5/7/25 Sat: Attended YL’s football fitness class this morning using my Classpass trial ($5 for two weeks) and it’s so nice to be correcting out standing and walking postures again. She broke down deep into yoga poses Warrior 2 and half-moon today and I think her advice really helped us get into the pose correctly.
Was in Funkie Monkie’s big classroom for the songwriting camp, where I wrote two song lyrics with Anne and MX, and we had to work on the melodies with two different groups of students from the melody-composing class.
My partners were absent, hence I did《24小时的店》with Hannah and KM in the first hour. I hummed the melody I had in mind for the first line of the chorus, they liked it and continued with the rest of the melody lines in the chorus. *Chey I didn’t have to come up with edited lyrics on the spot after all… phew~* In the second song《鱼眼镜头》with Hannah and Reina, Hannah was as enthusiastic and after we randomly hummed a bit of melody, the chorus was also completed in that hour. Reina was quieter and her thoughts were more scattered, bur she also did her best to contribute. I thought the 18-year-old Hannah had a nice R&B voice. Had a quick presentation with all six other groups before wrapping up the two-hour camp. *Some would see it as being “given free reins”, but I reckoned things had been quite messy with the last-minute changes in the camp. Cannot imagine us doing the logistics for the event next year after the course has ended.* Sounds like we could get busier towards the end, but with huge efforts put in, I will work to get my deserved rewards too.
Ian, Linh and Potato drove over to pick me up and we headed to James and Gwen’s for dinner. He prepared beef tenderloin and duck meet with a really good dipping sauce for us, while Potato made mashed potatoes and cold Japanese cucumber. *He’s uber proud of his 1mm-carrot cubes haha!* Ian and Linh got us ice-creams, cognacs and later猫山王and红虾durians too, which we ate together with beer at the balcony area for fear of smell lingering in his home.
I enjoyed the soursop ice-cream a lot, more than the salted caramel with biscoff. After that, we left for Linh’s rented place to check on Beehoon. It was a comfortable corner room in a mansionette. Beehoon was just very timid… worse than Coco haha.
7/7/25 Mon: Tried my first reformer (beginners) class at SG Pilates near my parents’ this morning via Classpass. The reformers were in bright red colour at this branch and it’s quite comfortable actually haha. My Thai teacher WangMo was clear in her instruction but as she requested almost 10 reps for all the movements, I still worked out quite a bit in class!
Came home and saw Potato preparing lunch for us~ he cooked hot chicken soba with scallions and the soba with mirin stock was nice!
Another Japanese meal for meatless dinner: he cooked Japanese curry with okras, king oyster mushrooms, carrots, potatoes and onions! Yummy as usual~
8/7/25 Tues: Saw Dr Tan for my bi-annual scaling and polishing ($87.2). He said all's good, but never fails to remind me to be careful when it comes to the two lower wisdom teeth. Also, the fact I feel some parts are more sensitive when cleaning is either because there are more dirt stuck there or the gums have recessed as we age. Dr Tan also said he would do a x-ray scan on my upper left pre-molar tooth that I did root canal on because there was bacteria growth around the area previously, which has shrunk after he cleaned up the area once, but he wants to make sure it's all gone.
Wanted to use up the old cucumber and tofu in the fridge, and I ended up followed recipes on下厨房app. The steamed prawns in Chinese wine, ginger and spring onions tasted quite good in their dipping sauce, but I had a more difficult time stir-frying potato slices and old cucumber. *In order to avoid the slight bitterness in the sauce of the steamed prawns in future, Potato suggest I remove the prawn tomalley (head) first next time.*
The recipes included many "estimation" when it comes to seasoning, and I changed some ingredients like white vinegar to black one, and chicken stock cubes to seafood stock because we don't have them. My potato slices looked like they were not fully cooked so Potato had to help me stir fry them one more time. The taste turned out alright.9/7/25 Weds: There were two first-timers in Gyrotonics this morning so Ishra would sometimes refer to me, the only experienced student, to show some movements. I’m nervous at times but I reminded myself to do my best lest they follow bad role model lol.
Had seafood tofu stew set ($21+) for lunch at Myung Ga II and although the soup was slightly salty, it was not bad… but I realised I was thirsty after that. They might have used quite a bit of MSG in there tsk.
Cooked wafu spaghetti with pork belly slices, cabbage and shimeiji shrooms for dinner~ one of my favourite recipes from Masa keke~
10/7/25 Thurs: Couldn’t book Jac’s Pilates reformer class on Classpass, so I only met Linh for lunch and we had the Klang bak kut teh ($7.6)~ average.
Had first tuition with Kanisha and I was “welcomed” by the barks of Luna and Diamond lol~ a bit scared they’d bite because they sounded rather aggressive, but Luna quickly quietened down after I went in and she sniffed me, albeit the “talkative” Diamond needed reminders from the family lol. Kanisha’s definitely a chatty girl I can tell soon into the first lesson!
11/7/25 Fri: Went for Daryl’s Aerial Pilates for the first time this morning and I sort of knew what I signed up for… not “flying” but more of strengthening and core exercises. We worked with the light resistance band and the hammock… I felt my left glute tremble towards the end omg~
Forgot to salt the spaghetti when I cook lunch for myself but the wafu pasta still turned out nice! Looks like a lot eh!
PotaTOHs met Ian and Linh for dinner at Leon’s pop-up cafe Kaya Rebel at The Central. We shared the platters ($88) and among the three kayas they gave us, most of us preferred the earl grey-flavoured one.
He chatted with us for a while, in between his food preparation, and shared about his F&B businesses, MOE school programmes and his family’s photo-framing business. It sounds like a lot of earnings but he also seemed to keep having ideas… seriously don’t know how he manages his busy schedule.
Impromptu visit to Level Up after Potato suggested we head there for our drinks and this arcade cum bar was quite an interesting place. I tried Magarita but it was meh. *learned that there's a layer of salt on the rim to go with the lime and bitter taste of the drink* One of the waiter accidentally broke some glasses near the water counter and one of the shards cut Linh on her right foot. The team compensated us with 11 coins but the waiter, out of his own pocket, wanted to buy us another round of drinks too. He looked like a young temporary staff, so we didn't want him to spend the money, but he insisted to buy Linh a glass.
We played the "air hockey" and it was so fun watching the two of them play haha. *PotaTOHs won yay~* Then, we also played bishy bashy, and I handed over the difficult stage to Ian haha~ and he was ousted right after that lol. Potato did very well though!
Finished reading 《高效24小时：工作生活平衡的时间管理》by池田贵将.
作者介绍好多有效的时间管理方式，有些我早已经在做，例如关闭一些智能手机的通知。书里提及的“艺术家之约”是我很欣赏的概念，也即每周安排两个小时，通过投入时间一个人做一件事情；通过“想尝试就去做”的念头重新发现身边小惊喜！
根据研究显示，我们的大脑一天要处理1100万条信息，但其中能有意识进行处理地就只有40条，所以确保大脑的能量用用在重要的东西上很关键。如果说可以事先安排好早上的“固定工作”，像活动身体、冥想和确认当天的行程安排最好，那就能节省大脑的能量，因为早上才来决定事情就很耗脑量。
我得尝试在工作的时候利用“番茄工作法”：25分钟工作，5分钟休息为一个单元，可以保证不过度消耗精力。连续昨晚4个单元就休息30分钟。这应该对我需要高度集中的工作有帮助，又可以让眼睛间歇性休息。《高》也提到了人长期看屏幕有可能患上“屏幕呼吸暂停综合征”，也就是人盯着屏幕发出的蓝光，会唤醒大脑，心率加快，也会条件反射地呼吸变浅或停止呼吸。怪不得我难么讨厌看屏幕哈哈！
“步行冥想”也是我很感兴趣的活动，因为它关注的是享受步行本身；感受当下。而且科学也证实了，在大自然行走时，大脑会产生生理性变化，减少焦虑和压力，呈现出和冥想一样的状态，所以就更容易在这个时候有创造性的发现。
我有一段日子没在看书，但最近又找回了阅读的习惯：一天阅读6分钟也能缓解压力，最大甚至能减少68%的压力。有阅读习惯的人随着年纪增长，认知功能的衰退平均减少32%。
两个我觉得也很有帮助的点：午睡得在下午12到3点之间进行，控制在15-20分钟以内（因为入睡30分钟后会进入深度睡眠，起来后脑子会浑浑噩噩），且避免在需要进行高度集中注意力的工作前午睡。
再来就是晚上睡前带着感恩的心，回想一天好的事情，可以增强免疫系统及提高幸福感。
最后，我也从《高》认识到了“心流状态”(flow state），是专注的终极状态。一旦进入这个状态，专注力会达到极限，其他事物会“消失”。这个时候大脑的额叶皮层和前额叶皮层会保持沉默，终止对自己的批判性思考。少了这些干扰注意力的消极思考和焦虑，我们就能专注眼前的事情，沉浸在爱好中。要进入flow state，那就要挑战略有难度的事情及使用较高的技能。一直学习，我们也会成长。我大概有幸尝试过好多次，尤其是运动的时候，真的很享受！
Rating: 3.5/5
12/7/25 Sat: Had lunch with Potato, Salikin and Gioann at Batok West hawker but I was so full from the wanton mee because I had late breakfast with avocado in it.Met Jess, Ahna and LL at Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee for LL's belated birthday dinner. I tried their wok hei fried bee hoon but both the bee hoon and soup were a bit salty for me, hence not impressed haha. But Jess and LL seemed to like their prawn noodles though.
Ahna then drove us over to The Centrepoint and waited for me while I collected my OTO foot massager at Short Q... omg it was unexpectedly heavy. We then chit chatted at Tiong Bahru Bakery again at night with some drinks and pastries. Ahna drove us home after that~ thank you!13/7/25 Sun: Working day and Potato cooked lotus root soup with the dried scallop he bought at Chitose airport... oooh the deep umami flavour was nice! 14/7/25 Mon: Frustrated over work this morning and I couldn’t really focus in aerial yoga class. It’s been a while since I attended JE’s class and she would push us as usual, which can be nice. The final pose was not difficult, but because of my two minds, I didn’t complete it on the other side, nor did I want to do it one more time when JE asked. After a 15-minute meditation before lunch, my head felt lighter.
15/7/25 Tues: Good cardio sweat-out at Body Combat class at Habitude this morning with instructor John! He uses the Les Mills programme and it happened to be their newest song today. There were difficult parts where we had to "crawl" back and forth and overall, the pace was challenging but he took appropriate breaks in between.
Potato wrapped enoki shrooms in rice paper and starch, and seared it with salt and pepper~ so nice it tasted like there's prawn flavour in there! There were also potato strands, shimeiji shrooms and Japanese cucumber in that one bowl we ate while watching CNA's documentary on "the best eggs to eat". The conclusion? Expensive kampong eggs are nutritious but regular brown eggs can do for people like me who don't like egg yolks since most nutrients are in yolks and whites are just protein.
16/7/25 Weds: Last Gyrotonics class with Ishra this morning and I was the only student because two others dropped out. We did the usual moves and worked on the legs and core as well. She touched on the point of placing our shoulder blades back when doing exercises like crunches, so we don’t use the rounded shoulders or strain the neck to come up but instead focus on the abs, and that the point was not about moving up too high anyway. I could feel the difference doing it this way and that really worked the core a lot more (deep and not just superficial muscles).
Made teriyaki chicken (could put more sauce next time), spinach with shimeiji shrooms and potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, onions, tofu and cordycep flowers soup, which I boiled for two hours or so. There’s this really strong aroma of butter after I added the cordycep flowers though.
17/7/25 Thurs: Tried yoga stretch at Union Yoga Ayurveda with Master Hritesh. *He's only 25 and also a Pilates teacher whoa!* Happen to meet Yuki, whom we share classes at TNP and D Fly too haha. She was very helpful in guiding other classmates using mandarin since Master Hritesh only speak English. Did a variety of stretches from head to toe and some were intense, like the "bridge" for me because I have stiff shoulders and upper back, hence I couldn't get my hands to straighten. Master Hritesh saw that I could go deeper for some of the moves, so he would push me further which was great. Although the space was a bit tight, I still enjoyed the stretches. *Would love to do the singing bowl courses one day when I'm not so financially-strapped haha~*
Brought the OTO Adore Foot AF-80 massager ($40) over to my parents during dinner. I hope it gives them some form of foot relief as and when! :)
18/7/25 Fri: I feel really lazy when it's 9am classes at TNP but always glad when I turn up for them haha. Re-visited wheel yoga with Nishy and there were a couple of challenging poses but I could manage most of them well. It feels so good to be able to stretch with wheels again.
Andre, Min, Luke, Liv, Lara and my in-laws came over late afternoon today. Saw Lara for the first time after she was born in June. Luke and Liv are so talkative nowadays lol. They had fun at the playground before we took away dinner from Batok West Hawker centre.
19/7/25 Sat: Potato cooked ichiran ramen with seared scallop, tofu, beansprouts, egg and enoki shrooms~ it was yummy. He took an hour to removed the heads off the beansprouts too as he watched anime~ thankful!
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