Tuesday, 2 June 2015 - When I was a grad student I picked up a habit of prepping my own meals each weekend, cooking 2 or 4 meals at a time and freezing them for lunch the week ahead. I did this mostly to save a bit of money, although I also appreciated not having to tussle with the lunch crowd in school. It was a habit I would continue more or less until I started working. I wasn't quite able to keep it up after. Maybe I no longer felt like I needed to live on quite so tight a budget. Or maybe I enjoyed eating with colleagues. From time to time I've found myself wanting to get back into the habit, but I've never been able to.
", "image": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/media/posts/19/02-Jun-2015.jpg", "author": { "name": "Kevin" }, "tags": [ "Food" ], "date_published": "2026-06-02T22:33:35+08:00", "date_modified": "2026-06-02T22:33:35+08:00" }, { "id": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/motel-one-manchester-piccadilly/", "url": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/motel-one-manchester-piccadilly/", "title": "Motel One, Manchester Piccadilly", "summary": "Sunday, 1 September 2024 - In 2024 I travelled to the UK…", "content_html": "Sunday, 1 September 2024 - In 2024 I travelled to the UK to hike in the Yorkshire Dales, and later to attend a conference in Ghent in Belgium. I arrived first in Manchester, a direct flight from Singapore. My hotel was right next to Manchester Piccadilly. The view from my room was not the most inspiring, but the room itself was comfortable enough.
\nI don't really have anything else to say. I don't know why I chose this of all photos. Maybe precisely because it is so deeply uninteresting.
", "image": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/media/posts/18/IMG_7299_v1.jpg", "author": { "name": "Kevin" }, "tags": [ "UK", "Travel" ], "date_published": "2026-06-01T22:13:28+08:00", "date_modified": "2026-06-01T22:13:28+08:00" }, { "id": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/starbucks-marina-square/", "url": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/starbucks-marina-square/", "title": "Starbucks, Marina Square", "summary": "Friday, 1 June 2012 - Back when I was in university, and…", "content_html": "Friday, 1 June 2012 - Back when I was in university, and I think for a few years afterwards, one of my favourite things to do was to sit in a cafe in the city for a few hours and read a book. There were a few places I liked to do this. One of them was a Coffee Bean at Millena Walk. The other was a Starbucks in Marina Square. The former I would sometimes meet my mother at for coffee during her lunch break, and then after she went back to work I would stay, and sit for a few hours more with my book. The latter... I think I started going because one day I went with a friend of mine from National Service. We were just hanging around Marina Square and stopped by there for a drink, and afterwards I kept going back, because it was a good spot to people-watch from, as well as to read.
\nThe Coffee Bean at Millena Walk is gone now. Since 2023, apparently. My mother has since retired as well. The Starbucks in Marina Square closed for a while, but re-opened again in the same spot. I walk past it sometimes during my own lunch breaks. I haven't really been back since.
\nIt's not really something I do anymore: sitting in cafes to read. Maybe nowadays cafes feel a little too crowded to be sitting in for hours at a time. Or maybe it's just that I have to be a lot more careful with caffeine now. But I miss those days.
", "image": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/media/posts/17/Photo-1-6-12-13-56-23.jpg", "author": { "name": "Kevin" }, "tags": [ "Singapore", "Nostalgia" ], "date_published": "2026-06-01T22:07:31+08:00", "date_modified": "2026-06-01T22:07:31+08:00" }, { "id": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/nakatsugawa-shi-guesthouse-tenman-ya/", "url": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/nakatsugawa-shi-guesthouse-tenman-ya/", "title": "Nakatsugawa-shi, Guesthouse Tenman-ya", "summary": "Sunday, 17 November 2025 - When I was a kid, and up…", "content_html": "Sunday, 17 November 2025 - When I was a kid, and up to when I was a teenager, I used to travel with family to Japan all the time. Once every two years, almost. And then at some point we stopped. I don't really know why. Maybe with NS, and then with university, it got harder. Or maybe we just felt like we were a little too old and wanted to go off travelling on our own, or with friends. My siblings ended up travelling with my parents to Japan again in their late 20s and early 30s, but I didn't really join in again until finally I did, this one occasion. I don't know what prompted it. We decided to walk the Nakasendo, in Gifu prefecture.
\nWhile there we stayed two nights at this guesthouse I'd booked in Nakatsugawa called Tenman-ya. Honestly it looked like a pretty regular, modern guesthouse to me when I booked it, with capsule-style beds even. So I was pretty surprised when we arrived and found it was actually built into a traditional wooden building, with wooden floors you took your shoes off to walk on, and an outdoor inner courtyard you had to walk through to get from the living room to the bedroom. It was really nice, and I'm glad we had decided to spend two nights there, because it really gave us the opportunity to enjoy the space. One of the few places I genuinely felt sorry to leave.
", "image": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/media/posts/15/IMG_1369_v1.jpg", "author": { "name": "Kevin" }, "tags": [ "Travel", "Japan" ], "date_published": "2026-05-04T08:43:48+08:00", "date_modified": "2026-05-04T08:43:48+08:00" }, { "id": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/afternoon-tea/", "url": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/afternoon-tea/", "title": "Afternoon tea", "summary": "Sunday, 4 May 2015 - Towards the end of my full-time National…", "content_html": "Sunday, 4 May 2015 - Towards the end of my full-time National Service stint, I started attending French lessons at Alliançe Français, and made some nice friends there. I don't know what prompted this, but one day two of them gave me a tea infuser, as well as some tea leaves. That sort of sparked off a low key interest in tea that continues to this day.
\nThis photo was taken 3-4 years after the event. I ended up using that same tea infuser for years. Eventually I even brought it to the graduate student office with me when I was doing my MA. In those days I drank so much tea I actually got acid reflux, without understanding what acid reflux was or suspecting that the tea might have been the cause of it. All I knew was I had a lot of work I needed to get done, and the tea helped. Really quite silly.
\nAt some point the slits in the glass infuser started to get chipped. I think it was sort of inevitable, the thing being designed the way it was. And so then I threw it out.
", "image": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/media/posts/14/03-May-2015.jpg", "author": { "name": "Kevin" }, "tags": [ "Lost Objects" ], "date_published": "2026-05-04T08:35:15+08:00", "date_modified": "2026-05-04T08:35:15+08:00" }, { "id": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/hita-shi-kizantei-hotel/", "url": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/hita-shi-kizantei-hotel/", "title": "Hita-shi, Kizantei Hotel", "summary": "Wednesday, 12 November 2025 - It was nearing the end of my…", "content_html": "Wednesday, 12 November 2025 - It was nearing the end of my solo trip to Kyushu. I had only four nights left. This night I stayed at a hotel in Hita city, in Oita prefecture. I had splurged a little on this hotel. It came with a traditional kaiseki dinner and breakfast, and a private onsen which you could book, which I did. The room itself was supposed to have been a cheaper one. That was the compromise I'd made: a cheap room in an expensive hotel. It was meant to have internal-facing windows, with a view only of an inner courtyard, or something. I guess they must have given me a free upgrade, because I arrived in my room and was greeted by this lovely view of the Mikuma River, and across it the Takase district of Hita, with its psychiatric hospital, the 大分友愛病院 Ōita Yūai Byōin.
\nI'd spent the day exploring the city, particularly the Mamedamachi district, with its elegant Edo period town houses and shopping streets. I'd shopped a little for the famous Onta-yaki stoneware, made in the village of Onta in the mountains to the north, which I'd wanted to visit, but couldn't for lack of sensible transport options. But the hotel itself was its own attraction, and after a brief walk along the Mikuma River I returned to enjoy the onsen, and then to watch the sun set over the river and the faraway mountains. I could not have asked for a more beautiful evening.
", "image": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/media/posts/13/IMG_6211_v1.jpg", "author": { "name": "Kevin" }, "tags": [ "Travel", "Japan" ], "date_published": "2026-05-03T12:07:46+08:00", "date_modified": "2026-05-03T12:07:46+08:00" }, { "id": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/table/", "url": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/table/", "title": "Table", "summary": "Thursday, 3 May 2018 - I don't know for certain why I…", "content_html": "Thursday, 3 May 2018 - I don't know for certain why I took this photo, or what the focus of it was. The fact that there are all these pails stands out to me. Could that be why? Or is it something to do with the wooden table?
\nThis table is gone now. We threw it out at some point. I don't remember exactly when. If we still had it when we renovated the house in 2023, we would have gotten rid of it then, but it's possible it was already gone before.
\nThis table had been with the family for decades. I remember it as a child. It was in the living room. It was the table we spent most of our time playing on. It was a sturdy table, made of solid wood. I remember my siblings and I ate dinner at it. I don't remember if it was our regular, children's dining table, or if we only used it sometimes. But I remember it was our table. It was the kids' table. I remember playing with Playdoh on it, kneading the dough on the table, getting it really embedded in the wood, needing to scrape it off with a ruler leaving behind some oil or some moisture from the dough, which would stay on the table forever it seemed.
\nI remember as an adult coming to accept that it didn't make sense for us to keep it, and that we had to throw it out, thinking that it was a pity because tables like this made of solid wood were harder to come by now, and so expensive. But there was just no room for it in the house, and we hadn't used it for years. Maybe I took this photo shortly before or after then, to remember it at least, when it itself was gone forever.
\nThank you, table.
", "image": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/media/posts/12/IMG_3009.jpg", "author": { "name": "Kevin" }, "tags": [ "Nostalgia", "Lost Objects" ], "date_published": "2026-05-03T11:49:51+08:00", "date_modified": "2026-05-03T11:51:04+08:00" }, { "id": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/morning-walk-kirkenes-norway/", "url": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/morning-walk-kirkenes-norway/", "title": "Kirkenes, Norway, behind the customs office building", "summary": "Thursday, 23 January 2025 - It's become a habit of mine that…", "content_html": "Thursday, 23 January 2025 - It's become a habit of mine that whenever I travel with family, I wake up earlier than everyone else, sometimes hours earlier, to go for a walk by myself, wherever we happen to be staying. I do this to make up for the fact that, during the day, spending time with my family, I don't often get to see or do or explore as much as I would like. And yet I do want to spend time with my family.
\nThis was my first morning in Kirkenes, in Norway. We'd arrived on the Hurtigruten ferry the day before, and I hadn't yet had time to explore the city much on my own. It was cold. The ground was frozen, and to get to this spot, to take this photo, I'd had to shimmy my way down a really icy road, grabbing railings and street signs along the way to steady myself, as the road itself lay on a slope. It was really calm and really peaceful, and only the few cars on the main road and the lights on in this boat hinted at any activity.
", "image": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/media/posts/11/IMG_6730.jpg", "author": { "name": "Kevin" }, "tags": [ "Travel", "Norway" ], "date_published": "2026-05-02T12:09:58+08:00", "date_modified": "2026-05-03T12:14:19+08:00" }, { "id": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/thomson-nature-park/", "url": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/thomson-nature-park/", "title": "Thomson Nature Park", "summary": "Monday, 2 May 2022 - I've tagged this photo \"COVID-19\" because it…", "content_html": "Monday, 2 May 2022 - I've tagged this photo \"COVID-19\" because it was taken in May 2022, when some COVID restrictions were still in place here in Singapore, but they would have been tapering off. Nobody in the photos I took this day was wearing a mask, maybe because by this point masking up had been made optional outdoors.
\nI have only vague memories of this day. May Day that year fell on a Sunday, and so the following Monday was designated a Public Holiday instead. My parents, siblings, and my mother's sisters and their families, went for a walk in Thomson Nature Park, and then later the bit of Upper Peirce closest to MacRitchie. Thomson Nature Park had been relatively new then. I don't think it was my first time there, but it might have been theirs.
", "image": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/media/posts/10/IMG_4829.jpg", "author": { "name": "Kevin" }, "tags": [ "Singapore", "COVID-19" ], "date_published": "2026-05-02T11:59:46+08:00", "date_modified": "2026-05-02T11:59:46+08:00" }, { "id": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/izumo-shi-otsumachi-just-south-of-kandachi-bashi/", "url": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/izumo-shi-otsumachi-just-south-of-kandachi-bashi/", "title": "Izumo-shi, Ōtsumachi, just south of Kandachi-bashi", "summary": "Thursday, 26 March 2026 - When I look back on my travels,…", "content_html": "Thursday, 26 March 2026 - When I look back on my travels, it's scenes like this one I worry most about forgetting: a narrow asphalt path, receding in a straight line into the distance, a grassy embankment on one side, some houses on the other, and no recogniseable landmarks to tell you where this might be. The sky is a bright blue. There is a scattering of clouds. It's a beautiful day, just like so many other beautiful days.
\nThis photo was taken as I rode my bicycle into Izumo, having cycled all the way from Matsue. My journey wasn't over yet. I had to make my way through Izumo-shi itself, all the way to the other side of the city, following a narrow river until I arrived at the sea of Japan coast, then riding northward to Inasa Beach, and finishing at Izumotaishamae Station.
\nWhat you don't see in this picture is the relief I felt, mixed with uncertainty and anxiety. I had to arrive at Izumotaishamae by about 5pm, to catch my train back to Matsue. It was now 2.30pm. I had ridden several hours already to get here. I was tired. Prior to this I had been able to cycle quite quickly, the last 10km or so on a dedicated bicycle highway. From here on, though, I would be riding through the city, on its streets. How quickly would I be able to go. I had to be careful not to bump into any pedestrians. There would be traffic, and traffic lights. The end didn't seem close at all on the map. Would I be able to make it?
\nI did, eventually. With just a little bit of time to spare. But my anxiety had not been misplaced. Those last couple of hours were the slowest and most tedious. Stopping and going and stopping and going. They don't tell you this in the brochures. What a strange person I am, to seek out experiences like this.
", "image": "https://blog.wanderingfool.sg/media/posts/9/IMG_2201.jpg", "author": { "name": "Kevin" }, "tags": [ "Travel", "Japan" ], "date_published": "2026-05-01T12:28:59+08:00", "date_modified": "2026-05-01T14:44:58+08:00" } ] }