New Phase of Life - Semi Retirement

Earlier in this year of 2026 I've decided to embark on a new phrase of life by quitting the corporate world. It was not a hasty decision but rather one made after much consideration. It took almost two years to prepare for this change.

Nope it was not nasty bosses nor because of any retrenchment / redundancy at the workplace; I had the good fortune of meeting many supportive bosses and colleagues. You could say that it is both a bit of a push factor as well as pull factors of planning ahead. The push factor was simply burnout from years of corporate life where the projects and work scopes are simply... not interesting anymore. I caught myself during pessimistic moments of being a naysayer when evaluating many colleagues' proposals, while on hindsight I would say, why not give the projects a try? Just simply because I had seen many failed examples of similar projects shouldnt mean that these new proposals would go down the same doomed path. Those moments were minor but clear indications that perhaps I should re-examine my place in the corporate world.

Likewise I had asked myself if I should financially plan for recurring income for retirement, a process that would take quite many many months. Eventually it lead to a moment when I decided to give "barista FIRE" a try. So here I am, away from a full time work phrase into this somewhat new, strange and admittedly frightening phrase of "retirement". The word is "retirement" because if it doesnt work out I might go back to the work force at some point. 

So far so good I guess - I have time for long evening walks and literally touching grass. It is nice to pause and look at flowers & wild animals, instead of daily brisk walks between meeting rooms. It is also nice to catch up with old friends and visit places that I had not been to for a long while.

Flowers

Squirrel

The occasional visits to the library, and many "free" hours to simply spend on hobbies are truly refreshing after tiring decades of powerpoint works and workplace negotiations. Waking up without the need to accommodate any meeting schedule is... nice.

Making bread

I am not sure how long this phrase of life would last before I get bored or if I need to be financially active again due to some unforeseen events. Maybe give it 6 months and I would find a more meaningful use of my free time. Along the way I should plan for more exercises and maybe a better  / healthier dietary programme :)  

 

Lego Shophouse Experience - Orchard (ended)

The Lego Shophouse Experience that started since mid March 2026, located at the 2nd floor of Design Orchard, has ended today (4th April 2026). It was a great exhibit of the different Lego pieces and definitely drew some crowds of Lego fans. Centering around the "shophouse" theme, there was a signboard carved with the Lego name in Chinese characters, inked with gold paint, right at the entrance of the exhibition pop-up. 

Personally I enjoyed the short but interesting exhibit (couple of rooms). There was proper crowd control by the Lego staff, with fun enough activities e.g. that post card activity with 6 stations for "chopping" different colour inks to form a picture, that helped to engage both the fans and whichever friends they brought along for this visit.

I like that Peranakan theme too, since that is something unique to this part of the world. The featured wall at the entrance formed from Peranakan mosaic tiles gave a good classy touch that fitted well with the Shophouse theme. Oh, those who managed to complete the postcard stamping activity could also claim a free Lego mosaic set (while stocks last). Pity I didnt manage to get a set.

It was also good that Lego featured some pieces from their fans e.g. this Nespresso Machine Piece besides their usual impressive sets e.g. the Marvels and the Star Wars. 

If that is anything that is not to mark, I would say that the "sales area" is somewhat small and located across the junction at the Takashimaya side (i.e. diagonally across). Maybe some unique sales sets right at the exhibit areas at the Design Orchard side would have been great (yah I know there is a much bigger Lego store).

Christmas Tree Decoration using recycled materials

Happy New Year 2026! Every time when I stepped into the new year, I would have thoughts about what I can do, or do better in the new year, aka new year resolution. Among these thoughts would be a renewed effort to save the environment. This is sometimes ironic because December is a time for celebrations, and normally there would be excesses, be it food (buffets, pot lucks etc) or others like gift wrappers.

This time round, post Christmas, I have decided to reuse a few of the items and make a Christmas Tree decorations that I can definitely use in 2026. I had recycled that Nespresso capsule, i.e. one with a nicer design. Not much effort there except to dig out the used ground coffee and clean that aluminum capsule (the ground coffee is visible in the background). I had to widen that three holes in the aluminum capsule as a prep for the next step. The next reused item is a Christmas log cake deco piece with three round red "berries" and golden leaves. Finally I scraped some copper wires from an old spoilt electronic, which took some efforts because it is quite hard to peel off the rubber tubing.

Raw recycled materials

Next step is to poke the Christmas log cake deco straight into one of the three holes, and tie the copper wires around the deco, with both ends of the wires poked into the Nespresso capsule through the remaining two holes. I used a masking tape to tape the wire ends within the capsule (not visible in the photo). Viola, a usable and decent looking Christmas tree decoration for 2026!

Final product - Christmas Tree Deco

Ok, wish everyone a Happy New Year 2026 and great health throughout the entire year!

Disney Singapore, Cruise, MRT & More

It is year end and often times the period for celebratory events and promotions. So indeed it is nice to see many promo, and among them the ones by Disney stands out. We see Disney Cruise promotions, i.e. Disney Adventure (and the first such cruise in Asia) marketing materials on MRTs (see the photos below) although I think the actual start dates would be from March 2026 onwards. When the hype dies down (and prices become more affordable) I would want to book and experience it at least once.

Would be fun to have breakfast with the characters and have Disney themed rooms, much like those at the Disneyland hotels.

Disney Adventure - MRT 1

Disney Adventure - MRT 2

Disney has also launched promotions at Jewel Changi since November, and we have seen the Rain Vortex displays multiple times, complete with Marvel characters and such. I am not sure if they would refresh the displays by Feb in time for Chinese New Year.

And then I am surprised to see the Singapore exclusive Disney themed T-shirts at UT Uniqlo. I guess these would make good souvenirs for tourists to bring back home. Mickey at various locations like Emerald Hills, MBS, shophouses and many others, would form good designs for casual T-shirts affordable priced at $19.90.

Uniqlo Mickey Shophouse UT

Uniqlo Mickey Kaya Toast UT

Taking this chance to wish everyone a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year 2026! Christmas in 5 days time!

Bus Breakdown - Complementary Ride

Ever wonder what would happen if the bus you took breaks down? It happened to me recently during one of my bus rides. Halfway through the journey, we heard the bus captain making some announcement and honestly those of us on the upper deck of the bus didnt pay any attention to it.

Then at the next bus stop, the bus stopped for a long time, and the captain walked up and said "Really sorry but the bus broke down" in mandarin. So we all have to leave. In fact some of the passengers were so "blur" that the captain had to walk up a second time to chase them out (politely). I translated the captain's message for some of the non-Chinese passengers.

Oh well, guess these things happen from time to time.

So what happened next? Heh, all the passengers could grab a ticket, that would let them take the next bus ride for free. Actually my card was not deducted at all for this particular trip - guess they did some magic at the back. The captain of the next bus was pretty surprised to see a crowd at this bus stop and the first few passengers just walked up without tapping their cards. He started collecting these complementary tickets from all of us boarding his bus. 

So this is how that bus ticket looks like. I havent had a bus ticket for such a long time ever since everything goes by that transit card payment.

Complementary Ride Ticket

New Food Goals 20 and 30 by 2035

Singapore's goals of "30 by 30", i.e. 30% of food to be sourced locally by 2030, was set in 2019, and after many years I guess they think it is no longer feasible to do so. Admittedly local vegetables continued to be priced higher than foreign imports - who could beat the prices from either China or just cheaper vegetables from our neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia?

Thus they changed the targets last week (4th Nov), to have 20% of fibres (defined as leafy vegetables and such, not including rooted veges and 30% of proteins to be sourced locally by 2035. 

Honestly I am a bit disappointed. It is possible if we truly aim for it. We have done so for water isnt it? As for the protein part, they said that eggs already exceeded the original target, i.e. about 34% of eggs are sourced locally. So indeed if we set our mind on some of these targets, it is actually possible to achieve them. The prices of locally produced vegetables could be controlled depending on the types of veges and of course the rent. Maybe NTUC could help to roll out more promotions (they did in Aug for the SG60 celebrations) too to support our local farmers.

Food prices have been rising, and the inflation of food, both raw ingredients and cooked, would continue to put a strain on our residents.

Hope fully the new targets could be met, and not just 'adjusted' along the way or pushed back further. Would keep an eye on the Food Statistics when it is next published.

 

Happy 60th Birthday Singapore!

Today is the 9th of August and Happy 60th Birthday to Singapore!!

I believe there are plenty of congratulatory notes all over the place and many of us (thos who didnt go overseas) would be looking forward to the National Day Parade at Padang this evening. The weather looks good thus far (dont jinx it!) and the fireworks will be fantastic, based on the views from past many weekends of pre-shows.

Taking this chance to continue showing support for locally made products, especially our vegetables and eggs! NTUC has been running many promotions for both vegetables and other locally produced food. They continued with the one for one - eggs, but it seems to have stopped for a number of NTUC outlets. I found this one at the Serangoon Nex (but the place is terribly crowded, definitely not my go to weekend grocery shopping place).

Chew's One for One Eggs - NTUC

The vegetables are on promotion too! I found the Green Harvest and Phyotgreen ones (nai bai, kai lan and others). Green Harvest offered free dou miao for any 2 packs of other vegetables bought. Heh our locally produced vegetables are pesticide free some more.

Well, not just locally produced vegetables and eggs, but we have plenty of other celebratory offers, including local favourites like chilli crab and durian flavoured food. So not surprising that fast food restaurants started with lots of chilli crab promotional food. I like the chendol flavoured ice cream cone from MacDonalds, and the chilli crab sauce seems authentic too.

Mac $1.30 Ice Cream Chendol Cone

Mac Chilli Sauce

So yup Happy Birthday once again Singapore! And looking forward to many many years of peace and prosperity for this Little Red Dot!! :)

Yours truly,

Little Red Dot Diaries