Random iMessage chat with Tey...

While queuing for Pump class registration yesterday, I sent a random message to Tey telling her that we should go to Tokyo in 2020 to watch the Olympics. Specifically, I told her I want to watch the Men's All-Around Gymnastics event.

I'm not sure if he'll still be competing then but I do want to watch Japan's Kohei Uchimura live.

Tey replied, "Sure, let's go. By then, we can afford to stay at Tokyo Shangri-la or Peninsula. Let's claim it."

I sent a LOL as a reply.

And then I also said, "Tey, one of my aspirations is to be able to walk into a Bottega boutique and purchase a piece that I like without having to worry about the price. Haha!"

When it was sent, I started typing again, "And I also want to stop choosing budget airlines as my first option when flying overseas. Hahaha!"

Tey sent very optimistic replies. "We can do that, Anj. By then, we will be able to do it."

Another message from her came in telling me about a friend of ours who gave up flying economy. Lol. "She just flies business from now on. She said she couldn't take economy anymore," said Tey.

My reply was, "Haha! Good for her! Before we aspire for that, let's aspire first for not flying budget anymore. Haha!" I want to be able to have that option of not flying budget 70% of the time. Haha!

We continued to chat more for a few minutes until the announcement for Pump class registration came on.

Dreams, dreams. Lol!

Quick meetup with Tipz...

Look who was in town...

... but only for an hour or so. Hehe!

Tipz had a short layover in Singapura before his flight back to Sydney. He spent a week or so exploring Vietnam with his KL-based best friend. It's sooo good to see him again. Since he didn't have that much time in SG, we just agreed to meet up near the airport. I asked Richie if he was free for dinner, then he and I could meet up with Tipz. I would have organised another dinner but the visitor didn't want to inconvenience other people.

Visitor.

It was not long ago when we were both FTs. Haha! Good times, good time. Okay, I will stop before I start speeding through a highway of nostalgia. Hahaha!

So good seeing you, Tipz! :) Thanks for the early birthday pressie... even if it was forced.

I can always return it when I visit you in Syd. ;)

Busy Saturday, not so busy Sunday...

For once, I have a rather free Sunday. Haha!

Surprisingly, I did not schedule anything today. All I have is a get-together tonight with a special guest. Lol!

Other than that, the only other thing I did today is go to the gym for Pump. Afterwards, I just had lunch at a nearby kopitiam before heading back.

I did mean to keep today free as I wanted to do some more planning for the upcoming trip in a few days. There are still more a few things that need to be done. Yes, surprisingly. Lol! That's why I decided to keep most of the day free.

Anyway, Sunday is the opposite of my Saturday. Yesterday was just another busy day. In the morning, I went to the National Museum for a curator lecture for an upcoming exhibit. That already took up the entire morning. After that, I had lunch with two fellow museum volunteers. We went to Concetto at Cathay. I'm glad I joined the girls because I finally got to eat there. I liked the food. Lunch was followed by dessert and coffee at a neighbouring coffee place.

The next appointment was at the National Gallery. I was scheduled to assess someone at 3PM. Since it was a bit hot, I just decided to head to the NGS earlier and wait at the lobby. I knew the docent I was going to assess so it was quite easy. Hehe!

The last agenda was to attend Mass at St. Bernadette. Oh wait, no. The last agenda was dropping by LP to get some Japanese yen.

I always go to the same money changer at the basement of LP since the shop has a good rate. When I got my yen, I walked over to Somerset and took the train back to the West. Haha!

Hazy day but still productive...

The haze today is really bad. When I was on my way home about an hour ago, Richie was telling me that the PSI reading already climbed up to 313. In short, it has reached hazardous levels.

This is a bit of a surprise because I actually thought the burning was over. We've seen significant improvement in the air quality these past few days. Uhm, hello, I even managed to go for a nature walk last Sunday. What happened? Lol!

I usually have a mask in my bag. Today, of all the days, I didn't put it in my bag. Haha! I left the house a little after 9. When I reached Jurong East, that was when I saw how bad the air was. For a split second, I actually contemplated heading back home.

However, I thought the condition would eventually get better. I had a schedule in my head and I did want to keep that schedule today. Stubborn me.

The first agenda was to go to the gym. Today is Pump day. I went to the gym at Amara because the Pump class was at 11AM. I thought it was perfect for my sched today. On the way to the gym, I messaged Ian because I suspected he was also going for Pump. I was right. However, he planned to go to another branch.

We just agreed to meet up after for lunch. I was also borrowing his camera so I can use during my trip. Good thing I messaged him before he left the house. He was able to bring the camera with him.

Ian and I had lunch at Toss & Turn, which is starting to be a default go-to place when craving for yummy healthy food. Haha!

Afterwards, we did some errands at LP and Far East before heading to 10 Scott at Grand Hyatt Hotel. It turned out that he needed to work. I also needed a place to park myself and do the stuff I planned to do. Thank, Ian, for telling me about 10 Scott. I have I'll be going there again whenever I need some nice place for coffee and reading.

Ian left around 330 since he was going to see a movie with one of his friend, I decided to stay behind for another 45 minutes. Richie and I agreed to have dinner and he only gets off work at 7.

When I left Grand Hyatt, that's when I saw that the haze got even worse. Really, really grateful to Ian because he carried an extra mask with him. I just quickly walked over to Ngee Ann City because I wanted to look for some books at Kinokuniya. I spent a good hour or so at Kino. Then, I crossed over to Paragon to check Times bookstore and Muji.

When I left Paragon, I just had enough time to reach Korat Thai's opening time. The place only opens at 7PM. When I reached the place, there were still no customers waiting for the place to open. I just went ahead and got a table for me and Richie. That turned out to be a good decision because other diners started arriving immediately.

Richie already knew what he wanted to eat so I was able to order for both of us before he even arrived. Dinner was seafood fried rice, pad thai, and chicken omelette.

So, that's basically how the day went. A few activities but I thought the day was well spent. Hehe! Now, I'm just waiting for laundry to be done and then I'll be off to lalaland. Tomorrow is a special day. I need to have enough hours of sleep. Haha!

1 October, please come already...

Tomorrow is a holiday in Singapore.

My mind is already thinking of the longer and the real holiday that is to start next Thursday. Haha!

So far, I think I've got a good game plan. The itinerary is done. I wonder how doable it is though. Me being me, I suspect I may have packed a lot of activities per day. Haha! I hope things pan out perfectly and without any glitch.

Friend Dean is still in Europe and will only return to Tokyo tomorrow. That being said, I still have to get his home address. More importantly, I have to figure how to get to his home. Haha!

My other friend Makoto also messaged asking me to set one day for a day trip. The place he mentioned looks very interesting and is something that I think I will enjoy visiting.

Hmm, there are a lot of things to look forward to in this trip. There are a lot of firsts happening as well.

Can it be already 1 October when I wake up tomorrow?

Zubuchon on a Sunday night...

Last night's dinner was sinfully delicious thanks to the kindness of a number of people. Haha!

When my friend NN was in town a couple of weeks ago, she told me that she will ask her friend Fe to handcarry the famous Zubuchon from Cebu the next time that Fe flew to Singapore for a holiday. I told her it wasn't necessary, but NN was insistent. Hehe!

Fast forward to yesterday, Fe messaged that she was already in town and that I should drop by her sister's place to collect the lechon. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see her when I went over to her sister's place. I went for a walk in the morning and by the time I reached Whampoa, Fe already left for MBS where she was going to watch the Bon Jovi concert.

I told JoAnn and Arlyn about the Zubuchon and I know that they will be excited for it! Earlier during the week, I asked them to block off their Sunday night for the Zubuchon dinner. Hehe! I also volunteered JoAnn to host the dinner at her place since she can cook, if needed. Hahaha!

It was our only choice because she's the only one with a well-equipped kitchen. Hehe! Arlyn brought ice cream for dessert. I brought the lechon. Lol!

So from the two kilos of lechon, JoAnn just baked part of it and then the other half, she cooked lechon paksiw. It was a super yummmm dinner!

Hiking Sunday again...

With the PSI level going below 100, that allowed us to go on an easy, morning nature walk yesterday. Yay!

I got to admit. I've been missing the nature walks. I've also been missing my outdoor runs at the park connector.

Thankfully, the air quality yesterday wasn't bad. Mr. Lim and I met up with kiddies Ted, Jackie and Shane for a quick walk.

As is our usual tradition, we met at Bishan for a nice breakkie. Afterwards, Mr. Lim drove us to Lower Peirce Reservoir. He and I have been there a few times. The kiddies have not. It was a short and very relaxed walk. Lower Pierce is one of the easiest trails, I guess. Along the way, Mr. Lim was picking up rubbish with a pair of tongs and dumping it in the trash bag that he brought. The short walk we had resulted in him filling up his plastic bag. Ugh, it's saddening that there are people who have no regard for the nature park where they run, trek, or relax.

Since it was quite early for lunch, we still managed to go to another reservoir. This time, it was more for just to check out the place and to chitchat. From Lower Peirce, we drove to Upper Seletar Reservoir. It's my first time to visit the place. The best thing about it is there's a lighthouse tower where one can go up and have a 360 panoramic view.

The five of us stayed at the tower for a good 30 minutes just relaxing and talking about all sorts of stuff. Close to noontime, it was suggested that we go to a yong tau fu place. I had an image of yong tau fu in my head but it turned out that the place we went to was a special kind. The dish is called Ampang Yong Tau Fu, named after the historic town in the state of Selangor, Malaysia.

I actually liked it but I still ordered chicken rice with roast pork (which I shared with Mr. Lim) Hehe!

It was a good Sunday morning! I'm happy to be able to go hiking again.

Happy Wednesday...

Well, we'll see how things go...

Random.

Random post...

This thought was in my head last night.

Nope, to be exact, in the wee hours of the morning. Around 2AM. The cab steadily moved along the expressway, once in awhile a pair of taillights appeared from another car or two, as the thought came to mind.

Usual Sunday...

I just got home.

Saturday started with the Design Film Festival; Sunday ended with the Design Film Festival.

Tonight, the movie I watched was Iris. Originally, Mon, Richie and I were supposed to watch the film. We were hoping that we could find a spare ticket for I-van. But as fate would have it, there was no need to look for another ticket. Mon's flight from Manila was delayed so his ticket just went to I-van.

Iris tells the story of 93-year-old style icon Iris Apfel.

After the movie, I remarked to my companion that the movie was not really about fashion. It was more about style, originality, individuality and expressing oneself. I think both guys agreed with me.

Prior to the film, it was a relatively relaxed Sunday. There's really not much to be done outdoors because of the haze. Ugh!

In the morning, I just called la familia. As expected, I only got to speak with my Mum and Raymond. After the call, I went to Clementi for Mass at Holy Cross. I also met up with Jon because he borrowed some jackets for his upcoming Europe trip. We also went to Mass together and had a quick lunch afterwards.

From Clementi, I headed to Tanjong Pagar to meet up with I-van. Similar to yesterday, we agreed to go to the gym together for a workout. Today was more insane though. We did back-to-back Pump and Combat classes. It's been awhile since I've done something like that. I'm glad I still have the energy to do it. I'm glad that I'm really much better now because I survived both classes.

The only thing troubling me now is my runny nose. I think it's an allergy due to the haze. Urgh! Hope the weather improves this week.

Anyway, it was a nice Sunday. How was yours?