Bird Paradise with Linh + "Fried Rice Paradise - The Makan Party" w farmily + Mooncake Fest gathering @ Ian's + dinner w MT, Mich, LL & SS @ Casa Vostra & Paris Baguette

1/9/26 Tues: Meditated this morning and also did acupressure point massages because it's the first session of the month... felt achy at some parts but I think it should be a good relief.

2/9/26 Weds: Did scalp treatment this morning and #103 was trying to sell me a scalp essence for $80+ a bottle but I refused. After washing my hair, he found one patch of empty scalp on the left of my head which looks a bit scary, but it could be due to stress. Hopefully, hair grows soon from there!

Potato cooked kimchi jiggae but too much tanghoon for us tonight lol~ 

3/9/26 Thurs: Did spine corrector and jumpboard with Elise this morning and I always enjoy how clear she is in her explanation and it makes me think a lot during the workout, which was good. Dinner at my parents' in the evening!

4/9/26 Fri: Potato cooked prawns, cai xin hua, mushrooms, carrots, soy beansprouts and sweet corn with Taiwanese noodles for dinner~ the tom yum soup was so nice because he seared prawns heads beforehand!

5/9/26 Sat: Met Linh at 10+am at Bird Paradise because she have been wanting to visit after a long time. *Damn the weather was very hot and I felt myself dehydrated from time to time!* It's been a long while since I went to the Bird Park at Jurong last time. We went to the Penguin Cove first. Quite a saviour with the "air-con" there haha~ and it didn't smell as bad as last time when I visited the Bird Park I think.

Then, we walked around Winged Sanctuary. One bird has got a really low-pitched chirp man~

Took some photos at the Heart Of Africa...

We walked to Wings Of Asia, Mysterious Papua and Lory Loft next. It's quite some walk and I regret not bringing shades and hat. A few birds were really up close!

Linh spotted "Zane" the zen master at his favourite spot on the roof too haha.

But it's a good thing in between they have air-conditioned pit-stops and that's definitely a nice touch.... almost a "saviour" especially in the heat and hazy conditions nowadays.

We headed to the Central Plaza and ate kampung chicken rice at the food court ($13++ each) and it was quite nice, despite it being pricier.

Went to Songs of the Forest, Amazonian Jewels and Crimson Wetlands before we watched Predators On Wings at 2.30pm. at the Amphithreatre. It's quite cool and when the vultures swoop down, they got really close on our heads! Also learned how owls can turn their head 270 degrees (always thought it was 360 but the ranger said they can sprain their neck too lol) and you can tell when they hunt by the colours of their eyes! Those with yellow rings hunt in the day and those black eyes one hunt at night.

Sat at the Penguin Cove to chit-chat for a bit before we tried some pear-flavoured gelato at Birds of Paradise... yummy.

6/9/26 Sun: Such a long and tiring day at work because I had two Korean race reports to write! *My left eye is quite tired and my left hip aches a bit now alamak....* But Potato's salmon ochazuke dinner was very delicious~ the cabbage miso soup was a bonus, really.

7/9/26 Mon: After tuition with SE, PotaTOHs initially wanted to eat humus at the new Turkish stall for lunch, but it was not opened, so he decided to whip up mushrooms aglio olio with maiitake shrooms and Korean oyster shrooms. *so proud it only took him 21 minutes to cook lol~* The Korean oyster shrooms are a bit tougher, but they were only so-so for us.

Had his crabstick okonomiyaki and miso soup with cai xin for dinner~ <3

8/9/26 Tues: Did not manage to complete the whole post in Anna's aerial yoga class this noon because I had a hard time figuring out where to put my elbows in the cloth lol~ But oh well we fail sometimes, and it does make me want to be more consistent and spend more time in aerial yoga classes... not that I think it can be done soon lol.

The highlight was the yuzu kosho chicken tonight! The taste was good, but somehow it came out saltier. Potato followed the ratio of 1:1:1 for yuzu kosho, mirin and light soy sauce from the recipe online though. He also cooked snow peas after a long time. We also tried Jin Kimchi ($8.6 for 400g bottle) and I liked it because it had the right amount of spiciness and was just a bit sour.

9/9/26 Weds: PotaTOHs went for Barreless-Sculpt class with Esther this morning. It was a good sweat-out for us both but he did not enjoy it as much because he was not good at it he said haha. I'm not either but I like the fact that I feel that I'm improving! 

PotaTOHs, Fran and Ian bought tickets to the "Fried Rice Paradise - The Makan Party" ($100 SG Culture Pass credit + additional $74 each person) at 7.30pm tonight and luckily Ian saw Potato's message because he somehow forgot to put it into his calendar lol!

So, about 150 guests attended veteran chef-owner Bee Lean's "retirement ceremony" after 38 years of running her legendary restaurant and witnessed the four-course "culinary battle" between her elder daughter Nancy, who is all about keeping traditions, and younger daughter Fancy, all-in on creativity and "atas-ness" of food lol, as the winner will take over the business.

I enjoyed the story flow, it was simple, not over-complicated and kept the theme revolving around the Singaporean food that we ate. First, it was the satay and my vote went to Fancy's "sate" lol. I'm not a fan of kunafa floss, but I liked the overall pairing and how she "de-constructed" the satay components. 

Laksa was my favourite of the night and I voted for Nancy's traditional laksa because the thick soup won me over! Honestly. Fancy's spicy coconut custard aka "chawanmushi laksa" was also very good texture wise, but the taste fell a bit flat for me.

Fried rice was the main thing and gosh, Fancy's bowl was exaggeratingly "atas" there, but I loved the sambal taste in her chilli, so I supported her this round. It was also very nolstagic to see Nancy's with the paper packaging I'd see when I buy zi char last time, and it tasted good too, albeit the oiliness got to me after a while.  

Ondeh-ondeh was Ian's favourite so I guess he had a hard time picking, but all three of them went for the traditional one. I have never liked gula melaka because it's too sweet, so I preferred Fancy's deconstructed one again. Her gula melaka ice-cream was not overly-sweet and paired so welll with bitter chocolate etc.

Also, it was funny how Ian got "picked" by Helen when she went out doing her "man hunt" lol~

Enjoyed the show and food and I was very full. As a Singaporean, we could very much relate to the musical too.

Rating: 4.5/5

10/9/26 Thurs: Did an hour-long interview with Ken from Woodpecker Studio this afternoon... honestly didn't know there was a neighbourhood furniture store with so many outlets. 

11/9/26 Fri: Intermediate tower class with Phoebe this morning was good. Only three students and we tried the heavier spring for some moves... "flying" is very hard especially if we want to keep the upper body still yet with the legs still moving!

Accompanied dad to NTFGH for his echocardiography session ($210+) and I didn't expect it to take an hour, so I left earlier because PotaTOHs were going over to Ian's for farmily gathering. I ate kway chup and he had duck rice ($10) near his, and we shared the fried ngoh hiang ($4.8). The ngoh hiang were not bad, and we appreciated the wolfberries in the kway chup and duck rice soup too because it added that bit of sweetness.

Ning and Wandi had First Bowl for dinner. PY and James came later and bought sushi platter. Fran arrived latest after work and bought chocolate ice-cream cake for James' belated birthday... which "benefitted" John too haha! We also tried the pomelo Ning bought, which was a bit dry but okay. She also helped make pu er tea. PotaTOH's Swee Heng mooncakes were also shared by us all that night.

I was so full from also taking some sushi too~ damn my "old stomach" cannot take that much food anymore. PotaTOHs left at 11+pm and we got home at 12.15am on Grab ($28.7). *Damn so tired I fell asleep very quickly and couldn't wake up when alarm rang at 8am lol~ only got up at 9+am.* 

12/9/26 Sat: SS wanted to try Casa Vostra at Raffles City for dinner ($100.72), so we queued for a while for that. *Aurora was hyper!* We shared one red sauce pizza with prawns, one white sauce pizza with pork and cheese, a calamari and Aurora had pasta. The prawn pizza was sweet and not bad, and even the pork one with cheese, though I'm not a fan of cheese. 

After 75 minutes of dining (the limit), we went over to Paris Baguette next door at 7pm or so for more talks because it's been months since I caught up with MT, LC, Mich and SS! We stayed till almost 10pm and the next time we meet? SS's son Aurelius should have been born~

13/9/26 Sun: Potato cooked Niku Jaga with a lot of other ingredients for dinner~ greedy mao like me keke. He had, besides potatoes and pork belly slices, cabbage, konjac, carrots, tofu, onions, garlic and vermicelli to go along! We couldn't finish so I saved some for lunch tomorrow too.

14/9/26 Mon: Accompanied dad to NTFGH for his physiotherapy follow-up appointment and it was another physiotherapist. He said dad can stop coming to NTFGH for follow-ups because his condition is stable. He would recommend suitable community physio sessions at centres nearby his place that he can join in in future.

15/9/26 Tues: Went for meditation class this morning but I was slighly distracted throughout, much as I reminded myself now and then to save the time to myself haiz.

Tried a new simple recipe with sotong in white pepper and salt~ I'm guilty of forgetting to rinse them and removing the soft bone before cooking oops~ Potato suggested I could have added wine before cooking or ginger slices during cooking to remove the fishy smell.