I’ve come to the end of《延禧攻略》! A show that made me
binge-watch towards the later part.
Though I seldom watch宫廷剧, I have always enjoyed dramas or movies
that are “adapted from true story” or as long as they have some history or
truth to it. *Hmm I like fantasy films
too la.* We all know乾隆帝as one
of the three wisest emperor in China’s Qing Dynasty, besides康熙and雍正. Actor聂远has definitely “given life” to QianLong
emperor! Love his character a lot~ he’s kinda cute and亲民too. One of his greatest love魏璎珞is the female protagonist, and
she’s so sharp with words that even QianLong has to kowtow to her la! Audiences
would love the original皇后富察容音too,
cos she is the best empress to most, esp璎珞, but whom unfortunately was driven to
death by her own cowardice and other concubines’ persecution.
All other concubines like娴妃、高贵妃、纯妃、顺嫔、愉妃、嘉嫔and舒妃made the drama even richer
with their evil plots. 富察傅恒and璎珞’s love did not last long cos
the emperor wanted her, and he was made to marry尔晴, the other late empress’s大宫女whom was full of jealous and
hatred towards璎珞. The
passing of明玉, 傅恒and a few other characters’
death saddens us viewers, but I reckon necessary and would happen under such
circumstances in the palace.
Besides the well-written plot, I liked how they were
detailed about the costumes, settings and人物关系图in the drama as well. 70
episodes well-worth watching, if not again. Yes I rmb learning new words from
the drama too, like“凌迟”which
I heard the emperor said twice and googled to know that it referred to千刀万剐, aka slicing the meat piece
by piece from the death row’s body in a certain order, which was one of the ways
of punishment by death in history.
Rating: 5/5
15/9/18 Sat: Took bus 52 from Clementi to nearby Venus
Drive carpark. Started the walk up to Hilltop Walk with XY and SS at 10am~ enjoyable
stroll with the ladies and the surrounding is cooling too. It felt easier than
when I first visited a few yrs ago, and the walk to and fro took about 2hrs. *We got lost at one pt of time cos we missed
the signboard directing us the right path to the treetop haha.*
3 of us took a bus down to Upper Thomson area and had lunch
at Tomyum Mama… laughters with them!
16/9-17/9/18 Sun-Mon: Mum helped sign me and XY in for our
stay at MBS Tower 2 lv 18 on a Sun, and it happened to be F1 night somemore. We
nua at the infinity pool in the afternoon for a while, and heard the F1 cars
zoom past during their rehearsal. Had dinner at Rasapura food court, and all
the prices went up aft renovation. That bento set I had costs nearly $10 now! Bought
the strawberry flavoured cider from 7-11 and chilli crab cup noodle to snack on
for supper with XY haha!
When Hamilton won the race finally aft 61 laps, and to our
surprise, we could actually see the fireworks bright and clear from our balcony
neh! Watched a few epi of《延》with
her into the night… *didn’t slp well cos
I was feeling hot and cold now and then ah doi~* Nex day, we headed to四马路观音庙and had Katong Laksa for
brunch… even that costs $5.50 for a small bowl lor.
Met up with sec sch clique for dinner at Coco Ichibanya at
Star Vista. PH is alrdy pregnant with a baby girl, and YS came this time! How
long has it been since we last saw him sia? Anyway, the pork cutlet rice was nt
bad la.
18/9/18 Tues: We had fun being “bats” lol~
20/9/18 Thurs: My Potato knew my love for Stacey Kent, and
he bought the concert tickets to her performance at Esplanade without me
knowing! *I love this early 30th
bday present, thanks dear!* We had the giant Barachirashi don at Emporium
Shokuhin, which randomly became my treat as his early 30th bday
dinner too!
I came to know about Stacey Kent when I
chanced upon her song “The Ice Hotel” randomly on youtube some years ago and I
fell in love with the music and her voice. *Nobel-winning
writer Kazuo Ishiguro is the lyricist omg!* Songs in “Breakfast on the
Morning Tram” played on loop for a period of time even. The sweet jazz singer
serenaded us with new songs like “I know I dream”, “Bullet Train”, “To Say
Goodbye”, “That’s All”, “Make It Up” and “Les Amours Perdues” etc, plus my fav
“The Ice Hotel” which apparently local audiences requested for! enjoyed
the 1.5 hours of “dreamy”, romantic and relaxing session with Kent, her hubby
saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, the pianist, bassist and drummer. I really think her
songs would make for a “good night”~ oh and er Potato was as usual studying the
musical presentations of the band throughout haha.
Rating: 4/5
22/9/18 Sat: Headed to Charlie Brown café at Cine Orchard
aft tuition with Gideon to meet WZ, PQ and Pat. Pat brought Reiden and Royden
along too~ first time seeing Royden, and we thought he looked like a girl from
some angle somehow haha! The prawn pasta was nt bad. Talked about WZ’s new
work, and her upcoming reno. Gave her a white tea exfoliating mask and eye mask
set as her belated bday gift!
23/9/18 Sun: Last of the 8 sessions of Fight-do~ pretty much enjoyed it!
29/9/18 Sat: Start of the first Piloxing lesson with May Foo
at JE dance studio. It was my first time using the Piloxing glove during class
as well. As it’s been a few years since I last did Piloxing, I think there are
some changes to the choreography, or maybe it’s juz May’s style that’s diff
from Lucretia’s. *Lucretia’s class felt
more tiring from memory, esp her cool-down exercises which included floor-work,
but I kinda enjoyed sweating then~ but I look forward to getting used to May’s
classes soon!*
Brought Potato to try King Kong Chirashi at Tiong Bahru, and while I'd enjoy the rice infused with truffles and cereals, he found the truffle smell overwhelming, so much so it hid the freshness of fish. Well, he still thought the sashimi were decently fresh and scallop sweet. *Sadly, their dons were not "king kong" size as per the name lol. Pretty small for $13 or $14 for mine with assorted fish slices.*
We went to Chinese Cultural Centre to catch the 2nd running of《我写我的歌压轴演唱会》where 12 finalists battle on stage with their bands and original Chinese compositions to audiences and judges like李偲松、何维健、梁文福etc. *Potato and his friends joined in the inaugural batch, and got pretty gd results too!* He got the tickets this time cos his friend ZH was one of the finalists, and though her music genre sounds more towards the experimental, 诡异kind, I thought it's "got feel"! She won "Best Song" award which is kinda the overall champ la! Can't wait to hear when it's out as a Singles~ Having said that, some other teams were talented too... like“枪靶”的歌词具有批判性, criticising "keyboard warriors" nowadays.
30/9/18 Sun: Potato came over to have mum’s mee hoon kuey
for lunch, and we began our planning for Kyoto, Nara and Osaka. It was a humid
afternoon, and yup I got kinda irritated by the heat, and I think he was tired
aft 2.5hrs or so of planning, and so we napped for a while. Still not done with
booking of accommodations, and then we headed out to meet YB, BY, WH, WL and WS
for dinner at Holland V XO Fish Head bee hoon. We ordered the $30 fish head bee
hoon, 一人份三捞河粉($6), 虾酱鸡, 虾枣, 番薯叶and排骨王, and it’s only about $15 per pax… pretty
value for money. We would say the虾酱鸡is
good, 排骨王a bit
sweet for me, but yeah the fish head bee hoon soup tasted a bit off and salty,
thought the fish meat was nt bad. 三捞河粉was meh-meh.
Took a bus over to Holland V to find the “Lup Sup Bar” has
closed down, so we decided to pop into The Nook for a drink instead. YB and I
had the SG ale, which she and Stephen tot tasted “refreshing”, but I think it’s
just bitter and plain to me la lol. *Glad
to know that there’s a major chance that WL and WS could be PotaTOH’s neighbour
in future!*
1/10/18: Attended STC’s Townhall. It’s disappointing and
disconcerting, as many like me would think. Cutting down on op’s cost is a
major step, but one cannot comprehend why only
premiums are reduced which impacts ppl like me the most, who have no choice but
to do race days. *Not taking this lying down. 人不为己，天诛地灭。*
2/10/18 Tues: First time trying out "frog" pose today! It helps with loosening tight hip muscles apparently.
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