Day 33 and a trip to Vivo city

Today saw an increase of 753 new cases with 11 cases in the community and 3 permit holders living outside dormitories. Total cases to date is 22460 and 20 deaths.

It’s been a long time since I stepped foot into vivo. Used to go there all the time as it’s just one stop away from my workplace mrt and will always go there for lunch and shopping. How I missed the place now. 

Except for the supermarket NTUC xtra and some eateries, all shops were closed. Noticed some eateries choose to remain closed such as LJS, Bornga etc. 

For dinner, we chose tsuta as they were having 1-1 promotion on their ramen. However, need to order online in order to enjoy the promotion. So we just scan the QR code provided and order through the phone. They have someone there to help u how to order it, just that you can’t order the food on the spot in person. Same for Grams pancake, in fact they have a notice on their entrance that state no more walk-in orders. Have to WhatsApp or order online for the next day order. 😧
We also went Secret Recipe to get some cakes as they are still able to sell it. Managed to get my fave chocolate banana slice and Hubby got a durian formage slice. Took about 15 mins just to wait for them to take the cake out and put it in a box. They have 3 staffs there but they are all lost like sotong and have no idea what to do.....v chaotic and messy. Many ppl are frustrated at having to wait 15mins just to get a slice of cake from the glass counter. It’s terrible....🤦🏻‍♀️

Order their signature shoyu ramen with added onsen egg. The noodle and soup are separated. 

Throw the noodle and ingredients into the soup inside the bowl and viola~ Michelin Tsuta ramen at home!

Love the rich savory taste of the shouyu and truffle taste. The onsen egg was perfect with the yoke oozing out when opened. Yum yum....

Hubby’s present for me as mother day’s gift. It was perfect. Been feeling damn stiff on the shoulders and neck recently and since there are no massage parlors or tuina available during this CCB, it’s the only option.

Sighz....I missed getting a massage.

Day 32 and home cooked fried udon

Today was day 32 of circuit breaker and there was an increase of 768 new cases being reported with 10 cases from the community. Sighz....still the same

Total cases is now 21707 and 20 deaths. 

I did not stepped out of the house at all except to take my dog for a walk for about 5-10mins. Saw a guy half walking half jogging in slippers and staring at his phone at my house downstairs without a mask on. Just becoz it’s ok not to wear a mask when jogging, some ppl seems to take advantage of that fact to go out without a mask. Ya, sure....I can totally understand the need to take a walk ouside and breath some fresh air but at least put on some proper jogging gears. The act is too obvious.

Today’s dinner is home cooked fried udon and I’m the chef. Being researching for this recipe and fine tuning it to use on thermomix. It looked and taste just like hokkien mee. It’s not bad but think I think to reduce the amount of liquid in the dish as it was swimming in a pool of brown gravy. Hubby liked it v much.

Here’s the improvised recipe. Enjoy~😊

Hokkien Mee 

Ingredients:

4 garlic and 4 shallots

1 Chicken breast, sliced and marinated with soya sauce, mirin, sesame sauce, pepper and maggi seasoning sauce.

Cabbage, chopped and sliced 

Carrot, chopped and thinly sliced

Brown mushrooms, quarter

2 packets of udon

Fish cake 

Udon 

Got this frozen sanuki udon pack from Donki. It’s v thick chewy and smooth. Highly recommended! 👍🏻

For the sauce:

4 tablespoons of water

1 teaspoon oyster sauce

2 teaspoons dark soya sauce

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon soya sauce

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil 

1 teaspoon mirin

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon Japanese cooking seasoning (sake)

1 teaspoon corn flour

Procedure:

Add garlic and shallots. Chop 6 sec, speed 6.

Scrap down sides and add about 15g oil. Sauté 4mins at 120 degree Celsius.

Add marinate chicken, cabbage, carrots, mushrooms. Sauté 7mins at 120 degree Celsius in reverse stir.

Try to remove as much liquid as possible from the bowl before adding the udon and sauce.

Varoma 4mins in reverse stir.

Day 31 & home-cooked fine dining by Chef Ham

Chef hubby made sous-vide salmon with homemade hollandaise sauce using thermomix and cheesy Mac & cheese using rice cooker. 

To compliment the dish, he pop opened cloudy bay white wine to go along with it.

Woah~! I haven’t had such fine dining experience for so long..sorrie about the kiddish plates...haha....

It was a success and everything taste wonderful. The salmon was cooked perfectly using thermomix’s soya-vide function. After that, it was pan fried lightly using French butter to give a slight crisp on the outer surface. I love the hollandaise sauce as it does not cover the taste of the salmon, yet giving a creamy rich texture to the food. Yummmy.....The Mac&cheese was made using the recipe from the https://www.instagram.com/p/B-mMkMNn3lP/?igshid=1e6xo0b8233s8
Which I discovered when watching tv, and he was making fried rice using rice cooker. I tried it and it really works and look and taste better than the fried rice I cooked. 

Today is day 31 of CCB and there was 741 new covid cases with 5 from the community. Total number stands at 20939 and 20 deaths.

Day 29 & 30 of CB

Yesterday, there was an increase of 632 new cases and 12 were cases in the community, and 15 were workers living outside dormitories. Still double digits for community cases....☹️

Today on day 30, there was an increase of 788 new cases with 13 cases in the community and 16 workers living outside dormitories. Still in the double digits again....

More healthcare workers were reported to have contracted covid-19 from working at the isolation facility at Expo. How on earth do they get it when they are suited up in their PPE and masks?

Heard someone from hubby’s company got it but he had never been to work since they have been WFH since April. Seriously, I wonder where they got it from??🤔

Total number of cases to date is now 20198 with the death toll at 20.

We have exceeded the 20000 benchmark 😱

Trying punch needle embroidery

Bought this punch embroidery kit from Typo just before this CB started. Been curious to try it out ever since I heard about it from a colleague. Thinking that if Lockdown really happens, this could be a good thing to try out. Lo and behold, the lockdown (CB) really happen a few days after I bought it.

Btw, the plush next to it does not come with the kit. Bought that from Japan a few years ago, thinking it looked cute. Now it look super appropriate for the current covid situation.

After I opened the kit, I found some defects in the items. Firstly, it does not come with the template design although it stated that it has but it’s not a big problem. Secondly, the threader which was this thin wire to help push the woolen thread through the punch needle was faulty. It was broken. The kit cost me $29.90 which was overprice in my opinion. Anyway, I managed to improvise and get the woolen thread through the punch needle and draw my own design on the cloth. After watching a few YouTube videos on needle punching, I started to do my own ‘punching’. 

It wasn’t as easy as compare to what I saw on the YouTube Videos. After trying a few times, I managed to prevent the thread from coming out after punching it into the cloth. However, the cloth keeps moving out of place and becomes loose from the frame after a short time. Now the main problem is the frame. Think it’s not tight enough to hold the cloth in place....

Well, at least I learnt sth new today and it was pretty fun after a while. Can be quite therapeutic punching the needle in as it helps to vent off some steam. 

Day 27 and Day 28

There was 447 cases reported yesterday on day 26. Only 6 were community cases and 10 were workers living outside dormitories. 

Today on day 27, another 657 new cases were reported, bring the total cases to 18205 and 17 deaths. We have also exceeded the 18000 benchmark today. 

The long awaited day for bubble tea to come back had been postponed again. When I saw that yuancha announced that they will be back on 5May after getting approval, the next day or day after, they suddenly announce they could not open for business on 5May from MTI....guess the govt could not make up their minds to let bubble tea open or not until the last min...

Day 24 and 25

Day 24 saw an increase of 528 cases with 9 cases from the community and 31 cases from workers residing outside dormitories. Maybe due to still so many of these work permit holders living outside dormitories, there is an extension of SHN for work permit and S pass holders in the construction sector. Macdonald had also announced that they will not be opened on the 5May as intended and will be postpone till further notice.....most likely no more Macdonald for this month of May.

Today, there was an increase of 932 cases, bringing the total to 17101, pushing past the 17000 benchmark. 22 are work permit or work pass holders living outside dormitories and 5 were local Singaporeans or PR. Total death at 16.