Morning detox drink and mid-life crisis

Just came back from an evening walk to the supermarket with some ingredients for a morning detox drink which I have skipped for a week. I started on this diet because my flat belly is disappearing - not sure if it works but I definitely feel healthier. 

Cut up some lemons, oranges, cucumbers and mint and dumped them into ice water and voila, ready to drink the next morning! Feeling good - it can be quite therapeutic to be domestic sometimes. Guess I'm getting old.

Been thinking about how I can spent my weekends better these days. Do think that I spent my weekdays doing meaningful work. As for weekends, well, it's great to just rest after 5 days at work but it does feel like a waste of time sometimes (maybe I'm a workaholic haha).

While I like what I do for a living, it can feel quite meh at times. After all, it's working (and living) for a paymaster. And like it or not, there are times when I wish I am living for myself a bit more. Maybe mid-life crisis came early? Do fellow Gen Ys feel the same? Or is it just me?

Well, time to set some goals and to work towards them in the next 4 years (till my 5-year HDB MOP is up) on weekends. Even if I only spend 4 hours each every Saturday and Sunday on achieving them, that would take me closer to living for myself, right?

Feeling good that I have set the goals. Gonna make some SMART plans to achieve them!

My first one-pan pasta

Been trying to use the kitchen in the new place more. After all, it was half the renovation cost and the kitchen next to the entry way turned out nicely :) Quite ironic for someone who does not cook and lives to eat. LOL.

There's a first time for everything. So today, I made my first one-pan pasta and tried this one-pan pasta recipe by Martha Stewart which I read in The Straits Times a few months back. Quite an easy recipe and pasta turned out quite tasty too. Did not read that it was a recipe meant for four though. Cooked too much although I halved the ingredients. What a waste of food! Lesson learnt - got to read the recipe more carefully next time.

News clipping of the recipe for reference and keepsake.  

Other lessons: for some reasons, it took more than 9  minutes to cook till al dente and the water did not evaporate. Maybe too much water or the pot was too small.  Well, practice makes perfect!

Appetising colours!  

Prepared a mini salad too. That was easy and the third time I did it. Just a toss of some greens, corns, cucumber, honey ham, sesame dressing together. I like the $2 sesame dressing from Daiso - really value for money. Today, I decided to put the honey ham (frozen) into the pot pasta and it tasted much nicer than when it was 'raw'. Maybe cooking it enhanced the taste of the honey? Lesson learnt : Cook the honey ham in future.  

Cooking for one can be quite challenging. Ingredients are usually sold in bigger portions. Take for instant, the basil leaves bought more than a week back. It has turned brown by the time I got down to cooking the pasta. The bag of mini cucumbers are turning mushy too. So perhaps need to pack a homemade salad to office on a weekdays should I decide to cook over 2 weekends...

Life is an adventure

Hi there! Guess the one-sentence journal didn't really work for me. Found it unsustainable - guess my day-to-day life is well, not that interesting. Haha. Am glad I tried though. Otherwise I wouldn't know.

Been to Maldives and Tokyo in January and March. Been some other movements in my life, besides travel.

The first three months of 2017 have been exciting. Not only because it was the first time I stepped onto the soil of both, or rather sand in the former :P I also officially moved into my new place after returning from Maldives in January and moved on in my career life in March. It's not all excitement - there were some apprehension and sadness, leaving familiar places and faces. But cliche as it sounds, life is an adventure. And I am looking forward to new adventures.

Been thinking about blogging for a while. Been trying to sort out the pictures as I really want to blog/press about my trips - still struggling to.  For now, sharing 2 videos.

Maldives is indeed paradise on earth, partly because we stayed in a sea villa (over the water villa as they call it) in Cinnamon Dhonveli Maldives. For four days and three nights, we were waking up and falling asleep to the music of the waves, seeing sunrise right at your doorstep and seeing stars right above you with the sunbed on your back, walking around the resort surrounded by blue skies and waters 24/7 and good company. Very blissed indeed to start the first week of 2017 this way.

Home in Maldives :)

Tokyo was a mad last-minute decision. A break I managed to squeeze in-between my old job and new. It was crazy - booking the flight a week before, accommodation a few days before, putting together the itinerary like 48 hours before, flying off solo a few hours after saying goodbye to my ex-colleagues. Flight and accommodation were ridiculously high - for a flexible traveller like me! Guess it was all worth it for the SAKURA and well, SNOW! Japan and nature decided to give me a bonus in Hakone. I have been thinking about a white winter for a while - this was as close as I could get. Unexpectedly. Very thankful to end the last week of the first quarter of 2017 this way.

Owakudani in Hakone in the first video I made with iMovie!

No travel plans for this quarter yet - will see if I can squeeze a weekend off in June from all the happenings in my new job. Meanwhile, guess I will focus on blogging/pressing about Maldives and Tokyo now that my weekends are less packed, having gotten into the groove of my new life. Can't wait to share the pictures of my adventures :)