pouring. Oops! Only half the glass 🤣. Made another portion 

6) where’s the glass straw? Wanted to put a straw in after pouring matcha to complete the presentation. Oh well! 

Such a simple video but took me one hour, can you imagine how long it takes for those who make a living out of all these social media postings? I wasn’t making a living out of these so yah I won’t waste so much time 😉. 

My microfoam looks a little better than usual. Still need to learn to do it properly, think next trip to Japan I should go for classes.  

Ok…so I panicked why the colour looked dull after I had poured in water. Maybe it was the angle I was looking at it in the kitchen? Initially I thought it had something to do with organic (?) or expired. Anyway this isn’t organic, I got it all mixed up with another can of organic matcha. I took the Naoki matcha that W gifted me on my last birthday to see if there’s any comparison

When JL was in our house, she only opened this pack of matcha although I brought down the various cans and told her she can open them to try. Maybe she’s paiseh.

Naoki’s looks a little brighter in colour

Whatever powder that was on the plate and stuck on the spoon went into this unwhisked but stirred cup of plain super thin usucha. Don’t care lah! Not that I’m serving this to a guest, 自己喝的可以乱乱来。

Che-che bought this matcha in her Sep 25 trip.

I do have some at home but that didn’t stop me from asking to buy more in Jan this year when she went to Uji. At least she’s in a proper matcha shop. I was happy that she went to Masuda coz I really liked the 泉 something tea. Apparently that’s what they use in their shop.

I didn’t know the tea I liked cost so much ¥4400. I wanted to try a better one so asked her to get a can that is 2 steps superior quality - 至宝の昔　¥6300. In the photo that she sent me, I saw the superior 出品抹茶 selling for ¥12500. Gasp! I will lick up the bag if I ever kee siao buy that one day. I’m not that crazy. 

She continued and messaged me the other matchas she saw earlier. Didn’t ask her to buy coz we still have at home, need to finish what we have at home first. Firstly we don’t have much storage space designated for the various types of teas left in the kitchen. Secondly I’m not sure if it’ll be good to keep matcha powder that long coz I don’t drink it everyday. 

The next day, 30th, she messaged me again. 

Sigh…. they don’t even remember. And most frustrating thing is that they expect me to be preparing the drinks for them everytime. I don’t make, they wouldn’t drink. 

When she returned from her Jan trip

¥15100 for my matcha. And this girl went to buy hojicha. My message to her was probably late. 

Check back my last blog entry on matcha on 昔. 

Headphone

Was looking for headphones to use when I’m doing housework, ideally is to use the speaker at home to amplify but it isn’t possible most times now. I’m still happy with my AirPods Pro but recently my ears starts to itch when I use them. Has nothing to do with dirty earpiece coz I do clean them regularly. Anyway, also feel a headphone will suit me coz so many times while prepping ingredients, handwashing floor mats or cleaning I’m so worried if my earpiece will drop into the water 🤣. 

Then I began my search for suitable good quality headphone. I’m no audiophile, just needed one that can do its job BUT with noise cancelling coz I want to be fully immersed in my world. I could have settled for a cheap $50 or $100 headphone It was a comparison between Apple, Bose and Sony. I settled for Sony’s XM6 coz it’s the lightest amongst all and can play longer than Apple. Apple is the heaviest headphone and surely I do not want a heavyweight on my head when I’m working around the house.

Price comparison

Need to compare around since I’m not earning $$. I could have just settled for budget headphone however it will be a long term investment for me for the next 3 years or more so might as well get one that I put my heart into research. (Disclaimer : I may not be a good researcher) 

Compared prices in Best Denki/Challenger : KrisShop : online. I want to find a place where I can either use my mall vouchers for discount or earn miles (it’s 3 Krispay miles for every $2 spent in KrisShop). When I had a eureka moment - ask che-che to check in Bic Camera or Yodabashi since she’s currently in Japan. SONY = JAPAN so price should be cheaper + tax-free means more discount. 

(1) Best Denki / Challenger states original price $649 (true or not?) but selling at $519. I have $15 Lendlease voucher. Final sum $504

(2) KrisShop states original price at $595.41 but selling at $476.15. I will get 714 Krispay miles which basically means I can offset $7.14 from any merchants that accepts Kris+ or 714 goes into my Krisflyer miles. Not that it will increase my chances to get back into Elite Silver or jump to Gold so the little miles I’ll keep in Kris+ to offset $$.

(3) It’s ¥59400 in EdiOn. Without tax is ¥54000 according to her, strange that it’s less than 10% (or did my daughter try to earn extra ¥ from me? 🤭). That sum equates to S$438.59. Transferred her $440. Saved $36.15 for the same product why not? 

As she went to work the same day she returned, she only unpacked her luggage the next day. And … I opened up my new headphone the next day 🤣. Tested it. I LOVE IT! I tried the Cinema listening mode and what better music to test other than the orchestral piece Merry Go Round of Life. 

🇯🇵 treats

Che-Che came back from her trip with treats for the family. I’m always so excited to see what she brings home.

This burger is to bribe her irritating sister who simply loves Japanese teriyaki burger.

I’m trying this for the first time. Indeed the waffles are wafflicious 

Getting a withdrawal symptoms after the girls’ last trip to FUK in July, she had to find this in Osaka after the supply went to zero at home. Wondering why she didn’t go and look for this last Sep (she went Osaka and met up with her US friend). Anyway…. 反正我的的吃、不要讲这么多话。

Aww…I’m missing Japan so much ! 

Food I missed

You can take a Singaporean out of Singapore but you can’t remove that Singaporean in you. I MISSED HOME FOOD!!! 

Only 3rd day into the trip and I was craving for laksa, mee siam and chwee kueh. Lil’ one craved for Uncle’s wanton on the 6th day 😂. Another thing I wanted was tong shui 糖水, I wanted cheng tng. 

On 27th we had our lunch in the food centre. I wanted to eat everything! Bak chor mee, wanton mee, chicken shredded noodles, lor mee, mee rebus, mee Soto, mee siam. Jialat! How to choose? I don’t know why I had kueh chap instead when it was not what I wanted, maybe coz there’s no queue at all? It’s the chilli that I miss. 

Hubby also must have craved for 糖水. Asked if I wanted, I showed him the widest smile. Of course I wanted my cheng tng 

Packed 20 sticks of otah from Lee Wee Bros for snacks. And packed my economical fried bee hoon for dinner. 

Few days later, I kindda still desired for longan based dessert again. So today (1st) got my action going and ….. 

Making Peach gum dessert. Yummy!