《忘了我记得》+ visiting Alina & Jariel + "Always Have Enough Money" + Potato's NDP Heartland performance + YB's bday lunch @ Barrio + Justin & Kaylee's wedding @ Empress
20/7/25 Sun: For dinner, Potato cooked pork stew (mirepoix flavour base) in red wine~ sour and sweet. There’s celery, carrots, potatoes, pork shoulder meat, mushrooms, garlic and onions in the mix. We paired it with the soft buns he bought from Sheng Shiong and it was good!
Finished watching《忘了我记得》(Forget You Not) on Netflix.
“有谁不会老？有谁不会忘记？”
好催泪哦。还是因为我年纪大了，有关人与人的事情就越容易触动内心？
脱口秀演员兼职便利商店店员程乐乐（谢盈萱饰）不只和丈夫张凯（霍建华饰）陷入婚姻困境闹离婚，更面临年迈父亲（秦汉饰）失智而得照顾他的问题。好多现实的家庭和感情问题复杂交错，但我觉得乐乐已经很勇敢面对了。我尤其心疼的是作为孩子背负的莫大包袱，也就是出于孝心而辛苦照顾已经没了记忆的爸爸。可是父母毕竟是养育我们长大的人，孩子又怎会舍得放下他们不管呢？这人生的圈子兜兜转转，好难喔。
戏里我羡慕程乐乐的是她有两位闺蜜，好到各自的人生大事都一定参与，心底话也都可以自由地说。这样的友情，太难得了。我有好朋友，但大家目前有各自的生活要忙，所以也不一定到深交的程度。或许，这样，也还不错吧。
Rating: 4/5
21/7/25 Mon: Barre-less Barre with Ice this morning was a good sweat-out as usual!
22/7/25 Tues: They mixed up the appointment, so I had another masseur this morning for my TCM massage. I thought she had even more strength than HL. She did cupping for me from top to bottom in one go, and after that we also cupped my stomach because I had been feeling bloated the past week. After that, I rushed to Gombak MRT to pass a dress to a buyer from Carousell before heading for lunch.
I think that scurrying around immediately after cupping had somewhat affected me. By the time I ordered chicken feet noodles ($5), I felt uncomfortable. I saw a table and sat down before the "white-out" hit me. I had to close my eyes and sit there for five to 10 minutes to rest. It was similar to the last time I experienced it after vigorous exercise on the reformer months ago. I had sweet then, but I don't think the recovery time was faster back then. It's most probably the sudden drop in blood pressure and hence the strain. *Another reminder to myself not to rush after cupping or strenuous exercise in future!*
23/7/25 Weds: Went Alina’s place to visit her and Jariel, who’s two months old now. He's quite a smiley baby, and it was interesting to hear from Alina about her fixed date LA c-section experience, the $20k+ of cash spent for the delivery, and the woes of mummy's life haha. Also saw how she pumped milk~ took about 40mins for two full bottles? We then had lunch at Hillion Mall's南洋岛... the penang prawn kway teow ($9.6) was so-so.
Finished reading "Always Have Enough Money" by Tan Ooi Boon.
At the start of the book, this writer felt like another naggy parent... most probably the tone he used to write his chapters can sometimes make readers feel demeaning... as if he's "high up there". Was a little off-putting to be honest, but what he discussed were practical financial situations in Singapore's context, which is useful to us. The mention of using CPF as the tool to grow retirement was convincing, and there were also the topics of not over-spending, credit card bills, investing in stocks, bonds, properties, having sufficient insurance and what kind etc, but what struck a chord most for me now was the part he mentioned about will-writing.
Some of us my age probably hasn't even think about this because people generally are reluctant to think about mortality, or don't think they are that wealthy, so they defer or don't thinking about succession planning. Many feel they can make their wills later, when they have more assets or are older. The trigger sometimes also only come when they experience a calamity such as the Covid-19 pandemic or when a colleague, friend or relative dies unexpectedly.
After reading, I think doing up a simple will (and also CPF's, where members can select up to eight beneficiaries each and state the percentage of the CPF money each beneficiary should receive) and getting the Lasting Power of Attorney done up is helpful. For husbands and wives making wills, it may be prudent to create "a second will" in same document, in case the other die before the maker of the will i.e, if a husband names his wife as the sole beneficiary and she dies first, the document will become invalid. This can be avoided if the husband has a contingency term in his will that names another set of beneficiaries should the wife die before him.
Also something new I learned from the book about storing of will: public can submit a record of their will to Singapore Academy of Law, but it's a non-mandatory, confidential registry where only information about the will is stored, including the lawyer responsible for drafting it as well as where it is kept such as in the lawyer's office, a safe deposit box in a bank or even a particular drawer at home, but not the actual document itself.
Rating: 3.75/5
24/7/25 Thurs: Back to intermediate Pilates reformer class with Jac this morning and it was good as usual. Had lunch with my classmate Jenny, who is a double major in Japanese and Chinese from NUS and she has worked as a Japanese translator for pharmaceutical, banks, semi-conductor industries! She even had her own "one-man" company at once... so cool. Nowadays, the mum of two grown-ups is taking a break and using Japanese to learn Korean language, cook and do acrylic painting. So nice to know she reads a lot~ I want to become someone like that!
Had first tuition with SE, who's doing sec 1 G3 Chinese now. He's at the borderline mark so let's hope he gets better by the end of the year.
25/7/25 Fri: Accompanied dad to Jurong Polyclinic because he complained about the pain on his right knee that has been there for years already. Dr Yeo said it could be muscle strain due to his scoliosis issue, in which his hip is badly tilted to the left. He advised doing a bone mineral density test and also blood test since my dad's glucose was elevated two years ago when he checked. He also said the condition is irreversible and although it will not be so bad he has to take a wheelchair one day, he would probably have to live with the crook the rest of his life. Also, the only way to treat is via a surgery.
Was with him from the start till making his next appointments and payment. What worries me most is he got his IC number slightly wrong a few times, and he actually forgot to bring his wallet and handphone out omg. The last he had a memory test was in 2022... maybe should schedule for another one again. *有时候想到万一他们老了需要额外的照顾就会有压力，所以我真的需要先好好照顾自己，以及可以抒发的管道。*
26/7/25 Sat: *Ouch my left lower hip has been aching since the TCM massage. Will tell them not to massage so hard next time.* XH gave us a brief to work on for the中国风lyrics and it's time to work on the titles first again. *I think I don't like co-writing lyrics. People have their opinions and convincing isn't an easy task.*
After mhk for dinner, I accompanied Potato and watched his NDP performance with neighbours in the heartland NDP event. I was captivated by the Japanese drum performance before theirs, but I enjoyed Potato and his friends' closing act too!
27/7/25 Sun: Potato made cream penne with Chinese spinach, scallops, shrimps and shimeiji shrooms~ it was good, except for the spinach which was bitter.
28/7/25 Mon: Tried different deep stretch poses like the sugarcane pose which requires leg strength and balance. What was more difficult for me was when it involved rotation of the arms backwards against the wall because I have very tight arms and upper back.
We also shared the Torrija, their recommended dessert… earl grey ice-cream with sweet cake. *steep price tag of $98 but I hope YB enjoyed the lunch~* Found out they bought a second-hand KIA sedan for the ease of sending Ethan to his classes on weekends. *funny how she keeps saying I’m better off without kids~*
30/7/25 Weds: Tried the nasi lemak ($4.5) at Eng Kee and it was not bad. Cooked tomato prawns, crabsticks with scrambled eggs and lady’s fingers with black fungus. *the “popping” of the black fungus and them flying out of the frying pan no joke leh~*
31/7/25 Thurs: Had Pilates reformer intermediate class with Germaine this morning and we used the tramp board. It’s been a long while since I did cardio tramp classes but the board here is not exactly like a trampoline kind, which I prefer I think. Nonetheless, I still had not bad a workout, albeit I think she has room for improvement as an instructor.
Bought a maze book and “find the difference” exercise books for my dad when I went to my parents’ for dinner. He looked to be quite intrigued and started playing a bit on his own until I reminded him to go do other chores he had to for the night haha. It’s a good sign, and I just hope it helps with his memory there.
1/8/25 Fri: Made an appointment to see doctor at Batok Polyclinic at 9.50am but I only saw a doctor at about 11.40am omg. Glad it's a female doctor because I felt itchy at the vagina area since Wednesday and I felt the right labia had a bump, which was itchy and tender when touched. She took a look and told me it's a 0.5cm pimple, so she gave me antibiotic cream, and amoxicillin 500mg tablets to take for five days. With regards to the intermittent ache in my right womb (happened since a few years ago but it aches only once in a while) since Weds too, I decided to go for a pelvic ultrasound scan in October for further check.
Spent about 1.5 hours cooking the ingredients to make bibimbap for dinner tonight! There’s sunny side-up, onions with oyster shrooms, carrots, spinach, black pepper edamame and the marinated beansprouts Potato made some time ago. *Got to remind myself veggies and eggs need more oil but they won’t absorb more than they need, whereas mushrooms absorb a lot of oil but will release it back afterwards.*
2/8/25 Sat: Thanks to Potato’s help using Bandlab to create the music melody for me, I submitted my own-created melody for our class’ group project in Eric’s melody class this afternoon. My copy was the only one that had a "full band" lol. Eric commented it was quite complete, but for the first verse, I could have added a few more words to fill the awkward space between notes. Also, he thought I didn't have to change the melody that much for my third and fourth line of the first verse from the first and second, because the trend nowadays is just minor variations that work. He also said the feel of my melody somehow reminded him of Stefanie Sun's“超快感” lol. I think the influence must have come from listening to a lot of her old songs.
Headed down to Empress at Asian Civilisation Museum to attend Justin and Kaylee's wedding dinner. It was packed in the area because there's NDP preview show just beside too! Was there at about 6pm for his simple tea ceremony and the JOP was quite humorous.
The Gula Melaka butterscotch goji berry and vanilla ice-cream was not bad. Talked briefly with Leo, Justin's NS mate, and then mostly with JR, ex-STC wagering colleague afterwards. I don't even recognise him until Justin came over to tell us we were both from STC lol. Congrats once again to Justin and Kaylee!
3/8/25 Sun: PotaTOHs had steamboat on a rainy day for dinner~ Used up the Haidilao prawn soup base which was quite salty as it contained preserved vegetables. We tried the yuzu dipping sauce with pork belly and it was not bad.
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