Best Coffees in Singapore

Within a short time of meeting me you will discover that I like coffee a lot. Becoming lactose intolerant has proved a bit of a stumbling block for my flat white loving self but I am learning to embrace soy and the occasional espresso if there is no lactose free alternative on offer.

Recently a local website (City Nomads) came up with their definitive list of the Ten Best Places For Coffee in Singapore. I was very excited to see that the vast majority of those cafes are very close to my house - at least 4 within walking distance. So, I am prepared to take one for the team and try to visit each of the top ten spots over the next few months and see if they measure up.

I mentioned my plan on Facebook and a few friends have expressed an interest in trying out the ten contenders. My former workmates Adeline and Monica met me for lunch and coffee at the sole CBD based cafe, Sarnies. It would be quite easy to miss the cafe( located at 136 Telok Ayer Street) with its very understated signage  on one window but it was already very busy at noon on a Friday.

The cafe operates well into the evening and has three distinct menus for breakfast lunch and dinner. As the name suggests sandwiches are the main attraction along with some lovely salads and the great coffees.

Adeline decided to try the Smoked Kurabuta Ham and Chedder Cheese sandwich and as you can see they are very generous portions. It looked delicious and Adeline managed to polish the entire thing off which was a spectacular effort. 

Monica tried the smoked salmon sandwich. She said it was delicious and kept half to have later in the day as it was such a large portion. Both sandwiches were served on soft sour dough bread although there is a rye option for a small additional cost.

One of the joys of lactose intolerance is bread is a really risky food. I was thrilled to find a dairy free salad on the menu. The Paleo Salad was mainly really beautifully cooked steak on a bed of lettuce, cucumber and tomato. The portion of meat was really generous and the dairy free guacamole on the side was worth the price all on its own. 

Adeline and I both had a flat white - hers a standard one and mine a large (and in a takeaway cup) soy variety. The coffee was excellent. The staff knew their stuff and picked me as lactose intolerant after I asked a couple of questions about the menu. Service was quick and friendly which was appreciated as they were very busy in the middle of the Friday lunch rush.

Sarnies have a good simple website which has all their menus and prices listed. I would like to return with the family one weekend morning and try their breakfast options. I will definitely be back as their coffee really is excellent.

If you have any favourite local Singapore coffee spots that did not make the list please let me know as I am always keen to try good coffee. I have already visited another couple of entries on the list so will have some more reviews to share soon.

Project Life Weeks 32 and 33

Some weeks there is just not much going on or the phone stays in your bag or illness strikes. Whatever the reason, you just end up with very few photos. These two weeks are great examples of that happening at our house.

 

Week 32 was a combination of all three. I was sick for much of the week and didn't take any photos of me lying in bed. Hubby took Miss Three on a couple of fun outings over the weekend and by Sunday I managed to get out and about for a short while.

MT and Hubby went for a big walk around the Singapore River and took in the preparations for the National Day Parade. Scarlett was super excited to see that one of the tanks was being "driven by a girl!" and even more thrilled when the soldiers waved to her and talked to her. The NDP is a major event here and we watch the air force rehearsing over our house in the months leading up to the parade. There are some perks to living in the city!

 

My favourite story of the week is the photo of Miss Three in the guard house with our night guard, Mr Aziz. He is so kind to our daughter and encourages her to sit in the guard's seat and surprise the people coming in and out of our building. He doesn't speak much English but the two of them get on like a house on fire. He is definitely part of our family!

Week 33 really gives you some indication that we are living in the right country. The two national pass times in Singapore are eating and shopping and this week's small spread is devoted to the former.

I love the top photo taken by my husband as I took the shot below with MT and her gingerbread man. Both members of my family are very patient and remind me to take pictures of our food adventures if I forget to have my phone out!. I love these smaller style Becky Higgins sleeves. I have the multi pack with all the smaller sizes and it is perfect for both weeks with an abundance of photos and those weeks where not much happened.

How is Project Life going for you? Are you planning to do it again in 2014? I am, but I may move to a monthly format if I start working as I just cannot see me taking as many photos or having as much time as I do now.

Happy Hump Day!

Project Life Catch Up Week 31

I have a few light weeks coming up in my Project Life. Sometimes there are just not enough photos and stories to justify a double page spread. Week 31 was one of these weeks.

There were a few exciting things that happened but some we were not permitted to take any photographs which was a bit frustrating.

The Hi 5 bubble mix photo may appear a bit random but this was part of a goody bag that Miss Three received for working on the show. A few girls from her ballet class were selected to film some of the filler spots on the show. She and her friends, danced and jumped and shouted Hi 5 repeatedly over a 90 minute session. The new series of the show is due to be aired here shortly so we will be keeping our eyes peeled for her.

The crowd shot was a snapshot I took of the grocery line at the supermarket that week. They only had two counters open and it took over thirty minutes to pay for my groceries. If I hadn't had a full trolley I would have left the store! I emailed a complaint to the company while standing in line and attached the photo! Gotta love technology!

The final photo (see what I mean about it being a light week) was of Miss Three eating chicken rice at one of our local restaurants. We have been eating there since we first moved to Singapore and all the staff there spoil her rotten and tell her about when she was a baby whenever we visit. The food is delicious and cheap. Who knew steamed chicken and rice cooked in chicken stock could be so delicious?

Regular readers will be pleased to know I have two sketches that I really want to have a go at on screen so I may interrupt the deluge of PL with some normal scrapbooking.

Happy Tuesday.

Project Life Week 30

Welcome back to Project Life catch up. If you are still hanging in here I really appreciate it!

Week Thirty really was a return to reality. We were back in Singapore and back to the daily grind.

 

It really was a back to reality week as Tet headed away to Thailand for work for three days. Miss Three was very happy to be back at school and ballet. The top ballet shot shows her enjoying playing with the Swiss balls before class starts. I am so glad we caught this image as we cannot take photos of classes and now she has moved up to the next class she goes in straight after the toddler class and doesn't get a chance to play with the Swiss balls anymore.

The journalling really focused on our flight home. No pictures but we really loved flying out via Auckland and leaving near midnight. Even with the hassle of changing planes and going between the domestic and international terminals it was so much better flying back at night. Miss Three slept from before we got on the plane and for seven hours on the plane. We also got to see Neil Finn in the Koru Lounge so that was a nice surprise.

 

We also made an effort to keep up with spending time outdoors upon our return with a trip to West Coast Park. One of my favourite things that I saw on that trip was the Bose speakers outside at the McDonalds there. I imagine they would last less than 24 hours in New Zealand before someone would pinch them. I love living in a low crime nation!

Miss Three has completely mastered using chopsticks for eating over the last few weeks. She can eat noodles, rice and pretty much anything with them. It isn't a perfect technique and can be messy but it makes her so happy to be eating like the adults.

We had a pretty quiet week. We were a little jetlagged and Miss Three had a few naps which is not the usual run of things. Poppy also received a new house/scratching post after the demolition of her old ones by a certain small girl. We thought Poppy might be too big for the house portion of the post but she proved us wrong!

I am glad the weekend is nearly upon us. We do not have anything exciting planned but I am just looking forward to our regular library visit, ballet and football sessions. I hope you have a relaxing weekend and that the arrival of the silly season is not too stressful.

A Combined Project Life

This week's spread is a little different. The week I am sharing is Week 24. It was a funny week -  a combination of family time together and a very difficult trip to Japan for my husband to farewell his terminally ill Godfather. I decided a double spread of our week in Singapore and an insert for hubby to complete would be the best way to share the week.

 

Hubby is away overseas with work again this week so I have left some blank spaces for him to journal about his whistle stop trip to Kobe. His Godfather was not expected to survive the weekend but with his typical tenacity lived another ten days before finally being overcome by his cancer. Hubby and his brother came to spend some precious time together with Bo-chan and his wife and to give her some much needed support.

 

Much of the weekend was spent in the hospital but they did get out to eat and spend a bit of time together. 

Most of the cards have been made using papers from Crate Paper's The Pier collection. The 3 x 4 cards are from a variety of sources including Citrus Twist and Studio Calico PL kits and a MAMBI collection too.

The week in Singapore was a little brighter. Scarlett attended a wee friend's birthday party and I finally recorded a typical Sunday ritual. I am so glad I did as the food court we always had our post ballet fruit snack at has disappeared while we were overseas. It was such a big part of our Sunday that we all feel a bit lost after ballet now.

 

I love the bright coloured chevron paper from the Pier in this pocket.

 

I like to keep my pockets flat but I had fun creating this collection of stickers to illustrate our Sunday ritual. I love grey and blue together.

There is one unlabelled pocket here too, as there is a story I want hubby to share about Miss Three eating in the adjacent picture. He will be busy when he gets back. Again the small pockets are from a variety of sources. The plain coloured card was part of a Citrus Twist PL kit. I wasn't sure about those at first but I have found them to be a simple way to mount photos in the larger pockets. I love that pop of yellow behind hubby's picture.

How do you record the less fun aspects of life? Are you including these events in your PL or keeping it more upbeat? I think the insert will work well for a story that needs telling. Miss Three has had a hard time dealing with the death of her Great Grandad and then Bo-chan who she considered her other Grandad. We have not had a good run this year.

Hope you are having a happy week. We are finally over the colds that plagued us for the last few weeks and I am even starting to think about getting back into some regular exercise. My green smoothie breakfast has become a good habit for me and is certainly boosting my fruit and vegetable consumption. 

Wordless Wednesday: Adventures with Daddy

We have all been sick for the past week or so. Miss Three was the first to recover so Daddy took her on an adventure by the Singapore River to get her some fresh air and me some much needed sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project Life Week Fifteen

Good morning. This week's spread was a quick and easy effort. We have a busy week planned and I knew I wanted to get it done rather than have perfection. Fortunately I am still pretty happy with the result.

I was a little worried that I would not have enough portrait oriented pictures to use on the back side of this sleeve but it turned out I had plenty. The papers are the reverse of the Amy Tangerine paper from two collections ago that I used last week. All the labels are Twine and Ink labels from my SC Project Life kit. I want to say the Dim Sum letters are Basic Grey but I cannot find any brand mark on them to be sure.

There were quite a lot of food photos taken this week. We went out for a family breakfast at Jone The Grocer. Tet and I had eggs and so forth whereas Miss Three settled for a macaron and a cupcake! The other larger picture was of ballet lesson coffees with our friend and her baby while our daughters attended ballet class. We ate some delicious dimsum at MAD but were not prepared to queue like the hundreds of Singaporeans to try the new Tim Ho Wan outlet. Tim Ho Wan has a Michelin star for his dumplings in Hong Kong and his first Singapore branch has been outrageously popular.  The other three photos are more random. A toy pram for sale with a hefty $1100 price tag. Outside the same mall we enjoyed the free beauty of the rainbow reflections from the Gucci store frontage. Hubby provided the last image as he attended a work bowling match during the week. He was pleasantly surprised by how he went but was not among the top performers.

The visible cards this week are all from SC Project Life kits. I have put them all together so I am not sure which kit they are actually from now. The label on the photo of MT and her Daddy is a cut down journalling card as well. The labels are a mixture of Jenni Bowlin and Twine and Ink.

This page is lots of little snippets of life. A funny sign in a store that threatens to sell unaccompanied children to the circus tickled my fancy. Miss Three has taken to stripping down to practically nothing and demanding to sit on my knee to watch TV. As you can see there is not much watching for me! Tet and MT have been playing mermaids a lot lately, using MT's old sleeping bags for tails. I guess it is a good way to reuse them. Finally our teeny tiny street is the proud owner of a pair of street lights while construction goes on. While it is barely wide enough for two cars to pass comfortably in places, it is extremely busy with some pretty large developments going on. We have a lot of large trucks and so on up and down while the new buildings are being completed. I thought the sequins were a fun echo of the lights.

How is you PL going? Are you still keeping up or, like me, a little behind but fighting the good fight?

I am off to edit some more photos. I really want to be more caught up! We have a public holiday here tomorrow so I am hoping to get some PL time in then.

Playtime Fun

Day one of the four day weekend has begun and I am exhausted at lunch time! I have always had respect for pre school teachers but the more time I spend with my three year old the more amazed I am that they are not dropping with exhaustion!

I have been trying to finish off my older kits before starting new ones but the urge to play with some of the papers in Neverland overcame me. I had just broken up my January kit remains when I worked on this layout so I can almost justify my choice.

Life Paper Scrapbook has regular colour and sketch challenges. I liked the look of the current sketch so decided to have a go.

Here is the sketch: 

And here is my take on it.

I initially attempted to add some ink and try some  masking but it was not very successful. I covered it with my papers and was quite surprised to see how much the paper had warped a couple of days later when I decided to photograph the layout. The papers are all from the Neverland kit. I am in love with the KesiArt paper with the tear drop A side and the hot pink B side. I definitely would love more of that particular paper.

I included a couple of repeating embellishment clusters.

and 

I am not entirely sure where the washi is from but the little puffy stickers are a special Amy Tangerine SC collaboration  along with a couple of Basic Grey enamel dots.

These photos are about nine months old and are from an outing to the Botanic Gardens for a picnic. We had intended watching a band perform but it was so crowded in that part of the garden that we settled down in a quiet spot and Miss Three and her  Daddy played some soccer. It wasn't long before MT had a new friend joining in.

I hope you are having a great week.

Project Life 2013 Week 10

This is a much more low key week than last week's birthday extravaganza. I have found I am taking fewer photos this month and have put that down to not taking part in Fat Mum Slim's Photo a Day. That encourages me to have my camera out every day and without following those prompts I have found that my camera and phone are sitting unused in my bag. I am looking forward to getting back with the program in April.

I went with the KISS philosophy this week and just used the back sides of last week's cards. I used some kraft Studio Calico letters for the title (sorry about the glare - this is the best of a very bad bunch) and hand wrote all my journalling. I added a few Crate Paper numbered tabs from their birthday party line and some random stickers from my stash.

I have included a photo from Indonesia where hubby spent part of his week, a piece of art on the wall of a local Starbucks, a selfie and a selection of Scarlett shots. My favourite would have to be the picture of her playing with Oscar and Brandy. Every school morning we have to rush down early so she gets in a few minutes of doggy time before she gets on the bus. On a really good day, Summer (a Siberian husky) joins in too. Scarlett adores dogs and we are fortunate that we have neighbours who have friendly dogs who love her too. We get all the fun stuff without any of the responsibility.

I took the opportunity to use up a brighter sheet of chevron and polka dot paper from one of my kits that I did not see me using on a layout. I liked the contrast of the blue against the pink from the previous page. 

A few Scarlett shots in the larger pockets on this side, just for a change. She has taken to really posing for the camera and the top left shot is a typical one. I have no idea where she got this pose from but it is quite amusing. She is turning into a real little fashionista and insists on trying things on in every shop we go into. She really liked these adult sunnies.

I added some odds and ends to finish the week. I liked an instagram shot of all my sequins neatly stored in their container. So much sparkly goodness in one space. I also included some of the art going up in a new farmers market opening soon here. I loved the neon sign and the other shot is of part of a wall covered in vintage style food advertisements.

I am still playing catch up but as long as I am within a couple of weeks of where I should be I am okay with that.

ETA I am linking up with the Mom Creative weekly Project Life link up. 

Project Life: The Birthday Week

You would be forgiven for thinking that Scarlett's birthday lasted a week rather than a day looking at the spread for this week. In truth it was a bit of a drawn out process. Her actual birthday was on Monday. We had her in school Montessori celebration on Friday and her party was on Sunday. Kudos to the small girl who made her third birthday last an entire seven days.

 

I was inspired by Danielle Higginbottom-Brown's use of some old MME papers on her Project Life. I decided to take a similar tack and pulled a bunch of old Crate Paper pieces from my stash along with one Little Yellow Bicycle butterfly print and I got started. This page is all Crate Paper with the exception of some cut outs from a sheet of Dear Lizzy paper from her previous collection and a Studio Calico month tag. The whole week has a lot of pieces from a cut apart sheet from the Crate Paper Party Day collection. It made the spread come together really well.

This page is all pictures from Miss Three's actual birthday. She and I were both under the weather so we had a very quiet day. She opened her presents, played with her new toys including some new Little People Disney Princesses and a carriage to get them to the ball on time and two baby dolls. She ended the day with her requested dinner of a home made hot dog and chips with lots of sauce.

There are two inserts this week to cover Miss Three's birthday party at Build A Bear. This page is more Crate Paper with some Hampton Arts paper (perfectly sized for the square pockets) and some more Dear Lizzy images. Oh and a little October Afternoon washi for some number interest.

The photos pretty much speak for themselves with the inserts. We had a great party with six of Scarlett's little friends and their parents. I can totally recommend a Build A Bear party as the women working there were really great with the children and they were all very engaged with the process of making their own toy. Best of all no goody bags to worry about as they take the bear home with them!

More of the same Crate Paper and Hampton Arts papers here with the addition of a Creative Bubble printable along side the picture of Miss Three and her new Rainbow Bear.

The inserts cover all the phases of the party right through to cake eating at the end. There were a couple of images I wanted in a larger size so I included those in our second standard page.

I loved the group shot (minus one camera shy guest) and the very serious looking Scarlett with her two best buds before she blew out her candles. Birthdays are quite serious when you are three.

 The first three smaller photos on this page are from her school celebration. It was such a moving way of celebrating the way Scarlett has grown and changed in the last three years. I was very touched by it and the lovely way her classmates took part. It was totally worth putting together the 23 goody bags the night before!

I have included a couple of other photos to show that we did do a little bit of non birthday related stuff. One of the local malls celebrated the Japanese holiday Girls' Day and we went to see the celebrations and S and T had their photos taken. We also had a trip out to West Coast Park where S showed off her climbing skills on a lovely sunny day.

These pages were all backed on Little Yellow Bicycle butterflies or Crate Paper polka dots with very minimal embellishment. I was a little bit worn out by the end of this week!

I still love Project Life and am all ready to share the next week's pages too. It is such a fun way to record the details that might otherwise be forgotten.

Listmania 9: The Things That Make Me Happy At Home

I had mixed feelings about this list. I love our little house back in New Zealand. It was decorated to our taste with furniture we had chosen ourselves. Some lucky family is enjoying our wee house currently.

We have lived for the past 33 months in a furnished apartment. The location is fantastic. It is a good size by Singapore standards and it is a perfectly fine place to live. It just isn't us. The furniture is not what we would choose. We haven't really put much up on the walls as we don't know how long we are going to be here. While it feels like home because the people and animals I love are here, it will always feel temporary. The expat life is a transient one and it is tricky to put down too many roots, knowing how hard it will be when the inevitable move comes.

It was a great exercise though, in looking at the things I do like about my home. Funnily enough almost all of those things were outside our actual apartment and more to do with the views and neighbourhood. It has certainly made me think.

 Without question, the thing I love most about my house are the night views. Singapore is a beautiful city during the day but it is just stunning at night. There are so many amazing vistas and we are fortunate enough to look out towards Orchard Road (the main shopping area) from our apartment.

The views looking into the neighbouring buildings aren't too shabby either.

The large tree to the left of this photo is a protected banyan tree and people in the neighbourhood regularly leave offerings for the spirits who live in it.

We do not live in a super flash condo but we do have a nice pool that hardly any of the residents use. I took these photos yesterday afternoon on a warm slightly overcast Sunday afternoon. We had the pool to ourselves for over an hour.

Miss Three loves the pool and is becoming quite a good wee swimmer. It is so nice to just pull on our togs, hop in the lift and be at the pool.

One of the things we love is the falling down old 30's mansion over the fence from us. It is on a hugely valuable piece of land and could have a couple of blocks of apartments on it easily. Given that apartments in this area sell for amazing sums of money it never ceases to amaze me that it remains a jungly plot.

You can see how much greenery we have kept with the dilapidated old house in front of us. We will be very sad when it is eventually bulldozed and replaced with something new.

 

This is the view of our building from down below at the pool. We live half way up it on the ninth floor. We get great views but I imagine those on the top floors are even better. 

 

It is a bit tricky to get a photo in my room without disclosing the usual state of chaos. I do love my bed if not the bed itself. It really is not our style but it is comfortable and very occasionally I get a good night's sleep in there.

Part of the reason it is hard to take a photo is the new addition of Miss Three's Big Girl Bed to our bedroom. We have had ongoing sagas with her sleep which has meant that no one is sleeping very well. We are going to try her in her bed in our room this week. Hubby is away for work until next Wednesday so it seems a good time to try something different. I will love this part of the house if it means better sleep for us all!

 I always love the place where my current crafting project is located. With Project Life it would be fair to say it is often the lounge floor as I seem to need to spread out.

My Ikea cart is another fave. It has all my Project Life supplies as well as odds and sods from various knitting and scrapbooking projects too. It is not very well organised but one day it will be!

My coffee machine must get a mention again. I love it so! It does keep our lives running more smoothly. I had kicked my coffee addiction and was no longer suffering from headaches if I went without a coffee but unfortunately they are back so a daily espresso based drink is a must.

This is a representative photo of the more wide ranging clutter that goes with Miss Three. She does have a big box in which to store her shoes but she loves to tip them all out and arrange them. These are just her school options that she sorted out the other day. She really does like her shoes.

I am not entirely sure that I have a list that is quite what was intended but it is a list of what I like at home right now. It has made me think a bit more about making this place our own but as we might only be here for a couple more months it is hard to get too comfortable!

I would love to see your happy places.

Please link up here at Home Life Simplified and let me know in the comments if you take part. I love to see the spaces that make people happy. Deb has a cracker list prompt up for next week too.