Skye Soon

Hey! How's it been going?

I had the opportunity to travel quite a bit in 2024! Very thankful for that. I hope to update more often on this blog!

One of the places we visited this year was Thailand. I haven't been there in ages and got to try out a lot of new restaurants and shopping spots.

Coincidentally, there are so many cute moments happening in Thailand right now. There's the irresistible Moo Deng, the lovely chaotic hippo has taken the world by storm. There are tons of Moo Deng inspired merch when we visited shopping alleys.

Then we also have the wonderful Butterbear~! Butterbear is a pastry shop.

We visited one of their outlets in Bangkok! This is the one in Emsphere. It's pretty small, sitting amidst many other shops in the buzzing food level! I think there's a different outlet (Siam Paragon?) that has a cafe where you can sit and enjoy some pastries, but this one is just a small grab-and-go one with some merch and cookies.

Lots of cookies and tins to choose from!

There were drinks and cute fluffy bags on sale.

These shirts were adorable!

But there are very limited sizes~ Only L if I remember correctly? They were of very soft material~

At the cashier you can also select adorable postcards and stickers!

We left with a shirt, some postcards and a biscuit set! Thanks to my sister for grabbing these - sarang hae~ ♡

Look at this adorable book packaging~! It's a really nostalgic design.

There are four different cookie flavours inside each 'book'.

Here's what it looks like inside:

Not gonna lie, I thought there would be more cookies inside T_T

But at least they survived the flight home!

Clockwise, from the top:

1. Red Velvet

2. Maple Butterscotch

3. Bear's Chocolate

4. Milk Butter Cookie

1.The Red Velvet cookies look intimidating with their red colour, but the flavour was surprisingly good! My second favourite.

2. Maple Butterscotch cookies were small rectangular ones that were... fine. Ranked #3 for me.

3. Bear's Chocolate - my favourite from the four! A decent crumbly melt in the mouth kind of cookie. If Jenny's butter cookies were a 9, these are probably a 7.

4. Milk Butter Cookie - I heard these are very popular, along with the Thai milk tea flavoured cookies? Personally I'm not a big fan of it though. They are not exceptionally crumbly or crispy, neither here nor there for me. They're very light though and that might be appealing to some. Ranked last for me. I'm gonna need more butter in this XD

Honestly it's quite dangerous for me to even go visit these types of shops... cute mascot, cute merch, AND ALL THOSE BUTTER COOKIES? I had to restrain myself. I really applaud how clever the marketing is though! Butterbear has such a cute personality - I wish we got to see her in action at her meet and greet!

We don't have a Butterbear branch in Singapore (yet...). However, recently Butterbear also had a collaboration with Luckin Coffee in Singapore!

You get a limited edition sticker sheet and paper bag with every 2 beverages purchased.

Photo from Luckin coffee's Instagram

There's also a special butter latte drink! Unfortunately I don't know how it tastes because I ordered my usual drink (coconut latte) like a boring person.

Also, there were posters and standees!

You can pose with the lovely Butterbear and get a cute picture! (Did I take a photo with her? Of course.)

The sticker sheets ran out by the time we got there, but I managed to get this adorable cup sleeve!

Stay sweet, Butterbear!

Love,

Skye

Went to watch the movie Trap with my movie buddy Chanel.

Trap (2024)

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan.

We barely watched the trailer and just went for it, because we caught the previous films 'Split' and 'Glass'. Till today I still think about some of the creepy scenes from 'Split'.

What's it about:

Trap is about a father, Cooper (Josh Hartnett), and his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) attending a mega concert. But a notorious serial killer is purported to be attending as well...

How can I talk about this movie without spoilers? I think it's difficult, so let me put up the sign:

SPOILERS EVERYWHERE! Do not continue reading if you do not want to be spoiled.

The movie really kept me at the edge of the seat. The whole movie really makes you feel conflicted right at the get go.

When Cooper starts to exhibit paranoid behaviour, deep inside you, you already start to suspect he's the main villain. The toilet scene where he checks his phone? So creepy. And I'm not even counting when his mother appears.

We really want to root for him, especially because he seems like such a nice, caring dad. He's even awkwardly adorable when trying to use teen lingo. We want him to succeed, and he seems to be smart and alert. At first we give him the benefit of the doubt and wonder if he is just trying to keep his daughter safe when he realises the Butcher is coming...but then he pushes somebody off the stairs. With no hesitation nor guilt.

We start to realise something is wrong, but try to rationalise that. The loving dad can't be the evil serial killer... can he? We marvel at his cleverness but it's also difficult to reconcile being proud of his achievements because we know he has done some bad things. More conflicted feelings for our conscience.

Later on, the confrontation scene between his wife (Rachel, played by Alison Pill) reflects our thoughts during the show: she had a niggling suspicion that she could not ignore, as much as she wants to believe he is not a murderer. After all, who wants to admit that they had a major lapse in judgment and somehow married and had kids with a killer?

Fortunately, her sense of justice prevails. Or perhaps, self-preservation was the motivation? At that moment you also have the cold feeling: where when a person outwits a clever killer, who is more dangerous - the wife or the actual Butcher? (There are also fan theories of how the wife is actually the true killer.)

Who is scarier - a schemer, or someone who gives in to their impulses or voices in their head? To be honest, both are scary to me. The double identity is also something that creeps people out. Can you really know somebody? What happens when you trust someone completely but they are actually... something else?

Turns out gore isn't the true horror - it's the emotional and psychological messing around that really gets you.

The ending just adds to our fear that this isn't over. Would it ever be over? What a tense movie. 😂

Therein lies our fascination with killers. Why are there so many movies and books about killers? I think its the innate curiosity of what drives them to do such a heinous act that draws people's interests. My friend attended a Jack the Ripper tour where they walked you around London at night and used a projector for extra effect. The stories are so horrible but at the same time you kind of want to know all the details. D:

After the show I just had to Google and find out more about sociopaths and psychopaths.

from: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-sociopath-380184

I think Cooper is a clear cut Psychopath!

Yikes.

In conclusion:

Overall a gripping movie, though there seemed to be too many scenes of Lady Raven's performances (probably to boost her actual career off-screen). She was very brave to help catch the killer, but why? What's her motivation? She could have just ran away and called the cops. She was somewhat very invested in this and I would have loved to see more development to the character.

More thoughts:

I have not recovered from the onslaught of superhero movies, so any other genre of movies are a welcome change for me. Anything in excess is truly painful. Everything in moderation is really the best.

Recently I finally allowed myself to listen to I'm Yours by Jason Mraz. It came out in 2008 and absolutely dominated the radio play. You could not escape the song. Well, it looks like I needed only about fifteen years to rest from it and now I can finally listen to it and embrace it without feeling horror. 😂 It has such a good message though.

That's all, folks! Hope you got to watch something interesting recently! Movies are not what they used to be...

Love,

Skye

Hello friends!

Sweeping off the dust here from this humble blog. If you read the title in the melody of Linkin Park's song, we're on the same wavelength!

I'm here today to revive my blog and talk about ennui. 'Ennui' is the French word for listlessness, from lack of excitement. In other words, a general feeling of 'blah' from boredom. Or in Singlish terms, 'sian'.

I've read a lot about this and how to counter it, but the general solution I've gleaned is that you have to keep introducing new activities in your life and break the monotony and routine. New hobbies, visit new places, meet people.

Sounds boring but I guess I have to commit to it!

I used to have a long streak on Duolingo learning mostly Japanese and Indonesian. I also tried Korean but it was very challenging for me. I was so bored the other day I started the Greek course.

It was surprisingly easier than Korean 😮 The alphabet, at least.

by Matt Baker, UsefulCharts.com

I shouldn't have been so surprised because our current script evolved from it after all.

Reading Greek is easier than Korean IMO because some of the letters are 'flipped' (like E, K. N) and you are basically drawing on your experience with English to learn. Korean on the other hand is a completely different beast.

There's only about ~10-15 million Greek speakers, according to Google, so maybe learning a language like Spanish (500-600 million)would have been more practical. But it's just kind of fun to learn it. I know there's Google Translate, AI and all... but isn't it awesome if languages rolled off your very own tongue?

Learning alphabets and sounds!

After doing a couple of lessons on Duolingo, I plucked up the courage to go tackle Korean again. I just find it crazy how Greek is 'easier' to me and I am gasping for air for Korean. Maybe it's a confidence thing.

BTW I don't really feel like doing reviews on this blog anymore, so I'll just post on random topics - hence the term 'lifestyle blog'. It's tiring trying to be 'professional' when all I want to do is share some thoughts! I'll compile a list of 'things to do when bored of life' as well!

Things to do when bored of life

1. Learn a new language (Choose a fun one!)

What language was fun for you to learn? Leave a comment - let's chat.

I think learning an African language would be fun - the stories / proverbs are so interesting!

Hi folks!

Wow, I haven't been on here for ages... let's see if I still remember how to blog!

I visited Scaled by Ah Hua Kelong (nearest MRT: Lavender) twice - once in 2023 with my friends and once in 2024 with my family.

These are photos taken by my sister:

We made a reservation (Dinner Timings available: 5:30pm/7pm/9pm) and were seated in this dramatic and edgy corner. There were also many other families and kids. My dad thought we were going to a zichar place because of the name of the restaurant, lmao.

BTW, if you are not familiar, a kelong is basically a floating fish farm. There aren't many left in Singapore. I once visited one when I was younger. I remember the intense midday heat that scorched my skin, dogs running around the platforms, guarding the kelong, and the owner throwing his cat into the sea to show us that 'cats can swim'. 😅

Back to the main post today.

The starters were fabulous. Let's kick things off with Smoked Seabass Pate (with sourdough bread). Do not confuse this with the other carb option, Flatbread (with Shio Kombu Butter), which was not bad but kind of lacks the wow factor taste wise.

Smoked Seafood Pate ($20) : Sourdough bread, caramelised onion, olive vegetables, pickled garlic shoots

This was so delicious! Mop up every bit of your pate with the bread - or if you run out, the remaining potatoes from the XOXO Potato ($12). The combination of fried-ness and umami from the potatoes was pretty much unbeatable too. So far, what a great start to dinner!

XOXO Potato. Triple cooked potatoes for triple the yum.

We also had some fried calamari with sweet and spicy sauce for a bit of a Korean twist. This side was alright but not spectacular. Would probably skip it if I visit again.

Ojing Eo Gangjeong ($14)

The prawns are not to be missed, however. It was recommended to us to have the prawns without the lemon first. Really enjoyed the char taste of this - the freshness and the sweetness of the prawns were able to shine through so well. No need for lemons indeed~!

Roasted Prawn ($22). Served with seaweed butter and braised kelp.

BTW: The staff here will ask if you have dined here before. If you say no, they will introduce every dish that is served. It's a really nice touch although they tend to rattle off their script real fast because they need to get back to other pressing duties in the restaurant.

Sidetrack story time: I worked part time at a chocolate place when I was younger and was asked which fondue I would recommend. I honestly could not share much because (a) I was a new (b) I have not tasted any of the chocolate products sold. (What a shame! Maybe some of the products were too pricey to be tasted by employees (?) I would have definitely benefitted from a training course that included tasting so I can make better recommendations, but I understand that they don't invest so much time and effort on temporary workers.)

Anyway, my point is that the staff here will try to engage you and this helps to hype you up for the dishes. (Unless you were like my parents and did not listen to a single word the staff said 😂)

Let's get on to the mains.

Seafood Glacé Risotto ($26)

I enjoyed the choice of barley, which had a nice 'QQ', chewy texture with a faint fragrance. Other than that, the sambal(? can't remember) chilli carried the whole dish. I hate to say this but in my opinion this dish is truly 'mid', as the term goes. (Learnt this expression from my young students, lol. I believe it means 'average' or 'so so'. )

Next, we have the Black Bean Pomfret. As you guys may know, I enjoy grilled things so this was definitely up my alley, what with the grilled vegetables and all. As our server staff said, this was topped with 'everyone's favourite: coriander'. Cue chuckles from the table (from whoever whom bothered listening to him).

Black Bean Pomfret ($28)

Next, the Seafood Puttanesca, served with tagliatelle and some fun slices of star fruits.

Seafood Puttanesca ($26)

This dish failed to fully capture any of our hearts, though the fish was fresh and delicious still.

Canton Grouper ($30)

The Canton Grouper was served with a light sweet broth that had a very Japanese feel to it. There were also sweet potato noodles. The sentiment was split for this dish - 2 of us enjoyed it while 3 judged it as 'ok only'. For me, I enjoyed the firmness of the fish and as a fan of noodles, I liked it! The sweet, light broth was also a nice complement to the other more 'roast'-y dishes we had.

In conclusion, the starters and sides were pretty awesome, which made the main dishes feel more of a let down. The overall vibe and experience were still wonderful though! It's was hard to identify an absolute favourite though. Is it bad to say my favourite was the seafood pate + sourdough starter?

I'm also going to add a few notes here from My First Visit in 2023.

Two other dishes we ordered the other time was the Curry Mussels which came with fried mantou. Unfortunately the curry was neither rich, spicy or memorable. Though I do not remember the taste now, I remember my disappointment very acutely as a fan of curries and spicy broths like Laksa.

Some fusion dishes like the LGM Mee Hoon Kueh served with chilli oil paste (lao gan ma?) also failed to deliver the punch that its interesting name suggests, therefore resulting in the impression that it is a gimmick. Oh well. Not my cup of tea (or mee hoon kueh).

TLDR: The main dishes tend to pale in comparison with the stellar starters and sides. Prices are not very wallet friendly but it's definitely a fun place to go to if you want to enjoy fusion food with lots of fresh, tasty fish.

Website: https://www.scaled.sg/menu/

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Scaled by Ah Hua Kelong

8 Hamilton Road
Singapore 209179

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