Born in the vibrant city of Singapore with a unique Eurasian blend of Portuguese and Chinese heritage, my journey has taken me from the bustling streets of Singapore to the serene and open landscapes of Sweden. My educational pursuits in Singapore culminated at tertiary level with two separate Master degrees, after which I embarked on a new adventure in 2002, moving to Sweden. In Sweden, I pursued with deep interest, the knowledge field of applied linguistics, particularly corpus linguistics research methods, earning a doctoral degree from one of northern Europe’s largest universities, the University of Gothenburg. I currently work as Project Manager, focusing on EU and international projects, at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, at the Division of Bioeconomy and Health, Department of Agriculture and Food. My office is located in Mölndal municipality. Mölndal, known also as the Valley of Mills, is located about ten minutes by bus ride from the city center of Gothenburg to the south. If you’re ever traveling south from Gothenburg to Malmö, whether by train or car, you will likely come by Mölndal municipality. In these pages at cmariec.com, you’ll find my lifestyle musings on culinary and travel adventures from Singapore to Sweden, and from when I lived and worked the Arctic City of Tromsø (2018 to mid-2022). SINGAPORE | SWEDEN | NORTHERN NORWAY Life in Singapore Pursued all academic interests in Singapore, of which the post-graduate years were founded in two separate disciplines. In 2000, graduated with two separate Masters Degrees: (i) Master of Science in Information Studies at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore (ii) Master of Arts in the English Language at the National University of Singapore (NUS). In 1999, represented the Republic of Singapore at the Miss Universe Pageant in Trinidad and Tobago. With this came a variety of film, educational TV, media, and ambassadorial work for the Singapore Tourism Board. Life in Sweden In 2002, moved from Singapore to Sweden in order to pursue a PhD in Gothenburg, where a number of international corporate head offices were located that all had a substantial business presence in Singapore and also Asia in general. In 2009, graduated with a PhD in applied critical linguistics from the faculty of humanities at the University of Gothenburg, with a cross-disciplinary thesis entitled, Swedish management in Singapore: a discourse analysis study, looking particularly into the concepts of assimilation, integration and hierarchy, at top management levels of Swedish-Asian corporations in Singapore. 2013, as research fellow at the Centre for International Business Studies (CIBS), School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, researching the future implications of increasing Asian-Swedish cooperation within the field of international business. The project is entitled Gothenburg in Asia, Asia in Gothenburg, funded by the Anna Ahrenberg Foundation. The project is aligned with the 400 years anniversary of the city of Gothenburg in 2021, and falls under the broad category of Kunskap Göteborg 2021 initiated by city representatives of Gothenburg, Göteborg & Co, University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. 2015, was granted the Flexit post-doctoral scholarship by Bank of Sweden Tercentennary Foundation (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, RJ) for a three year project together with the Swedish-Swiss multinational enterprise ABB. From 2015-17, the research will take place at ABB Corporate Research Sweden HQ in Västerås, and at CIBS during 2017-18. The research focus of the project is how new technologies are perceived and accepted by users and customers, using linguistic methods of data analysis. More information can be found at RJ’s website, at Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ) Felxit 2015. Life in Northern Norway (2018-2022) 2018, late summer. I acquired new work as Market Scientist at Nofima. Having moved to the county of Troms in August, I’m currently enjoying myself, exploring the island city of Tromsø. From the 1900s, this city became known as Paris of the North due to how the people of Tromsø were exceptionally stylish and sophisticated in contrast to the fishing village preconception that many might have of a city located in the Arctic Circle. In my years in Sweden, I have known Sweden to be called the land of the midnight sun. During the long summer mights, it was beautiful to sit and watch the sun’s languid pendulation between east and west, touching the horizon out at sea before going up again. Northern Norway takes this languid pendulation of the sun to the extreme. It is not only known as the land of the midnight sun, but it is also the land of polar nights and the northern lights. This is my new adventure. And in these lifestyle blog pages, you’ll find my personal thoughts, insights and musings. Cheryl Marie Cordeiro | PhD MSc MA ACADEMIC REFLECTIONS | CV LIFESTYLE BLOG

Dining out at Senso, Singapore

Senso Ristorante & Bar at 21 Club Street, Singapore.
Text & Photo © G Fernandez, JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2010-2013

A few years ago in Singapore, I had the opportunity to accompany some friends on their apartment hunting. There were several newly built units to view and we drove from place to place, spending long days on the road, bouncing from northeast to east and then west of the tiny island state.

From growing up in Singapore I remember how my mother spent time in the kitchen, over the weekends and in the evenings when she got home from work. Sometimes we dined out, but very often it was wet marketing where possible and then home to cook.

What caught me by surprise on this round of apartment hunting was how much smaller the kitchens in Singapore had become. It was as if the architects did not think of kitchens as a working space that should be able to function. In these apartments, home cooking seemed a non-activity for the household’s engagement, the oven being relegated to a token that marks the minimal existence of the kitchen space.

But being in Singapore, and considering all its wonderful facets of dining out, I can see how the kitchen at home has literally been spatially re-configurated both in the minds of people and in material dimensions, simply because eating out in Singapore is so much more than, a necessity.

Continue reading “Dining out at Senso, Singapore”

Vanilla tempt

The art of apple crumble.
To the sounds of Fact Magazine Sven Weisemann Tikuma.

Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2013

LUNCH TALK
$E: yeah / i totally understand why it is that women tend to fall for the bad guys / [1 guys with an attitude]1
$L: [1 you’re really attracted]1 to these types because there{s} so much danger surrounding them / so much machoism that you as a [2 woman / don’t]2
$E: [2 don’t have // yep]2 it{i}s so completely opposite of being female right
$L: < yep > and opposites attract
@ < ingressive >
$M: cliché / cliché // < but > / i completely understand if girls fall for devil type guys / plenty < of us do that / but this is beyond ridiculous >
@ < hesitation >
@ < laughter: E and L >
$T: makes it harder when lucifer has an angelic [3 smile too / right]3
$M:[3 angelic smile]3 / you{a}re talking he{ha}s got < a code of conduct / a moral compass >
@ < laughter: all >
$T: tough // [4 but]4
$M: < [4 yep]4 >
@ < ingressive >
$L: < > you gonna finish that ice-cream / can i have it
@ < gesture: looks at M's dessert plate >
$M: < nope >
@ < ingressive >

A Swedish fika over cinnamon rolls

Cinnamon rolls, well loved at Swedish fika sessions.
Text © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2013

It is usually around the small gatherings along corridors and the Swedish fika or coffee sessions that you’ll get a chance to candidly exchange ideas. Today’s fika sessions revolved around puntarella salads, a salad that I would never have discovered before today and might never have if one of us did not walk in with a delicious looking light garlic and anchovies infused box of puntarella leaves.

§1: so what else goes into this salad
§2: i don’t know / just found this yesterday / looked up the internet for a recipe [and i have it here today]
§3: [you don’t know] // but that’s very swedish isn’t it / to not know things / or / not know everything
[@all: laughter]
§4: but we have the structures in place / and that’s pretty solid
§2: think of us like a big ship / slow steering / but most certainly going somewhere // and there are many captains
§5: too many captains sometimes / and some not knowing the structures
[@all: laughter]

Dinner 22

Beef tartare at Dinner 22.
Text © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2013

Dinner 22 gets its name from being located at Södravägen 22, Gothenburg, Sweden.

This restaurant and bar offers a cozy dining space for the evenings, with an impressive list of wines. Their desserts are just as decadent and luscious to the palate, their dark chocolate parfait being my favourite on their list.

The North Sea

At the diving board, along the Swedish west coast.
It seemed I stood there for the longest time. In the wind.

Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2002 and 2013

This series of pictures were taken in the first summer that I was here in Sweden in 2002 and just before my very first swim in the North Sea, and just about my last too.

The average temperature of the waters in the North Sea in summer is 17°C (63°F) and 6°C (43°F) in the winter. I believe on this occasion it was a reported cozy 18°C. I much prefer if waters were a tepid 26°C, like those along the East Coast of Singapore or pick any white sanded beaches of the tropics from Langkawi to Bali.

The winter months see frequent gales and storms along the Swedish west coast, and apparently on this occasion, it was the usual windy – and cold.

Just before the push. It seemed I needed some encouragement.
Else, I was just taking too much time on the plank.

I think I saw the sea come rushing right up at me. No time for further thoughts!

Continue reading “The North Sea”

Homemade egg noodles / pasta in under an hour

Homemade egg noodles / pasta served with meat sauce, topped with thyme
and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil from Italy.

Text and Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2013

A fork full of this homemade egg noodles / pasta brought an instant flash of a Madeleine moment of sorts where I was reminded of my first encounters with egg noodles as a child of about age six.

It would be one of my first days in school in Primary One at CHIJ Katong in Singapore, dressed in freshly pressed blue pinafore over a starched collar white blouse. I was new to the routine of going to class, making new friends and having to navigate recess time buying food at the school canteen on my own. It was perhaps the second day of school that I found myself drawn to one of the more crowded canteen stalls that sold fishball noodles that cost all of Singapore $0.40 cents during the early 1980s. I realize today that the bowl that was filled half with noodles and two fishballs, was not large though it seemed at the time, very large in my tiny hands.

I’ve always found myself to be a slow learner and remember that at age six, while some other girls had mastered the art of eating with chopsticks, I sat for most part of the recess time, struggling to put strands of noodles onto the soup spoon for a neat consumption. It took time and I was happy that on some days, my father’s father was around to keep me company, sometimes laughing at my actions, most times just sitting and watching in amusement. Continue reading “Homemade egg noodles / pasta in under an hour”

Easter “Påsk” yellow 2013

Easter lilies.
Yellow is the colour that distinctly marks Easter in Sweden, together with the colourful Påsk or Easter Egg.

Text and Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2013

In Sweden, which is today seen as a very secular country, Easter is still a celebration that is much anticipated however not so much for the religious connotations as for it being a landmark weekend for the upcoming summer and a sign, that from now on, its spring. Continue reading “Easter “Påsk” yellow 2013″