Hotpot & games @ Josh & Tiff's + dad’s neck lump biopsy result + “Battle Of Fates” + dad’s urea breath test result + PY & Wandi's bday dinner + Hyundai Discover Tour w Potato & Sen Sen Sushi w Alina & HT

28/2/26 Sat: Josh and Tiff invited the gang to their 5-room flat at Punggol Cove for CNY gathering. They have a very spacious and pretty place. We had BBQ and hotpot~ omg the whole house smells after that haha~ Then, they played Terraria that Josh bought from Kickstarter.

PotaTOHs left at 10+pm and went to the link bridge to look out beyond Coney Island~ there were fireworks in JB haha. Very nice sky deck view they have there. We drove home and after shower, slept later than usual at12+pm. I was mentally worn out by game time and a bit of socialising, and I think my body's so used to sleeping at 11pm and I have to have about 8 hours of sleep, so only woke up at 9am.

1/3/26 Sun: Potato cooked vongole pasta for dinner and he added white cream sauce to it. I thought the taste was still okay for me~ good dinner as usual!

2/3/26 Mon: Did wheel yoga this morning with Anna and I thought it was a waste of time. She talked too much and we didn’t really get to stretch properly and “flamingo” pose did not seem easy for beginners.

Dad's neck lump's biopsy result came back. It was a 3cm benign nodule on the right side of his neck and there is no need for surgery, so Dr Oh said we just have to monitor yearly for a year or two and if it does not grow, then we can ignore it.

Potato made meatless kimchi stew with cabbage, eggs, enoki shrooms, king oyster shrooms, onions, garlic, carrots and bee hoon~ the texture and taste were all on point!

3/3/26 Tues: Good sweat-out in Resistance cardio starters with coach Emma this morning.

Stir-fried enoki shrooms and tom yum marinated chicken. Also added fish cakes, cordycep flowers and ginger slices into the cabbage, onion and carrot soup... "very warm" feeling on a rainy day haha. The fish cakes don't suit being cooked in soup because it turned out too soggy and the taste doesn't fit, so probably Potato's suggestion of air-frying them would be better. 

4/3/26 Weds: Pilates intermediate class with instructor Ruth, who had a fractured toe ouch. Anyway, her half-mat-and-half-reformer class was still not bad.

First tuition with YF this afternoon and he was hyper omg.  One and a half hours and I’m quite drained lol. Needs to work on his hanyu pinyin.

Finished watching “Battle Of Fates”.

Got to know more about shamans and their work, and was also impressed by some spiritual tarot readers as well. The final episode gave me goosebumps and shaman Lee So-bin was really professional the way she handled the “possessed client”.

Rating: 3.5/5

6/3/25 Fri: More than half a day spent at NTFGH with dad for his blood test at 8+am all the way till waiting for about 2.5 hours to take his medication at close to 2.30pm. After his blood and urea breath test, we saw Dr Wong. He explained his ulcer and H.Pylori bacteria are gone, but after the last scope dad did in Jan, he found the common CMV virus, but he suspect it’s only a “bystander”, and that dad’s duodenum is a bit narrower after the ulcer healed. So, dad will continue taking Esomeprazole and go for another scope on March 30 because Dr Wong wants to do a bit more scope and see that the virus is no big deal and the narrowing has stabled. Otherwise, dad’s iron level,  ferritin and blood content etc has improved generally, albeit doctor suspect he has Thalassemia. He also lost three kgs in two months, which I suspect is due to him being picky with food and his bad-fitting dentures.

Had Macdonalds’ for dinner tonight with the shark’s fin soup given by mum yesterday after dinner~

7/3/26 Sat: I thought dad found his way to Bell's Institute at Blk 130 before 9am but at 10am, he called me and said the place is under construction! It's only an hour later then he called me, so I panicked and got some strangers to help guide him, but by 10.45am and with me guiding him on Whatsapp, the unit still could not be found. I called Bells Institute and after a few ding-dongs, I cancelled class for him. *The staffs at their call centre were just as unclear about these two centres of theirs which were at buildings next to each other at Jurong East... terrible.* It was hard time communicating with dad because he does not answer to my questions directly or just keep on harping on his answers, which weren't what I need at times. *Have to keep telling myself and mum a lot of patience is needed, but there's also a limit to helping him if he does not want to help himself.*

Ning, Fran, Ian and Linh were here during dinner to celebrate PY and Wandi's birthday. We ordered Thai halal zichar from Al Majlis Thai Seafood Restaurant and the portions were just nice for eight of us. Not bad and I liked the tom yam soup and baby gai lan the most.

Ian and Linh bought some halal Krispy Kreme donuts over, they played some mini games and Fran baked strawberry cake for Wandi and PY's birthdays! It was really delicious and the flavour was balanced so well Potato and I could finish one big share together.

Ian introduced a card game and we ended up laughing over guessing each other's cards and the orders we should put them down haha. Had so much fun that it was 11.45pm before we knew it and had to call it a day lol.

8/3/26 Sun: Potato fried crabsticks, chicken, celery, cherry tomatoes, shimeiji shrooms, carrots and onions with the leftover rice from yesterday for dinner. The rice turned out a bit stickier than usual but still good. 

As we still had some rice left, he decided to try to make rice crackers, albeit they used rice on the same day in the video. Ours turned out drier since it was left in the fridge for a day, but with honey, soy sauce and oyster sauce, the taste still came out nice like a real rice cracker! It was simple and fun hehe~

9/3/26 Mon: Attended intermediate reformer with Margareth this morning and there were only two students. We did chair and just when I thought my legs were quite strong already... the chair humbled me once again lol. Not that I'm good with my obliques too but judging from what she said, my right oblique appears weaker because I cannot balance so well when I lie on my left torso than when I'm on my right.

10/3/26 Tues: After more than a month, I went back for 1.5 hours of大光明禅修this morning. Panicked a little at one point during the first set of the standing meditation (ouch my calves really ached too after pilates yesterday), but I managed to regain focus. For the seated 30-minute meditation, I felt the full 20 seconds or so of uneasiness when I probably lost focus and realised my heart racing (123bpm when I checked my Apple watch later) suddenly. I had no water by my side in the hall, so I opened my eyes twice to try to calm myself down and though I struggled a bit, it was soon over and I managed to continue meditating. Of course, that “transcending into deeper” feeling was lost and I had to “re-start” again. But what felt good was I felt very peaceful after the routine ended. Could even feel “heat” rising and my palms and neck warmed quickly when I rubbed them. After googling, it could be “meditation anxiety” and that’s something I have to overcome by doing more. It could also be the body trying to release deep fear, which would have been good for me I guess. Overall, it was a positive experience and I’m still glad I turned up for class. *My PPPD is almost gone nowadays but I probably am stressed over dad now hence that’s why.* 

Finished up Grandma Ong's soup pan mee for dinner. I added crabsticks, shimeiji shrooms, one chives and prawn dumpling and onions into the soup. Air-fried the frozen fish cakes but we still don't like them. My celery, carrot slices and garlic were burnt though... a reminder to keep moving them around and add some water if too dry in future.

11/3/26 Weds: Did aerial yoga with Nishy this morning and she did simpler moves because there were many students. But I still need to work on my "jump and tuck" because I don't have the strength to pull myself into a "tuck position" while mid-air. Also tried rotating myself out of the straps with our angles tucked, and because I put a lot of weight on the right ankle while trying to rotate from the left side out (still failed lol), there's a bit of bruising and rubbing on my skin which made it tender now.

Potato used up the frozen prawn heads and shells he kept to cook a really deep broth for our tom yum mee dinner! It was a bit salty for me, but still thankful for his decision and effort to cook for us.

12/3/26 Thurs: Just before resistance cardio starters class this morning, I kept smelling "haze". I asked dad but he said he did not smell it at his area. Then, I turned around and saw smoke coming out from a low-floor unit behind the church at Blk 465A. I called 995 as I hear people shouting "fire", and the officer told me fire engine was on the way. Good thing it looked to be put out in a short time but some residents were also evacuated. Police were on site too.

Good workout this morning, but also shocked to hear it will be coach Gerald's last lessons on HPB. Seems like there will be less of free classes from April onwards and I'm not sure why. I will miss working with weights in his lessons at 9am on weekdays. Meanwhile, I'll try to look for similar cardio options on HPB too.

Went for second acumagneto therapy session at Multiflora TCM Spa West Gate and Mint was my therapist this time. She was much milder than Vivian and not as forceful while she did the one-hour massage on me. She told me the leg moxa treatment could take one hour too, but because I have lots of dampness on my back (upper left back is more pronounced she said maybe because of stress), I can convert 1.5 hour of moxa to one of their machine-assisted treatment called Fu Yuan therapy. I will try the leg moxa next time before deciding if I want to try Fu Yuan then. Felt rather okay after the session this afternoon compared to the last time when I was still experiencing PPPD I think.

Mum cooked sea cucumber for dinner tonight! One of me and my brother’s favorite dish haha~

13/3/26 Fri: Brought dad to see the physiotherapist for his knee pain.After she did some tests and looked at his previous x-ray results, she mentioned about old age less knee collagen and that his right quads has weak strength (muscle on left quads felt firmer), hence weight causes knee to ache when walking, otherwise all seems good. He now has to do two quad-strengthening exercises at home daily and come back for another consult in six weeks’ time.

After lunch in which he had the white chicken drumstick rice for the second time at JEM’s foodcourt while I ate mixed pork organ and meat soup, we checked for the price of replacing his watch’s battery but he finds it too expensive at $15. 

Underwent his prostate MRI scan at 1.30pm or so which took 45 minutes before I brought him up to lvl 3 and for mum to accompany him for his ECG and cardio consultation. Mum said his checks came out normal, so doctor set a cardiography appointment for him in six months’ time.

Potato bought sushi and yellowtail sashimi from Donki for our dinner tonight as we watched “Rent A Cat” movie together~ It's funny how the female lead kept reminding us of PY too lol.

14/3/26 Sat: PotaTOHs visited the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre Singapore for their discovery tour this afternoon. It lasted about 1 hour and 15 minutes. We were guided by Amin around Hyundai innovation centre, seeing their cars to their in-house hydroponics farm that was three-storey high. We “harvested” our own roman coral lettuce and Swiss chard to bring home yay!

Saw Na Oh restaurant and we thought we will visit there for a meal someday~ Tasted four types of veggies: crystal sweet lettuce (mildly sweet), ice plant (salty and crunchy), sorrel (sour) and mustard… which you taste exactly when you bite into it, but not as strong as the sauce. Ice plant was my favourite but all had distinctive taste and were good.

Experienced VR to build our own Hyundai cars but I had to close my eyes half the time because the “disconnect” between my brain and the moving scene was uncomfortable. 

Lastly, it was the Skytrack experience where we sat in the Kia EV driven by Dennis, whom Potato happened to have met a few days ago when he brought his students there. We drove two laps around. The acceleration was very fast even if he only kept the speed to around 80km/h. The 3G force felt around the bend made it a bit difficult to hold up the phone. And yes, I felt like I was being “swerved” to the right side and a bit “unbalanced” when I got off the car lol. *Still better to do it in real life than in the VR lol.* 

Met HT and Alina, who brought his son Jariel along, at Don Don Donki’s Sen Sen for dinner. Their barachirashi was quite nice, and I liked the chawanmushi too. We had a quick one-hour dinner and the two ladies bought taro milk tea from Wan Po Tea because HT wanted the toy bear lol.

Had ji de chi for dessert and I tried matcha aiyu ($4.8) for the first time… not bad. Since HT’s quitted her job to make time for her parents, she will have time to go try some dance lessons, aerial yoga and pilates with me yay!

15/3/26 Sun: Potato cooked Ichiran ramen with chicken, pork dumplings, bok choy and king oyster shrooms~ also had the Roman coral lettuce as sides yums!