Exploring aimlessly

This hols, I went out twice to explore aimlessly. I do such explorations mainly cos many a times on the bus ride, noticed certain areas are full of small shops and rows of shophouses. So during my breaks, once in a while, I go to that area and just start walking around. I follow where the shops go to, walk around an observe if anything is interesting and will kiv say for future dinner etc.

Recently before the hols began, I walked around the Chinatown area, the back part with rows of shop-houses, reached the foot of that 40-stories HDB (forgot the name) Found a soya milk seller in the HDB opp it. I was walking with the map app and it led me on a long wild-goose chase cos it doesn't factor in small roads... I ended up near the Pigeon hole cafe area (name slipped my mind...)

A week back I went to Orchard and started walking from Tanglin Mall area down to Ion. Walked around the older malls and see. Quite a bit of changes in terms of retail-mix. I was powered by a 700ml cup of FreshMilk-with-grassjelly and walked continuously for 3+ hrs before I finally refueled and bought sushi home for dinner.

Today I went to Raffles Place mrt and got off and started walking around. There are so many new office blocks that the sky-line has changed so much. I was trying to walk to the Golden Shoe to retrace the steps of my temp days working there but I can't remb... It's been 8years and man, really really many new office blocks. So walk aimlessly, anything that seemed interesting, walk over to see. What was strange to me was the no of office people still walking around at 3.10pm in the afternoon. Wow I didn't know lunch hour lasts so long or so many can take tea-break or so many flexible work?

So I twist n turn just following any shops. End up in Lau Pa Sat, walked in to take a look but I didn't eat cos my stomach is not too well plus I had lunch near 1pm. Some exotic food inside then I walked towards OG which would have led me to chinatown but halfway there, I saw shop-houses and diverted into the road. Ended up in Amoy street area. It wasn't that hot cos of the rain earlier but it started raining, so I refueled at the Amoy hawker. The rain made me yearn for warm stuff, walking one round, decided on Chinese mutton soup n half bowl rice. That stall seemed popular and it was good. The meat is tender n almost all the fat removed. The soup is thin but still flavorful n light, little oil floating on the surface. Again Mutton soup is like Laksa to me. It's one of those food that I almost hardly ever eat (0-2 times in an entire year) Reason being it's not healthy due to the oil plus on sunny days, it's too heaty to eat. But it's perfect on a rainy day.

Continued on with an umbrella once I've finished eating. Headed towards Tanjong Pagar by then, then due to me walking aimlessly and just following any shops that catches my fancy, I ended up at Coller Quay. Decided to walk towards Marina Square. So I walked past the new pubs, restaurants and cafe. There's a new dome structure in-between Coller Quay and One-Fullerton. It's a restaurant with bar with a view of the bay. Didn't go in cos it seemed really atas, even the name I can't read properly cos it was kinda cursive. Didn't want to walk too close. But the top of the dome is free n an open space with the view. I went up to take a look and walked towards MS.

Along the way, I walked under the bridge that led towards the Esplanade. Below is a starbucks, sol tapas and beside that a Sg souvenir shop. I went in to take a look. Everything is Merlion or orchids... Headed out and walked on. F1 stuff is being set up. Lots of fences. Reached MS and I was wondering if there was any food I wanted to eat for dinner. Walked around, in the end decided to cross to take a bus ride home. Took out my packed fuel - a snickers bar and my sencha, I ate it. Don't feel hungry for dinner. Guess I reversed my meals - snickers was supposedly snack near tea-time but instead that became mutton soup with rice. So dinner is snickers. Reached home and munched a pear when my stomach felt a bit like eating.

Not that I am turning anorexic but just my stomach is not so well so appetite isn't as good. I'm supposed to eat easier to digest stuff and as much as I could eat without overtaxing it.

Lobster Laksa & KM4 & 5

Couldn't access Blogger from my phone via Internet and my house will be internet-less for a month. Didn't update until Quetzal n Tab told me about this app.

My first ever luxurious Lobster Laksa. At Orchard Mandarin Hotel ChatterBox. Ate it using a Groupon I bought. $40 for $80 value, with no limit on no of pax. A good deal. Wanted to treat my mom but she wasn't well. I decided to ask my younger sister who was on leave for a couple of days, to cheer her up also.

We headed out to the Guan yin temple first. Finished praying and offering the fruits, sweets n donation. Then we made our way to illuma now Bugis+ to go to the toilet and also up the Bugis market. Saw some new shops in Bugis+ but just a quick glance.

We reached ChatterBox near 1.45pm. It was almost full! We were thinking wow, so many people so free to eat a luxurious lunch? We got in and opened the menu. I must say, if I didn't have the Groupon, I wouldn't even consider eating there.

Imagine their legendary chicken rice is $25++, char quay tiao is $18++ and so on. Mostly is local food from hawker. They have western n sandwiches, steak is $40, sandwiches is about $18-20. My sis didn't like local dish so her $40 budget, she ordered Ham n cheese sandwiches & Deck sandwiches.

I decided to go for the Lobster laksa $36. Firstly it's more expensive than the legendary chicken rice. Secondly I hardly have lobster nor laksa at all. The times I have laksa per year can be counted with 0-2 fingers. So with all these, went straight for it.

The comment, is the Lobster laksa is very good. Definitely luxurious. An entire lobster is in the bowl. Meat cut up, pincers and the head with roe. Another is the gravy is think, tasty, mildly spicy and they actually drained out most of the oil. So the gravy is mostly the coconut gravy with very little oil floating above it. The fishcake slices is very soft n not fishy, think it might not be the typical fishcake. It seemed to be too smooth. The tau kwa is great and there is 2 quail eggs. A great combination. I slurped it down hungrily, ignoring the calories, gravy n all until a little bit of gravy is left. Very satisfying. My sis loved the ham n cheese sandwich. It uses good ham and is toasted until the cheese melted inside. The other sandwich wasn't as good but we were very full. Just food cos the drinks were severely over-priced. Bit very very full.

Then we went and walked around Taka. At the basement, near cold storage, there's a new bakery; French-Jap and we bought some bread home for the family. Really very refined quality but a bit pricier.
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Krav Maga lesson 4 is about 360 degree defense against an overhead knife threat. Supposed to pair with Tab but odd no of girls so we ended up with diff partners. I couldn't get the last part about over-extending the opponent arm until I did a bit with Tab. She on the other hand paired up with one of the Adv male guy and tio a big bruise from the repeated fending off the atk with our wrist.

Sore for another 3-4 days after that. Even with the muscle cream. When the pain increase, used medicated plasters.

KM5, we had done learnt before. Defense against an edge weapon at the neck. Did that and learnt a bit of extra pointers like punch not just palm atk. Where to atk on a person's face, 2 grips etc. Additional techniques and more practice. Still sore after that.

This has been a rather stay-home holiday. It was to let myself rest n recover my health. Hair still dropping, drinking more medicine and making sure my diet is balanced and nutritious, on top of monitoring my calories. Health is really Wealth. Genuinely come to appreciate n understand this point. Trying to cut down my cold drinks gradually to once a week. Less stress too n sleep early.

The first half of the hol is restful but 3rd week on, mom wasn't well and it became stressful at home for more than a week. Now she's better, so I hope to make the best of my last week. Plenty of resting n relaxing. That's all.

Money matters and headaches

From Oct 1st, have to start contributing an additional $300 to household expenses, courtesy of my Dad's rule. That is on top of the $5k set aside by each of us for the Upgrading. Huh? I thought they were the same but apparently they are separate. So that meant I cost my sisters to each have to cough up $5k extra...

I had thought that with the $5k, can suspend the monthly to a later date, since they are the same thing but apparently I was misunderstood, they are different. Fine then I wont cough up the $5k. The $2k I put in is prepayment for the upcoming $300 for almost 7 months then. Sian!!!

That kinda put a BIG spanner into my finances. As it is, at the current level is okay, I have extra to spend on top of my savings and commitments. Now gotta squeeze out an extra $300 is kinda leaving me with very little extra for myself on top of savings. Its much much tighter, so much so I might have to consider my spending on dinners outside, that sorta of level, cos the extra left from bills and stuff is just so much lowered, by more than 50%.


So just happened today after setting up the joint account. WTF?!!? Now I am looking at my expenses and how things work out for that, plus how can I somewhat fit it into my expenses and finances planning. Cos I dont want this to put a damper on my savings.

So something has to go....  or have to increase the inflow.

I am not looking at the investment side to off-set this but just pure salary and extra from assignment? Sigh... dont tell me have to go teach assignment again? Just to make back that extra, meant I would have to sacrifice at least 2 days in a week, otherwise cant make that rate. Or the alternative is to lower my savings.... Feeling kinda sian about that.

Money. 
We cant buy happiness with it, but cant live without it. 
ust want enough of it to have a peace of mind. 
Hmm... headache.

Krav Maga 3 - bear hugs

Finally restarted Krav Maga. Last week, I smsed too late that the class was full then. Tab went along and I 'fly her aeroplane' of sort. Asked her about it, they learnt how to punch and elbow.

So after lunch, I got my single bag with my stuff all inside, wore my shirt and jeans and headed out. First I had to cut my hair. With my dropping of hair, I dont want to aggravate the situation with any highlights though I am tempted to highlight it... but bo bian. Better give the hair a longer rest.

So after the hair cut, I headed first to the bank. To deposit the $1k cash I drew out last Sat for the failed bank account opening. Cos I dont feel comfortable carrying that around nor putting that around at home. If we are going to open a UOB account, I can just transfer my funds then. After that's done. I decided to take a bus to Orchard.

Partly to kill time, partly since I wasnt in a hurry, can afford a more leisurely pace of travel. Just listen to radio and watch the surroundings and people. I dropped off near Isetan Shaw, went into the cold storage to buy sushi to munch. I really like their omelette sushi there. They are really authentic jap style omelette. Better than the usual ones I get from supermarkets. Bought 7 pieces sushi, 4 of which are omelette. Then walked over to Far East Plaza, partly to walk a bit and find a place to sit and eat. Got a reply from Tab that she was in Robertson area. Okay, so instead of walking around, I took a bus from Far East til Liang Court area. Then navigated using i-phone map and gps until I found her at the cafe.

Since I still got to eat dinner and we are obviously staying put, I ordered a honey mustard burger and a side of wedges. The wedges came in a basket. I somewhat overestimated both our ability to eat that. In the end I ate my burger and salad, maybe a quarter and asked the rest to be packed. We walked along the river and headed to the school.

Man, eating a burger, salad and wedges just 50mins before a Krav Maga class is NOT a good idea. The warm-up is very intense. Run and bang the floor with L and R hand, jump and even bash up the punching pads they laid out upon the instructor's command. Man... my pulse was racing and nearing the end, I was thinking if they dont stop the running, I might just puke up a bit cos obviously the food is still in my stomach then. Luckily they stopped then and moved on to other stretching and push-ups and sit-ups. Those are manageable.

The lesson was to learn 2 ways to get out of a situation when someone bear hugs you from behind with the intention of lifting and slamming you. Like what Tab says, its what we used to do when we were younger and playing WWF wrestling. But with an Aggressive response and a Technical response.

The good thing is though we both hit each of our heads once accidentally, not full force, nothing severe, minor. We kept each other safe this time. Though the last mass practice of punching the pads and someone comes and bear-hugs was extremely tiring and by the end, my knuckles were bruised. Ouch...

We ended in one piece and went home. After bathing, I slapped on the muscle cream extensive and massaged my sore knuckles and lower palms. They were kinda sore from the practice of the technical response. I was looking at my right arm under the lights. Tio scratches (from the girls when we had to do the trying to grab each other from behind) and bruises on my arm and knuckles. Ouchy...

This morning, the arm muscles sore from all the bear-hugs. Legs somewhat sore from that killer warm-up. Bruises fading. Slapped on more muscle cream and massage also. So far nothing twisted, which is good. See how tomorrow. If not sore, then can do my conditioning and kettlebell exercise.

Nothing much, except I went to see the sinseh for the weekly follow-up to get a week's supply of meds. I am somewhat hoping to avoid too much expenses by staying at home, also to rest and be less stressed but $$$ is spent irregardless. For example, just 2 days go, $60 per person to fix up the Reverse - Osmosis filter, then my youngest sister's bdae present meant $85 fly away. Next week going to eat buffet with my family, we will qiah Mom and Dad plus pay for our own, so that's another $65. I was calculating the extra for the Krav Maga lessons and sinseh's once a week. Wow... I think need to hibernate at home and hope no more of such expenditure.

First 6 days of hols - a lot of resting

Time flies, it's been 6 days since the start of the hols, including the weekend. Not been doing much. Found fatique catching up, the initial 3 days, I was asleep most of the time. Slept in the late afternoons, at night. Completely switched off the alarm clock, so just sleep when I feel sleepy and wake when I am rested. Its great, wake up really refreshed and rested these days. I've realized being able to sleep at will and get up naturally is such a luxury. Plus to reduce the burden on my 'stressed' body, I havent been doing anything hectic, just rest and sleep as much as I can. Until I feel better.

Then I headed out to do banking and explored NUS. Another was to go banking again to set up that bank account unsuccessfully. I did go supermarket and buy some low-fat milk and dark chocs. Met up with JC friends for dinner one night to catch up. Also did conditioning exercise and progressed to Kettle Bell twice so far. Also headed out to clarify and check our internet subscription with sisters after which we played in an arcade until contented. Tidied up my pile of letters, bills and investment statements. Looked at the stock market and looked closer at the charts of my investment counters.

So far, based on the indicators, I am hanging on to my counters, though some have started hitting some profits. This year, I have missed 2 big oppts due to my lack of monitoring and poor decision. Didnt look at charts then. So I will do that from now on. Hope to make more profits to hit my 1st and 2nd investment targets. This year's profit is the lowest so far in my years of investing. I hope to rectify that. Can only keep fingers crossed.

Besides that, been reading newspapers and watching the Olympics at home. Since 1988, I have always watched the Olympics. This year didnt watch as much as before but when certain events are up, gymnastics, running, swimming, weight-lifting, badminton, archery etc. I try to watch them. Really admire the skill and also the athlete's physique, nice bodies and lean muscles. I hope to get a leaner and toner body within the next 1-2 years.

Due to the watching of Olympics, not much reasons to go out. Guess until the Olympics end. Though I still go out to run errands. The irritating thing is when I go out under the sun, my skin has changed such that I will tio pimples, painful swelling ones. No incentive to head out in the hot sun. Dad also watching Olympics so not going to Msia yet. I hope to go in to do banking, plus get some anime discs. My internet subscription would be stopped on Aug 13th for a month so that we can qualify as new customers and get a more preferable plan with goodies instead of just being given a slight discount. Something to watch over the holidays.

Tom's plan includes going to cut hair in the afternoon tomorrow, later evening is Krav Maga and dinner. So today didnt exercise cos if tom I am sore, afraid I maybe careless and injured myself.

Through the newspapers, I found a few restaurants that I want to go and at least 1 more groupon to go with Mom. I am thinking of saving some calories cos next week, I am going to eat buffet dinner with my mom and sisters, maybe Dad. Been making sure I am eating healthy nutritious food, a variety of foodstuff. Hope my hair would drop lesser... its kinda worrying to find so many strands of hair daily. So far just a bit of improvement, wouldnt say I am out of the woods yet. Hop;e I dont get a bald spot or thinning hair, that's why I am following the sinseh's instructions, sleep earlier, less stress, drink my brown milo. I reckon eating a variety of nutritious food might help also. Hence the diet is switched towards that. Things like sardines, bananas, wheat include them in my diet.

Finally the hols are here...

After a 16-weeks term, without mc, its finally the holidays.

Think my body is stressed up, hence partly contributing to the increased hair drop... I am taking TCM powdered medicine for that and for my long-term cough. Need to do more relaxing things these few days. Nothing stressful.

Yesterday I went to do the monthly banking errand and bought my first cup of KOI bubble milk tea. Seriously I dont get the fuss about it. It has a different after-taste compared to others, but for me that after-taste wasnt great, a bit unpleasant in fact. Maybe its cos I chose 50% sugar with no pearls, also M size. On a whim, I hopped on bus 96 with the intention of exploring the University Town.

I got down near Yussof Ishak house and walked over to the Sports Hall. Then wandered around inside and landed near the tennis courts. Then I realized its not the way to the University Town, which has a bridge linking it. Retraced my steps and walked closer to the Music conservatory, and found this newly built bridge that offers both pedestrian and roads for vehicles to drive over.

I walked over and wow, there's a number of restaurants, including Koufu, Old HK Bruce Lee, Fish and Co Express, an Italian and another Chinese restaurants. Then u see some high-tech graduate housing and a field with freshies. Some parts still under construction.

Played with the vending machine to get a bottle of water and walked back. Then from Yusoff Ishak House, I walked over to the Forum, saw the Art's fac Rag. Nobody around, maybe lunch break. Then walked over to the old Law but now is School of Computing fac linkway to Biz. Really a lot of changes. Not to mention the canteens etc but certain parts became air-conditioned closed linkway. Reached biz and to my surprise, most of the same bizad stalls are still there. In fact they seemed to be the only thing unchanged. Half of bizad is split and belong to School of Computing. The LT17, 18 are no longer bizad.

I decided to refuel and ordered from the Western food, the same guy is still there. The difference is the wrinkled face and he seemed to have shrunk at least facially. Then the other is they charge 2 prices, a NUS price and an outsider price. So my Cutlet cost $3 to NUS and $3.40 for non-NUS. Which is still alright to me. But I didnt buy a drink. Ate the rather dry yet very very crispy chicken cutlet and sorta remembered a bit why we ate the cutlet at the old Arts canteen instead. But the pasta with brown sauce was very very nice. My memories were vaguely triggered when I ate the western food. I seem to remember some times when I ordered that in my Uni days.

After I was done, I walked down to that Ho Swee Sian library way and bought a Coke Zero from a vending machine. At least it charges the same price irregardless of my status. Just 90 cents.

While I was finishing off the drink, I glanced at the Bizad rag going on at that foyer below the library. The foyer was still as dark and gloomy and the stuff were very unfinished. Nothing concrete, as far as I know, its just lots of cardboard.  I saw something that reminds me of maybe merlion or statue in its rawest state. Some freshies hanging around. I tio a few stares by some freshies who might be thinking in their naive mind that I was a spy sent by other jealous faculties. See the difference between the facs? The Art just laid it out in the open forum with virtually nobody around, whereas the biz ones fenced up their work area and gave me dirty looks?

Finished my coke and dumped the can in the recycle bin just beside the foyer and walked down the slope to my usual bus stop and took a bus home. Does bring back some memories. But as all things are, the facilities have improved alot and the choices of certain activities too. But its not like I can go back to being a student. That part of life is kinda over. My choices were made then. But its good to walk around and a bit and reminisce about the past. Next year would be a decade since graduation. Time does fly.

Reached home just in time before the rain poured. Spent some time watching TV, later go to visit sinseh for weekly follow-up and get another week's supply of tcm aka brown milo. Another thought hit me was that how true it is that "Health is wealth". Work hard to earn money at the expense of health. Later use the money to pay for medicine to restore health. I am starting to eat my Weet Bits for breakfast, as a healthy breakfast. Will put in more effort to make sure I am eating healthier food and a combination of nutritious food, plus sleep more, relax more and see if my hair drop problem can clear up soon.