One month on

This is what I have been trying to do everyday since I got to Adelaide. This whole moving countries and draining my entire savings thing still scares me. Considering that the course and the culture is still new to me, I still get intimidated on an almost daily basis and am out of my comfort zone for most of the time. But I'm trying to just enjoy the journey and breathe, and to always always keep the goal in sight! 

Writings from another land

Exactly a month ago, I packed the last of my items for a new adventure in a new country. The act of dumping and arranging clothes to fit into the rectangular confines of the luggage signified a consolidation and the beginning of an unknown step in another totally different direction.

And now here I am in beautiful Adelaide, studying for my Masters degree in an area that I truly feel passionate about. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I doubted my decision or cried at the strangeness of things. But I can only look ahead and keep the desired end in mind. A stagnant career in a office job just did not suit me and drove me close to depression. So I am glad I decided to make the move even if it means leaving behind a stable income and starting my career all over again. 

The monthly night market

Despite my initial concerns about the city and the idea that most have of Adelaide as a boring place, I'm growing to enjoy the place and the many great neighbourhoods around South Australia. I can't wait to share more about my little adventures on this space! Until then!

View from my new home

A new adventure

The part time wanderer is currently a full time student in an exciting new place!

I am slowly settling in and finding my routine, so any updates will come at a later date. Although I am living off my savings until I find a casual job, I still hope to continue travelling and exploring the beautiful country in between school.

Cafe hopping in Georgetown

Before going on about street food in Penang, my inner caffeine and cake addict would like to write a post about cafe culture in Georgetown.

I've since grown tired of Singapore's increasingly pricey and crowded cafe scene and have returned to traditional coffee shops for my caffeine fix. But I still very much enjoy experiencing the cafe culture overseas, especially when a cup of coffee and a slice of cake are much more affordable. 

Besides being a trendy and gorgeous neighbourhood, Georgetown has plenty of cafes to choose from and in our short two days there, we managed to visit three lovely coffee places. 

While looking for Behind 50 and subsequently discovering that we were way too early since it only opens from 6pm, we stumbled into a charming place, Cafe 55. The place, which would probably do well as a part time art gallery, specialises in presenting cups of coffee topped with 3D latte art. Besides the cute coffee, the cakes were amazing too. The lemon/orange cake delivered a refreshing burst of citrus goodness to our sunburnt selves.

After a short rest, we trooped on to check out the street art around Armenian Street and settled on the amazing China House. This was my favourite cafe of the lot. We were spoilt for choice at the selection of cakes and spent the most time sitting around chatting and reading its eclectic selection of available books. Before setting off to feed our hungry stomachs, we were pulled into a short film festival of sorts upstairs. 

The next day, we went in search of siphon coffee and cakes baked by the Le Cordon Bleu trained owners at Été cafe. The friendly shop assistant taught us about brewing and enjoying siphon coffee and pairing the flavour with the available cakes. While it was a charming little place, we were slowly turning into mosquito feed!

The food is better on the other side?

Ever since my first plane ride out of Singapore, I've always lamented being "stuck" in my regimented and 99% man-made country (that probably sparked my insatiable desire to see the world). Yet when I recently read a post written by a former expat who quit the country and the subsequent comments left by readers far and wide, I was left blurry eyed and burning with a fierce sense of patriotism (or maybe it was just my emo-nemo self bursting forth). But! This post is not about my struggle to keep from crying in the train (!) It is about my love and hankering for street food across the border, even when my country prides itself on its food. 

A few weekends ago, I hopped onto a plane for two days in Penang. Our main priority was eating our way through Georgetown at a leisurely pace. And boy did we have a feast! It was street food at its best and Penang quickly won my stomach over!

I stubbornly refused to eat anything at home and promptly regretted it when my stomach began churning in hunger while up in the air. Once we arrived and checked into our hotel, I herded my girlfriends out in search of the traditional charcoal toasted kaya bread with soft boiled eggs in a narrow alleyway. Tradition never tasted so good! I loved the crispy toasted bread that won our home grown Yakun just by its simplicity and authenticity.  

Greed took a firmer hold on us when the nasi lemak seller delivered a tray of piping hot packets of soft fluffy goodness to the alley. It was simple - consisting of just kickass chilli, hard boiled egg, ikan billis and rice - but done to perfection. 

Breakfast was quickly washed down with fragrant cups of coffee. This first taste of Penang street food left our stomachs wanting. 

Why we fear silence

Silence remains a rarity in a world that chatters on ceaselessly. It is wonderful when friendship progresses to the point where friends are truly comfortable resting in each other's company in silence, without the need for mindless chatter or to turn to digital distractions.

As we move swiftly and surely into the digital age, we are increasingly confronted with distractions. Indeed, it has become common to see people whipping out their phones when out with friends or loved ones when real life conversations slow momentarily. The quiet moments between friends are shattered by the constant need to fill the void by checking emails and social media, or typing texts to distant bodies. Why can't we just sit in each other's presence?

In my pursuit of a change in careers, I've signed up and attended night classes in subject matters that are related to my areas of interest. My final class was in counselling where we explored the value of silence in therapy. It seems counter-intuitive to use silence in a session that clients pay to attend. Yet I have learnt that the strategic use of silence can be immensely powerful.

Silence is not a void but a space for consolidation, reflection and growth. It allows for deep reflection, and when afforded to someone in crisis, communicates understanding, consideration, and patience - a treasure in our ongoing race for time. 

Recently, I've also came across a post about why God is silent. A friend opined that this silence could be for us to reflect and come up with our own solutions. I have moved on from being religious but can definitely see the value in such an opinion. It is like in person-centred therapy where the counsellor provides a therapeutic relationship and believes in the client's potential for growth and transformation. Isn't finding solutions when one is stuck a sign of maturity? 

As an introvert, I greatly appreciate such moments of solitude and silence. How can you know what to do and where to go, when you haven't taken time to be still and really think? 

Orange and chocolate chip scones

Breakfast is my favourite part of the day, and even if I wake up at noon on the weekends, I will still choose to have breakfast food with a steaming hot cup of tea. So imagine my disappointment when I checked the kitchen for food to bring to work for Monday's breakfast and found nothing.

Thankfully, the kitchen is well stocked with ingredients for baking due to my penchant for baked goods. So I searched for some recipes online and decided on orange chocolate chip scones. I developed a taste for scones while on a semester exchange programme in Leeds, UK and really miss having scones straight from the oven.

Ingredients
2 cups of all-purpose flour
150 ml of milk
60 g of butter (cold and in small pieces)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
Juice and grated peel of one orange
Handful of chocolate chips

Directions
Measure butter and set it aside in the freezer then pour the grated peel and orange juice into milk. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Quickly grate butter into the dry mixture using a cheese grater (this makes rubbing the butter in quicker and prevents the butter from melting). Make a well in the mixture and slowly pour the wet mixture into the well, stirring to mix it until it becomes dough-like. Stir the chocolate chips into the dough and place the dough mixture into the fridge for 5 minutes.

Use an ice cream scoop to scoop individual scone portions onto a floured tray surface. Place scones into the oven (200 degrees celcius) and bake for 15-20 minutes.

This is a quick and easy recipe and I could not help myself from gulping down one freshly baked scone despite being really bloated from dinner.