#1 - Remember Impermanence

Impermanence doesn't just refer to the end of things. You should also remember it as change - how nothing remains the same. Change is the only constant in this world. So when things seem rough, remember that they will not remain forever. And of course the same goes when things are bright. 

As I always believe, Impermanence Keeps Me Going.

Lets Give It Another Try

Right so today is the last day of June and... I have something in mind. Actually this have been on my plan this year and I suppose it's a great time to implement it in my blog. 

Well so to welcome me turning *cough cough* thirty I mean eighteen plus twelve hahaha. I've actually been thinking about 30 things I learned in 30 years of my life. I've been writing this on my journal since... Around April or May. I'm thinking of just writing it in my journal but this idea came into my mind during the Lebaran holiday! And also to save this blog for dying, I have decided to celebrate my birthday month by writing these 30 lessons for the month of July! 

I'll probably end up writing like 5 posts in a day but that's okay. My aim is to have 31 posts in July hah.

So 30 days for 30 lessons and one day for my usual birthday reflection. Okay I have been writing these lessons on my journal and I'm actually not done with everything yet. Basically back in April/May I just brain dump everything on my journal. Some lessons share the same theme so I will strike them off. I may edit some of them, add some, minus some and so on. 

Also apologies if there's some recurring/repeating theme!

Alright wish me luck and enjoy these lessons!

Pandemic Travel

No talking

Just two years ago, the world went to a halt with the COVID-19 Pandemic. Travel came to a stop. Airports were empty and the idea of traveling again seems like a distant dream. Personally I don't know when I get to travel again. And to be honest, 2.5 years was way out of my planned timing haha. I mean I thought we all get to travel again in like end 2020 or at least mid 2021. But life has other plans I guess.

Nevertheless I'm very happy that I finally get to fly on a plane and travel again. Although like mentioned before, I don't really consider going back to Singapore as "traveling". More like "going back home and reuniting with my friends haha. But well I have to say traveling feels very different now. I guess we're still in a pandemic so... It does feel different from normal. Here are some of my thoughts!

The most obvious one is masks. It's just kinda weird to see everyone wearing masks in airports and on the plane. But of course I'm happy that everyone in the plane is following the rules and are donning their masks. And you know what, I think I'm going to continue wearing masks on the plane when traveling even though the pandemic is over. If you think about it don't you think it's rather eww that 200+ people are inside a metal tube flying in the air, and everyone is free to cough and sneeze out haha.

When I was in Singapore most people are also wearing masks, except when outside. Since Singapore allows not wearing one when outdoor. But most people are still donning their masks outside too. And it's quite weird to see signs on the bus and trains about not talking or speaking loudly haha. Also yes seeing everyone wearing masks on the train/bus is something I've never experienced before!

On my way to Singapore I didn't order any food on the plane. To be honest I was just quite scared of taking of my mask when eating. But I did eat on my way back home (I flew with Garuda home). See that's the thing about pandemic travel; I feel like I'm just constantly living in fear hahaha. Although I tell myself I'm boosted, and even got COVID twice. I still have that fear in me hah.

Also the night before my trip I was just feeling super anxious. With the extra steps and documents that I have to prepare before the trip, I was just feeling very restless before the trip. Like what if something went wrong, what if there's something wrong with my document, or even what if I got deported from Singapore (omg my imagination last warning hahaha). Traveling is just so different now.

Well but all in all I'm very happy that I have a smooth trip back to Singapore. I think traveling is bouncing back again and I'm happy to see that. I hope that this is a start to me traveling days again mwahaha. But not sure if I can do this since I'm just so damn mad busy now. Alright that's all for now. Here's to more travel in the future! Whoop whoop.

SG Vegan Food!

Right as mentioned in my previous post, I think I need to dedicate a post specially for the wonderful vegan food that I ate when I was in Singapore! I'm very very happy to be eating so many great vegan food again haha, after 2.5 years of not trying many new vegan finds here heh. So I went all out back in SG! Also thank you to my friends who kindly agreed to eat vegan with me mwahaha. 

For Friday dinner I went to Gokul! Which is a great Indian vegetarian restaurant recommended by Vithya a few years back. We decided to come back here. We all bought a few dishes and share them. I specially ordered a Briyani cause I was just hungry and craving for one hahaha. We also ordered Hokkian mee and carrot cake oh my goodness I miss everything! So good to be eating them again.

For Saturday brunch with Vjie and Candy, we went to Green Common which is a vegan restaurant in Vivo City! I think it's owned by the Greenmonday group. I've been wanting to try eating here so I'm delighted to be here whoop! There's so many food I don't know which to choose, and everything looks really good. But I decided to go with the nofish and chips! Which is a product by Omnimeat. And wow it really tastes like fish. The tartart sauce was great too! Vjie had the kimchi fried rice while Candy had the fishless taco. We also shared a crabcake which tastes quite good too!

Nofish and chips, crabcakes

One of the highlights of this meal is actually this vegan caesar salad! Okay I'm excited for this because I'm finally trying Heura chickn! Heura is a Spanish food brand that makes meat alternatives (they call it meat successor, I like!) product and they're famous for their chickn. It actually tastes really like chicken! The texture that is. I hope I can try more of their chickn in other dishes.

Then I met Brenda at Hvala (thanks for the recommendation!), which is a cafe that specialises in matcha! I love how you can choose the "strength" of the matcha (they use 1, 2, 3). I ordered their matcha-hojicha latte with oatmilk and it tastes really good. Not too sweet but not too bitter either, I choose 2 by the way. We also ordered the warabi mochi with vegan matcha ice cream!

Next I met Ade and Jes for dinner at Violet Oon. I've been wanting to eat here as everytime I googled "Vegan Singapore", this restaurant always pops up. We had the mushroom pong tay, Mullagatawny Soup  (sorry I forgot the spelling), Tahu Goreng and Popiah cups. They're all really tasty, albeit a bit not salty to my liking haha. I especially love the moshroom pong tay as it is very herby. The soup was also good, it tastes like curry but with a refreshing twist!

We had Kind Kones for dessert. I think I'm going to make going to Kind Kones a ritual of my SG trip!

Another dish I've been wanting to try (and no idea why I didn't try this way earlier when I was still in SG) is Thunder Tea Rice! Had this for brunch with Saeyeoh. We wanted to go to the original stall at Chinatown but it is closed on Sundays. So we went to the one in Vivo City. And wow I love it! It's so healthy, refreshing and satisfying. I'm sad to know that apparently they're all closing down for good in June and July respectively. Well I guess I'll have to find another TTR stall in SG

Last but not least for my last meal in SG we went to Elemens with Sharon, Jolene, Tacy and Sem! I wanted to try their noodles soup dish but it's not available so I went for their quinoa hot stone rice. It's very delightful too1 Taste tangy and zesty. I hope to try their other vegan dishes when I'm back. They have a lot of vegetarian options tho so do head down if you want to try!

Right that's all for my vegan food hunt in Singapore. There's a couple of food that I wanted to try but didn't have the chance to. One of them is the famous vegetarian chicken rice in Ang Mo Kio! I hope to try them when I'm back in SG soon. Also I'm very happy to see there's so many plant based milk options in cafes. Oatmilk is ready everywhere. And oh yes I forgot to give Gongcha oatmilk brown sugar a try too haha. Happy to see the plant-based movement is gaining momentum there.

Alright here's to more vegan food finds in SG and everywhere else! :D

SG Trip May 2022

After 2.5 years

Right finally I have something worthy to blog about! Haha. Oh man if this means I will only blog when I have some major events going on, then my blog is probably going to be very very inactive hah. But anyway yes lets talk about my long awaited return trip to Singapore! Gosh it's been 2.5 years.

So I went to Singapore on the 27th of May till the 29th. Yes it's a terribly short trip but it's the only time I have as end of the month is a pretty busy time for me. Actually one of the main reasons for me returning is because Vithya is in town too! It's a great chance for me to meet her and the others too. And she was leaving a week later so I suppose it's really a great timing for all of us.

I left for Singapore on 27th Morning, taking a Scoot flight. Reached Singapore at about 1 PM I think. I feel a bit sad cause I got myself a SIM card but somehow it wasn't working. It's annoying cause I actually paid for it already! $38 eeep. But oh well, the staff at the counter asked me to go to a Singtel shop to ask but I ended up not doing it. I used a roaming package from Telkomsel instead. 

I reached the hotel at about 2:30 PM and took a short nap as I hadn't slept the night before. I woke up at about 4:30 PM and left for Plaza Sing to finally meet Vithya! Man it's so good to see her again after so long. Anyway there's a series of unfortunate events happening. I think I'll save it for another post. Anyway thanks Vithya for accompanying me to shop for some stuff! Then we headed to Little India.

And we met Kai there! My goodness it's almost 3 years since I last saw her so it's great to see her again too! We had dinner at Gokul restaurant which is an awesome Indian vegetarian restaurant. Anyway will post about food on a separate post! After dinner we headed to our usual hangout place - Holland V. It has changed so much since I last went there. The three of us had drinks at Harry's. 

That was all for day one. It's so good to see Vithya and Kai again. I'm just really reminded how much we have grown up. But in my heart... I feel like we're still those poly kids from 2010s hah.

Day two began with brunch with Candy and Vivian! It's so great to see them both again too after 2.5 and.... 5 years? It was a lovely brunch at Green Commons at Vivo. We had a great conversation but man, signs we're adults: We talk about healthcare, housing and so on over brunch! Hahaha. Man it's so surreal that we're legit adults now I guess :P But it's a lovely Saturday brunch with the two of them! Hopefully we can meet with the rest of the GTs in the future.

After that I headed over to City Hall to meet Brenda at Chjimes. It's a lovely matcha cafe called Hvala which is recommended by Brenda. I'm so happy to finally meet her again after almost 3 years too! The last time we met was Jes' Wedding I think. As usual we discuss a lot about music and travel. Hope we can go for a gig together again soon :D After that I went to Raffles City to meet Syazwani and Yinzhi. We were rather full as we all had meals before this so we decided to go to Muji Cafe.

It's a great catch up with the two of them. Talking a lot about our Poly days and also about the future haha. I'm glad everyone is doing great and we are still catching up after all these years. Also thanks Syaz and Brenda for the snacks you bought me! <3

I went back to my hotel first before heading out again to meet Adeline and Jeslyn for dinner as I forgot to bring something. Okay I didn't expect to have a jam on my way from Dhoby Ghaut to Taka. Such a short distance but wow it almost took me like 30 minutes hah. I ended up dropping at Taka to walk to ION where we're meeting. Sorry and thank you for waiting for me ladies!

We last met in January 2020 before the pandemic and it feels so good to finally reunite again! Crazy how we've been meeting since 2006 haha, 16 years gosh. Anyway we had dinner at Violet Oon, thank you for sharing a vegan dinner with me! It's also a restaurant I've been wanting to try. Next we head over to Forum for Kind Kones. Had a lovely chat with the two of them over dinner and Ice Cream. You have no idea how happy I am to see you both again! :')

After Ice cream we all make our way home. Jeslyn accompanied me to Donki as I was looking for some stuff to bring home. Thanks for pei-ing me! And yup that's all for day 2.

My last day was quite a short day but once again, I have forgotten how crowded Singapore can be in the weekend. I went to Vivo again to meet Saeyeoh for brunch. I wanted to try Thunder Tree Rice (Lei Cha Fan)! We wanted to go to the branch in Chinatown but it was closed on Sunday. So we went to the one in Vivo. It's a lovely vegan brunch with Saeyeoh again! Gosh yeah I think we haven't met in almost 3 years again too. Have a lovely conversation about veganism and yoga <3

Right after Vivo I'm supposed to meet Jolene, Sharon, Tacy and Sem at Millenia walk. This is when chaos happened haha. Firstly I was taking a cab and there was no cab at all at Vivo Taxi stand for like 20 minutes. I ended up being late eeep. Sorry guys! But yeah I made it in the end. We have a lovely meal at Elemens in Millenia Walk. Thanks for the recommendation Sharon! It was a lovely meal and a lovely chat reminiscing our good times in Tanglin. And once again, I'm reminded by how much we've grown up now eeep. Most of my friends are married now! Haha. It feels like yesterday when we're still wearing our grey pants and checkered skirts. 

After that we parted ways and I went back to my hotel to do some last minute packing before heading over to Changi. My goodness it's too short of a trip, I know. But to everyone whom I've met over this weekend - thank you for making my heart full after these 2.5 years! :')

The drive to Changi. I'll always feel sad passing the ECP highway. Back in those days I'd feel happy because it means I'm going back home/going somewhere else. But now it feels different heh.

Hi

I know you're gonna be bored reading how I begin my blogpost, again.

But hello!! Look who's back after 4 months HAHAHA. Gosh has it really been 4 months? What have I been doing that I didn't manage to blog a single post? Like wow are you that busy Adhi? Hahaha. Well yes I've been busy, I have also been doing lots of work, and as usual I have a new sleeping habit/pattern now that it's kinda impossible for me to blog. Man, this is why you shouldn't skip blogging for too long haha. You ended up needing to update every single bit up. What.

Life's been pretty okay thus far. Busy as usual. And yeah now I don't even know how to update you with my life haha. Life's... Just like that I guess. I don't know how to explain it much!

I had a great holiday back in May during the Lebaran holiday. Pretty great 10 days spending at home, resting, doing nothing, and also playing with the nephews cause they stayed overnight at my house. And we got back to work on the 11th of May, and yeah that's pretty much it.

And and and.... I also traveled to Singapore! Back last week. Man it was such a great trip. And this is the reason why I decided to blog again haha. Just to blog about my trip! That's for another post.

But man I hope I haven't reached that state where I'm now just going to blog when something exciting is happening or something haha. Well this is after all the first time in 2.5 years that I traveled again. Although I never really consider going back to Singapore as "traveling". So yes definitely a blog post worthy trip! Anyhoo, I have so many things to talk about. Traveling, Singapore and so on.

Alright this is just a really short update from me. I will see you with photos and posts about my trip to SG. Such a great trip. Also yeah it feels rather weird blogging again after such a long time. 

See you soon!

Hello Again

Alright look who decided to come back! Hello hello hello. So much for planning to write every month huh! Okay once again as usual I have my reasons. January was a busy month. There was CNY coming, I had to prepare for many stuff and so on. It was pretty hectic to be honest. But here I am!

Well yeah I was actually planning to write at least once a week but that didn't happen. I have no idea how am I going to sustain this and keep this blog going ahaha. But well I'll try my best. Once again I'm not targeting myself to write n-amount of posts this month but my aim is to write at least 50 posts as usual. I don't know, any lesser than that feels so pathetic heh. Perhaps I should start the prompts.

I guess I'll start with some updates. 

So yes January was a rather busy month. So many things happened, like so many. I lost track of time last month, it was almost as if like boom, suddenly I'm in the last week of January. We had the usual CNY prayers in the CNY eve. Thankfully we're able to gather this year (unlike last year). 

We've entered the new Omicron wave here in Indonesia. Cases are shooting up again. Even though there's less mortality but it's still quite worrying. But looking at the high transmissibility of this variant I won't be surprised if everyone is going to get infected in one way or another - or if actually the infection has started a long time ago. It's just undetected; just like during the Delta wave. Nevertheless I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. We just have to go through this wave once again.

I think we all share the same sentiment but boy is it tiring to live in a pandemic for 2 years now. I feel like the past two years felt like a limbo/illusion. But definitely a two-year that many people can't forget. I just truly wish for the world to heal soon. I don't think we'll ever get back to normal. This pandemic has changed this world and life as we know it. I hope we change for the better.

Alright I guess that's all from me now. Not gonna make promises but I'll try to update more often. In one way or another, I'll make things work heh. See you again soon! Take care.