For someone who has mostly been mucking around in the dark with a camera since her university days, this means so much to me. Wouldn’t have happened without Amrita. Thank you.
Play tourist at home
Unfortunately my Marseille story is still on hold because of the ongoing Covid-19 travel restrictions, so I wrote another story for all of us who are trapped on this island — with young children in our homes.
Story here (paywalled) otherwise accessible here in sections: main text, north, east, south, west, central.
Quarantine cooking
Can’t complain about hawker food and mom’s homecooked food but at the same time I’ve lamented I haven’t been cooking enough since I moved back to Singapore. Well, look who’s been cooking up a storm since lockdown began and felt adventurous enough to try new (but easy) recipes beyond the usual improvised dishes ? Some look like they will become part of my repertoire, others maybe not so much. What matters is I think I’m finally out of a culinary rut yay !
* Rice with duck from The Family Meal
* Denise‘s small-batch fudge brownies
* Spanish potato omelette from 1080 Recipes
* Sausages and mushrooms from The Family Meal
* Eileen‘s kimchi fried rice
* Wafu spaghetti
* Ramdane’s mother’s orange blossom madeleines
* Lex Weibel’s spicy and saucy cherry tomato pasta
* Greek-style oyster mushrooms
* Tortang talong
* Ping‘s oven-dried cherry tomatoes
Confinement after confinement
E took the TGV when she was barely 2 months old, her first cross-continental flight two weeks later. L on the other hand, at 3 months old, has mostly been stuck at home in these surreal times and not seen many people beyond her immediate family. Her stroller sits dusty outside.
Cue that joke about how you haven’t been out in so long your shoes probably think you died.
One month down and one more month to go. At least this confinement I could take a shower everyday and do not have dietary restrictions. Unfortunately, we also get no help with the children from my parents and have to do everything ourselves, preschool video calls three times a week and household chores included.
We’ve never spent this much time at home — and as a family — without external distractions. While I might not readily admit this, the experience so far hasn’t been entirely unpleasant. It’s only overwhelming when I have deadlines to meet.
We still can’t predict when L would do an explosive caca that would leak out of her diaper onto her clothes and bouncer but E’s French proficiency is improving by leaps and bounds now that papa’s at home all day.
I think about how my state of mind has evolved in just four months. What I don’t want to think about is the long-term impact of SS20 on my children, what it might mean for me in terms of work or how we will navigate the new post-bises world with masks on.
We’ve taken social interactions and travel for granted. Now the radio silence is starting to feel deafening, even if we are virus-free.
Singapore is an ultramodern paradise for whisky lovers
A piece from last summer now finally available online, this repost coinciding with my post-bébé reintroduction of after-dinner drinks that keeps to a breastfeeding schedule.
