28/4/21 Weds: We had
stir-fried小白菜with shimeiji mushrooms and tomatoes, carrots and corn
soup, as well as pan-fried minced meat balls on butterhead lettuce for dinner~
shiok!
29/4/21 Thurs: Potato
stir-fried some spinach with shimeiji mushrooms and chilli padi, pan-fried
marinated salmon on top of sliced cucumbers and also cooked dry udon for
dinner. *The idea of adding some sesame sauce and sesame oil on top of the
udon work wonders~ yummy!*
30/4/21 Fri: Had a
pretty hard time trying to balance myself while working the abs and core on the
foam roller for a second time in Pilates back-care class! Came home to yummy
oyako-don prepared by Potato for lunch~ I only helped to cooked everything in
the pan.
Jess came over at 4+pm
and three of us went to the hard court nearby for a game of badminton. There
was wind and rain on and off, but after about 30 minutes into the game, we
decided to stop as the rain was getting heavier. *The quality of the
shuttlecocks from Daiso was not as good given it’s cheap at five for $2.* Nonetheless,
we had good fun and workout. Potato prepared
carrots, cucumbers and crabsticks for our home-made sushi rolls. I cooked the
four eggs in the tamago pan for the first time but they were slightly burnt
oops. We cooked 1.5 cups of sushi rice and Potato poured the sushi vinegar into
the pot once the rice was ready for spreading onto the seaweed pieces. They
were pretty hot at first when I tried to spread them with my bare hands, so
Potato ended up helping me… and putting too much rice lol. *I’m no better…
too greedy with the ingredients in my roll instead. Only Jess did it just nice
for cutting haha.* Doesn’t matter because the taste was still great and it
was a good learning experience for us. *Tsk the Taobao stuff arrived
“sheepishly” at our doorstep, the delivery man did not inform us, and I only
saw it only after opening the door for Jess.*
Had some fun at night
playing VR games. *Jess and I both cannot really stomach the
movements in “Echo VR”.*
1/5/21 Sat: I decided
we could have mee hoon kuey for dinner tonight, so we added in grey prawns,
leftover seaweed and cabbage, tomatoes, garlic, eggs, mushrooms and chicken
stock to cook it~ an explosion of flavours but not bad.
At 11pm, WL jio-ed us
out last minute for supper at Niqqi’s the Cheese Prata shop because they rented
a car for two weeks for their wedding. Potato ordered the cheese prata ($5)
which was meh, while we shared the sardine murtabak ($6.50). My first time
eating murtabak and it was okay. WL drove us over to Jurong Hill after WS
caught sight of the “Super Moon”, but clouds already over-shadowed parts of it
by the time we reached Jurong Hill.
2/5/21 Sun: Francine
bought us the cheap nasi lemak from Nurul Delights ($2.50 each) and I liked the
fragrant rice. Chicken wings were so-so only. Three of us played a round of
“Evil Baby Orphanage” until Ning and Wandi came over at 2.30pm when we then
tried VR games and “Teabbles”, a fun bubble tea game.
3/5/21 Mon: First
tuition with Amelia and she is very soft-spoken, but she does have a good grasp
of hanyu pinyin and Chinese pronunciation. *Ooh she has a ginger cat by the
name of “boy boy” lol.* 
WL and WS invited us
over to their place for dinner as WS brought home pasta from her company’s
buffet lunch. Quite a spread and we also played some mahjong at night… omg I
felt handicapped because everyone can play well except for me haha.
4/5/21 Tues: Attended
the first e-Townhall hosted by STC’s new CEO, Irene Lim for the first time. No
talks about bonuses nor details about master planning… things were rather touch
and go. *I reckon it’s not easy for the EMs when things are regulated and
approved by government and officials eslewhere, but talks-only puts a serious
dent in our confidence in the Club.*
News came out that the
government is tightening measures and I should be working from home till
further notice. We had our “last” aerial yoga lesson tonight before the studio
will be closed till June probably. It was not difficult, but I minded not to
arch my lower back too much.
5/5/21 Weds: PotaTOHs
exercised together in the afternoon at home after my Pilates Wunda class got
cancelled. It was fun! He cooked tomato-based spaghetti with mushrooms, onions,
marinated minced meat (light soy sauce, paprika sesame oil) and cherry tomatoes
for dinner~ nice.
6/5/21 Thurs: Very幸福to come home to a good dinner cooked by Potato after
tuition with Triston. He stir-fried the chicken meat I marinated this afternoon
with green capsicum which he forgot to cook with the pasta yesterday haha.
7/5/21 Fri: Went into
office to get my laptop’s camera fixed by Daren so as to prepare for my
Certificate in Business Chinese Translation Skill online course next Wednesday.
Daniel and his photographer colleague were at our place taking photos and
replacing the silicon when I came home at lunch time.
PotaTOHs went shopping
at Takashimya and ended up getting the cover for our frying pan and two large
bowls. We had an early dinner at Nakajima Suisan… again a satisfied meal for
both! Bought some undies at OG Centrepoint and we saw some interesting board games
at a games shop.
Reached Fortune Centre
at about 7pm but Nobu-ya was already full for the night, so we did a booking at
Izakaya Hikari instead. PotaTOHs sat around nearby as we wait for Francine and
PY to knock off. Ordered lots of Japanese starters and bites at 8.30pm,
including Francine’s favourite of Tako Wasabi haha. *The food were pretty
good and I think it’s worth visiting again.*
8/5/21 Sat: Alina and
HT visited PotaTOHs new place in the afternoon. The ladies had a good chat and
update about their recent life, and Potato whipped up Japanese curry for all of
us for dinner~ delicious! Brought the two girls to buy bubble tea at Teabrary
and played VR games at night. 9/5/21 Sun: Potato
stir-fried bittergourd and scrambled eggs for the first time… nice! We had some
steamed la la too, but the ginger was a bit old, so the soup ended up a little
bitter.
Finished reading “Is it
really green?” by Georgina Wilson-Powell.
Growing up, I never
took the idea of “being green” seriously. But the more I hear-say, the more I
read about environmental damages and climatic changes, the more I thought I
ought to pay more attention to these, and contribute in whatever ways I can to
help Earth a bit more.
Little things and
decision we make in life could have an impact, say choosing an electric hob
over gas, 3Rs, reducing use of plastic, avoiding fast fashion, choosing natural
fabrics, car-sharing over owning a car, turning off electronic devices instead
of being on standby mode, going vegan if not adopting a “nose to tail”
philosophy when it comes to eating meat, buying local produce etc...
I cannot say I remember
them all and the reasons behind. After all, so-called “organic” stuff are
usually not cheap, or there could be sellers out there that mark up prices
further.
But nonetheless, I
shall try my best to reduce the carbon footprints we leave.
Informative read.
Rating:
3.75/5
11/5/21 Tues: Did a simple
VO for MOE’s PE digital resource in the morning. The “studio” was not of those
I have been to before, but I’m not complaining whenever given the chance to do
what I like. Had Terry katong laksa ($3.50) at Bukit Timah Food Centre claimed
to not have MSG, evaporated creamer, added sugar, pork and lard, which was not
bad, though slightly salty for me.I cooked dinner for the
night! *有点手忙脚乱，红菠菜其中一只连根都没切掉哈哈！*
Turned out not bad we reckon! My red spinach with enoki, cherry tomatoes,
chilli and garlic with oyster sauce was slight savoury but still okay, the
already-marinated pork belly with enoki and garlic was nice (Potato helped
slice cucumber and cut the pork bellies into smaller slices as I cook), but the
baked sweet potatoes cube were only so-so… not crunchy like Potato expected. *Yay
to a life skill learnt thanks to Potato!*
I managed to finish 160
pages of “How to live mindfully and look after yourself” by Claire Chamberlain in
less than a day!
When I picked this up,
so I read when I was on the bus and during my breaks at home. I cannot agree
more with what’s pointed out inside for self-care. We have to let go of guilt,
forgive ourselves, smile more, seek out activities that make us happy and set
new goals. I’m engaging in a lot of what’s being mentioned: meditation,
mindfulness diet, exercise, be out in the sun, having ME-times etc.
Self-care before you
can care for others well.
Rating:
4/5
12/5/21 Weds: Potato
surprised me by whipping up Korean jap-chae in the afternoon! He did everything
in about 30 minutes wow. There were no eggs, but the addition of pork belly was
nice too.
He decided to put two
chilli padi for the lady’s fingers at night and omg the spiciness hit us
straight lol. PY came for her 3D2N’s stay at PotaTOHs at night while I was
attending my first lesson of “Certificate in Business Chinese Translation Skill”
course online. Teacher Liu Ling seems affable… hopefully I can get the
certification smoothly.
We watched 《阴阳师: 晴雅集》together.
我看的第二部郭敬明的作品。赵又廷和邓伦的合作。特效很酷，但故事线比较单薄。
Rating:
3.5/5
13/5/21 Thurs: Met
in-laws at Northpoint’s Poh Heng to shop for bangles for our wedding. *Cost
of 999 gold now is $92 per gram omg.* Then, we walked over to coffeeshop to
have some莆田菜, one of their favourites!
Joan, Galvin, Tiffany
and Joshua joined PY for PotaTOHs’ housewarming. We played VR and Unlock games,
and ate KFC fried chicken, blackforest cakes, strawberry shortcake and matcha
rolls~ *The focaccia bread Josh and Tiff baked was good!*
14/5/21 Fri: Potato
made pasta with the leftover KFC chicken meat for lunch.After tuition with
Joshua, I went over to 498 first as we were having zi char for parents’ day
dinner tonight. We had the马来风光、assam鱼头、沙律脆皮豆腐and柠檬鸡. Went
home and I’m glad the strawberry watermelon cake ($65) from CQUA was nice! Very
refreshing and light on the palette, so we almost finished it, except mum
wanted dad to save some for breakfast the next day instead haha. *Thanks for
going all the way to Yishun to take the cake Potato!*
15/5/21 Sat: Always nice to eat home-cooked meals after race day duty! Pork loin (chicken would have been a better choice, but it was sold out~) marinated in gochujang and kimchi atop cucumber slices, and we also had lady’s fingers, potatoes, shrooms and onions with paprika!
16/5/21 Sun: Woke up to
the sad news of Nooresh Juglall passing. I already knew that he was in critical
condition the night before after a race fall, but Mike said he succumbed to his
injuries shortly after. We might not know each other very well, but I remember
the days he would come to me to get his winning race photos. Nooresh was very
polite, and just before he left for Mauritius three years ago, he gave me a
ride to Yew Tee for lunch when we met at the MRA office. We did not keep in
touch personally, but we followed each other on Instagram. His old account got
hacked recently, and so he deleted that. *It’s a pity that I will no longer
have the chance to follow him on his new account again. RIP, “uncle”.*
Bought salmon mentaiko
sushi rice ($12 mini size) in our estate’s groupbuy and had it for late lunch. *Potato
cooked Maggie for us before that haha.* It’s packed with flavours but I do
get sick of it after a while.
He tried to do a
“Nakajima Suisan” for dinner by marinating sea bass overnight with miso paste
and mirin sauce but it turned out a little too salty after grilling for 20+
minutes, even though he’d scraped off some of the paste before putting the meat
in the oven.
17/5/21 Mon: Potato
made tomato, basil and garlic sauced spiral pasta with minced chicken meat,
mushrooms and onions, and insisted having some vegetables so we had cabbage
with tomatoes in sesame sauce and mayonnaise dressing too. Delicious but we
were both very full from the amount of pasta we had haha! *Oh the
translation of numbers at night… omg that has always been my Achilles’ heel…*
PotaTOHs finished
watching《빈센조》(“Vincenzo
Cassano”) together on Netflix!
Very enjoyable drama with lots of dark humour. 송중기was suave and clever as the protagonist, and very much a
“mafia” in all ways haha. 옥택연did
his first antagonist role justice too I thought, but maybe장한석was not as psychopathic and ruthless, because he looked
like he had a soft spot for홍차영 (전여빈) when he shot her in the end.
I also liked how the drama had religions like Catholicism
and Buddhism somehow work together. Ultimately, all religions would share
commonality in values when it comes to the teachings for mankind.
Rating: 5/5
We also finished
watching “The Queen’s Gambit”.
We follow the life of an orphaned chess prodigy, Beth
Harmon (Anya-Taylor Joy) and her rise to fame while struggling with
relationship problems, drugs and alcohol. Potato knows how to play
international chess but I don’t, yet I don’t have a problem following the show
at all.
A rather intimate look into Harmon’s life, and I reckon I
enjoyed it.
Rating: 3.5/5
*Trying
out a new meditation app called "Balance". I didn't know about
"labelling" our thoughts and feelings before this. Intriguing concept.*
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