STC Appreciation Lunch + The White Tiffin w Shelley & Stephen + dinner @ Symmetry w MT, SS & WT + Christmas dinner @ YB’s + comprenhensive eye test @ Paris Miki + visiting MIL @ Woodlands Health Campus + farewell lunch w BCS colleagues @ Jack's Place & Alina & HT + family dinner @ elemen

19/11/24 Tues: Off-boarding staff received STC’s lego set at our Appreciation Lunch this afternoon. 

20/11/24 Weds: Met Potato and my in-laws for dinner at西门街at Westgate for dinner. As usual, my FIL’s treat and they ordered quite a few small dishes to go along~ the bite-sized honey chicken chops were good. *我相信随着我愈加接触多聊死亡和立遗嘱的敏感话题，我的内心其实可以越来越平静，那我就可以更好地面对每一次的畅谈。*

21/11/24 Thurs: Stephen treated Shelley and I to lunch at The White Tiffin this afternoon, and MY joined us later. I thought it’d be awkward for me because it’s the first time I’m talking to this racing enthusiast in person but he was a nice uncle. The semi-retired maid agency director shared how he was introduced to racing by owner Jayven See during the COVID-19 pandemic and how he now owns shares in horses in Australia only.

Attended Yin and Sound Healing class with Jack this evening. The whole one hour class was conducted in darkness and we held poses for two to three minutes while Jack played the bowl every now and then. In the last 15 minutes, we laid down for the sound bath and the fidgety me felt my heartbeat slowing down in the last five minutes or so and almost sleeping already. Felt really good.

PotaTOHs completed the miniature Kranji racecourse in less than an hour too.

22/11/24 Fri: Met SS, WT & MT for dinner at Symmetry. WT’s been back from South Korea since April after two years there so it’s been a while since we gathered. They only have Christmas menu tonight, so I tried their river prawn aglio olio and iced honeydew matcha drink. The former was a bit too oily and the spaghetti a bit soft while the drink was so-so. My share costed about $63. The ambience in the café was nice though because there were not many customers.

It's good to hear about SS’s promotion to Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School and the eventual plan to have Aurora study there, about WT’s similar health condition to mine but she still had JR and also the “pause” to the selling of MT’s house. Though they were talking about their kids at times, I still enjoyed the night with the girls. *SS got each of us a stalk of fresh flower but it did not “survive” the trip home lol.*

23/11/24 Sat: Potato decided to cook the salmon patty Ian gave us for lunch. He stir-fried omelette and cabbage with mushrooms and carrots too~ The nonya achar we bought from Sheng Shiong tasted okay but not as good as the one my FIL recommended.

Ian drove over to ours with his cousin Elin and we headed to the airport in the afternoon for his evening flight to Ho Chi Minh. After that, Potato drove me to Gombak central to pick up my dress from the altercation shop and then to YB’s at 6pm. WL and WS came with their son YR and WH and YH also came with their son. We had tom yam and chicken pizza with bbq wings etc from Rite Pizza~ the tom yam pizza was still nice, albeit YB found it too spicy for her. I bought nine assorted beers from Thirsty ($79) and had it delivered over. Tried one Summer Ale and it was light, though Potato still had to finish it for me haha.

PotaTOHs had 12 eggs to peel at night because he prepared the ajitama to be put into the Korean marinate. A pity four of them came out too soft so we finished them instead.

24/11/24 Sun: Made an appointment at Paris Miki’s outlet in Holland Village for a comprehensive eye test because I kept thinking my dry eye syndrome has worsened because of the redness the past few weeks, the weaking of my eye muscle because my eyes get tired very easily after some screentime. Also, just after a year from my last eye prescription check, I can tell my right eye’s vision has worsened because it’s a bit blur even with glasses on.

So for the sake of putting my heart at ease, I met the part-time optometrist. After doing the basic eye prescription check, she told me my left eye’s prescription remained, but the right eye’s myopia and astigmatism has both gone up by 25 degrees each, which is not a concern. She advised I could stick to my current prescription since I do more “near work”, i.e. looking at computer screen than things that require clear vision from afar like driving, but rest is required as usual, otherwise my left eye will still get tired after some time from the screen.

Then, we proceeded with the undilated retinal check where she captured the back of my eye using bright lights from her machine. That can check for retinal diseases, tears and macular degeneration etc. She said both my eyes looked fine and the retina is okay, but I have more “stretch marks” (red lines) on my left eye due to the higher degree of myopia. When I mentioned to her about seeing floaters, she mentioned to go A&E immediately if one sees sudden increase in floaters in the eyes and a “curtain” blocking the vision one day because that could mean retinal tear and a surgery is needed. If left untreated, it can lead to blindness. It can happen to any one at any age but people with high myopia has a higher tendency because our eyes are more “stretched”, and also she told me to avoid carrying too heavy weights as well as avoid certain exercises like bungee jumping that puts literal pressure on the eyes.

It was followed by a slit lamp exam, which checks for issues on the surface like cataracts, cornea injury, dry eye syndrome, sclera damage, retinal detachment and glaucoma. She said I have a few ingrown lashes that might “poke” at my eye but it was not much of a concern and that my dry eye condition is still considered mild.

I decided not to get a new pair of glasses in the end and paid $50 for the checks. Felt happy because at least I know the condition of my eyes now and that took the nagging worries away~ PotaTOHs then had red grouper claypot bee hoon ($10 each) at Jurong East for lunch after I collected my Elementary 1 Japanese certificate from Hougang Japanese Language School. It was nice albeit expensive.

Potato heated up the unagi he bought from Cold Storage this afternoon for dinner, and together with three other “failed ajitama” and Japanese cucumber, we had unagi don for dinner~ one of my bias!

We played “Unlock: Hollywood Confidential” and it was not bad although some parts required us to think further. Also finished watching the third season of “The Zone” on Disney+. The last episode on “Hunter” and some earlier episodes were nice.

Rating: 3.75/5

25/11/24 Mon: Had lunch with Potato and MIL at Marsiling Hawker Centre and I ate my mhk~ Wanted to change USD 200 for our Bhutan trip but one of the moneychanger only had USD 100 left and it’s a note from 2006. He reminded us some countries do not take “old notes” and I googled to find out Bhutan does not accept USD notes older than 19 years old.  

Potato followed an online recipe and experimented with diced broccoli, carrots, mushrooms and onions with the idea of wrapping them nicely in tamago but he failed to do so, so the dinner became a meatless fried rice instead~ which was still nice because he put in a lot of effort to try!

He drove me to Hatha Yoga at The New Place. My first lesson and Zoei was the instructor. She was quite bubbly and the class was done at a slow and comfortable pace, very beginner-friendly I thought. At the end, we tried Astavakrasana, or eight-angled pose, which is an intermediate pose. It was difficult because after putting one leg up my upper arm, I could barely lift myself up, much less shifting both hovering legs to one side and balancing only with two palms on the floor. That said, it's a challenging asymmetrical arm balance that is good for the abs and upper back.

I did not sweat in class at all and compared to JE’s Hatha yoga class at D Fly Fitness, this is “chicken feet” lol. Not exactly my type of class so I shall try other classes next time!

26/11/24 Tues: Met Janet from Finance department for the final tabulation of our retrenchment payout this morning. *Well, it’s bittersweet knowing this will be my last salary drawn at STC, but who knows? The door could open up for better opportunities ahead!*

Sean drove and treated Michael, Calvin, Skye, ZJ and I to lunch at香港街珍达记… so happy I can eat my XO fish head bee hoon before leaving STC haha. The guys then went to have drinks at Fun Toast at Woods Square.

After dinner at my parents, PotaTOHs drove to Changi T3 to pick Ian up before we ended up at Bukit Timah hawker centre for Ian’s later dinner. The oyster omelette and bbq chicken wings were not bad but Ian’s char kway teow was bland.

27/11/24 Weds: Belinda began Pilates reformer class this morning with the Wunda Chair. It’s been a while since I used it and damn, the moves on it are still as tiring haha. We moved to the reformer bed halfway through.

Potato started to prepare our homecooked bah kut teh in the afternoon by boiling the pork ribs for one minute in a broth made up of water, abalone and mushroom brine. Then, he cut the pig stomach FIL gave some time ago to go with the soup. I think Angela, Boyd and Ian quite enjoyed the bah kut teh too. The abalone achar was not bad, albeit a bit sour. The red wine Angela and Boyd brought over wa smooth too.

28/11/24 Thurs: PotaTOHs drove to Woodlands Health Campus to visit my MIL, who finished her four-hour spine surgery this morning.

29/11/24 Fri: After returning the laptop etc and staff pass, I officially bid STC goodbye after working there for 11+ years. Had lunch with mostly BCS colleagues at Jem's Jack's Place. I saw with Collin, Shelley, Raymond, Phoon and Serene on one table. Ate their lobster with baked potato and vegetables, lobster bisque, escargots, curly fries, fresh oysters and banana ice-cream, a great treat thanks to Janet. As a non-fan of raw oysters, I thought theirs was quite fresh!

Had wildflower honey milk tea from Koi in the afternoon and I was so full from lunch and that, so opted for hot soba and tempura dinner with Alina and HT at Sun Moon with Light at Jem later at night. *I think I make better soba than them really.*

Had girls’ talk at Starbucks too. So happy Alina’s four months pregnant with a baby boy now after her IVF success the second time! She’s also starting her full-time job as principal at a private pre-school in January. HT’s keen to try IVF too it seems. 

30/11/24 Sat: My LDL test came back showing it is well-controlled but unfortunately, the doctor was reluctant to let me reduce the statin dosage. The readings for my white and red blood cells were slightly elevated, but she said it was not much of a concern because it could be due to a short fever and flu I had two weeks ago before the blood test. 

Treated my family to dinner at elemen (Harbourfront Centre) because their Christmas special menu looked appealing! Potato and I had that but dad, mum and bro went for their 8-course set ($196+).

Potato and I liked their Wellington king oyster mushroom and their shroom ball marinara. I enjoyed their sweet drink  too. Dad’s not someone who comments usually anyway but he’d finished all his food haha. Mum liked their quinoa rice and peach tea. Bro thought it was too much carbohydrate for him lol. *Not often I bring my family out for meals but I feel happy spending time with them!* 

1/12/24 Sun: Accompanied FIL to Woodlands Health Campus because he wanted to visit MIL who’s now in the 6-bedder ward. He treated PotaTOHs to lunch at Red Ginger and I thought my Malay cai fan with shrimps, bitter gourd and omelette was not bad.

MIL looked to be okay except she has to wear the neck brace for the next three months. She should be discharged in a few days’ time and then stay over at ours for a short while.

Potato cooked fresh udon with chicken, sausage, mushrooms, baby cabbage, seaweed and the Korean-marinated egg. The chicken broth with miso and a bit of tom yam in it tasted good! But both of us preferred the ajitama with the usual marinate though because the garlic taste for this was a tad too strong.