Cavalock and The December Brisket Bulletin

Happy Holidays!!!

A little post Christmas post and I know I'm late. Well, the home renovations are almost done except for the mirror and wooden dining table delivery. Fortunately we hardly do any year-end entertaining, hopefully both items will arrive before the middle of January. Another reason why I haven't blog much this month (besides the renovations and falling sick) is me journaling old-school style in me Traveler's Notebook.

So I got to put together this little habit tracker for the month of December in me Traveler's Notebook. It lists my experiences and notable activities for the month and once again, cos of the renovations and falling ill, I only went to the gym three times so far. Also, only four nights of boozing. Memorable new experiences include sitting through three December movies, namely Knives Out, Jumaji: The Next Level and Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker. Let's see what else, hmmm... only dined at two new restaurants this month, Ippoh Tempura Bar and Osaka Yakiniku DonDon. Binged watched Netflix's The Witcher, finished listening to BBC Radio's radio drama podcast of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and am following couple of lessons on the MasterClass app. The only new boardgame I played was Marvel Champions, just one new game! That's bloody sad.

Christmas Eve dinner was at our friend's home, yah, the one that always reminds me of southern plantation living during the antebellum era. And this time, the experience was ...er... enhanced with a generous serving of an entire brisket from the one and only Franklin Barbecue all the way from Texas. Yes, our hosts were in the Lone Star state and actually queued for several hours to get their hands on a couple of frozen slabs last month. Nicely smoked by our host and it's every bite deserving of a James Beard award.

Cavalock and The Marina Bay Kaiju Hugfest

Now when you have two individuals cooped up in a tiny room for almost a month, it's no surprise that when one falls sick the other would also be out of action real soon. Yup, we are both down with a nasty cough, sore throats and all. Home renovations not done yet. Fortunately we managed to enjoy some grilled beef one rainy night last week. First time at Osaka Yakiniku DonDon along Tanjong Pagar Road. You kinda know it's a good choice when the place is already full of Japanese customers when you step in.

Reminded me a lot of one of our favourite yakiniku joints in Tokyo, Futago Yakiniku at Yoyogi. Although we do our own grilling instead of someone else doing it for us like in Tokyo. Heh. In a surprising twist, our favourite dish in a grill beef joint turned out to be the above coriander salad with nut dressing. Who knew? Well, the raw wagyu beef with salmon roe and sea urchin came in as a close second. Gotta also give a shoutout to the funky frozen ice towels that they handed to us. These were frozen freakin' solid! And nicely scented too!

Some old pix from a couple months back by me 85-year-old Dad. These big bad critters at Garden by the Bay are as close to any real kaiju action as we are ever going to get in real life.

Cavalock and The Traveler's Notebook Peek

Fingers crossed, as I'm typing this it's two more weeks of renovations to go. It has gotten to a point where I would be stumbling out of the apartment with a face full of zits and not know it cos we still have no mirrors! Far as I can tell, NOT a vampire yet.

Had lunch at Ippoh Tempura Bar earlier this week and that was the second time we ever had Tempura omakase. Small and intimate joint with a 12-seater counter. Amazing food with more than a couple of show stealers. The tasty little shrimp toast is something we could have eaten by the boatload.

Another of the Baker-at-Home's favourite was the unforgettable sea urchin tempura with caviar. Once again, we could have chucked down a dozen more. A fantastic lunch, wish it was cheaper so we could have it on a regular basis. Hah! Well, after that we headed to town to catch Knives Out at the theatre, so a very good afternoon it was.

So one of the reasons why I haven't been blogging online much these days is I have gone back to blogging old-school style or journaling for some of you artsy folks. Bought my Traveler's Notebook two Tokyo trips ago and I have been filling it up very slowly. Reminds me of me media advertising days, designing page layouts and all that. Been awhile since I flexed that little creative muscle.

The cool thing bout Traveler's Notebook is it lets you slot in different sets of pages, it's kinda like mini-booklets. And you strapped them all into your leather bound Notebook. So right now I got three separate page sets or booklets in mine. The first is daily random stuff like I'm trying some bullet journaling with fancy doodles here and there. The second is the least utilised one as it's me trying out some watercoloring but since the renovations started, my little craftwork table where I do my miniatures painting is stacked with boxes a mile high. The third section is me gaming journal where I sometimes spin a yarn or two about the fantasy battles I play. I would turn it into a (very!) short story if I play (and win!) a game like Warhammer or Magic.

Cavalock and The Tale of The Mirrorless Mansion

Three weeks in, the apartment is still under renovations which leaves me and the Baker-at-Home still huddled together like a couple of squatters in a tiny little bedroom. Mattress on the floor, no online access, open toilets, etc. Actually for all we know, we could have evolved into a couple of vampires on account that there are no mirrors anywhere in the home and we have not seen our own reflections for over a week now. I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before we staying picking lint from our hair, like a couple of apes grooming themselves on Nat Geo.

Thank goodness for friends who invite us over to their homes for amazing meals like these. A beautifully smoked ramp steak for lunch. They also did open their house to us and that we could stay over during our renovations but we declined. It's the home that makes me feel like I'm visiting an old cotton plantation in the deep south, if you know what I mean. Hah!

Here we have the neighbour's cat taking a liking to our new bathroom tiles. Other wildlife pix Got our some me 85-year-old Dad took last month. He's getting old now and doesn't have much strength these days but he still tries to head out on his own every other day.