Feeling Of Being Jobless

86 days ago

Well, not too sure whether you guys know it yet, but I am going to be jobless soon. I believe by the end of next month, I will be jobless and...

Well, not too sure whether you guys know it yet, but I am going to be jobless soon. I believe by the end of next month, I will be jobless and perhaps living on welfare, if Singapore has any form of welfare available. More likely there is nothing available for us “free loaders”. Of course it is perhaps time for me to go look for a job. After working for more than a decade (2001 to 2012) and only changing jobs like 3 times, I am a bit rusty when it comes to interview and updating my resume. I am not the kind that job hops. But sometimes factors beyond my control forces me to change jobs – retrenchment and bad bosses. Sometimes you just have to leave or you will die a horrible death.

Anyway, the feeling of being jobless is like a bit weird. Especially since I have never been jobless for the past decade, having a job all the while. When I left the army, I was actually jobless for 3 months. That was just after Sept 11 and every company seem to be more interested in saving money (and building security systems) then hiring workers. I spent the time swimming – got from barely able to complete one lap to able to continuously swim 13 laps in one go. I was pretty impressed with myself as I am kind of like some geek but this is what too much free time on your hands can produce. By the time I started work, I was as fit as a cat, so to speak. But being fit but jobless is not a good feeling, especially for someone who just graduate.

Morale was pretty low as well. Everyday surf the net, check out job portals but getting nothing in return kind of suck. And money was getting short to come by. You are constantly worried about your future. Not knowing whether you will be able to find a job is extremely worrying. Even getting a temp job kind of sucks because you might need to go for interviews or when you are under contract, there comes a permanent job offer. You are now stuck between a rock and a hard place. Not to mention, you might not be able to quit your contract job while you are still under contract. Well, I can only say if you want to survive in this ruthless world called Singapore, you just have to suck it up. Sometimes it depends on luck, as you will never know when you will find a job. One of my friends, after being on and off jobless for 10 months and after changing jobs for like 8 times, found a “fantastic” job which he truly enjoyed. He has been there for the past 3 years already without any complains.

Anyway, wish me luck guys. I will be joining the hordes of people going for interviews soon. If you have something interesting, perhaps you can email me.

Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Pearls

90 days ago

Wow, I got this for my birthday. One of my friends bought this nice little chocolate pearls for me to enjoy. Although it is not considered expensive, it is the thought...

Wow, I got this for my birthday. One of my friends bought this nice little chocolate pearls for me to enjoy. Although it is not considered expensive, it is the thought that counts. Seriously, these kinds of “little gifts” actually matter a lot. For those who are forgetful, well….you might find your friends pretty upset. But seriously I am not that petty. However I am someone who will appreciate my friends. One nice metal box full of chocolate goodness!

Hershey’s Special Dark Pure Chocolate. 65% cacao. Not too bad. I think about 70% to 80% would be better but most people will find that a bit too bitter. But alas, old man here, so perhaps a little bitterness goes well with me. The chocolate comes in pearl form – aka little balls of pure chocolate. For those who are worried about calories, one pearl has about 10 calories. I believe most come from the sugar instead of the cacao. The net weight is 50g. Yes I know, very little. Took me about 30 minutes to finish the entire box. Wow.

The back of the metal box.

The ingredients are cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa processed with alkali, cocoa butter, milk fat, emulsifiers, soya lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, vanillin, artificial flavour, natural flavour enhancer, gum acacia, glucose syrup, coconut oil and whole milk powder. Every time I see a long ingredient list I feel very very sad. Most of them are used to increase the shelf life of the chocolate and to enhance the flavour.

Some nutrition information for you. If you are interested. Some of you might be. I don’t know why.

Hmm….Hershey brings you a new world of distinctive chocolate. Hershey’s special dark and extra creamy chocolate pearls are made with high quality cacao beans from the best growing regions. Each perfect sized piece has only 10 calories and will give you full satisfaction with rich chocolate taste and smoothness. Hershey’s special dark and extra creamy chocolate pearls, a new indulgent experience that tastes great. I have to agree. It does taste pretty good – a nice balance between the sweet and the bitterness while giving some complexity that most milk chocolate are missing. Of course as I said before, it would be better if they have a higher percent of cocoa solids.

Here you go – the Special Dark Chocolate pearls. Nice?

Sorry about the lack of updates. Been very stressful with work these few days. Anyway guys, I am going to be jobless soon. I think around the beginning of April or so. You might find me updating this blog more often. If you have a job, perhaps you can email me?

Carl’s Junior Apple Juice

98 days ago

It appears that these few days, I keep on spotting things in my fridge or bathroom or somewhere but I have no idea whose it is or where did they come...

It appears that these few days, I keep on spotting things in my fridge or bathroom or somewhere but I have no idea whose it is or where did they come from.  But I guess this makes life exciting. Well, as exciting as someone as poor as me can be. In Singapore if you don’t have the dough, you probably don’t have much of a life. Go to work, come back home and do the cycle over again the next day. In the weekends, you sleep or perhaps watch some TV or surf the net. That is it. I mean what can you do if you don’t have the money? Everything in Singapore has become so costly that it is virtually impossible to enjoy yourself.

Okay, enough of my whining. It is time to review this little Apple Juice from Carl’s Junior. I am pretty sure that this juice is made by someone else for Carl’s Junior. They just put their name and label on the bottle and call it their own.

One small bottle of the Carl’s Junior Apple Juice.  Pretty small. I think it is meant for kids. Hardly enough to quench my thirst. Size is about 250ml?

Another view of the Apple Juice.

The ingredients are water, apple juice concentrate, malic acid, flavouring & permitted preservative. Actually the taste is pretty nice, mainly due to the malic acid and the flavourings. The malic acid gives a slight sharpness to the drink while the apple flavour is pretty good. Of course I would prefer all natural without any flavouring, but I guess you would probably don’t like the taste since it is made from concentrates. Oh, comes with preservatives. Not that good for your health…..

Nutra House Balsamo Conditioner

99 days ago

Found this in my bathroom the other day. Not too sure whose is it. I definitely will not spend my hard earned money on hair conditioners. Hey, my hair is just...

Found this in my bathroom the other day. Not too sure whose is it. I definitely will not spend my hard earned money on hair conditioners. Hey, my hair is just fine as it is. Don’t know why people are willing to spend so much money on conditioners, unless of course if you are female and you have long hair. For guys, just use some shampoo and you are done. At times, I even use my olive oil soap to wash my hair. It gets the work done – my hair is clean without any stickiness or anything like that. But honestly, using a conditioner does make my hair become softer and smoother, like those girls hair. Not that I have touched many girl’s hair but once in a while, I do have some luck. The key word is “once in a while”. Girls don’t really like poor ugly guys with bad teeth and pimples all over their face.

Hmm….very sorry about the poor quality of the photos. Something wrong with my camera. Or maybe my photography skills just suck.

I think it is Italian! Cool. Balsamo Conditioner. Helps against hair falling and it is invigorating. I do feel that “invigorating” when I used it on my hair to other day. Do note that this conditioner isn’t mine, maybe it is my mother’s. I don’t really know. But feels quite good. No wonder there are so many of you guys using conditioners. And it helps against hair falling. Very useful for balding males like me. We need hair to get a date.

Pretty sure it is made from some secret blend of herbs. Definitely better than those made from don’t know what chemicals and crap that nobody can pronounce. However, you should always try out these products first, so as check whether your hair or skin has any problem with the shampoo or conditioner. One of my friend had a bad reaction to a new type of soap he bought. The rash looked like of disgusting.

The top part of the bottle of conditioner.

Conditoner PBX & Provitamin B5.  About 250ml of conditioner. I am guessing price of this bottle is in the 10 to 15 dollar range? Nowadays you probably won’t find cheap things in Singapore anymore. Made in Italy. Check out the URL if you are interested.

Mission Original Tortilla Strips

102 days ago

Don’t know where I got this from. I believe this is from Cold Storage.  I didn’t see this brand in most of the other supermarkets in Singapore, even in supermarkets that...

Don’t know where I got this from. I believe this is from Cold Storage.  I didn’t see this brand in most of the other supermarkets in Singapore, even in supermarkets that do sell Tortilla chips. So it should be from Cold Storage. I think it was my mother who bought this. For those who have not eaten Tortilla Chips before, they are some sort of corn chips. I believe they mix corn flour with water and then fry it into something like potato chip. It actually taste a bit like potato chips just harder and actually has a slight chewy texture. Most of the Tortilla chips we have in Singapore has flavourings  (like BBQ) added to it. If not, it would probably be tasteless.

One pack of the Mission Original Tortilla Strips. These are strips, not chips.

Made from White Corn. So I am guessing this Tortilla strip is lighter in colour than others since it is made from white corn. I really don’t know the other difference between the yellow corn and white corn though. 230g of nice corn chips to chew on.

Yes, no artificial flavours, colours or added preservatives. Since it is a very hard and dry product, it is naturally preserved.

Taste Nutrition Quality. Hopefully.

Picture of the actual tortilla strips. Instead of round, they are made into strips. Just the shape is difference. I prefer having a more rounded shape so that you can put stuff like Salsa on it. This one you just dip them into sauces or whatever dips you have.

The back of the pack.

Check out the nutrition table. The ingredients are corn, vegetable oil, water and salt. That is it! That is why it is called original tortilla. I would rather consume such stuff than those who tons of ingredients I can’t even pronounce.

Liven up any snack, salsa or dip with the Authentic Mexican Tortilla Chip. Mission Tortilla Chips in the Brown bag offer you a crispy all-corn taste with a delicious authentic crunch, whether for layering, dipping or just by themselves, Mission Tortilla Chips bring you the great tortilla chip taste found in the best Mexican restaurants. You can always count on Mission to bring you authentic tortilla products and snacks. But eating Tortilla chips on its own is not really something I look forward to. Remember, plain Tortilla Chip is completely tasteless.

Made in Australia. Australia seems to attract people from all over the world and inevitably even Mexican food comes to Australia. Even for Greek, Turkish and Middle Eastern foodstuff, some of them come from Australia.

Shows you how to open the bag. If you don’t know, follow steps 1 and 2. Good luck.

Green House Brand Pure Honey

103 days ago

Malaysia honey is cheap? I have absolutely no idea until I saw this honey from Malaysia. The 1kg bottle cost about S$5.90 which is cheaper than even the cheapest China brand....

Malaysia honey is cheap? I have absolutely no idea until I saw this honey from Malaysia. The 1kg bottle cost about S$5.90 which is cheaper than even the cheapest China brand. The cheapest I saw was about S$7.50 per kg. This bottle is indeed cheap. And it was not on offer. If you remember, a while back I did a review on Yummi House honey which cost like S$65 per 600g or something like that. Their honey as claimed on their website and brochure came from the South East Asia region, which I assume is mostly Malaysia and Indonesia. The price difference is indeed very remarkable. Probably because the quality of processing is better for Yummi House? Or perhaps their honey are specialty honey types? Or perhaps they need a huge profit margin in order to maintain their expensive shop at Tampines 1? I don’t know.

One 1kg bottle of honey.

Green House brand Pure Honey. Superior quality, so don’t play play. Net weight is 1kg.

Green House Pure Honey is Nature’s taste of goodness. It has been used as sweetener, flavouring agent and is extremely nutritious. Ideal for barbecue, baking cakes and biscuits or topping on cereals and desserts. Add water to make an ideal drink. Honey may crystallize naturally and is still good for consumption. it can be turned back into liquid by placing jar in warm water. Check out the distributor.

Some nutritional facts for you. The ingredients are just honey. They claim there is no artificial colours or flavours. Hopefully. From what I read, it is pretty difficult to figure out whether any sugar or cheap sweetener has been added to the honey. Honey from different sources and even at different times of the year will result in different compositions of the honey. Lets hope that this is real pure honey. Check it out – product of Malaysia.

Hmm….small bubbles. It could be a good thing – enzymes might be present in the honey and this means that the honey has not been processed heavily. A lot of honey have been heated to high temperatures so that the honey can be extracted easily. This will damage the honey which defeats the purpose of consuming honey.

As usual, I will be making mead from this honey. The previous mead I made should have some more aging to go before I can taste them. Perhaps another 3 more months I will try them out. Hopefully they will turn out okay.

Tamek 100% Apple Juice

105 days ago

Time for yet another little review on Apple Juice. Found this at NTUC the other day. Don’t think I saw this in other supermarkets though. And since this is from Turkey,...

Time for yet another little review on Apple Juice. Found this at NTUC the other day. Don’t think I saw this in other supermarkets though. And since this is from Turkey, it might not be as popular as other brands. Pricing wise, since I got this on offer I don’t really know exactly how that fares compared to other brands. But from what I read, Turkey is actually pretty famous for their fruit juices. Seems that fruit trees do grow pretty well in the climate there. If you are interested in looking for something different, you might want to check out this brand.  At least our supermarkets are starting to bring up more brands which is a good thing. I think the lack of variety in Singapore is a problem.

One pack of Tamek apple juice.

100% Apple Juice. No sugar added. Produced from apple juice concentrate.  I am looking for UHT apple juice that does NOT come from juice concentrate. The heating process that makes the concentrate will inevitably damage the apple flavour and the overall taste will be different. Can’t they have apple juice packs that is made from freshly squeezed apple juice instead? Or perhaps it is costly to “manufacture” fresh apple juice?

Another view.

The ingredients are just water and apple juice concentrate. Remember a short ingredient list is  a good thing. And refrigerate after opening and consume with 2 days. There is a surprising number of people who think that as long as the juice is before the due date, it can still be consumed even after opening.

1 litre. Drink cold. Of course. I always drink juice cold. More refreshing that way.

So nutrition facts for you.

UHT juice normally can last pretty long. The high heat process ensures that. But then the apple juice might be damaged and we probably won’t get the nutrients and minerals that makes apple juice healthy.

Pectic Enzyme Solution

106 days ago

Never heard of this? Well, it is some kind of solution that supposedly helps breaks down the pectin in fruits, which then helps to improve fruit yields. That is you get...

Never heard of this? Well, it is some kind of solution that supposedly helps breaks down the pectin in fruits, which then helps to improve fruit yields. That is you get more juice and sugars from your fruits. And thus meant only for those wines that uses fresh fruits (as opposed to fruit juices). It also helps reduce the “hazing” effect often produced when making fruit wines. I don’t think this would be a problem for those people making grape wines because grapes do not have that much pectin. But if you are making wine from lets say, apples or peaches or some other fruit rich in pectin, you should add some pectic enzyme solution to help the process.

This can come either in powder or liquid form. I am not too sure which is better but since the eBay seller have only the liquid form for sale, I have no choice. Not too expensive, considering that one little bottle (14.8ml) is enough for like 230 litres of wine. It is potent stuff. However I am not sure what flavour will it impact on my wines. Lets hope there will not be much effect on the flavour. Won’t want my wines to taste rubbery or something. Adding chemicals to wines often will result in such tastes in the wine. Seldom such chemicals are tasteless.

Yes, I don’t know why but somehow I rotate the photo wrongly. Couldn’t differentiate between clockwise or anticlockwise. Must be getting old. Shouldn’t be a problem. It is just a little bottle. Anyway, I will be making some pineapple wine soon. Will be using some canned pineapples which should have some pectin in it. Lets see whether there will be some effect on the wine after I use this Pectin Enzyme solution.

The reason I am using some canned pineapples is because my previous batch of pineapple wine did taste a bit off. I guess you can say the taste was a bit dull. Something about the pineapple juice made it a bit dull and unexciting. Hopefully adding some real fruit into the mix will “liven” things up for me. Will update you guys soon.

Korean Glycerin Charcoal Soap Bar

110 days ago

Well, yet another soap review. And it is again from the same seller on eBay. I don’t know why but when I need such soaps, I will try to buy from...

Well, yet another soap review. And it is again from the same seller on eBay. I don’t know why but when I need such soaps, I will try to buy from the same seller. The reason is actually very simple – you know that they will not cheat you since you have already purchased items from them before. Of course that does not mean that they will not cheat you later on but at least it is much safer. I took a chance with this seller since the seller had very little ratings but luckily it all panned out. I am rather pleased with his or her service actually.

Anyway, I bought this charcoal soap to do some cleansing. I have a slight rash on my right leg. Not too sure why it happened but it did not go away. The rash remained so I am thinking of using some very neutral charcoal soap to wash it daily. Hopefully my rash will go away soon. It is beginning to leave a little ugly mark on my leg. A bit unsightly if I go out in shorts. Not that I worry about how I look, being so old and ugly. People usually look at my face and they stop looking at me after that.

Yes, came all the way from Korea. Apparently they have many cute things in Korea and girls love them.  I don’t know I seldom buy things from Korea. The eBay seller is idreamone. Sells some other Korean stuff as well.

See it is made from charcoal. Supposed to be very cleansing and can help whiten the skin. I am not looking to whiten my skin, I look like a ghost already. But the cleansing part is very important. This rash must go or it will fester and my leg will rot off. I definitely would like to have my leg intact if possible.

The ingredients are “Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Glycerine, Sodium Hydroxide, Sorbitol, Junipar Berry Essential Oils, Charcoal Powder”. I think it should be Juniper Berry instead of Junipar Berry. Next weight is about 85g.

The side view of the soap. This soap does have some charcoal soap but it can be very difficult to describe it. And to make matters more complicated, they have added other oils into the mix, so I cannot easily describe the smell. Overall, I don’t think it is too offensive at all.

Yeast Energizer

112 days ago

I honestly have no idea the difference between yeast energizer and yeast nutrients. A lot of wine or beer making recipes require only yeast nutrients but I came across a few...

I honestly have no idea the difference between yeast energizer and yeast nutrients. A lot of wine or beer making recipes require only yeast nutrients but I came across a few which require both. From my basic understand, yeast energizer consist of more nutrients and that special “yeast hulls” which would make for a better fermentation. The yeast nutrients consist of those nutrients yeast need to make for a healthy fermentation. Does that make sense? No, they mean the same thing? Well, I agree. But I guess it could be because of the difference in ingredient composition that makes the difference. So if a recipe calls for yeast energizer, then use yeast energizers. If not, then adding yeast nutrients should be sufficient for the fermentation. Of course even recipes get it wrong, so sometimes you just have to experiment.

As usual, I bought this online from eBay. There are quite a few eBay stores selling home brewing equipment and accessories. In fact, buying things from eBay has become my favourite way of purchasing stuff which is hard to find in Singapore. They might not always be cheaper but at least you don’t have to travel hours to get small items right?

Here we have this Crosby & Baker Yeast Energizer. Claims to restart “stuck” fermentation. So lets say that your beer or wine suddenly stalls and there is no fermentation but you know that there are still some sugars remaining in the wort or must, you should add some of this yeast energizer to help it along.

Product of Canada. Add 1/2 tsp per gallon of wine must to stimulate fermentation.

Aerate and apply immediately. You need some oxygen to help get your stuck fermentation going. No oxygen, your yeast will not reproduce and you will be back to square one.

The ingredients are Diammonium Phosphate, Yeast hulls, Magnesium Sulphate and Vitamin B Complex. For yeast nutrients, it is usually Diammonium Phosphate only. I know that Yeast Hulls do act as nutrients for the yeast. Yes, they do eat themselves for nutrients. Just like humans.

Smells like well…yeast to me. Perhaps because of all the yeast hulls in there.

I will be using the yeast energizer in some of the wines I have in mind. Hope that they will help produce a much better wine. From what I read, if you can’t get the correct temperature for fermentation, having healthy yeast will indeed help produce better tasting alcohol. So this should be a plus.