Sleep + shopping date with Alina + haircut & The Sushi Bar with Potato + GE 2020 + Premolar tooth surgery + The Travelling Cat Chronicles + Potatoh's Anniv Wedding Photoshoot + meetup with Daniel + Sistars' dinner @ Izakaya Nijumaru + removal of stitches + Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life + 하트시그널 Season 3 + 러브캐처 Season 1 and 2 + Twogether
My brain remains very active before sleeping, and so tossing and turning in bed is like a daily routine for me before really falling asleep. Naturally, I'd been curious about the quality of my sleep given my condition, and how I can improve on it, and "Sleep" by sleep coach Nick Littlehales, one of NLB's promoted title, helped me quite a bit.
The R90 program (Recovery 90) taught me to look at sleep in cycles and not hours. Besides the usual five cycles (7.5hrs or so) that I observed that I need a night, Controlled Recovery Period (aka NAP) can help us when it comes to sleeping in the day... i.e. one can take a nap in 30 (between 3-7pm) or 90 minutes block (between 1-3pm) depending on the time of the day. Pre and post-sleep routines are important too, and how we all should just dump all smart devices (yes, I think including my Fitbit watch but eh not for now) out of where we called “the Recovery room”. Also for people who cannot live without their caffeine or face insomnia, parents with babies at home, hmm have a read to get “smarter sleeps”.
If it works for professional athletes, then I think it can do too for me. I just need a little bit more of discipline, even if we have too many excuses in life.
If it works for professional athletes, then I think it can do too for me. I just need a little bit more of discipline, even if we have too many excuses in life.
Rating: 4.5/5
2/7/20 Thurs: Alina and I decided for lunch at Kim Dae Mun. There were always queues when I visited the eatery last time, but this afternoon, it was rather empty. I thought I liked the pancake the most, though it's a bit small for the price of about $10 I think?
We walked over to Plaza Singapura as I wanted to look for yoga towels and shoes, but none was to my liking, and hence we trained to Orchard Ion to replenish my Fresh facial products, and Alina seemed to like some of their products too. *We went into some branded shops as she was looking at their bags, and yay I got myself free apple juice and water haha.* Got myself a pair of leather loafers ($79.90) from PrettyFit at Wisma Atria that I'd been eyeing on since one or two years ago. Then, we headed to Little India's Le Tart Café to collect the durian puffs and beancurd tarts I'd called up to order a week ago. The beancurd tarts (one box of eight for $10) were good in the sense that they are not sweet at all, but nothing special as they simply taste like beancurd with tarts on the outside haha. The durian puffs (one box of six for $9.50) were more to my liking even though I don't eat durian usually.
Our legs were sore from the walking and our hands were full of bags, so Alina suggested taking a bus to Symmetry café for dinner instead.
5/7/20 Sun - 6/7/20 Mon: Bought two boxes of durian puffs over to in-laws and shared it with them after dinner on Sunday. I stayed over for the night and PotaTOHs enjoyed an escape game called "The Room" on Steam on Monday morning. *What a way to "wake up" my brain right? Haha~* After that, he got his haircut at his usual salon at Far East Plaza, and we had lunch at The Sushi Bar. It was my treat for him as a reward for getting his NIE Diploma in teaching with First Class Honours hehe. *The next two and a half years of Degree course could be tough, but jiayou my Potato!*
9/7/20 Fri - 10/7/20 Sat: It was polling day on Friday, and it's the third time I am voting in the General Election in my life. Truth be told, I was never interested in politics during school days, and not much either when I first came out to work, so any discussions on politics felt rather alien to me. I guess the "child" in me slowly began to mature over the years as I felt stronger towards things happening in society and those that the ones around me and myself are experiencing. *I used to write on entertainment news as an intern reporter, but that interest has diminished, and I'm not interested in poking my nose in some artiste's private affair now.* During the period of campaign in GE 2020, I followed rather closely on GE news listed on AsiaOne (quite a headache as I toggle between English and Chinese political terms~), read some of their manifestos, laugh off some heated arguments and also pointless finger-pointings of opposite parties via the media (Kudos to all media friends for going the extra mile as always during GE periods!) and I think this is the first time I felt so excited about GE... especially the fact that all constituencies were contested! *I stayed up till 4am to watch the full results being released on Channel 8 lor!*
I'm under Jurong GRC, one of more "boring" ones as people put it, because DPM Tharman's presence makes Jurong GRC almost "un-rockable" so they say. But I'm happy to see Red Dot United still coming forward to contest the GRC, and in a sense giving the residents here a chance to express their opinions. One out of four residents here have voted for the newly-formed RDU (and I don't think the Ivan Lim saga caused the votes to swing that much). I applaud them for their courage, but yes they do have some good ideas in their manifesto. Hope to see the opposition parties in Singapore continue to flourish and mature moving forth. *Though Hong Kah North SMC would be my constituency in the next GE election.*
PAP has done their part in helping Singapore grow and steer forward since LKY's days, but there were also negatives perceived by some people in the course. They remain supermajority in parliament for the next five years, but Workers' Party has successfully won another GRC in the form of Sengkang, and I am happy to see PM Lee giving WP's Secretary-General Pritnam Singh the title of Leader of the Opposition in parliament too.
一党独大、以铁掌掌控的方式是战后的新加坡需要的，但显然的，这不是现在的新加坡人民想要的。一个开明的政府必须要会听取人民的意见、采纳后适当地实施对国家也对人民有效益的政策。“以民为天”才是廉政。2020年的选举结果告诉大家新加坡的政治制度正趋于一种“新成熟”。反对党存在的意义不是在于搞垮执政党，而是为民发声，并和执政党联手打造出最适合人民的政策。
11/7/20 Sat: It's been three months since the last race meeting on April 3. We had a bumper meeting of 14 races in this resumption, and another 14 to go on July 26, the only other meetings in July. Punters still cannot enter the racecourse on racedays, and it has not been easy for STC during this period. As a staff, I don't know if it is wise to rebrand ourselves into a more all-rounded entertainment and leisure industry in the near future, but I truly hope for a more capable CEO with Irene Lim coming on board. *It will take a lot of effort and patience.*
12/7/20 Sun: Prepared the bouquet of surprise from Sandflowers and tea bags and cup set as YB's 32nd birthday gift and got them delivered to her doorstep on her birthday itself haha. *Dried flowers are a good lasting décor for the house!*
13/7/20 Mon: Went for my bi-annual polishing and scaling at Koh Dental this morning, but more nerve-wrecking this visit as I have finally decided to extract my rotten premolar since 2010. *I'm looking at doing Ossem Implant later on.* After the hygienist cleaned my teeth, I was asked to wait outside before another nurse called me into a room to apply some numbing gel on the premolar. Waited for a while and Dr Lee came over. *I told her I'm scared of the pain, so she told the nurse to apply more haha.* I could feel that the right side of the mouth, upper lip and cheek area was numbed. She then took out the needle that looked freaking long to me lol~ and injected into the inner and outer area of the gums... didn't feel much when she jab the outside area but I can feel something poke into the gums when she did the inner gums. Not long after, she began to use her tool to pull out the premolar by force. Sadly, the tooth chipped twice or three times, so she said I've to do a tooth surgery on the spot! *I'm actually more sian about the cost than the word "surgery"~*
The nurse said the surgery would take 45 minutes or so, but Dr Lee must be so skilled that it was wrapped up in about 20 minutes. It's the first surgery of my life, and the LA was so strong I couldn't feel anything but only hear the sounds of grinding, and also at one point when she held my head towards her stomach to pull out the remaining chips I think? I saw the stitches going in and out of my mouth and also some blood, but nothing too scary during the whole procedure.
The "scariest thing" about this whole process was actually the costing la haha! Besides the usual cleaning ($80), this tooth surgery, together with the gauze, antibiotics, Eludril 90ml mouthwash and painkillers amounted to about $460. I could offset $378 from Medisave, and the remaining $78 have to be paid up a week later when I go back to remove the stitches. *Took three or four hours for the numbness to subside leh...* Moral of the story? Take care of your teeth well from young lol!
I have a “big cat” Stephen Toh as my life partner, hence the honour of borrowing "The Travelling Cat Chronicles" by Hiro Arikawa from him to keep the promise of putting aside a bit of my time everyday for books going.
Satoru took Nana, his cat, on his last journeys to re-connect with his friends, (and their shared past), his memories and his aunt. It was one to remember for Nana and me, the reader. Some parts were written from Nana’s point-of-view and it was interesting to learn about cats and their characteristics (though Potato would feed me those info verbally now and then~) through Nana and the other furballs in the novel.
A light-hearted read all the way.
Satoru took Nana, his cat, on his last journeys to re-connect with his friends, (and their shared past), his memories and his aunt. It was one to remember for Nana and me, the reader. Some parts were written from Nana’s point-of-view and it was interesting to learn about cats and their characteristics (though Potato would feed me those info verbally now and then~) through Nana and the other furballs in the novel.
A light-hearted read all the way.
Rating: 3.75/5
16/7/20 Thurs: Another set of wedding photos to commemorate PotaTOH's monthsary. May we continue to be the Prince and Princess, and King and Queen of each others' life haha!
YB invited Ben and I over for dinner that day, and treated us to some Taiwanese food Ben recommended. The fried chicken cutlet mee sua was not bad, but the portion was quite pathetic. Ben left LTA and is now working for another private transport company... good for him!
17/7/20 Fri: PotaTOHs met Daniel at his place for him to show us the completed drawing of our home interior, and also to choose the tiles and vinyl laminates. Nothing wow, but I'm pretty happy with the style and practicality overall. Then, we dabao-ed dinner for my family from Boon Lay market.
18/7/20 Sat: Shopped at Tangs before I met Francine, Ning and PY at Izakaya Nijumaru for dinner. I had hot soba with tempura, and we shared shishamo and wasabi squid too. Quick update on each others' life thus far, before we headed for Nana Green Tea at Plaza Singapura for desserts. *We queued for about five to 10 minutes before being allowed into the mall.* Oh both the green tea and hojicha ice-cream desserts were good! *PY treated us to dinner, and Ning for desserts~ thanks so much ladies!*
20/7/20 Mon: Went back to Koh Dental again to remove the stitches around the gums. The pain after the surgery was mild, so I did not take any painkillers at all, but for about four days or so, I could feel it when I'm exercising or while lying in bed. Dr Lee said the wound looked "fresh", and advised me not to chew on the right side of my mouth and gargle with saline water for the next one month till I next visit her in mid August to check on the healing.
21/7/20 Tues: Attended aerial yoga as usual, but an hour later when class ended, I was shocked to find my handphone "dead". The battery was very hot. I panicked for a little because I'd just started to use my handphone for travel purposes, before I recalled that I decided to bring along my physical bank cum ez-link card to class this afternoon phew! One really shouldn't rely too much on technology because it can fail you anytime. *No idea how the battery just died on me, and a few days down the road, it has continued to drain out completely after four hours or so. Troublesome to live with it, so I will get a new phone soon.*
Enjoyed my time spent on "Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life" by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles. Topics about life and philosophies interest me. This particular book was already on my “To Read” list since donkey years ago. But I stopped reading properly for a while, and so I only borrowed it recently.
"Ikigai", the Japanese termed it "the reason for being". It’s such a busy world out here, and sometimes we drain ourselves out without knowing the purpose we want in life. I like Morita Therapy as it tells us to accept our feelings (negative or not, instead of trying to control or get rid of them, which might make them even more intense), do what we should be doing while learning through experience and discover the purpose in our lifes. *The 15-21 days of treatment sounds very calming, if I could, I'd challenge myself to that!*
They also discussed the eating habits and lifestyle of Ogimi Centenarians, Ichi-go Ichi-e (“this moment exists now and won’t come again”) , Wabi-Sabi (appreciate the beauty of imperfection), meditation and qigong etc exercises, emotional resilience from Buddhism... it covered a huge range. The authors summarised the ten points of Ikigai at the end: Stay active and don't retire, take it slow, don't fill your stomach (吃七分饱basically）, surround yourself with good friends, get in shape for your next birthday aka exercise, smile, reconnect with nature, give thanks, live in the moment and follow your Ikigai.
I loved it because it reminds us to pay attention to the moment and cherish the impermanence of the people and things around us. I do think I have found some of my Ikigai. I will do my best to stay driven on my paths and stay aware and emotionally resilient.
豁达的人生观不是指日可待，是现在! 做人要坚强，因为强大的内在可以抵御一切可怕的外侵。
Rating: 4.5/5
23/7/20 Thurs: Signed up for this Exercise and Nutrition e-workshop from ActiveSG this afternoon, as recommended by STC. Good basic knowledge about calorie input and output, as well as food to take pre and post-workout. *More carbohydrates and fats before workout for me, and to hydrate well during and after workouts.* I remember the trainer recommended Nutrisoy (pandan flavour) for those who exercise often and who wants more protein and to increase their muscle mass.
"하트시그널 (Heart Signal) Season 3" came to an end a few weeks ago. My favourite male participant is the most kind and nice정의동, an animal replicas sculptor. 천안나and him looked like they had a good vibe going on for a while, but in the end she chose김강열instead. The latter gave off a "bad boy" vibe and he sure is outright straightforward in rejecting천안나on the show. To be honest, I don't ship him and박지현because of the rumours of him outside the show, but since she chose him instead of engineering manager천인우 (whom I too didn't like at first, but pitied him because he looked so dejected towards the end haha)... well best wishes.
I can't say I liked this season the most out of the three, but it's comparable to season 2, and maybe slightly more controversial than the previous season.
Rating: 4/5
Watched another reality variety show, "러브캐처 (Love Catcher) Season 1". 10 participants on the show live under one roof for eight days and go on dates, but each of them secretly holds either a “love catcher”(who are out to find true love), or “money catcher” (who join the game with the goal of winning the prize of 50 million won) identity. So, love catchers should avoid money catchers when finding their partners. On the other hand, those going after the money can only win the prize by partnering with love catchers. If they end up with other money catchers, both gets nothing.
I had some fun trying to guess their identities week after week, changing my guesses now and then haha. I thought dancer Han Cho-Im was trying her best to lure Lee Chae-Woon since the start for money, but it turned out she simply likes him. *Found her a bit dumb at times though lol.* Lee Chae-Woon was suspicious too as he kept avoiding Han Cho-Im on the surface and tries to get close to love catcher Kim Ji-Yeon, but secretly still chose Han as his love choice at the end of almost every episode lol. Hwang Ran was another "eccentric" lady I disliked from the show. And I never imagined the prizemoney winner to be Oh Lo-Vin~ Kim Sung-A who chose him even changed her identity last minute aish... so she "sacrificed" lo.
Rating: 4/5
Season 2 had its attention almost only on Jeong Chan Woo who desperately set eyes on Kim Ga Bin right from the start and "pursued" her without hesitation. Kim Inuk was also interested in her, but too bad she went for the one who turned out to be a money catcher instead! His acting skills were damn good in this reality show la haha!
Rating: 3.5/5
I thoroughly enjoyed "Twogether" featuring이승기and Jasper Liu! They went to Yogyakarta, Bali, Bangkok, Chiangmai and Nepal on this eight-episode travel variety. I have been to some of the attractions in Yogyakarta and Chiang Mai, so all the more I'd love re-seeing these places on camera. 이승기is great as a leader and witty, Jasper seems very accepting towards the challenges too. *Oh I miss travelling!*
Rating: 4/5
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