《台北女子图鉴》+ 《周处除三害》+《热辣滚烫》+ PotaTOH's lunch @ Umai & Ian, James over for dinner

1/3/24 Fri: Did Qigong in the morning and the rest of the day was rather “unsmooth” for me. Had work meeting and some work to finish up right till lunch… long queue at ba chor mee stall and the yellow noodle I had was a bit “nua”… took me a while to find Le Quest’s management office and by the time I got there, it was their lunch break so I had to find another day to go back to take the vouchers… came home and manually vacuumed the house… extra effort vacuuming Coco’s fur especially… rushed through my monthly Finance updates before doing my race day preparation work for 1+ hour and it was 5.15pm by the time I’m done, so I got to thaw the frozen shrimp for the tomato, chilli and butter shrimp dish I planned to make for dinner and other dishes.

Good thing I felt calm for a moment while chopping the chye sim. The new dish turned out good!

Had to refill my powdered shampoo but I realised the refill in the paper bag had clumped together because of the humidity~ took me 45 minutes to slowly funnel the powder into the aluminium bottle… 《我可以47》got boring for me after the “cave rescue” episodes… wanted to dig my ears but Bebird was not charged haiz…

Had a good HTHT with Potato before going to sleep. *I’m appreciative of my husband who’s very understanding.* It’s not easy because sometimes I don’t know how to share my thoughts without the fear of troubling him, but he assured that we’re married and that he’s willing to share the burdens of life with me too. 😊 *I thought I let all my pent-up frustration out so well that I knocked out at night. Felt like I haven’t had such a deep sleep in a long time… until, of course, Coco’s “morning meows” woke me up at 7.30am haha.*

2/3/24 Sat: Potato tried making potato croquette for dinner! The taste was good, but they were a bit soft and “crumbly” though haha. The potato, sweet corn, carrot, red date and onion soup was still very sweet and nice!

3/3/24 Sun: I followed a soup recipe on IG and made shrimp, kimchi and kombu soup with shimeiji shroom and cabbage for lunch. It was a portion even enough for four pax I would say lol! It was nice, albeit not something I’d re-visit over and over again though.

4/3/24 Mon: *Coco puked once in the morning on Potato’s bedroom slippers and on the floor in the evening after eating her wet food. Have to monitor her now…* Full class with six pax in Chisa’s Pilates Reformer class this morning and it was another tiring but fulfilling session.

Went meatless for our usual Monday dinners with stir-fried cabbage with shimeiji shroom and lentils to go with edamame, hard-boiled egg and cold udon. Simple~

6/3/24 Weds: For whatever reason, Coco peed on the cat bed given by Salikin and the pee seeped through to our settee cushion and sofa… Potato was annoyed and upset about that. We will make a few adjustments to her kitty litter and diet, hopefully she does not pee elsewhere anymore nor vomit as often.

7/3/24 Thurs: Potato stir-fried Paprika chicken with cabbage, shimeiji shroom with omelette and made miso corn soup for dinner! The different flavours went very well together.

8/3/24 Fri: Decided to keep Coco to her room whenever we’re not at home again to observe if it helps reduce the suspected anxiety we thought she had when she’s alone in the living room at night. It’s a good start as she did not vomit at all this morning.

Pretty satisfied with my Qigong session as I was rather focused. Also practised my headstand using the wheel and I do see slight improvements but I think I also understand why my arms float… to counter my body leaning backwards maybe? Nonetheless, the goal is to make sure the arms are flat on the ground while the back straightens up fully so I can do a headstand independently without the wheel someday.

Went for my HPV test review and it’s good that result came out negative.

Finished watching 《台北女子图鉴》starring桂纶镁as the female lead.

Audience follow her from when she went to Taipei to work and then Singapore, as well as her nine relationships over the years. Her two best friends from Tainan had their fair share of ups and downs in life too.

Really enjoyed the show, especially the friendships the trio had despite each of their own difficulties in life. The complexity of love made me wonder about love in modern days too…

Rating: 4.5/5

9/3/24 Sat: Potato cooked shrimp, potato, onion and carrot in Japanese curry and had udon to go along with it! The lettuce with mayonnaise and sesame sauce was fattening but nice too hehe.

10/3/24 Sun: Finally hopped on the bike and went for a practice session at the multi-storey carpark after so many years of not cycling haha. I scooted for a bit and it was not long until I pedalled and cycled many rounds around the empty carpark hehe~ It was still a bit nerve-wrecking when it comes to turning and small corners but I know it’s the fear in me that’s stopping me most of the time, so I think a few more practice should do the trick. *One of my goal is to cycle in Taiwan someday because people said it’s a country worth cycling around haha~*

Tried a random recipe online with steamed grouper and pouring of the hot oil on top of the spring onion and ginger to release the aromatics but Potato said the oil was probably not hot enough so there wasn’t the strong aroma as expected. Still, the grouper was not bad. Had pork gyoza and snow peas for dinner too!

PotaTOHs watched《周处除三害》(The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon) on Netflix.

我本来都不知道《周处除三害》的故事呢，原来出自《世说新语》。又是一部让人reflect的电影：究竟犯过错的人能不能弥补过错呢？我去找了阮经天饰演的陈桂林原型人物，是已经被枪毙的刘焕荣的资料，看了他在牢中有悔意也积极行善……但在法律面前，管你杀的是好人还是坏人，杀人就是要偿命。

阮经天演得很可以，改过自新后“除三害”，但即便是他最后改过自新了、认罪了，我也没有太怜悯这个人物的意思。

也许他人生误入歧途有其先因，那也许是他可怜的地方，但至少没有执迷不悟至入墓，那也是可以庆幸的地方。一切在于他做过的/做出的选择。

Rating: 3.5/5

11/3/24 Mon: Good Pilates reformer workout this morning.

Potato helped do the prep work for our meatless dinner and he also made the seasoning for the stir-fried potato and king oyster mushroom~ came out pretty good!  

I watched《热辣滚烫》.

Kudos to贾玲for losing over 50kgs in less than a year for her character in the movie, but this storyline probably isn’t the first of its kind already.

一切都来得及，很励志。有志者，事竟成！

Rating: 3/5

13/3/24 Weds: *What a joke. We can’t even stand our grounds. Then, why try to be stingy in the first place? Just giving your staff more work down the road ain’t it?*

Treated Potato to lunch at Umai Artisanal Udon Bar at Guoco Midtown. It was quite packed even at 1pm and they close at 2pm for a break. I ordered their Himokawa Udon set which had super wide udon noodles made from Gunma prefecture ($25). I didn’t know it came with beef at first but the staff were nice enough to help me change it to pork, albeit still in beef broth. The cold udon was light on the tastebud with the broth, but also nice with the peanut sauce, though Potato preferred the former way of eating it. Their tempura was not bad too.

He had the hot ten mori sanuki ($16), udon with its roots from Kawaga prefecture, and enjoyed it a lot too. Then, we went to Marina Square to collect my 28” luggage before heading home.

Potato prepared Izakaya-style dinner for Ian and I! Ooh the warm tamago eggs were so yummy~ white radish was a bit bland but definitely very soft. *Always appreciative of Potato’s effort!* James joined us for drinks later at night and we ended up talking till late so Ian slept over. *Neither Potato nor I realised we’d forget to bring out the salmon sashimi we got from Sushi Go earlier for dinner lol!*

15/3/24 Fri: Did Qigong and practised headstand using the wheel in the morning. *got a bit nauseous after that hmm…* PotaTOHs tried baked king oyster mushroom with shrimp and butter but it was only okay. Tried my first pack of C Soup which was herbal soup with dried shrooms and it tasted like chicken essence… quite strong actually.

Had my last session of 背部负压仪按摩 and of course Joyce would keep pushing for me to sign new packages but they’re getting too expensive so nope.

Met YJ for dinner at Noodle Star K because we didn’t want to queue for Sagye. My chicken Korean noodle was meh. She had beef tofu stew set. Then we had cream puff at Baristart coffee… quite sweet but okay to have once in a while! 

It’s always nice to have a chat with a friend in a similar line of work because we would understand each other’s work better.