break fast

I'm always amazed when people start their day without breakfast. Take my colleague for example, she comes to work having had a cup of coffee. And that's it.

I, on the other hand, have to have breakfast. I get up, stomach growling already, just before 7am. While the water boils, I make my sandwich for lunch. The filling varies, sometimes it's tuna salad or egg salad, or just ham and cheese, or luncheon meat even. Always piled high with salad leaves. A more elaborate lunch of pasta or couscous is usually prepared the night before. And then it's time for breakfast.

I've been starting with a steaming mug of English Breakfast Tea. It's something I started drinking only when I got back to Singapore. And yes, I do drink it with milk. It's the one of two teas I drink with milk (the other being chai). And today, it was a bowl of cereal, eaten dry. I head to the living room and scan the headlines of the world, Asia, home and money sections of the papers before finally settling onto eating and reading from Life! and Urban (that's why the cereal is dry, because it'd be completely soggy once I get down to eating it). It's been some cereal from Post I think, these few days. But I'm quite appalled by the price of cereals these days - $8 for a box? That's steep. Instead, the other day I found at my local NTUC a Swiss muesli going for about the same price as the Raisin Bran. Haven't opened it yet, but sounds more fun than Raisin Bran, with its promise of sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds and apple pieces. My favourite muesli is still Dorset, but here it's really expensive, and I'd have to go to supermarkets in town to get it (at least that's where I've found it so far).

Unfortunately, my breakfast of cereal and tea does not last me till lunch. I get hungry around 1030-11. And at this time, I usually crack out my snack of a peanut butter sandwich (topped with a fabulous Pinot Noir grape jelly from Sonoma) or cheese sandwich or just plain crackers. Today though, I was in the mood for something else - plus there was a lack of bread - so I headed to the Olio at the canteen to get a scone and a skinny latte. There is a Coffee Club Xpress just downstairs, but for some reason their version of a scone is one that is served dry, ie, with nothing. A scone. With nothing. That is not a scone. Plus their scone is this rather cake-like version. Not a good scone at all. So I hike up the many flights of stairs instead to Olio. Where they give you a choice of butter or jam. That's better than nothing. Plus their coffee is slightly better. Hell it smells better. It's no Spinellis, but it will do.

Listening: Beth Orton - Feral (from Comfort of Strangers)