PotaTOH’s 36th bday dinner @ Marcy’s + “Fight Back to School” escape room game + PotaTOH’s bday dinner w families + Fishmart Sakuraya bday dinner w Farmily & Hundred Acre Creamery + MCP buffet lunch @ Straits Kitchen

18/10/24 Fri: Jumped and sweated a lot as usual in XY’s Bungee Fitness class this morning. Also tried a new leg hook on the strap! Cooked my own lunch with pork belly slices~

I made a reservation for our 36^th birthday dinner celebration at Marcy’s. *gosh the interior was intimate and pretty~* We had a waitress assigned to our table and she recommended some of their dishes. We ordered two mains and three starters.

Hokkaido Scallop Crudo (Coconut Leche Tigre, Duo Roe, Chives) came first and it was quite an explosion of flavours~ made us craved for more food because it was appetising. Next up was the Pacific Amberjack Tiradito (Avruga Caviar, Sundream Tomato) which was our favourite! It was tastefully done and the sauces complemented the Amberjack so well.

For Marcy’s Crab Toast (Anchovy Mascarpone, Umami Butter, Brioche), I found the toast crunchy and nice but it soaked up too much of the sauce so it got salty towards the end. Potato thought the crab meat had a “frozen smell” too. The two mains, Mafaldine (Raw Prawn Crudo, Fried Spot Prawn, Lime Leaf) and Rigatoni (Red Wine-braised Octopus, Spring Onion Crumbs), were not outstanding compared to our starters though.

The former was not bad but we joked it somehow reminded us of Nissin tom yam “fat” noodles and for the latter, I enjoyed the firmer octopus and Potato thought it was his second preferred dish, but the overall taste was still a bit on the “heavier” side for me.

They gave us a small slice of complimentary brownie cake with caramel and two small lemon drop shots which was too bitter for my liking. Came up close to $200 for the dinner but we don’t splurge that often, so it was a good experience.

19/10/24 Sat: PotaTOHs met Jess, PH, YJ, SH, PY and Fran for the “Fight Back to School”《逃学卧底藏乌龙》escape room game at Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre this afternoon. Two of us visited the small王沙野峰exhibition on the first floor and there was a sort of carnival ongoing too.

Began the game at 4pm and we realised we had to go up and down the tall building to get clues from four witnesses and to solve puzzles. After an hour or so, we found out in the principal’s office that the “students” were “hospitalised” because of vaping. The whole game was to discourage vaping and warn of the dangers so I thought it was quite meaningful.

YJ suggested dinner at Mincheng Bibimbap at 100AM mall. I tried their spicy tofu seafood soup while Potato had their pork bibimbap. I found the North Korean’s version not as spicy but the bean paste flavour was stronger.

20/10/24 Sun: My parents-in-law mixed abalone slices with achar, stir-fried king oyster shrooms with chicken meat and red capsicums and spinach soup for PotaTOH’s birthday dinner! MIL also got us tiramisu and mille crepe cakes from Chateraise~

SS delivered peach oolong and strawberry shortcake over from Paris Baguette~ the former was so yummy!

21/10/24 Mon: Celebrated my birthday with CMC this morning. Thanks to Iris, I got to eat the passionfruit meringue cake from The Patissier again after a few years. However, I found the cake a bit too sweet this time and it turned a little soggy after a day in Iris’ fridge.

Wheel yoga was tough for me tonight because of the backbends! JE said she realised I can’t fully open up my best, so hence my upper back could be very tight and that was why it’s hard for me to bend backwards and downwards. *Sudden itchy rash appeared on my left inner elbow, which I think was due to dust on my laptop bag’s strap. Will monitor and see a doctor if it doesn’t get better.*

22/10/24 Tues: So happy to come home to mum’s mee hoon kuey for dinner, which I requested for my birthday hehe! She also had abalone slices, prawns and the very crispy ikan bilis to go along with mhk shiok~

23/10/24 Weds: Treated Shelley to lunch at Red Ginger. We had the mee rebus with satay ($13.80 for two) and it was quite spicy. *I’d like to try the Malay “mixed veggie rice” next time though.* Then, she treated me to barley drink at ToastBox haha.

Learned about “counters” in Japanese class tonight and there are so many different ones omg~

24/10/24 Thurs: Went to the clinic first thing in the morning to get the itchy rashes on my left inner arm and my bloodshot left eye checked. The young doctor looked a bit inexperienced, but he straightaway said the rashes was not fungal infection, albeit he cannot tell what exactly it was either. He gave me a steroid cream to apply on it twice a day. As for the bloodshot eye, he gave me eye-drop that can mimic natural tears to help with the dryness.

The eye drop did help quite a bit, although the eye already looked back after 2+ weeks. As for the steroid cream, I did get a slight “burning sensation” not long after application, which maybe was why the doctor told me to apply moisturisers with cooling effect to help half an hour after applying the steroid cream.

Had a good workout session at reformer Pilates with Belinda. Enjoyed a free cup of peach gum coconut juice ($7.10 originally) near Bukit Batok MRT… nothing memorable.

Cooked hot soba with bok choy, kelps, scallops, sutchi fish fillets and onions with udon base~ mixed here and there to balance the taste in the soup and after happily slurping down half of the pot, I realised I forgot to add in my pork dumplings hmph! The urge to eat them was strong, so I went on to boil two and ate it afterwards keke.

25/10/24 Fri: *The redness of the rashes has lightened and it seems better now.* Lydia treated me to XO fish meat bee hoon at Marsiling during lunch and we had a good chat about future prospect and racing in general.

There was only three students in the Wheel yoga class with Kay tonight but other than one student who was a regular, the remaining two of us was struggling with many moves haha. I could again see big droplets of sweat dripped onto my mat while holding on to the poses. *sometimes I feel the teachers here push a lot, but we need to listen to our body, right?*

26/10/24 Sat: It was a lazy Saturday for us so I only watched a lot of the TV, including CNA documentaries and season 3 of “Love Exchange”… which I think was the cause of the return of my bloodshot left eye again after it’d got better for the past two days or so.

Cooked cold somen with prawns, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and eggs for dinner! Potato helped me with the Tamago and cleaning of the prawns while I did the rest. It was quite tasty again!

27/10/24 Sun: PotaTOHs headed to West Coast Plaza to meet the rest of the Farmily for Ning, Fran and my birthday dinner at Fishmart Sakuraya. We ordered three plates of sashimi and many other side dishes to go with their sushi rice~ so full! *bill came up to $100 per person bar the three birthday girls omg~*

We went over to Linh’s Hundred Acre Creamery at Sunset Way for some desserts and she was there to meet us. Ended up having three waffles, in which two were the pandan mochi one, and eight flavours of ice-cream. My favourite was still honey Chrysanthemum, but the soursop with fruit flesh was surprisingly nice, Ispahan and Pistachio Limau was as good, Hojicha with mochi was yummy but a tad sweet, dark chocolate was not bad, but the coconut and peanut butter banana flavours were so-so for me.

28/10/24 Mon: Potato cooked minced meat spaghetti in tomato sauce with the leftovers in the fridge like celery, bok choy, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and onions~ that dash of Tabasco was shiok! *I tried to rest my eyes as much as possible, but the left eye is still bloodshot haiz.*

29/10/24 Tues: Heeded the clinic’s advice to stop applying steroid cream to my rashes as they are not itchy anymore, albeit there seems to be post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation that could take weeks or months to fade away.

David and I took Iris’ car to Grand Hyatt for our buffet lunch at Straits Kitchen. The BBQ-ed chicken wings, chicken satay and popiah were nice. The laksa was not bad.

Hatha yoga tonight was not as difficult, but still tiring as usual haha.

30/10/24 Weds: Was thinking where to go for lunch at Kranji MRT when I was alone and suddenly a random guy popped up on my left and asked if I was going to work? I was taken aback and “huh”, so he repeated his question and that’s why I told him “no”. *All this while I was trying to recall who he was…* After that, he simply said in mandarin: “哦觉得你漂亮想跟你讲话”that’s when I realised he’s a stranger and so I said “sorry”. He’s polite and replied“没关系”. I feared he’d follow me, so I kept walking straight but luckily, he’s not a weird guy lol. *太久没被搭讪了但总会被吓倒哈哈~*

Potato cooked yong tau foo for dinner~ heartwarming hehe. Started Japanese Elementary level 2 lessons last week and it is quite a lot to remember for me!

31/10/24 Thurs: Gwen treated me to lunch at Pho Street at Westgate. It’s been a long while since we met and I was surprised she’d be unemployed for one year, and her husband two years, already. Quick catch-up on what she’d been up to and my soon-to-come retrenchment too. We could talk for hours and I always admire her for living in the present and knowing what she’d want with many aspects of her life, like her emphasis on spending more time with her parents etc.

Potato baked honey garlic soy-sauced drumsticks and stir-fried celery, crabsticks and mushrooms for dinner. He marinated the drumsticks for 30 minutes and baked them at 200 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes, but on hindsight, marinating them for an hour and baking them for 40 minutes would have been better so the flavours could seep in further and some of the meat could be more cooked through.

1/11/24 Fri: We had seven people in Bungee Fitness class this morning~ the biggest group I’d seen so far. Had to take turns to exercise and I helped them take videos in the end.

Marinated boneless chicken leg meat in tom yam, honey, fish sauce and lemon juice for two hours or so. Cooked it with enoki shrooms and the taste turned out not bad. Also stir-fried the remaining Chinese cabbage with carrot slices and mushrooms. It looked a lot plus a small bowl of soy beansprouts, so I decided not to pan-fry another plate of pork dumplings already.