Potato’s 33rd birthday dinner with Farmily +《오징어 게임》+ MJ & JJ came over + “Friends” + Nirvana Fitness + “Anna” + Rail Corridor with XY

30/9/21 Thurs: PotaTOHs cooked dinner tonight! I was supposed to add mashed garlic into the marinate for the enoki in rolled pork belly but somehow, I went to make mashed ginger instead argh! *Don’t know what got into my brain!* Potato saved the day by adding in white pepper and more light soy sauce into the marinate haha. *Lots of snow peas for us both since Ian doesn’t like eating it.*

1/10/21 Fri: PotaTOHs vacuumed and mopped the floor this afternoon. I also cleaned the master toilet’s basin and mirror. *Always feels good after cleaning up the place!* A pity The Cosy Corner closed earlier than usual, so James and Gwen bought Potato’s 33^rd birthday dinner from Daisy’s Dream Kitchen instead. We had Peranakan food like the assam curry, nonya chap chey, black ink BBQ squid, kang kong and kueh pie tee. I especially enjoyed the chap chey and squid. 

Ian bought Potato’s chocolate fudge cake from The Pâtissier and muscato for us all to enjoy! Despite the scaled-down celebration, we are still very blessed and thankful for the Farmily’s company! *Gotten Potato a pair of Havaianas slippers because the soles of his old ones were long gone and he just would not buy a new pair himself.* 

PotaTOHs and Ian finished watching《오징어 게임》 (Squid Game) !

This reminds me of “Liar Game”: survival and money VS humanity. What a round of six games. Potato guessed the plot twist correctly from the start too.

Rating: 3.75/5

3/10/21 Sun: MJ and JH ordered 4Fingers via FoodPanda for lunch at PotaTOHs on Sunday. It’s only my first or second time having 4Fingers, but nope it was meh-meh for me. Spent the day with my two cousins basically “counselling” MJ, playing VR, having KTV and music sessions with them and then dinner haha. *Why does it feel like “babysitting”? Lol.*

4/10/21 Mon: Ian dropped me off at Sime Darby Centre for my freestyle reformer class with Chisa this morning. I tried my best and Chisa was very encouraging as always. It may not be easy, but I really enjoy her classes. *Overheard one very strong Pilates participant in my class telling Julia JS Suspension class is “tiring” … I LOL-ed inside… thinking “it’s no wonder I had DOMS for about four days after attending that” haha.*

Tried chilli lala for dinner and though the sauce turned out a bit salty, the meat was still fine.

Ian and I finished watching the Korean variety show “Friends”!

I really enjoyed seeing some of the participants from season 2 and 3 of “Heart Signal” back in this series! Romance aside, all of them seem quite closely knitted somehow… definitely the kind of friendship people would love to have.

Rating: 4/5

5/10/21 Tues: Pretty exhausting moves on the hammock tonight but I reckon it had to do with us not familiar with the flow. I did used quite a bit of my arm strength though. It was nice of Potato to come and fetch me after class and since that driving was a way for him to unwind, it did us both good then haha!

6/10/21 Weds: Attended Nirvana Fitness class for the first time online. I only know that it’s executing yoga and Pilates move but in sync with our breaths. Box breathing, 4-8, 4-12 breathing techniques were used through out and they placed emphasis on our inhalation and exhalations. Even though I thought I did quite well throughout, but when it came to the “breathing” test towards the end, I only managed to hold my breath for 30 seconds when the challenge was one minute. *They also let participants hold their breath for 40 seconds at the start before the exercise but I did not really follow as I was still finishing up work.* Three more lessons to go, so let’s hope I “get more oxygen in my body” after each class moving forth!

Wanted to get boneless chicken thigh meat for my三杯鸡don at night, but they were sold out at both Sheng Shiong and NTUC, so Potato taught me to debone the ones we bought. I spent about 20 minutes deboning about 400-500g’s worth? Marinated them with dark soy sauce, sesame oil and花雕酒in a 1-1-1 ratio. Added in bok choy and Potato blanched and added in carrot slices as well. I wanted to also have three hard-boiled eggs but one turned out half-boiled instead tsk.

Still glad it turned out not bad! Potato said it tasted like卤肉饭partly due to the different sizes in the chicken meat haha. I quite liked it too.

Watched “Anna” on Netflix.

Russian beauty Anna works as a double agent for KGB and CIA. Loaded with actions and she is intelligent, so it was quite exciting to watch.

Rating: 3.75/5

7/10/21 Thurs: *rRandom tThought: Reality can hit hard and sudden. We must constantly keep in touch with the latest and ensure our skills are relevant in this ever-changing work landscape. Jiayou!*

Potato stir-fried celery with king oyster shrooms, marinated pork belly meat with green capsicum and air-fried hash brown for dinner! Burst of flavours from his marinate woo~

Forgot to collect my Mother-In-Law egg tarts from the GroupBuy till about 10pm omg! I bought the original, lychee champagne, purple potato and yam and earl grey chocolate flavours ($11.90) but none was particularly good. Disappointing. 

10/10/21 Sun: XY and I initially planned to take the Rail Corridor trail from Kranji to Old Bukit Timah Railway station, which was estimated to take about 2 hours and 45 minutes. We started our walk from the Kranji Rainbow Bridge, and thankfully two bikers pointed out the “correct path” to start our journey. Though a bit worried about where the path led us to, I still enjoyed the greens and serenity surrounding us!

Had to walk along the roads after exiting from there as parts of the trail was closed. Managed to cut into the trail again at Yew Tee area after seeing people walk inside. Sun came and go, there were many roosters and chickens along one stretch, and the grass around us was so tall it made me feel small at times.

We walked for two and a half hours and it was 11.30am or so, and we were only at Junction 10! XY decided not to push on so we took a train from Bukit Panjang to Beauty World Centre for lunch. The whole place was occupied but I manage to get the same seats as the ones Potato, Ian and I took last time. XY and I both had the sliced fish ($5) and fried fish bee hoon soup ($5.50) and it tasted okay to me.

Bought iTea and the guys came to fetch us after their dim sum at Clementi haha. XY and I enjoyed “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes” in the afternoon!

PotaTOHs went to buy the ingredients and he cooked cold soba, smoked duck breast meat, miso soup, sauteed onions and king oyster shrooms, and cherry tomatoes and green coral lettuce for dinner. I only helped a bit here and there hehe. It was good!

11/10/21 Mon: Pilates with Chisa was great. I like her the way she teaches, never mind that she sometimes fumbles with some English words haha.

I decided to do up the salmon stew for dinner tonight. There was quite a bit of preparatory work to do, like slicing up the celery, onions, carrots, tomatoes, spring onions and mincing the garlic, then simmer the soup for 45 minutes with canned peeled tomatoes too as I cut up the salmon and add it last with white pepper and salt. Heart-warming dinner hehe.

12/10/21 Tues: Had the Dyson engineer come over to replace our faulty V10 Cyclone vacuum cleaner. Apparently, the motor inside was faulty.

Mum made yummy black bean chicken feet soup tonight~ ooo the taste of ginger was very shiok!

We did one of the most complicated aerial flow I’ve learnt thus far tonight, even though there were two new students and one relatively new one in class! It is quite a bit of challenge to memorise after seeing it just once. I got through the first stage rather easily…

Second stage involves swopping legs a few times in different directions and I failed there twice. Annie and Sherill helped me formed the “wings” when I got to the last pose, but there were a few steps I could have done more thoroughly on hindsight, hence the “uneven wings” you see in the photo haha.

Nonetheless, I felt happy I can even guide the newbies nowadays!

*rRandom tThought: I do feel unmotivated at times, because failing time and again is discouraging, but that’s where my interest lies, so I will try till I succeed!*