《The Art and Science of Forest-Bathing》+ Poundfit + Hosting YB & friends at STC + Chinese Garden walk & Glass with Potato + Sungei Buloh with Jess + Decathlon with Potato + Potato’s home-cooked vermicelli + Alwyn’s 1YO birthday bash + dinner with WZ & PQ +《密室逃脱·暗夜古宅》+《女儿们的恋爱》

Decided to borrow “The Art and Science of Forest-Bathing” from NLB after reading an article on Shinrin-Yoku. 

It really is interesting how Prof Qing Li went about introducing forest-bathing to readers and also studying the benefits of practising forest-bathing, like how the activity and number of Natural Killer (NK) cells, that kills tumour and virally-infected cells in the body, could increase after a 3D2N forest-bathing session. 

I can’t recall since when I’ve been into nature, but I reckon the sight of nature has always given me lots of inner peace and calm. I’m less unhappy or depressed when I know I’m inside Mother Nature, like a forest, the mountains or the caves, as compared to cities with tall buildings. 

After gaining a deeper insight into forest-bathing, it’s all the more I know the lifestyle I would want in life, and how I would design my living space around the theme of nature. Yay.

Rating: 4/5

17/4/19 Weds: Last lesson of kickboxing with Kelly as she will no longer be available to teach on Weds at JW dance studio. *Time flies… I think I have been in class for 1+years!* Potato rented a car to move his stuff home from hall, so he came to drive me over to my place, had dinner and I recommended him to watch《密室逃脱·暗夜古宅》~ glad he enjoyed it.

18/4/19: Thurs: Met Nooresh by chance at the MRA counter. He was returning to Mauritius next Tuesday, and he gave me a lift to Yew Tee for lunch. We chatted a bit about his earnings and burden with a young family to feed. *Nonetheless, all the best to “uncle” whom I’ve known for 5 years now.*

Started my first lesson of Poundfit with Yvonne at JE VIP studio. It’s quite a small room, with about 10+ students? There was only me and another newcomer among all the female students. Yvonne told us it was gonna be “fierce” throughout that one hour, and I sure tasted that. I did enjoy working out to the heavy music though I was trying hard to follow the moves, but boy the amount of squats was way more than what I can handle lol~ *Shiok cos I sweated a lot, but I had DOMs for the next 2-3 days…* 

19/4/19 Fri: YB, BY, Iris and her boyfriend came over to STC to watch the races at the Owners’ lounge today. We had lunch together, and I taught them how roughly to read a race book and look at racehorses. Happy that they enjoyed the lunch and the thrill of the races haha~ *They lost a bit la, and it was a pity that they didn’t bet on “Nimble” like I said… he won!*

In the late afternoon, I brought them over to Carpark B, wanting to visit Shilin Market but man the crowd was crazy despite the drizzle. *Couldn’t even meet up with YJ who was working there that day.* 

22/4/19 Mon: Potato stayed over at my place after we had dinner with his family on Sunday night. Woke up early to visit Chinese Garden for a walk, and I was sharing what I read in “The Art and Science of Forest-Bathing” with him as we go. The Jurong Lake Garden was nearing completion too. *Definitely a “yes” for me to a greener Lakeside!*

Caught “Glass” at my place in the afternoon.

Kevin Crumb “The Horde”, David Dunn “The Overseer” and Elijah Price “Mr Glass” were captured and put into a mental institution where Dr Staple tried to convince them that they are deluded by thinking that they are superheroes. Though the three died in the end, Elijah still managed to hacked the video that proved their existence, and it was released to the world in the end.

I would very much prefer “Split” over this.

Rating: 3/5

23/4/19 Tues: I still find it hard to balance well in the Warrior III pose!

28/4/19 Sun: Visited Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve with Jess since morning. We walked all three areas of the park and saw one huge monitor lizard along the way!

One uncle pointed to us a bird nest in the midst of the greens… he has sharp eyes!

Took us about 3 hours to complete the whole walk, and then we went to IMM’s White Beehoon restaurant for lunch. Shopped around JE for hiking boots, but we didn’t get any in the end.

30/4/19 Tues: Jess joined me for a trial aerial yoga class tonight. Thought it was not her kind of exercise, it’s still good to know that she did worked her muscles and that inversion doesn’t cause her to be as nauseous as she thought.

1/5/19 Weds: Potato and I went to Decathlon at Joo Koon. He had lunch and I ate strawberry ice kacang before we started walking around. Bought myself a sleeping bag (for 10 degrees Celsius) for $40 and two travel towels. Took the MRT all the way to Tuas after that just cause curious Potato wants to take a look along the area haha.

2/5/19 Thurs: Headed over to Potato’s after work as he promised to cook dinner for us! He was still cooking the vermicelli and meatballs by the time I got there, so he served up salmon sashimi salad first hehe~

Loved the meatballs he made himself using pork, onions, salt and pepper. It went well with the tomato-based vermicelli! *Thanks for the time and effort Potato!* Caught episode four of《密室逃脱·暗夜古宅》too before going home~

4/5/19 Sat: After tuition with Jayden, Potato and I met at Tanah Merah to take bus 47 to SUTD, to attend MT’s son Alwyn’s 1YO birthday bash. It’s set at a Chinese pavilion situated in between SUTD’s hostels… spacious place. 

Had a good chat with the other uni ladies and their other halves. *XY brought her new boyfriend Jake along too!* 

Got a lift from John and SS to Changi City Point, and I bought my North Face Ultra Fast Pack III Mid GTX boots ($148, 50% discount)… last piece. Though it’s a US 8.5, it felt just nice after I wore a pair of thick hiking socks in it. *Hope it will be good to me in Kyrgyzstan and may it last!* We went to AMK Hub to have dinner with WZ and PQ at Eighteen Chefs. WZ shared about her home renovation and her new job at SP, and how she was worried it’d get stagnant for her.

6/5/19 Mon: Potato went to JEM in the morning to use our free movie tickets to exchange for tickets to “Avengers: Endgame” that noon. I had the hokkien mee ($4.50) while he had saba fish set for lunch.

Three hours into the show, and since this was an end to Avengers, all the characters made cameo appearance in it. I’d still say I prefer the previous movies than the finale, simply because I prefer movies that go in-depth into a certain character, than just a “summary”.
Even if Black Widow and Ironman sacrificed, I thought it was still a fitting ending to Avengers after all.

Rating: 4/5

Chanced upon China’s 10-episode escape room reality variety《密室逃脱·暗夜古宅》on Youtube.

Different themes for every episode, it could be a race against time or spies in the group. 唐禹哲is the main star and leader of the show every time, and he is indeed clever when it comes to solving puzzles and clues. *I wish they could have a Season 2!*

Rating: 4.5/5

Finished watching《女儿们的恋爱》, which features Selina of S.H.E、张轩睿、任容萱、傅园慧、沈梦辰and her long-term boyfriend杜海涛.

The female “contestants” on the show were all of different relationship backrounds it seems. China’s national swimmer傅园慧had never been in love before, Selina was divorced and沈梦辰and杜海涛were already dating for some years.
Honestly, my attention was only on Selina and her sister’s date after a while. I especially enjoyed the episodes where they went to云南as the place looked beautiful! *I want to visit there someday!*
I thought Selina and张轩睿really got together in real life, but it’s all still雾里看花till now. Oh well, may they find their true love no matter what.

Rating: 3.75/5

7/5/19 Tues: We got ready into Locust pose and back-flipped~ though the class was not very coordinated in our poses haha. *I feel muscles growing in my arms now lol~*