Wisdom lost

Few days ago, I mustered my courage and finally extracted my wisdom tooth after years of procrastination (and I'm now staring at the tooth while typing the blog). I guess the fact that the tooth decay is bad and a complicated surgery will soon be required when it hits the nerves in the gum kinda pushed me into making the decision. I was mentally prepping myself to survive the ordeal without painkillers after the extraction but it didn't work... I was literally unable to eat anything without them!

The past days were more eventful at work than home since it's school holidays and the kids are busy waking up late (11am!!!) everyday. Did a photoshoot to kick-off my baby project on HVO for cross-border trucking and find new partners to collaborate with on sustainability. Then there's also the closure of a previous investigation done - The action is planned to happen tomorrow so let's see...

My kids will be having a play date tomorrow then staying over at my younger sis's place for the night before their Genting trip. First time they are travelling without me! Not sure if I'm looking forward to 4 days of peace n quiet (and me time) but I found Elisah weeping in bed just now cos she couldn't bear to be away from me for so many days. Awwww..... she's really so sweet sometimes. Hopefully I'll still have time to video-call them for a couple of minutes everyday, though I'm pretty sure they will be eager to hang up the call and focus on their play when they're there.

Praise the Lord!

 After 3 days of selections, Isaiah finally got into the table-tennis JDS! It's quite clear to me that God was with him this selections. From the fixtures, it felt like he had the luckiest draw. However, it still wasn't enough for him to get in the 1st 2 days of selections. I knew he always had an issue mentally - he's not resilient enough. And I was wondering what he could do and I found the answer in God. He just needs to accept the result, whether win or loss, and give glory to the Lord. After sharing it with him today, he obediently did what I said... and he won. Praise the Lord!

And I finally settled my car. Bought an Audi A6 with plug-in hybrid. Hope I made the right decision. Must confess that it was kinda last minute choice and was attracted by the horsepower and the fact it's hybrid... 

Car-zy

Past 1.5 weeks were all about cars. Context - My existing car is to be deregistered (i.e. COE ends) this coming Thursday and I haven't got a plan! So started searching for various options. Current COE prices are crazy high and I just couldn't convince myself to get a new EV cos of that. Then for second hand cars, there were so many to choose from it's difficult to start. After a lot of different considerations, I figured the plug-in hybrid will be a good choice from the fuel efficiency perspective. My current porsche simply SUCKS in terms of consumption, to the extent you don't even wanna drive it at all. It's like, 7km/l?? Pathetic. And just when I thought I found the deal where I get the car from them and they export my car, the stupid porsche decided to have engine issues. After towing to the workshop, they said it will take 2 months to change engine. I do NOT have 2 months since COE ends in a week! But with the existing error message, I don't think the dealer is able to take in for export anymore? Argh. So that got me stuck in a dilemma for a few days until now..

Couple of days ago, I organised my company's CSR event to visit Neste's innovation centre at Science Park. While the lectures were a little too extensive (long and technical), the lab visit was good and so was the food (of course, since I chose it LOL). It was also nice to have some customers join us for the visit and I think the good lunch helped to end the visit perfectly for everyone. Took the opportunity to also share with Danielle about the latest updates from our (final) investigation. Bottomline, if you are in a certain management position, there is an expectation that you protect the company's interest, doesn't matter whether you are a nice person or not...

So now, I'm back to resolving my car issue and I need to get it done in the next couple of days. Stress!

Birthday yes, happy not sure

Today is my birthday, and I spent my Saturday night watching Netflix (as usual) past midnight, crossing into Sunday (i.e. my birthday). Was woken up at about 8+am by my 9 year old son who obviously forgot it was my birthday. When he remembered it an hour later, I realised he got nothing for me so I asked him to write me something on a piece of paper, that he happily did and passed me within minutes. My 7 yo daughter woke up at 9+am and was busy running to my room to wish me happy birthday. She apparently got me a present - A small pack of sweets (I think she got it from halloween 2 nights ago), a crystal from cow play cow moo and a $5 note. I was quite touched that she bothered to think about what to gift me as it is always the thought that counts.

Did the usual Sunday routine where I sent them to Sunday school. Woke my husband up at 11.30am, and he blamed me for not waking him up earlier cos he made some lunch reservation at noon (he didn't say it before). Picked the kids up from church and went Dempsey for an overpriced crabby lunch. Had to rush since he forgot my daughter's gym class starts at 1pm? Well, to me it was just another family lunch with the difference of him paying instead of me that's all. There was nothing else prepared, no gift, no cake, to symbolise it was a birthday celebration.

Sent my daughter to gym and dropped my son at the MRT station as he had table tennis lesson. Picked them both and went to my in-laws for dinner (without my husband of course, especially since he was busy having to celebrate his colleague's birthday, whose actual day is tomorrow, that evening). My fil bought a cake and some dinner to celebrate my birthday, while the kids were busy with k pop demon hunter on tv and snatching to blow candles. That basically sums up my birthday celebration.

I'm still figuring out what I feel but I think it's not that I'm unhappy or anything. However, I don't think there is much to make me happy? Probably that's what I'm feeling. Nothing. Then again, it's just another birthday I guess so not a biggie. Oh and did I mention that my mum doesn't even bother to wish me happy birthday at all? Not a loss though she supposedly claims that she still cares for me. Uh huh.

Food testing

It has been a while since I had a night out drinking, and a Friday night too, no less. 2 nights ago, I decided to try out the no.1 pub in Singapore (top 10 in the world!) - Jigger and Pony. It was then that I realise that I don't have many close drinking friends.. Anyway, decided to jio Gerrie for the drinks since it was just past her birthday. Booked the 6pm slot and a sign that I haven't been drinking in a while at a pub was when I commented to the waitress "Your food menu like this only ah?". I mean, it was 6+pm, i.e. dinner time. I naturally thought I should be eating proper food to support the alcohol... That's when I remember I'm in a PUB.

But OMG, the cocktail I had (yuzu whisky something) was really GOOD. And the wagyu beef skewers were so nicely done! Gerrie was commenting that the $150 wagyu steak she had the week before definitely paled in comparison to these skewers. And the black pepper crab dip. And the bikini toast. And the mac n cheese... okok, let's focus back on the drinks. Yes, I think THAT cocktail rocks. Gerrie did pear n tonic and she felt it was very good too. Will try that next time! Oh and they did a nice gesture of giving us a small free chocolate cake with a candle as I indicated on my booking that I was celebrating a birthday.

After all the finger food, they somehow added up and we were feeling full. Walked all the way to Chinatown where I started feeling a bit sad seeing my grandma's old house. Took a train home from there, with the belief that I had lost at least 1kg (out of the 10kg I needed to lose) from that walk. My kids were still awake and running round the house when I got home around 9.30pm. That's when my LAU (life-as-usual) mode kicked back in and it was back to kids everything once again.

A lot of this weekend was focused on Isaiah doing test papers in preparation for the 1 week year end examinations starting tomorrow. During the process, I'm constantly reminded on why I cannot teach my own kids... I really cannot tolerate it when the mistakes made were obviously careless. Or when I have explained a couple of times and the kid still doesn't get it.

Today, I was planning to bring the kids to my in-laws place (as usual) for dinner after picking Elisah from gym class. However, my MIL seemed tired and Elisah irritated me so I decided to just stay home with the kids. Isaiah started crying when he realised that we weren't going down anymore and Elisah the copycat followed. Was rather annoyed that Isaiah wasn't thinking about his exam tomorrow, and instead wanting to play / watch tv at my in-laws. He's already 9 years old and should understand priorities better! Ok, I relented and let them watch a couple of educational shows on tv, and brought them to their favourite Caruso (cost a bomb) for dinner. Elisah was busy commenting on how the food rated 100 out of 100 for her. From the seafood pasta to the parma melon to the lamb chops to the dessert. Isaiah was slightly more critical and rated the bread 5 out of 10, and pasta 7 out of 10, making it 42 out of 50, or 84%. Ok, that's probably from doing a lot of test papers the past couple of days.

Now to continue preparing Isaiah for his exams, and getting myself mentally prepared for the week to come. Gotta juggle between a few different conferences and events and trainings. Argh.

Chiong ah!

So post-covid, my company continues with partial WFH as they did not want to rent enough office space for everyone to come in. With my new boss, he wants us to be in office at least 3 times a week. Ok, it's still not THAT bad. And cos Deepavali was on Monday, today (i.e. Thursday) is the only day I actually WFH. Mainly because I wanted to help my son with his P3 final exams next week! So in between all the calls, I picked him up from school and I think for the 1st time this year (and maybe last year too), he ate lunch at home after school.

It's so difficult to get him to focus on work. He's always thinking about having a break, playing minecraft, doing SLS or eZhiShi (i.e. screentime) or whatever else. No, I didn't tell him my childhood life as a gamer... and therefore making sure he doesn't become one too. Took me a lot of pain to explain how he only has a few days left to complete all the assessment papers for the entire year that he only starts now and hence he needs to CHIONG AH!! At least until end of next week.

In the evening, it was condo council duties again. For whatever reason, I became secretary?? That's after throwing out my treasurer position from the previous year. Anyway, we are now in the 2nd stage of selecting a new MA to replace the existing CMI one. We interviewed the potential candidates and one of them is actually a single mum. Fortunately for her, her kids are rather old (> 21 years old). It kinda hit me that I'm also like a single mum but with really young kids. I mean, I have to work since I am the sole breadwinner paying for everything, get groceries, fix house stuffs (from aircon servicing to silicone to wallpaper), settle all kids stuff and plan routines / holidays etc. Oh well. Back to the candidates. We had a vote to determine who we preferred. The one who works PLUS talks a lot, or the one who works and is much quieter? I decided to go with the quieter one and am glad I'm one of the majority. Cos that guy's character is probably similar to me - Work more, talk less :)

Drop 10!

Went for my health screening last week and just got the report today. Basically it was bad in a few areas, from cholestrol to liver to gall to abdomen to goodness knows what else. They all point to the same root cause though.. my BMI!! So the advice is for me to lose AT LEAST 10kg and most issues should self-resolve. Gosh, how do I even start? I didn't succeed even when I was fighting tkd last time - that's how I always end up fighting the heaviest weight category lol. I mean, I think I've been trying to lose a bit of weight for the past 20 years? 30 years? Ok, maybe I just have the thought all the time. Isn't it the thought that counts? Sighs.

So what do I do now? More resolutions for 2026. I can't just set a goal of losing X kg. I need a plan, a real proper plan that is realistic for lazy (and greedy) me. Time to chatgpt!

That fella (aka chatgpt) is really good. It came up with a rather holistic plan, from nutrition to activities to habits to tracking... it has got'em all. Honestly, I've got the pool and gym so close to my house and I never use them. The pool is pretty much just 15 steps away and the gym is upstairs. The issue is ME. And my stomach.

Maybe I'll try starting with the stomach first.. Time to stock up on yogurt and berries and overnight oats. Let's go do this! Fighting!!