张家除夕团圆饭 + 卓家初一拜年 + 张家初二捞鱼生 + Sushiro & Unlocked with Potato's sec sch friends & dinner with Ian + visit to WL's new home + Limitless

24/1/20 Fri: Had reunion dinner with my family as per past years. It's the usual steamboat! We had a lot more pork collar meat this year though yums~ and there were still a lot that we could not finish... *always tell mum to buy less when we go grocery shopping but ends up a lot as usual...*

25/1/20 Sat: 年初一early morning at 8am, PotaTOHs headed over to his parents place. FIL was busy cooking the dishes for relatives who were coming over in the afternoon. *Honestly, I didn't help much as I can't cook haha.* Both in-laws had started to包虾枣since the night before too! 

It's always a spread on初一thanks to FIL. *Forgot to take picture of chicken curry~* Lots of好料like abalone, scallops, prawns etc around but my favourite is still the bak kut teh! Also, PotaTOHs gave out angpows (though we technically haven't gone through the Chinese wedding customs) to the younger kids~ MM and Andre came over in the late afternoon and we played a round of "The Valley of Alchemists" followed by mahjong, which was also when Ian came over.
After dinner, Ian drove MM and Andre home, while the three of us headed over to IndoChine at Holland Village for some drinks with James. *Drinks were cheap during Happy Hours promotion~*

26/1/20 Sun: Finished work on初二and reached home to see the adults playing mahjong and singing KTV while my two cousins XY and SF were having dinner, cooked by my mum. They bought鱼生from NTUC and some dragon fruits and seaweed to design a rat-themed lo hei! XY was the "creative designer" while SF was the "production manager" and I was simply the photographer haha.

I think it's the first lo hei in the house! We haven't had the tradition of doing it, but thanks to the two cousins, everyone had food fun tossing and eating the鱼生.
Thereafter, I finished my last article on Fortune Bowl and played "A Singaporean Dream" with XY and SF. Potato came over late and joined us for two rounds of the game. *Yay I won 4 out of 5 rounds, but that's only because my cousins are nice and kind people haha!*

27/1/20 Mon: Met Liz, Mervyn, SD, Galvin and Joan for lunch at Sushiro at Tiong Bahru Plaza. *Funny how we were only seconds away from it being a treat from Mervyn and SD who were late lol!* It's my first time there, and the sashimi were not bad, but the udon was meh-meh. 
We went to Galvin and Joan's place for three games of "Unlocked"~ I enjoyed the one in Paris the most! Liz sounded like she was very into these escape games too haha.

Potato and I went over to Novena to meet Ian for dinner at Popeyes. My first time trying it and I went for their fish with rice... not bad but not very filling. Walked around Novena Square for a while and while Ian bought some souvenirs for his colleagues in Japan, Potato walked over to Tai Cheong Bakery and bought the egg tarts for him to try. Glad both of them liked it. Then, Ian drove both of us back to my place and NIE again~ thank you!

2/2/20 Sun: Had tuition with Eshan and Adi for the first time. I think I've taught two other Indian students before, and one Indian-Chinese mixed secondary four boy a few years ago. From what I hear from their dad, it doesn't sound like they're that much "result-driven", as compared to most other Singaporean parents, whom generally hire tutors for their children because they want to see results in their school exams. I feel that learning a language is different from learning Maths or Science. The way you stay "attached" to a language is through daily use and practice, if you want it to stay with you for life. For these two, it's the same problem of not speaking mandarin or using Chinese more daily, though I've to say they're not too bad with mandarin (intonation off sometimes) and at reading and recognising the characters, when some of my other Chinese students at their age are worse than them. *It's about the exposure and one's willingness to learn that determines how well you climb up a language's ladder.*

3/2/20 Mon: Paid a visit to WL’s new place after lunch with Potato at market. 463B was one of the first two blocks ready for renovation at West Plain. *Could see PotaTOH's unit right across from theirs haha!* They were done with their customary new house-warming rituals when we arrived at their 5-room unit. *I liked the doors but gosh the two other bedrooms were small!* Their ID Daniel came in the afternoon, and we just followed and listened while they did their measurements and BTO defect checks. Potato came over to my place for dinner and we watched an episode of "Terrace House" afterwards. *Thanks to lots of CNY tidbits, my throat got inflamed, and there came the fever and flu followed by cough now... tsk and it's the“非常时期”somemore, so I decided it's better to work from home instead.*

Finished watching "Limitless", a drama I caught while in Bali with the Farmily.

It's an American comedy drama that follows Brian Finch (James Mcdorman) after he gained access to NZT-48, a pill that makes him the smartest person in the world for 12 hours once taken. He used his enhanced abilities to help FBI Rebecca Haris (Jennifer Carpenter) solve cases with the help of US Senator Edward Morra (Bradly Cooper) in the form of immunity shots. However, the FBI does not know about the immunity shots, so he has to keep both worlds apart.

Interesting way of narrating the story from a first-person point of view at the start, and listening to "Finch vs Finch" conversations on and off were intriguing. I liked the humour most of the time, though I may not understand them all. The whole drama was pretty addictive and well thought-out, so much so that my Potato would claim he's on "NZT" whenever he has clever thoughts LOL! 

Such a pity that Season 2 was cancelled.

Rating: 4.5/5