Ribbit Dinner

Yesterday I went to One-North and met John after work. Our friend picked us up after some confusion where each party was and travelled in his green car to an area where we had never been. Nevertheless I was sure I had seen these buildings before, but John questioned if I thought all of Singapore looked the same.

Our driver struggled to find a spot to park on the street. This neighbourhood seemed to only consist of one-way roads. We parked three streets away from the restaurant and walked through strange alleys to find our way there. We passed temples, golden elephant statues and simple food with a plastic spoon sitting in the street. Our friend explained it was for the Gods and I wondered if the Gods really needed a spoon. The only being I saw eating the food was a small undernourished street cat. One I squealed over and wanted to bring home. Then I saw a second and had the same reaction. Then a third and later a forth.

When we sat down around a table at Eminent Frog Porridge Seafood restaurant our friend needed to fetch something from his car and said we could order something to drink. While sitting there alone we quickly discovered we were the only pale people in sight. Even though we made a few attempts to receive attention from the personnel nobody came up to talk to us. We felt avoided. As soon as our local friend sat down a waiter came up with bowls and sticks and asked if we wanted to order now. We were still waiting for one person more so we declined. We bought drinks across the street where the food was being made. Our second friend managed to arrive during the few minutes we were away.

If you are planning on moving to Singapore I suggest to touch up on your English. Also, try learning Chinese. I believe the reason nobody came up to John and I was because we looked like we did not speak it. Our friends ordered in Chinese. Even though we did not understand what they said, when the lady taking our order pointed towards the two of us and smiled we saw that she judged us. Casual talking erupted once she left and soon the food arrived. We had rice porridge which tasted like rice crackers, a specific brand common in Sweden. I liked it a lot! To this we had two dishes of frog. First time eating frog. It was said to taste like chicken (which everything is explained to taste like these days) but it had less taste of chicken and was more like simple meat. Not a lot of taste in it. It was a filler for the porridge. It was good, but not fantastic!

I was almost full when one of the guys found an eye in his bowl. Seconds before they had assured me there were only the lower parts of the body in the dishes after I proclaimed I had found a head. I lost a bit of my appetite after that and took it upon myself to finish the porridge. After three more bowls I was finally full.

A girl from the chat (all of our friends are in the same chat) joined us unexpectedly in the middle of the dinner. It was an open invitation and it was only fun to have another girl there. A bit shy perhaps but I solved that by staring at her during the dessert.

After leaving the restaurant we travelled by car a couple of blocks down to a specific dessert place. Like a kiosk in the middle of a row of other small shops. We tasted bean curd in syrup, something we both dislike hence no picture of it, and egg tarts which John liked at least. Soon after that one friend needed to leave. The rest of us got into a car and had a tour of the area. Apparently a shady street; the lower the number got the shadier the area became. We saw brothels called things like Happy Nr Two (two being the number of the house) and men standing outside. A few girls could be seen but most were probably inside the houses. An interesting view of Singapore we had never seen.

Thank you friends for taking us there. The food was surprisingly good and it was fun to see a place in Singapore which still looked like it did in the 70's. Our friend said that and I believe him. He was kind enough to drive us home.

Confused Fever

I think I am sick. I am not sure. John says I am but still I am not convinced. Thing is, I have fever. My eyes are blank and my temperature goes up and down. Yet when john touches my forehead I am not warm. Not more than normal.

Laser not so fun after all

Tough day. John slept a lot longer than I could. I left him to give him some space and had breakfast in the sofa while reading. He came up around half past ten and by then I was already pacing about. While he fixed the last things needed for the insurance I took a shower and got dressed. I packed a bag to bring with and he still was uncomfortably calm. Eventually he made himself ready, after having some breakfast too since we would need to skip lunch.

Again we took a cab. The hospital is only a fifteen minutes drive from home. The difficult part is finding the cab. Two days in a row the drivers have been going around the area to look for us while we have been standing by the road looking for them. When at the hospital we signed in and had ninety minutes to wait. I could not read the book, I was stressing. John was annoyingly calm, reading things on his phone.

Close to two a lady walked up and asked his name and ID-number (to make sure they had the right patient. I am wondering how many times they walked away with the wrong person before this became mandatory). We were brought up to another floor and led by two ladies; one in the front and one behind us. I suspect this is what it feels like when being escorted to prison. A door opened to a small room without windows (totally enhancing my prison-theory) and they asked us to wait there.

A nurse came in and dropped something into John's eye. This substance would make his pupil large, like the photo in the last post. She came in three times to do this. Whilst waiting John read things indifferently on his phone while I nervously kept talking. We discussed small tsunamis; the topic on the television news. Suddenly his doctor came in and shone a light in his eyes. He then nodded and said John had grey green eyes. I am still not convinced. I am sure they are blue grey.

Half past two they came to get him. The nurse made it clear I could wait where I sat. So I winked farewell, crossed my legs and opened my book. I had a banana. I wrote to people in the chat. I drank some water. John came back. He was gone for about twenty minutes.

The surgery went well. I will write this as he explained it to me. He had his head in one of those machines where you rest your chin on a plate and hold your hands on the side and stare into nothingness. Then the doctor pressed a lens hard against his eye. The laser started blinking. John did not even know it had started at first. The red blinking did not register in his head as laser. It was difficult to keep the eye still. The nurse had to keep her hand on the back of his head. It burned. It was intrusive. It was over.

We will not know if this made things better. In a week he will return for a checkup. The eye was burning right after the surgery but the worst part was the headache. He wore sunglasses indoors, which helped a little but could not remove the pain. The pupil stayed dilated for hours, much longer than it did the previous times. We bought subway and brought it home to eat in peace. We watched Planet Earth II. He needed some rest so he went to bed and slept for almost two hours.

John is okay for now. The headache is still there but manageable. The pupil is still larger than its equivalent but slowly shrinking back to normal. He is mentally exhausted and I wish him a good night's sleep. I speak for John when I thank you all for the support.

Laser for John

Today was not a good day for either of us. A month ago I wrote a post about John's problem with his left eye. If you have not read it, I suggest you do so before reading this post.

John had an appointment at the Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital again and I went with him for support (and to see how much a package of Nuvarings would cost). We took a cab and arrived twenty minutes past ten. John had previously described the hospital to me and I now could confirm that it indeed looked like a hotel. Very fancy and a lot of comfortable couches and armchairs. He led me to the elevators and up to the fifth floor. Up there we struggled for a while as John was trying, less successfully, to navigate the maze of offices and dead ends.

This was a specialist hospital which means different specialists (companies) rent a medium sized office. The one we went into had a small room where people were waiting and two smaller rooms where examinations were being held. John went in and out of both of these rooms while I sat reading a book. Each time he was called in, a timid little Asian walked up and almost whispered Mr. John?

After one and a half hours we could leave. The news were that his retina is getting worse. Small holes have appeared and he will never recover from that. Another appointment was booked for tomorrow afternoon, this time for a laser surgery. The edge of his retina needs to be burned in place to not tear any further, the latter could cause him to loose all vision in the left eye completely. Still the surgery will not save the already lost vision. He will lose some periphery vision at the bottom of the eye.

There is a ninety-five percent chance that the surgery will go well and no more vision will be lost. The other five percentages means that it could get worse after a while. In this case I believe another surgery could be done and hopefully that would help. Thing is that it might detach a few years from now.

This is were we are right now. I will give you an update tomorrow and let you know how John feels. I give him all my support and love, and I hope you do too.

Do not let the picture scare you. The left eye has been examined and a strange substance was sprayed onto his eye to open the pupil. This way the doctor could use weird night vision goggles and other tools to take pictures of the inside of his eye. It sounded very interesting to me but to John it only gave a headache. Both of us could not stop laughing at the picture though, he looked really silly!

The title of this post is a tribute to John's love for lasers. He told me that each time the doctor mentioned it he started to giggle.

PORN's sexy thai food

We had planned to go see our friends today at the other side of town (country) but I did not feel so good. I am always trying my hardest, even though I am really out of it, so I got dressed and we went to the MRT. Outside I started to feel a bit dizzy but told myself it was because I had not eaten yet. During the weekends we wake up close enough to lunch hours so we skip breakfast.

Ash is working near City Hall. We tried to get there but after getting of the subway at Buona Vista to change line I felt really ill. Not only because of the illness per say, but I also get motion sick easily. We updated her on the situation and instead of going so far to eat we exited two stations from our home.

None of us had any idea what to eat. We walked to Star Vista, a mall near the station, and looked at the directory for something good. There we found a restaurant called PORN's sexy thai food... This is for real. Its name is actually Porn's. I really recommend you put on some sound and click the link. It is an interesting website.

Either way we did not eat there. Instead we chose to have lunch at Nando's. We have ordered from them once before and ate at home, but I can not remember the meal and thus we believe it was not good. This time it was. I had a chicken pita but instead of mayo I asked for the yoghurt sauce. John asked me to pick a side but I had no idea what this meant and I picked garlic bread. Maybe a bad choice, I should have read the menu thoroughly and picked something a bit healthier. John had chicken tenders and fries on the side. Again, he said he should have picked something more nutritious. We also had a not-at-all-spicy spicy sauce, hummus and some small pieces of pita bread. (It was a really bad order from us since I already had pita bread in my main meal.) It was good food though and I totally changed my non-existing opinion about this restaurant. I would love to come pack.

Afterwards I was given time to debate with myself if I was feeling well enough to spend a whole day on the other side. Even though I went between yes and no, John could tell I was not in shape to do so. He repeatedly needed to convince me it was okay. I never feel good about cancelling plans, but I honestly did not feel good from the start. We told Ash and started to walk back home.

On the way we saw some Christmas decoration in the mall. This we have seen in other places as well but it feels so wrong. There is no cold, no snow and where do you use death caps around Christmas?! Also, the colour of the carpet should be changed from grassy green to snowy white.

Becoming Healthy

I have been talking about being more healthy but never really told you how we are trying to achieve this. I will start by saying a few words about how we used to live back in Sweden (and a few months in Singapore). There was little exercise done at all; I want to say none of us ever went to the gym in Stockholm. The lunches were huge and in most cases not healthy at all. The dinners were homemade but also very large portions and very few vegetables. We ate a lot of rice, pasta and loads of meat. There were always one or more sodas in the fridge. We sat often in front of our PCs or the TV. Yet despite all this we remained in constant weight and felt good. Life was easy and comfortable. There was no reason to start thinking about the gym or calories.

Then we moved to Singapore and in less than six months we both gained five kilos! We had the same lifestyle as before and could not understand what happened. Still we are not sure. The Swedish lifestyle was not working in the tropics. There needed to be a change.

I want to say that this all started the day I decided to stop drinking Coca Cola. It has been an addiction in my life for so long and I have tried many times to stop. I did not decide it but one day I went without, and then the next. And it continued. Each day was an achievement. John helped me keep it in check and when I really wanted to have some he gave me a small bottle of Pepsi instead. It was a cheap trick but it worked. Last time I drank Coke was the seventh of October. It might not appear to be a long time, but remember I used to drink everyday, sometimes a day or two without at most.

After that it just continued. We started going to the gym more often. I bought new gym clothes. I bought new shoes. John bought new clothes and shoes. We bought two vacuum sealed bottles that keeps water cold the whole day (or a hot drink warm) and now drink the daily dosage daily. We downloaded an app called MyFitnessPal to help us count calories and therefore can keep track of our meals. We snack less on candy and buy more vegetables. This is a huge change in our life and nothing we have ever lived with.

And you know what?
We feel good!

Small things can make a Day

Today I did not want to sit in my worn-down chair in front of the computer. I feel like every day is another day by this bright screen. This is where I write my book. This is where I communicate with friends. This is where I find most entertainment. This is the chair where my butt is formed. Not literally.

Yes, I started my morning by the computer but only for an hour. While eating my breakfast I watched another episode of Downton Abbey - one of my favourite British series of all time. When it was done I was supposed to open my documents and start writing. I got as far as opening them before my hand dragged the mouse to the off button. I could not stop it. No more, it said.

So I sat down in the living room, finding the fluffy carpet immensely comfortable opposite the stiff chair. I played with the cat for a while but when the cat did not want to play anymore I stared at the table the TV stood upon. It was dusty. It was messy. I could not stand it. I fetched a cloth and pulled out all PS games, all board games and everything else in there. I brushed the items and I swabbed the shelves. Suddenly the cat was inside and would not come out. He found it very interesting to have access to an area previously messy and dusty. He did not help my cleaning; instead, after I asked him kindly to leave, there was a new batch of cat hair on the shelves. I swabbed it all over again and then organised everything neatly.

Afterwards I felt done but my eyes fell upon the TV and the soundbar. They were dusty as well. Cat hair everywhere! I had to swab that too. I cleaned the rug and saw the dishes and made those as well. I washed my hands in the bathroom and saw the dirt across the counter and so I cleaned again. The dots from toothpaste on the mirror annoyed me so I removed those too.

Eventually I did not find anything else to clean (since I had one of these episodes yesterday and vacuum cleaned everything). Then I put on a washing machine and went to the gym. Did some cardio and strength. Got back up and hung the laundry. I decided to eat an omelette for lunch. I have never made an omelette before. I asked John for advise and a sort of recipe. Two large eggs, some onion, finely chopped tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper. Halfway through its cooking I put a load of Parmesan and folded it. It tasted really good actually. I have never really liked omelette but this I enjoyed eating. I felt so healthy.

I read a few chapters in my very poetic book about a blind girl and a deaf boy in Berlin during world war two. A really good book indeed. John once suggested I should write reviews on the blog, but I am already writing them on GoodReads and my activity on GoodReads can be seen in the menu to the right. I looked at my neat pile of PS games and saw one I had not played in a while. Put it in and played for two hours. Then I confirmed the evening plans with John.

By the time he left for work I was on my way to the subway as well. We met a Bouna Vista and travelled to Jurong East to visit IMM again. I have written about this mall earlier and if you are interested you can type in the three letters in the search box to the right and find those posts. We had a clear goal with our visit and made haste around it. First we had dinner at a new restaurant. I had chicken and rice which was far too much for me to eat. John had noodles, fried wantons and mushrooms. He helped me with my meal. I asked the waiter what the crispy popcorn-tasting chips were and she answered belinjo (although Googled sayd melinjo). I need to find this in a store, it was really good!

After that we found our way to the Nike store which we entered in our Nike shoes. We found a guy to ask for help and quickly found the shoes John needed. A pair of jogging shoes with a firmer sole. He bought a green pair, really cool colour. At the same time we bought new anti-blister socks since he had been using mine which are too small for him. Now we are truly fully Nike-wearing, semi-healthy persons!

We swooped through Best Denki, listened to a guy talk about electric shavers, looked at the prices and thanked for his help. Walked out of there with new bags for the vacuum cleaner. Walked downstairs, saw a sushi go-round which I had never seen before and would love to visit, immediately sent a picture to John's family to report this and agreed with his sister to go there once she visits in December. We walked to two clothing stores looking for comfortable shorts/longer pants for me but found nothing. Did a quick run into Guardian (apothecary) and bought pain killers, new blades for John's razor and a large package of tampons.

Lastly we entered Giant, the gigantic grocery-and-other-things store. Picked up a basket each and went straight to the food. Put things from our mental lists into the basket and checked with the written one on my phone. Filled both halfway and stood in line for a while. Let the lady in the cashier pack our things in as many thin plastic bags as she liked, even though we had the discussion about the environment in Swedish whilst this happened. Grabbed a cab and rode home. I felt sick after a few minutes. The cat was waiting by the door, I almost opened it on his head. We put the groceries everywhere, feeling very pleased with ourselves about the amount of vegetables and fruit instead of candy and soda.

Now I will close down this life-sucking machine, aka computer, once more and read another chapter before going to bed. Excuse this long rant about my day but a lot did happen even though nothing really did. Thank you for reading this blog.

Good night!

Shadowverse - app recommendation

Minor disclaimer: Hey readers, John here. I haven't been that active in the blog, um, to be completely honest I've just contributed with one and a half entries. If I am even more honest I won't get much better than that, Ellie does a fair job already to keep you all posted on our life. Regardless - sometimes I have a wee bit of things to share. Today is one of those days.

I'm an avid Hearthstone player and have been so for years, spending hundreds of dollars on card packs, pre-ordering all the expansions - you name it. Yet lately it's grown a bit stale for me; with extreme focus on RNG, net decks ruling the meta and the developers pushing hard for games being dictated by straight forward on-curve tempo.

Introducing Shadowverse

Available on Google Play, iTunes & Steam

Yes, it has a somewhat obscene amount of waifus. And it's definitely easy to spot the heavy inspiration from both Hearthstone and MTG. Yet it's the latter that has me so intrigued by this game - it's almost a perfect mix of my two favorite TCG's!

From hearthstone you get things such as:

• Stealth (Ambush)
• Being able to dictate where damage goes
• Gaining mana per turn
• Playable characters with different traits (hero powers are replaced by a passive modifier/trait)
• Limited board space (5 instead of 7)
• Arena (different concept called 'Take Two')
• Battlecries (Fanfare) and Deathrattles (Last Words)

Whilst you can see MTG-esque elements like:

• Artifacts/weapons (Amulets)
• More control over tempo
• No fatigue - death when deck is empty

And then original additions:

• Separating charge into two categories - Rush (can attack minions only) and Storm (minions and face)
• Evolve points (I'll get more into this later)
• Board space being shared by minions and Amulets
• More than one card resource - depending on which character you play

Let's talk about the, arguably, biggest difference to Hearthstone: how going 1st/2nd is handled and Evolve.

For those of you who don't know, in HS the second player gets a card called 'The Coin' which is a one-time use spell that temporarily gives you one extra mana point. It's meant to weigh up the tempo loss from going second. Additionally you gain an extra card during the mulligan phase (4 instead of 3).

In Shadowverse, both players mulligan for 3 cards, and the second player then draws two cards instead of one on their first turn. The players then get their respective Evolve points, 2 for the first player and 3 for the person who goes second.

What is an Evolve point, you ask?

Evolving allows you to change any minion (follower) into a stronger version of itself, with the following effects:

• (Always) Gains +2/+2
• (Always) Gains Rush, AKA the ability to attack enemy minions
• (Sometimes) Plays an on-evolve effect unique to that card

The result of this is that you, as a player, have a lot more control over the tempo of your game - all depending on how wisely you use your Evolve points. Value trade, get a super strong Evolve ability, buff a minion for some extra face damage and set up lethal next turn, swing the board state - you name it.

You always have to take your opponents remaining Evolve points into consideration - as control over the tempo can shift back and forth swiftly at times - and try to think several turns ahead in your game-plan to ensure you are the one who has board control when both players are out of points.

Evolve points do NOT regenerate unless triggered by a card (so far I only know of one high-cost legendary that does this) so you have to use this resource extremely wisely.

So why should I give this game a try, when I am already invested in INSERT-TCG-HERE?

• They are surprisingly generous to F2P players, giving out card packs left and right and allowing a strong starting collection (advice: check out re-rolling)
• There is a single player 'story' that introduces you somewhat well to the game, meaning you don't need to get wrecked on ladder instantly unless you swing that way. Also rewards you with some core cards for all decks.
• You can still, most likely, continue playing your preferred playstyle - such as ramp, control, SMOrc, zoo etc.
• Who doesn't like variation?

A lot of board games

We were at another board game night yesterday. This time we travelled to Haw Par Villa, which is five stations from ours, and took a bus for a few minutes. After only three stops we went off.

This couple we met at the barbecue two weeks ago. We arrived at their apartment around four with chips and beer in our backpack. The apartment was large in every aspect and cold from the AC. They had so many board games - a whole cabinet filled to the brim and a large stack on top with "new and unsorted". It was heaven for board game lovers! While they talked in the background I rummaged through them all to see which I recognised and which were completely new and maybe something I wanted.

They had put some snacks on the table and since I only had brunch previously I was really eager to eat some. Also they had chosen some of the best snacks in the world! Small dried french fries which were German, some incredibly good and unhealthy dried mango, peanuts, dried cranberries and small packages of Malaysian gummy mango candy. It smelled a lot but had a nice taste. I could not stop eating the fries!

We started with Mysterium, a guessing game where the players cooperate until the last phase. The host was the ghost - a character that is not allowed to communicate with words. Instead he used knocks on the table to say yes or no. Each player, apart from the ghost, has their own person, scene and murder weapon hidden amongst a bunch of cards in front of them. Together with the ghost all players have to find out their individual set of cards. It is an open discussion so we all started talking about who it might be. John and the hostess were sure my person was an explorer or old lady. Although I disagreed with them I followed their tips, which turned out to be a bad idea, since I had been right from the start; it was the barber looking like Sweeney Todd. The scenes were beautiful and we managed to get them right pretty quickly. The weapon was a bit more difficult. I was right about the hostess weapon, but both John and I were having trouble getting it right. We made it just in time and the last phase happened. All players now had a person, scene and weapon in front of them in a set. The ghost now needed to pick one of these complete sets and then put out three clues/cards that would represent one players collected cards. We all guessed right. This was my favourite game of the evening!

Next we played Risk (Metal Gear Solid, even though we did not use all the extra content). It was my first time playing Risk and I think it was okay. Too much strategic thinking for me. I listened to the others advise and almost let them play my colour completely. The host won easily. The game ends when a player completes three missions, which he did extremely fast. It was a swift game and apparently Risk can go on for hours, so I have no idea what happened there.

Then we ordered food from an nearby Indian restaurant. While talking about Risk Legacy the hostess went to pick up the food. She returned after a few minutes and we set the table for dinner. We had biryani rice, butter chicken, tandoori chicken, feta cheese in spinach and cheese naan bread. It was a while since we last had Indian, but this was good and filling.

The last game of the night was Dead of Winter. We have looked at this game and been thinking about buying it so it was a good idea to play it before we decide. This is another game where you play as a team but also have your own individual secret objectives. There could also be a traitor amongst you (chosen randomly) that will try to kill everyone else but stay alive at the same time. We had a very difficult main objective and were pretty much screwed from the beginning. But we soldiered on and tried to make the best out of it. I had two characters that did not get to do much. The Ninja stayed at the colony killing zombies - which meant I rolled dice and spent all three on picking off three zombies from the board. These zombies came back when the round ended and so I continued this way throughout the game. My other character did not get to do much else. Once he left the colony only to stay at two places, take two cards and then go back. John had seven characters in the end and was doing a lot of things all over the place. It looked a lot more fun.

No we did not win that game. It lasted for a few hours and ended close to half past eleven. We helped them pack it all together and had a post-game discussion. We might buy it, it is possible to play with only two players. They offered us to take the Indian food with us and so we did because John can not say no to free food (well, we paid for half of it). The hostess talked about another board game called Pandemic Legacy which sounded like a game I could join and commit to more than Risk Legacy. John ordered an Uber and we thanked for the evening. Outside it was humid after some rain and our car was waiting. The road was snaky (of course) and made it all the worse to get home by cab. I made it though. Everything was fine.

Finding Dory

We watched Finding Dory last night. I really liked Finding Nemo but after seeing it too many times it got old. Which it is by now, it was released 2003. Feels like not so long ago I watched it for the first time but honestly, I was only nine.

Spoilers ahead!

The sequel to Finding Nemo was very anticipated. Finding Dory had the name that said it was going to be another sea-crossing adventure, this time to find Dory. Not entirely correct. I would like to call the movie Finding Dory's parents, or Finding out who Dory is/was/came from. It was very confusing going back and forth in time with her memories coming back at the right moments to keep the plot going. The reason why she spoke whale felt pushed since for some reason only whale language could be heard in the pipes. I guess it had something to do with the low vibrating deep noise that all whales do. She met old friends whom she could not remember until she did, since short term memory loss works that way, at least in the movie. Eventually you remember...

Marlin and Nemo was in this movie as well, but for me they only felt in the way. They take care of her in their home, even though she can barely remember why (or so it seems). Once the movie gets to the "Sydney" of the first movie, they separate from Dory and have their own kind of useless adventure. After that they find her again, only to get themselves in trouble that she now has to save them from. The movie ends with a finale that only happens because they were incapable of being in the right place at the right time. I felt like they could have been left out of this movie or only make an appearance in the beginning. Instead they drag along and they felt really old.

Regardless of this rant I actually enjoyed the movie. Not as much as I had wanted but with low expectations it was pretty good. It had some humours elements, even though some were too obvious and felt too much. It was a somewhat interesting story of Dory's past, made sense and was overall very simple. It was beautifully animated, as are all Pixar movies nowadays.

As a sequel it was okay, but I think it would have been better as a standalone (only Dory, not Marlin and Nemo ruining it). John liked it too, a bit more than I did.

--

John made dinner too. He made so much I was super full afterwards. One large chicken leg each and ribs to take whenever. A huge amount of mashed potatoes with chicken stock and garlic. A cream sauce that complimented everything. A small plate with a lot of vegetables and also a half avocado each. I am not complaining, this was really good! So good... John is really good in the kitchen but, maybe he makes too much food for two people.

Feeling Friday

Apparently I slept really well last night. I have had rough mornings all week and been very tired up until noon. Today I woke up very relaxed. Then John said I woke him up in the middle of the night, around three or so, and told him about my dream - that I needed dementors for my prison in the game Prison Architect. I have been playing this game every morning this week and apparently it stuck in my head. I have no memory of this dream or of John - I was happily asleep.

I have a theory of why I have been so tired. I have been to the gym three days in a row (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) but yesterday my body was sore and I gave myself a day off. I have not been working out as often as this for a very long time (maybe ever) so I think my body just needed some rest. Today I am energised!

Other news: Ymir is pretty annoying. I am trying to work, sitting here by the computer writing words, and he comes around the corner meowing. I ask him what he wants; if it is food or if the litter box is full. I follow him to the food, I refill the bowls, I give him new water and he stares at me. I clean the litter box, I clean the floor and I look at him. Then I go back to my writing and after a few minutes he comes around the corner... meowing. The only thing that has been working is cuddling. I pick him up and either he lays in my lap by the computer, purring as if really pleased with himself but only for a few minutes because then he wants to leave, or I pick him up and go to the bed/sofa and cuddle there and he is so pleased and purring. Then suddenly he lashes out and his sharp claws find the most vulnerable place on my hand and I start to bleed.

My book is going well. I am working hard on the last chapters. I have an old chapter of this part in the book, but I do not like it and have to figure new things out, which takes a little longer than expected. And this is the last event in the book - it HAS to be great!

 Have a good weekend!

Group Dinner

John works between nine thirty to six thirty every day. Yesterday he asked to leave half an hour early so we could be on time for a dinner meetup. He called me when he was on the subway and I hurried over to the station. We met at the train and traveled twenty minutes over three lines to end up at a new station where we had never been. Boon Keng.

There we met Ash and Steve. I asked to get my hair braided and Ash was kind enough to help. This was the first braid I have had since I cut my hair short. I have no idea what it looked like. It felt thick and not very "flowy" as it was when longer. We met another guy from the chat outside the station and all five walked to a hawker centre nearby to have a beer before dinner. Apparently we were "uncle-ing"; which is drinking beer and talk about bodily problems. Well, I found it interesting at least.

Together we walked a few minutes towards the restaurant - Lai Wah. Three of us (not including me) walked so slowly it took longer than needed. Eventually we got there and the others were already seated at a table. We were only two minutes late though.

The food was surprisingly good. The guy who arranged the meetup ordered for the whole table, since it is custom to share everything when it is a Chinese cuisine. First dish was a whole steamed chicken and I do not kid you when I say it was whole. The head was still there, staring up the ceiling with squinted eyes. That dish was very popular, I did not even get the chance to try it! 

Apart from another chicken, which was roasted, we had steamed fish and fried fish, fried tofu, eggplant with fish and noodles with shrimp and mushrooms. My favourites were the steamed and fried fish and also the noodles and shrimp (not the mushrooms, I do not like those). To this we were served leaf water (I promise you it was not tea since I do not drink tea). I tried to finish my glass in time with the food, but a waiter kept refilling mine even though it was half full! I just wanted it to be empty.

Afterwards we travelled by car back to the hawker centre to end the evening with some more beer. Tiger is cheap and popular, but the locals chose another brand. I do not remember what kind. It did not cost much more and it tasted pretty good. Hopefully this will take John away from the Tiger. I only had a few sips from his glass.

Around ten o'clock we split. It was great company and good food. I am looking forward to next time.

Thank you Ash for letting me use some of your photos for this post.

Board Times

On Saturday we had planned to enjoy board games at a friend's place, but Ymir was taken to the veterinary and also another couple could join us on Sunday. So the board game-evening took place yesterday instead.

Around half past three John and I walked to the MRT. It would take approximately an hour to travel from Farrer Road to Punggol station. Here is a big difference with estimating time in Stockholm versus Singapore. In Stockholm you need to add ten to twenty minutes because of delays or plain cancellations of a train. In Singapore you can remove ten to twenty minutes to the estimate because the system is just so smooth. We arrived after forty minutes. With directions given to us from our friend we found our way to a nearby mall, walked into FairPrice and picked up two bottles of wine. The queues were unimaginably long and we stood for half an our just to pay for the two items. Then we wanted some donuts from Dunkin' Donuts and bought a dozen to share with the others.

We were only twenty minutes late to the apartment, mostly because of the queue. Ash and Steve were already there. Before going down to have dinner we played a game called Kung Fu Fighting. It was a simple game of simply punshing each other until death. Of course there were cards with blocks and counter-attacks. I said that everyone should kill John first and so everyone did. What an influence I can have! I killed both John and one of the hosts in one move.

Downstairs was a small hawker centre but it operated like a restaurant. We got a table and a menu, then the hosts ordered for all of us since we all agreed they would know what was the best to pick. We got way to much rice for each person. We shared chicken wings, sweet and sour pork and shrimp in a cream and corn-sauce. It was all very tasty!

During the course of several hours we played five more games. One called Timber (if you follow the link I sent you to Splash!; it is the same game just another name for some reason). The goal is to stack small pieces of different size and shape. When the "tree" falls over the last person to put a piece on top gets a point. It was a really challenging for John with shaky hands. I did find it difficult too! 

Another game we played was Camel Up which is a betting game. Five camels race against each other. Each person can either place a bet on a camel/colour that will mostly likely end up first or second place that round, roll a dice, get a coin and move a camel or bet who will win/lose when the race is finished.

My favourite of the night was Codenames which I have played once before. We teamed up girls against boys (and later mixed it up for another round). John and I started as spymasters. Word-games are my strength. My team won that round! Next spymaster was one of the hosts and I think Ash understood more of her intentions while I basically said every word could be right. My talking just made things harder. Girls's did not win that or the following round. Next we changed teams randomly and managed to split evenly. No partner was in the same team. It was a lot harder and the team I was in did not win this turn.

Also, something worth to mention, when John was spymaster for the second team (not including me) he was so bad at giving hints that his teammates picked the only card that would end the game instantly on their first pick. We all laughed so hard!

Around eleven we played The Resistance: Avalon, a standalone game from the original. At this time I was dropping hints of being tired and wanting to go home, but since we had decided that Ash and Steve would give us a lift home I could not ask them to leave just for me. This being said, I was a very bad "bad guy" (spy) and the rest could easily point me out in the first few rounds. I confess I did not say much to defend myself and only hoped the other baddie would weigh up for me. We played two rounds and I was spy on both, so it is obvious that the good guys won both rounds.

After that it was quarter to midnight and people looked done. I am sure this would have gone on much further but I convinced people it was time to go. We hugged and said good byes and went to the car. I called shotgun because of my motion sickness thing. I did fine, although the cheap wine we had been drinking did not do me any favours. Steve was a really good driver though! We came home safe and sound.

Thanks for the lift!

Vet-Trip and Chinese

We took Ymir to the vet today. Yesterday his eye was red and a strange cloud could be seen hovering over his pupil. I had never seen something remotely like it before so I informed John and googled. Could be an inflammation, dirt or cloudy eye. We booked a time just to be sure.

John had lunch at the hawker centre by the clinic; I had eaten a large sandwich an hour earlier. I sat with Ymir and tried to calm him down. The noise was new to him, since he is an indoors only cat, and the smells made his nose flare hastily. He did not seem to notice me and only glanced at my hand once.

Around two we entered the clinic. They greeted us by asking the animal's name and hearing them try to pronounce it always cheers me up. After a few minutes a woman showed us inside a small room and asked the problem. Apart from the eye we explained about the bloody asshole (literally) and the almost fully healed burn on his foot.

First she dropped a luminescent liquid in his eye and shined on it with infrared light. We did not have anything to say about this but might have had an opinion if we knew it was that expensive for a few drops. There was nothing in his eye, no problem with it and it was probably only dirt. The eye looked better today anyway - as it always seems to get once you get to the doctor with your problem. She then put on gloves and a lubricant and shoved a finger up his butt. Ymir was very calm, did not make a sound, only moved his butt a little in discomfort. Such a good boy! She said his something balls things where the liquid cats spray to mark territory is was somewhat swollen and could be due to the poop. I think there was a connection between the two.

In the end we were given pills to lighten up the spill, drops for his eye and a heavy bill to pay. Of course we do not think about the money when it comes to our cat. Anything for him to be healthy. What I am saying is that it would have been more comfortable to know the expense before having to pay up.

He came home fine and ran out of his carrier. He walked around the apartment making sure everything was still there and that he was the only cat and probably something else. I do not know, I can not read his mind. Then he ran back to the carrier, entered and lay there looking as comfortable as ever. He was not very traumatised.

John and I could not think of anything to order or cook for dinner so we crossed the street to a Chinese restaurant. The place was full and we had to wait twenty minutes for a table. Then we got placed in the corner with our faces against the wall and a window looking directly out onto another table full of people. Not the best view. We ordered a lot since we apparently have no idea how much is normal to order for two people. The waiter even changed our order from ten pork buns to five. The dishes came in one after another. Their signature dish was pork buns and they were terrific! Like a hamburger. I really liked that. Then we had noodles, dumplings, beef and vegetables. It does not sound like a lot but it was.

We walked home after eating too much too fast and had two take-away boxes with us!

Friendly Food

Yesterday we went out to have dinner with friends. After a lot of discussion stretched out over the whole day we decided we wanted Mexican. Unfortunately the couple we were meeting lived very far away from us so we met halfway - Chinatown.

When John left work we saw that the green line, our planned route, was temporarily closed. Instead he came to Farrer Road, we met outside the condo and ordered an Uber to take us to the meeting point. As soon as I sat down inside the car I got motion sick. Sigh. It did not help that it was a snaky road and hot in the car. Even after I asked John to ask the driver to lower the heat I did not feel better. It was not a very long trip though and I was really glad to get out of the car as soon as possible. While waiting for our friends to arrive we went inside a chilled mall. I needed to walk it off, like a professional.

Eventually we all got together and started walking towards the restaurant called Muchachos. It was around a ten minute walk from the Chinatown station. It was fun to see places we had seen before but also new buildings and restaurants. We eventually found the place and walked in. It was a short line but most people seemed to make take out orders so it was not very crowded by the tables. We put down our things at the table and went to order. I immediately saw what John would like, but of course he asked me first what I wanted. Together we made a special order for me - a burrito without beans and the sauce on the side with extra guacamole. Thank you! After that I told John what he needed to order for himself and he laughingly agreed. California burrito. We also had chips and guacamole on the side and drank Jarritos Lime.

Mine was fine, it was nothing special or extraordinary. It filled my stomach and it tasted alright. John, having fries and steak inside his, said it was delicious. I wish I had taken that one instead. I did not even get to taste it! He ate it really fast. In the end I gave him the little that was left after I was finished with my burrito.

Mostly I talked to the girl and John to the guy. Here and there the conversations overlapped and we talked as a group. So many various topics. My new friend told me a story about her trip to USA and I found it both scary and hilarious. We talked about the worst fights we have had in our relationships and none of us had any good ones - a sign of a good match. There was an AC blasting our table with freezing air and when we had finished eating I suggested we would go outside to warm up. The girl agreed. John had not even noticed that AC.

Since it was only half past nine we decided to go grab a beer. Alcohol has a sin-tax here in Singapore so the cheaper the better. They knew a place that was just that - cheap beer. So the couple led us through a closed hawker centre that felt very post-apocalyptic. We went left and right and left and right until we eventually found some men sitting around a table. Of course they would be where the beer is! Good sign. The guys ordered and I shared with John. Two beers later it was close to eleven and I suggested we would drink up and leave. Also, my butt was sleeping.

Together we took the blue line to the station where they would get off to travel further with the green line. They seriously live at the end station, past the airport! So far away. When they got off a guy poked my shoulder. I had my back to him and so I naturally thought he was just asking for some space. I moved a little but he kept going. Eventually I swept around to face him. He held his friend's hand towards me and asked if his new tattooed rings looked good.

I was very confused and also... the tattoos did not go all the way around so technically they were not rings. I did not say that though. The man had clearly been drinking too much. He shook our hands three times while we rode the train. Named Zeus (if we heard that correctly). He asked us friendly questions and answered some himself. John is so much better at talking to strangers. I sat there fumbling with my fingers.

I could relax once they got off the train. Not long after that we arrived at Botanic Garden and switched to the yellow line. Next stop was ours and we walked home. It was around half past eleven. It was a pleasant evening and I truly enjoyed the company of our friends.