Dinner at Melvin & YY’s + Clare & YJ’s visit to PotaTOHs’ + “Alice in Borderland” + menstrual cup experience + hiking the Southern Ridges + 《환승연애》+ “Surviving Death” + PotaTOHs’ date @ River Wonders and Rainforest Lumina + Ian’s 33rd birthday dinner + PotaTOHs’ date @ S.E.A Aquarium and Elemen + Ichikokudo lunch

7/12/21 Tues: *My vision was cloudy for a while after I removed my spectacles randomly but everything was okay when I put on my glasses or contact lens. Omg let’s hope it’s just a passing issue.* Diana made us do the “Christmas sock” pose tonight during aerial yoga and yup I managed to do it, but I can feel the soreness and numbness in the left armpit as I hung and sat myself in the hammock.

8/12/21 Weds: Melvin and his wife YY came over to PotaTOHs’ for a while to look at our place before we went to theirs for dinner. *Their 5-room flat has a modern contemporary feel to it, unique and pretty in their own ways.* Melvin baked chicken with kimchi base, long beans and shallots, while YY brought out their home-made pickled cucumber.

9/12/21 Thurs: Potato’s teacher friends Clare and YJ joined us for dinner. Potato cooked Japanese curry with chicken, potato, carrot, onion, miso soup with seaweed and tofu, as well as sliced cucumber. *Delicious as usual~* Clare’s six months pregnant with Elijah, and she has just moved in not long ago to her resale flat at Woodlands, so we talked a bit about her place, education, and kids etc.   

10/12/21 Fri: PotaTOHs had cold udon, butter sutchi fish slices and bok choy with mushroom and carrot for dinner~ one of my favourites at home!

11/12/21 Sat: PotaTOHs had the Teochew porridge (he ate rice instead) at Blk 347 for dinner and I really liked the taste of their dishes, not too salty so it’s more like home-cooked kind.

Finished watching season one of “Alice in Borderland” with Potato and Ian.

We caught it because it had a similar concept to “Squid Game”. It was intriguing at the start, but got complicated in the middle when the two main leads got kidnapped into the Beach hotel. By the end, we understood there were “dealers” for games and that audience must wait for a season two to reveal the games of face cards.

Rating: 3/5

It was my first time wearing menstrual cup today. *$24 for a 25ml one from Hivette on Shopee.* Had a hard time putting it in for the first time when I just woke up. What’s intriguing was there are measurement markings inside the cup, and so after about four or five hours, I could tell there was about 7.5ml of menstrual blood. *Of course, taking it out for the first few times was hard too, and true to what majority says, “it’s quite a messy one”.* After another nine hours or so, the second cup held more than 15ml of blood. *I had to remind myself to relax a few times because exploration of one’s body is interesting and yet intimidating at the same time.*

12/12/21 Sun: To my horror, my period leaked and so I had to wake up at 7am to check the cup. It did not look like it was filled to the brim but probably more that I did not insert it properly the night before because I could feel it somehow, when normally one should not feel it’s existence. After another five hours, it was filled to the brim! *Good and bad thing: you cannot really “feel the flow” when wearing cups!* It’s the second day of my period and it usually meant the “heaviest flow” as well, but last time when I wore pads, I cannot tell exactly how much blood I am losing, but now I am able to estimate. I read that girls who experience “normal period” discharges 60ml of blood, and heavy periods meant 80ml. For me, I reckon it’s already been close to if not hit the 80ml mark by early afternoon of the second day already! *The length of my period nowadays is about 4-5 days, heavier flows usually on the first and second day, but I used to have 7 days of period during school days… omg my Thalassemia/anaemic condition must have been aggravated further by that!* I think I do need a few more cycles of practice to get use to menstrual cup and realise how convenient it is!

Decided to go against the weather forecast again and PotaTOHs headed out to meet Jess and WL for hike at The Southern Ridges. We started from Kent Ridge park again, walked over to Alexandra Arch and towards Henderson Waves. *It did not rain throughout the day though it was overcast!* We walked pretty fast, so we got to Henderson Waves in less than two hours. It was another hour for sunset and since thick clouds were hovering in the sky, we doubt we’d be able to see a beautiful sunset, hence we continued towards Marang trail and ended up having dinner at Seah Im Food Centre. *We walked a total of 6.85km today!*

13/12/21 Mon: Third day into my menses and I remembered it overflowed quickly yesterday, in less than two hours maybe? One full cup meant 25ml of blood, and I have already lost count of the number of times it was full lol. The flow only gradually lessened by the third day. *Intriguing to know where the cervix is, how it can change its position at different times of the month and how it felt inside actually. I reckon I have an average cervix while on my period, not high nor low.* Potato had his booster jab first thing this morning, and he felt alright throughout the day, just a little sore on the left arm.

I cooked dinner for tonight. The black fungus with white shimeiji shroom tasted a bit too “mushroom-y” for us haha. The Chinese spinach we bought from Giant a week ago was not as fresh anymore.

Finished watching《환승연애》(Transit Love).

Jess introduced this dating reality show that saw four couples who broke up came together and lived under one roof for a month, to see if they got back with their ex-es or finds a new love. One more couple joined halfway through the show.

In the end, one couple got back because the guy was rather persistent. I did not like his girlfriend much though. I quite liked the “LA guy” who showed his interest in one girl right from the start. Glad they got together.

It’s experimental, and I thought it goes against “morals” in some ways, but well they all agreed to be on the show, so I reckon getting that confused or weird feelings are all part and parcel of this experiment.

Rating: 4/5

14/12/21 Tues: Potato woke up with soreness in his body this morning. I am nearing the end of my period. *Am not exaggerating to say I could have lost 150ml of menses blood in one cycle. Should note down the estimated amount every time I check the next cycle to get a better grasp.* Interestingly in a study, it was found that a period flow is 36% blood and 64% other matters like tissue, uterine lining, mucus and blood clot. So, if I were to take 150ml multiply by 0.36, the real amount of blood lost is 54ml, which is within the “normal” range of 30 to 60ml.

PotaTOHs went over to my parents’ for dinner. He was not feeling well, so left for home after that and he told me he developed fever, so popped a Panadol before he went to bed. The pose for aerial yoga tonight was not difficult to achieve… quite fun. When I got home, the poor Potato was still awake because he napped too much in the afternoon lol!

15/12/21 Weds: I helped Potato mashed and seasoned the potato while he did the teriyaki chicken, mushroom and caramelised onion! Had a good Western dinner as usual hehe~

Finished watching “Surviving Death”, a short documentary series on Netflix.

I have always been intrigued, even fancinated when I was young, by the unknown and the paranormal, in pseudoscience. There are always going to be things that Science cannot prove at this point of time, or maybe even forever. Being a Taoist/Buddhist, I have grown up influenced by the belief in reincarnation and the existence of life after death, even when I have no proof for it.

The series delve into the possibility of life after death and psychic mediumship in Western culture. I was particularly taken by the last episode about reincarnation, in which toddlers and young kids till about 5 or 6 years old could recall their “past lives”. A few examples I saw were quite unbelievable, but I hope the show is not scripted.

For non-believers, do take it with a pinch of salt.

Rating: 3.5/5

16/12/21 Thurs: Thanks to dad and mum’s SRV vouchers, PotaTOHs visited the River Wonders and Rainforest Lumina today. It was a fun walk at the River Wonders. We attended the “Once Upon a River” show and the Amazon Boat ride at $5 each was not bad too. We saw Kaikai the daddy panda but not Jiajia nor her new-born. *Red pandas are cute, and Potato still loved his Capybara and all kinds of cats out there haha~ especially the lazy jaguars we saw on the boat ride.*

Had dinner at the Penang food eatery at Night Safari… a bowl of Penang Hokkien Mee costed $10.80! Went over to Rainforest Lumina at 7.15pm. It had only two interactive zones, and though they transformed Singapore Zoo into a “nightclub” sort of, with lots of colourful lightings and AR on display, we still thought River Wonders was much better in comparison.

17/12/21 Fri: Attended Jean’s Pilates reformer class this morning and I think she cut us some slack haha~

Potato tried a new recipe for dinner for the first time where he baked honey garlic soy-sauced wing! He baked for 45 minutes but it was probably a bit too long because the mid-wing joints came out really “skinny” lol. Still, the taste turned out quite good.

18/12/21 Sat: Potato and Ian drove out to pick up our dinner from Dancing Crab tonight. It’s an early celebration for Ian’s birthday, PY, Fran, Ning and Wandi came but James could not make it last minute because his daughter Avalina was only born yesterday! We had two chilli crabs, two black pepper crabs, two packet of crab fried rice and some crab cakes ($275+) and it’s been so long since I last had crabs really, and they were yummy.

Melissa joined us later for the “cake cutting ceremony” for Ian and games of Teabbles, Pandemic and Joking Hazard. Ian, PY, Fran, Potato and I chatted till about 2am.

19/12/21 Sun: We took a family photo with Luke before dinner with my in-laws. He really dislikes “strangers” touching or hugging him lol.

20/12/21 Mon: Pilates Reformer with Chisa was alright this morning, but there was a part where we worked our quadriceps really hard omg. PotaTOHs visited S.E.A Aquarium in the afternoon and we had to queue for 10 minutes before going in. There were many families on a school holiday, so it was quite packed throughout. The experience was nice, but somehow I thought the old one I went to when I was young was still better, especially with the travellator while passing the underwater tunnel.

We had vegetarian food for dinner at Elemen at Harbourfront. *Not my preferred outlet because the waiter did not patiently explain the dishes to us like the one at Millenia Walk.* We opted for the 5-course set ($28.80++) which consists of a starter of three appetisers, soup or salad, main, dessert and beverage. Potato had the double-boiled cordyceps flower with peach gum in superior soup, Black Truffle Porcini pasta, tiramisu and strawberry green tea. We both enjoyed everything on his set. 

I ordered the 5 elements soup (that had white fungus, red dates and mushroom in it), seaweed tempura tofu with avocado roll, double-boiled lemongrass with peach gum and iced peachy Osmanthus. I really liked the main dish, but others were only okay.

Bought assessment for Trinice and birds’ nest from Eu Yan Sang for Gwen before going home to meet James and Ian for drinks!

21/12/21 Tues: We did some back flips in aerial class tonight and it was not easy for me but I still did it a few times.

22/12/21 Weds: PotaTOHs had lunch at Ichikokudo at JP with Jess impromptu as I wanted to buy coronets from Gokoku bakery and assessment book for Triston. I had their Hokkaido butter ramen which was not bad, but I thought the shoyu one that Jess and Potato had tasted lighter, and thus better imo. 

PotaTOHs had green bean soup cooked by WL in the afternoon and then he suggested we drive to Beauty World shopping centre's food centre for dinner after my Nirvana Fitness class. PotaTOHs had the chicken rice and it was not bad. WL and WS ate pork cutlet fried porridge and yong tau foo. *Gosh my right tricep ached a lot more than the left one after Pilates and aerial yoga.*