Hosting MIL & family @ STC + Vinyasa Flow + dental crowning + two-day job search essentials workshop + “Tuesdays with Morrie” with Fran + 《墨雨云间》

16/8/24 Fri: The pain in my womb and tummy subsided quite a bit this morning but the volume of menses also reduced by a lot as compared to my usual flow on the third day… most probably due to less contractions after taking the medication. *Also, a lot more to absorb after Japanese class tonight… introduced to time and day of the week oh no lol.*

17/8/24 Sat: PotaTOHs headed to Decathlon at Joo Koon to get my winter hiking pants and windproof hiking trousers. He bought a bicycle pump too.

Potato cooked pork belly don with egg, Japanese cucumber and broccoli for dinner~ nice but the portion a bit too much for us both la lol.  

18/8/24 Sun: Hosted Potato, MIL, aunt Nancy, 舅舅and舅妈at Trophy’s Lounge this afternoon. It was nice to see them get excited at the races haha~ They had a few bets and uncle and aunt won some money too haha. *舅妈’s ex-boss was Mr Lim, the owner of Super Easy~*

Potato cooked teriyaki chicken with cold somen for dinner~ super yummy and开胃~

19/8/24 Mon: Went for Vinyasa Flow class with JE this morning. We focused working on the legs and my arms and hamstring muscles were rather sore by the end of the class lol. JE said Vinyasa Flow class is taught based on the foundation of Hatha Yoga but it’s a more strength-based workout, which I reckon could help me if I want to become stronger physically.

Pan-fried kimchi dumplings for our meatless dinner and though it was a bit burnt, the skin was quite crispy, and the taste came out okay.

21/8/24 Weds: Learned about months and days of the month, times of the day and tenses for verbs in Japanese class tonight~ quite a lot to absorb in one and a half hours but ironically, I cannot wait to revise before Friday comes hehe!

22/8/24 Thurs: Potato used the “bah kut teh” soup base we had to cook chicken, Chinese cabbage, tau kwa, enoki mushrooms, radish, mushroom, fish roe balls and crabsticks for dinner! Although the radish was not cooked long enough, the mushrooms were and it took in the flavours of the soup really well.

23/8/24 Fri: Attended Car-Streng-Dio class after some time and as I was using minimal weights all the time, the moves were not too hard for me.

There were more listening and comprehension practices in Japanese class tonight and I thought they helped improved my understanding better. *Kurihara sensei was so cute when she role-played the different characters for my listening haha.*

24/8/24 Sat: Lots of warm-up exercises in JE’s Aerial Yoga (Beginner) class before we came to the final poses. It was sort of a recap for me when we had to hook our knees into the straps mid-air. *Damn my hamstrings and thighs were so sore the whole day after that.*

Watched Potato’s Friends in Esplanade 2024 concert at Esplanade Concourse in the afternoon and for me, that was the first time I saw him on the drums for the first time in public hehe. *Say "hello!" to my handsome hubby above keke~* 

Bought my Fresh products and had oyster mee sua before we went to Ian’s place for a short break. Picked him up from T3 later and we had late dinner at Whampoa Food Centre. The Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee ($10) was really nice! The three BBQ chicken wings ($4.80) we had from Chomp Pang stall was yummy too, but the satay bee hoon ($5) and the lor mee ($5) was okay for me.

25/8/24 Sun: Met CCM’s ex-HOD SG at the owner’s lounge and it turned into Mike and I “hosting” SG and her group of friends who were mostly retirees from SPH and Mediacorp at the press box and parade ring haha. They were interested in the “know-hows” of racing and I was glad to be able to share some information with them.

Came home to delicious seared teriyaki salmon and stir-fried Chinese cabbage with shimeiji shrooms and carrots and miso soup for dinner!

26/8/24 Mon: Was 15 minutes late for my first crowning session at Koh Dental. Dr Ting was still patient and the whole session took 1.5hours. He took the mould of my pre-molar and had to reduce the volume of the original tooth so as to fit the crown. It will take two weeks for the permanent crown to be ready, so meanwhile he fitted a temporary crown using string, which was probably the most painful part in the whole process when he pressed the crown down onto my gums. I thought my gums were tender for the rest of the day and the next. *$970+ for the crowning treatment ouch~*  

Potato was very thoughtful and he volunteered to cook meatless dinner tonight. We had tom yam noodle and it was yummy!

27/8/24 Tues: Attended a two-day job search essentials workshop at Derby 4. I was seated on the same table as LL, Raymond and Calvin. Trainer Raymond shared about resume writing and personal branding on the first day. There was quite a lot to absorb and I saw how AI can help to refine my resume further.

Had a good Hatha Yoga class where I stretched myself to my maximum in the seated leg stretch!

28/8/24 Weds: Ram took over the training today and he focused on job interviews and AI tools for a compelling resume. It was a lot of information to take in and it does get me nervous about the future, but a quick chat and hug with Potato helped re-assure myself that I should be ready for new challenges ahead!

Continued with Japanese class tonight and I realised I’d forget some of the terms I learnt earlier already omg. More and more vocabulary and grammar rules coming too~  

29/8/24 Thurs: HL said that my cupping marks were not as “dark” as before and the knots were much easily released this time during the TCM massage too. She did not focus much on my achy left lower hip but instead, I felt much soreness on my arms, especially the right one and she said that was because of the muscles due to exercise. *The left scapula region felt quite sore when she massaged it… like I’d pulled it or something.*

PotaTOHs tried Warabimochi (five pieces for $8.90) and although the texture was soft and tasted not bad, I still preferred the traditional muah chee because of their crunchier peanut bits.

As I was rushing to meet Fran for our “Tuesdays With Morrie”《最后14堂星期二的课》play, Potato cooked Japanese curry with chicken leg meat, edamame, onion and carrot for our dinner~ loved it even though we were both quite full from snacking somehow haha.

“Tuesdays With Morrie” was 2.5 hours long and there was a 20-min intermission in between. We were seated high up and I could not really see the actors’ expressions clearly, but there were some stark reminders in the last few lessons in Morrie’s life.

看的过程中，伤感难免有些，因为讲的很多都关系你我。幽默逗趣的台词却也透出现实的残酷。其实也不是残酷，不是哀伤，就只是很多人不愿面对的方方面面的事实而已。

“Are you at peace with yourself?”

“你能原谅自己吗？”

”你要对所爱的人说的话还留到最后吗？”

真的让我们观众也都上了一课。眼前划过的，脑海里闪过的，历历在目。Prof Morrie临终前说了人接近死亡才懂得好好生活，无奈吗？

谢谢剧场的提醒。

接下来还需要我们的大脑不时提醒：不只是生存而已；要记得生活。

Rating: 3.75/5

30/8/24 Fri: Attended bungee fitness class this morning after a long time. I think my “high jump” is still not good enough, but I feel there is a certain fear in me, which I don’t know where it comes from either.

Finished all 40 episodes of《墨雨云间》(“The Double”) tonight.

I rarely watch古装片, but because the main storyline of this drama was about the clever female lead薛芳菲（吴谨言饰）avenging her saviour and herself, I thought it’d be similar to《延禧攻略》which I enjoyed. True enough, I was quite engrossed with the drama, at least for the first half where薛芳菲met萧蘅（王星越饰）and later her cousin叶世杰（陈鑫海饰）in which both fell in love with her. 萧蘅is a charming and intelligent character too, so I enjoyed the pair’s wits and scenes together. *王星越looked really mature and fitted the character very well… but damn he’s actually born in 2002!* 薛芳菲’s ex-husand沈玉容（梁永棋饰）was someone I pitied from start till the end, albeit he was cruel to薛芳菲too. He was timid and could not “free” himself from婉宁公主（李梦饰）, so it was still hard for me to like his character, even if he loved his wife all along. *But I like this actor a lot because he’s cute and funny outside of the drama haha!*

Nice plot and good-looking characters in the drama~ was a good time spent chasing the drama on Netflix hehe~

Rating: 4.5/5