GE2025 + mum’s accidental fall + “The Residence” + lunch w racing team @ Streats Cafe

1/5/25 Thurs: Potato treated Ian, Linh and I to bah kut teh at Joo Siah bah kut teh in JE for lunch! It’s the second time I’m having it but I thought it was not as salty this time.

2/5/25 Fri: Went for Phoebe’s intermediate pilates class with Linh again this morning and there were six students. We used chair and reformer bed. Also listened to linh’s rants regarding her business over lunch.

Potato treated us to dinner ($49+) at Kei Kaisendon at Plantation Plaza~ sadly their sashimi were not very fresh and the cucumbers were bitter. Had a tour around Giant supermarket at the basement and bought ourselves a packet of peach konjac jelly ($2.95).

3/5/25 Sat: PotaTOHs went to vote around 10am and there were less than 10 people in the queue at our polling station. Had the水饺面($5.5) at Batok West hawker centre for lunch and Potato enjoyed the plump and solid水饺too. 

He cooked teriyaki chicken somen with enoki shrooms, shimeiji shrooms, cherry tomatoes and Japanese cucumber. The shrooms and chicken skin were a bit salty but the dinner was great otherwise!

Stayed up till 1.30am to watch CNA’s GE2025 live results show. I somehow knew the results for JE-BB GRC already, but was still curious over Tampines, Punggol and West Coast-Jurong GRC’s. 

WP maintained with two GRCs and Hougang SMC, but it was a pity that Tan Cheng Bock’s PSP lost their seats in parliament because of their loss in West Coast-Jurong GRC.

I would think most of the time, the situation would favour the incumbent. You got to give credit to a team that steered Singapore through Covid-19, even if people would have different opinions about how well they dealt with that.

Kudos to the opposition teams too because it’s their courage and passion that drives them into battling an obviously uphill task. 

I would love for more voices in parliament, but the new ones have to prove they are worthy of their seats in there. Of course, the incumbent cannot afford to sleep on their laurels too. I particularly liked what WP’s Jamus Lim said along the lines of “it’s not about who came up with what policies but the policies have to be for and benefit Singaporeans”.

5/5/25 Mon: Potato cooked vongole pasta using the seafood stock we bought recently. It tasted more like prawn stock, but when cooked in wine together with mushrooms, cabbage, carrots and clams, the dish came out very flavourful. *He said he prefers choosing clams instead of today’s pre-packed ones because the meat were smaller, albeit price is similar.*

He cooked the spaghetti in the pan too, but they were harder to cook to equal texture given less liquid and one could taste the starch more obviously. Still, it was some experimenting he wanted to do, so he would know better from now on!

6/5/25 Tues: Joined resistance cardio starters class on Zoom since deep stretch class yesterday was cancelled. It's been a while with instructor Gerald and so I sweated quite a bit. 

Had lunch with Steven at Marsiling Mall hawker centre. I had my favourite mhk but their sour chilli didn't taste as nice somehow. Steven's off-boarding at the end of June too, and so is the remaining Racing and MRA staff, except for most HODs and Karin. *With such a management and staff who don't know what they're doing, it's better they close down.* 

Cooked pork belly slices, mushrooms, egg, bok choy and onions in tom yam soup for dinner tonight. I added dried ikan bilis so the flavour was on the heavier side.

7/5/25 Weds: Some of the moves during Gyrotonic were awkward for me haha. It’s not easy trying to coordinate and also paying attention to the whole body at one go!

Cooked my own lunch with an online sauce recipe using sesame sauce, sugar, light soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar and water… sweet but I’d like it saltier instead. I cooked noodles, pork belly slices and bok choy. Also added cherry tomatoes on the side! *received another scam call from a local number haiz*

Came home after tuition to see Potato cleaning up the leakage in the storeroom caused by the cans of 100 Plus we bought... for the second time. It also spread over to our packet drinks and we had to throw away about 12-14 packets. Poor him because he already had a lot of things in school~ Much as we don't know the cause of the leakage by those cans, he thought it could have to do with the high humidity in the storeroom too. Hence, we decided to buy some Thirsty Hippo to try to absorb the moisture in there.

My left eye had been red and drier the past few days due to over-exposure to screens I believe, but tonight while washing my face, I saw white watery mucus discharge from it and the eye was swollen and red. I guess I didn't sleep well because the worry of pink eye (albeit no itchiness) got to me and in the middle of the night, I did wake up to my left eye with the thick eye crust omg.

8/5/25 Thurs: As always, I'd go back to the home remedy of cleansing my eye with lukewarm salt water. I did it a few times in the morning and after a few hours, my left eye felt better despite still swollen and red, I went for the Pilates intermediate class with Germaine. *Given the symptoms, I am guessing it could be viral conjunctivitis.* She's still an apprentice, and so not as good as experienced instructors, but we still had a good sweat. Later, she shared with Linh and I that she quitted teaching of Biology at Hwa Chong to pursue Pilates teaching. She'd learn less than a year and will be having her final exam in July, but also said the course is about $14k... damn expensive. *She shared Options Pilates pays for the courses, but one has to teach with them for three years after that.*  

Went home for dinner and visited mum, who is still recovering from a possible viral infection she caught recently. She said she almost fainted last Saturday at the market when she was walking to the Chinese doctors after breakfast… got skin abrasion on her right forearm too when she slipped, but luckily for some helpful public nearby, they called the ambulance. The medic staff checked her blood sugar level and heart, and she said things were quite okay, hence she did not go to the hospital. But, she saw two doctors and now her fever has gone down and her throat is okay, albeit the cough is still there. Think her appetite is still not that good though. *他的无感和冷，也不知道是与生俱来，还是比较迟钝、就那么事不关己。我没办法知道，而且也都很多年了，感觉已没那个必要一定要问个清楚了。*

Still thankful she cooked fish, king oyster mushrooms with capsicums, cabbage and cauliflower soup and fried eggs for us. Bro was saying how she didn’t want to cook the past few days but on the day we go back for dinner, she didn’t mind lol. *我懂妈妈的心啦。*

9/5/25 Fri: *My left eye seems to be getting better already.* Headed to四马路观音庙after some time. *好签。加油！* Had jiak song mhk ($5.5) at the coffeeshop nearby and walked to Central library to borrow two books. Then, I strolled to People’s Park Centre to enquire about the Europe trip with LGE Travel in end November. 

Had meatless dinner with Potato~ he cooked kimchi shimeiji shrooms with cherry tomatoes to go along with our cai fan ($5.6). The bitter gourd was too bitter.

Finished watching “The Residence” on Netflix with Potato.

Enjoyable theme that PotaTOHs enjoy and is similar to "Murder on the Orient Express", "Knives Out" etc detective movies. Detective Cordelia Cupp had to solve the murder mystery of A. B. Wynter that happened during a States dinner. 
Interesting how every small character seemed to have the motive for killing Wynter and in the end, the bird lover detective managed to solve the case after bringing all suspects for a tour around the White House. 

I do enjoy shows I have to pour all my attention in to understand everything well haha.

Rating: 4/5

10/5/25 Sat: Potato cooked mille feuille nabe with cherry tomato and shimeiji shrooms with eggs for dinner~ interesting and nice flavour! Also finished the prawn paste winglets I bought from Groupbuy.

11/5/25 Sun: I craved for soba, so Potato cooked cold soba with teriyaki salmon and Chinese spinach for dinner! He only boiled the spinach before adding in the oyster sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, grated garlic and chilli oil marinade. The marinade was not as evenly mixed this way, but the taste was still good. 

12/5/25 Mon: Did slightly different moves in deep stretch class this morning. We did splits paired with classmates! Did not sweat as much, maybe also because the air-con was at 18 degrees Celcius lol.

Terribly long day at work with Bruno's interview and story, two SA previews, one stipe report and one French story to sub. Thankful for the meatless tomato pasta Potato cooked for us for dinner~ king oyster mushroom's texture went well with the dish!

13/5/25 Tues: Took my blood test this morning before making a trip down to LGE Travels to pay the deposit for PotaTOH's 15D12N Northern Light trip to Finland, Norway and Lofoten Island from Nov 27 to Dec 11.

Treated Mike, Zwan, Din and Aman to lunch at Streats Cafe at City Square Mall. It's the first time I'm seeing the paginators after working together for a few months. They were full of humour and all of them's been in SPH for very long~ Din's been there since the year I was born lol! Nice to have a group of people I can talk to about horse racing. The fried kway teow set I had was okay... main dish was a bit oily and the tom yum soup was a bit too sweet for my liking. Their red chilli oil dumplings and oysters with fried omelette was not bad though. 

Tried the Vietnamese vermicelli from the shop downstairs for dinner and I quite enjoyed the grilled chicken one ($7). Potato had the one with pork sausage ($7), but sausage portion a bit too small.

14/5/25 Weds: Saw a few cans of 100plus leaked in the storeroom for the third time this morning. The sweet liquid even have mold growing yucks. Could be due to heat in the bomb shelter. Spent a while cleaning it up and placing the remaining cans out in kitchen instead. 

Gyrotonic with Ishra was okay. I sweated when it came to working the arms omg~

Potato cooked prawn泡饭for dinner! He used the seafood stock, prawns, cabbage, onions, shimeiji shrooms, mushrooms and a bit of gochujang in the soup for that hint of kick~ hearty meal we had~

15/5/25 Thurs: Good stretch in Ice’s neck, back and shoulders opening class. Went straight for TCM massage with HL after that and I tried stomach cupping! It was not as "scary" as I thought and other than the moments when she removed the glass cups, it wasn't that painful for me. Cupping the stomach helps people with discomfort there. She said my stomach was more湿热, which is a difficult condition to deal with because that means I can't eat food that are heaty nor cooling alamak... *She's only 44yo~* 

She刮痧my upper back and commented I ate a bit too much seafood recently because she could see many red dots. She could also tell my left hip was tight recently so she worked slightly more on that part, and also the cups left a darker mark on my hips today so she said there was more寒气, and advised me to cut down on seafood and sashimi. 

16/5/25 Fri: Did Pilates intermediate class with Jac this morning and a few of the moves really worked my inner thighs, hamstrings and glutes a lot. It still wasn’t as tiring as Belinda’s class at Options Pilates last time, but I definitely sweated a bit today haha.

While I was waiting for bus 993 (which took forever to come~), an old lady approached me and asked if I knew what bus to take back to Aljunied Crescent? I checked and the only suitable way would still be from JE MRT. She asked for my help as she rarely go out of her house to other areas in SG. 

Since the wait for the bus was another 20minutes, and it would take me a lot to explain clearly how to go from bus interchange to MRT side, I thought might as well walk with her to the MRT and go home from there. Apparently, she had a quarell with her niece who was supposed to meet her in the west, and the niece went MIA after that, and this poor ahma who had couldn’t read and had no handphone was stranded. I could tell she has some insecurity and trust issues with strangers, but she needed someone to tell her which train to take since she’s illiterate. Not sure but I would feel insecure if I were her too… to live in this era without handphone and not understanding signs around me.