I tried a new recipe today - Fried Tofu with Minced Pork - and it turned out to be.... yuummmmaaayyyyeeee! Haha a bit too much for myself though. Wished there was someone who'd eat them with me. I love tofu dishes :D


Yesterday evening, I went over to Dagu's place to pass her stuff and had dinner with Uncle John and Dagu at Fei Lao Seafood @ Blk 86. Their friend rice and fried crispy sotong was damn nice but I felt that their hor fun and seafood tofu didn't have enough flavour. The hor fun is one of their signature dish though. Maybe it's not the cook's day or my taste buds just have problem la.

On the bus on the way to the coffee shop, the bus driver suddenly went up to this uncle and scolded him for not paying the bus fare.

"Everytime you don't pay bus fare. 2-3 times already. Tomorrow I will get the bus attendant to catch you."

The uncle just silently let the bus driver scold him.

I remember Dagu saying this, "He doesn't look poor. The way he dressed. He looks normal."

My thoughts:
I'm glad that the bus driver actually gave him the benefit of doubt the past 2-3 times and allowed him to board the bus for free. Maybe the uncle is really having some difficulties right now I don't know. But then again, the bus driver has the responsibility of ensuring that passengers pay the bus fare and the right amount. I also wonder what's happening with the uncle - why can't he pay the bus fare? He has no money? He can't afford basic necessities like transport? Just too many things going on? He purposely does it? I don't know.

People who might need help all look normal. You don't have to look "torn and tattered" to signal that you need help. But that's just on the outside and how as humans we tend to make judgment based on appearance. We won't ever know what someone is going through inside until he/she reaches out for help or we take interest to find out.

&the pages keep turning.

Finally got down to designing and making my own postcards! 2 done so far. Do ignore the odd colours because my printer has run out of black ink and my not-so-smart printer is not able to use the colour ink to compensate the lack of black HAHA. Pine Forest, Yogyakarta for the first one and Tianzi Mountains, Zhangjiajie for the second one :) Gimme comments on them if you see this post!


Looks like I can't really use my printer to print 'em because of alignment issues. I'll probably just keep them in doc/pdf files and print them in the future when I have a new printer.

&the pages keep turning.

As of yesterday, WE ARE FOUR YEARS OLD!


Our anniversary celebration was a fun one. We dinner-ed at Folks Collective (a Thai restaurant) before going to Neko no Niwa for our first cat cafe experience! The cats were so fat lolols ._. We were the only customers there so it was slightly awkward. Like we didn't really know what to do with the cats. And since we're only there for an hour, it was also quite hard to really get to know the cats and build rapport with them. It was still an interesting and enjoyable experience nonetheless!


NY's gift to me is a donation to APSN under my name. He called this a no effort gift but I was surprised and thankful that he thought of this! Under my name or not my name, I'm happy for his donation to a good cause :)

After that, we sat at this lawn in front of ACM to have a chat about our 4 years together - what we felt about each other and each other's growth. I love conversations like this. Nothing cheesy, but just truths about how we each viewed the relationships, our fears, our hopes etc.

In the afternoon, I was at Jac's making sushi! I think age is really hitting us. We could barely eat more than one roll of sushi hahahaha. But look at our pretty flatlay anyway.


On Saturday, I had a family gathering and to my surprise, my relatives celebrated my birthday (in advance)! So thankful to my aunt for organising this dinner and thankful for all the conversations we had too. I like family gatherings very much :) But ya, nowadays they always ask me about my job la ._. But it's okay. I like answering these questions. At least they care.



Before the dinner, I was at Bukit Timah campus the whole morning/afternoon for HungerFree. I'm glad that my baby has grown to be a success! I'm also glad that the foundation I built with Mel were adopted and it helped with the programme designing. And thanks to the Mel and the interns after me who continued with the planning and refining of the activities to make them even better.

There were quite a bit of hiccups here and there in the morning because participants were late (some way too early) and there was quite a bit of shifting of participants done. I didn't have a "family" group in the morning so it was pretty chill for me. But after lunch, a group of 15-16 year old boys came and I had to take them because I was the only facilitator who was "free." But I was really glad they were assigned to me. In the morning when I had nothing much to do, I found it hard to feel involved in the activities because I'm not part of any group. I was initially happy about it because it meant that I could slack lol. But after awhile, I realised... What's the point of volunteering for the event if all I need to do is slack right? So yea, glad the boys came and they completed activities and I had the chance to facilitate their learning. I do hope they brought back with them some lessons learnt about life, about humanitarian aid, about being able to do their part to help others not just through monetary donations, but through their time and voice as well.

&the pages keep turning.

Graduation day - I've reached another milestone!

&the pages keep turning.

The last two weeks have been amazing - all the going outs and staycations in the midst of crazy last minute preparation for interviews plus indigestion :<

It's my first time attending Pinkdot and I'm really glad that I did. I felt heartwarmed when I saw a few gay couples kissing - that this is the place where they can just be who they are, heartwarmed by the number of people who were there to support the cause, heartwarmed that there is a movement towards greater acceptance of the LGBT community in Singapore. I have always been surrounded by friends who were LGBT, but I never considered myself to fully "accept" the whole notion of LGBT. I think for me, I understand and respect my friends' wishes to love whoever they want and I don't make judgment in the choices they make. But why do I say that I don't consider myself to fully "accept" this whole notion? It's because, when I have children in the future, would I be okay with them being LGBT? I think at this point, I'm still not sure if I can give my children my full support. I can show my utmost support to my friends and respect their freedom to love, but if it's my family, can I accept it?

But I think, in the future I will.

As I gain more understanding of this community and the changing family norms and how there are many alternatives to carry on family genes and heritage, I think I will.


A little early for my birthday but NY and friends were so nice to plan a mini surprise to celebrate Val's and my birthday! Hehe. Ethan also booked Studio M for us to staycation in and we stayed up till 6am chatting and playing games like Cards Against Humanity (which I'm so cui at because my knowledge of western stuff is CLOSE TO ZERO) and Drunk Stoned or Stupid!





AND ONE WEEK BEFORE...
Thanks to the long weekend, we had staycation in this very cute room! Haha NY did a mini surprise too with a cake early in the morning the next day. Thank you my dear for celebrating my long overdue birthday xD Apparently this celebration is for my birthday last year because I was in China at that time and he said that he would celebrate it when I'm back (and he didn't, until now) HAHAHAHAHAHA. The room was super adorableeeeeeee! LOVE IT! And we watched lots of geeky YouTube videos on Science and World History, watched Boss Baby (Finally!) and had tea partayyyeeee!

&the pages keep turning.