My 35th birthday dinner at home + my bday lunch @ Crazy Rich Thai café with Pat & WZ + “Love After Divorce” + Coexist Coffee Co bday lunch with YB + “The Devil’s Plan” + "Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones" + NIE Winds concert with Potato

21/10/23 Sat: Working on a race day on my 35^th birthday haha… been like this quite often for the past nine years I worked at STC… and this will be the last race day duty on my birthday because Singapore racing will go into history after 5 October, 2024. *Happy to receive birthday wishes from different friends at work!*

Potato prepared salmon sashimi, tobiko, sliced cucumber don and enoki shroom with onion, kelp and tofu miso soup for my 35th birthday dinner! *He even cycled to different places before he got the last box of Tobiki at NTUC at Batok central haha.* Very heart-warming and stomach-filling birthday meal for me! *生日愿望就是希望自己和所爱的家人们身体健康，心情愉快，诸事顺利！*

22/10/23 Sun: Headed to Tangs before noon to try on clothes from The Form and Ginlee that I’ve looked at for a long time… bought one green halter dress from The Form in the end. Met Pat & WZ for lunch at Crazy Rich Thai café at Paragon but I was very disappointed by the food there though. My tom yum seafood pasta ($22) was too sweet and “gelard”, Pat’s dry boat noodle too salty and WZ’s beef rice set was too hot for her. The chicken satay and tofu were only meh. Not going there anymore but lucky for nice chats with the girls as usual. *We’ve different priorities in life. It’s not easy but I’m trying to not be swayed and follow where my heart wants to go.*

Went for Restorative Yoga class in the evening and it was good stretches as usual.

23/10/23 Mon: Did Reformer Pilates this morning with Chisa and it was not as tough because we didn’t work much on the abs today hehe. Shirley was sharing that the studio will probably move next year to somewhere nearby in the vicinity… hopefully still easily accessible for me.

Potato cooked garlic butter chicken with button mushroom and rice for dinner tonight while I mixed the pre-packaged salad. Yummy~ I liked the tinge of lemon in the main dish but PotaTOHs both agreed that the chicken meat were a bit on the tougher side. Ian also bought a dark chocolate and a hazelnut cake to celebrate our birthdays keke~

Ian and I finished watching the final episode of “Love After Divorce” together too.

We were so glad that all three couples, Benita and Jerome, Ricky and HR and Jimi and HJ decided to continue their relationships after one week of living together on screen. These divorcees had to first meet new partners by living under one roof for a week and those couples that chose each other in Cancun would then “come back to reality” by staying together and try to adapt to each other’s lifestyles.

Well, they have their challenges but being people who have already been through a marriage previously, the things they consider and talk about are more mature than other singles’ dating show that I’ve watched before, and maybe that’s why I enjoy this reality variety a bit more.

Rating: 4/5

24/10/23 Tues: Ate the Hojicha cake from Nesuto that MCP bought for my birthday celebration this afternoon. It was still as sweet as before haha.

The aerial flow in class tonight had a drop~

25/10/23 Weds: Went for the videography class today and we learned more editing techniques using Capcut app. *Fun seeing the “mini me fly around” or get scared upon seeing a tiger in the videos haha.*

I could see Yip really hoped to see me succeed in the headstands tonight so he personally demonstrated for me and explained to me about my “floating arms” issue, but he also fell backwards because of that ouch~ I felt a bit guilty not holding on to him then oops. *I guess I should try at home against the walls and try to hold myself up using the core!*

26/10/23 Thurs: YB treated me to my birthday lunch at Coexist Coffee Co café nearby her place. I had their smoked salmon sourdough while YB ate their char siew sandwich. We shared the scrambled egg. Food were not bad and it’s quiet on a weekday afternoon. *She already passed me a box of face masks as an early Xmas present already lol.*

27/10/23 Fri: Attended a career transition workshop by e2i and arranged by HR. It’s only the beginning of things so there wasn’t much the career coaches can help us at the moment, but well, it did remind me to “countdown” to STC’s closure now…

*Enjoyed free banana coconut shake from Mr Coconut for our birthdays to go with KFC chicken for dinner.* PotaTOHs finished watching “The Devil’s Plan” on Netflix!

We enjoyed many of the games they played, albeit I’m clueless most of the time with the explanation on TV going so fast… Potato was nice to explain them to me. I thought it was “fitting” that the final showdown was between Ha Seok Jin and Orbit because they looked to be the brainiest ones on the show. *Sexy brains~ like my Potato’s keke!* Much as I am impressed by Ha Seok Jin many times, I liked Orbit a bit more because he took care of other participants in many games. Sad to see him so stressed in the final rounds la~

Rating: 5/5

28/10/23 Sat: Potato cooked chicken, tofu and enoki shroom in tom yam mix, Chinese spinach with black pepper and also lotus root soup with carrot for dinner~ yums!

29/10/23 Sun: One session of TRX suspension this morning and it was tiring~

30/10/23 Mon: Definitely worked every body part in Pilates Reformer class this morning haha~ I think my left bicep, which was already a bit sore from TRX suspension class yesterday, would be even more achy now.

Did a simple hair cut and I wanted to cut bangs initially, but the hairdresser persuaded me not to as I don't spend time to style them… listened to him, but I wonder if he was just lazy to cut it now lol.

Cooked simple hot soba with enoki shroom, tofu, hard-boiled egg, edamame, onion, kombu and bonito flake for dinner. Somehow, I don’t really enjoy this soba I bought from Tanjong Pagar because the portion is big and the taste don’t seem any nicer than the ones from Daiso lol. 

31/10/23 Tues: Did a similar aerial flow to last week’s class, but the drop tonight felt much longer haha.

1/11/23 Weds: Completed my “videography techniques for social media platforms” today~ we handed in a final project of a short one-minute video clip edited using CapCut.

I thought the neck stretches during Yin Yoga class relieved my neck ache quite a bit, and Yip advised us to do it every day. Tried to do Chaturanga in Wheel Yoga class and I think I sort of got it… just a bit more balance required!

4/11/23 Thurs: Attended low impact aerobics class this morning and I found it boring haha~ probably suit those in their 40s and later or who does not exercise regularly.

Potato cooked spaghetti Bolognese with green capsicum, diced mushroom and minced pork meat for dinner tonight. It was delicious as usual~

3/11/23 Fri: Joined in HPB’s Kpopx Fitness class this morning for about 45mins or so… can’t keep up with some of the moves because I’m not good at dancing lol.

Did womb massage this morning and EQ was trying to sell me some facial massage but I didn't take it up. *The other lady said my liver area was "congested" haiz~ better start doing my own daily massages from now on!* 

Finished watching "Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones" on Netflix. A short documentary.

Talked about the "secrets" to longevity in some places like Okinawa, Sardinia, Ikaria, Loma Linda, Nicoya Peninsula and it seemed like the common traits are besides food, moving a lot in daily life (exercising), having a purpose and positive outlook in life and social bonding. Singapore is considered an "engineered Blue Zone" but I think with the government's effort to cut down on unhealthy food and providing free exercise through HPB as the first steps, it can go on. 

Rating: 3.5/5

PotaTOHs headed to NTU for dinner and I had the honey chicken chop set ($5.80) from North Spine Koufu's Taiwanese stall again after some time. The portion is huge and value-for-money but it got too dry for me towards the end~ okay craving satisfied haha.

Bought lao ban tao huey ($1.90) at Prime Supermart because I wanted something "wet" just before the NIE Winds concert at 8pm.

We both liked the second piece a lot in that one hour of performance. Such ensemble are best watched live!