See & Saw @ Straits View

UPDATE: This wonderful place has ceased operation due to commercial license restrictions along Straits View/ Jalan Danga.

Our latest cafe-hopping adventure this time is See & Saw along Straits View, right after M Suite Hotel and Eight Lido.

Located above the main road, the view is splendid, overlooking the Straits of Johor. You'll also hear the Mat Rempits blazing by occasionally.

First view as you approach the premises. I parked at the bottom of the hill and walked up. You can also drive through and park at the other side.

Rustic outdoor seating.

The signature white colonial bungalow structure and design is well-maintained.

On the right side as we approach the cafe. I think this truck bar opens at night. I passed by a few times at night and this place looks magical!

A pet resident... I love this place even more!

The interior. LOVE the arch-way.

Their menu.

 Their cold pressed juices are popular but I haven't tried them yet.

Hmmm, I missed the main course page. Sorry!

It seems that mint chocolate pies/cake is the IN thing now. There's one I would like to try at Bev C.

This one, not bad. I had to order TWO because the boys inhaled them too fast before I could.

Butter Fish Thai Pesto Spaghetti. Good.

Seared salmon and poached egg.

I must say, I was surprised how all the elements on the dish went very well together.

The yellowish puree on the salmon has a heavy garlic taste with a tinge of lemon. The green puree on the left is avocado that went well with the salsa.

The food portion was rather small for the price I paid. The boys were still hungry when we finished, so I told them they can eat Maggi's Hot Cup when they get home. Haha. I did not bring enough RM, fortunately they welcome SGD as well. SGD30 for 2 slices of mint chocolate pies, the spaghetti dish and the salmon dish.

The husband chio me one night to this place after the boys went to sleep.

It's really quite magical at night.

Managed to snap their main course page.

The husband had the beef mushroom charcoal burger. Not bad, he said.

I tried to take a picture but the charcoal burger just looks horribly shitty in the yellow lighting. 

I had truffle fries and a cup of hot mint chocolate.

These are good, you can really smell the truffle.

Would definitely go back again.... after payday. Ha.

UPDATE: This gorgeous little space is now no longer in operation there. As with all the commercial businesses along Straits View. 

SangKaya, Kone and Evangelione @ Jalan Dhoby/Tan Hiok Nee

I absolutely adore an outing at the old town. It's just so quaint with a good mix of retro and modern cool hippiness. I still dream of owning a little shop there one day.

It has become sort of like an ice-cream haven there. I SCREAM FOR ICE-CREAM!
The signs of global warming are: SangKaya, Kone, soft-serve By Grace and TIP, The Ice-Cream Project. And what's fabulous is that they are all different and special in their own way.

We tried SangKaya at Mount Austin previously, and now there's another outlet at Jalan Dhoby. But of course!

Simple, minimal, rustic industrial interior.

Then for the first time, we tried Kone.

The basic chocolate. With dry ice smoky effect.

The Macho. Green tea soft serve with Japanese dango, azuki beans and 'corn flakes'. This is my favourite.

The Henna. Chocolate soft serve with lava molten cake, bits of brownies and passion fruit puree.

A nice private little area, but it's hot there.

After soft serve overload, we ventured to my favourite little shop, Evangelione.

Some treats for mua. Precious postcards.

Her miniature project. You should really check this out, her blog post on this amazing miniature atelier.

Hmm, it looked like there was a break-in. Haha.

Evangeline's bunny in the display shopfront.

If you ask me, it's a perfect date. I'm happy as a bunny with carrots.

Our CNY 2016

I think the highlight of our 2016 CNY will forever be the house break-in we experienced.

But that aside, we did have a good one.

We spent almost 4 days in Seremban, the husband's hometown. In short...

1. Brought our ASTRO decoder and card but found out it didn't work. So, no cable TV, no DVDs, no WIFI. Like temple.

2. I cooked. And cooked.

Simple reunion dinner.

Hakka Tza Yoke.

Braised Hakka Tza Yoke with black fungus.

My all-time favourite pig's trotters in vinegar.

Cabbage and wood ear mushroom cooked in fermented beancurd.

First time trying A1's Abalone Instant Noodle. WITH ABALONE. REAL ONES!

 It's G.O.O.D.

3. Since there were no electrical entertainment, we trekked a nearby hill.

Thigh muscles were aching after that. The boys trekked two consecutive evenings. They said it was like an adventure. To me it was military training. 

We headed home on the 2nd day. Back to a messy home, but at least there is WIFI and cable TV. Hah.

I hope you had a good one!

New Mac

Old Mac Pro robbed. 

Sad.

Wait for credit card replacement.

Wait.

Wait.

Get replacement credit card.

Order 13" Macbook Pro with retina display.

Receive Macbook Pro within less than 24 hours. YAY!

Turns new Mac on. 

"Why are the photos on my blog and on my Etsy shop blurry?"

Oh no...

*trying to figure it out*

The Monkey Year

Sigh... monkey already turned my house upside down.

On Tuesday, the 2nd day of the Lunar New Year, we came back to JB and found our house was broken into.

The first tell-tale sign was the auto-gate, slightly tempered with, as if someone tried to force it open. While the rest waited outside, the husband climbed over the wall fence and did a cautious surveillance.

The iron grill at the window was removed. Uh-oh. This is bad.

He couldn't turn the electricity back on no matter what. Then he found the cable at the meter box loosened. After reconnecting the cable, the electricity came back. Smart fellas. CCTVs would be shut off, if we had one.

And so, we found mess after mess, in each rooms.

Our bedroom was quite a mess. My closet was rummaged wildly. My wallet containing ONE Singapore UOB credit card, and ONE bank ATM card was gone, along with some cash.

Clothes were on the floor, except for the hanged ones.

My chest of drawers for keeping my bags collection was opened. Almost all the bags on the floor. I bet the robber was hoping he'd find some Hermes, Birkin, Prada or Gucci. All he could find are handmade zakka bags. Sorry dude. Hey, handmade also got high value OK.

OK, I will not divulge about how much we lost because we are in the midst of an insurance claim procedure. Bless my dad, he bought home content insurance. Well, we are still not sure how much we can recover.

The most valuable thing that was stolen, was my MacBook Pro. *sob* That's why I can't upload any photos yet. It was more than 5 years old but still working perfectly. Thank goodness I backed up my stuff. Especially my designs.

My craft room. Guess what the robber took. A collection of my plastic beads. Don't ask.

Maybe they look like precious gems.

This could be by far the most tedious place to rob. Because I can see the poor fella gave up halfway. After rummaging a few boxes containing a collection of pretty notebooks, envelopes, cards, paper, fabric and NOTHING WORTH MONEY, he probably went "Waste my time only!"

We cleaned up pretty quickly. This was a fairly cheap lesson for us to learn. NEVER be complacent! Our neighbourhood has been the safest so far... well, never say never!

The next day, the husband found an unfamiliar umbrella at the side of our shoe cabinet. So he opened it and found the tool used to pry our window.

I just pray and hope karma comes to the robber.

Tutoring....

I have been buying a lot of workbooks for my boys to do after they come home from school.

*evil mom*

I have to. Daniel's Bahasa and Darren's Chinese are atrocious.

Malu if they say they are Chinese Malaysians.

And God Bless Facebook and my friends who posts pages and links for primary school related learning materials.

I also made my own English worksheets.I searched a few grammar websites, compiled and created my own questions. Felt so accomplished!

So, every weeknights before I sleep, I check their work and for Daniel, I'd explain his mistakes and corrections by writing it on the workbook. Something like texting, but on site. Hahaha. Then I assign him new pages to do for the next day. And on weekends, I try to tutor them in person.

So these kinda occupy my craft station now. I have not been crafting lately, so no pretties to show and tell for now .

The only craft I have been busy with is designing rubber stamps. So far so good!

Huat ah!