Wildseed café @ Alkaff Mansion with Potato & Ian + Whisk & Paddle with HT & Alina & visiting Alvis + Pat’s bday lunch @ with WZ + COVID Moderna booster shot + Reflection in 2021 and resolution for 2022 + Farmily’s New Year dinner @ Myung Ga

23/12/21 Thurs: Oxigeno class was much about yoga and core this evening, and it does not help that my triceps were already aching haha. Potato cooked my favourite tom yam chicken with soybean sprout and enoki mushroom, Chinese cabbage with carrot and enoki in chicken stock soup, Japanese green with carrot and pickled Japanese cucumber in salt and sugar! Parts of the pickled cucumber was very salty because they did not mix evenly, and it was also his first time trying out that recipe.

25/12/21 Sat: *昨天睡起来发现右颈项落枕，今天好多了。* Ian drove PotaTOHs to Wildseed Café at Alkaff Mansion and treated us to breakfast. It’s a dog-friendly café, so it was quite noisy outside, but good thing we were sitting on the inside. I ate the smashed avocado with mushroom, which was alright, and Potato had big breakfast in a pan while Ian tried their wagyu pastry.

We bought chicken rice, peanut pancake and chwee kueh for MM and Andre at Tiong Bharu food centre for lunch. Spent the whole afternoon at their place playing Yaniv, Sets and with Luke. *He finally warmed up a bit more to us after some time lol.* Ian left the car to PotaTOHs so we drove to Sakuraya at West Coast Plaza to have a yummy sashimi Christmas dinner for two hehe!

26/12/21 Sun: After tuition with Rayne, I met Alina and HT for lunch at Whisk and Paddle café. I tried their prawn pasta and it was not bad, though the bits of prawns were tough. Both Alina and HT liked their crab pasta and mac and cheese macaroni too. 3 of us also enjoyed the spicy wings. *Received a bottle of Yves Rocher pomegranate shower gel from Alina as Christmas gift!* HT drove me home and PotaTOHs took a lift from XY and Jake to go over to MT’s to see Alvis. *Alwyn has mild ADHD, and when he took hold of the microphone toy we bought for him, he could not stop giggling and talking to it.*

We tried Korean Smashed Burgers that MT’s neighbour owns, but we all thought it was only so-so. My kimchikin’ burger was nothing to rave about either. SS stayed for only a while but still bought us some chocolate from Finland. XY and Jake had some baked goodies for us while MT gave us a towel each.

27/12/21 Mon: WZ, Pat and I had Tamago-En for lunch at J8. The TKG unagi don I had felt weird because they whisked the egg white into cream texture and I cannot taste much of the egg white after that. We walked to Pat’s new 5-room flat after that. It was very spacious. The three girls talked a lot at her dining area that afternoon. *Both WZ and I got Pat personalised cups as her early birthday gift! I also got her some bubble tea toilette spray haha. WZ gave me three bottles of travel size shower gel from The Body Shop for Christmas.*

The farmily had zi char for dinner from Two Chefs thanks to Ian who braved the heavy rain at Buona Vista to buy them back haha. James and Gwen bought little Ava who is about two weeks old over and she looked really tiny. We played a few rounds of “Yaniv” with PY and Francine and hey, I actually managed to emerge the eventual winner in the first round with 99 points (one point away from busting) after four straight wins haha! *PY got PotaTOHs our photo printed on a tile and framed for Christmas! Very nice of her.*

28/12/21 Tues: Potato cooked fried rice for Ian and I for lunch, with edamame, spicy bulgogi, white cabbage, carrot, onion, garlic, mushroom and cherry tomato.

Aerial yoga tonight was easy.

29/12/21 Weds: I tried a new recipe making shrimp balls in wakame soup. Had to mince the 10 prawns we bought with egg white, white pepper, salt, tapioca starch and carrot bits. After stir-frying garlic and spring onion, the already-soaked wakame was added in too with water shortly after. Squeezing the shrimp paste into balls into the mixture was not very successful because they did not turn out as “round” as I want them to be. The egg yolk and tofu were added last, with some salt. Glad this dish went very well with the grilled teriyaki yakitori sticks mum gave us, as well as the white cabbage, mushroom and carrot Potato helped stir-fried.

30/12/21 Thurs: I was about to leave for my 3^rd booster jab at Hong Kah North CC when Jasmine from JR called me up last minute to attend a TEAMs meeting with PY, Mike, Christina, Ken, Steven, Peter, Gene and Esther. Both Mike and I officially moves into Corporate Communications department wef 1 Jan 2022. We can tell it is a last-minute decision coming from the management judging by the meeting. Somewhat saw this day coming, but I hope for the new HOD to not interfere in our usual work and in return, we would do our best to support them in achieving what they hope to. *Already started to work on stories for the new season though I am supposedly on leave.*

The Malay lady that helped jabbed me even pointed out to me that the Moderna booster dosage is 2.5ml… not expecting that but thanks lol. The observation time is also reduced to 15 minutes now. PotaTOHs and Ian had lunch at Bukit Timah food centre where I ate mee hoon kuey but told the aunty to remove the minced pork meat because I’m going meatless today haha.

I planned to cook meatless bibimbap for dinner, with brown lentils as a protein replacement. Did most of the preparation work myself, but Potato did help with stir-frying the mushroom and carrot. Pretty satisfied with the end-product, though it was very filling. *The lentils tasted a lot like green beans!*

Similar to the second dose, I started to have chills after dinner and decided to go to sleep at 9+pm. Was feeling cold all the time under the blanket, I even wore a sweater, but Potato thought my forehead felt too hot, and so he measured my temperature. It was 39 degrees Celsius, and he thought it’d be better for me to pop a Panadol though I did not feel groggy nor too feverish. *Felt very much loved hehe~*

31/12/21 Fri: Woke up twice or so to pee in the night, so urination was rather frequent, but I felt the fever gone in the middle of the night. Was still a bit tired so I napped for an hour or so till about 1pm and had sliced fish bee hoon soup that Potato bought. *Good thing I felt “normal” already after that.*

We shopped for a while at the newly opened Sheng Shiong at our MSCP for a few ingredients for dinner. Potato cooked white cabbage with mushroom and carrot, butter lemon sutchi fish fillet and cold soba for Ian and I. I ordered some tuna and salmon sashimi, as well as seasoned scallop and wakame. The seasoned scallop was too sweet for my liking.

PotaTOHs watched Mayday’s countdown concert on Youtube while waiting for Ian to be home from Gone Rouge Brewery.

2021 felt muted. It literally flew past. PotaTOHs moved into our first home together in February. We have welcomed several friends over for housewarming, and Ian came to live with us for about six months as he awaits his condominium unit to be ready. I have gotten used to living away from my parents, though PotaTOHs make it a point to go back to theirs for dinner every Tuesday. *We go back to PotaTOHs once every two weeks too.* Once, I thought I’d be quite lost as to living by ourselves permanently, but I reckon humans are really good at adapting, and I even enjoy life this way nowadays. We did not have a Chinese banquet but for as a respect for our parents, we held a small tea ceremony with both sides of the families in June. I am very contented because it’s a small event with only our love ones present. *Our parents are getting on in years, and I appreciate every chance we get to spend with them.* Back at home, PotaTOHs got used to each other’s habits and lifestyle in no time. He taught me to cook, a skill that I have finally picked up well and am very thankful for, albeit I still feels lazy at times haha~ I am still a greenhorn in cooking and I cannot really improvise recipes yet, but with more practice in time to come, I reckon I will be able to! May we continue to love, respect, communicate and help each other on this journey to growing old together!

Kids? If we are bent on having kids, then no excuse would stop us. I do have my concerns though. Not finances, but health-wise. I have Thalassemia and high cholesterol, and my LDL levels showed no improvement the last I checked in October. *Will go for a check in March to check if I have Familial hypercholesterolemia, which I will dread very much if I do.* These are genetic disorders which can be passed down to the next generation, and I don’t know how it will affect pregnancy at this age and time. Till I do, I will make my choice, in which Potato is very supportive of no matter what. *At least I know that once I have a kid, I will love him or her a lot.*

To manage my LDL condition, I will reduce eating deep fried food, sweet drinks, ice-cream and pastries, stick to our “Meatless Mondays” schedule and continue eating oats and drinking hawthorn and ginger honey drinks in 2022. In complementing that, I am also very satisfied with my current exercise regime which consists of my daily平甩功, Pilates Reformer, aerial yoga, Fitbit cardio and yoga classes as well as some free WFH-workouts by Health Promotion Board that I usually insisting doing about 5 times a week. Exercising has become my new-found love because I feel happier every time after I sweat out. I want to do more if I have the time and money… wheel yoga, Pound, Kickboxing, aerial silks, yin yoga etc. Also, I’d been to a number of hiking trips around Singapore and I always enjoy them, so rest assure they will continue to be part of my life in 2022! *On a side note, I am glad that I’m finally done with my dental implant, albeit it costed a bomb. 一劳永逸~ * Oh and I have always been very lazy on the updates on my health insurance policies, but I should probably look at them and discuss with my agent.

It’s my eighth year of working in STC this year. Finally took up a course from May to July, sponsored by the Club that will more or less help in my scope of work as a translator: Certificate in Business Chinese Translation by Singapore Chinese Chamber Institute of Business. I won’t know how long I stay in this line of business, and I do feel stuck at times yet I know I have a lot more to do in this field, so I should look at courses targeting at translation for finance and medical terms etc. Reading both English and Chinese news daily will very much help. I also intend to make time to read an English or Chinese book every night just before I wash up and turn in. *I probably decided on this before but I just did not read as many books as I wanted this year!*

Digital seems to be the way to go in terms of skills for the future, so I should probably take up those free courses online as well. I am also interested in the field of Chinese medicine and lyrics writing, so I just might delve into those areas as soon as I have the time. *Tuition and VO assignments will continue to be part of my multi-tasking job life, and I hope to delve more into the latter!*

Finance and investments-wise, I have Investment portfolios with Prudential and AXA, ABF bonds with Philips, ETFs on FSMONE and Syfe with Potato. They’re all targeted for the long-term, so I will continue my DCA for most of them, and monitor those robo advisor platforms as we head into the new year. *I am curious about cryptocurrency as well though I know nuts about it as at now. Could probably dip my toes in them in the new year for a start.*

Leisure travelling looks like they will resume soon in this new norm. PotaTOHs missed travelling for sure, and I cannot wait to visit Taiwan, Bhutan, New Zealand, Iceland and Switzerland etc! Let’s hope we can do some of that in 2022!

Besides my family and partner, I know who my close friends are. I have kept in frequent contact with some of them in 2021, but for some reason, I have drifted apart with a few others. I know my priorities, and should there be a need, I will actively reconnect with the ones worth my time and effort. *To love, cherish and spend time with my love ones as much as we can, as always!*

1/1/22 Sat: My left arm was not sore anymore, though it still felt tender to touch. *Potato wiped the windows while I cleaned the toilets this afternoon!* PotaTOHs and Ian were watching episode 2 of “Hospital Playlist” and there was a scene when the actors were eating kalguksu. I felt like having that and Ian suggested to go have Korean food for our New Year dinner, so we ended up at Myung Ga at Bukit Timah Plaza. 

Ian had the seafood maggie mee ($11), Potato chose the spicy seafood noodles ($15) while I picked the seafood kalguksu (because it’s priced the same as their chicken ones! $16). We shared the kimchi pancake ($19) and everyone agreed it was good. We also liked our mains. All in all, it’s worth the trip. *However, it felt like an “unhealthy” start to a new year for me. Got to remind myself to cut down on seafood and fried stuff all the time.*

2/1/22 Sun: PotaTOHs decided to go meatless today instead and made lentils tomato stew 印度扁豆番茄炖汤 for our meatless dinner! Potato cooked brown lentil, celery, carrot, onion, canned tomato and king oyster mushroom with Italian herb, salt, black pepper and tobasco sauce~ woohoo the kick was good! My all-time favourite tofu with pistachio and almond was good on its own, though the sauce did not really go well with the stew haha.

3/1/22 Mon: Ian woke up late, ended up having lunch with us at Koufu, then WFH before realising he is on PHIL today LOL!

Potato cooked winter melon soup with red date and carrot using pork ribs and chicken broth. *The soup was tasty! That kick of pepper was oomph!* He also stir-fried honey garlic chicken bites and celery with carrot and black fungus in garlic~

4/1/22 Tues: *I have to stop exercising for two weeks because of the booster jab, but I reckon my body’s missing it so much that I dreamt of myself exercising lol.* Potato did his comprehensive medical health check today at the clinic at West Terra, drawing blood and taking samplings of his urine and stool.

Mum fried grouper in tomato sauce, cooked white cabbage soup and chicken patty as well as otah for dinner. PotaTOHs had longan with grass jelly too before we left home.

5/1/22 Weds: *This is actually one of the biggest shock news in my career, and I am still grasping with it. I am relieved to know it early, but as to how my job and my choice would change as we move on, I cannot say for sure. I know there are paths out there for me to choose, and upskilling myself is inevitable, but much as I'd like to stay in my comfort zone, there might not be much time left to do so anymore. Time to actively move ahead.* 

I saw a recipe on IG and made pumpkin shimeiji chicken rice in the cooker! A simple dish done in one pot! Instead of coriander powder, Potato suggested to replace with Tabasco sauce, then also add the dash of salt and ginger powder to the chopped chicken meat. He added a bit of kimchi inside the cooker as well, but we decided to have some as sides for the crunch. Not bad because the pumpkin is quite sweet.