Belated bday lunch @ Kumachan Onsen, Tora-San & Sun with Moon Light + Compelling Chinese Copywriting for Social Media + FM Pop Music School Virtual Open House + PotaTOH’s 6th wedding anniv @ Mad About Sucre + “Exchange 3” + “The Daily Stoic – 366 Meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living” + “Investigation Alien” + “I Not Stupid 3”

2/11/24 Sat: Celebrated my belated birthday with lunch treat from WZ and Pat at Kumachan Onsen at Orchard Central. They thought the “melting” bear in the personal hotpot looked cute so we thought to try.

It’s a halal restaurant, so there were no pork options to choose from and Pat and I had their chicken set each. I chose the spicy miso soup base while she had the collagen one. WZ chose the gochujang one with beef.

The two enjoyed seeing the “bears melt” while I just cannot wait for my bear to fully melt and let the essence be absorbed into the soup haha. While there were vegetables to go with the set, I thought the meat given were very little and even though Pat and I had the same set, I thought my meat looked even less compared to hers. Not sure what it was due to but the soup were a bit “sticky”, only Pat’s one was thinner in texture and we all’d prefer that. Overall, it’s probably a place cute for kids but not where I’d go back again.

Three of us shared a Rose mille crepe cake at Lady M in the afternoon and had a good chat in the mall.

Potato cooked salmon cubes with broccoli and lotus soup for dinner~ delicious!

3/11/24 Sun: Met Ahna, LL and Jess for my belated birthday lunch treat at Tora-San at The Centrepoint. I had the “Mt Fuji” chirashidon with spicy aburi sauce and the portion was so big I could not finish the rice. Also, it got a bit jelak for me towards the end. Their tamago was okay but probably quite oily too.

Four of us then sat down at Tiong Bahru Bakery café to continue our chat on LL’s social initiative idea of “Bulb” café/retreat shelter she dreams of owning. We talked a lot from parenting to KJ to youngsters nowadays to Dexter to rising cases of attacks in lifts and of course LL’s dream… was a nice afternoon.

Headed to my in-laws for dinner with my family and also talked a bit about MIL’s upcoming consultation and possible nerve surgery in late November. *Potato and I spoke about the difficult topic on death after we touched on will-writing. I probably will always get emotional while talking about these but I’m also happy to know more about how he thinks and feels. I admire him because he’s very open-minded and at ease when we speak about such sensitive topics. It could be the environment I grew up in, my belief and even my personality that shaped my views, but I also see the importance of planning for unforeseen circumstances because death is part of life.* 

5/11/24 Tues: Attended Pilates reformer class with Belinda this morning and there were three other students. Some moves were tougher for me and I felt the DOMs two days after haha.

YB treated me to my belated birthday lunch treat at Sun with Moon Light restaurant. Their unagi and hotate kamameshi set was not bad. She shared about Black Forest, the brand that produced the first cuckoo clocks in the world and her love for one that is about S$2k. We shopped IKEA and she introduced me to Nitori, that sells many home necessities.

6/11/24 Weds: Attended a one-day course, “Compelling Chinese Copywriting for Social Media”. Lecturer Lee was a former journalist, TV producer and now a businessman, who has many business dealings in China. The course touched on Facebook, WeChat and LinkedIn, but it was disappointing to know they did not update their syllabus as LinkedIn is no longer available in China, so who would use it in Chinese!? *STC sponsored my course but I cannot imagine paying $300+ for this course.*

Some of the younger classmates in their 20s even said they no longer used Facebook now and that it was for “old people”… I was a bit pissed off at that comment though lol. And what’s the point of teaching Wechat公众号to locals when you need to have a registered company, address, mobile and bank account in China to have my public page on WeChat? Singapore Chinese Chamber Institute of Business has quite a bit to do to revamp the whole syllabus in my opinion to keep up with times.

The only thing I enjoyed was my lunch at西门街at Funan Mall. Their卤肉饭 (regular size was small though) and辣木耳冷菜 ($8.45) was nice. Left them a good review and received a free honey lemon drink.

I think I caught a cold towards the end of the class and during my last Japanese lesson with Kurihara sensei at night, I was sneezing a lot. Still thankful I completed all 20 lessons of Elementary 1 Japanese class online in the past five months!

7/11/24 Thurs: Felt a bit of sore throat this morning, maybe because I drank ginger and brown sugar drink yesterday night in an attempt to dispel the “cold” in me yet it got heaty instead?

Potato cooked hot soba with crabstick, prawn, edamame, bok choy and enoki mushrooms with marinated beansprouts as sides this evening. The soup was saltier than usual though.

My sore throat got better as the day passed, but still felt a bit feverish the whole day accompanied by weird body aches here and there. The “heat” in me could not be dispelled somehow, so I took my body temperature and saw that it was 37.8 degrees Celsius. At night, I did my usual feet soak to get myself to sweat and I did.

8/11/24 Fri: I no longer feel feverish this morning, albeit there’s still a bitter taste in the mouth. I thought it was only me from MCP division in office this morning until Sharon came in at 10am haha, so she drove us out to ampang yong tau foo ($7.50 each) for lunch.

Potato cooked vongole pasta with a new-found Enpiko mushroom at Sheng Shiong! It has a sweet taste on its own and it’s much firmer compared to other mushrooms we usually eat.

Attended FM Pop Music School Virtual Open House on Zoom at night to know more about their lyrics writing class that I’m interested in.

9/11/24 Sat: Signed up for Aerial Yoga (beginner) class last minute because my package is expiring soon and I cannot book classes beyond 12 November at D Fly Fitness. Happy that I could backflip in mid-air and then do a “split” upside down. I barely managed it and my right leg that was strapped inside to hold the split trembled after a while haha. Hanging there and getting down “gracefully” was a bit of a challenge too as my right arm got tired towards the end too.

PotaTOH met me at Jurong East market and we had prawn mee for lunch. In the evening, we drove to Mad About Sucre for our 6^th wedding anniversary dinner! It’s been long since I went there the last time with Jess, but the interior has changed a bit and the floral wallpaper was beautiful! It helped there were few guests tonight, so I really enjoyed the lovely ambience there.

We were in for a 13-course tasting menu. Started off with the salmon aburi which was cured and lightly torched with crystal bread and wasabi. To our surprise, the crystal bread was crisp and hollow in the middle! *It’s patented whoa~* Next up was the curly squid with three types of squid, squid ink and onion… liked the wok hei smell too. The third dish, wild baby scallops in Cambodian kampot pepper sauce and unleavened wheat puff was our favourite. The heat after it exploded in your mouth elevated the taste further haha. I liked the French oyster (cooked) ice-cream that came right after to help cool things down. It was made with 3.5 oysters apparently and it’s very intriguing. The lemon-ey taste helped too.

We chose different dishes next. I tried the seared Barramundi with tomato, caper, onion and cucumber. I found it a bit salty but the skin was crispy. He ordered the grilled tiger prawn with Spanish garlic and saffron, which the waiter helped torched it on the spot. We thought that was only okay.

Another favourite of mine was the four-hour stew of tomatoes with Iceland Crab Meat. The fact the crab came from Iceland was not really the point, it was more the stew that I cannot get enough of haha.

We were impressed by the garlic bread in their in-house bread & whipped butter because it was very crispy. The pate of cooked chicken liver and truffle with Brandy, hazelnut and a thin slice if apple on top was another dish we ate in one mouthful and that “exploded” wonderfully in the mouth.

The butterhead lettuce with egg, olive, anchovies and chicken bits salad was nice but I got tired of the sauce towards the end. I remembered the waiter said the “bah kwa-alike” stuff was not bacon but chicken bits or something and that was a nice addition. The pulled confit chicken with lettuce, caviar, lemongrass-mint pesto was so-so. They used celeriac in the paste which went well with the lettuce but chicken meat was overpowering. There’s also the fried potato ball with miso and spices before the compressed watermelon with homemade ricotta cheese and shallot. It was very refreshing and I liked how it was infused with rose water too.

For the last “mains”, I picked overnight-stew of classic pulled pork with potato in "wellington" style. It was a bit salty but the textured of the pulled pork was nice. Potato had the Nana's classic 12-hour red wine stew of French beef cheeks. He said those who love beef would enjoy it, but it got too much for him halfway through.

I was looking at their desserts way before so we ordered the “wisey pear” and honey with their organic tea pairing. It was fragrant and sweet. Sounded like they put lots of effort into it and I loved it. Can definitely come back for hi-tea and chit-chat with girlfriends at this place.

After that, we drove to Ian’s to return his car before taking a bus back home. *Like my pair of daphne heels from Taobao hehe~*

10/11/24 Sun: Finished watching "EXchange 3" (환승연애 3).

Was glad Lee Ju Won decided to “ditch” his indecisive ex-girlfriend Seo Kyung and go for Yu Jung, but the latter surprisingly made the decision to stick with her ex-boyfriend Chang Jin instead omg! Anyway, saw news outside the show Ju Won got back together with Seo Kyung in the end, but I thought there’s a “red flag” in the show and they probably cannot last unless they change and compromise.

Da Hye and Dong Jin dated for 13 years and people could see how difficult it was for them, but Dong Jin eventually chose Hye Won in the last episode. Yet, the two did not made it as a couple in real life. Dong Jin and Da Hey got back eventually too.

Well, I knew what I was getting into when I watch this kind of reality TV la. All the emotions and struggles blah but in the end, they all seemed to have become good friends, which is good.

Rating: 3.5/5

Attended Aerial Hammock (beginner) class in the evening with Kay. It has been a few months since my last spin class and the moves for me were quite simple but I think I spun too fast at times, so I got giddy. Towards the end of the class, it was quite bad and I think I was quite uncomfortable the next two hours or so.

It was nice to experience Aerial arts but this not only require elegance and strength, you also need to be in very good control of your body and focus on what you’re doing while the hammocks’ in dynamic motion (spinning). Very impressed by aerial artists like Kay but I don’t think the class is for me at this point in life. I still enjoy my aerial yoga classes, and as long as there’s no spinning involved, I think I’m good haha.

11/11/24 Mon: Potato cooked meatless somen with his last-minute idea on his way home from school~ and it was good!

Did Aerial Flow (beginner) class tonight. It was quite a long flow sequence with some arm work required, and of course elegance, which I lack lol. Could feel my sore arms but I still went through the whole flow, albeit “un-glam” keke. What I did not like was the fact that the whole studio’s too small and I find myself kicking the walls or my classmate almost hitting into me while we do the moves. This was the main reason I’m not continuing my lessons here after using up my package.

12/11/24 Tues: Was slightly worried about my sore arms in Pilates reformer class this morning but surprisingly, I still managed the arm workouts quite well haha. Took a nap in the afternoon and went for TCM massage with HL. She said my muscles were tight but other than that, everything else was okay.

*Mum cooked black chicken soup and added a drop of Martell in it… don’t think the taste went well together leh haha.*

Attended Hatha Yoga, which was my last class in the package, tonight. It was almost a full class with 10 students. JR focused on backbends but it was not too intense, but I still barely made it with my weak back haha.

13/11/24 Weds: Potato cooked salmon with enpiko shrooms and Chinese spinach with cream linguini for dinner tonight~ yummy!

14/11/24 Thurs: PotaTOHs went to西门街at Westgate for dinner. I was not too hungry, so ordered their oyster mee sua this time while he had the big portion of braised pork rice. We also shared the black fungus and shrooms cold dishes, as well as the pork floss crispy egg roll. He claimed the free cup of sour plum drink which tasted better than the honey lemon drink I had previously from the Funan mall outlet.

Had acid reflux at night due to the tea I drank in the afternoon and Potato suggested I drink soy milk. It helped right away so I could lie down to sleep. I think I naturally have a more acidic stomach, so I should avoid “sour” tea as much as I can in future.

15/11/24 Fri: It was a rainy day so I suggested to Potato we could have hotpot for dinner tonight~ shiok!

Glanced through “The Daily Stoic – 366 Meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living” by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. There’s something to learn “everyday” in the book and topics were categorised into different themes every month. Some teachings from Stoicism left a deeper impression on me because I agree with them.

For example, being ruthless to things that don’t matter and saying “no” when required. By doing so, you can say “yes” to the things that matter to you in life. Don’t be afraid to make a change, a big one if the dysfunctional job stresses us out.

There’s also the three essential parts of Stoic philosophy that I agree with when making every decision: control my perceptions, direct my actions properly and willingly accept what’s outside of my control.

No matter how much we achieve in life, it’s like building a castle in the sand, ultimately it’d be erased by the winds of time. All humans will pass away and slowly be forgotten, so we should enjoy this brief time we have on earth and not be enslaved to emotions that make us miserable and dissatisfied.

The Zen meditation teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn coined a famous expression: “Wherever you go, there you are.” I cannot agree more with this. We can find a retreat anytime be looking inward. We can sit with our eyes closed and feel our breath go in and out. We can turn on some music and tune out the world. We can turn off technology or shut off those rampant thoughts in our head. That will provide us peace, so there’s no need to “escape” or even plan for holidays. I love seeing the world, but I know if I want a “real break”, I can have it in my comfortable abode, as long as I want to.

If you want to learn, you have to be humble and ready to let of the opinions you already have. I am guilty of this a lot of times. I pretend to listen, but deep inside, I “reject” some views shared with me because I have my opinions. I will constantly remind myself of this, and also to people around me if they don’t too.

I want to practise these thoughts too.

If somethings prevents you from getting to your destination on time, then it’s a chance to practise patience. If an employee makes an expensive mistake, it’s a chance to teach a valuable lesson. If a computer glitch erases my work, it’s a chance to start over with a clean slate. If someone hurts me, it’s a chance to practise forgiveness. If something is hard, it’s a chance to get stronger.

If we want nothing, we have everything. We could want less and have everything we desire, then we’re really rich. *I feel so because I have my Potato and love ones.*

Train yourself on any habit, and you’ll be able to unconsciously go to that habit in trying times.

Rating: 3.5/5

16/11/24 Sat: Rainy day so I spent the day at home watching “Investigation Alien” on Netflix. 

The docuseries feature investigative journalist and ufologist George Knapp who gathered a group of collaborators to prove that aliens exists among us and to seek why they are here? From bulls that were precisely mutilated, ray of light that attacked villagers in Colares, ‘UFO’ jellyfish filmed flying over US military base, Phoenix Lights mass UFO sighting in 1997 and how an anthropology professor said visiting aliens could be the future humans who time-travelled to visit their ancient ancestors.

I have always been curious about the unknowns since young, and there were so many “question marks” left in my mind after watching this. Surely, something beyond the human technology must exist among us. I also learned from Knapp how he go about “uncovering truths” and as a journalist, it takes a lot of work.

Rating: 4/5

Potato baked honey soy-sauced garlic chicken and stir-fried cabbage with carrots and shimeiji shrooms for dinner~ nice!

PotaTOHs finished watching “I Not Stupid 3” together.

Not as good as the first two seasons. Cannot feel the “bonds” between the kids. Not many “laughable” moments and maybe because it’s not that relatable to me anymore.

Rating: 2/5

17/11/24 Sun: Bought a lychee and chocolate cake from Bread Talk to my MIL’s to celebrate her belated birthday.

18/11/24 Mon: Cooked meatless for dinner and my "sear" for the kimchi dumplings failed but they still tasted quite good.

Went for my first lesson, Aerial Flow (Intermediate), at The New Place tonight. *$599 for 48 lessons that last one year.* It’s more spacious than D Fly Fitness (Jurong) studio and there were about 16 hammocks in Studio 2. After about 10 minutes of easy warm-ups, Sheri taught us the flow. It’s not difficult for me, but I did feel the “insecurity” when I bend backwards while hanging high up in mid-air. Latricia was nice to help me take photos and we chatted a bit. *The class is much easier than the ones at D Fly Fitness, which already made me sweat while doing warm-up exercises lol.*

I was happily chatting away and forgot Ian was there to fetch me. Poor him waited for half an hour or so and he has not had his dinner even aiyoh~ He came over to PotaTOHs and we chatted till midnight or so.