The month of May passed by rather quickly for me. I started off the month feeling really refreshed - as I took a week off in April and went on a short staycation at The Sticks. Shortly after my vacation, things picked up quickly as I had a large-scale online event to coordinate. And by the second week of May, I had to start wrapping up my work and prepare for handover as I've decided not to extend my contract for the role I was in. And somewhere in May, we went into lockdown again, I fell sick post-vaccine (and hence a few days gone there) and started my cookie side gig. And wait what, it's June already???!!
It's been a pretty productive month I suppose. Feeling a little tired due to the physical strength/energy required for my cookie baking, but feeling happy because I'm now doing something I love - baking & sharing my joy of baking :)
I can't help but feel frustrated and upset we're in lockdown again. In my April post, I mentioned that I've been starting to go out and meet friends. And now with the cases at a new high, it isn't safe for us to do so. Like most of us, I'm upset that we have to go into lockdown again. And just today (1 June 2021). we have just begun FMCO.
I'm trying to shift my thinking and focus on the opportunities from this - because of the lockdown, I had more time at home to plan my home bakery business. Delivery was in my favour as most people are at home. I could register my business from the comfort of my home without having to visit an SSM branch. I saved more this month because I can't go out and spend the money anyway. I've reconnected with some of my friends, despite the lockdown, through phone/video calls.
Financial Goals
1) Save at least 40% of my income every month
Because it's lockdown, I've managed to save a little more compared to the past two months.
Personal Growth / Learnings
Removing the podcast goal from here since my learnings will be documented in my monthly Good Reads post :D
1) Read at least one paragraph of non-fiction/fiction every day
For the month of May 2021, I've read two fiction books
You may read my review for The Kitchen Front on Good Read - this is definitely one of my favourite read! I find myself enjoy reading Have not written a review for Last Night at the Telegraph Club.
Would like to challenge myself to read a Non-Fiction in the month of June -- my last Non-Fiction read was back in March and I'd like to regain the momentum :)
2) Participate in at least one online events and/or online courses every month
I've been taking a pause from my online courses on Coursera since the last week of April. In May, I didn't manage to keep up my momentum as
- Week 1 was a busy week for me, having to coordinate a large-scale online event
- I started my side gig in Week 2, leaving me lesser time to work on online courses during the weekend
However, I did attend an online Food Handling Training Course! A Food Handler Certificate is compulsory for anyone working in the F&B industry. Since I've decided to start my cookies side-gig, I registered for the course through this training company, EduFood Training & Consultancy. I'd highly recommend anyone who is interested to obtain a Food Handler Cert from this company -- the trainer was engaging and interactive. The course was 3+ hours long, but she (the trainer) was in high spirit at all time.
As an educator myself, who has been facilitating online classes and event, I have to say, I really admire and look up to her enthusiasm and amazing facilitation skills!
Also took away quite a bit of knowledge about food handling. Do you know that a freezer should always be below -5 degree celsius? Anything higher than that is the danger zone.
3) Cook/Bake at least one dish per week
Because we spent most of the month in lockdown, I managed to explore quite a few different dishes
Burger buns, chocolate orange cookies with a different base and Jamaican jerk meatball
--
That's it for the month of May. Come 1st June, we will be entering FMCO, which...god knows how long it'll last. And I want to acknowledge that I'm feeling rather anxious, now that I'm venturing into the freelancer path at least for now, and dahlah it's lockdown, job insecurity is in the air. As mentioned at the start of the post, I am feeling the blahs of lockdown, but I'll try my best to see the opportunities that arise from here and to still create things to look forward to.
What I am looking forward to in June:
1. Starting my new job!
Other than my new business venture, I'm starting a new role in the month of June - albeit a part-time role. Starting something new always makes me excited :))))
2. Growing my business, Batter Together
Yes, that's the name of my side gig - will probably create a separate blog post all about it soon :D
Looks like lockdown will be enforced for quite a while, and hence, I won't be able to set up a stall at a physical/event space anytime soon. But I'd like to try out having special "packages" for upcoming festive seasons such as Father's Day
Since starting my cookie side gig - I've been struggling with maintaining the optimum inventory. I find myself scrambling for raw materials often. I've been exploring Excel sheets to forecast if I'd have enough ingredients and would like to work on building this for my side gig LD.
3. Learning how to use tiktok/create video content
If you've been following my blog since last year, you'd have remembered that I started creating food videos & editing them at the end of last year. I've stopped doing them for...no reasons, and would like to challenge myself to create more video content again :) Think this would be especially useful for my new cookie side gig as well! The lockdown gives me the perfect opportunity to do so!
4. Working on Impian Kencana
One of my friend that I look up to and respect has initiated this project, Impian Kencana, and she has invited me to be part of her team :) We've been having bi-weekly meetings since March, and we've just recently launched late last month!
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