Seriously Sarah

Bye bye Badoque

When the announcement of Badoque was closing was out on Instagram, I had to book it with my friends to eat there one last time.

It had been there for 18 years at Simpang Bedok and on 15 September 2024, it is set to close.

Yes, this post is not really a review post unless you’re from the future, you read this and had a time machine to go back to taste all the good restaurants in Singapore before it closed.

Being one of the first famous Halal western/fusion restaurants in Singapore, Badoque had been so iconic in the East side.

This is their mojito and their cups were really jug sized and value for money.

You need to understand, this wasn’t a thing amongst restaurants back then when it started. Having a huge cup that was more like a jug for a whole drink and at such affordable prices? Mixing sodas were also not a thing when it was first released.

You either get a drink that’s just a soda not a mocktail and definitely not at these sizes in regular restaurants.

Kepak bing bing. It’s a pun on the sound you get when you play the kompang. And kepak is ‘wing’ in Malay. It’s a spicy chicken wings appetizer that goes really well with that squeeze of lime on it.

Breaded oysters. Can you guys tell me where else can I get breaded oysters at a reasonable price now? And done well with their chilli sauce and just a bit of a salad and lemon squeeze for bit of acidity.

There was once we thought “Huh, breaded oysters, maybe it won’t be that much, let’s get two” and it was too much because we ordered other appetizers too for the group. We didn’t think it was going to be a lot but as most of the Badoque’s menu.

The portions are always just so generous.

I ordered a lamb shank because their beef ribs were already sold out by the time we were there. According to the server, everyone had heard of the announcement and had booked it to Badoque.

We were going on a weekday evening so I would imagine the last few days and even last day to be the busiest for goodbyes.

Maybe we can’t order again, but I’ll always remember this lamb shank to have the most delightful sauce with the lamb shank itself being so soft and tender. You didn’t need a knife, you can even use a spoon with it.

Lamb Bukhari is another lamb shank but with rice and the sauce. Can you see how portions are big and the TASTE was always flavourful with spices and the chef knows how to have it all balanced with just a bit of acidity too with the fattiness of the meats.

Other stuff we ordered was Lamb Bamia (comes with a lot of bread for their sauces), breaded chicken steak and fish and chips. Mind you, even their fish and chips weren’t the regular ones but 4 individually breaded fried fish. None of that tasteless sutchi fish either.

So howlah.

They have such high quality food and drinks.

All I can say is thank you for the memories.

Food places in Singapore, when they’re good, they’re good but they always seem to have an end either due to rental prices or life or anything.

But it just means we should always appreciate it when they are there.

If you do actually have a time travel machine, I think it’s your mission to try out all the hawker shops and restaurants that have closed in Singapore. Badoque should be in one of the lists.

After all, I don’t think visiting food places would make too much of a difference in the time continuum, would it…?

I want what she has

When your husband retires before you, and doesn't want to 'unretire' by Sumiko Tan

There’s a new Sumiko Tan section called Sumiko At 60 which is a new ‘series’ that I just noticed since Lunch with Sumiko ended. Or has lunch with Sumiko finally got its lunch break? Haha.

Mind you, I hadn’t flipped through the Straits Times for a long while until I want to see specifically ‘local’ news, the opinions or forum page that tend to bring rather eye catching ~~at times dumb~~ responses where people duel with each other hoping their replies catch the eye of the editor in charge to just post it.

Anyway, a brief check showed me that this was her third article in that column. And it is amazing.

Who is Sumiko though? In her exact article When your husband retires before you, and doesn’t want to ‘unretire’ she has this one bit that made me gasp.

I started working in The Straits Times on May 15, 1985. I was 21 years and five months old. I’ve been in the same job and in the same organisation since, and the longest breaks I’ve taken from work were three-week vacations.

And yes, she is the Executive Editor at The Straits Times now. If you checked the Singapore archives somewhere (don’t quote me on it), her first few articles were about Singapore, a typical reporter.

In fact, when I was a student and we had to read the newspapers in school for who knows what reason that I can’t remember for, her articles came full page with an original illustration to go with it to supplement it and her byline. No longer just news reporting, she wrote articles of anything and everything.

I might say Sumiko Tan was the blogger before blogging was in. She had the mainstream media printing her afflictions and struggles or non-struggles.

She is the best clickbaity reactionary writer for the press.

It wasn’t factually stupid things like some writers make a mistake of when they give opinions, no. She backed things up with real facts but enough fluff and opinions to make you go “What the heck am I reading?”.

And I want what she has.

While the Sumiko at 60 article states she’s afraid of retirement, and her husband is a teacher who has finally gotten his chance to chill…

She just wrote what most of us nowadays can’t achieve.

A job that sustains you for more than 3 decades, with 3 week vacations available?! AND she gets a more than a half page to write the heck she wants? Assumedly whatever the heck she wants, I don’t know what goes on the minds of the higher ups.

Maybe they go “Ms Sumiko Tan, do your thing, we believe in you to bring up the readership of ST by rage baiting them with your factual yet inconsequential happenings. Omakase, oneigaishimasu!” BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE.

The latest article read in her typical style but with survey facts and a PSA about how the age of retirement will be increased and the reemployment age. Because Hallelujah, she doesn’t have to retire so soon.

It was a heaped with a dash of ‘postponing’ CPF payout “tricks” such as “monthly payouts will increase by up to 7 per cent for each year of deferral” as she was advised by a “Ms Daphne Lye, a financial planning solutions lead at MoneyOwl, a financial advisory firm under Temasek Trust“.

Can you imagine.

Ms Sumiko Tan calling up Ms Daphne Lye and saying “Help, help, my husband is wearing his tatty t-shirts and shorts around the house after he has RETIRED WHILE WATCHING NETFLIX AT 9am. WHAT CAN I DO????”

And Ms Daphne Lye reassuring her that his “approach to retirement could also offer valuable lessons“.

No, no you cannot imagine so.

Which is why I find this article simply amazing since I wonder if it is an advertorial.

Really.

If it was posted anywhere except The Straits Times, it probably would have a “This post is sponsored by” at the end of it.

By now you might be wondering, why do I want what she has? How can I even write articles like these in a the main newspaper and get PAID for it? You can’t even find listings on The Straits Times job openings page for such a trajectory. Everything seems to be social media based videos or nothing to do with the actual papers.

At most even with the google ad monies I get on this blog, I can only afford a pizza after a year or so with the readership. I doubt I can retire on that. So yeah, I want what she has. To get paid to write such things and have the ability to retire ~~with an already retired husband who watches Netlix at 9am??~~

Anyway, whatever rage bating article she has in the papers, it is somehow a reassuring thing that as the world goes on, and as Straits Times still gets printed, we will always have a Sumiko Tan article.

I hope she will have a new series in 9 years time too, after this Sumiko at 60 series.

I’m very sure it would be nice.

The dual destinies of Ships Ahoy and Best Bros

Hello friends, if you haven’t been updated by now, I’ve been doing some pro-wrestling at Grapplemax. And what’s better than getting 1 prestigious golden belt?

Tag team belts made by Paul Martin Belts (Photo by Najwan Noor)

You got that right, it’s getting 2.

So I entered the Dual Destinies Tag Team Tournament with my tag team partner, Xtian! Our team name is Ships Ahoy. And since you’re reading this now, you’re automatically a Friend Shipmate.

If you’re also wondering who helped make our outfits, it’s Joey.

By the way, photos are either by Najwan Noor or Jayden Quek, do check them out!

Hailing from Chocopro (Japan), we have Mei Suruga and Baliyan Akki. They’re called the Best Bros and if we got to defeat them, then it’s us for the semi-finals. OHOhOhOHoh.

Hirzi’s Raya-naissance

The last time I attended Hirzi’s show which wasn’t a “regular” comedy type show was the Munah & Hirzi Curtain Call in 2018. So when I saw this was going to be a:

A Hari Raya Open House

An Eid It All – Raya Buffet

A Renaissance Concert Parody

A Concept Comedy Show

A Cultural Extravaganza

A Love Letter from Hirzi

I figured I should try get ticket especially when there’s going to be a buffet too (lol). Just know this isn’t a post of a review of the show but mostly for memories cause this Raya-naissance happened during our raya in the year 2024.

This event was held Lagun Sari. Which is pretty hyped. For those who don’t know Lagun Sari, it’s a wedding venue mostly for Malay weddings and their food is good but besides that, I was more intrigued cause that means the decor would really be fancy too.

It’s not often you can be a food reviewer at a comedy show but I got my friend to come with me cause I wanted her to try out Malay food and know the culture too cause I was more than sure Hirzi would be able to draw it out easily in his content.

The pengat pisang was delicious and I had to introduce that to her cause either it’s only home made or you had to get it at caterers like these. There was an instagram post saying that the menu for the last encore show would be “Nusantara” themed and then as I queued up…

I saw Ngoh Hiang and was ?????????????? It was next to gado-gado so ok, I guess (it was also punchline somehow in the show too).

As for the show itself. I won’t post segments, since you had to be there and it was truly a safe space for comedy and observations. The VIP guests were also pretty “woah” to me cause you had theatre practitioners (to say the least!), noteable journalists and other significant “serious” media types that knew how to appreciate a show like this.

The flow was so good, the drag queens were wonderful and the comedy segments did make everyone laugh. The lipsync dance segments was entertaining and you know, why I wanted to bring my friend to this show is that through the comedy segments I know there will be educational or moments of reality.

Of the (not so) subtext of our Malay culture in Singapore and the people.

The ‘final’ punchline though, if you would call it that. The whole theme about Raya really was hard hitting. It’s close to the heart and it’s one of those things where, you can’t really write about but if you do have a chance to go to a grand Hirzi show, you’ll feel it.

This was apparently Dew Francis’ second time doing stand up comedy and I have to hand it to him cause he’s pretty funny. There’s some stand up comedians that make me wonder if my sense of humour is broken but no, he’s good at timing and the payoff too.

For the record, to Dew and Hirzi. You guys are so right on the hijabsters having totally interesting hairstyles.

While the Munah & Hirzi Curtain Call show had a wedding and kompang performance, 6 years later we finally had the reception at Lagun Sari with dikir barat.

And with that…

Film development and scanning in Ikebukuro

Yes, you can develop your 35mm film in Ikebukuro in Japan. You can even have it scanned and saved.

There are many BIC cameras in Ikebukuro and after running around to each one there to check their directory, it’s the one called BIC CAMERA Ikebukuro PC Store:

To know which one, it’s the building that looks like a handphone and I had to go to the basement to find the counter.

I shot this at the Ghibli Museum using the Kodak Ektar h35n. If you’re using half frames, it’ll be scanned as full so you’ll have the little division there.

What resolution are they scanning your film? I screenshotted the details of mine. You can see it’s in 2211 x 1535.

What are the prices? This is the link to the BIC camera itself but do note, it might be different at the time you’re visiting and the time of the link’s pricing. It’s close to it from what I remember when I did it.

However, you do need to bring a phone or a laptop that can take a thumbdrive/card reader. There is no cloud transfer or email for the scans.

Make sure your phone has enough space to download all the photos too or it can download easily from a thumbdrive. I helped download my friend’s scanned film since his phone couldn’t easily find the drive.

Their ‘1 hour’ express service depends on that day if there’s a lot of film being developed, so do ask them if it is possible. The staff might not know a lot of English but they can point to the clock for the estimated time you can come back if you want to try express.

All the best! I wanted to develop my film in Japan itself since the newest terminal in Singapore’s airport apparently might have damaged my friend’s film going through the x-ray and I was a bit frightened of that. You can have it go through hand check but I figured, eh let’s just try shoot everything in Japan and develop in Japan.

Ps. In reality why I say check what time your film might be ready is cause on that day, we went in the afternoon after going around to each BIC Camera and looking at it and went “Huuuh” before we finally found one with the film development one in the basement. With friends we said in moderate Japanese “sashin” (camera) development while waving our film canisters and sumimasen-ing and “Eto..” and “Expressu?” they pointed to what time is available and we were ok cause we would still be in Ikebukuro shopping and eating dinner. And ok, we finished dinner but then BIC Camera has also closing times so we pretty much RAN TO THE STORE BEFORE IT CLOSED minutes before, grabbing our film and downloading in a frenzy to my phone and Arigato-ing to the staff cause else we wouldn’t be able to come back to Ikebukuro since the next day we had to go elsewhere and we wouldn’t be able to return to Japan??? LEAVING OUR FILMS BEHIND? NOOO I SAY NOT.

Pps. So yes, it’s better if you want to pick it up the next day next time if you have the time or do it in the morning…

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.

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.

Sarah travelled to Puchong!

You might ask, where the heck is Puchong?

That was my question when I first saw the info for APAC Wrestling‘s Rise event

which happened on 10 and 11 December of 2022.

Where the heck was it? It was somewhere in Malaysia. It’s one of those not really here nor there places. Out of ‘town’ but close enough to it. I decided to take a plane trip there and this was my first plane trip after the whole Covid-19 circuit breaker/lockdowns etc.

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.

Giving Up

Firstly, happy International Women’s day. I am a woman. Happy me (?)

Secondly, it’s raining once more. Sheesh, I keep writing about the rain but last weekend. Upon a Sunday, it was raining so heavily and the Saturday night prior, I was watching a Malaysian movie called Imaginur (it’s really good and feels, if you have the opportunity to watch it, go for it!) and went home around 11pm or so?

It was considered ‘late’ to me but to wake up in the morning of a rainy Sunday at 8am, I went “Meh…” because I had booked a session at the Gympod. Instead of letting the slot go because I do know the ‘balance’ of is it worth wasting your money or your time, I checked and I could swap the time around to evening instead.

If I gave up, I would have just not gone to my gym session, instead I made the effort to at least swap it to a different time but still do it.

Which worked because it rained much heavier after I swapped the booking while in bed and it would have been horrible to travel all the way to the specific gym location I go to.

Yet, AUGH I could have just given up. Yet I didn’t. Which is totally different from quitting or knowing when to stop and restart.

For one thing, I always “stop” and not go to events or exercise sessions or training sessions if I’m not feeling good that day. It’s totally a different feeling and it’s a NO don’t do it because in general, I would also have to be considerate and think about the safety in others. If I’m not feeling good, it’s not safe to continue, thus try another day.

But giving up is different in my definition. There’s a sense of “You can do it but you choose not to because you just don’t wanna” for me.

Then there’s quitting, quitting because I know something is not going to work out and that should be ‘quick’ because that means I’ll try ANOTHER way. It’s a cut losses, you know this won’t work so let’s find an alternative method because… we aren’t giving up.

So are you the type that gives up, do the stop and restart or quit and find a different method kind of person?

Meanwhile, it’s annoying.

One of the reasons I keep on training is not the adults, no no. It’s ESPECIALLY the children. Like thanks. If they want to keep seeing me in a ring or stage and such, well. I can’t disappoint them can I? They are highly likely not able to read my blogposts or social media stuff but they’ll be able to pop up whenever their parents bring them along.

And if it’s just for the one kid or whomever that says, I wanna see you there or gets all “GASP!! It’s a girl!” like Anya from SpyXFamily all excited with her Waku waku-s…

Then sheeesh, I got to work on for it, won’t I?

Song of this post recommendation, listen to Tuyu’s song. Click CC for English subtitles!