T H E PE R F E C T WEEKEND MORNING

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THE WEEKEND ISSUE

SPRING CLEAN YOUR BUSINESS A CITY UNRECOGNISABLE

All my recommendations for the perfect laid-back start to the weekend. Comfy lounge-athome pj’s that feel stylish enough to kee p wearing all day long, good tunes, g reat cof fee and a delicious create your own brunch g razing table.

Some of the best sourdough in town. My pick is the Rosemary, Olive Oil Sea Salt Sourdough loaf.

SHOPPING LIST

STARTER LAB 721 Havelock Rd Singapore 169645 www.facebook.com/starterlab.sg/

Some of the best sourdough in town. My pick is the Rosemary, Olive Oil Sea Salt Sourdough loaf. We buy a half loaf a couple of times a week. Their morning pastry buns are buttery, flaky and sprinkled liberally with cinamon sugar and very addictive. And special mention for the Seeded Sourdough loaf which is also delicious. Delivery available

BRIGHT COFFEE COMPANY brightcoffeecompany@gmail. com. www.facebook.com/ Brightcoffeecomapny/ Phone: 9789 4780

A friend of mine who is a coffee aficionado introduced me to Bright Coffee and I am now a convert. Ross roasts the beans each morning and delivers to you fresh that day and it makes all the difference - this coffee is really really good. During the CB, minimum order is 1kg (delivered to you in 2 x 500g packs). Tell Ross what coffee machine you use and he will grind it to order for you too. Gorgeous coffee and a great service. Place orders by email.

TIONG BAHRU BAKERY tiongbahrubakery.com

For the Kouign Amann (thanks to Astrie Sunindar-Ratner I am now obsessed) and the almond croissants. Pick up or have delivered.

MERCI MARCEL https://www.facebook.com/ mercimarcelsg/

For the croissants and pain au chocolats. Pick up and delivery available.

AVOCADOS

Finding a good avocado can sometimes feel like winning the lottery. The avocadoes in Singapore are often rock hard and when they finally yield to the point you could actually cut them open (eleventy hundred days later) they are kind of weird and watery inside. Eww.

So, for my money, here are three spots to try for great avocadoes:

Little Farms littlefarms.com

Culina culina.com.sg

A&L Fruit and Veg Holland Village Food Market

The lovely lady who runs this fruit and veg stall is the best. This is a great place for all fresh produce. Tell her when you plan on eating your avocados and she will choose the best ones for you (i.e. I need one for today and one for in three days time). They’re always good.

FRESH PRODUCE

You can sometimes get good authentic halloumi cheese (the Dodoni brand) in cold storage, but when it’s not in stock, I go to Culina or Little Farms (see above). I also buy Meredith Farm marinated goats cheese from Cold Storage or Little Farms.

WEEKEND PLAYLIST

H e a d t o L o t t i e L i f e s t y l e o n S p o t i f y fo r t h e We e k e n d B r u n ch p l ay l i s t . M o re t h a n 5 h o u r s o f h a n g i n g at h o m e tunes.

Listen Here

W H E N I S N YC N OT N YC A N Y M O R E ?

WORDS Hester Aba

We all have strange memories of the weeks “before quarantine” when coronavirus started to come onto our radar in a serious way, but we didn’t yet realize the potential impact on our lives. I saw the effect of Covid-19 from afar on friends in Hong Kong. Yes, schools there were closed and people were working from home, but there didn’t seem to be an enormous economic impact. I didn’t hear about people losing their jobs, and aside from the huge inconvenience for friends of mine who are working mums, it all seemed relatively minor and far away.

I was working at a local parenting magazine in Brooklyn in March when things got real here. I had handed in my notice a couple of weeks earlier, in preparation for moving with my family to Miami this summer. I planned to use the couple of months of downtime before the move to do some freelance writing to build up my portfolio, start a blog about books and travel, and volunteer at my kids’ school. Our move from Singapore to NYC happened under really rushed circumstances, and this time I was going to do it right, with goodbye parties and tons of emotional support for my daughters. The week New York City closed down, our office transitioned to remote working, and layoffs started overnight as all our advertisers pulled their ads. My boss called me to ask if I would mind finishing work immediately, so they could save two weeks of my salary. Honestly, I was both relieved to be able to avoid the stress of homeschooling while trying to work full-time, and also deeply unmoored.

When NYC decided to close its schools, I had already been keeping my girls home for a couple of days, as rumours swirled and local Facebook parenting groups became hysterical. It took about a week for New York’s enormous public school system (serving 1.1 million kids including 114,000 homeless children) to figure out remote learning. The scope of this challenge was mind-blowing. Lots of kids in NYC don’t have wifi, let alone laptops or tablets to use to load Google Classroom. I quickly realized that we’d need to buy another laptop so both of my kids could access their daily meetings at the same time, and we were so fortunate to be able to make this decision quickly and execute on it. I can’t even imagine what this experience is like for moms with multiple kids trying to have them all learn from a single mobile phone. If you take away the traffic, the people, the noise, the restaurants, the shops, the taxis, is it even New York anymore?

The city around us has become unrecognizable. If you take away the traffic, the people, the noise, the restaurants, the shops, the taxis, is it even New York anymore? Stepping outside feels eerie and uncanny. There’s no noise of aeroplanes, no hovering helicopters, no boats going up and down the East River. It’s so, so quiet. People don’t drive on our street with their windows down and music pumping. There are no drunken conversations outside our window at 2am. The garbage truck doesn’t lurch down the street at 5am and wake us up. The whole world has gone quiet. Except for the sirens. For a couple of heartbreakingly horrible weeks, these were nearly constant.

LOUNGE AROUND

pj’s so stylish there is no need to get dressed

STYLISH PJ’S

This page clockwise: Howie cami top $85, Howie PJ shorts $85. The Jag cami top $85, The Jag wide leg trousers $170. Deia cami top $85, Deia PJ shorts $85, all Desmond & Dempsey available at shoplottielifestyle.com. Opposite page: White linen pyjama shirt $82, white linen pyjama trousers $95 In Bed available at shoplottielifestyle.com