I found this vintage themed cafe while wandering around my new neighbourhood, and as it turns out, it is only five minutes away from my apartment!
The interior is decorated with sewing machines and typewriters, and what’s playing on the radio? – Elvis crooning Heartbreak Hotel. The cafe has every detail down to perfection. Only the periodic thunder of monsoon season remind me that I am still in Singapore.
I suppose it is fitting that I am spending an afternoon here reading Tolstoy’s memoirs on his gentry upbringing. His words, like the setting around me, are embroidered with detail, but such are the details that make life colourful.
“Someone who sees so much and so completely does not need to invent anything; someone who observes everything so poetically does not need to compose anything.” – Stefan Zweig
Indeed, with the right eyes, our fantasies can be fulfilled by the tick tock of everyday life.
Musings of a Leaf 
Hello Kathy!!
I just stumbled on your blog after mindlessly surfing and wow, so amazed with the power of your words & travel journals =) I’m so inspired to visit Xinjiang now that you’ve written about it.
I lovvveeee Carpenter & Cook too! I think it’s one of my favourite cafes in Singapore, partly also because it reminds me so much of London.. let’s go there again some day!
Catch you in office =)
Hey Rachel! Thanks so much for reading my blog – I haven’t been keeping up with it lately due to cough work but will aim to update more frequently! 🙂 Xinjiang is so amazing and in a way now that there isn’t so much to travel I really wish I did more off-the-beaten-path places as a student. Let’s please go to Carpenter and Cook again – I ADORE THAT PLACE! Will come find you in the office to plan hahaha 🙂