She was a sous chef at a Michelin restaurant. Her grandmother's sudden dementia diagnosis made her rethink her career.
Burnout and her grandmother's sudden dementia diagnosis made her rethink her career.
She now runs a small home-based café, selling $5 coffees and matcha while tending to her grandmother.
When I entered the apartment unit in Singapore's far west, I almost thought I'd taken a wrong turn.
Aside from a wooden bar cart with a sign and a coffee machine station, there was little indication that the apartment hosted a new café run by Chia Jin Fang, who until March cooked at a top restaurant.
Chia guided me to the wooden dining table, which was sitting under a wooden cross on the wall.
Lunar New Year decorations were still hanging from the walls in June. I spotted her 86-year-old grandmother hanging laundry.
Chia's new workplace could not be more different from her kitchen in Les Amis, a three-Michelin-starred French restaurant in Orchard, Singapore's high-fashion shopping district.
A fruitful but unhappy career in fine dining
Chia fell into restaurants early, studying culinary arts at Singapore's Institute of Technical Education. Then followed a short internship at Les Amis, where she was converted to a full time chef in 2016.
She loved how the menus changed with the seasons in France and that she could work with the best produce.
But it was grueling work.
"I'd leave the house at 6:30 a.m. and only be back home at midnight," Chia, 29, said.
Although she got the weekends off, she slept through them to recharge.
"Even though I loved what I did at Les Amis, I felt like I was wasting myself away," she said.
Les Amis did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
An unexpected diagnosis turned her world upside down
The turning point for Chia was when her grandmother, who raised her, was diagnosed with dementia in December.
Chia quit her job at Les Amis in March to take care of her grandmother.
"Somehow it feels like the roles are reversed now, where I am the adult, she's like the kid because of her dementia, and I'm taking care of her," Chia said.
Although she knew it was the right move, she couldn't help feeling a twinge of regret about leaving her restaurant job.
"I still loved what I did there. It felt like a waste, because at the point they were giving me a salary raise as well," she said.
She said she earned 4,500 Singapore dollars a month, or about $3,500, when she worked as a sous chef.
But the cher had always dreamed of building something of her own.
Renting space for a café was out of the question in Singapore, one of the world's most expensive cities.
She landed on starting a home-based café. Like many millennials in Singapore, Chia lives with her parents and her grandmother in a public housing apartment.
She spent SG$7,000 on the equipment needed for a café: an espresso machine, a coffee grinder, a small refrigerator, and some wooden tables.
By May, she launched The Noob Coffee.
$5 drinks and homemade banana cake, served by a chatty grandmother
Chia said that despite her years in the kitchen, the closest she had come to making drinks was preparing sauces. She bought a coffee machine and grinder with no idea how to use them.
But she wanted a break from cooking, so she decided to launch a drinks-only café.
"I named it The Noob Coffee because I'm a noob to drinks. It felt like I was starting afresh," she said.
Her menu includes basic black-and-white coffees, starting from SG$4. Her most popular concoctions are her Earl Gray matcha and strawberry and yogurt matcha, which cost SG$6 and SG$6.50, respectively.
The first sip of the Earl Grey matcha was refreshing, sweet but not overly so. The Earl Grey syrup, which she makes herself, complemented the matcha's bitterness.
The drink paired nicely with a slice of fresh homemade banana cake that was soft, moist, and filled with gooey chocolate chips.
Chia said that she sells about 100 drinks daily on weekdays, and over 200 on weekends. She said the business has made about SG$2,000 a week since the May launch.
Word of her café spread on social media, and demand has been high enough that she asked customers to reserve 15-minute timeslots to buy their drinks.
Ye Min Yin, an after-work regular, said she loves chatting with Chia's grandmother. Ye, a 27-year-old business owner, said Noob's matcha was thick and worth the price, not diluted like other cafés she'd tried.
Guests are welcome to sit around the family dining table to enjoy their drinks. Chia said her grandmother helps where she can, passing drinks to customers and making small talk.
"During the opening, I saw her going around talking to people, and it was nice to see her this way, Chia said. "I cannot cure her dementia, of course, but I can slow its progress down."
For Chia, the café is a chance to take it easier. She says she starts her day by baking banana cake and having coffee, and she mans the operation from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
At Les Amis, she said she barely interacted with customers.
"I feel more accomplished because this is what I started myself," she said. "So, at the end of the day, even though I'm tired, I still feel very fulfilled."
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National Geographic
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Just how bad was Bad King John?
THE PLANTAGENETS King Henry II (at right) is followed by his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine (also crowned), and some of their children, perhaps including the future King John, in a fresco from Sainte-Radegonde Chapel in Chinon, France. By Julio Rubén Valdés Miyares John I, known as John Lackland, has been depicted as the most villainous king in the history of England. In accounts of his reign, the monastic chroniclers emphasize John's score-settling, even sadistic, temper and his blatant contempt for the church. Any positive qualities he may have had as a king have been obscured. The figure of King John also contrasts sharply with that of his brother Richard the Lionheart, the quintessential English hero. Richard has gone down in history as one of the most glorious kings of England, even though he spent only six months of his reign in the country. John, on the other hand, is often labeled as Bad King John, and no subsequent English king would bear his name. John's reputation for cruelty was cemented by Sir Walter Scott's historical novel Ivanhoe, which recounts how John takes advantage of Richard's imprisonment in Germany to usurp power. The negative image of John is closely related to the dynasty he belonged to: the Plantagenets. This was a lineage of the French feudal aristocracy that dominated the county of Anjou. Their moniker was derived from the sprigs of yellow broom (planta genista in Latin) that their knights wore when going into battle. John's grandfather—Geoffrey, count of Anjou—married Matilda, heir of Henry I of England and granddaughter of William I, the Norman knight who'd conquered England in 1066. In 1154, after a long succession conflict, the son of Geoffrey and Matilda, also called Henry, was crowned Henry II of England. PILLAR OF STRENGTH The White Tower of the Tower of London was built roughly a century before John's birth. It was a potent symbol of royal power following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. As well as being king of England, Henry II also received the dominion of Normandy through his mother. From his father, he inherited the region of Anjou. This inheritance gave Henry II control of northwestern France, and these vast estates were increased further when Henry married Eleanor of Aquitaine, heir to an extensive domain in central and southern France. This collection of territories,which included much of Wales, Ireland, and later Scotland, constituted the so-called Plantagenet Empire. A century before John's birth, William the Conqueror's invasion of England in 1066 bound English politics and culture to France. For John, like his brother Richard I and his father Henry II, the dominions they held in France were more significant than those in the British Isles. As Plantagenets, their dynasty was rooted both in the Norman heartland of their ancestors and the county of Anjou just to the south. The term that historians later used to describe this composite state, the Angevin Empire, is taken from the name of the capital of Anjou, the city of Angers. The empire, however, was built on shaky foundations. The Angevin territories were vulnerable to rivals to the east, specifically Philip II, the self-styled king of France and the feudal ruler to whom the Plantagenets were officially subordinate. In 1202 Philip II exercised his power to remove the lands of Brittany, Anjou, Touraine, and Poitou from John as punishment for not responding to a summons to appear before the French court in a land dispute. John's vain attempts to avenge this humiliation led to costly, futile wars, fueling his unpopularity at home. The fact that Henry and Eleanor controlled such extensive dominions stirred the greed of many, not least their own children. When John, the youngest son, was born, his father had already distributed the titles among his three surviving older sons: Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey. For this reason, the king gave John the title Jean Sans Terre. The Norman French was translated into English as John Lackland. The mocking nickname and rivalry with his siblings might seem a plausible reason for John to want to claw back some territory and compensate for this unequal treatment from his father. But the truth is that Henry II had no intention of marginalizing his youngest son. In fact, John soon became the king's favorite, and Henry II spent a lot of time with John in his infancy. After trying in vain to educate John for an ecclesiastical career at Westminster Abbey, Henry planned to secure extensive lands for him by negotiating a future marriage to the daughter of the powerful Count of Maurienne, who ruled a swath of what is today eastern France around the city of Grenoble. But this prompted dissent from John's older brothers. A DYNASTY BLOSSOMS The seal of John's father, Henry II, the first of the Plantagenet dynasty. Plantagenet means 'blossom of the broom plant' (genet in French), a symbol associated with Henry's father, Geoffrey of Anjou. Later Henry II made the Anglo-Norman-Welsh barons who held his dominions in Ireland pay tribute to John for their fiefs, or feudal land. However, John had to return to England after only six months in Ireland, having sparked multiple conflicts with leaders there. He was already getting a reputation for being an irresponsible and capricious politician. A contemporary chronicler, the monk Gerald of Wales, portrayed Prince John at the age of 19: "Caught in the toils and snared by the temptations of unstable and dissolute youth, he was as wax to receive impressions of evil, but hardened against those who would have warned him of its danger; compliant to the fancy of the moment; more given to luxurious ease than to warlike exercises, to enjoyment than to endurance, to vanity than to virtue." (Who was the first king of England?) Another trait that characterized John from a young age was his lack of loyalty. Henry II experienced this in a bitter episode at the end of his life in 1189. Bedbound after a serious jousting accident, King Henry had ordered his faithful adviser William Marshal to prepare a list of traitors who were plotting against him. But when William began to read the list, Henry saw that the first name was that of his own son, John. The king told him,'You have said enough,' and died three days later. Richard ascended to the throne and John, despite the bitter disputes he'd had with his brother in the past, went immediately to see him to confirm his inheritance. Richard the Lionheart, now King Richard I, received John cordially in Normandy and showed his characteristic generosity. Far from leaving his brother lacking land, Richard immediately granted John all the territories their father had wished him to receive, including the earldom of Nottingham and incomes raised on Sherwood Forest, home of legendary Robin Hood. Richard also conferred on him the important title of count of Mortain. When John married his cousin, Isabella of Gloucester, later that year, he gained the title of marcher lord, and with it control over land on the Welsh border (Marches). To this was added the lordship of Ireland, inherited from his father. PLANTAGENET ROYAL PANTHEON The tombs of Henry II and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, lie in front of those of their son Richard I and John's second wife, Isabella of Angoulême, in the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud, Chinon, central France. Less than a year after acceding to the throne, King Richard was among the leaders of the Third Crusade who marched to the Holy Land with the aim of liberating Jerusalem from the control of Saladin, the Muslim sultan of Egypt, Syria, and much of the Near East. Aware of his younger brother John's ambition and lack of scruples, Richard left the government of England in the hands of Chancellor William Longchamp. But John immediately began to plot against Longchamp and succeeded in getting him removed. Meanwhile, John was also traveling the country making his presence felt and implying that Richard would never return. It is also said that John made a deal with the king of France, Philip II, upon the king's return from the Crusade he'd fought with Richard the Lionheart. Eleanor, in France at this point, tried to rein in her son John, fearing that, with his malleable character, the young man might listen to the advice of the French and plot the ruin of his brother. Richard left the Holy Land after negotiating a treaty that recognized Muslim control over Jerusalem yet allowed Christian pilgrimage. Later, while passing through Vienna, he was captured by the Austrian duke Leopold V, whom Richard had offended during the Crusades. Leopold handed Richard over to the Holy Roman Emperor. A huge ransom was demanded for Richard's release. John took advantage of his brother's captivity to try to take full control of England, but his efforts failed; the Lionheart inspired loyalty even in his absence. Fourteenth-century miniature of King John. Hunting had long been the sport of the Anglo-Saxon kings of England. The Norman Conquest in 1066, however, brought important changes to the way land was used for hunting. Prior to 1066, English kings hunted in open countryside, but the Normans brought with them a new idea: the forest. Although in modern English forest means an extensive woodland, the Latin roots of the word are related to legal ideas of land set aside for royal use. Royal forests were subject to strict rules about who could and could not use their resources, leading to discontentment among both nobles and common people. King John certainly made use of the royal forests established by his predecessors, as depicted in this 14th-century miniature held in the British Library. It shows the crowned king on horseback with hounds in pursuit. An official in the court of King Henry II described the importance of the forest to the monarch: 'Setting aside the turmoil of serious matters intrinsic to the court, they breathe fresh air freely for a little while; and that is why people who violate the forest are punished solely at the king's will.' After the ransom was paid, Richard was finally released and back in England. Initially, Richard stripped his brother of his lands, but a year later they were reconciled. Just a few years after that, in 1199, Richard died unexpectedly from gangrene in a wound suffered during the siege of a French castle. On his deathbed, at the urging of his mother, Eleanor, Richard forgave John's treacheries and named him his successor. Many people, however, believed that Arthur of Brittany, son of John's older, deceased brother Geoffrey, had a more legitimate claim to the throne, although he was only 12 years old. (How a teenage girl became queen of England for nine days) The supposedly impulsive and vindictive character of King John contrasted with the cordial generosity of his brother and predecessor the Lionheart. Being seen as bad was a fatal trait in a world where monarchs needed to forge alliances and maintain loyalties. As soon as John acceded to the throne, he annulled his marriage to Isabella of Gloucester, with whom he had no children, in order to marry Isabella of Angoulême. It was a sudden decision that has sometimes been presented as the result of an infatuation for a 12-year-old girl. In reality, the match was a political calculation. Isabella brought with her rights and allies in the territories of Angoulême. Above all, by marrying Isabella, John prevented her marriage to Hugh IX de Lusignan, a match that had already been arranged and would have brought Lusignan enormous power in the west of France. The Lusignans protested to their liege lord, the king of France, who summoned John, his vassal in the French territories, to settle the dispute. But John ignored the summons, refusing to recognize Philip II as his superior. So Philip, exercising his feudal power, condemned John as a traitor, stripped him of his territories in France, and gave them to John's nephew, Arthur of Brittany. Open warfare between Philip and John followed for the lands John held on the continent. State crime Despite the nickname Softsword, John demonstrated real military prowess in this conflict. The troops of the Lusignan dynasty invaded Poitou and laid siege to the castle of Mirebeau, where Eleanor of Aquitaine was staying. Upon learning of this, John ran with his army almost 80 miles in two days, broke the siege, and took more than 200 prisoners. Among them was his nephew Arthur of Brittany. John knew that Arthur was seen by many as the rightful heir not only to the French Plantagenet lands but also to the English crown. Arthur was removed to a prison in Rouen, and the unfortunate 16-year-old prince was never heard from again. Some said that John, drunk in a fit of rage, killed him with his own hands; according to others, John commissioned William de Braose, a nobleman who specialized in shady tasks, to do the deed. Arthur's older sister was imprisoned for life in Bristol Castle. This was not John's only demonstration of his ruthless and cruel character. He also had a score of the prisoners from Mirebeau transported to Corfe Castle in southern England with a letter to the governor there ordering him to starve them to death. The order was followed. This setback did not, however, prevent the French, who had far superior military resources, from conquering Normandy in 1204 and two years later conquering Anjou, Maine, and parts of Poitou. The Plantagenet Empire was breaking up. (This battle lasted just one day—but forever changed England) CORFE CASTLE This fortress was built by William I shortly after his forces arrived from Normandy and conquered England in 1066. John used it as a prison for his political enemies. DAVID NOTON PHOTOGRAPHY/ ALAMY/CORDON PRESS After these territorial losses, John moved his main residence to England, something he probably did willingly; John was the first king since the Norman Conquest to speak English well. Determined to take his revenge on France, John reformed the administration, increased taxes, and launched an inquiry into the feudal titles of knights. This provoked resentment among the nobility, but John paid them no heed. A chilling example of how John treated his barons is shown in what happened to William de Braose, who had been a favorite of John's for years. In 1206 William fell into disgrace, supposedly for not having handed over some money he'd collected from his fiefs to the king. William fled first to Ireland while John confiscated his estates. He then took refuge in Wales, where he helped Prince Llywelyn the Great rise up against John. William eventually escaped to France, but John tracked down his wife and son and locked them in the dungeons of the castles of Windsor and Corfe, where he starved them to death. It was said that William's wife, Maud, devoured the corpse of her son before dying herself. All against John TURBULENT PRIEST Archbishop Stephen Langton holds the Magna Carta in a stained glass window in Canterbury Cathedral. As if this were not enough, John's decision in 1207 to reject the appointment of Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury set the king on a collision course with the papacy. For six years England was placed under papal interdict, which meant that no church services could be held in any church in the country. John took advantage of this situation to fill his coffers with the rents from the vacant ecclesiastical offices. But the papacy's excommunication of John in 1209 laid the king open to being deposed by his enemies. In 1211 the leading barons of the country organized a plot to kill John during a campaign against the Welsh attempt failed. John tried to wriggle out of this situation by engineering a reconciliation with the church. He declared the kingdom of England a vassal of the papacy and committed to paying it a large sum of money every year. MONUMENT TO THE CHARTER The American Bar Association's monument to the Magna Carta in Runnymede, England, was inaugurated in 1957 and features a Roman-style, domed roof. British and American lawyers attended the ceremony, reflecting the importance of the 1215 charter in the legal system of both nations. Near where King John reluctantly placed his royal seal on the Magna Carta in 1215, the monument indicates where the event took place: 'in the meadow that is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines.' Today, on the outskirts of western London, the spot has acquired enormous significance as the birthplace of modern democracy. Even in 1215, Runnymede was charged with symbolism: Situated near a major crossing of the Thames River, its name is derived from Old English, meaning 'meadow of the meeting.' It was the site of open-air councils held by the Anglo-Saxon kings from the seventh century. The later significance of the Magna Carta to the Constitution and legal system of the United States prompted the American Bar Association to erect a memorial at Runnymede in 1957. North American ties to the site were further strengthened in 1965, when Queen Elizabeth II established a memorial to John F. Kennedy. It stands on an acre of ground formally bequeathed to his nation, making this most English meadow a part of the United States. In return, he hoped the pope would become an ally in his struggle against the barons and against the king of France. But events did not play out as he had hoped. In France, John suffered a definitive defeat against Philip II at the Battle of Bouvines. On his return to England, many nobles rallied against him, marched on London, and finally forced him to sign the landmark charter known as the Magna Carta. Through this document King John put to rest various grievances that the nobility, the church, and other sections of the population had against him. One key demand of the Magna Carta was that his subjects would be judged by courts and not by the arbitrary will of the monarch. Should a monarch violate the terms of the charter, there was provision for a committee of barons to condemn them as a tyrant and depose them. Magna Carta, 1215 version, British Library, London. The Magna Carta is a mixture of a peace treaty between the king and his barons and a charter of rights. Its clauses reflect the role of the clergy in its drafting: The first clause, for example, guarantees freedom to the church. Other clauses respond to the concerns of the barons, such as clause 39, which establishes the obligation for every free man to be judged 'by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land' and not by the sole will of the king. The most radical was clause 61, in which the king agreed to accept a committee of 25 barons dedicated to guaranteeing 'the peace and liberties granted and confirmed to them by this charter.' If the king or his officers 'offend in any respect against any man, or transgress any of the articles of the peace or of this security,' those 25 barons have permission to 'distrain upon and assail us [the king]...by seizing our castles, lands, possessions.' Soon after its signing, the Magna Carta was annulled by Pope Innocent III. But its ideas were returned to again and again, and they became gradually enshrined in English law. John repudiated the charter as soon as he'd managed to regain the support of the pope. He died of dysentery soon after, in the middle of a war against his barons, who were trying to impose a French prince as the new king. John was succeeded by his son Henry III, age nine. The unwavering loyalty of a few barons, in particular royal adviser William Marshal, saved the throne of Henry III and the legacy of the Magna Carta. The former king, on the other hand, remained fixed in English collective memory as Bad King John, the odious tyrant immortalized by Sir Walter Scott. The extremely negative depiction of John was propelled by the chroniclers who wrote about his reign a few years after his death. Most of them were monks, and their works reflected the resentment the church felt for the abuses committed by the king against the clergy. Possible portrait of William Shakespeare circa 1600, National Portrait Gallery, London. The first chroniclers to write about the reign of John did not suggest his misdeeds were especially unusual. The Barnwell Chronicle, written anonymously in the 1220s, portrays John as an unlucky prince who had lost many territories, although it does censure the late king for 'stealing' from the English at the expense of his foreign allies. Among the first depictions of John as a notably malign ruler appear in the chronicle of the Benedictine monk Roger of Wendover, written around 1230, which recounts John sleeping with the wives of his barons, taking the Lord's name in vain (swearing 'By God's teeth' and 'By God's feet'), and forcing an archdeacon to wear a robe of lead until he died. This final accusation is known to be false since the archdeacon in question, Geoffrey of Norwich, was still alive in 1225. Two decades later, a younger colleague of Wendover added more lurid claims about John's reign: Matthew Paris, a Benedictine monk and chronicler from St. Albans, suggested that John sent a delegation to the Almohad caliph Muhammad al-Nāsir in North Africa offering to convert to Islam and turn England into a tributary of the caliph. The most serious accusation against John was that of having killed his nephew, Arthur of Brittany. Many historians believe the king did indeed have Arthur killed; the boy had a strong claim to the throne and could have been the focus of a revolt by the barons. Kings purging their dynastic rivals was not exceptional at the time. The mystery around the prince's disappearance, however, gave rise to gruesome stories. One suggests that John ordered a servant to blind and castrate the prince, another that John himself murdered the prince in his cell while seized by alcohol and a fit of rage. Neither story has any historical foundation, but both have contributed to the malicious reputation of the monarch, amplified by Shakespeare's play, King John. The bard and the life of John In the play King John, composed around 1595, William Shakespeare takes up the rumor of the murder of Prince Arthur, modifying it to change John's role. In the play, John entrusts Hubert, a citizen of Angers (today in France), with the secret mission of killing Arthur by gouging out his eyes. But moved by the boy's innocence, Hubert spares Arthur's life while lying to the king that he has carried out the order. The news of Arthur's death provokes general indignation, and John decides to accuse Hubert of the murder. Hubert then reveals that he did not kill Arthur, but in the meantime the boy dies while trying to escape by jumping over the castle wall. Upon seeing the corpse, many believe the king is guilty. 'Prince Arthur and Hubert,' oil painting by William Frederick Yeames, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, England. This story appeared in the July/August 2025 issue of National Geographic History magazine.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Conservationists ‘overjoyed' at successful breeding by rare Montagu's harriers
A pair of Britain's rarest breeding birds have successfully reared chicks at a secret location protected by conservationists and the farmer whose land they nested on. The Montagu's harrier has not successfully bred in the UK since 2019, but this year a pair of the migratory birds of prey have managed to raise four healthy youngsters to fledging. Montagu's harriers winter in Africa and return to Europe to nest, often setting up home in agricultural fields – particularly winter sown cereals in the UK – and can return to the same location each year. Their previous strongholds in Spain and France are struggling because of more intensive agriculture, earlier harvesting dates and wetter summers, while in the UK they have declined from a high of nine successful nests in 2011, with the species placed on the 'red list' of birds most at risk in 2021, the RSPB said. The pair were first seen at the now secret location in May, and the RSPB has worked closely with the farmer on whose land the birds were to protect the nesting attempt. A nest was located in June by the licensed use of a drone and then closely monitored by a volunteer birdwatcher and the wildlife charity. The RSPB set up a small protective fence around the nest once the chicks had hatched, to protect them from predators such as foxes. The chicks were ringed in mid-July and last week made their first flights, the RSPB said. Both the adult birds were themselves previously ringed, with the male identified as a chick from a nest in the UK in 2015, and the female from a nest in France in 2023. Mark Thomas, Montagu's harrier species lead at RSPB, said: 'We are overjoyed that a pair have returned, they managed to find each other and through the close protection of a dedicated farmer and the RSPB, have managed to raise four youngsters. 'What's even more remarkable is that we have been able to work out that the male was colour-ringed by the RSPB as a chick in a UK nest in 2015 and that his partner is wearing a ring indicating she is from France. 'This Anglo-French alliance could just be the springboard needed to save this species in Britain.' The farmer, who cannot be named to protect the location of the nest, said: 'It's fantastic to have these amazing birds on the farm and a just reward for the extensive conservation work we have been undertaking for decades.' The RSPB said it hoped the birds will migrate safely to Africa, and the adults will return next year to breed again.
