Hack It Seafood with Potato + Presidential Election 2023 + Gionn’s wedding & Run For Inclusion 2023 & Vera’s 3rd birthday celebration + dinner with in-laws @ Hua Yu Wee + PotaTOH’s reformer trial @ Piladay Studios + farewell lunch for Eunice @ TamJai SamGor + Angela, Boyd & Ian over for dinner

30/8/23 Weds: It’s the bad fear of falling over and the lack of trust in my own body thus far that I haven’t been able to do the wheel-assisted headstand. Yip has pointed out my issue of not rounding the back when trying to lift my legs off, so I got to conquer that fear!

31/8/23 Thurs: I really enjoyed the resistance cardio class this morning with coach Gerald. He was talking about the muscles that made up the core and we worked slowly on the different parts and I kept reminding myself of the proper breathing techniques that help support the body as I executed the moves… nice workout.

Tried the pork tail vinegar during lunch that Angela’s chef friend made and shared with us… the taste was on point! I rarely eat pork trotter vinegar but it’s neither too sour nor sweet and the ginger taste was not overpowering either… good to go with cai fan!

Ordered crab, mussels, lala, sweet corn and prawns in a bag with penne($80) from Hack it Seafood for dinner! I ordered the ones in chilli crab sauce and it was sweet… overall taste was not bad albeit not warm enough but we found ourselves thirsty not long after dinner... must be quite an amount of msg in there haha.

1/9/23 Fri: Overslept a little this morning and saw a long queue downstairs for voting. *Aish those essential oil stuck at the bottom of the nebuliser glass bottle annoys me~ how do I get rid of them properly?* PotaTOHs casted our votes for the Presidential Election 2023 at about 11am when the queue was much shorter. *I know it’s weird but I always get a little nervous when voting. Maybe because deep down, I knew it was a very important decision that can change Singapore.*

Potato marinated chicken drumlets and mid-joint wings before cooking them in coke for dinner! We also had菜心苗for the first time at ours, together with miso soup. *And Singapore’s ninth president is Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam!*

2/9/23 Sat: PotaTOHs left house at 9am for True Way Presbyterian Church at Queenstown to attend Gioann and Scott’s wedding ceremony. *Potato played on the piano for their march-in songs and during their mass singing.* We had buffet for lunch and the laksa was quite spicy.

Rested for a while at home before we went to Kranji to meet bro and his friend, Isaac for the Run For Inclusion 2023 event at STC. We were told to arrive at 3.45pm, proceeded to marquee and sat there as we waited for the flag-off. *There was a miscommunication between the event organiser and our side with regards to what time STC participants and their family and friends should start their walks or runs.Tsk.*

Signs were clear at some parts of the path but PotaTOHs, as 3km walk participants, somehow followed and walked the 5km path instead! *Saw bro and Isaac, who did the 10km run, ran past us twice lol.*

It was quite heartwarming to see some participants encouraged those in need on the way. Anyway, we received our medals after the 45 minutes’ walk, that could be used as can openers too. Took a group photo at marquee before PotaTOHs went over to WZ’s mum’s place at AMK for Vera’s third birthday celebration.

GGB was already there when we arrived and WZ’s mum did much of the cooking. I liked the fried斋鹅, soup and veggie, bee hoon by her MIL and the curry bought from the coffee shop nearby. Her aunts and cousins were also there, so there were quite a few kids around…

Managed to take photos with both Cara and Vera. The earl grey chocolate cake WZ bought from Shopee was not bad. *PotaTOHs got home at 10+pm… so tired after three different events in a day.*

3/9/23 Sun: Met my in-laws for dinner at华友园海鲜馆. We took the train to Tanah Merah and then bus 14 over to this ulu zichar place. It was quite crowded when we arrived at 6.30pm or so.

My in-laws treated us to chilli crab (900g), steamed prawn, kailan, chilli kangkong, fried baby squid and roasted chicken, with four bottles of Tiger beer and chrysanthemum tea too ($213). The vegetables were yummy and portion was huge. I enjoyed the prawn and crab too, but was just too full by the time we had mantou with crab.

Don’t know how and why but I got feverish on the way home. *Peed three times in the night!*

4/9/23 Mon: Sleepy in the morning because I didn’t sleep well last night due to fever and the frequent toilet breaks, but because PotaTOHs already signed up for reformer trial ($70 per pax) at Piladay Studios, we still attended class with instructor Daphne. We used the cardillac and reformer in class today. It was also the stiff Potato’s first Pilates reformer class, so Daphne provided him with seat mats to align his body as he sat.

She was good and quite clear with the instructions, but as it was only our first duet class there, it felt a bit systematic? The one-hour flew past in no time and I’m glad it helped Potato with his flexibility for a bit at that moment haha. Didn’t feel like eating much for lunch so I only finished half a bowl of wanton mee and went home to nap before going over to NTFGH to meet Dr Tiong for my blood test results. 

It was not the easiest fact to accept, and I’m glad I had Potato’s company all the way, but now that the truth has come to light, I can plan my future even better from here. *I love you Potato! Very lucky to be spending my life together with you for the rest of our lives so no matter the obstacles that lie ahead, we’ll roll on in this lifetime journey and laugh our way through keke!*

He cooked my favourite red spinach and winter gourd soup for dinner.

5/9/23 Tues: Treated Eunice to her farewell lunch at TamJai SamGor at Lot 1. She shared about her cat, Muffin and how she went from “don’t want kids” to three kids in life haha. To her mum, like my mum, humans progress from growing up to schooling to working to getting married and then having children… that’s the “rite of passage” they agree with in their era and that’s so deeply rooted in their minds. But as we are more exposed to views around the world nowadays, we know those stages don’t necessarily have to or can happen in every one’s lives. *She can’t understand because she chose to see what she wants to and I can’t ever explain that to her without upsetting her.*

Of course, I’d try to bring up the conversation with mum every now and then, and much as I want her to agree with me, it seemed she won’t change her thoughts… as much as she can’t change mine lol. Looks like we have to agree to disagree, but ultimately, I know the decision maker is me. I will decide what I want with my life and be responsible for that. I don’t want to, come a day, blame someone else for decisions I made, so I’m trying my best to resist influences that makes me struggle a lot. Anyway, I have done what I felt I should do as a family member, but just like me, they have the right to their choices. *Always feel like I need more time, but time is never enough… haiz.*

Sherill and I did the flow in opposite direction in aerial class tonight, and Diana told us to form the “back-breaking bridge” pose mid-air impromptu! I cannot stay in that pose for long because it hurts the lower back.

6/9/23 Weds: Used the roller for muscle release in Yin Yoga and Sound Bath class tonight and it was painful on some of the parts in my legs. Yip also came up with another method to help us get our wheel-assisted headstands right, and I think it pushed me one step closer to success! A pity my arms would still “float” but I hope to succeed in this pose soon.

7/9/23 Thurs: Saw MIL at our place when I came back home after work. Potato was helping her with some transfer of photos and videos from her iPhone storage to an external hard disk. He also cooked the dango I bought from Kyushu some time ago for dinner! He said the soup base tasted like red miso’s.

Went for my second session of breast massage with Sherlyn. 她说左边比较‘堵’。

8/9/23 Fri: PotaTOHs attended our second Pilates duet trial class with Evangelina at Piladay Studio and though she was said to be a slow-paced instructor, the moves were close to what I did in reformer group class and so we were both tired haha. *Jiayou to my stiff Potato keke~* After some thoughts, I thought I preferred my group classes at Options Pilates and if I had a choice, I’d go for private classes more for their personal touches instead of duet ones because the latter didn’t feel that much different from a group setting, albeit it came with a heftier price tag.

Did背部负压治疗with Joyce today and from the photo she sent me afterwards, I could see that there were little red and black dots, which she said were毒素purged out from the body, and they seemed to be more concentrated on my upper to mid back, where the lungs, heart, liver, gallbladder, stomach and spleen were~ haiyo.

Potato invited our neighbours Angela and Boyd, and Ian over for dinner. He took about one and a half hours to make pork patty hamburg in red wine sauce with air-fried potato cubes, and roasted zucchini and broccoli for us! The 125g of hamburg for us each were so good because he added in diced carrots and onions~

Angela and Boyd were friendly as usual and we had fun listening to Ian’s stories of his life as an English teacher in Japan years ago. Angela and Boyd left at about 10pm but the three of us continued to chat into the night. *It was a nice catch-up!*

9/9/23 Sat: Mike drove over to my place to pass me the cans of chilli he bought for us in Mauritius before we went over to the Club together. *Thank you boss!* 

Potato tried to be secretive about our dinner tonight but the minute I reached home, I could smell tom yum haha! He bought the aromatics from Sheng Shiong and did the soup base from scratch, then added in prawn, crabstick, scallop, tomato and shimeiji shroom to the soup! I loved it! He also stir-fried zucchini with bok choy.