Pilates trial + FIL & MM’s bday zichar + 《펜트하우스》 + Bi-annual dental appointment + first Pilates private lesson & CT scan + shopping at Takashimaya with Potato + 《全明星运动会》 +《오지의 마법사》

15/1/21 Fri: Went for my first pilates private trial at Options Pilates with Jean. Had to fill in a short questionnaire before the session started. Jean, the 55-year-old banking industry-retiree who danced, choreographed, and taught yoga before pilates, took a quick look at my postures as I was doing warm-ups. Moved onto the reformer and man was I not familiar with that equipment, so I stumbled in many moves haha. She made me worked every inch of my muscles I feel, and commented that I, ironically, use more strength on my left leg than my right. I could feel pain in my left calf, near to having cramps at one point of time, probably because I strained it too much. Still, a fruitful one-hour session, and she recommended I could take the 3 private and 5 group lessons’ package ($530).

17/1/21 Sun: Had zichar at the hawker next to parent-in-law’s place for father-in-law’s 65^th and MM’s 31^st birthday. He ordered quite a fair bit, with longan dessert somemore!

It was only after LL mentioned about 《펜트하우스》 (The Penthouse: War in Life) that I recall and went on to catch the much-hyped drama. 

It’s more than just the issue of education in “Sky Castle”, another drama I liked, but even on real estate, marital affairs, all because of humans’ greed and desires to be powerful and to be on top. It all happened in a 100-storey building, and everything revolves around the family who lives in the penthouse and their neighbours. There is the rivalry and revenge of심수련(이지아) for her dead daughter주혜인(나소예) whom she assumed was killed by her husband주단태(엄기준), and all the children in the penthouse yearns to enter the prestigious Cheong-Ah Arts School, in which the foundation was headed by the famous female vocalist천서진 (김소연), who has an enemy in오윤희(유진) as the two had a long feud over some vocalist award in their school days. *Alamak I cannot stand천서진always shrieking at the top of her lungs over things!*

But so yup, it all began with the bully and murder of주혜인, and then audience follow the various characters to find out who exactly was the real murderer.

 

I do question to what extent this drama reflects reality because some of the love-lines between characters are too much (i.e how can주단태be so charismatic that all three female leads somehow are somehow involved with him romantically, be it morally right or wrong). But as outrageous as the story got, I still enjoyed the drama, mostly because the male lead엄기준is so evil that I hate him a lot lol… in which case it also meant that he succeeded in his role! *Aiyoh this 40+year old uncle is cool and cute at the same time when I saw him in variety shows and interviews haha~* Now, I cannot wait for Season 2 this February.

 

Rating: 4.5/5

 

19/1/21 Tues: Went for my bi-annual dental appointment in the morning to have the hygienist scale and polish ($75) my teeth as usual with fluoride application ($30). She pointed out a bacterium yellowish-stain on one of my lower right molar and proceeded with fissure sealant ($50). She also took a look at my x-ray scans and found bacteria build-up inside the fourth upper left molar (an area I did quite some amount of fillings at) which she mentioned the only thing I can do in future was root canal treatment to save my tooth… haiz.

Dr Lee looked at my healed wound to prepare for dental implants, and she took a study model of my teeth ($35, oh the kind of plasticine texture inside the mouth was annoying~). I also did a digital orthopantomograph ($70), and pre-paid for CT scan ($250) at their NEWest branch… costed me a bomb today. *Taking care of our teeth really has to start from young.*

Angry over the hood and hob delivery by the delivery company as the driver did not call me up an hour before he reached my place as promised by their staff. I hurried over and he was still annoyed over the phone… 岂有此理. Air con was installed but Andrew and his men left before I reached… so I had to text him to seal up the corners against the walls. He sent me photos of the sealed corners two days later, which were not done properly when Potato and I went to check on Sunday.

22/1/21 Fri: Started my first private Pilates with Jean. We did warm-ups on the Cardillac, and then worked my legs on the reformer. I told her that my arms are weaker, and as I exercised, I could tell it was the biceps that are worse. It is indeed a challenge for my legs and I broke out into a sweat just shortly into the session haha. Went straight to Koh Dental’s NEWest branch for my CT scan, and it took longer than the usual x-ray scans. Took bus 154 home and it’s nostalgic as I was reminded of the days I would take the bus to and fro Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

24/1/21 Sun: Had lunch with Potato at Nakijima Suisan and finally saw the “surprise” he had for me: handmade-Kalimba he did in a school workshop haha! I had $200 worth of Takashimaya vouchers to spare, so we shopped around for essentials for our new home. Ended up spending $176 on the iron ($78), thermal cooker ($49.90) and two sets of bath, hand and face towels ($48).

Went over to our new place and checked the carpentries while two workers were painting our walls. Found a number of defects, as well as the “incomplete” work by Andrew’s workers. *He still wants me to pay up the remaining balance before his worker comes to rectify everything… but nope I didn’t pay him.*

 

不经意在Youtube上面看到《全明星运动会》，结果一看就追着看完了！

比赛分红（领队前乒乓球手江宏杰）、蓝（领队前篮球国手钱薇娟）两队进行对决，一组由12名艺人的8男4女组成。他们比拼的项目多样化，篮球、跨栏、排球、短跑、游泳、标枪、棒球、躲避球、足球、铁饼、垒球掷远、拔河、射箭、划龙舟、保龄球、跳高、跳远、躲避飞球、飞靶（飞碟射击）等等。像是健球我还是第一次看人家玩呢。

看起来都很好玩，有一些艺人的运动能力很优秀，各有优缺点。最好笑的是认识了这个叫夏和熙的男艺人，看似柔弱但竟然是网球校队的呢！阿仓、张庭瑚也很厉害，壮壮的李玖哲人很温柔哈哈。

突然间怀念起念书的日子，但我以前真的都不喜欢体育课啊……因为体育细胞不发达吧。可是现在看他们玩团体游戏却觉得很有趣、很刺激啊！我们都开始工作了，哪里有这个闲暇和志同道合的朋友一直这么玩啊！*没事，就追剧吧！追完了我突然想去学网球了哈哈~*

 

Rating: 4.5/5

 

27/1/21 Weds: Did a different variation of flip at aerial yoga yesterday. *Poor YJ got all giddy halfway through class probably because she hadn’t eaten anything before that.* Had lunch with potato after he cut his hair on Wednesday. Andrew and his man delayed in going over to my new place to seal up the remaining areas, so I had to inform WL to go over later as well to help me check on the job done.

 

So I caught 《오지의 마법사》 (Wizard Of Nowhere), a穷游-travel variety because of엄기준haha. 

Travellers unite haha! The casts were always split into two teams as they were brought to Nepal, Georgia, Kamchatka Peninsula, Sicily, Tasmania, Sri Lanka and Estonia. In their 3-days trip in those cities, they had to find their own ways through selling own items etc to get money for food and sleep. *Luckily, locals were almost always willing to hitch-hike them.*

Besides the variety newbie엄기준who’s mostly shy but shows off his thriftiness when it comes to spendings and street-selling items, 김수로was the bubbly uncle who liftens the mood most of the time, and the singer-cum-translator of the teams, Eric Nam was very funny as well. *The medieval-times buildings in Estonia are pretty~ and now I feel like dressing up like one of them and have honey beer in the restaurants haha!*

Rating: 4/5

Kitchen door is done up too! *Getting busier as we make plans for the last phase of renovation leading up to our move-in in mid-February! Oh and the problems that comes along too... I got to deal with them.*