If your intention is to come here to dig some dirts about Tiktok/ Bytedance, I’m sorry — There ain’t such of it.
Looking back, yesterday, 08072022 was my official offboarding day with Tiktok Singapore as the project that I was heading has come to an end.
Past weeks (especially the past few days) have been intense and emotional. Getting all the clearance to share the updated product direction to the the existing users (who are already annoyed by the sudden plans) ain’t the easy feat. There were (less) angers, fears, disappointment shared among the community. Went through Round 1 with Partners and now Round 2 with Users.
I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who’s there for me, the team and of course the product. Being the sole headcount for the past 11 months ain’t easy, not everything is a bed of roses. Despite everything has to be done remote but thank god for the opportunity to work with some of the smartest and kindest people in Singapore and across the globe.
I will be taking some time off to spend the crucial days with family this month (so many things have happened concurrently and leaving no breather for anyone) and to work on NextBlock and piggyback in the meantime. And yes, will blog more!
Well, I have my fair share of quarantine orders for the whole month of September due to the fact that I have higher hit rate (4 children attending school at the same time). When I thought I was out from the first quarantine order, I was then slapped with another one and thereafter. All of my friends were telling me that — I was that friends who always tio things relating to COVID-19 and blaa blaa blaa.
And this is not enough. The real stress came when Govt just announced some changes to the COVID-19 routine and also how they are going to deal with the existing, suspecting and at risk cases with the Multi-taskforce Press Conference held on 9 October and the encouragement of home recovery instead.
However, on 10 October, my mum called after I reached home from the dinner from her place, she mentioned – Dad’s ART came out to be positive. She decided to do an ART on my dad after he was coughing and wheezing very badly. He has an underlying conditions with severe childhood asthma since young. So I told my mum to do a test on the rest of the household members (my 90+ grandma, my 70+ uncle and etc) – all cleared and negative and I told her that it could be, the virus is not “awake” yet. Did an ART for the kids, all negative despite No 4 having a bad sore throat.
The very next day, my mum told me she’s down with fever and was vomiting very badly. And the rest was history. All I can remember was — I sent her to hospital, send the elderly to the hospital and then liaising with MOH. Initially there are alot of confusion with the MOH and etc because of the new policies and arrangement. After much frustration, I shifted temporarily back to my mum’s place to take care and isolate myself from the rest.
In the end, due to the fact that we have a 90+ yrs old, 70+ and parents with underlying conditions, we managed to split the arrangement to — bringing back the 90+ to recuperate at home, send the parents and uncle to CCF. Thank god for the PSLE marking days, I got the girls to join me in taking care of my grandma while Sharanne prepare for her exams remotely.
This is the moment that I realised it wasn’t easy to work with intense work, rebuild (family) business, take care of kids, preparing the elder one for exams and take care of a grandma who has dementia. During this period, I gave up a few opportunities (including my sleep) and decide to keep family sanity as priority and everything else. Shall leave the opportunities to fate again.
Thank god for the encouragements and support along the way. What doesn’t kill me made me stronger! And right now all of them are COVID-19 free till 20xx!
As there are rising cases, just pray hard things will go back to the same soon! 🙂
Address: 35 Hougang Ave 3, #01-02, Singapore 538840 (Situated within Hougang Community Club | Open in Google Maps) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luckycatcafesg Payment: Cash, PayNow and PayLah! Operating Hours: Daily, 09:00am – 10:00pm (Kitchen will be closed during 2pm to 5pm on Monday to Friday. Last Order for Kitchen at 08.30pm and for Bar at 09.00pm) Vegan’s Notes: Vegan options available here. Please inform when ordering.
So apparently, I was browsing through Facebook and chanced upon Keith‘s Post on Japanese Vegetarian Cuisine and the bonus – it’s in my old hood and stone thrown from my mum’s. Being a Jap-Food fanatic, I am excited to find out if this place could be my new hangout place other than Teng Bespoke or Herbivore.
As you would have known by now – the parking is fuss free with ample lots at the nearby open carpark at Blk 24, Hougang Ave 3, Postal Code: S530024
Turn into Blk 24 Carpark along Hougang Ave 3
Gentle reminder that you need to enter via the other entrance instead of the one facing the carpark. I love the cafe’s rustic yet ZEN ambience.
Lucky Cat Cafe’s Entrance
It kind of reminded me of some Taiwanese Teahouse (I miss Taiwan!) And the staff are friendly and helpful. Our orders as follows:
#1 Salmon Sashimi – S$4.00
#1 Salmon Sashimi – S$4.00
Not bad! It taste similar across all the other Jap-Veg restaurants. However the soya sauce not sure if it’s personal but it tasted a little sweeter as per compared to other restaurants.
#2 Shitake Cream & Cheese – S$7.00
#2 Shitake Cream & Cheese – S$7.00
The kids love this because it’s a combination of their favourite food – Cheese and Mushroom. The cheese melts at the right temperature and the crisp was fried right. Not sure is this teriyaki sauce but everything just felt on point. On another note – this seems to be the hot favourite as I saw on the Cafe’s Facebook that many couldn’t get their hands on this dish as it was sold out at times.
Sharanne loves all the tempura stuff and didn’t finish up the rice bowl that she ordered and went straight to the snacks. The mini cheese and prawns was her favourite, with the teriyaki sauce – it was a double yums!
THE MAINS
#6 Tofunagi Maki – S$12.00
I must say this dish taste good. R ordered this and the crunch of the cucumber and vegetarian unagi seems to be the best match. The sauce and mayo amplified the taste and bring out the best.
#7 Somen in Hot Broth – S$9.00
For all the Udon fans, I’m so sorry! Because to be honest, I don’t see any of the udon dishes on their menu. Thus the noodle fanatic members of my family went for Somen instead. It tastes like the rice vermicelli though. Not too bad. The fish cake tastes okay but I’m not a mocked meat person so my views tends to be a little bias.
And in any case if you want to have a bite of the local dishes like Hokkien Mee and etc. The good news – they served it at the Cafe. 🙂
#8 Tofunagi Don – S$12.00
Without the crunch of the cucumber but was good in my opinion. I would love to try their Curry Don but it was out of stock when I went over on a Monday night time.
#9 Yangnyeom Monkey Head Mushroom Don – S$13.00
Sharanne ordered this. Took 2 spoons and passed it back to me. It tastes great, although I indicated less spicy I guess my tolerance for chilli is a little O_O. This would be ideal for those who take spicy food. By the way, this is served with breaded and deep-fried White Monkey Head Mushroom coated with a housemade sweet and spicy sauce atop a bed of Japanese rice with some side salad. Enticing right, spicy food lovers?
#10 Cereal Cream Tea – S$6.00
This is gooooooood. It tastes exactly like the Bubble Red Milk Tea. Haha! I heard this is one of the top picks over at their bar. Not sure what’s the content although I read through some reviews that they will serve warm milk and also soy milk (for the vegan friends?).
To me, it’s quite convenient as there is direct bus from Hougang Bus Interchange and for those who drives, there are ample parking lots right at Blk 24 Hougang Ave 3. And in near future, minutes walk from (CR7) Defu MRT Station.
Food wise.
Not bad. But I feel the variety can be better. And given that it has just opened its doors, I believed it’s a matter of time that they will include more dishes. P.S: Please consider udon dishes. Hahaha.
Cost wise.
Reasonable for a cafe-tier pricing. Portion looks good and I didn’t break my bank just to fulfill my Japanese Vegetarian food cravings.
Verdict: Will definitely go again but with COVID-19 Phase 2 still in place, there is limited seating right now due to social distancing. Can’t wait for things to get better next year. I would love to try the Curry Don and will re-order the Shitake Cream & Cheese and the Cereal Cream Tea!
Many had asked me to trade on all sorts of exchanges/ platforms from Binance > Coinbase > Biki and all but ever since Xfers did not continue their partnership with Coinbase. I went ahead and scouted and found a SGD pairing exchange – Coinhako. But why Coinhako?
The answer is simple > Easier to liquidate to/ via SGD and fuss-free to trade.
When I was with the Blockchain company, I used to trade via IDEX and I had to do coin swapping from IDEX then swap out to ETH/ BTC then from there cash out. During the process, I could have innocently spend unnecessary trading fees on gas/ admin and etc.
But on Coinhako, I would just need to Signup > Verify and Link up 2FA > Trade in SGD pairing > Cash out.
Supporting local companies is important and also the comfort trading in SGD.
Xferssupported up to S$5000 in the digital wallet (due to the Payment Services Act 2020) that you can link to Coinhako and trade. However if you are trading from Xfers wallet, the minimum spend is S$550 and transfer can be reflected within 5 minutes of a successful transfer.
Whereas if you trade from Coinhako wallet, minimum buy would be S$10 however depends on the $Crypto you are looking at. Deposits clearance is daily placed in at 10am/ 4pm respectively.
So in summary, good things about Coinhako:
Pairing in SGD
Fuss-free on the Banking & Liquidation Part (Link to SG Bank accounts/ Connect with Xfers)
Local Enterprise #supportlocal with at least 5 years in this business
Great Community via their Official Telegram Groupchat (It’s important to gain some quick insights if you don’t monitor the market and we HODL together.)
Daily “Clock-in” Rewards when you logged into the App and Earn Points.
Points can be offset for % in trading fee (normally 2-times usage of 25% off on trading fee @ 500 Coinhako Points)
Refer-A-Friend and Earn-As-They-Trade
Great UXUI – Price Charts and all.
Once a while, they will organize some form of gatherings. Yay to free drinks~
Since the crypto market is now facing a little dip, I would take this chance to accumulate coins before BTC halving in May 2020.
Welcome to use my referral code: WILLYNN_576906
Check out my $Crypto Portfolio via the Folio tab above. 🙂
Trade well, HODL till it moons!
Update as of 03 Jan 2021; Bitcoin hits all-time-high. LOL Anyone wants tip me, please send via the following $BTC Wallet address at the sidebar. HAHAHA.
Okay, Bitcoin is mooning (yay!), so are the 2019-nCoV cases. Over the past few days, many of my groupchats had been flooded with tons of videos/ messages of nCoV virus news, prevention tips and many more. However I notice a trend that suddenly, everyone become 鼠(su)per duper paranoid, overstoring of:
Surgical Masks
Sanitizers
Dettol Wipes
Alcohol Swabs
And it hit me real hard when my family members started to stop me from going to the mall near home due to suspected case surfacing. Even the paranoid-ness set in with my daughters and it placed me in a dilemma.
I wondered. What will happen to the economy? Ok maybe for the fact that that the purchases of the masks and etc will thrive but what about the others?
To be real honest here, I always feel that we just need to be socially responsible and not overly paranoid, to protect ourselves and to others especially during this time of crisis.
And how should we start?
Do not hoard supplies of the above 4 mentions. Some people might need it more than us.
When sick, do not go out and loiter. Stay home or minimize contacts with anyone. Wear a mask when stepping out.
Practise good daily hygiene. Wash your hands with soap thoroughly. Avoid constantly rubbing of eyes.
Avoid touching handle bars, grips, metal surfaces and then rubbed your eyes/ put it into the mouth. Please note this for the kids.
Drink the daily Vitamin-C and plenty of plain water. Plain water help to flush out the “toxic”.
EAT YOUR GREEN VEGETABLES and less of raw foods and do not go near livestock.
Squeeze/ Cough into tissue paper and fold it in and dispose into the trash bins.
LASTLY, do not spread FAKE NEWS. Get the latest updates from the Government sites. Otherwise sign up with Gov.Sg WhatsApp via: https://go.gov.sg/whatsapp
Take good care of the babies, young children and elderly as their immune systems are lower as per compared. Oh yes and pregnant mummies~
During this time of crisis, we need to really be socially responsible for the benefits of others. Because imagine, if we really hog the masks, practise all the good habits and etc, and someone really sick decide to go out to shop and then we kana. It’s seriously a wtf situation and don’t make any sense at all.
I do understand that everyone will argue about the 14-days pre-hibernation period that the virus might not be detectable but as long we practise the good habits, there is a good percentage that the virus might not spread like wildfire or maybe “killed” by the soap and all before it penetrated into our body/ immune system.
And it really saddened me that some of the people whom I know that needs the alcohol stabs for their medical condition is unable to purchase what they need due to OOS.
On another random note; Oranges are good source of Vitamin-C and thus I used the left over Mandarin Oranges to make fruit juices and ice pops to make sure the kids are well covered with Vitamin C and minimize outings for them.
Mandarin Orange Icepop! 🙂
Ironically, it made us more opportunities to bond together as a family nucleus, because the kids had already planned out what to cook for lunch/ dinner over the weekends as we will be “stuck at home”. Although many times when I passed by Orchard Central and all, there is NO/ lesser crowds.
My hearts goes out to the Business Owners, Patients, Kins of Patients, Frontline Personnels and the people in Hubei/ Wuhan – Bless you all.
Another lesson to remind that we must not take things for granted, heavily emphasized and validated by the Kobe Bryant’s case.
Indifference will result in being a toxic being to self and others.
I once chanced upon this video by Ellen DeGeneres where she tried to seek help after she came out on her sitcom and everyone turned against her. She didn’t have a ring up for years yet she suppressed and won at her own depression to do her own talk show.
She says something along this line; If you feel different and depressed. Don’t worry… because:
“Things will get easier, people’s minds will change, and you should be alive to see it.”
And the above stuck in my head till now.
I decided to keep on trying. Suppressing my own demons within. There is nothing sort of giving up. Trying to find that winning formula through limited time and money but I know I will figure it, outgrown it and finally succeed.
The first thing on my mind is to create an ample runway for budget flow. Everyone have their own stories. Their debts, their commitments and there could be a way to figure something out.
I figure out mine through crypto investing and copy trading (forex trading). I learnt and made a lot of friends through this. And just kept on moving, to grow the pie. It’s a long tedious process but I made it happened. I had never thought I would grow from a Teletext-reader for my dad to a leisure trader/ investor myself.
No one ever thought I would one day become a Semi-SAHM and work from home and created a work-from-home empire. No one. So the key… Taking risks sometimes will lead you to surprises and perhaps, one will get to enjoy the whole process. 😉
Shall pen down more thoughts on my mumtechpreneur journey in my next post. 🙂
I just happened to be busy with all the unnecessary stuff since Christmas and furthermore, Lunar New Year seems to come real quick this year (less than 1 month FROM Christmas) and there is so much to do yet with limited time. And I realized that I did not set down a time to review and do up the resolutions so here I am.
Reviews for the Year 2019:
Changed a new job. Left the Blockchain world for some space and peace.
Completed a Prof. Diploma in Digital Marketing
Begin to spend more time home/ with parents/ with kids.
Begin my journey in leisure Crypto-Investing/ Investment Strategies (for self)
Joined an Accelerator for Piggyback.
Relaunched Scentimental Singapore.
Reorganize my thoughts and launch this space.
Year 2019 had been a year of soul-searching and understand what I want and need. A thorough awakening moment to redefine the core of things.
Year 2020;
<Priority> Less toxicity includes the environment and the people.
Focus on my goals in self attainment for business/ self/ family.
Spend more time with the girls/ family.
Spin-off Piggyback/ Scentimental/ Consultancy.
Achieve S100K
Learning to be a bigger person.
I need to learn to let go in the Year 2020 and by doing so, I held back on my social media postings where I am determined to go for the social media detox for a year and focus on my #willynn2020goals.
Seriously, this could be the only year where I focus on the business and leave the “stable” job for good. I only have 11 months left and my life is still “intoxicated”. I would be finding my winning formula to build my “Work-From-Home” empire and leverage on the gig/ sharing economy where the passion lives.
The weeks had been draining with all the festive peaks and I am grateful for all who gave me a chance and opportunity to prove myself thus apologizing to the inner self whom I had not been taking care much.
I’m back now to pen down these mental notes to serve as a reminder.
Looking back at now. The momentum and vibes had been disrupted but it’s a good lesson learned, “Text has no emotions, and it’s highly misinterpreted by the end receiver.”
Had some great takeaways about life, relationships and also business opportunities made me realized one thing —
“PASSION MADE WONDERS. AS LONG YOU SET YOUR MIND TOWARDS IT. YOU CAN ACHIEVE IT.”
Entrepreneurship is a lonesome journey. Many will be naysayers and put you down terribly.
Powerful Quote – The LION does not turn around when a small dog barks.
I will remember this. Somehow, had been intoxicated with negative emotions and mentally affected but it’s a good learning curve that I get to embrace and learn.
WILLYNN (@hueyytingg) 