Oyako-don with family + DIY meditation corner +《平行时空遇见你》+ tuition with Rayne + learning Chinese Chess + Dad's assessment at Health Wellness Clinic + investments in Syfe + House-warming with Farmily + Osstem Dental Implant + FRESH beads workshop with Alina + Fort Canning Park and National Museum with XY & SS +《흉부외과: 심장을 훔친 의사들》

4/3/21 Thurs: The Prism Q55 TV ($733) we ordered from Lazada on 3/3 sales was delivered to us this morning. It came looking good and it just took us some time to figure out the installation of some apps on it, as well as connecting the phone accounts to it.

First time-parents MM and Andre and the little one Luke reached near noon~ poor Luke was crying so badly until his mum held him. *I tried holding him but whoa this boy’s got strength in his legs o!* Potato was preparing Oyako-don for all of us for lunch, including MIL who reached slightly later. It was a yummy meal~ but just less dashi next time because the sauce for the chicken meat was a bit salty. PotaTOHs had dinner at my parents’ at night~ woohoo there was sea cucumber and the银鲳’s meat was tender. 

5/3/21 Fri: We decided to add orange slices into our one pan of broccoli, chicken meat and shrooms for lunch~ though the orange taste ended up only being absorbed by the enoki shrooms haha. *Cooked my own soba under Potato’s guidance too hehe~* Spent some time DIY-ing a lamp I bought from Bangkok years ago and also setting up a small corner in the living room that I reckon would become my “meditation-cum-relax” corner in future hehe~

Potato’s friends Cheryl and Zane came over in the evening to look at our place as they’re looking at getting their own flat too. We had pizza for dinner and the trio exchanged their experiences of dealing with kids in schools… omg children nowadays are so scary. *They gave us a small pot of succulents… cute!*

Finished watching《平行时空遇见你》. The three on-screen couples on the show are supposed to direct and act in their own love stories, and I only watched刘以豪and秦岚’s portion.

很喜欢《你是我时光的秘密》里头的秦潇澜和刘亿豪！虽然是“姐弟恋”，但他们之间的互动无论是“戏里”、“戏外”都真的是挺甜的。*刘以豪超会撩的lol~但观众喜欢看啊哈哈！* 看了之后也觉得秦岚是个很好的女孩子。

Rating: 4.25/5

7/3/21 Sun: Had my first class with Rayne this morning. She is rather quiet, but also weak in grasping meaning of terms, so I reckon there’s some work to do from now on. *Came home and vacuumed the whole house while Potato mopped after me… really some exercise there haha.* MIL used potato starch noodles and sotong to do a salad dish for our dinner togther~ sweet and sour taste which was not bad.

8/3/21 Mon: Tried Cardio Tramp with Patrick for the first time. Marybeth helped me with setting up the trampoline as well. My shoulders kept moving upwards during the exercises, so Patrick had to remind me to shift them down. Rounds of jumping on the trampoline really burned the whole legs~

Bought a box of boneless chicken thigh meat ($2.10) from Sheng Shiong and marinated them with tom yam sauce and salt. Potato also taught me to do a “rolling cut” for the carrots that were supposed to be cook with cabbage for the soup for dinner tonight. My thigh meat turned out very salty, even if Potato tried to add some sugar to it as I cooked them. His Chinese cabbage was a bit sweet as well. Luckily, the cabbage and carrot soup was fragrant! Soba was not the best carbo to go along with tonight’s dinner dishes, but because we have not yet bought a container to keep our 2.5kg worth of rice grains, we had to go with soba~ not that I’m complaining since I enjoy soba! 

Potato bought the Chinese chess set and taught me how to play at night… a lot of strategising but first, let me get used to how each character on the board “travels” haha.

9/3/21 Tues: Mum cooked unagi for dinner~ yums! There’s also this猴头菇she’d cooked in the chicken soup for the first time, which looked like the head of a monkey. Like most shrooms, it absorbed the taste of the soup into it.

Did a mid-air split tonight in aerial yoga class. It was not difficult going into that pose, but still we sweated after doing a few rounds. On a side note, “swing” felt easy for me for the first time! It has been some time since we did “swing”, but hey it was always not easy keeping both legs high up while we curl our body up. *I reckon my core strength improved then!*

10/3/21 Weds: I diced one carrot to prepare for our Japanese curry. *Learnt how a sour smell meant that onions and garlic has turned bad. Also saw black mould on the surface of some garlic cloves.* Potato made meatballs using minced meat and stir-fried them for a bit before putting it into the “curry soup” (should be thicker like curry sauce but he put too much water haha) to cook. Glad the meatballs turned out really nice!

11/3/21 Thurs: Potatohs went to buy lala and minced meat (100g) from Sheng Shiong for our dinner tonight. I mixed salt, 花雕酒, sesame oil and light soy sauce with the meat, and then put white pepper and salt into the egg batter (two eggs). One century egg was added into the mixture before putting it into the microwave to steam. We did it for 20 minutes, but later found out that the meat below was not fully cooked yet, so we had to steam it for another five minutes. *The flavours were in but just a bit too salty… less light soy sauce next time!* The 20 pieces of lala Potato steamed with花雕酒and ginger was good, but he could do with less ginger slices next time. Stir-fried Chinese cabbage was nice too.

12/3/21 Fri: Dad was already in the nurse’s room by the time I reached Jurong Polyclinic. He met with some difficulty doing the tests, like following simple instructions, which I think has much to do with his poor linguistics comprehending skills. The doctor advised him to do a brain scan at NUH but he didn’t want that, so now all we can do is monitor his condition for the next one year before he goes back for blood and memory test at the Polyclinic again.

Took some time to read up and PotaTOHs invested in the three portfolios under Syfe: Equity100, REIT+ and Global ARI. *Not looking at earning big bucks in a short-time span but instead DCA over the long-term.*

Hubby bought Aloha Poke and some sashimi home for dinner because I mentioned it recently and he thought we haven’t dated out for a while, so might as well bring what we would have on dates outside back home to me hehe~

13/3/21 Sat: James, Gwen, PY and Francine gathered at our place for lunch! They bought snacks, drinks and fruits over while Potato cooked soba and dumplings. *The Torigos fried chicken pieces and our pork chives dumplings were very nice! All food went well together.* Played a game of “Mansion of Madness” but we lost the game haiz~

PY, Francine, Potato and I also played a few rounds of盖棋~ quite fun! Then, four of us went to dabao dinner home and continued with another 3-star (difficulty level) game from “Mansion of Madness” in which we finally won after 2.5 hours haha. *Celebrated PY’s 32^nd birthday in advance with a Tiramisu and Orea cheesecake from Swee Heng!*

14/3/21 Sun: Ordered kimchi fried rice, gimbap, kimchi and fermented cucumber from My Korean Mum’s Kimchi ($28.25) which PotaTOHs ate for lunch on Sunday… nothing wow but can consider ordering again with my neighbours’ Groupbuys in future. *Pick Me Up Tiramisu (Baileys and Kahlua, 300g for $21) was yummy. Moobing skewers (20 sticks for $18) are well marinated but a bit salty for me.*

15/3/21 Mon: Woke up at 6.30am and headed down to Mount Elizabeth Novena Specialist Centre where Winston Tan Oral Maxillofacial Surgery was at to do my dental implant surgery. I reached near 9am and there were already quite a few patients in there. Filled up the form and waited at the lounge when I heard Dr Winston Tan’s voice loud and clear from one of their rooms inside lol. 

Was ushered to one of the clinic chairs, gargled and Dr Tan came over. He’d already saw my teeth scan sent over by Dr Lee from Koh Dental, and understood that the site for my second upper right pre-molar had only 8.59mm, and the insertion of the 8.5mm titanium screw meant it was very close to the sinus membrane. Dr Tan explained that I had to do a sinus graft surgery right before that and he would add in some “bones”, which would cost me another $800 or so, depending on my condition. *He came in saying, “good news, don’t worry…” to me and not long after, I heard him in another room saying “very good news…” Lol. I guess it’s always assuring for patients to hear those words.* The nurse came explaining to me what to expect during the procedure, not to use straws, swim or do vigorous exercise for a few days after that, and how I should sneeze using the mouth and not the nose as that causes undesired sinus pressure etc.

An aesthetician came in and did the jab in both the inside and outside of my upper right gums (could feel the insertion and slight pain when she jabbed the inside)… and yup the numb was almost instant. *The swell this time, however, was not as big and the numbness subsided faster (in about three hours or so) as compared to the last time when I did extraction at Koh Dental.* The nurse then brought me to a “operations theatre” where I had to put on a surgical robe and cap as I laid on the chair. It’s technically my second time doing a surgery, the first was when I had to extract my rotten tooth a few months ago.

They covered up my eyes, applied antiseptic lotion around the areas of my mouth and I just laid down till Dr Tan came over. He’s pretty loud and affable, and when he saw that I’m allergic to Benzoyl Peroxide, he joked that they won’t give me that here. *Of course, benzoyl peroxide is used for treating acne!* I remember telling the nurse everyone’s a little nervous doing implants for the first time, but she said the drilling is even less that when we do fillings. But when the surgery began after 10.30am, the drilling and the tightening of the bolt was “loud in my head” la~ the former sounded like Dr Tan was going to “demolish” what’s remaining beneath my gums lol. He had to use some force to push the titanium screw in, and I heard him repeating the dimensions two times (probably the screw’s, if not the area of incision on my gums), but really, it was painless throughout that five minutes of surgery. 

Halfway through, he told me I could do without the sinus graft surgery as the site was “just nice” for the insertion. *Oh yes, he joked that he was also very “giam siap” or something, so he would help me save some money there… saved me $856 at least!* Even so, as a precautionary measure for the fresh wound, the clinic still email-ed me to be careful with sneezing etc as the site of intrusion is near my sinus membrane. After that, I did a quick x-ray to check that my implant was “beautifully inserted”. Was surprised to be given 8 days of MC (when I told their nurse two times I didn’t need MCs…), Augmentin 625mg, Arcoxia 60mg, Panadeine and 250ml of Periogold Intenze mouthwash upon payment and making an appointment next week for a follow-up check and the removal of the stitches. So, after the deduction of $1250 from Medisave, I still forked out $742.55 for the surgery and medicines today.

Tried my hands at steaming eggs with century eggs and shrooms for dinner~ it came out slightly salty but still not bad.

17/3/21 Weds: Met Alina at FRESH for our short beads workshop. She made one for her godmother, and I did one for myself. We went around looking at mattress and bed frames for her before she finally settled on Magic Koil’s at Unisprings for $1399. We had dinner at Ichiban Boshi. I tried their cold udon with pork slices… it was alright.

18/3/21 Thurs: XY, SS and I visited Fort Canning Park in the morning and we took some nice photos at the tunnel!

The two then suggested we could go to the National Museum as admission is free for Singaporeans. It had been some time since I visited and the exhibitions are quite amazing really. We enjoyed a walk in the 3D forest and also re-visited Singapore’s history since Sir Stamford Raffles stepped foot here.

Ended our girls’ outing with lunch at Food For Thought. We shared pork ribs and fish and chips ($17 each) and they tasted pretty good.

Potato cooked Chinese cabbage with dumplings soup and grilled saba for dinner. I thought to add a cold dish: century egg on top of dark soy sauce and tofu. It was a bit salty for me, and maybe I should have added ginger slices on hindsight too to musk the century egg’s smell. However, that dish went well with the spicy and crunchy cucumber slices I bought.

*rRandom tThought: 我没有要弄人不开心的意思，但或许是我好胜心切，所以才会显得不讲理些。试试新的学习方式吧，也许我更适合自己静静去领悟所学。*

19/3/21 Fri: Cooked lunch by myself today. Cut the Chinese cabbage into slices and cooked with garlic, oyster sauce and sesame oil. I wanted to add salt but I forgot, but the taste turned out fine for me. Also turbo-defrosted the pork skewers and then grilled it for 10 minutes. I was afraid that the meat was not fully cooked, so then I grilled it for another 10 minutes.

Finally finished watching《흉부외과: 심장을 훔친 의사들》(Heart Surgeons) with Potato.

The show revolves around the cardiothoracic surgery department of Taesan Hospital. Thoracic surgeon최석한 (엄기준) came to know that a fake test result given by the director of the hospital claimed his young daughter’s life in exchange for the director’s daughter윤수연 (서지혜)’s life, and so he changed from a noble doctor to one who would not waste time on patients with less chance of survival. 박태수 (고수), a thoracic surgery fellow whose mum’s life was once saved by최석한did not want to see his benefactor walk down the path of evil, and together with윤수연, tried to stop him.

Interesting drama involving ethical and humane issues.

Rating: 3.75/5