皓镧传 + Lunch @ Fusion Spoon + homemade Viet rolls + Kranji Mile trackworks + PPD @ Cook & Brew + Yoogane with Jess & LL + Kranji Mile 2019 + surprise bouquets

Finished watching all 62 episodes of “皓镧传”!

I thought it’s even better than“延禧攻略”because it’s more factual and closer to actual history. Definitely improved my knowledge of China’s history during the Warring period (now I can even roughly make out the geographical locations of秦、齐、楚、燕、赵、魏、韩!), as well as my knowledge of the main historical figures like赵姬、赢异人and吕不韦. Well of course, to make this war and romance drama even more complicated to satisfy audience’s cravings, fictional characters like公子蛟、公主雅、殷小春、韩琼华are created to further enrich and deepen the relationships among different characters. 

I’m not a fan of war and tactics, 但有时候情场也犹如战场呢！I honestly used to ship魏璎珞（吴谨言饰）and乾隆（聂远饰）, and I even hoped for the two to still end up together in “皓镧传” but I got a change of heart when I saw赢异人（茅子俊饰）! So glad the two were together most parts of the show though皓镧 (later as赵姬) had eyes for吕不韦at first. 赢异人在赵国时凭着耐心和细心赢得美人归了，但可惜回到秦国后，碍于大业，他表面上开始有些腹黑了，但唯独对赵姬的心意不变。是的，到死都没变。*So touching right!? Felt like he lived till 50, 60+ in the drama, but in history, 赢异人should have died at the age of 35 years old, and赵姬是个淫荡的女人, so much so that people even suspected that the son赢政（aka秦始皇）was actually吕不韦’s.* 

And now茅子俊’s my new bias! *Lucky he’s not one of those super young小鲜肉actors out there… 86-er!* He looks so good in古装… I want to watch more dramas of his~ but alas not many new ones as he’s not super famous and “productive" as an actor. Eh he has this “fresh and clean” modern look too… 

Rating: 4.75/5

9/5/19 Thurs: MY and I decided to have lunch at Fusion Spoon café in Woodlands as it was said to have a nice ambience and affordable meal sets. Not many people when we were there, but it still took about 20 minutes to get our food served. I had their salmon terikayi don ($8.80 nett) and the chawanmushi was not bad. MY had Caesar salad, and we shared the chocolate banana bingsu ($6.80)… very filling lunch.

12/5/19 – 13/5/19 Sun-Mon: Went over to my in-laws for dinner after work for home-cooked dinner, stayed over till next morning and had lunch with Potato and MIL, whom hurt her hips that Sunday and had to take MC to go to the doctor’s after lunch on Monday. 

14/5/19 Tues: XY and her bro’s girlfriend joined me for aerial yoga tonight. Tried a few new poses, including one that worked our hamstrings hard while being suspended in mid-air~

15/5/19 Weds: Had dinner with LL at Pho Street as Jess sprained her leg and could not make it last minute. Nice catch-up on both her work and her condition.

18/5/19 Sat: Went to MM and Andre’s after tuition with Jayden ended. They planned to make Vietnamese rolls for dinner. It came out not your traditional rolls of course lol~ prawns were too small imo, and the sauce was still lacking a bit in taste, as compared to the one I made long ago at Potato’s haha!

20/5/19 Mon: Yearly renewal of morning trackworks to prepare for the big race at Kranji that weekend. Only two Hong Kong contenders were invited this year, Southern Legend and Singapore Sling. Mike caught up with Beverly, wife of Tony Millard who trains Singapore Sling, and the trackriders HM and Edward (Southern Legend) for some quotes on the work and conditions of the duo in the morning at 5am. *Chatted with Scott… looks like some changes are coming to the Stipe’s department too.*

Saw Blizzard, King Louis and Preditor out at work on the main tracks among the 8 local contenders too.

22/5/19 Weds: Caspar Fownes, trainer of Southern Lgend, flown in since yesterday and I saw him this morning. *Singapore Sling’s a curious horse!* Met Potato for lunch at Westgate for some pho, and we went over to my place when I worked from home, and he just gamed and watched “Sky Castle” using my desktop. *Very happy that he came over to accompany the wife for lunch~* 

23/5/19 Thurs: Kranji Mile Post Position Draw (PPD) took place at Cook and Brew at The Westin this year. Mike drove Nick and I over. When Mr Boniface Ho, owner of Southern Legend, spoke after the barrier draw, I was rather impressed by how well Hong Kong owners seem to know their horses and races, and am proud and willing to “show face”. I reckon to be in a certain game, you cannot just be “pouring money in” without knowing the circumstances and industry well. And of course, you ought to be proud and caring as an owner. After all, horses are living flesh and blood, not just a money-making tool.

*Some cheeks his got to say that. Slightly irked when I heard that some of the colleagues were only at the PPD “to eat”. I thought the Club’s cutting cost? Why were there people whose got no business dealings at the PPD allowed there!?* Buffet was alright, and Nick, Luke, Dan and I took Mike’s car back to the Club and we continued with our tracknotes and PPD reaction stories there. 

Still went for Poundfit at night~ need to sweat it all out!

24/5/19 Fri: Jess, LL and I had dinner at Yoogane. It’s the first time we tried their army stew. There’s cheese on the outer rim of the pot but I skipped that. However, I found it not bad, at least not as filling as their rice sets, Still, it’s expensive as it came up to $23.50 per person.

25/5/19 Sat: Busier day at the weighing room on KM meeting day. I kept thinking that I have to settle my own dinner but lucky there were food provided to the overseas media in the press box, so I ate there phew. Three Group 1 races were held, and Aramco (Vlad Duric) beat Lim’s Cruiser (Zac Purton) by a little to take out the Lion City Cup, which was also trainer Shane Baertschiger’s first Group 1 winner. Top Knight (Vlad Duric) scored in the Singapore Guineas in good fashion, which meant he claimed both the second and third leg of the 3YO series, and Hong Kong’s defending champion Southern Legend (Zac Purton) just trolled the rest in the Kranji Mile this year. Our best Debt Collector (Michael Rodd) came in fourth (but he had respiratory distress after the race), Blizzard (Aldo Domeyer) came in second (but he was formerly raced in Hong Kong) and Singapore Sling (Karis Teetan), the second Hong Kong representative was third in place. *Yeah it pinches us to see the majority of the prizemoney given away to overseas connections year after year, but the only way we can get them back/get back at them is to have better horses!* Also, Glen Boss won on his last ride in Singapore aboard Elite Power in the last race as he has chose to leave Singapore after this meeting. *I finished my last story close to 2am omg~*

26/5/19 Sun: Attended WT’s dad’s wake in the afternoon with the uni ladies. It was so sudden when she broke the news to us about her dad passing away due to cardiac arrest. I remembered uncle and auntie treating me and Mich to dinner back in Shanghai when we were having our school exchange there with WT 9 years ago. *It’s never easy, but we can tell that she is being strong for her family.*  

Shared Grab with LC over to Potato’s for dinner. FIL cooked up a really nice seafood soup with miso as base, and added in prawns, sotong, carrots, toufu and beansprouts~ shiok! We had steamed eels too hehe.

27/5/19 Mon: Potato came over for dinner and he bought two bouquets of flowers! A yellow daisy for me and pink carnations for mum! *I have a thoughtful hubby who still remembers little surprises now and then after marriage~ meow! Though I wouldn’t blame him either even if he doesn’t do all these.*

28/5/19 Tues: Did "金刚坐" (Vajrasana) at the start of the class and it ached a lot! Diana told us it was one of the poses for yin yoga class and they had to sit on their heels for about 5 minutes omg~ Sweated a bit in class tonight!