Craftmen Specialty Coffee at Siglap

I am on long medical leave for my eye op, its the best period to explore neighbourhood cafe since I only have 2 hours before the next eye drop which has to be stored in the fridge at home. Here is a very good write up about the cafes in Siglap written in Feb 2015 and updated in Aug 2016 https://ordinarypatrons.com/2015/02/07/cafes-siglap/. I found out that one of them, FLAVA Asia Bistro and Grill, had already closed recently.

Food was very very good at Craftsmen though I hope the long black could be a little stronger. Illustration on guide to coffee was excellent and professionally drawn on top of the red coffee machine.

Starbucks again

Added digitally colours later. It was quiet at Starbucks because it was a Monday when students were not here today.

Starbucks at Siglap

Added colours today, can't gauge the correct hues and tones yet but I wanted to remember this interesting neighbourhood.

I noticed people were queuing up at the shop opposite the road for a few Sundays. I overheard from a customer at Starbucks it was for free whiskey. The crowd made noise and whistle that i could hear across the road at Starbucks. I checked it out online it's was for 'fight week' on TV! The crowd started early in the morning and they were mostly Caucasian men at Bambooze Tarven having some fun times over TV with free drinks after spending $20!

East Coast Road and Upper East Coast Road

So bored at home after my eye op that I went to Starbucks near to my home. I could not get a seat indoor as this outlet was known for students 'chopping seats' to study for the whole day. I ordered a hot drink and sat outside the shop and watched and tried the 'art of doing nothing'. This neighbourhood is so interesting. I remember it used to have two road sign plates 'Upp East Coast Rd' and 'East Coast Rd" on ONE post but I saw two separate road sign posts now.

Does it mean the road between the two road sign posts have no road name? HA!

August Sketchwalk at Tanglin Halt

Tanglin Halt is an iconic old estate that holds a special place in the memories of many residents of Singapore.

MEETING POINT
Boardwalk at Food Centre
3A Commonwealth Drive
Singapore 141003
https://goo.gl/maps/V5REuzESXDt

9:30 am — Sketch leaders kick off with a short intro
12:30 pm — Gather for "sketch gallery" to gawk at everyone's work

The estate is in the middle of a seven-year decommissioning, at the end of which much of it will be razed by 2021–2024.

Lots of food, quaint shops, old-school things and big mature trees to take shade under. Enjoy your visit!

Credit: sketch of old-school shopfronts by Francis Theo.

P.s.: We're going to Tanglin Halt this weekend, although Raffles Hotel won in the poll, as access to the building might get more restricted by the weekend.

Adding Tones

This was done earlier of the year but grey tones added later. Nothing changes for the cafe interior except the people and perhaps the menu. I will be going for my cataract surgery on Wednesday, not sure my sense of tonal values and colour intensities will change after that.

Poolside Sketch

I sketched Steffi, my younger granddaughter as she posed for me at the poolside. I had to add Nicole, my elder granddaughter next to Steffi later when she was looking for herself in the sketch. My younger son was making the 'V' sign on the yellow float and the princesses were telling stories pointing at the young uncle. So fun.

Total 8 pages Seawhite Concertina Sketchbook. This sketch got the family talking during the vacation, we are making memories together.

Village Cafe

Very tired today and didn't feel like going out of office for lunch. So I went to Village Cafe in the office building for a nice hot soup and sandwhiches and finished up a sketch I started long long time ago on the last page of the Moleskine Japanese Album.

It is truly a celebrations of diversity when you see students and staff of different ethnicity and background in the cafe. Sometimes we have overseas visitors from Loas, Cambodia, Japan, Finland and many more.

Vacation Trip to Vietnam

It's a family vacation in Lang Co, Vietnam. We spent real quality time with my two granddaughters aged 5 and 3 who are staying in Hong Kong. We spent 7 days together from 4 to 11 Aug in Lang Co, Hoi An, Da Nang and Hue. We are building family memories together and some are collected in this long Seawhite Concertina Sketchbook.

at the airport

Going to meet the two princesses for a family holiday in Vietnam, spending quality time with them and may not sketch much. One sketch at the departure hall and splashed some coffee later plus sticking something to remember like Jetstar flight details etc.

Visitors here at PUAL inside the airport lounge are very well groomed with branded handbags for ladies and expensive wrist watches for men.

I may look out of place with my t-shirt and jeans but who cares, I am on vacation.

9th USK Symposium will be in Porto, Portugal in 2018

office meeting

Monday office meeting in a room filled with boxes of images of ASEAN after our Global Community Day event. Everyone was working on laptops as the boss read from the paper.

It's ASEAN50 this year. We just completed an event and these are the boxes with ten flags of ASEAN countries. There are (from the top left): Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Loas, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.