ETQ sneakers

I have been eyeing ETQ Amsterdam for the longest time but the regular price is just too expensive so in Feb I settled for a Common Projects. They were very uncomfortable.

My grey GU sneakers had broken soles and just so that ETQ had a 30% year-end sale, I put a pair in my shopping list. It was still expensive after the 30% sale and they don't ship to Singapore. I had been thinking really hard about that pair and delay buying them but they was the last pair of my size left. Initially I wanted to get the classic Nubuck one but they didn't have my size anymore and the only mono-tone premium Nappa leather one was left.


And then suddenly yesterday night they increased the discount to 50%, which made the sneakers less than $200, which was quite reasonable. The only choice which I had to make was either the classic Nubuck or Premium Nappa because they suddenly had my size for both. I thought hard and went with the Nappa:
1. I don't have a mono-tone pair of sneakers, most are white soles
2. Mono-tone sneakers with same colour soles = premium
3. Nappa is easier to clean and more waterproof than Nubuck

After some self-convincing about the price, kaching, now it's being shipping to Becky's place and she's going to pass to Daniel who will pass to me in March next year.

Early birthday present for myself and long have I waited to own a ETQ sneakers.

Fancy bar social December

December is really socialising month for me. It's the month when I went out the most, met the most people and spent the most in the year.

Anyway yes, I definitely have to meet Kat for dinner on a Wednesday night. We went to this Japanese Italian place which I have always wanted to go. It was as good as I had expected. Another Jap-Italian restaurant added to my date nights.

After that we went to Live Twice, which is a Japanese inspired bar which replaced Flagship. The drinks were... ok, not too shabby but too expensive. I realised I haven't been to a fancy bar for so long. I miss fancy bar time.

So when Daniel came back, we went for Star Wars: the rise of skywalker. It was the second time I watched it because I missed a lot of details when I watched the first time. Too much information crammed into 2.5hrs. I felt like it lacked something, probably a heavier sense of humour would do good. And they filmed in Wadi Rum!!!! So excited when they landed on that planet. My fav is still the Last Jedi.

After that dinner at Paradise Dynasty and then fancy bar time. Tonic at JW Marriot. It's a small bar the drinks were pricey so that's why there wasn't a lot of people. It's a nice place though. And then Daniel told me the stuff that I already knew, and some gossips with Denver. Anyway I can stay over his place when I visit him in LA and visit Becky as well. Lotsa travel plans in 2020.

i am horrible

Yup, I was drinking again last weekend. This is horrible, right after I said I will not binge-drink again. But it can't be helped - it was Jarren's and Nelson's birthday.

Edward said that I am like being possessed by another person when I'm drunk.
I am really scared of my drunk self now. I used to have so much control but now I am too uncontrollable.

Maybe I need to go for therapy.

binge drinking

Binge drinking is really bad.

Those times I have no memory of what I was doing were super dangerous, and all those puking and blacking out in the toilet was horrible.

I hated myself for doing that and my body hates it too.

I promise I will not bing drink ever again. I will drink responsibly. I know if I go beyond a certain point I can't control myself anymore so I will not go beyond that point again.

I know I say these, but binge drink again next weekend -_-

IPPT GOLD DRINKING GOLD

What an epic Saturday.

In the morning I woke up, ate breakfast completed my Gundam and started to prepare for my IPPT. I have been training for 3 weeks now, mostly the core exercises in the gym and running on the treadmill. I had my creatine and protein, then a can of red bull which was kinda last minute.

There weren't as many people as I thought it would be on a Saturday evening test. I started with my weakest station - sit ups because that would determine how much effort I needed to put in for the rest of the test. I was quite surprised at my static stations thou, I think they calibrated the machines after so many complaints. Anyway look at my results.

For the first time in my life I've got Gold for IPPT. $500 woohoo!!

After the statics I had a bit of confidence of getting gold because I only needed to run 12.10mins for my 2.4km, and 12min is my usual. I paced myself 2mins per lap but on my 5th lap I was at 10.08mins and I knew I can't take the risk of being a few seconds away from gold so I really pushed myself to the edge. I was so breathless that I walked a good 5s to catch my breath and started running to the finishing line like a mad dog. Woah I almost died. So breathless but it was worth it. 12mins. Over the moon.

So at night I planned to buy some drinks for the guys because I had $500 extra and then Justin texted me saying he's hitting the club alone, so I was a bit worried so I went to the bars to say hi to the guys and headed over to the club. After the liquid buffet ended we went over to the bar and Nicky took over.

Conclusion: Alcohol is bad for health.

I only remembered I was on the roadside and somebody called me I asked who's this and he said he's my grab driver. I can't even remember I ordered a grab and I think he scolded me a little lol. At home, I puked and slept in the toilet for who-know-how-long and showered. The morning I woke up and puked again and today is basically hangover day.

I hate this. I shall refrain from drinking so much again.
I am so afraid of myself now.

Terrace house dating

I have been binge watching Terrance house Tokyo to pick up some Japanese before my trip next month and I really do feel like dating LOL. Japanese are really complicated people and it's so awkward to stay together in a house when you are going to date the same group of people. It's weird.

I'm so lazy to go dating but the show makes me wanna go on a good date. Hahah does it even make sense? And Alan has also been brain-washing me and trying to push me to people but nahhhhhh.

OH and I just had a hair cut recently. Change of hairstyle after like 3 years.

Limelight: RV choir concert

This week was rather uneventful until I went for the RV choir concert.

It was so nostalgic! All the songs we used to sing, and I really wonder if our standards are like that lol. Most of the songs with actions were quite a disaster but the voice was so warm and familiar. Ah, I miss performing with RV choir. 

And after I posted our SYF song Vic texted me LOL. He's now based in HK but his friend is in Germany so he's gonna get me a really good gin from Germany woots! We gonna hang out real soon hahaha. 

What an uneventful but eventful week hahaha

Cherry with SK and Joce

Shikai was back for the weekend so Friday night we went to Cherry because there's a 2000s music partayyyy. The music was good, it was too crowded and they are too young. I was so tried coz it's Friday night but it was super fun. Yay to sharing cab fare with Joce. I love you like a love song babyyyy

Saturday we went drinking again and quote from Shikai: "It's like caifan store after lunchtime, in lucky plaza". I laughed like mad. The crowd was bad so we went to other bars. But ultimately the highlight is I met Luke because Alan and I were just talking about him on Friday. He was going home so we shared cab home coz he lives a street across. Yay to sharing cabs with Luke.

Honestly I wouldn't go clubbing without Shikai or the drinking gang, it's just routine already. Gonna go back to Shanghai to visit!

Feel meeting strangers

I've been feeling so awkward meeting new people or making new friends lately, like I have no idea how to talk to people or what topics to talk about. But they still say I'm very friendly and they feel comfortable with me, but I felt totally awkward and I am very scared of these awkward silences in between and I don't know if I should start a new topic or not and I don't know what's their intention or what they are thinking.

Urgh it's just awkward. I know that much about them but I shouldn't reveal that much because I would sound creepy. How could I pretend that I do not know? I guess I need to practise more. But I will lose my personality. But is my personality being social-able?
Or maybe I need to be Nicky to open up.

/Insert super awkward and unrelated picture.

2 fun weekends

Shi Kai came back for the weekend last minute and together with Joce we went clubbing.
I was craving for some good music and alcohol because of the lack in Jordan so this was so timely and the club was unexpectedly good because it was Halloween themed.

I said hi to Justin's friend Lucas and met Neil and it was quite fun actually. Not drunk but high enough to dance and go back home without drama and puking. Taxi fare is crazy nowadays.

Next weekend was Fattyneth's birthday and first time we had 17 people in a big table in a Chinese restaurant and almost 30 dishes.

It looked sorta crazy but it was $30 per pax in the end, which was fine and we ended up super super full. Then we went drinking as usual and cab was expensive as usual.
Really grateful to have a group to drink with.

Jordan Reflections and KL October 19

Our Jordan trip was really quite awesome and unbelievable. Neab and I made a really great team and he was very organised the whole way, just like me. Our travelling style is almost the same, and he's really great at taking pics, except towards the end of the trip, he was taking really bad pictures. Probably he was sick of taking pictures.

Great trip, we always skipped lunch but ate heavy breakfast and dinner. Foodwise not really good coz I'm to used to raw vegetables or hummus or pita bread. Weather was amazing. It didn't rain at all and it was dry and cooling. We seldom sweat. I guess the only thing to complain about is the number of houseflies at dead sea, the crazy traffic in Petra and Amman and the lack of diversity in food. Otherwise, it's really awesome. We agreed that it is one of the most memorable trips ever, and I took 680 pictures altogether. That's a record. And friends were texting me a lot on IG.

I have uploaded all my adventures in IG stories anyways.

Anyway back to KL. I was super unlucky in the 7 hour flight because I sat beside another big sized guy and the guy beside was snoring all the way, the whole cabin could hear him. Once landed in KL, registered in hotel, I went to hunt for food. HOW I MISSED ASIAN FOOD OMG. I had hor fun and soupy prawn noodles the first thing I landed. SIGH SO GOOD.

Later met my KL guide, Justin, took a nap in the hotel and went to Jalan Alor for dinner. Then walked to Pahit, a hipster gin bar for drinks, then to Suzie Wong for drinks and entertainment. There's nothing much to do in KL anyway, just eating and chatting. I didn't even spend much.

Breakfast was some noodles in Chinatown. He wanted to bring me to a hipster café but it was closed. We had cakes then went back to check out the hotel, went to airport, back to SG. Nice meeting Justin, he's super nice!
My luggage was delayed and woohoo $150 insurance claim!

 

Wadi Mujib, Dead Sea and back to Amman

Finally we see some sea! The ride was amazing as well. The road was winding down the mountains, the view was amazing, from ending rocks and sands to the Israeli mountains opposite, dead sea in between. We stopped halfway for pictures.

We stayed in a cheap hotel because dead sea wasn't our focus this time but we went down to the beach anyways. It was sunset, the sea was beautiful and dead sea is super weird. The water looks... slimey and felt really dense, almost jelly-like and we could always float. I tried to sink but it was like a force pushing u up. And the high salt density water kinda corroded my iPhone leather cover -_-

It was kinda itchy after a while so we went to wash up without putting the mud, then dinner time at one small mall there.

The highlight was the next morning, hiking trail at Wadi Mujib early in the morning after breakfast. I was kinda excited because I've seen youtube videos and it was so fun. I got my waterproof bag, my diving shoes and lululemon tank. The river was shallow at first, just leisurely walking and then it got rather difficult with currents rushing against you and you have to pull on the robes or climb up the ladders, and take pictures along the way, and got nibbled by the dead skin eating fishes lol.

The end was a waterfall and a rock stuck in the canyon. It was really a fun and beautiful trail in the canyon.

Back to the hotel, showered, checked out, and then we wanted to end the dead sea tour with relaxing at Hilton hotel. It was super awesome. Newly built, the best customer service we had so far, the best hotel room so far, the best view, the best dead sea beach, the best mud spa, the best sleep we had. Sigh I wana go back there. Even before we got our room, we were already suntanning by the beach, taking pics in the sea and doing mud spa. It was really itchy by the way, but my skin feels so smooth after that.

The only thing I would complain about is the number of houseflies. OMG. They are so annoying.

After we got our room, we went down to relax again, I did a mud spa again, then dinner time with some belly dancing and wine buffet. The wine was not good at all. The shower was also the best.

After breakfast, I went to the beach again for some sun and reading, then check out time.
I regret not doing another mud spa. I drove back to Amman, stopped by a big local supermarket to buy all the dead sea stuff. (like $200 worth: 20 dead sea mud soap for my mum and aunt, some mud and some facial masks for friends)

Back in Amman - checked in hotel, ubered to eat so sweets, walked to rainbow street for dinner. I wanted to smoke shisha but I chickened out in the end. Well it looks super weird. But we had a nice meal. I had lamb chops and margaritas. The next morning it was bye bye Jordan. I changed the remaining Jordan Dinar to Euros - I think Euros is more useful than USD and it cost me $20 -_- nvm.

Next morning, breakfast, we went to top up fuel and retuned the car. The car suffered a lot of damage lol. There's nothing much at the small airport, I changed my remaining JOD to EURO, boarded the plans and Hello back to South East Asia!

Petra

The route to Petra was also out of this world too. We drove up the mountains and looked down, it was all desert and rocks. I got scared because usually we will see the sea or ocean on the mountain but all we see is sand and more sand and more rocks, it's never ending. It's rather scary.

The traffic is crazy in Petra. There are no traffic lights, roads are narrow and winding and sloped. Luckily they could see that we were tourists and gave way to us. We checked in the hotel around 3pm and it was rest, photo deleting and IG posting day. We were so glad for this rest day before the high intensity workout the next day. We went to check the Petra entrance hours, and headed for dinner 1km away, because we checked trip advisor and that was the nearest higher ranked restaurant.

Indeed, it was really good, I had lamb and rice and Coca Cola. Woos. The next morning 6am we were already in the queue to get inside Petra. I can't believe we woke up so early just to get picture without all the tourist groups. 15mins in, we saw the Treasury, which was the highlight and must-take pic of this trip.

We climbed up for a better view and better pictures. I was feeling adventurous so I hung by the cliff and wasn't scared at all.

7.30am, we started walking in deeper to the Monastery. It smelt badly of donkey/horse/camel poop all the way it was so disgusting. And I hate those people who got there using animals it was so cruel. I could literally see the donkey's hind legs shaking all the way supporting the adult's weight. We reached the Monastery after 1 hour intense hiking upwards and ate our breakfast there. We explored upwards more, then waited for the right timing for the sun because 8.30am sun was casting a shadow on the Monastery.

Anyway afterwards we headed down, 1hour hike back and back to the hotel at 2pm. We were so relieved because it was scorching hot and so many tourist groups, and we were cooling down and showering in our room. Then 5pm, we went back again to take some last minute pictures again because the crowd were gone. This time I sat on the ledge and I was literally shaking because it was so high up and for the first time I felt vertigo. We had good pictures nonetheless.

Anyway dinner time. We "hiked" 1km again to the restaurant, and the owner actually recognised us and gave us 2nd dinner discount hahaha. We sat at the same table and same seats. This time I had chicken and rice hmmmmmm.

Breakfast next morning was really good as well, then it's dead sea time.