The Patissier's Chronicle

Today marks a significant milestone in our nation's progression from Covid-19. Dining-in is again permitted at F&B establishments after repeated stop-starts over the past year. And fingers crossed for the current liberation to continue (and expand further) as we move towards a new endemic normal. Coincidentally enough, the author received a Facebook Memories notification this morning. On 10 August last year, he finally had the chance to enjoy a leisurely brunch, with newspapers in tow, for the first time in several months. This was after Singapore first went into Covid-19 circuit breaker lockdown, followed by "Phase 1 to 3 then back to Phase 2" of Heightened Alerts during the period of April to early-August 2020. As such, the author deemed it appropriate to commemorate his (renewed) dining freedom by visiting the same F&B joint that he patronized exactly one year ago. Sitting at the same table. Ordering somewhat the same meal for brunch (they ran out of ham croiss...

August 1st of every year is dedicated to all our men and women working within the healthcare industry in Singapore . Yes, it is Nurses' Day today. Ot her countries celebrates this on 12 May, which marked the birthday of Florence Nightingale. But we celebrate Nurses' Day on 1 August because it marks the beginning of the development of nursing in Singapore. We usually receive quite a few cake orders yearly from caring doctors or grateful individuals to be sent to hospitals and clinics during this time of the year. And anyone who has not been living in a cave over the past year would have read about the dedication and sacrifices that our healthcare workers have made especially during this Covid-10 pandemic. Some even had to deal with all sorts of discrimination from ignorant folks within our society. So we are really happy to play our small part in showing our appreciation to all our nurses and healthcare workers in Singapore. Thank you all and Happy Nurses' Day!

So, we are back to where we were in May 16 this year. Then again, it was really a matter of WHEN and not IF, after the explosion in number of new Covid-19 infections with the KVT and then Jurong Fishery Port clusters. When we first heard the news at around 3pm on 20 July, we braced ourselves for the phones to ring off their hooks. And as expected they did. In just a matter of minutes actually. What was till then a rather uneventful day became a frantic 2 hours (till closing time) where we were flooded with calls/emails to cancel orders, downsize cakes, change collection/delivery dates etc. etc. But having experienced quite a few of such "disruptions" over the past year, we have become quite experienced (and immune) in dealing with the situation. We even have a "SOP" in place to cater for Heighten Alert.  We typically charge an admin fee for change request made after 24 hours of order placement. But we have waived the fee for orders affected by the current phase 2HA....