JONES THE GROCER.

I was home the past few days cos I felt really tired out from guard duty. My head and back ached and I just needed rest especially after the surgery I had earlier this year. Since my Mum finally arrived back from her business trip to Monte Carlo and London, we thought we'd go for some brunch at Jones the Grocer.

I love the ambience the place has, although it's definitely not as cosy or quaint as the newer little cafes that have been opening up all over the island. It isn't just the food, which is pretty so so, but the fact that they have everything from a whole cheese room to chocolate, sweets and even fancy sauces and ingredients that are really not easy to find elsewhere. My Mum struggled to walk out after our meal without picking up a couple of yummy products (which we usually end up leaving in our pantry to spoil).

They had a pretty impressive spread of desserts and pastries as well, more than I remember seeing the last time I was there. Though they weren't that much to look at and we didn't try them, I've heard they're quite alright.

The cheese room, which stinks like hell:

I had a big breakfast and a mocha while my Mum had some bacon and eggs and 2 cappuccinos. You see where I get my love for coffee from.

The cafe at Dempsey Hill's definitely one of our favourites, having been there umpteen times already for reliable service, big spaces and good coffee. I'll probably be heading back soon!

CALM EVENINGS.

I've been pretty busy this week with NS. I did my first guard duty stint yesterday, and let's just say the experience was less than satisfactory. In fact, it was probably one of the worst "NS-things" (for a lack of a better word) I've ever done. I was ravenous, bored, lonely and really, really tired. I don't know why but I just could not fall asleep.

It's nice to be able to look forward to calm evenings at home with my music and my thoughts after shitty days like that. And rather than complaining all the time I thought I'd take a moment to appreciate this. 

Took a few shots of the estate cos it looks beautiful today in the evening light. It's really hard to get good shots nowadays though - theres construction going on ALL AROUND the neighbourhood. *Inserts Miranda Sing's voice and accent* I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING.

While I'm at it, I thought I'd share some pics I took when I went for a walk around the hood the other day. Enjoy!

I never really noticed before, but the estate looks absolutely stunning at night too. Pity construction's still going on and you can see equipment and materials lying around everywhere.

Looking forward to smooth re-surfaced roads and clean pathways as the upgrading finishes!

LAMBORGHINIS.

Made the last-minute decision to head down to Wisma Atria with Emil today to check out the Lamborghini showcase, and I was glad I did cos the cars were just...beautiful.

 We first got to look at the limited edition Lamborghini Sesto Elemento. (There are only 20 of these that exist in the entire world!) I was so excited, and was in awe when I first saw it. The texture looked perfect, along with it's grey colour with touches of red. It looked like the perfect car. You can only imagine how much it would cost tho. There wasn't any info on the price there, but I assume it costs a bomb. It's ok - I'm gonna be rich one day. I moved on to take a look at the back, and wow was it bad ass. Amazing.

Would you look at that. The only complaint I had was that for some weird reason, the organisers chose not to have glass panels in the front and at the back, and no one was allowed into the exhibit itself, which meant that I couldn't get a clear view or take any shots of the fronts or the backs of the cars. :( That would have made the experience a hell of a lot better.

We moved on to see the flashy red Huracan LP 610-4. It was pretty awesome too but was definitely the least impressive ride at the exhibit, especially if you compare it to the Sesto Elemento. I'm sure you'd think so too.

 Next up was the Aventador - probably the more commonly seen one amongst the cars on display, but still freakin' breathtaking, though the colour wasn't my favourite. I would have preferred seeing a grey or matt black one. 

And of course, we stopped for coffee after that. Heh. I'm kinda over Starbucks though. Having had a lot of proper coffee recently, I'd forgotten the sweetness that Starbucks drinks had. Despite there being coffee in the drink I could taste no coffee whatsoever. It was just sugar, really. Plus I've realised that I tend to get stomach aches and diarrhoea after drinking Starbucks drinks. I dunnow, I should probably avoid that for a bit. And yay for an excuse to have better and more expensive coffee.

 All in all a really good day and a nice catch-up session. All I could think about was how desperately I wanted to own one of the cars. One day, I will. You just wait and see.

LANTERN FESTIVAL.

So every year, the estate council organises a few events like Kampong night, Durian night and the Lantern Festival celebration to bring the residents together for a fun time. My Dad recently joined the residents association so it was pretty much a must for me to turn up. Although I was significantly late and everything had more or less finished, it really brought back many memories of when I was a child celebrating the festival.

I was in a Chinese primary school, which means that only the Chinese language was taught there and not the other Singapore languages like my native language, Tamil. Being in that school I attended the annual lantern festivals which were really pretty fun. I remember getting so frustrated one year when I thought I couldn't go - I misplaced my ticket. But it all turned out fine. I also remember walking around the neighbourhood with the other kids (as part of the estate's events) carrying our colourful lanterns, and following the leader, who would be holding up something like this:

Trying to keep the candle alight and jalan-jalan-ing around the hood was so exciting. I looked forward to it every year. It was also a tradition of ours to have a sort of bonfire after the walk, in the neighbourhood playground, with old paper and dried leaves. Pretty sure it wasn't the best idea to be burning all that stuff, but we were kids so it was alright. Caught a couple of kids in the act when I was there yesterday.

One thing I was never a fan of was mooncakes, although everyone else seems to love them. The only ones I actually liked were the Champagne ones from Raffles Hotel that my colleague bought for us. Very fancy, I know. Just never got the appeal. But here are some from last night.

Since I was late I didn't manage to snap any pictures of the lanterns, but I'll make sure I get to that next year!

NUTELLA FRAP.

Hey there whoever reads this blog!

Felt a little bored at home today after a nice long nap, so I decided that I'd whip something up for myself to drink. I remembered that the awesome peeps at the Conservatorium Espresso Bar in Sydney gave us 2 kilograms of coffee beans, and I thought I'd put them to good use. Here's what I did:

I made myself a double shot of espresso using my coffee machine. That was the most tedious part. After that, all I did was blend the following ingredients up in a blender.

The double shot of espresso

3 pumps of caramel syrup

1 tablespoon of Nutella

12 ice cubes

And some milk (sorry didn't measure this heh.)

The results were pretty fantastic even if I do say so myself, except for the fact that I would have maybe added a little more nutella, and less milk. I didn't have enough Nutella at home, and I also had too much milk. If you like, add a swirl of whip cream on top!

Anyway, the drink's really easy to make. Try it out!