Never Let Me Go review + Bday dinner for Ahna @ Arn Nan + Ramen Taisho with Potato + dinner & Pokemon date + KTV with MY & Serene + STC Paint & Plant + Potato's homemade Bento lunch + YS's wedding & WT's belated bday dinner + 2016活力四射演唱会surprise for Potato + Thai bazaar & Populus + 꼬꼬나라 with colleagues

Read "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro some time ago. The story is set in a dystopian world in which human clones are created so that they can donate their organs as young adults. The novel follows the life story of Kathy, a clone who is raised at a boarding school for future “donors.” And how her complicated friendship with Ruth and Tommy (relationship too) progressed, until they left for the Cottages, and visiting Norfolk changed their views etc.
At 1 pt of time, Ruth starts to wonder whether they are all cloned from "human trash". The former Hailsham students, and others like them, are clones of humans, created and reared to provide vital organ donations. They go through cycles of 'donations', and once their organs are harvested, they die or 'complete'. The clones appear to understand and accept this unquestioningly, and are mostly occupied with trying to live their short lives and finding ways to prolong them. In the end, Ruth completes after two donations, while Kathy chose to become Tommy's carer, till he died.

One is born for the survival of others. How ethical is this solution? To the living, there shouldn't be one inferior to the other imo.
Nonetheless, it was a pleasure reading this book. If possible, I wanna see the countryside Norfolk someday too. 

Rating: 4/5

25/8/16 Thurs: Jess recommended Arn Nan bar at Suntec Sky Garden for Ahna's belated bday dinner gathering. I met KU along the way and tot hw come he "chao da" suddenly... so he went catching pokemon at Sentosa la~ lol. 
Jess and LL were alrdy thr, and KW came with her bf Clement! *What they do IPPT together!? Keke~* We chatted for a bit and ordered the platter ($45) for 4-6pax... it's kinda like a appetiser nia lor, nt filling at all~ we din read the menu carefully then order tsk tsk.
Anyway, Ahna came really late at 9+pm, and we decided we shld hav proper dishes, and so ordered the roasted chicken, duck with caviar, asparagus and fried rice. Honestly, there were not bad, even asparagus that I don't usually eat. Jess had to leave by 10+pm as she had to catch a flight to BKK the nex day, while the rest of chatted till 11+pm. Ahna couldn't give us all a lift back, but she硬塞$30 to KU, LL and me so we could take a cab hm... thks a lot!
*Happy belated bday Ahna! It feels like life fast forwarded 10, 20yrs when I listen to their conversation... gd learning!*

26/8/16 Fri: Potato was at SP with Ning, so I tot we could meet for dinner on a rare friday that I wasn't working late. Reviews said Ramen Taisho at NTUC foodfare at Clementi Mall was gd, so we went for it.

I found the broth really thick, but noodles, ingredients and soup, all in all it was only so-so imo. It was bad haze day, so we decided to pay a visit to Big Box. Wandered ard the random shops, mostly furnitures and Potato bought himself a marker refill. Just a short impromptu date on a friday night for us!

29/8/16 Mon: Bought him to Blk496 for the famous mee hoon kuey for dinner. *Price increased to $4 per bowl now.* We both still prefer the one my mum's cousin sells at 500+ market though haha. Whatever, it's simple happiness over dinner! And plus Pikachu's nesting grd was thr LOL~

Walked into Chi Garden to continue with our Pokemon hunting date. Too bad Japanese Garden closes at 7pm, cos there seems to be many precious pokemons inside. Oh well, there were still quite a no. of ppl inside Chi Garden on a Monday night~ din catch any rare ones but got the Squirtle, Magikarps and Dratini etc. Potato even helped me defeat a gym leader and I successfully put my Pokemon into a gym for the first time lol! *Aish time flies whenever we're together it seems haha!*

31/8/16 Weds: MY, Serene and I headed to CWP's for 3hrs of Teo Heng KTV! I have to thk the 2 ladies for getting the sumptuous dinner o! *Only $20 for singing + dinner... 划算!* Singing has all along been my interest, but I'm not competitive over it, juz enjoying fun sessions with friends is what matters to me. 3 of us recorded "不能见人" 的vids too haha~ can't share lo!

6/9/16 Tues: Attended "Paint and Plant" activity workshop at Cozy Haven.

Used bead paint to paint our own plastic pots, and then blow-dry and lacquer it, before inputting the mint leaves. I don't have much creativity, randomly drew flowers, smiley icons, potato and sweet potatoes plus worded "SMILE" on it.

Good to see some greenery in the office, and hopefully it grows well!

7/9/16 Weds: Potato hinted me about the surprise a day before, and he indeed brought homemade Bento to Kranji Kopitiam to meet me for lunch today!

Minus the salmon he couldn't get the day before, he woke up at 5.15am to prepare 4 bento sets for his mum, sis, himself and I! There's the pickles his dad did, and white-wine chicken (really yums~), my fav shrooms, potatoes, onions and rice peppered with sesame! I'm touched and appreciate his efforts neh! Plus the portion was juz nice and thumbs up! It tasted really good. *好啦~可以开便当店了~*

10/9/16 Sat: Hua-Yians and Mrs Siow attended YS's wedding lunch at MBS Heliconia rm. HX, Alvin and YX were seated at the same table as us. YS's an engineer as we all know, and he'd been into robotics since sec sch, and so during the opening, even b4 he and Eleanor marched in, there's a couple bear on sports can that whizzed in, in tune with "Gangnam Style" keke~

The live band and food were all not bad imo. Happy marriage YS and Eleanor! Aft tat, YL, Jess, Ben and I met YL's gf Tania, and we headed to Millenia Walk's Plentyfull for some cakes. 

YL and Tania left for Comex IT show in the evening, Ben went hm, Jess and I loitered for a while more before I went to meet SS, YQ, LC, WT, MT and her hubby to discuss SS's wedding on coming sat and celebrate WT's belated bday at Rakuzen.

11/9/16 Sun: Headed out in the evening aft translating one article from home. Gosh I actually got lost at Downtown area while trying to find NTUC building... *damn my phone's GPS sot one!* Florist nearby was not opened, so I din buy any flowers for the surprise, only brought mooncake for his family. Lucky I'd reach before 7pm, and went into the auditorium, trying to find a seat that's not so obvious, praying Potato won't see me keke~ *Oh well he didn't throughout the concert, so yay surprise successful!* 

This concert, directed by Shirlyn, was a showcase for Vision Ent's artistes. As an audience, besides admiring Potato's awesome bass guitar skills from below stage, I did enjoy the belly dance item much. There was a变脸大师, but at one pt of time he din "change face" successfully... half the mask was hanging thr haha. Most of the singers had raw talent I would say, but maybe cos they lack such exposure, so couldn't really pull it off. He Yi, though, was pretty impressive with her powerful vocals, but she overdid it sometimes imo. As for improvements, I tot the emcee definitely needs to brush up her skills much more, well she simply lacks professionalism (i.e. introducing singers yet missing out either their names or songs they are singing) and vocab (词不达意many times, and repetitive in her words). Wushu was nt entertaining enough, and I disliked the mini drama portion... pointless imo. Except for the band, and belly dancers and a few singers, others have to work much harder in capturing audiences' attention. *Oh well, I went thr to support Potato, his bandmates and Shirlyn la!* 

But we got a headphone and Singtel's lightning cable as doorgift... nice. Potato only knew I was thr at the end of the concert when I txted him~ haha. He gave me a bottle of the TW milk tea he got from his friend, and sent me home while carrying his heavy bass guitar~ 

12/9/16 Mon: Potato and I visited the Thai bazaar at Tanjong Pagar Railway stn in the afternoon. The crowd was scary lor! We only had a bottleof herbal tea thr, and gave up queuing for Thai milkshake aft 20mins. He saw a watch tat he liked, me too, but we din buy in the end haha.

It was juz humid, and poor potato got headache from it. Before we left the place, Potato changed $4 for 2 tokens of play at the BB machine he used to be very zai at during poly days... and "showed off" his skills neh! *He was super engrossed for that 2mins lor!* 

Aft 1+hr in all, we went to The Populus for hi-tea. Potato found the croissant nice, but not exceptional... and the French Rose Bud tea not really to guys' liking I assume haha~

The headache at the back of his head was thr, so I tot we shld leave for hm earlier in the evening. 

13/9/16 Tues: Glad to know Potato felt better aft having银翘the night before slping. He was on his way to NTU for MOE's music audition this morning, and stopped by Lakeside for a morning hug hehe~ before I head off to work! 
Aft work, Clarrisa and I headed down to Tanjong Pagar to meet MY for dinner, at Dont Tell Mama at first. 

It was a small bar, but the music was kinda loud, so we decided we could go over to꼬꼬나라which was only a few stores away. The last time I went thr was for Ahna's bday a few yrs ago, and it's all refurbished now.

We ordered the honey soy-sauced chicken wings (8 pcs for $20), pork army stew and seafood pancake. For someone who don't really think too much of chicken wings, I hav to say theirs was yummy. The pork army stew uses belly meat, so u do get sick of it aft a while, and the soup kinda dries up too. Seafood pancake has a nice texture to it, nt too bad I reckon.

Prices still on the steep side... amting to $101 for 3pax. Oh well, we had a good chat thr.
*rRandom tThought: It feels sucky to have lost confidence in the leadership here. How can I progress further when I feel the boat's sinking eh? I can't possibly go down with the situation, time to buckle up and take in whatever I can. Perhaps, I shld stop be tactful and monitor how things work out.*