My new house has a proper oven, though small, it can still churn out classics like roasts, lasagna, and pizza (no more expensive pizzas!).

I have never ever baked in my life so I thought of trying something really simple. I had all the ingredients in my pantry and the only thing I had to tweak was to whizz the white sugar in my blender to make it like caster sugar (a very fine sugar to make the cake batter smoother). And I was given a bunch of silicon cupcake cups as a wedding present so I used those as holders.

It only took 40 minutes, including pre-heating the oven. Voila – mixed berry cupcakes!

The berries made the cake a little moist and it tasted like how cupcakes should but I think I used a wee bit too much sugar. I don’t have a measuring cup and used my blender that has measuring marks so I think it wasn’t as accurate as it should be. But not bad for a first attempt, if I say so myself.

I think I’ll try baking bread or a chocolate cake next.

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I usually make my own lunch since I work from home, but sometimes, life just gets too busy and I treat myself to a sushi lunch.

That’s a pair of engawa sushi, a white fish with a sprinkle of green onion on top, that was deeeee-licious.

And I know there are so many kinds of sushi but salmon remains my ultimate fave…I’m such a gaijin!!

The best way to end a sushi lunch is some salty nori miso soup. Mmmmm…

What’s your fave lunch in Tokyo?

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We still don’t know what type of tree it is, but it is definitely not a sakura or plum tree. We had high hopes it would be a cherry blossom tree so we could have our own hanami picnic right at our house. We can only dream. But there is Meguro River (which has an awesome stretch cherry blossom trees) just five minutes away on foot so I can’t complain.

It still lends a very rustic feel to our house though which I like very much…

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I went to the Ikea in Yokohama with a couple of friends and got this pretty floral lamp as a “sleep time” lamp. It feels nicer to switch this one off than get up and stride all the way to the entrance of the bedroom to turn off the main light. My house is far from being decorated the way I want it to be — perhaps taking small steps is better (and easier)…

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In recent months, I had been invited to play with the kangaroo’s tennis group which is actually organized by his Japanese language teacher. I’m not sure how long he had been playing with them but definitely for a few years — and they even came to our wedding in Singapore!

They are excellent players and are totally rocking it even though they are over 60. The kangaroo’s mum plays tennis three times a week in Sydney and my dad plays golf twice a week and hikes twice a week. It makes you think you want to be like them when you’re older. Being slow, tired, dispirited, and uninspired are all in the mind.

My tennis is godawful and hope to take up proper lessons when I’m not so swamped with work.

It’s really fun playing with them — lots of laughs and they always head off for nomihoudai (all-you-can-drink) after playing for two to three hours. I always feel refreshed from the clean suburban air and the simpleness of these happy sessions.

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We held a really small housewarming dinner with some close friends and they got us a straw kangaroo with a big hollow belly. This lil guy makes me laugh whenever I look at him…My friend said, “It’s sort of like something you would get Derek.” How true!

And they tied an Aussie flag to the nape of his neck — so cute…

Methinks I’ll fill the belly with house slippers for guests. A touch of Japanese in something Australian?

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My local supermarket is called Life or ライフ. It’s bigger than the tiny ones in Akasaka where I used to live and this is great news for someone like me who loves to cook.

There are properly spaced aisles instead of narrow passages. If you’ve been to a hole-in-the-wall supermarket in Japan, you’ll know what I mean. They even have shopping trolleys if you need to buy more stuff.

This joint is just five minutes away from my house. Cool.

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I know this picture has beauty goodies so shouldn’t this be on my beauty blog instead? Well this post is not really about what’s in the picture but who gave them to me.

Xuan, a fellow blogger from Singapore, helped me get Clarisonic brush heads from the US (waaay cheaper than in Japan — half the price!) and kindly threw in some goodies as well.

I finally met up with her in Singapore and we had lots to talk about. We had known each other online for a couple of years now over various social media platforms so perhaps that’s not so surprising. We actually wanted to meet up in Tokyo last year when she visited but couldn’t for various reasons, especially after the March 11 earthquake. She had been thinking of moving to Tokyo since she has a Japanese fiance and so thought it would be wise to read up on how Singaporean expats lived here.

It feels really nice to get to know people through this humble blog of mine.

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Well, the kangaroo is anyway. In a dusty Vietnamese bookshop in Nha Trang, he picked up this book by Moe Oshikiri, an ex-model, who wrote a book that is part memoir and part “how to be happy” manual. He thought it was just a self-help book on how to improve your attitude in life and little did he know it was written by a fashion model.

But it’s still highly commendable that he has been ploughing away at this book. He says the vocab is fairly simple since the target audience must be teenage girls. Perhaps the kangaroo will learn a thing or two about women from this book. I have high hopes.

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Our new pug, Cookie, in Singapore is a ball of energy and just what the family needed after our two beloved dogs, Coffee and Taffy, passed away within three months of each other.

Yes, our family has a thing for food names and pets.

Cookie looks a little guilty here because she had been scolded by us for rummaging through our stinky Vietnam clothes.

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