Sarah learns how to snowboard in Singapore

Hey guys, I saw an ad on instagram and it was saying “From Noob to Not so Noob” and I thought that was the most accurate ad ever because you can’t promise that you’ll be an expert after a class. So I was intrigued on what it was, and it was…

Trifecta’s pretty obvious when you arrive at Somerset MRT too.

Trifecta at 10A Exeter Road. Where is Exeter Road? I googled it and was like “Oh”, it’s that spot next to Somerset MRT and across Orchard Gateway. If you’ve been in the area, it’s now directly in front of the old skateboard area.

Continue reading Sarah learns how to snowboard in Singapore

Hololive Events in Singapore 2022/2023

Hololive Meet & Watame Night Fever 2022

It’s fortunate that we had some official Hololive events in Singapore and I managed to attend them!

Anime Festival Asia 2022 in Singapore had a hololive meet and the event was from 25-27 November 2022. There was a special holomeet postcard for Singapore but of course it’s super limited and all the fans got it so I didn’t get one.

I did get to stand next to the standees and take a picture with them!

That and I was there for AFA Night Live! With the hololive Meet concert. Buying a VIP ticket for that was so worth it.

No photos or videos of the actual concert but you can have a picture of Ash the translator/emcee of the evening.

We played games with the HoloID girls like Moona and Anya. It’s really nice to know hololive friends from all around the world especially South East Asia came to Singapore to attend this convention. Everyone was trying to help each other because we wanted to listen to Moona being a tsundere during the batsu.

Then after, Calli and Gura sang some songs. Look, I know this was mostly a Hololive MEET and a Watame Live concert but I didn’t expect they’d go all the way for us. They sang songs in turn. As usual the HoloEN curse happened because of the audio though it’s expected especially if you’re a Deadbeat (like me) and know it is a thing.

With that they also talked with Watame too. We did have a little talk with Watame but basically with Moona, Anya, Calli and Gura they entertained us all in between while Watame was getting ready with the concert (Watame Night Fever).

This is her first live concert out of Japan and wow.

And yes, Watame was there in real life in Singapore. We know from her actual pictures on twitter. But wow, if the technology was like this to bring Watame to a concert in Singapore and that’s impressive, imagine how it would be in Japan when you have an actual set up stage with everything in it.

I will never forget how she sang Blue Clapper and everyone in the audience knew what to do. It was one of the most tiring concerts I’ve ever went to since we all did the light stick movements for so many songs.

BUT IF IT WAS TIRING FOR US, imagine how it was for Watame because she was singing it all by herself non-stop!! We needed to cheer for her and to support her with our energy too.

If there’s another Hololive Meet/ concert in Singapore, just spring for the VIP tickets really. It’s so good that you get to sit in front and all. Plus we got an autographed poster too.

Hololive x Aniplus Cafe 2023

Next up was the Hololive x Aniplus cafe that I went on 25 Feb 2023.

We had booked our timeslot over their website. When the announcement was out about this collaboration, within a few minutes it was in the hundred plus range of people in the ‘waiting’ room of the booking system.

Anyway this was the menu list which we could order while waiting outside before the previous slot people would leave.

Just slide to the next picture to see the official menu items there. It is what it is.

These were the free items we could get at random when you bought food and drinks from the menu too.

Unfortunately we got some duplicates so we didn’t have the “full set” though we got both placemats!

I had Risu’s Nutty Milk Tea and my friends had Kronii’s Blue Lagoon Ade and Baelz’s Cream Cherry Ade.

My friend had the IRyS potatoes & meatballs. So it was a BaeryS pairing. We got the table with a little maid Hakotaro standee too!

I had Fauna’s pesto pasta. It was a lot… (It could do with a little more salt but I know the standards of Aniplus’ food anyway.)

For dessert, I had Mumei’s Salted Caramel Cake. This was pretty nice.

Basically, if you ever went to an Aniplus collab with anything, just don’t expect super wow food. Their drinks and desserts are good but their mains have always been average. It’s not the most spectacular of mains but it’s not bad either.

Besides food, you could get the collab goods. I just got a keychain and file for myself. With that, I got a free sticker. Those who spent above a certain number got some other special free ticket thing but I don’t know what it looks like since I didn’t buy that much.

Isn’t Kronii just perfect?

And there were standees you could take pictures with at the front of the cafe.

Playing at Sandbox Training Ground

I was invited by a friend to go to one of the trial classes and that the theme currently they were teaching was “Gladiator”.

Which totally fits me because I’m still into Kassandra of Assassin’s Creed.

Anywho, Sandbox Training Ground does fight choreography, wireworks and much more. You want a dramatic fight scene? You can learn from there.

At the time of this post, they’re at 10 Raeburn Park which is nearish Outram. It’s a clean and quiet place. I like the spring floor of Sandbox’s it’s very springy (duh) but if you know how to do acrobatics and stuff like that, it’s a fun floor to bounce off.

With my background of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) and pro-wrestling, fighting for film is totally different!

I had to reverse my usually steps which made me confused until I got it somewhat. Usually I really WOULD hit a person with my sword and the twirl while it looks dramatic in film and is so cool, it’s totally something I would not do in tournaments because it’s the best way to get stabbed quickly.

And fight choreography is safe, but you have to “sell” it which means you have to do the acting too. Which seemed odd the first time for me because in fight choreo, it looks great in FILM but it’s all “air”. It is so, soooo different from when I get smacked or something.

Did I enjoy the session? Yeah. The community there seems pretty neat and the instructor does have safety as an important thing.

Check them out if you ever want to learn how to do stunts or fight choreography, more info on their website because they’ll have the ‘fight’ of the season of teaching and you’ll be able to see what it is since they’re constantly trying to improve their syllabus.

Also, their instagram, @sandboxtrainingground is very updated so you can have a looksee too.

App fatigue

Do you guys get app fatigue?

Recently Kopitiam is stopping their Kopitiam cards and are switching to an app based one. I do go there once in a while but let’s just say I’m not the target audience because I didn’t use their Kopitiam cards to have significant ‘discounts’. But their announcement to switching to an app based one while would be ‘easier’ to download it feels meh to me because that’s just another new app to register to.

Before this, the Passion card’s services for some places like Giant and Guardian changed to Yuu. I don’t know what’s worse. Hearing the song “Nobody like you” by Phua Chu Kang (the character, not even Gurmit himself) on loop as you go to these places to purchase your things or that now you have to install another app (Yuu) for rewards.

I liked the tap tapping for Passion card because it was there, it’s linked to the debit card for mine and I didn’t have to install anything if I wanted to use the points.

Then there’s the SimplyGo Ezlink app that Ezlink is promoting so people can use their wallets more too for more rewards and topping up stuff.

No, I’m tired even if you get a $2 cashback for converting your regular Ezlink card to a SimplyGo one. I’ll top up my ezlink card manually at the train or bus station with the machines there.

But Sarah, it’s just installing an app, easy one!

NO!

Bit by bit, installing more apps, you might think it’s free but at this rate. Guys. At this rate. How much space are these apps going to take? You might think ohh it’s just so small but no, at this rate, how much space is it really going to take up on your phone?

It might be even worse if you keep installing all of these apps and then you realize you run out of space for more apps that you need a smart phone with a bigger space or something.

I’m tired of apps. Can we just get multi usage apps in a digital environment instead of ‘solo’ apps just because management of whatever company says ‘We should have an app’ to track customer spending and rewards etc?

Surely ‘creating an app’ is not one solution to things.

Are you guys tired of this or do you like all these apps nowadays?

It’s raining today and probably tomorrow

It has been such a wet season. It’s raining almost daily ever since my post about going to the Istana during the holidays. It’ll only be sunny for a just a few hours and then back to rainy skies once more.

Having a dryer at home is really useful during this season. In the news it had said we were supposed to have sunny skies by this time in February but I guess, global warming’s affecting it.

Continue reading It’s raining today and probably tomorrow

Sustainable Exercise

It was a cool night

Firstly, this isn’t an advertorial post because I gotta pay for it but if you wanna try Gympod like I did. Might as well get 10% OFF your first paid booking.

Download The Gym Pod App and use my code SARAHGYM when signing up OR just download via my link: https://app.thegympod.com/refer/SARAHGYM

Ok, that’s done with. It’s that little button under ‘profile’ that you too can refer a friend for it.

This is a review of it. I had been looking pretty much at many gyms but I wanted something ‘private’ or something worth it, you know?

I went with gympod cause apparently if you book the session, the whole pod is yours! It’s true. Except for the bigger ones like “The Dungeon” which is made for sharing with others.

Continue reading Sustainable Exercise

The Istana

It’s open house time!

It’s been around 13 years since I went to the Istana. I remember posting about it on national day in 2010.

And this year, 2023, I went to the Istana once more during their open house!

For those who don’t know, it’s free for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents.

For tourists and others, it’s $2. Unlike 13 years ago, everything has to be paid via qrcode so you should have paylah/now or its equivalent ready. Ticket proceeds go to charity.

Do also note what you can or cannot bring into the Istana grounds, there are rules on their website and you can also take note on the dates they’ll have it.

Entrance also depends on the weather and if it is too bad, you won’t get in since it IS a large space and the probability of being struck by lightning is high during a storm.

Continue reading The Istana

Global Mat Soul Kitchen’s briyani

Disposable box of briyani and pineapple achar
The box of briyani with achar

It was more than a month ago (some time in September 2022) when I saw the notification from Global Mat Soul Kitchen’s instagram that he was opening orders for his “mutton ov doom” aka mutton briyani.

I had followed his account for much longer and since it was the first time in a long while that I finally got that notification, I knew I had to try it.

Were all those articles about his briyani being the best really true? What is all the hype about it? What’s this mysterious briyani?

To get it, you had to follow the exact instructions and be polite about it because hey, this person really did cook food for you if you managed to get an order in time.

What I had to do was message my order, follow said instructions and go to the specified pick up point with my own plastic bag. Remember! Bring your own bags and make it sturdy. There has been a sad tale when one customer’s plastic bag broke and all the beautiful briyani was strewn upon the cement floor.

At this point of blog post, you might ask me was it worth it?

Well, duh. Yes, it is.

But hey, this is a Sarah post, so heck that if you wanted a tl;dr version you’d read other people’s reviews with pictures.

Continue reading Global Mat Soul Kitchen’s briyani

The Mid SES life

I don’t know if anyone out of the Singapore context would know what “SES” means. It’s an acronym to describe socio-economic status in one of our textbooks here. The short of it, high SES means you’re rich as heck and low SES means you’re on the lower end of it with little income and such. Since we’re here, I might also let you all know high SES also means being atas which is Malay for “on top”.

But you don’t pronounce it in the Malay way to say it is high SES, you got to say it in a faux-English way where it’s “A-tas” for the extraness of it.

Anyway, as per usual, I was looking at instagram, scrolling through, seeing how some ‘influencers/celebs’ post pictures. That and I got ads before I get to watch a youtube video about how you can make ‘money online’ by going to their special webinars and all that.

For some influencer/celebrities especially actors and actresses, I just wonder. How do you make money? I know some of them are thankfully supported by family, work in some business, be a tutor/lecturer, be a real estate agent and whatnot.

No, those are pretty clear cut.

But there’s some that, it just seems that they do party (of course it’s just pictures, so they won’t post about their struggles) but what do they do to get money to party? What do they work as when they’re not on screen?

Then the money making youtube ads. I don’t believe they get money from whatever they’re doing. I’m just wondering do they get enough by making people ‘buy’ into their webinars and all that to create a sustainable life?

What is their actual struggle to make monies? Cause what they post looks just so dangerous to me in their expensive cars (maybe rented for a shoot?), fancy condos and whatnot.

I don’t want to know how you all ‘made it’. I want to know, is it all sustainable and why the heck are you all still trying to sell these investment courses if it works.

Is it to diversify income or something?

Which brings the point of my mid-SES life.

I know I’m not doing my most lowest, I know I’m not doing a high-SES life either. I’m just mid-range average. Maybe even slightly on the lower range of average.

If all these ‘high-SES’ people are diversifying in trying to get as much money from as many places as possible.

Then, am I doing enough?

When considering all the work I do, is that still enough? I don’t know what’s the average of enough at this rate. Cause if so called ‘high-SES’ people are doing so much to just get as much income as possible somehow.

Then, am I doing too little?

Of course I ask what other people’s plans are so here. Let me tell you what I do.

I work, get the income there, save bunch of the monies. And then on the See Pee Eff side, I do invest with it.

But besides that, should I be having more jobs or something? Is there something I am missing because all these people keep trying to gain more somehow?

Ally’s Adventures! Bilingual book series

I was trying to find some Singapore based Malay books for children because I can’t find any at Popular Bookstore. The only things I found were assessment books and no stories in Malay.

My friends instead recommended me to check out Ungu Pen online store.

Basically, there are a number of Malay books for children but Singapore based ones aren’t that many comparatively and there is a difference between Singapore, Malaysia and bahasa Indonesia too in terms of context.

Ally's adventures with Dawn the cat

I bought Ally at Home and some other books (will review that in another post) from Ungu Pen but then I decided to check Poppet World where the Ally series is from to just check out what more is available.

And I got more books and received a sticker sheet and also got a limited edition Ally plushy doll for a child because they can have story time with an actual Ally!!

Ally at Home by Norlin Samat

The Ally’s Adventure series is written by Norlin Samat and it’s a board book style which has a lovely smooth texture where kids can touch and turn too.

Ally is at home today

This is Ally at Home, you can see that it is in both English and Malay. They use simple languages so that your child can read or be read to, to know the story.

Also as you can see, the windows are “HDB” styled, if you live in Singapore, these things will seem more familiar to you.

Ally at the library

In Ally at the Library, it amuses me that Ally is with human children but let’s ignore that because this is a children’s book. I want to see more cat friends though!

And the library does remind you of the ones we have here at the National Library children’s section.

Ally at the zoo

For Ally at the Zoo, if you read this to your children, you can go to our Singapore Zoo and point out the animals or say “Hey, this is where Ally went!”.

I am amused that there are tigers and that Ally is a different kind of adventuring cat.

Join Ally at Poppet World

I won’t spoil the endings or how the story goes for each book but they are fun for you to read out to children in both English and Malay so that they can recognize words and understand them.

At the time of this post, you can join Ally at their facebook page to know if they have online activities or offlline ones too.

Ally's adventures stickers

Since I bought more books at the Poppet World website where they are the publishers, I managed to get a sticker sheet (while stocks last)!

Ally plushie doll

Also the Ally plushy doll is limited edition because of course, they wouldn’t be able to make thousands but just enough so if you want to get an Ally plushy, just get it.

She is really cute and her backpack actually opens and you can put maybe an eraser or something in it.

Anyway, feel free to recommend me Singapore based Malay books for children and young adults too! I feel like there’s too many angsty ones aimed for adults and the fun ones for children, there’s not enough?