Grammar for Business Writing + “Deadpool & Wolverine” with Potato & YB’s 36th bday dinner @ Mikey’s Taverna + “The Boyfriend” +《파일럿》+ NDP celebration + Ahna’s bday lunch @ Soup Restaurant & Birds of Paradise + root canal treatment

2/8/24 Fri: Was surprised to see Samiah and Sandy at Grammar for Business Writing class at PSB Academy! We went lunch at Beyond pancakes and I had mediocre prawn and calamari alio olio ($19)~

Ms Autumn Ng went into the basics of grammar which was useful, but I was hoping we could go into more complicated grammar structure in the course though. Looks like I’d have to do my practice in the primary English grammar books I bought for myself so as to improve my grammar!

Came home to hot fresh udon with sutchi fish fillets, shimeiji shrooms, eggs, fish roe dumplings and iceberg lettuce for dinner~ the dashi stock with miso was tasty.

3/8/24 Sat: Wanted to eat Nakajima Suisan for lunch but PotaTOHs simply could not afford a 1.5h wait, so we had tendon ($31 for two sets) at the Japanese eatery next to them. After that, we caught “Deadpool & Wolverine” at a private screening by his agent’s company.

Deadpool’s an “anti-hero” and a funny character but I prefer the righteous Wolverine more haha. The movie had a lot of “bloodshed” now and then but it was also funny, albeit I did not catch much of the jokes because I didn’t watch some of Marvel’s other movies.

Rating: 3.75/5

I met YB in the evening at Mikey’s Taverna to have a dinner for her belated 36^th birthday. We ordered seafood marina spaghetti, roasted shimeiji shroom with Parma ham pizza and had lemon tart and tiramisu for dessert. I liked the spaghetti while YB enjoyed the pizza. We thought the tiramisu was a bit bland but the lemon tart turned out not as sour but sweeter, which was good for us haha. Listened to her planned Shanghai trip and an immersion programme for Ethan and the family next April in Japan… sounds exciting!

Finished watching “The Boyfriend” on Netflix.

The show had a similar concept to “Terrace House”, but the casts were all men and to be specific, gay men (a few bi too). Chef Kazuto who had the boy-next-door look caught my attention at first~ and damn he was popular with almost everyone having a crush on him in the show lol. Glad he ended up with Alan, the “sunshine guy” too.

I always thought Dai was the “poor thing” because Shun is a total girlie! Shun was totally your “flower boy” type of guy but even I can’t stand his character and Dai had to put up with him. Well, they ended up together… love is blind eh? But, I still hope for the best for them.

Rating: 4/5

5/8/24 Mon: Did HPB’s stretch and tone class on zoom this morning. I reckon my shoulders and neck areas were really tight compared to other parts of my body… they ached very quickly too after some simple stretches omg.

Stir-fried napa cabbage with carrot slices, shimeiji mushrooms with cherry tomatoes in butter and my tofu cold dish for meatless dinner.

6/8/24 Tues: Spoken to CC and Harry about their stint in Seoul but it seemed the racing there is still rather conservative.

Met Potato for our free sneak preview of the Korean movie《파일럿》（Pilot）. I wanted to watch it because the male lead was조정석.

조정석’s acting was great and the movie was hilarious at some point. Had a good laugh but I prefer not to watch comedy in theatres if I had to pay for it lol.

Rating: 3.25/5

7/8/24 Weds: Did TCM massage with HL this morning and she said my body condition was much better today as compared to two weeks ago. She said the neck and back were okay, just that she felt the knot in my left lower hip, which was also the area I suffer from chronic pain due to my bad sitting posture since years ago. According to her, the cupping marks also showed my body was more heaty and not as damp this time, probably due to the iron supplements I take.

Lots of new adjectives and some new grammar rules tonight in my Japanese class~ also a bit of improvement in reading Hiragana characters haha!

9/8/24 Fri: We knew there could be rain according to the weather forecast a day earlier, but Jess and I still went on with our hike at Bukit Timah this morning. We had to turn back 30 minutes into the hike because it was raining quite heavily at 9+am. Ended up chatting at Beauty World Hawker Centre, having friend chicken wing and taw kwa from Eng Kee ($4) and then mhk ($5) from Top 1 mhk. The soup was a bit sweet and although it was not bad, I thought the one at Marsiling Mall hawker still won by quite a bit flavour and texture-wise.

Went home after lunch and had tuition with Kelly in the late afternoon. Mervyn, SD, Tiff and Joshua were all at PotaTOH’s when I got home. Ian and PY came after and we all had homecooked bah kut teh with pig’s stomach for dinner! There was also acha, and Joshua bought fried dumplings to go with our meal. Caught the NDP parade with Ian and Mervyn while the rest played “Unlocked”. Also saw the 17-year-old Max Maeder clinched a bronze medal for Singapore in the finals of his kite foiling competition. *SD made a black sesame butter cake for us to try~ not bad!* After that, we finished watching one of the men’s Olympics’ volleyball match.

10/8/24 Sat: Met Jess, LL and Ahna and we treated Ahna to her belated 53^rd birthday lunch at Holland Village’s Soup Restaurant. We ordered the signature samsui chicken, sea cucumber, fried mee sua, ginger and green onions with fish slices and potato leaves in dark soy sauce to share. *Not sure if it was this outlet but LL, Ahna and I found their signature dish quite bland, so it was disappointing.* Then, we had lychee raspberry, white chrysanthemum, strawberry basil and chocolate gelato ($19) at Birds Of Paradise across the road… nothing stood out for me.

PotaTOHs had ramen for dinner at Ramen Taisho to “celebrate”七夕情人节~

11/8/24 Sun: Bought some salmon sashimi ($13) for Mike to celebrate his belated birthday at the owners’ lounge since he liked sashimi. *Constance popped out of nowhere and we took a photo together~*

Lim’s Saltoro impressed me with his nose-win from Lim’s Kosciuszko in the Group 1 Raffles Cup (1600m) this afternoon though. I thought he’d be tested at weight-for-age conditions, but it would seem he nailed it, albeit I reckon Lim’s Kosciuszko looked like he will still hold his own in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (1800m) next.

12/8/24 Mon: Went for the second session of the root canal treatment this afternoon that lasted about 1.5 hours. Had to do LA jab before Dr Ting removed the medicine he’d put into the root canal systems previously. Then, there was a thorough disinfection of the sites before he sealed the root canal and put in a new filling. Also did x-ray three times in between for him to check the insides. Sounded like the procedure was a success but there goes another $370.60 for part two of the procedure~

Felt good to cooked lunch for myself because we'd been eating out so often lately. PotaTOHs treated the instant konjac I bought from Shopee for dinner and they were so-so… not worth buying again.

13/8/24 Tues: Good workout at Hatha session tonight~

14/8/24 Weds: Tried Belinda’s reformer Pilates advanced class this morning and it really was quite tiring lol!

Don’t know how but I experienced by far the most painful process I have had while passing motion during my period. I used to feel bloated and a bit of pain while taking a dump during this period, but it was so painful this evening that after that, I did not feel like eating much at dinner, spaghetti with shimeiji shrooms and chicken cooked by Potato. Still, I tahan-ed the whole of Japanese class at night and right after that, I felt a bit cold and feverish.

15/8/24 Thurs: The fever receded in the middle of the night, but the ache in the womb and stomach continued to be around today. I can feel my stomach “twisted” after walking for a while. I kept feeling like I wanted to take a dump but there was nothing all the time but some gas, which had been around for the past week or so. Because of this, I only ate half my lunch. And every time I sat down or got up, there’s a weird ache at my tummy area, so I decided to take half a day of MC to see the doctor.

Explained my condition to the doctor and he was very patient throughout and gave detailed explanation on the possible reasons for some of the symptoms. Had to cancel my bungee fitness class tomorrow too because of the ache. Hopefully, the pain goes away soon!

Potato cooked泡饭for dinner tonight because he knew my appetite reduced due to the ache. So nice~