Cavalock and Another Lockdown Home-Cooked Collage

Been a few weeks since I posted a collage of the glorious meals that the Baker-at-Home had cooked up for the two of us during the Lockdown. Believe it or not, it's me first time having quinoa, and I'm enjoying it. The Baker-at-Home is a fan of quinoa for awhile now while I have been avoiding it until now. Hah!

Am so glad I have been buying all them Japanese face towels whenever we were there over the last couple years. I have at least a dozen and they all came in real handy as I'm using them everyday. Being in Lockdown means no more chilling in an air-con office or mall environment which leaves me sweating like a rain god to all the bugs around me. So of cos, I have been going through the photo reel in me iPhone cos what else can I do besides gaming, reading, painting and watching YouTube during a Lockdown? Some snapped last year, same earlier this year.

Well, colour me green! I never knew that's how brussels sprouts are grown before picking this up at Isetan a couple months ago. Now there's this rice spoon or scoop I spotted in Tokyu Hands that measures the amount of calories in each scoop. I thought that's pretty cool. And fluffy chicken in me Dad's neighbourhood.

Cavalock and The Bulmuda Waffle Confluence

Really fortunate that my friend dropped by my place several days ago to gift us two pairs of her popular frozen waffles as well as two tubs of ice-cream to go with it, from her shop. Been awhile since I been to Creamier so this was a most welcome treat during these apocalyptic times. No dire situation a generous serving of yummy waffles and ice-cream can't help alleviate.

We toasted the waffles in our Japanese Bulmuda Toaster and although there is no degree setting on the toaster, it turned out golden perfect. Same setting as when we toast our morning breakfast bread as there's a setting for 'toast' and no aluminium foil needed. Absolutely delicious after dinner dessert and we are saving the final two for another day. Once they are available to the public again, we are definitely buying them.

If you really bored and got a printer at home, you can check out some complete print and play games over at Asmodee's page. The games are all free and most are simpler versions of actual boardgames.

One of my favourite solo boardgames right now is Metro X, the Tokyo and Osaka edition. It's flip-and-write game based on the Tokyo or Osaka train systems in Japan, where you turn over card after card from a deck and depending on the number of the card revealed, you decide where to add stations on a special sheet of paper. However the number of times you can add stations to each line is limited and that makes this tiny little game a real brain burner.

"In more detail, each player has their own sheet of paper, with all players using either the Tokyo or Osaka map. Each sheet shows an interwoven subway system, with the system consisting of many subway lines; each line has a name, a number of indicator boxes, a number of empty station boxes on the subway route, and two bonuses. On a turn, a player reveals the top indicator card from the deck of twenty cards, then each player individually and simultaneously chooses a subway line, then does something depending on which type of card is revealed. Once all the indicator boxes are filled, the game ends. In solo mode, you try to beat a certain high score."

Cavalock and The Lockdown Fridge Discovery

Well, the country is still in a dismal Lockdown but life goes on and there are still things to do. Things like while clearing out the fridge, the Baker-at-Home found this forgotten gem in our fridge that we bought back in Tokyo last year! Honey Miso Garlic Dip!

We got this little bottle of miso dip from a small shop near Tokyo Station specialising in all kinds of honey (L'abeille means 'honey' in French) and sauces from Japan. It was one of those fascinating shops that we happened to stroll past and just decided to enter and then leave with a bag of new stuff. Y'know, the kinda shop that locals frequent, and you know there are some local treasures inside. Hah! A tiny little spicy kick from the garlic but so much flavour, and goes so well with the veggie sticks. Should have bought the larger bottle. You should see how we are rationing this during meals, it's hilarious! Ah, reminds me of all them past yakitori restaurant dates, until the Lockdown ends I guess this all we have for now.

Thanks to me foot operation last year, I reckon I got some practise with being in a Lockdown as in being immobile and having to stay indoors for a couple months. I can understand if you are over 60 years old, how sucky it can be when you are forced to stay indoors but if you are young, healthy and with access to the Internet, come on! Take it from a certified introvert, the outdoors are way overrated. Alright, I'm kidding, maybe it's just a little overrated.

Been getting my daily doses of boardgaming at the free Boardgame Arena site. Am simply loving the boardgames here. Gotta keep them grey cells working. Mostly gaming with my friends in the afternoon when they can take a break from working from home or in the evening. Although you could just log on and pick a game with strangers instantly. You just stroll through the games you like and you'll see tables opening up for folks to join in. Been playing 7 Wonders, Puerto Rico, The King's Guild and several others. Like I said in my last post, the interface is brilliant, with game instructions and everything.

Cavalock and The Post Easter Sunday Post

Hot-crossed buns! Been awhile since I had one and the Baker-at-Home did her very first batch this Easter Sunday afternoon! I remembered I had the occasional hot-crossed bun when I was growing up in the old family home but today's buns were nothing like the ones I had as a kid. For starters, they had rum-soaked raisins in them! They were soaked late last year but we had our home renovations back then so the Baker-at-Home didn't have time to bake her usual Christmas fruit cakes. It was only a small jar this time so she decided to attempt baking some hot-crossed buns with them, using a modified Mary Berry recipe I believe.

Yah, 12 freshly baked hot-crossed buns for just the both of us is a lot! But they taste great so no complaints at all.

So believe it or not, I haven't painted a single miniature since the Lockdown started. Gawd knows it's not cos I haven't got anything to paint. Still got a backlog of bout half a dozen figures to paint. I did paint a couple little treasure chests to use as objectives in future tabletop games.

Well, I been playing boardgames online at Boardgame Arena. It's a site where they got digital versions of popular boardgames like Carcassonne, 7 Wonders, Tzolk'in, Saboteur, Stone Age, just to name a few. And it's all free, well, you can pay to be a premium member to get some other benefits like voice chat and a wider selection of games. It's async too so you can make a move today while your opponents make their moves later in the day and you can continue the day after. Or you can also play in real time. It's that versatile and the interface is extremely user-friendly as well.

Cavalock and The Home-Cooked Collage

Home-cooked meals are the order of the day during this here Lockdown. From beef don to chicken noodles, the Baker-at-Home has been stellar in putting food on the table over the last couple weeks. A guy can't be more blessed than this. For breakfast, we were lucky to have purchased one them big ass blenders with them power blades earlier this year, specifically to blend nuts or almonds to be exact, into jars of nut butter. A thicker and richer spread than the nut butter you find in your grocery stores, and I suppose it's healthier too cos it's all natural.

It's very unlikely that we'll be doing any traveling this year so no more obligatory vacation food collages but here's a home-cooked collage instead.

The Baker-at-Home is now also the Office Worker-at-Home cos her office just delivered all two big monitors and they are both now occupying the study table. My iMac is now a fixture on the dining table, yah, the same table that I host my Warhammer tabletop sessions with me friends. Well, anyway it's not like I can ask them over any time soon. Hah!

Some new bird pix by me 85-year-old Dad before the Lockdown. Mostly taken at Jurong and Botantic Garden.

Cavalock and The Lockdown Hobby Rant

Well, this is pretty much all the hoarding we did over the last week. Five cans of SW tomatoes, well, cos cans of the rare Cirio Cherry Tomatoes (our usual brand) are nowhere to be found, online and offline. We didn't exactly hunkered down and we only bought our usual groceries. But it is kinda scary to see all them naked shelves in the supermarket.

We aren't in lockdown (yet) but we are coming close to one. Reports of how folks in the West aren't taking too kindly to lockdowns are somewhat hard to fathom. How they value their freedom to do whatever they want regardless of the consequences and how they think it's 'unconstitutional' to do be told what to do by their governments, it's all rather mind-boggling.

As a nerdy introvert gamer all my life, doing things on my own or finding my own amusement is something I'm very familiar with. And when I hear people saying they don't know what to do when they are forced to be at home is quite amusing. I'm not making this up when I say I know successful working adults who are moaning about the fact that they have no hobbies. Seriously, they are saying in this desolate voice, "oh, I just realised I have no hobbies besides work and watching Korean soap operas." Frankly, I'm surprised too. I go "What you mean, don't you like to read or something?" "What did you do in the last 20 or 30 years of your life that you actually enjoyed, besides working."

I suppose if you have kids, you might not have time for your own hobbies but some of these folks don't have kids, and they travel so I guess that's somewhat of a hobby but since you can't travel now. I imagine they are feeling lost and looking for some new ... er... purpose in life? I think a lot of people out there just know how to "work" and when it comes to hobbies, what comes to their mind are "watching sports/movies/TV, eating, travelling and maybe working out". I'm not saying it's wrong or bad, just a little sad to me. But I ain't judging (or am I?), some folks are perfectly fine with not having hobbies. It's them full-grown adult folks who are groaning bout how they ain't got no hobbies and somewhat regretting it now, that just sounds weird to me. Sometimes I just kinda bitch slap folks who ask me, "what am I going to do when I retire? I got no hobbies."

Meanwhile the Baker-at-Home is cooking up some lard in the kitchen. Hah! This is the first time she's doing this. All part of doing something you enjoy, you try something new, maybe you get to create something new and wonderful too.

Cavalock and The Vanishing Queues Appreciation

Admit it, despite the Co-vid doom and gloom hanging over the city, there is a part of you that is relishing the fact that eateries that were once besieged by long queues of tourists are now free of them. Case in point, Bacha Coffee at ION Orchard. No more snaking lines of Chinese and regional tourists outside the cafe. We finally got a table! I lost count of the number of times me and the Baker-at-Home walked away from the joint cos of the (at least) hour-long wait.

You can also find a table at the food court as there are folks these days as half the office are working from home. I know business is bad and eateries are losing money but I'm thinking, folks still gotta eat so someone has be benefitting from this. Food delivery services for sure. And supermarkets too cos folks will be cooking their meals at home more often I guess.

Since all our travel plans for the year are grounded. No more Japan trips for now. So I have been busy painting as I definitely foresee more gaming hours ahead. Just painted the new Squig hero for my Warhammer Age of Sigmar miniatures army. I actually like how the colors came out for this model. And my special order from the UK, just came in too. More Troggoths! Or trolls to you mortals. I have just based them white before painting in the colors. Some of my friends are working from home these couple weeks and we have been meeting up for gaming sessions. Hah!

Cavalock and The Balmuda Toaster Reminiscent

Probably one of the weirdest Easter eggs I have ever seen. Guinness Easter eggs spotted at Meidi-Ya over the weekend, I guess of the last few times I'll be there before they move out. Although the Baker-At-Home has managed to wrangle some info on a very likely new location for our favourite Japanese supermarket.

Something that we did bought from Meidi-Ya that evening was this tempting six-pack of limited edition premium Kirin beer. Never could resist a new "flavour" of beer especially if each can promises 5.5% of goodness. 

Saw this Balmuda t-shirt at Liang's Court Uniqlo and I knew I had to get it since it serves as a reminder of how we packed an entire state-of-the-art toaster oven in our luggage three years ago. Secured by our holiday laundry stuffed all around it. That was one heavy piece of luggage! Still using it at least once every week or two. Definitely one of our best buys from Japan. Believe it or not, I still get the occasional email bout getting a Balmuda toaster in Singapore, how to get it working with a transformer and all that. While writing this post, I realised that my original Balmuda post had a couple of enquires bout which transformer to use, been ages since I visited that post so I never read the comments. Real sorry but that. Well, I'm using a 1500 Watt, AC to AC converter. Hope that helps.

Cavalock and The Nippon Milo Adaptation

Who knew? They got Milo that's made in Japan. Found these at our local Don Don supermarket. Think its been a couple decades since I had a hot cup of Milo. Not even a bloody Milo dinosaur. Although I reckon if you made a Milo dinosaur out of this, it'll be a Milo Godzilla. Anyway I think I stopped after reading somewhere that it's just another flavoured sugared drink with a rather excellent marketing campaign. But I am still kinda intrigued by Milo that's made-in-Japan.

Been a long while since I posted me Dad's wildlife pix here. He's 86 years old and his camera equipment is getting way too heavy for him to carry around especially on the public buses. So last week between medical appointments, he took over 2,000 photos over two days. His friends told him there were six ducklings at Garden by the Bay, two became fish food before he managed to get there and snap a few hundred shots of them. Four days later when he returned, there were only three left.

Cavalock and The Return of The Squig Hoppers

We are always on the lookout for new dessert joints so when Baker-at-Home heard bout the new French crepe cafe Gather that just opened at Raffles Hotel that's only a couple stops away from our apartment, we couldn't resist dropping for afternoon coffee.

The above Burnt Caramel crepe I had was great, not too sweet by my standards but I believe may be too sweet for mere mortals. The Baker-at-Home also enjoyed the rich flourless chocolate cake with 73.5% dark chocolate but I reckon not as much as her black coffee. She is after all, a fan of Ronin back when they were at Hong Kong Street. So she really really liked that and I think we do see ourselves in a future dilemma where we had to choose between coffee here or %Arabica at Arab Street as both these locations are kinda equal distance from where we live. Hah! Well, I guess the fancy ambience at Raffles Hotel sorta puts it at some kinda advantage. But seriously, it's plenty comfortable here and a nice place to chill.

Been back to painting these little Squig Hoppers cos in the game that I'm playing, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, I need exactly 10 of them to form my frontline of troops. So I painted five of them months back and when I wanted to start painting the remaining five last week, I realised I forgot the colour schemes or how I got the colours combinations for the previous ones.

Fortunately I remembered at least a couple of colours like the red was from the Blood Angels Red Contrast Paint and the brown robes were from the Snakebite Leather Contrast Paint. The rest, I had to wing it. I couldn't get the colour of their teeth like before so some are whiter, greyer or darker than others. Hmmm... maybe that's more realistic?

Finished them and am quite satisfied with them. Every one was put together differently so they all look unique.

Cavalco and The Night of The Near Miss Tourney

So close yet so far. Damn! I was just one point away from taking home the glass trophy last night at the Beastgrave tourney. It's the Warhammer Underworld miniatures game, a tabletop game with little figures and not a video game. The team or war band that I fielded was the Grymwatch, a pack of ghouls who play a very tactical game of gaining points by grabbing objectives instead of by killing off the opposing team. I maneuvered my guys to certain locations across the map or game board to score them while trying to not get killed off. It worked well for me but I made some silly mistakes or miscalculations that deservedly cost me that one game. Oh, there were six of us and we played three games each. Two of my games were up against Stormcast Eternals which I won, lost to a Nighthaunt war band. I didn't know I was behind by only one point until it was over, maybe if I knew I would have played differently.

Anyway I had a blast playing in the tourney, absolutely enjoyed myself and came home to this freshly baked loaf of raisin bread that the Baker-at-Home was busy with while I was out.

My Gyrmwatch crew in action. We all also got a little pack of Skaven ang pows or red packets at the end of the night. Quite possibly the most ...hmmm... unholy-looking ang pows ever made. The Skaven are "the evil ratmen who gnaw at the very fabric of reality. Serving the Chaos deity known as the Great Horned Rat, these sinister creatures seek to undermine the Mortal Realms, conquering with raw cunning, overwhelming numbers, and strange inventions."

Something new to our renovated apartment. The Baker-at-Home's little Click and Grow indoor herb garden. We grew some basil, thyme and rosemary over the last couple weeks. She re-potted the basil the other day and ... what? no, that's not WEED. Really, we are not growing WEED! No one said anything bout growing WEED, I don't think that's even possible or ... er ... legal. Why everyone thinks we be growing WEED mon?