Cavalock and The Home Reno Blues

Spotted this at Meidi-Ya Liang Court supermarket a couple days back. The Blue Bottle coffee joint at Shinjuku is a familiar hangout place whenever we are Tokyo. Yah, that's pretty pricey for a little can of cold brewed coffee. And that's why we can't buy one. Hah!

Been a crazy past week as the Baker-at-Home and me start our massive 'tiny apartment' renovations. No proper toilet facilities, the kitchen is a complete no-go zone and the little study room is now a giant storeroom hence the lack of blogging or online presence. As I'm typing this, I'm trying to catch up on whole buncha online stuff. And we also got many weeks of huddling together in a tiny bedroom to look forward to.

Another spanner-in-the-works this renovation threw at us is our breakfasts are all kinda messed up. For better or worse, it's gonna be kopi tiam prata, carrot cake, kaya toast, well, you get the idea. Since the entire kitchen (including the fridge) is out-of-bounds, we can't prepare our own breakfast so no more overnight oats or toasted sandwiches for at least a month. I should definitely be hitting the gym three times a week now. We can't stay home cos of all the dust and noise so hey, if anyone wants to meet up, let me know.

Cavalock and The New Traveler's Notebook Journey

An excellent little and I do mean 'little' oden joint that we had dinner was at Nakameguro. Toridashioden Samon is located just under the next to Nakameguro train station, next to Meguro River and it's pretty good idea to have dinner there after visiting the Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo which is just about 15 minutes walk away.

Lots of choices and reasonably priced too. Get ready to stand in line as it's pretty popular. Love the daikon. The two big chicken balls are nice too as the tiny bits of cartilage in them give them that little extra crunch and texture. Also first time having yakitori oden-style instead of the usual grilled. Go if you want great and affordable street food.

It's something I have had my eye on for awhile now and finally decided to put it up during my Tokyo vacation with the guys a couple months ago. Yup, so I bought a Traveler's Notebook. It's a writing journal and more. I have been using a Moleskin journal for couple years now and did the switch after reading how versatile the Japanese Traveler's Notebook is.

The options to customise and personalise the Traveler's Notebook was what first drew me to it. Then I saw all them millions and millions of YouTube videos about it, read the articles bout it and I kinda fell in love with the whole concept or idea behind it. Like most Japanese products, it's also cheaper to get it in Japan than in Singapore.

So like I said, I bought during my trip with the guys but I only opened it when I got back home then a week after that, me and the Baker-at-Home headed back to Japan and that's when I went crazy with it.
My old day job as a writer provided me with many writing opportunities and so does the Traveler's Notebook. It's kinda hard to explain since there really shouldn't be anything stopping me from writing what I want as and when I like, if you know what I mean.

Well, becos of me Traveler's Notebook, I have also gotten back to dipping my toe in fountain pen calligraphy as well as picking up some very basic water-colour painting. I have always enjoyed using me fountain pen ever since I first used it back when it was part of the primary school curriculum. Yah, it's no longer part of it and you guys don't know what you are missing! I still remember how one day I forgot to cap my pen and the ink just leaked out right through me school uniform's breast pocket. Today I'm using a German Lamy fountain pen. Was planning to purchase a Japanese fountain pen but the sleek and ergonomically-designed German pen made its no-brainer choice for me.

Well, if there's anyone out there who's also into Traveler's Notebook and journaling, let me know!