Finally visited Yong Siak Street

For the longest time, I've wanted to visit Yong Siak Street to visit the many cafes there but due to the distance and mainly the lack of friends who were interested in cafe hopping with me, that plan to visit never happened....until today.





The problem about going to Yong Siak Street during lunch time on a Saturday afternoon was firstly, the scorching hot sun that was glaring down on me and my friend as we navigated through the neighborhood trying to spot all the different cafes, each time taking a peek to see if it was pack, and always disappointed by the fact that it was.




I had thought that when I went to Yong Siak Street, cafes would be lined side by side and cafe hopping would essentially just mean dropping by 1 cafe, trying a few cakes and coffee, exiting the cafe and entering the next one beside it, but that was not the case at all because all the different cafes were spread all around the neighborhood and it was extremely confusing and sticky and hot and just plain uncomfortable.




Decided to settle our lunch first at this small restaurant that didn't look very pack, ordered from their brunch menu and was extremely underwhelmed by the actual dish, 3 sausages of different meat and colour, a side of scrambled eggs and a bit of salad ,which really was just arugula and balsamic vinegar mixture, tossed at the side... the dish cost me $17. It was fucking expensive and the dish itself wasn't even that good, it's not bad but it's definitely not a dish I would fork out $17 for. Kinda realized at that moment why the shop was so empty when all the other cafes were pretty much packed to the brim.... that being said, the service was quite good, so they have that going for them, which is nice.




After that, we decided to go to Plain Vanilla to maybe grab a cupcake and coffee, place was pack as fuck, the communal table they had was pretty much full and the side table with the high stools were all occupied by who I assume to be students. Decided since our plan was to explore the area, we walked around the neighborhood many times searching for a place to sit down and have a coffee. Everywhere was packed and we ended up walking for an hour, my hair was literally dripping with sweat and my whole body was very sticky, it felt like I have just completed my guard duty as sentry under the hot sun, wearing my LBV.




We gave up after a while, decided to just go to 7-11 to get a drink and went to the playground to do some catching up.... and then before going home, pop by Plain Vanilla again and each bought cupcakes. Sadly by the time we reached there, they only had 5 flavors left and a few mini bundt cakes plus other bakes that weren't really catching my interest, and then we took a cab home because I just wanted to go home and take a bath to get rid of that stickiness.




Thinking back now, I probably should have bought more than cupcakes.

New logo since I last patronized their shop at Holland Village. Out of all the cupcake stores I have visited, I still like their packaging the most. 

Cupcakes, awesome as always, and I dare say better than the ones at my bakery, I much prefer their sugary rich American buttercream style frosting over the super light french buttercream at my bakery.  Probably because I have been having light and airy buttercream for so long, it's nice to have a super diabetic-ish sugary one atop a cupcake.

Had the carrot cupcake and I honestly felt so satisfied after eating it. It was freaking awesome, didn't really enjoy the chocolate one that's smothered in cocoa nibs as much though. 

Made a 4 layer red velvet cake over the week as well, the first time a whole cake has come out so well.

Used the French Buttercream recipe from the bakery, great consistency for pipping the rosettes.

4 layers is a lot so the slices I cut were very thin. 

And there was a lot of buttercream as well because I sucked at portioning it out, ended up having to scrap the butter cream rosettes. Still good to eat though not as good as the one I make at the bakery, it always taste different when I bake them at home for some reason.

Not Trustworthy

After the two horrible job interviews I had to go through, I decided to email the lady at the Institute about my experience, tone down without the vulgarities obviously, like constructive criticism to stop finding me all these piece of shit companies.




I wasn't really expecting to get any reply from them at all after that, thinking they would probably just cross me off their candidate list and put me in the "ungrateful" list.  And I was more than ready for that to happen because I got called up by another company call AcePLP to head down to their headquarters at fucking Bishan to get an interview. What the fuck is up with all this companies being located so far away from me.



Decided since I was pretty much a headless chicken at this point with no job opportunities in sight, why not? But prior to the interview, it's always important to check what other people have to say about it, so I ended finding information in the hardwarezone forum and there were 2 polarizing opinions, they either think the company is a "bloodsucking company" that treats their students like slaves OR they are the best industry in the world that has helped countless people get a job in the industry.




The ones who were kissing up to the institute sounded very very suspicious though because NONE of them were students themselves but rather friends of people who have gone through the program, and despite not being part of the program, they understand the way it works like they have been through it themselves. It was very dubious the way they kept trying to promote the benefits of joining the company...




"The institute has help a friend I know gain the knowledge and now he has a pretty high paying job in the construction industry"




"I think it's a good place for people with no experience prior to join, they train you and help you look for jobs. If I could join I would, but I'm not interested in CAD drawings."



Of course it's in like horrible English with shit ass spelling "lyk dis"... it's like they are trying to write a testimonial, but for a friend because all the people who wrote those aren't actually graduates of the course but rather friends of people who have gone through the course. Not suspicious at all.


They were also constantly calling out to people who were dissing the company, calling them morons or troublemakers because there's no way anyone would have trouble with completing the courses, if anyone is at fault, it's you for being a moron.


No connection to the institute whatsoever but gets offended when someone puts the institute in a bad light, offended enough for them to call this people out and write a whole chunk of text defending the institute against all this naysayers who are soiling the reputation of the institute.




In the end, I decided to back out of the interview. That and also the fact that there's a 2 year bond that I will have to serve, I don't want to be travelling back and forth from Bukit Timah to Bishan everyday, that's nuts and apparently there are hidden terms and conditions that they don't really tell you when you are signing the bond, terms and conditions that are hidden and only revealed when you decide to quit midway and they sue the bejesus out of you. I don't think it's hidden as the forum users put it, but just not brought to your attention when you are signing the bond, it's probably written on like the 15th page, on the 5th line of the 3rd Paragraph or something... 14 pages after you have stopped bothering to read the entire thing.





Anyways, just a few hours ago, I received a call from the lady from the other institution informing me that she has read my email. That was a bit of a shocker but I think she felt like she owed me an explanation regarding the whole matter and after speaking to her for a bit, she decided to "look into the matter" and will continue searching for companies for me that are looking for designers and not fucking sales man, so that's good, although I won't be putting too much hope with the companies she is searching for me because the last 2 were really a huge waste of my time.... not that I had anything else to do.




So all that's left to do now is to start spamming companies with my cover letters and resume and hope that some kind soul will be willing to take me in. One thing I can't stand about how some companies post their job ads though is how they only put "Interior Designer" as the Job Title but don't actually tell you it's a "Sales Designer" position until you actually click the ad and see in the bottom..

"Basic Salary with Attractive Commission"   

More attractive for the boss that's for sure,and the basic normally only last for 1 to 3 months, and after that, it's your turn to pay the boss through your commissions, they leave that out until the interview... Too bad I can't filter all this jobs out, so bloody annoying. If it's a sales position then put it as an ad looking for a "Sales Designer" instead of just leaving it as "Interior Designer", there are people in this world that actually go through Poly and University for years honing their craft in Interior Design, and then there are those that get hired by companies that are looking for sales designers with no qualification.



There's something about such people who are not design trained with no design background calling themselves designers that I find very irksome. Decorator would be more fitting, not a designer. It's like me calling myself a pastry chef because I have gone through a 5 week certificate program at a culinary school and spend 6 months working as a pastry cook. If I told this to a French Pastry Chef, he will probably spit on my face..... because I am Asian and I heard they are pretty racist.



It's because of one bad working experience that has forever soiled my impression of sales designer.

Urgh

Went for my second interview yesterday, another company that was found through the institute and I have to admit, a few days prior, I was actually looking forward to this interview despite the location.



Working in the furniture industry as a designer doesn't sound so bad, honestly when I was still studying for my diploma, what I really wanted to do was furniture designing, that was the first thing that caught my attention when I was scanning through the list of career paths I could possibly take in the future as an interior designer in the poly's course booklet.



 So when I got a call from the company, naturally, I got very excited about it and my day that got ruined by the horrible interview I had earlier suddenly became less fucked up.




Fast forward to yesterday, left the house at around 11.30 am hoping to reach the location at 1 pm, the interview time, or maybe 10 minutes earlier,  Google Maps estimated the travel time to take roughly 50 minutes, but because public buses can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 45 minutes to arrive, and I have to switch buses en route which is always annoying.... I didn't trust that estimated travel timing shit.



The last time I went to the driving school, I decided to trust Google maps estimated travel timing, boarded the first bus 40 minutes before the lesson starts and when I finally arrived at the next bus stop and was waiting for the next bus to take, it was 12 minutes before the lesson was about to start and usually the travel time from that bus stop to the driving school will only take roughly 5 minutes because it's relatively close, so I took out my phone to check the timing and lo and behold, the next bus will only arrive 12 minutes later.



I ended up being 10 minutes late, so I just decided to skip the lesson altogether and went to update my PDL before leaving.  Reason why I hate to go to places that don't have a direct bus or an MRT Station nearby and also why I will never understand people who prefer to take the bus over the MRT.




I digress.


So anyways, I actually managed to reach the location as Google Maps had predicted, within 50 to 60 minutes, which meant that I was 20 minutes early for the interview. Decided to just head up to the office to wait since there wasn't any shopping mall around for me to walk for 20 minutes.



The first thing that struck me was how different the building in which this company is located in was compared to the other one I went to a week or so ago, this was a proper 7 storey building that didn't look like it would be infested with foreign workers on a Sunday night.




When I entered the lift area, the first thing I noticed was that entire first floor belonged the the company, when I saw that, it felt like I am a gold digger who has finally hit the jackpot and have found a guy who drives a Lamborghini and lives in a huge mansion atop a mountain facing the sea or something making a million dollar every hour. Compared to the previous company, this company just felt like a legit place to work at and to expand my career path, I suddenly became very nervous and was just hopping hard that I wouldn't screw up the interview.




Took the lift to the top floor, looked for the unit number, ringed the bell, removed my shoes, entered the office and was straight away ushered into the conference room to await my interview,during which I was given a form to fill up and when that was done, my portfolio was taken from me by a worker and passed to the boss along with the form. Now that's what workers are suppose to do during a candidates interview, hand the interviewee's information to the boss and other minor task, not fucking interview the interviewee in the boss stead. Another plus point to this company.




When I was still filling up the form, another candidate was actually also ushered into the conference room and I instantly felt screwed because size matters and her portfolio was in an A3 size Folder, whereas mine was in an A4 size Folder. After 20 minutes of awkward silence, she decided to start small talk and that was when I found out she was applying for the position of designer as well, which kinda got me worried because she was a lot more "fresh" compared to this old fart who has spend 3 years away from Interior Design. The only thing that kinda made me not so nervous was that she was applying for a full time position directly from a job ad online and not through a design program like myself, so she wasn't really competition.




All in all I waited about 40 minutes before the boss decided to see me, and right off the bat, he was a really nice guy, he was all smiles, very warm and most importantly he was genuinely interested in knowing more about his possible future employee, unlike the other dude form the design firm who couldn't give a shit at all. That guy can go shove the office printer up his butt and have all the colleagues print out the entire Twilight series ten times over.... if his anus doesn't get ruptured from the printer and he doesn't bleed to death from the paper cut... the horrible plot of the series will probably scar his butt hole forever.




So the conversation was going well with the boss, we discussed about my reasons for not wanting to continue further studies and also why I decided to go work in the F&B industry, like topics that would give him a greater understanding about me, and I thought  that with the amount of interest he was shown having in me, the designer position was mine to get, I wont let distance affect my decision, if he agrees to hire me as a designer, I am going to agree right on the spot..... And then he drops a bomb on me....

"So how do you feel about working in sales because I see your resume and you don't really have the experience to get hired as a designer?"

You have got to be fucking kidding me. I have actually told one of my friend before that becoming a sales designer was probably one of this worst positions you could get as a design student in a design firm, you as a qualified interior designer, because majority of the people working as "Sales Designer" have zero background in interior design prior to that job, so to me, asking a design student who has spend thousands of dollars and 3 years of studying to get diploma to apply for a position that can be filled by some random dude on the street that "decided it was time to stop spending their parents money and get a serious job" is just a slap in the face.




Of course when he offered me the position, I was instatnly turned off by it and kept asking about the designer position, but he was very persistent, saying I had no work experience (hello, no one is going to be able to get any "experience" if people like you keep turning us down, I'd understand the bakery's boss saying I have no experience in the field and offering me a pay lower than I had asked for because all I got is a certificate, but for fuck sake, I have spend 3 years studying to get a diploma, that alone should count for something, but NOOOOO~, he was only offering me the sales position.




At one point, I was actually contemplating about whether or not to accept the offer, because I was really desperate and needed to find work soon, then he threw in another shocker...

"By the way, we are working a 6 day work week and your weekends will be burnt, your off day will only be on a weekday."

It's like this job offer keeps getting worst and worst, normally before a job interview, I will try and picture the worst possible and plausible case scenario in my head to mentally prepare myself, this scenario did not play in my head at all, in fact it never crossed my mind that the institute would find me a company that would offer me a position as a sales person, and not even a designer but an actual sales person who has to go to the shop and recommend furniture to the customer. What the fuck am I? A middle age guy who decided education wasn't important during his Primary and Secondary School days and thus is now stuck working at a furniture mall as a low level sales person. Ridiculous... I am going through the institute's program to become a designer, not as a sales person, what the actual fuck?


The boss reason was that he wanted to get people with design background to do sales as well and he's trying to hire more people of my caliber to form a new sales group to do a job that people of my caliber are obviously overqualified for.

One of the reason why I left my job at the bakery was because of the six day work week, and now I am being offered a job that has the same work style, except its made so much worst by burning my weekends and on top of that, I have to work 10 hours everyday as opposed to the 8 hours at the bakery. At least at the bakery I get to choose whether I want to take a weekend or weekday off.... this boss was very adamant about working on the weekends.





At the end, he had no intention of offering my a position as designer, even when I asked if it was possible for me to work for him as one in the future, he kinda minced his words and said the chances were very very low. It was an extremely disappointing interview because the boss was so nice and it srarted off so well that I got my hopes so high up that when he pulled that hope back now, it was HARD... Like yanking me by the leg while I am up there so hard he tore a ligament and dislocated my ankle and send me crashing into a bed of rocks at the bottom.



This I have come to the conclusion that the institute is unreliable and inept at looking for decent companies or positions for their candidates, so from this point onward, I am no longer going to rely on them anymore. The first company they send me to just pissed me off and this one was just a colossal disappointment.



Horrible horrible experience, it's no wonder their Facebook page doesn't have that many LIKES. I fucking left my job at the bakery because of them and now I get presented with all this shit job offers, sure. I was happy when I finally found a valid reason to leave the bakery and end all the baking madness, but now that I am stuck at home and not earning any income, I feel like such a waste of space and it's a terrible feeling.

Bakery No More

I have finally returned my uniform to the bakery, my last reason to have to return to the bakery has been used up.



Before actually heading to the bakery though, I was thinking whether or not to show up empty handed or get them something, sort of as a farewell gift, the last baker who left gave everyone in the kitchen team a bar of chocolate with a handwritten note at the back, a very nice gesture and it was pretty good chocolate, I ended up just eating the whole bar of chocolate and leaving the empty box in the fridge, not knowing what I should do with the note, although now that I think about it, I probably should have kept it somewhere else where the maid wouldn't rummage through and throw away because to her, it's just an empty box of chocolate with a note written on the back in a language she doesn't read... she doesn't understand spoken English so I highly doubt she knows how to read written English.





So as I was on my way there in the bus, I decided to get them something simple, something I could  in the a shopping mall I had to cut through to get to the bakery. I wanted to get KOI for sure before I left, but I didn't want to carry it as I was returning my uniform, so I settled for Gong Cha instead.




Got the cheapest one because really, I am not working anymore, my money at this point can only decrease and it's the thought that counts, plus they aren't bubble tea connoisseurs like myself, I could get them cups of Sweet Talk and they would probably be just as grateful, if I got a cup of Sweet Talk from somebody though, I probably won't even finish that sad excuse for a bubble tea.




Bought 2 milk tea and when I walked into the bakery, only my sous chef was around, so we chat for like 5 minutes and I was out the door. My Sous Chef is a nice person, but I wouldn't say we are close, in fact every time we go for lunch together, 70% of the time he's on his phone scrolling through Facebook instead of striking a conversation with me and when he does strike a conversation with me, there will always be this awkward pause between our conversations, like my brain is trying to think of new topics to talk about before this awkward pause we are experiencing becomes a pregnant pause and before I know it, he's taken out his phone and is scrolling through Facebook.




The only person I was really comfortable talking to was the other baker who left before and I am not close to the head chef at all because he mainly converse in Chinese and I have lost the ability to converse in Chinese with anyone since I last willingly strike a conversation with someone in Chinese, and when I say conversation, I mean an actual conversation, not small talk about the weather because all I know about the weather is that is's very 风和日丽. 

I did feel very bad when I saw my sous chef having to bake all the cakes by himself though, that really sucks, especially when you think you have finally finished all the baking for the custom orders for the week and surprise motherfucker, you get 10 more from the manager through Whatsapp. I'm actually still in the group chat where the manager will send in the custom order forms and recently she send in one and it was a last minute order for an ombre cake, even though ombre cakes aren't as colourfuck as a rainbow cake, they are still time consuming to make, and the manager send in the order on Friday or Saturday, and expects the kitchen team to complete it by Monday where she will come down in the afternoon to collect.




That was ridiculous, even though I was no longer working there, I still felt a bit angry towards the manager for the kitchen team. The sous chef already told them that orders had to be taken 5 days in advance and she still takes that order, and the sous chef was on leave for both the weekends, she said she was really sorry about it and spam all the crying emoticons, but if you were really feeling that bad about it, you wouldn't have taken that order in the first place. I have met her in person before and she's a really nice person, but when she pulls shit like that, the positive feelings I have towards her disappears until I see her and she's nice to me again.

Loaf Cake

Went to VivoCity yesterday for family dinner and came across this new bakery opened by Twelve Cupcakes called Dulce and Sucre.

I've wanted to try out their loaf cakes since my ex-boss at the bakery told us (the kitchen team) about it during our monthly meetings. We all had this belief that the items sold at Dulce and Sucre were inspired by (copied) what our bakery was selling, but when I actually look at the menu, the only items that are similar are the loaf cakes and the brownies. 

They also had whoopie pies, which I was initially actually quite interested in getting as well but after seeing how flat the whoopie sandwiches were, decided to give it a miss. The sandwiches reminds me of the Nestle Toll House Cookies that I make at home, bloody recipe never works and I always end up with a flat cookie.

With the mindset that the loaves were just cheap imitations of the ones sold at the bakery I was working in, my benchmark for the loaves at Dulce and Sucre was set very high,  like anything below awesome would be horrible, like all imitation items. I have tried those from Cedele and those aren't good, at all. You can probably use those loaves to build a house, probably what the witch in Hansel and Gretel used to build the structure of her house.

So I was actually really disappointed with the range of flavors available because they only had 2 that day. Nutella and Earl Grey.

Earl Grey with Lemon Glaze and Nutella with Nutella

The presentation was really good though, it was very rustic looking with the baking paper used as liners, not something I would enjoy prepping. I can only imagine how much of a pain it must be to keep cutting and folding the parchment papers enough times so it will stay in it's folded shape and not slowly crawl out of the loaf pan every time you try to stick it in place, the worst would be when you are portioning out the batter and the parchment paper decides to fold in another direction, causing you to spill your batter all over. Happened to me many times with a loaf paper liner and it was extremely annoying.

I guess because now I am getting older, my palette has changed. In the past I would have probably preferred the Nutella flavor over the Earl Grey, but when I was at the shop, I found myself drawn to the Earl Grey loaf., but that could be because I had been baking Earl Grey cupcakes at the bakery during my last few days and it always smelled amazing every time they were done and I took them fresh out from the oven. 

Earl Grey with Lemon Glaze.

 The Earl Grey one wasn't very strong in terms of having an Earl Grey flavour, it was very subtle and the lemon glaze was just a lemon glaze really, all I could remember was how gritty it was, but that's what one should expect from a glaze. 

Nutella

Nutella one was a chocolate cake base with chopped hazelnuts folded through, really nice because I like hazelnuts so that already eared brownie points from me. The glaze is just Nutella jam sprinkled with even more chopped hazelnuts, some covered with a milk chocolate or hazelnut praline coating. 

The loaves themselves were actually really good, not as soft or as moist as the one sold at my bakery because I always have them on the day they are made, hours after coming out from the oven. They are comparatively larger than the ones sold at my bakery so it's more expensive as well and I guess another reason is because the cakes are butter based rather than oil based, once again just an assumption from the texture of the cake, and butter is always more expensive than vegetable oil because it makes cakes taste so much better, wouldn't say the same about butter being on it's own though, that just smells like a dried up sock that was drenched in sweat an hour ago.

I should probably try making this at home with the recipes I have gotten from the bakery, just use the chocolate cake and fold in some hazelnuts, I have 2 jars on Nutella at home as well. Now that I think about it, I can probably make the Earl Grey loaf as well, just need to get some quality Earl Grey tea.

Next thing I want to try are the whole cakes sold at my bakery. One day I shall get my hands on the rainbow cake and see what all the fuss is about, here's hoping to not getting chemical poisoning from the excessive food coloring.  

Being Jobless Sucks

It's only been 3 days since I left the bakery but it already feels like a week has gone by. There's absolutely nothing to do at home apart from more baking, I have no MMOs to play because this laptop is getting old, playing any games that has been released this year on the laptop just induces motion sickness due to the horrible frame rate, I downloaded Firefall a few days ago and the only setting I could play it on was Low, that's just really really sad.... and I can't get a new laptop because I didn't earn enough as a baker to save that much money to get a new laptop, I mean I have enough money in my bank to get a new laptop, but it's barely enough, if I were to get a laptop with the money I have in my bank, the money I would be left with after wouldn't even allow me to be able to afford a box of cupcakes from the bakery.




Anyway, actually right after my interview at Steven's Shithole Design Firm, I did receive another call from another company to head down to their office for an interview, this time it's a furniture company and I checked their company's website and was honestly a bit disappointed.




When they told me they were a furniture company, I thought they were a company that designs furniture like a product design firm, but sadly that's not the case, turns out, they are just a company that sells furniture. I guess that would probably mean that I will be doing more space planning than furniture designing, which is also okay. Space Planning in that furniture shop would be the best case scenario because it could be worst, they could be making me do sales.... and I don't like speaking to customers because "the customers are always right"...so even if they were to take a bookshelf and stick it up my ass, rupturing my colon, it's not their fault that they are deranged, it's my fault because my butt hole isn't loose enough to even fit the entire Harry Potter series inside.





As grateful as I am for being able to get another interview right after going through what was probably the worst interview I have ever gone for in my life, I have one issue and that's with the location of these companies shortlisting me because the furniture company is located in the East.... AGAIN, isn't there any companies from the Western and Central part of Singapore that needs employees to hire?




The furniture company isn't as far away as Steven's Shithole though, it's only about 2 train stations away from the bakery, followed by another 800 m walk to the location, it's probably more than 800 m though. The power of Google Maps, the distance for walking are always never accurate because half the time they just draw the walking path straight across a building or 10, sometimes even across the bloody river because people who uses Google Maps have gain the ability to walk on water and would probably also rise from the dead after 3 days. Gonna have to see if the distance is actually short enough for me to walk without breaking into a sweat or not, otherwise I'm gonna have to take the bus instead.






I do hope the interview goes well, that I wouldn't be interviewed by a half ass interviewer who knows shit, that the interviewer would actually introduce the company to me probably and actually tell me my job scope, and most importantly, be interested. There's nothing like introducing yourself and your portfolio to a cow.

Gonna miss the bakery.

My last batch of rainbow cake I made at work 2 days ago. There's actually a bit of blue in the top purple batter, that's because I use the same bowl to color all the batter, cleaning it only once after doing Yellow, Orange and Red. When I first started, I always cleaned after every color, that was obviously not time efficient, so I just fuck all and it didn't turn out so bad as evident from the picture, so far no customer has complained about a weird colored layer.



Have to admit, after today's interview at that piece of shit company, it has suddenly dawn on me that I'm really going to miss working at the bakery. Despite the low pay and the hectic workload, both of which I'm not gonna miss, being able to work in an environment where everyone is actually nice is really hard to find and that's the thing I'm gonna miss the most about working there. I actually put the uniform that was in my bag against my nose to take a whiff one last time, to remind me of how I smell like every time I left the bakery after work... not a bad smell.



One other perk of working there was being able to report to work anytime I want, or to be more specific, arriving 30 minutes late and no one actually caring, but I do only go back home when I have completed my work for the day, so I'm not that horrible of a worker. The head chef did tell me in the first month that I could plan my schedule as I liked, as long as I finished my work on time, that was pretty awesome.




Good thing though is now that I have worked at the bakery and memorized a majority of the recipe by heart, whenever I am feeling peckish for a good slice of cake, I no longer have to look for recipes online.

Malt Cupcake with Cookies and Cream Buttercream

Speaking of which, I made this cookies and cream cupcake a few days back using a recipe I found online. Ended up with a stomachache.

Waste of my fucking time.

Just came back from my interview at the design firm this morning and I thought it would be great to write down my experience while the feelings about it are still raw.





Woke up this morning feeling relatively positive about the interview I was gonna have today, since it was a firm the institute found for me, I thought the chances of me getting hired would be pretty high, even the lady from the institute whom I spoke to a few days ago was quite confident about me getting the job when I asked her about office location.



Even though the office was located all the way at Paya Lebar, I was hoping that they would have other offices scattered around Singapore, since the address written on their website stated a different location, and even referred to that location as it's Headquarters, I thought that the place I was going to be interviewed at was probably the HR and Admin office or something, the place where all the non-design related stuff are done and they would have their design offices at various parts of Singapore with the Headquarter being the office where the big boss works or something.




So after a 2 hour ride to the place, I finally reached the office, and it was in some dingy looking 5 storey building in the middle of Joo Chiat Road that looks a lot smaller than I thought, l didn't even know there were 5 storeys until I actually went into the lift and saw the level 5 button, hell, I didn't even know the building had more than 3 storeys when I first looked it up on Google Maps. In my head, I just pictured all the employees bending over as they are walking about the tiny office.




Headed straight to level 4 and was ushered into the office, which looked like how any office would look, boring. And I asked for this lady called Sophia, because that was the person I was asked to look for during the interview... so I waited for a while while the employee went to look who I thought would be the Sophia person... but No~, instead of getting Sophia, I get this other person who was obviously not a Sophia, unless Sophia was a transgender going through a transition period.




For the purpose of this blog post I shall just call this dude Steven. He never bothered to tell me his name.



So Steven walks up to me and shakes my hand, asking me for my name and ushered me into what I thought was his office. And from the moment I saw Steven, I knew he was one of those people who has what most would call a "resting bitch face".... or maybe he really was being a bitch because for the entire interview, he hardly smiled, he had this disinterested look in his face anytime I was speaking and even when he was speaking, he sounded like he was about to fall asleep.




The first question he ask me when were both seated down at the interview table.



Steven : "What's your name again?" I just fucking told you like less than a minute ago.


Me : "It's Timothy"


 Steven "Okay, so how do you spell that?" Normal question I get since most people always spell my name with an extra N for some reason,  TimoNthy, which isn't right, like how are you pronouncing my name in your head with that extra N ? I don't get it.


Me : "T I M O..."


*proceeds to write on paper in his atrocious handwriting*


T I N....



Me : "Ummm, it's a M not an N"

*scribbles off N and continues with butchering the spelling of my name*

T I N M O T H I...


Me : "It's H Y not H I"


*scribbles off the letter I and butchers my name even more*


T I N M O T H I H Y


That was how he spelled my name, at that end I didn't really bother correcting him anymore because it looked like it wasn't going to be of much help, people usually add an extra "N" in my name and that's as far as the spelling error goes, but this Steven guy manages to mangle it up, because as if having an atrocious handwriting isn't bad enough, he decides to decorate it further with the awful ass scribbling of his. My name on the form that he wrote for me didn't even look like a word anymore, more like the ground where a race of blue aliens were massacred.



At that point in time, I didn't really think too much about his lack of spelling skills or his lack of the basic understanding of phonics because the interview was all about the job, not my name.



So he proceeds to ask me about what I was doing before this and I told him I was working as a baker professionally after I left the army and he decides to ask me.....



Steven : "How's your baking?"



I didn't really see the relevance in that question because the only reason I could think as to why someone would ask that question would be if they were actually genuinely interested in the person's baking or if you were hiring me as a baker, Steven was obviously not interested at all and I am being interviewed for an interior designer position, so I just sat there wondering what I can say to make it short because if you ask me about baking... you are gonna have to be a lot more specific with your questions.



Like what do I bake or how often do I bake ? My skills in baking? Whether I am fast or not or whether or not I tend to over bake or under bake my cakes? PLEASE BE MORE FUCKING SPECIFIC !




So after an awkward few second of realizing that this Steven guy isn't going to continue the interview until I answered the question, I just went..



"Ummm...good I guess? It's edible. Well my boss said my baking speed was great but....." and I just mumbled the rest of my sentence until Steven interjects with another question because I know he wasn't going to stay interested in the topic, or as "interested" as he already wasn't, if I went any longer he would probably just take out a pillow, wrap himself in a blanket, suck his thumb and fall asleep.





He looks down at his paper, looks up again and ask me..



Steven : "What have you been doing after you graduated from Poly? "


Me : " Well I was in the army for 2 years and after which, I decided to explore other career options."


Steven : "So why did you decide to come back to to Interior Design ?


Me : "Well to be honest, it was because the pay wasn't good for the long term"


Steven : "Okay~ But you were the one who made the decision to go into baking right ?"



YES STEVEN I AM THE ONE WHO MADE THE DECISION TO GO INTO BAKING PROFESSIONALLY, BUT THE PAY WASN'T GOOD SO NOW I AM BACK!  SO CAN WE CONTINUE THE INTERVIEW WITH YOU NOT SOUNDING LIKE A CONDESCENDING ASSHOLE.




I had to further emphasize how low the pay was and how it wasn't a good long term career for me. He then decides to ask me to rank my software skills from 1 to 10, so I had to remind him that I hadn't been using this software for at least 3 years.



Steven : " Why?"

OMG STEVEN THAT'S BECAUSE I WENT TO THE FUCKING ARMY FOR 2 YEARS AND WAS IN THE F&B INDUSTRY FOR ONE YEAR. What the fuck am I suppose to do with those software? Bake a cake with it? Stop asking me so many stupid fucking questions!


It's like a parent telling their kid not to touch any apples because they are infested with bugs and then the kid goes... "Oh but can I eat them?"  I have been a baker for the past half a year, I have no use for the software, connect the fucking dots dude.



After rating my software skills, I felt like I have to give a disclaimer to Steven...



Me : "The reason why I am not so good at the software is because as you know I haven't been using them for a while now, my skills are a bit rusty, and I am hoping that by entering the design institute, it will help me with getting used to the software again."


...and instead of nodding his head and understanding my reasons for the mediocre ratings I gave myself, he goes...



Steven "Yeah, so how does the institute work? I'm not too sure about it?"


Are you fucking kidding me?  You are the one who requested my resume from the design institute and you don't know how they work?



Me : "Well I called the institute up a few days ago and they told me that we will have about 2 days worth of lessons every week blah blah blah" Information you should know when you decided to find employees through the institute's candidate's database.



Steven : "So how much are you expecting in terms of salary then."


Me : "For starting pay I am looking somewhere around $1800 ?" My original asking price I had written in the resume was $2000, so I have already reduced the asking salary by quite a bit.



Steven : " $1800? And you will only be working for us 3 days a week" *looks up to me with a "are you fucking kidding me" face*


In my mind, I was thinking $1800 does sound quite high if I were to working only 3 days a week, so I was waiting for him to set a quote for me and just looked back at him, waiting for him to recover from his disbelief, but he just kept looking at me waiting for me to reply back.



It's very obvious he thinks my pay is high, but what was he expecting the scenario to play out be like...


Me "Oh yeah, okay why not $1700, cheap cheap, no where else can get this price"

Steven : " $1500 my offer!"

Me : "$1650! Very low already, no where else can find so cheap"

Steven : "$1600 Final Offer!"

Me : "Okay. Set! $1600 it is."



This isn't a fucking night market, and even if it was, if you think my asking pay is too high, then set a quote so we can discuss further, what the fuck am I suppose to do if you just keep staring at me, have a discussion with myself about how low of a pay I can settle for?



I just smiled at him and when he realized that I wasn't going to give any other response other than my stupid smile, he looked down at the paper, looked up at me and said...



"We will have to discuss this with the management..."





Yeah, discuss all you want because I am no longer interested in working for your fucking company. I had initially thought that Steven was the boss because when he ushered me into the interview room, I thought it was his own office, but after seeing how unprepared he was for the interview and how "knowledgeable' he was with the institute, I have come to the conclusion that he is just a foreigner hired by the boss to do renderings, he can't even spell my name without butchering it, and it's not just my name he can't spell, he even spelled the bakery I worked at wrongly.



So after that he gets up from his seat and sends me out, normally at the end of the interview, it's always the interviewee's time to ask question, he doesn't even bother with that... there wasn't any...


"So before we end this, do you have any questions regarding our company?"


None of that, just gets up, shakes my hand and shows me the way out. All that happened within a 5 minutes time span. The interview was suppose to start at 10.30 am.... I remember looking at the time as I was entering the building, it was around 10.21 am. When I came out of the interview room and was heading to the ground level of the building, it was just nice 10.30 am. The whole interviewed ended on the time it was suppose to start.



I traveled 2 hours just to get interviewed by the boss's lackey who doesn't know shit, doesn't even bother to introduce the company to me at all in the beginning, because most of the other firms I have went to get interviewed at usually, after asking me to introduce myself and present my portfolio, would in turn show me their portfolio and talk about their company and their working style, this guy just fucks all, brought his cheat sheet interview paper into the interview room and that was it.




Fuck You. I did not travel 2 fucking hours from Bukit Timah to Paya Lebar so I could be a practice interview for one of your resting bitch face employee. Oh and I also asked about the different address location on their website right before the interview ended because I thought it was their main headquarters, I was wrong, they aren't that big of a company, they were just too fucking lazy to update the address on their website, just like how the boss was too lazy to interview me and instead sends her employee who's too lazy to do any preparation for the interview he has carried out today.




It was a pure waste of time. Left a really really bad first impression, in fact they weren't even the one who emailed me about the interview, it was the institute who acted as the middleman, so prior to today's interview, I have never spoken to or exchanged email with any of the employees there. They have no Facebook page so I couldn't get any more information from them apart from their shitty website which they obviously never bother to update.



If you are planning to hire new employees through your website's career page, at least update your company's fucking address so people can actually make a proper and informed decisions about whether or not the company is right for them location wise.




Their old location was at City Hall and their new undisclosed location is at Joo Chiat road, that's how far the new location is to the old one.




All I can say to the company is....

That's F U C K  Y O U  you illiterate twat and your shitty ass design company. 

Jobless again.

Last day of work today, was quite bittersweet. Sous Chef had the kitchen crew write a small farewell card for me, apart from the Sous Chef, I don't really speak to any of the other people, so the messages of the card felt a bit forced, but I do appreciate the kind gesture.




Not looking forward to tomorrow's interview at all. Bloody location, I need to be driving a car to be able to work so far, come'on man, why you gotta get me a company that's located at the other end of Singapore. So infuriating, my whole mood got ruined at work today when it finally dawned on me that after today, the next place I will be working at will very possibly be located all the way at Joo Chiat Road.





I really don't enjoy long bus rides home. It's not a good feeling when the motion sickness kicks in. So I'm not really going to be expecting much from tomorrow's interview, unless the company has another office that's located near my house, otherwise I'm gonna be job hunting again.




Really hate the feeling of being jobless.

Design again.... Soon

Tomorrow will mark the last day of my work at the bakery and the following day would be my interview at the design firm.



The design institute actually got back to me last week, informing me that I have been shortlisted by 2 companies who are willing to pay for the fees of the course I will be attending, both companies I have never heard before, so initially when I was told about the news, I was very happy about it because working in the bakery at this point is really mentally exhausting for me.



I had actually officially quit my job at the bakery about 2 weeks ago, and at that point I was already fuck all about baking professionally, the past 5 months or so were great, I got to learn a lot of things from the sous chef and head chef and had great colleagues, but work started to get repetitive and it felt like I was just zoning out most of the time, mindlessly doing the recipes I have done probably hundreds of time, there was no creative outlet for me whatsoever because I was the baker, my job was just to bake the cakes and that's it... all the designing of the cakes were done by the decorators.




I have a really short attention span, so I really need to be doing something different everyday, that's why I can never play an MMO and hit max level because grinding starts to get really boring after the 7000th mob, the only MMO that I was able to hit max level was Guild Wars 2 because that was a really good story driven game that doesn't require hours upon hours of mindless grinding to level up, and that's the same with the work at the bakery, it was just a mindless grind everyday and even though I say I have great colleagues, we don't really speak at all when we are working, so it's helluva boring at work. But I needed to have some income, that's why I helped out at the bakery part time, plus they were low on manpower and I felt bad about leaving them in the lurch.




So when I actually got a call from the institute, I was extremely happy. The lady actually told me there were 2 design companies that shortlisted me, and that she would email me their information, in the end I only received the information of one of the two company. Being in the state of happiness that I was in, I just agreed with the confirmation of the interview, which will be on this Wednesday.



Of course now I am starting to regret not asking the lady about the other company because the company that I am about to go for an interview this Wednesday is located all the way at Paya Lebar. That's at the other end of Singapore, the last time I had to travel to the other end of Singapore regularly was when I was enlisted in the army, but that wasn't so bad because I didn't have to come home everyday,  travelling from Changi to Bukit Timah once or twice a week isn't so bad, but travelling from almost Changi to Bukit Timah TWICE EVERYDAY is fucking insane.



I checked Google Maps to see the travel time, it states that it takes about an hour but you can't really take the bus travel time at face value because unlike the MRTs, buses have to deal with road traffics and peak hour rush, and the waiting time for the bus could range anywhere from 5 mins to 40 mins, whereas the longest it will take for an MRT to arrive is 6 minutes  which is why I can never understand why people would prefer to take the bus over the MRT, plus I don't get motion sickness in the train, so I can actually watch a movie as I am heading towards my station, can't wait for the train station to finally be completed at my area. So anyways, Wednesday, I will probably know how long the journey to the design company will really take.... and afterwards probably call the design institute and ask about the other company.




The design company I am to go for my interview this Wednesday sadly did not put their real address on their website, it was their headquarters and even though the travel time is about the same, or so it states on Google Maps, I think the travel time is actually slightly shorter. Now I am hoping that the company actually has many different offices around Singapore, and the place I am going to on Wednesday is only for the interview, hopefully when I do get into the company, they will assign me to their office in the west.



One can hope.... because I really don't want to take a fucking 2 hour trip back and forth everyday from work for a year at least. I have a bond to serve if I do get accepted into the company and the company does pay for my fee, a one year bond, so I really have to make a proper decision.

CAKE!

Despite having been baking almost everyday at the bakery, I do still enjoy baking at home, the equipment I have at my disposal are definitely worse, the conditions are pretty much always against me and the space is borderline claustrophobic compared to the bakery.

But there's a difference between baking at home and baking at the bakery, and that is that the former actually allows me to reap the seeds I have sowed, the whole reason why I bake in the first place is because I love eating cake, fucking love cake, speaking of which, I went to PasarBella last Saturday, finally, after being opened for so long, and I came across this little shop tucked away at the corner selling all these really rustic looking cakes, my favorite kind of cakes, cake that actually look like cake... not those pretentious looking ones that looks good but taste like crap. 

So I bought one because it looked way too delicious to be given a miss, the Russian lady at the counter didn't look very friendly though, she looked like she wanted me to piss off, it's like in her mind, she's thinking....

"Fuck off kid, it's only 12 pm, we still have 8 more hours before closing, I don't want to sell the last slice to you because I have had it baking another batch."

That's what I think when I see customers walking into the restaurant I was working at before after lunch hour and before dinner time, because you know they are going to want to order fucking desserts and I am in no mood to bake after having to deal with 2 hours of non-stop baking during the lunch crowd.

Anyways, I bought what I thought looked the most appetizing... 

It's HUGE, and it's $12. I don't even know the name because it's a Russian cake. It's the same as me trying to remember Chinese name, I am not going to be able to remember a person who only have a Chinese name, unless your name is Xiao Ming, I am probably only going to remember your face like 5 years down the road.

Prior to that, I actually went to buy Twelve Cupcakes, wanted to see how it would fare against the one I make at the bakery, it's been a while since I have eaten their cupcakes, needless to say, after getting that ginormous cake, getting 3 cupcakes suddenly felt like a waste of money. I just chucked the cupcakes in the fridge and proceeded to gobble the Russian cake... when I did get back to the cupcakes though, I was too impatient and just ate it when it was still hard, so I couldn't come to any conclusion as to which cupcake was better, Twelve Cupcakes or the one sold by my bakery, although I'm sure my bakery one will win hands down, I mean we have a real pastry chef with years of experience coming up with the recipes... That's all I am going to say.

Buttercream (or Whipped Cream I'm not really sure), Chocolate Cake, Caramel Sauce with Caramelised Walnuts, repeat 3 times. The last time I actually had a mouthgasm was when I ate the Red Velvet from Lady M. It was AWESOME! But got a bit sick of it after a while because it was so big, couldn't finish it all at one go, which has never happened to me before with sliced cake, but I had to store this away to consume later because that was how big it was and how jelat it got.

It really tasted like IKEA Daim Cake.... but supersized, in fact I think it's the same kind of cake, except instead of Daim candy, it's caramelized walnuts.... with the skin and everything, because I had a few mouthful of bitterness, I had initially thought, in my paranoid mind, that the mixer they were using was rusty and the metal from the beater blade they had used to make the cake batter was slowly chipping off and mixing itself with the cake batter. It wasn't though, it was the walnut skins, they didn't peel them I guess, or maybe it's really chipped off metal from the beater blades.

I actually did some research when I bought the cake and realize the shop used to sell them to $10... and after more research, realized it was originally priced at $8. What the fuck, I didn't know cakes also went through inflation. It was a good cake nonetheless, the only gripe I have, apart from the rising price tag, would be the their choice of chocolate curls, from the moment I bit into one, I knew it was lousy chocolate, my taste bud has grown since entering the F&B industry... even if it was only for a year. Your whole cake taste awesome, why cut cost and get some shitty chocolate curls to bring down the whole thing.

A few weeks back, I came across a bottle of cookie butter at Cocoa Tree at Raffles Place.

I've tried it once at the bakery when the supplier brought one sample bottle for us to try, different brand but same taste, and it was really good so I decided to get a bottle.

One small bottle cost $9. My sister bought it for me and in return, I had to help her bake some brownies, and baked brownies I did. I took the recipe from the bakery and added the cookie butter, also made a biscuit base.

It looked really good, but sadly, the cookie butter's taste wasn't as strong as regular peanut butter, so the whole thing lacked flavor and was just very dry tasting, eating it kinda makes your tongue feels dry because of the biscuit base and the cookie butter spread, it wasn't necessarily a bad combination, but it was just way below my expectations.

So I just smothered a shit load of cookie butter spread on the top and it did taste closer to my expectations , but that was a lot of cookie butter spread to achieve that taste, and for $9 a bottle, slapping that large amount on a small piece of brownie was just not worth it. Wanted to post the brownie pictures on Instagram, but for some reason, brownies just aren't as popular as cupcakes when it comes to receiving likes from other people, that's why the brownie pics look better than the Russian cake pictures.

Part Timer

So I went back to the Driving Center yesterday, decided it was time to continue on my quest to obtain a driving license, the main reason why I stopped in the first place was because of work.

I used to work 6 days a week at the bakery when I was a full timer there and I think that it's a ridiculous schedule because it sucks to have spend the entire week looking forward to that day off, and when that day actually comes, realize that you will have to report back to work the very next day. Who ever decided it was a good idea to implement a 6 day work week deserves a special spot in hell right next to the person who thought it would be a good idea to bake a cake that requires you to portion out 6 batter dyed with a different color, stack'em all up together when you have baked them, frost that shit up and call it a rainbow cake, I would like to shove my middle finger up that person's butt hole 6 times, each time dipping my finger in a different food coloring, see how you'd like pooping out a rainbow chocolate cake.

So now I have been converted to a part timer with a 4 day work week, the pay's still pretty shit but I need to earn some income to tide me over the next few weeks or month depending on how long it will take for the bloody design institute to get back to me regarding my application to join their internship program. 

I had decided about a month back to try and apply for this design internship program with this particular institute, hoping it would allow me to enter the design industry once again as a  rookie designer, because I have spend the past 3 years being away from Interior Design, the 3 week stint at that design firm doesn't count because it was just a waste of time, working in the F&B was not a waste of time because I needed to experience what it felt like working as a baker to know that it wasn't my calling, working in that firm though was just a pure waste of time, you know it's not a good company to work at when the boss starts asking you to lie about your work experience and your senior colleague start telling you it's alright to plagiarize other people's work.... zero design integrity and she dares to refer to herself as a designer, although last time I checked, she was no longer working at the company anymore. 

Good riddance to her, shouldn't have praised her when she brought me to see one of her works that she very likely copied from someone, probably made her arrogant and gave her the impression that she could lecture me about how I should live my life telling me I live a life with no direction, that I need my parents to plan my path for me. You stupid fucking cunt, I spend the last 2 years of my life in the army and when I came out it only took me a month to get the job, so yeah, sure, lecture me and teach me your ways, let me follow your lifestyle choices by partying every night for a few years because who needs a job when you can spend your parent's money partying at nightclubs, but when I finally do decide to get a job,let it to be too late to repair the relationship I have with my parents. I would like to stuff that rainbow chocolate cake up her ass and put a cork in it so she will finally become the very thing she was born to be, a big bag of shit. 

I digress...

Anyways, the institute's admin actually called me up about 3 weeks ago whilst I was at work, telling me I was eligible for the program and that she would send my resumes out to the companies, asking me when I could start, naturally I thought it would mean that I was set, so I told her I needed a one month notice, she tells me that she will include my availability date in my resume and send it out to the companies anyways.

About a week later I got a bit worried when no one got back to me, I have already told my boss I was leaving at that point, so I emailed the lady, she replied back telling me the companies were still in the selection process and it would take a while before I got a response but she would help me do a follow up if I wanted to, of course I asked her to help me do a follow up and felt a bit relieved that not all hope was lost yet. Fast forward to today, no reply from any companies yet, this feels like the time I went to apply for a job at Lady M, signed a contract with them, only to have them not get back to me at all afterwards, telling me a few weeks later that I was no longer needed. I left my job for this and they tell me they no longer need my services because they have sufficient man power.... ummm.... Fuck you very much.

Now I am worried that this will be a repeat of that experience, only difference is now I still have a part time job instead of being completely jobless.

And back to the subject of the driving lessons.

So I actually went for 2 back to back theory lessons yesterday, decided it would be a good idea to get the compulsory lessons over and done with... all 200 minutes of boring car stuff. I really have no interest in how a car works, as long as it can get me from point A to point B. 

When people start talking about cars, my mind just switches off, so the 200 minutes was a very mind numbing experience for me. In the middle though, I had a 10 to 20 minutes break, so I decided to spend that time getting my Provisional Driving License done, just had to fill up a form, do some eye test and pay $25, it being a weekday, I thought it will be a relatively quick process... I was wrong.

Whenever the lady at the counter weren't pressing the button to assist the next person, all I could think was how incompetent they were, because I was rushing for time, I only had 20 minutes to get this done, stop sharing discussing which one of you has the sickest looking corn of their feet and assist me now. I think the corn discussion was more interesting so I just gave up and went back to the classroom... they weren't really talking about corn but being in the tight time frame I was in, any conversation they were having that was delaying my license registration just automatically becomes unnecessary chit chat.  

I decided to go get it done after the class was over though, and the wait was longer because in the middle of waiting, a shit load of people suddenly came up and handed in some papers which I assume is their test results for their practical test because they have passed. Good for them but I have already been waiting for 20 minutes so I really wanted to get this over and done with... they were served first while everyone who was waiting was pushed back so that was not fun. They just passed their driving test, the joy that they have from passing  is still flowing through them, they wouldn't mind waiting.

So after getting my PDL done, I got home and tried to apply for practical lessons, only to get a message telling me I had to update my PDL expiry date at the counter. I had initially thought there was some error or the database will be updated later... No... apparently I had to update my expiry date at a separate counter after getting my PDL, the fucking counter lady didn't even bother to tell me anything... What the fuck counter woman, it's really not that hard to say...

"Please go to the counter downstairs to update your PDL expiry date."

... at the end, your kid isn't going to die because you said those 12 magic words.

So now I have to go back again to update my PDL expiry date because somebody decided to leave out that small detail as she was typing out my information into my PDL.