• Remove my bike tyre (!!!) from my bicycle
• Locate and repair the puncture on the inner tube
• Put back the tyre!

Dismantled bike tyre!

Encountered my second flat tyre yesterday and had to roll my bike home. Was distraught for a while, but I remembered this quote I saw.


This helps a lot in shifting my attitude. Turns out I learned how to fix my own puncture as well as remove and install wheels - handy skills to have! Hehe.

I just sent my bike in a couple months ago to fix some problems, so I really wanted to try to fix this flat on my own. Couldn't hear the leak, so I thought it might be just a small puncture that I could possibly fix. Thank you YouTube!!~

Here goes nothing~

If you have not dismantled a bike tyre before, you may not know that the bike actually has an inner tube, and another outer rubber tyre. My inner tube had a small cut. Don't see any sharp foreign object that may have caused it though.



Didn't have a patch kit so I just used what was at hand - my dad has contact glue/cement glue so I used that! Then I covered the repair with more duct tape and cement glue. Some people on YouTube use superglue and paper! :O



Hope the bike holds up, it seems to be working fine right now. Fingers crossed!

I also replaced my own guitar machineheads! Proud of myself for trying HAHA.

DIY projects also helps me to learn about the small details, whether it's a guitar, bread or a bicycle! It really helps me appreciate my belongings even more, which is nice in our throwaway culture. The more you attempt DIY projects, the more confident you feel. Next time when I encounter another bike problem, I may just get some replacements from Decathlon and try to fix the problem myself instead of wheeling it to the bike shop.

Till next time!

Love,
Skye

Hey ya!

Japan snack brand Pocky has a collaboration with Ya Kun Kaya Toast~ It has been out for a while now, but I was super lazy so I only got down to trying it today.

These food collabs keep coming and well...we keep lapping them up despite knowing some will fall short of expectations. Lol.

There are two flavours - Kopi O and Kaya Toast, and they retail at $2 per box. It's quite popular and tourists also buy them in cartons, as souvenirs for their friends and family overseas.



The eggs would have completed the picture but as usual, I slurped them up before we took a proper pic. Haha. Also, after baking bread, I now better appreciate every slice of bread I eat. How are these steamed ones from Ya Kun SOOOO fluffy? Fluffier than my own pillow.


Smell of pandan is quite strong, and the Pocky stick is expectedly sweet. It's mostly a cute novelty item to me. Great marketing stunt for both companies. For Kaya related pastries, I like traditional Kaya Puffs, and maybe Kaya rolls from Bengawan Solo. Can't really get the full flavour of Kaya here.

This flavour can't beat the classic Chocolate flavour, but is still worth trying (and sharing). Wondering what the Kopi-O flavour will taste like!

Love,
Skye

P.S. There's a new Jumbo Seafood x Pocky tie up with Chilli Crab too! And there are Old Chang Kee Curry Puff chips too. Have you tried these new flavours? What do you think?

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Duration: 1h 58min

Lol the cinema was crazy PACKED wow. It was the big theatre too! Guess there isn't much to watch this month really.

Me after the movie: What happened in the first movie ah? *clueless*
Chanel: Lol. That's why I watched the first movie last weekend.

If you're like me and completely forgot what happened, here's a short abridged version of what went down.

Movie 1
Maleficent is a powerful fairy protecting the Moors. She falls in love with a human called Stefan.The King tries to attack Moors and naturally she attacks and wounds him. He declares that anyone who kills her can marry his daughter and rule the kingdom.

Stefan is ambitious and traitorous, and goes for this. However, he couldn't bear to kill Maleficent, so he cuts her wings and claimed that she is dead. ULTIMATE BETRAYAL THO!

Stefan marries the princess and later they have a daughter, named Aurora. Maleficent curses this baby in revenge. To protect the baby, Stefan sends her away to live with three bumbling pixies.

The pixies are super incompetent though, so Maleficent ends up watching over the baby and slowly falls in love with the cute lil girl. But Aurora grows up and touches the spindle, fulfilling the curse. Maleficent abducts a prince but his kiss doesn't wake her up (lol). Maleficent says sorry to Aurora and kisses her forehead. Aurora wakes up then.

More fighting ensues, Maleficent gets her wings back, and then it's time for Movie 2.

Movie 2
(Now is a good time to leave this page if you do not want spoilers. It's a movie blog discussion page, not a promotional page haha.)

• Angelina Jolie is so charming to watch. Those cheekbones just got crazier when she's a fey. She really carries the whole movie haha. I feel like Aurora is more of a forgettable character, just a pawn in the game. Not a very likable character also, and less screen presence IMO. It was mostly a battle between the two older women. 

• Chanel told me they changed the male lead. Haha I didn't notice really.
• I felt like one of the warrior dark fey was introduced just for some testosterone and sexual tension for Maleficent lol, I mean look at all the meaningful stares they shared.
• Maleficent is a movie mostly about many female characters, which is nice!
  
  
  
  Sometimes you just get sick of watching shows with men in power haha. As if that doesn't occur enough in real life and most shows.
  
  
  

• Herding the Moorfolk into the church reminded me a lot about Auschwitz T_T Some bigger themes of war explored in the movie. The violence against the poor helpless magic folk though!!! Kind of glossed over by having a quick wedding after a massacre ?!?!?! Is this us being desensitised?
• Tree scene reminds me of Groot.
• The mushroom was really cute omo!!
• Why are the three fairy godmothers so... useless?
• When girls want garden weddings, maybe they really want one that's so magical, with lots of flora, fauna, and butterflies. It was a pretty scene but haha I feel nothing for the couple. Everything just pales in comparison to Maleficent's scenes.
  
  
  

• A BTS shot cuz I thought this pic was super cute!

Movie Rating: 6.5/10

What did you think of the movie? It seems to be more action packed than the previous film, and Angelina Jolie is definitely a joy to watch. Other than that, I can't say I strongly recommend the movie. I think I would love it more if there was more focus on the magic folk - fantastic creatures are super intriguing to me.

Love,
Skye

Looks quite legit at this stage right? I am proud of myself already.

It got real funny cuz the bread rose even more into the oven. Literally rising to greater heights!!

The smell of baked bread wafting through the kitchen= bliss~

Oh my... the inside of the bread was fluffier than I expected! We were as pleased as punch.

Taste wise I only used one tablespoon of sugar and a lil pinch of salt, so the bread didn't have much taste. It is really as advertised - plain white bread! Lol.

Will improve on this and maybe try bread flour or hunt down some whole wheat flour somewhere.


Here's a better look. Our baby bread grew up well :') The bread smelled wonderful too.

The bread is not very easy to slice though, so a bread knife would probably be handy here. The saying 'best thing since sliced bread' comes to mind. We take a lot of things for granted nowadays.

I definitely look forward to baking the next loaf! Maybe a focaccia, considered an easy and forgiving bread for beginners? Hmm.

If you're bored af in Singapore, I recommend baking with your SO, friends, or family if you have access to an oven (or maybe try no bake recipes). It's a fun, rather cheap, and oh-so-very satisfying bonding activity. In the end you still bond over food, but in a different dimension this time since you actually made the food yourselves. Cleaning up is also much more agreeable when you have more pairs of hands! Hehe.

Love.
Skye

Hi guys!

Recently I went to the cafe South Union Park, near Kembangan. It is nestled in a mainly residential area and I thought I was in the wrong area at first!

Location wise, the cafe reminds me of Paddy Hills or Wimbly Lu (Serangoon) kind of cafes, or maybe those in the Siglap area, in a little shophouse kind of outfit.

The place was absolutely bustling on a Sunday, during lunch time, so be prepared! The place is popular with families, couples, and groups.

Food was okay, but oh god the sound management was terrible. In the small echoey space, every group was trying to raise their voice to be heard and it was really loud and difficult to hold a conversation. We got out ASAP once we were done with our food. Hope they can work on their acoustics?! Definitely not somewhere you want to go on Sunday if you're looking for a quiet nook to chill.

We ordered the Duck Confit pasta. It came with strips of duck meat, which was surprising as we are used to being served the entire duck leg for duck confit dishes. Haha. The pasta was okay though! However, we didn't know that they used pine nuts and other nuts in the dish, which was not good news for my friend who had allergies to nuts.

Heya!

During my BKK trip I found several shops in Chatuchak selling dried butterfly pea flowers for tea  (about 80 baht for a small packet). I resisted buying them as a souvenir because I drank this tea before and although its a beautiful blue, it didn't seem to have much flavour to it?

Later I found them even cheaper at a Big C supermarket, so I finally caved in and purchased one!

Here's what they look like:

TBH it does not smell nice, unlike dried roses. I made a face when I opened it.

First minute! Quite funny to be drinking...something blue.

Hmmm. Feeling a little apprehensive about this blue drink.

After a couple of minutes! Not much taste. Rather earthy and clear?

Haha. I googled more and found that I could cause a colour change by adding lemon!

Picture from loveandoliveoil

1. Super Thin Cucumber Slices for eye circles

2. Lemon Juice + Coconut Oil for hair

Personally I do not like the pungent smell of vinegar, so all the apple cider vinegar home remedies are a no go for me. No way am I smelling of vinegar all day!

I once tried out a baking soda and lemon juice combo, but then after I read online that baking soda is pretty damaging for your scalp oops.

I dilute lemon juice with water, then add a lil coconut oil and rub it into my scalp. It supposedly helps to stimulate hair growth and gives you shiny hair too! Don't leave it in though, please rinse after 2-3 minutes because lemon is acidic.

3. Egg white + Tissue Nose Peels

I just get a little egg white whenever I'm using eggs in cooking. I find that the whole egg white is way too much, and since egg white spoils after a couple days, there's no sense wasting so much if you only need a little.

Just dab it onto your nose, cover with a tissue strip, then dab on more egg white. Peel off when the strip hardens! Good for removing blackheads...and hopefully less damaging from commercial nose strips?

What are your favourite home remedies?

Love,
Skye

Heya,



I was drawn to the book for two reasons:

1. I wanted to learn more about how to manage anger
2. I wanted to learn more about Gandhi

The book is very manageable with short chapters and wise quotes from interactions Arun, the writer, had with his famous granddad. They are truly like a trove of moral fables, and there's lot to learn.

Here are the some stories that I enjoyed and want to remember.


Waste is Violence
"Wasting anything is more than a bad habit. It expresses a carelessness about the world and a violence against nature."

In this chapter, the writer throws away a pencil he had deemed too small and short for his use. He asks for money to buy a new one. Gandhi told him to find the pencil. The grandson is horrified as it was dark outside, and he had casually thrown it somewhere along the road. But Gandhi just gave him a flashlight and sent him on his way. 2 hours later, he finally found the little nub of the pencil in the dirt and grass. He brought it home jubilantly to show his grandfather that it was really a small pencil that could no longer be used. But Gandhi disagreed - he said it could still be used for a couple of weeks.

"When we consume too many of the resources of the world, we make them even more scarce for others."

The chapter continues: the world's richest 1 percent control more than half of the wealth in the world. Greed and wasteful habits perpetuate poverty, which is violence against humanity.

I think in our affluent societies we tend to think less about the waste we generate on a daily basis. It's because we get easy access to things we need, and can easily replace something with another. On this note I think about how Justin Bieber admits to wearing his sponsored Calvin Klein underwears just once before throwing them away,  since he had so many. It's very wasteful...

I like how sustainability campaigns help us to be more conscious about generating waste, for me at least. I think small pangs of guilt is better than no weight on the conscience? It's a start.



Passive Violence and Physical Violence
Passive violence is when there is discrimination, oppression, waste or greed. Passive violence fuels physical violence, so if you want to put out the fire of physical violence, you need to cut the fuel supply.

Non-Violence
I wasn't exactly sure about what non-violent methods meant at first, so the examples given were illuminating.

For example, peaceful protests. Gandhi famously led tens of thousands in the Salt March, where he scooped up salt from the mud and defied the British (who controlled the salt and sold it back to the people). They arrested him and many others, but soon the jails were not enough and could not hold everyone.

On a smaller level, the writer shares how he lied to his father. Instead of reprimanding or punishing his son, the father punished himself. Instead of taking the car home a long journey away, the father decided to walk home in penance, to reflect on why the writer decided to lie. The writer was absolutely mortified and drove slowly behind him as the father refused to take the car. He felt sorry for making his father suffer. This is in comparison with the dominant idea where the authority figure metes out punishment, leading to resentment or fear in the child.

Gandhi believed in leading by example. If he can't do it, why expect a child to do the same? If the parents tell their children to reduce their screen time, but do not do so themselves, what message does the child take away?

In Chinese we have this similar idea, 以身作则, from the Confucian Analects. I think it is an important thing to remember.

Money
Many people have the misconception that Gandhi didn't value money. In fact, he was very clear that money is required to fund efforts to lift others out of poverty. He often asked for donations when he visited cities, but used none for himself. He also sold autographs for 5 rupees. Hwoever, Gandhi didn't consider money to be the measure of a person's worth.

"Materialism and morality have an inverse relationship. When one increases, the other decreases."

Gandhi didn't mean that 'it was immoral to earn money, or that there was smething inherently honorable about being poor. He objected only to focusing on material gain to the exclusion of everything else.'

Tolerance
'What could be more condescending than 'tolerating' someone else? The word signals that you see yourself as implicitly more deserving than others but will deign to accept them. I think Bapuji (grandfather) would say that tolerance is not only inqdequate; it alienates us more from each other.'


Other quotes:
"Use your anger for good. It is an energy that compels us to define what is just and unjust."

'The good of the individual is contained in the good of all."

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win."

'You just have to care enough to try.'
What really matters is the power of your beliefs and your willingness to pursue them.

Now I know Gandhi was not a perfect person, he definitely had his own flaws. But I still think there are things we can learn from him! I had fun sharing this post with you, and hoped you enjoyed reading it too.

Spread the word and spread the love,
Skye

Not ugly meh?

Pot number two.

The other areas of the common area have nicer, thriving plants. But this is what you see when you just step in. Lol so anti-climax and uninviting!

So I bought some seeds from NTUC for $1.90 each. I chose easy to plant varieties, pretty blooms, and sun loving plants.

I hope these babies germinate and bloom!

Hope they grow strong! I added broken egg shells for extra fertiliser haha.

I'm also doing a mint cutting and hope to grow more herbs at home! Excited :)

Love,
Skye