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May Madness
posted : Monday, June 01, 2026
May was madness more because the first half of the month I was sort of busy trying to close two projects - one of which involved a CMM presentation. At the end of the day the presentation went well, I managed to get these two projects off sir/madam’s tracking lists - even though they are strictly not closed yet, but it’s a win in my books. And it’s like a huge weight off my shoulder after that week, the sense of relief that tells me “okay, you can go enjoy Japan now”.
But back to the presentation - years of experience under my belt and the fact that I know my stuff well meant that I didn’t really have to prep that much - rehearse and all - and just had to familiarize myself with the deck beforehand. What was sort of unexpected for me was how, even with this knowledge, I felt very jittery in the week and especially the two days leading up to it. Perhaps I got carried away by the general tension D was projecting, but I should have trusted myself more. Didn’t like that uneasy feeling but as I said, the sense of relief that came over after was rather satisfying and I was glad to get it out of the way. Month actually started with another routine KL trip. Always thought I’d get bored of it soon but still managed to keep it generally packed. Rain Rave Festival kept things a bit interesting in terms of logistical challenges, but after Park Hyatt hotels will always pale in comparison. Moxy was a pretty value for money gem though, and the whole Chinatown area has more to explore so I might dedicate some time here the next time round. And that sets me up nicely for Japan! It’ll be covered in the reflections post as usual, along with the series of ten posts or so - sigh days without backlogs are over - and I did manage to cut down to my target weight prior to the trip, though barely but again I’ll take the win. Funnily enough trainer did body check the week before and a weekend later, did a double take claiming that I visibly looked even leaner than the week prior so took another set of photos. I do think visually there’s now an obvious difference in that people are commenting about me slimming down again, even if the stupid body fat percentage is stubbornly slow. Bulking next and I wonder how it’d turn out. But I digress. Till next month!
 REXKL may be my favorite spot this trip  And my regular check in with this one. Labels: updates |
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All-in April
posted : Friday, May 01, 2026
And one third of the year is over just like that.
April started with a bang because I finally got away after more than a month in town. Funny how standards are such that one month counts as intolerable these days. And even if it’s somewhere as near as Melaka it still was such a needed escape. I was kinda hoping for a bit of catch up with cousins, which was kinda odd for me, but in the end most of them didn’t make the trip and I was awkward as usual so oh well. But I guess I did spend some quality time with my folks so that’s a good thing. And of course ate to my hearts content and plotting a weekend escape here in the near future because…actually it’s very doable? The other part of the trip which I was looking forward to, more so than the Melaka leg, was the PH staycation. It was tempting to make this a KL trip but seeing that I’ll be back in about a month’s time anyway for a proper trip I decided to keep this as a proper staycation - so in-house meals and facilities it is. And it was a really good stay I feel, I dig the design ethos and the lengths they go to in order to enforce its consistency. Service could have been more personable, view could be better (because unfortunately it was mostly cloudy and rainy), but can’t complain. The pool was surprisingly what I thought the weak point contrary to what everybody says, because at level 99 I suppose it’s too cold for it to be outdoors? Breakfast was awesome quality. Other than that the rest of the month was work as usual. I alternate between annoyance and focus on getting some projects closed (because I was annoyed, ok maybe they are all the same) so it was productive in a way. Just constantly remind myself to not get outlasted hur hur.
Interestingly got dragged into this colleague group doing a monthlong sit up challenge where we start slow (10 sit ups on day 1) ending with 100 sit ups a day on day 30. It was surprisingly fun and I don’t have trouble with it, except on days where I’ve PT session and I’d be quite knackered by the end of it that I have to breakdown the sit up program into more manageable segments. Oh and speaking of fitness. I spent the entire month dealing with a right shoulder injury. It felt like a muscle strain at first but by now it still hasn’t healed so I wasn’t sure now. Granted there was obvious improvements week on week at first but it has stayed on more or less the same state for a couple of weeks now. Having trouble with some rotational movements but I’ve progressed to a state where I can now do weighted pull ups (initially even just hanging on the bar was not doable). Thought of getting it checked out, but eventually decided not to because with our medical system by the time I get scheduled to see a specialist I’m probably alr healed so. Plus it’s not something you can take medicine or something, either surgery (and it’s not so serious I think) or you can just rehab yourself so I guess we can just save the effort. And hopefully by the next update it’d be better. May will be fun! Bookended with trips including one that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time (because as usual I booked it long ago) and it’s a solo trip in the end because the sister couldn’t make it eventually. Which means also that I’ve gotta settle quite a bit of work stuff in between, and lock in on the last sprint of my cutting phase. Till then.  Labels: updates |
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Muted March
posted : Wednesday, April 01, 2026
After whizzing through the first two months of the year March felt strangely muted, even if the same theme of it passing by quickly remained.
Grounded, for one - didn’t fly anywhere for the first time in a while. Which makes it a very work focused month I guess, for good or for worse. Good because I think I got things done, bad because I kinda got into this bad headspace where I kept getting irritated by the leadership and the direction we are heading towards even though it’s nothing new by now. And March meant appraisal results, which turned out to be a long drawn process because firstly I had quite a few people to go through, and secondly not everyone is around during that week so I ended up stretching it over almost two weeks. It was mentally draining at first because the heavyweights are quite frontloaded, as usual not everyone is happy with what they got, but on the plus side there’s not much drama this year and I do feel very much at ease talking to everybody despite again not preparing enough (I still forgot some points for some people and only recall them a few days later). And my own, well wasn’t spared from the default-but-officially-not-default drop and let’s just say I now fully understand all those people who have been getting their Cs all these years. Bank account definitely didn’t look as pretty, for the first time since 2013. Definitely stung because it was worse than I expected/remembered it to be, and so I think I took it harder than I expected myself to. May we never land here again. Being grounded also means I had time to work on myself so resumed cutting phase after CNY feast - and it wasn’t as fast as I thought, at least I felt that the outcome wasn’t proportionate to the effort I put in. Injured shoulder towards the end of the month and it was bothering and affecting my daily life a fair bit, plus the entire month I felt that something was off with my body again though it not severe enough for me to seek medical attention, but something that I am monitoring closely and hopefully get it sorted out next month. And all the war nonsense going on, despite actively booking and confirming trips as far as next year there’s this niggling feeling that it may not work out as planned. Just part of all the negativity playing through the entire month, I guess. April will start with a bit of travels so maybe that’s the break I need to reset! Fingers crossed. Labels: updates |
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Festive February
posted : Sunday, March 01, 2026
February is of course dominated by annual CNY getaway. Understandable, considering there’s 28 days and I am away for more than one third of it.
Which also means I cheated on my diet for almost the entire month because I sort of let loose over the entire CNY period oops. But what I thought was sort of amazing was that the damage is similar to the trip the month prior, considering it was triple the length and very consistent daily high calories. So I figured your body adjusts after a few days and plateaus, rather than just adding 1 or 2 kgs a day or something.
CNY for me is mostly a form of 仪式感 - there are certain things I need to do every year before flying off, the Bangkok trip which on its own has very standard agendas, and the same few people I ended up catching up with. This year was no different but I did mention a few years back (or was it every year) that with each passing year and reduction in mobility (of my parents) there’s slight changes every year. This year was mostly spent indoors, my dad drank lots of coffee and hot chocolate as usual, we Grabbed everywhere (and stopped paying attention to the prices), paid even fewer visits to temple, and I think we indulged in better food places more often. For me one of the main highlights came very early on in the trip when dad went “Wah!” when I opened the door to our hotel room. Lol it’s a slight step up from our usual price ranges and it’s fairly new and modern and chic, and he liked it. We all do, but it’s rare for him to express it so that’s a win in my books. I did get sick of watching arguments take place over minute things though, and i still get affected by it very easily as compared to the sister who is now numb. Regrettably it boiled over on my last night at home, so it was kind of a sour end to the trip. But CNY is CNY, home trip is home trip, it still was a good time overall and this time round I did come back to SG in one piece so I guess all’s good. And speaking of which I went for what was supposed to be one final check at the hospital the morning after coming back to SG - and was greeted by validation of a clean bill of health. Everything is perfectly within normal range now and I was beaming from ear to ear by the time doctor was ready to see me. So that paid consultation was more of a chit chat session with minimal snippets of advice, and I even forgot to ask if it’s an opportune time for me to take the vaccine already. Oh well at least insurance paid for that session. But can’t be more glad to move on. Back at work, boss came back on the first day of the month and relieved us of all covering duties. And he was looking rather fresh though that freshness didn’t last too long oops - I came back from my break and he was already looking sian again. But again because of short month and my break - there’s very little to say about work in general. Next month will be blockbuster though - hopefully not for wrong reasons.
Technically this happened in March but since we are talking about CNY here - hosted a gathering for the first time in a while. Granted it was only for a group of 4 in the end but it got me slightly stressed getting the house into a suitable state, which included a pre-CNY spring cleaning which I had wanted to do for a while. But 一分钱一分货la because while this team I found on Carousell was reasonably priced…my chairs weren’t still wasn’t very clean in the end and the stains showed up once dried. Not sure if they tried their hardest already, oh well. Got a pencai and I quite liked it, even though there was a bit of stress cooking it through the claypot. I guess I am a bit sorry to see February end because CNY has traditionally been my favourite holiday. Grounded and not flying in March and maybe it’s good time to get some progress in terms of fitness, but well you never know heh heh.  Bangkok trip was a mixed bag in the end  This guy acting all cute in front of everybody. Labels: updates |
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Jam-packed January
posted : Sunday, February 01, 2026
Kind of resolved to do a monthly update post, however short it may be, instead of waiting for I don’t know, half a year or something.
January was kinda madness at work. I still think the 2015 days where I juggled many things at once was the worst ever, so let’s just say I haven’t had such schedules in a while, even if I still generally knock off by 630 everyday. Lower standards I know but yeah. Reason being boss was away for three months, us SMs took turns covering, and I am the flavor of the month, which I kinda knew from the start that it will be a busy one as compared to November and December (duh). It’s like everybody woke up at the same time and decided hey it’s a good time to catch up on this. My record was 8 meetings in a day with my only free time slot being 1-1.30pm, and I was just plain laughing about it instead of being upset or tired, because it sounded so unfathomable how nothing overlaps and it’s really just back to back^8. It did get whittled down to 6 eventually and the one before lunch ended early so I ended up with a proper lunch break. There was also a day when I ended a meeting at 815pm and had to skip a PT session oh well. But the good news (I hope) is that boss will be back tomorrow and things should be back to normal (even though as it stands, I have to go in office all 5 days next week so easier schedule my foot. Nah kidding. Objectively January is not a bad month at work but February will be better. But it did give me a reason to self declare a mental health break and I’ve been itching to escape somewhere….so I did. Ask me where if you want to know, but all I can say is that while this was a last minute (I spontaneously booked it 10 days before at the peak of my busy schedule) and hectic trip (because I want to utilize every bit of it) it did the trick, and I almost can’t believe it did. Physically tired but mentally recharged. And it sort of set me back by a week in terms of weight cut but I recovered it in exactly a week (I was expecting it to take longer since I gained quite a bit from it) so not much harm done in the end, and I am on track to hit my target before CNY. Last lap! And yes that’s what I am looking forward to in February. Another break (of course) and CNY had traditionally been my favourite holiday. Fingers crossed I come back from Brunei safe and sound this time round lol. Labels: updates |
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小蛮腰
posted : Saturday, January 24, 2026
Ah, Guangzhou.
My fondness for Cantonese cuisine cannot be understated and naturally GZ came up as a potential candidate for my second ever foray to mainland China, and with the same Brunei gang in tow. Meant for it to be an annual affair after HK at the beginning of the year because I also developed a liking for traveling to temperate (?) regions during winter months which is cooling but not freezing. But scheduling issues meant we brought this forward to early December instead, which unfortunately turned out to be not nearly cold enough - it was borderline hot even, reaching a max of 25degC every day oh well. But my bigger worry leading up to the trip was what physical state I’ll be in. As recent as two weeks before the trip I was still having bloating issues even though the jaundice problem had finally gone away about a week prior (which meant dramatically improved sleep quality), but all of a sudden when I touched down in KL (yeah I planned a KL trip about two weeks before this GZ trip too as part of my now half yearly ritual) I was able to eat well. And a blood test post-KL trip also showed most of my indicators back in normal range or at least heading closer to it so I reckoned I was finally out of the woods. And that contributed to an extremely chirpy mood throughout the trip and I found that I enjoyed it a lot more than what I imagined, even before I had my HepA episode. And the nature of the trip was meant to be i think 70% eat/shop and 30% attractions? So I had better be in a good shape heading in and thankfully I was. Traveling there did take up two full days though, because the Brunei gang only had direct flight to HK, and while I had a direct flight to GZ the prices were astronomical because it’s right smack in the heart of December holidays where half of Sg is overseas. So I ended up with a convoluted three leg journey involving a transit at KL and then joining them on a train ride from HK to GZ - which featured one of our core memories of the trip - more on that later. With that we effectively only had three days there, and to me that was a regret of some sort. But we can always head back next time and this gang is definitely up for it. I had imagined GZ like HK because of the Cantonese connection, but maybe the influx of 外省人 had changed it a bit so it’s maybe more similar to other major Chinese cities. The good is that you don’t have the curtness of the HK people (and instead you have polite Chinese ones when it comes to the service industry, including those sporting a very distinct Cantonese accented Chinese which I adore lol), the bad is of course the bad habits. Like openly smoking within an indoor restaurant and toilets omg, which is the biggest turnoff for me if I ever consider a return trip. Seriously it was that bad. But let’s circle back to the beginning of the trip, where I’ll let pictures tell the stories as usual and maybe keeping it within a single post (because I can’t afford splitting it again, I still have backlogged posts from SH lol).
 Arriving at the airport at an ungodlier hour than usual because I had check in luggage  MH is now giving out Famous Amos instead of banana bread as a snack  Duly hopped over to KLIA’s Plaza Premium Lounge to reunite with this lovely laksa.  It was crowded. Could barely find a seat. The last time I was here I had a cordoned off area (because I was flying on a J ticket) but this time had to slum with everybody else. But food’s mostly good including this rendang which I didn’t post a picture of  Second leg let’s go!  I haven’t flew MH on a flight that lasted more than an hour in a while. For some reason it was really warm and it definitely wasn’t because I wasn’t feeling heaty from lack of sleep, because it was the same case on the return flight. Got a pasta dish (there’s three choices wow, had to skip the rendang because I just had one in the lounge). Catering is not bad tbh.  HK again! Wished I had time to stopover.  Did have some time while waiting for the ladies to arrive from Bru, so got lunch with Boss Su first. HK’s soy sauce just tasted more superior somehow and elevates the cheungfun.  Hello everybody. Time to get to GZ!  HK wasn’t cool, felt a bit warm. Maybe coz it’s still early December.  Story time! We had around 2 hours from our latest arrival at HKG to our train to GZ from West Kowloon. After dilly dallying a bit we got on HK Airport Express and reached Kowloon station at around 3pm. We assumed we had plenty of time so headed over to West Kowloon on a regular pace, not too slow. Little did we realize that we had quite a few hurdles to clear - bag check, HK immigration, bag check, Chinese immigration, bag check, train check in. It was eventually the Chinese immigration that tripped us up because the online arrival card system couldn’t work, we had to get the hard copy and filled it up, then go for manual counters as a result and while the queue wasn’t long, only two counters were open and every second counts at this point. Korean family in front of us refused to let us go first, brushing us aside by saying “you already missed your train” (to which I retorted that we still had 5 minutes but jokes on me because indeed train gates close 5 minutes before and I hadn’t envision that there’s another gate before the train platform sigh I thought we could run up the train or something). So we missed the train, forfeited the ticket and bought new ones sigh. But at least my pointless retort provided for the first laugh of the trip.  So we were an hour behind schedule and got on the next train instead. 1.5h ride to GZ.  Only managed to take a quick photo of the train because I can smell the smoke already and there’s a crowd  Checked in to Mehood Lestie Hotel near Guangzhou East station. At one point I’m confused on what the actual name of the hotel is because it’s also called Liz Hotel and maps showed it as VE international too.  美豪丽致 is consistent though. Point of this pic is the badly translated English lol  Always like a TV that welcomes guests personally  View from room!  First night and nobody is in the mood to head out after a day of travels so ordered 美团. Ladies got this dessert….  …..This 串串….  ….while I added from this 大排档 called 常来大排档. Scallion ginger chicken’s sauce was not bad though as we eventually realized chicken here tend to be in the tough side. Added 椒盐鲜鱿 too  Hotel comes with a breakfast buffet and supper of noodles, which we didn’t get to try in any of the days. Breakfast spread was decent though, I wished there was dim sum (it’s GZ!) but sadly no, though they did have congee which the ladies were raving about.  My favourite of the pick has gotta be the live noodle station where this wanton slaps.  Headed out, while waiting for boss Su to do business in the hotel room we got some coffee to start. Because Luckin is everywhere, I scoffed at the choice a bit because it’s now everywhere in SG too but I can understand the ladies’ desire to try.  Our first stop of the day is more coffee - at this place called Lil Bee. Pork floss croffles were a hit among the gang, coffee was good too.  We left Canton Tower out of our itinerary but since it’s within eye shot, here’s a pic.  Off for lunch. We headed out pretty late so after breakfast it’s already time for lunch. Can’t remember if we got the queue ticket through 点评 or not but it was a roughly 20-30min wait  红米肠is a thing in GZ that I have been very curious about. I think the 肠itself is alright, can’t differentiate what makes it special, but it’s the filling of fried prawn that I really enjoyed. The other items are pretty standard dim sum fare which we all described as 无功无过 except the 豉油鸡 which was really tough and was letdown. Again because of the type of chicken they use I suppose.  Took a half an hour stroll to 北京路  A friend highly recommended this and called this the best taro drink in her life and she has had many. I think it’s a good drink though I don’t know if I’d call it the best ever because I don’t know the judging criteria hahah. The rest of the drinks the ladies had were a letdown apparently.  The very famous 大佛寺 was very picturesque and we did spend quite some time in here.  Had sometime to explore on my own while the ladies and KH went for a 头疗 appointment which can only accommodate them now. It’s not really my thing so I’m proud of myself for not caving into a group mentality.  Dusk came early so I headed back to 大佛寺to snap pics  I quite dig these very brightly lit shopfronts  Dinner was at supposed to be at this highly popular 煲仔饭 place called 民记 but we didn’t want to wait an hour (estimated). So we decided to go to a competing store opposite it called 顺德 which had no queue and is able to seat us immediately. Verdict? There’s a very good reason why they have no queue. Mid af in my opinion though the rest still found a slight reason to cheer about.  Dropping by to tapao for supper, sort of. There’s the regular floss cream bun, and also a 杨枝甘露 one which is supposed to be eaten cold. I quite like it, though if the SG branch had a queue you probably won’t see me there.  Finished the night with a trip to have more 糖水, this time from this very chain-ish store called 芝麻糊世家. Decent, tangyuan wasn’t spectacular but did the job.  Day 3, on a Didi ride to our first stop of the day sans KH who had nature’s call while we were waiting for our Didi and rushed back to the room to answer it, so we went off without him. One thing about these rides though, is that they take damn long even if it doesn’t look that far on Amaps - like this one took us almost half an hour.  First stop is coffee!  This neighborhood is really chill and I loved the vibes. Called 六榕  And it’s lined with cafes, I explored a bit while waiting for our coffee  Went for a tasting flight. Other than the one on the left, we liked the other two.  Got someone to take a pic for us  Then went to our next stop nearby - 忍忍. Also quite liked the interior  And this was a favourite  Didn’t know there are still areas served by trams  Lunch was dimsum  Got a queue number and just about made it in time.  I dig the interior. Unfortunately the whole experience was marred by toilet cubicle that stenches of smoke, and their inability to control diners who openly smoked inside the premise. Food was better than yesterday, but the smoke sigh  Cheongfun wasn’t too thick, just the way I like it  Siewmai was great  And another 红米肠for good measure.  lol why this sign  Hey chicane  Went to 永庆坊! First stop was a gelato stop just after we dropped off, because flavors look interesting  Found a dreamy spot to take pictures  Entering 永庆坊  Essentially a shopping street for the most part  There’s a 国家粤剧中心 which we didn’t go in  Exploring a bit while the ladies and KH are stuck inside a fragrance store.  Part of where I ventured to  Night views were good  You are supposed to see a moon here. Gotta say this is something I won’t think about  Heading off to our dinner spot  Highly acclaimed restaurant. Luckily we only waited about 20minutes  This charsiew is one of the best I’ve had, disappointed that the roasted pork was sold out though. Goose was meh. Actually a lot of dishes we want were sold out even though it was just slightly after 8 when we entered.  Couldn’t get a Didi for some reason so we walked a bit to somewhere where hopefully there are more cars.  Ordered takeaway on our way back and food arrived before we did. The 杨枝甘露 was very good! Place is called 有囍  Day 4 is designated shopping mall day and we decided to start late…so brekkie in the room. I still want an authentic 肠粉店meal which is not 银记because I can get that in sg…so went for this instead. Meat inside the cheungfun is really tender, fried noodles not bad too.  Off to Parc Central 天环广场. Pretty nice, all the big brands that are shop-able and rather new looking  Finally ticked Manner coffee which had been on my list since Shanghai and I would say for a chain coffee brand it’s actually not bad.  We dropped by viral Butterful&Creamorous and can I just say the experience was sort of overstimulating - queue to go in, and once you are in you basically go around an island of bakes and on the outer circle is more bakes and cold items like cakes. So you just keep going around in a circle, grab what you want along the way or else continue, then finally when you are done you exit the carousel and head to pay. Bakes are good and there’s some interesting combinations but…not more spectacular than others so.  阿嬷手作 had quite a bit of wait too though we ordered online but can’t resist.  Very nice Christmas deco and supposedly night lights but someone said the temporarily suspend it because crowd control was a mess the night before  Hopped next door to 天河广场 which is an older mall but still quite popular and again brands that you don’t find in 天环, you’ll find it here. I’m quite done shopping and I saw there’s a 陶陶居here so I decided to takeaway siewmai, which is my yardstick for good dim sum and I was kinda disappointed with it, like my least favorite one of the trip so that kind of killed off any desire to try the restaurant, for now.  Off to dinner  Peking duck in Guangzhou doesn’t sound right but I inserted it into the itinerary when I saw it in the prelim list. And it was a rather good one  But I think everybody liked this fish dish and it was so affordable, the whole fish for around $10+ only  Friend recommended me to try this yoghurt brand and said it was really good for digestion lol and I was sort of in need of it so I decided to try it. Didn’t really work on me, though it’s still quite a nice drink  Time to go home! We don’t have much time left, so I woke up earlier than usual because I wanted to squeeze in one more Cantonese classic which is wanton mee using their 竹升面. The rest weren’t keen on alkaline taste in these type of noodles so we didn’t visit any place. I contemplated ordering from another popular dim sum store in 点都德 but the nearest only open at 8 and I was worried it wouldn’t make it in time (we plan to check out and leave hotel by 845pm)  No more missed train drama coz we were a bit kiasu  And back to HK and HK Airport! Drama free this time round, but it still took us 1.5h from the time we stepped off the train to the time we arrived at the airport. So end up it was still quite rushed and we ended up with….  Just 15 minutes for Stel in this lounge, I fared slightly better with 30minutes. Chase Sapphire Lounge is my favourite lounge in HK and I brought them in to try it out, they liked it but would have loved more time. But it’s also the last time because they are closing down and handing over to Kyra which is why I am adamant to visit it one last time.  Their made to order dish this time round include this steamed chicken dish.  I think I ended up a bit late and it was final call already. There is staff patrolling the wing where my gate is located announcing it too, and that is not good news so the moment I saw the staff I sprinted to my gate wtf. One of the last few to board lolol  Very unexpectedly scored a Victoria Harbour view on my way out! I know which seats to choose already next time I fly out of HK  Another excellent meal by MH.  Back in KL, explored a new lounge in Travel Club Lounge. Pretty decent one but I think Plaza Premium still takes the win.  Got a few hours to kill really. Before I came in I actually exited airport and headed to KLIA2 for a bit of dinner and bought breakfast for next morning, before coming back and clearing immigrations again.  Past 1130 flight. What have I gotten myself into. But yes this is the last pic of a hectic but enjoyable trip! Here’s hoping this group sticks together for more trips. |
