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 When friends started texting me for dinner in Jan, the eating season begins.

So first is Eric, he treated me to this brazillian meat buffet and I haven't had buffet for so so long. The food was really not bad and meat is well grilled as well. It's just too much meat for me probably but I really like the duck, the beef ribs and the ham. I was super full after that.

Edward also treated me omakase at one of the random Izakayas that I found and it was absolutely delicious. We were catching up over his hermes and my douby gaut lol. We also had the free upgrade voucher so we had the more premium omakase.

Starters: Eggplant, Unagi in seaweed, tomato with yuzu jelly and shisho. Nice palette cleansing.

Assorted sashimi, really fresh.

Lotus root with mochi

Japanese oysters with truffle egg yolk sauce

Chawanmushi with shitake mushroom and scallops

King prawn in tomato puree and bread

A5 melt-in-your-mouth wagyu. Really really good

This is the highlight of the meal. Japanese rice with uni and otoro and salmon roe. The chef came right by our table and keep pouring the salmon roe into the rice until you say stop. 

Yuzu sorbet

Pretentious birthday photo. It was a great meal and we had 2 highballs as well. I think it's quite value for money.

So the next day is the actual day and the first thing I did was: 

This is so important, applying for HLE. I can't wait. I didn't take leave on my birthday itself but my boss called me to wish me happy birthday haha so nice. I was also super busy replying all the texts that I had to copy and paste the same reply lol. Well I haven't bought a birthday present for myself but I can buy anything for myself anytime, or rather I can save the money to buy something bigger. It's going to be an exciting year. 

First CNY dinner

Wei Ling's son Jon is flying off at the end of the month because of NS so she invited me and yi xiong's family for Lou Hei and reunion dinner first. 

My first CNY dinner of the year so early! Even earlier than my birthday it's so weird. She cooked herbal chicken soup, asparagus with bacon, chinese tea prawn and mala beancurd skin, which was a lot of effort considering her small cooking area in her kitchen. I haven't met Yi Xiong and his family for a while so it was nice catching up. 

I didn't take any pics, just a boomerang of Lou Hei, nothing much but it was a good filling dinner.

my first ART

After so many months of putting off doing any kind of COVID test, I just had to go office this week because of the big meeting that I'm working on so I had to do the ART test before going back. This was the first time I'm doing the ART test and luckily it turned out negative. It was quite easy actually, puke your nose - super uncomfortable, put in solution, shake, drip into the device. That's it. 

No big deal but I've heard horror stories about those testing centers poking right up your nose until it hits your eye glands. That's crazy.

Anyway first day back into office and when I got out of the train station I realised I forgot my office access card -_- sighs.

It was a good productive day in the office except the access card part. Had lunch and coffee with Yuri and completed my reports but I was so tired at the end of the day from waking up so early.

MBS with sugar cousins

Wei Ling organised dinner at MBS with me and Yi Yong coz Yiyong had MBS discount for dining at MBS. 

It was a really nice day, blue skies, cooling weather and we went to the new herb garden for a walk while waiting for our reservation. She chose flavours of asia and they serve expensive local cuisine like lobster prawn mee and wagyu beef hor fun that sort of thing. 

We order a lot. Lobster prawn mee, curry fish head, fried prawn fritters with chilli crab sauce, sweet sour pork, braised tofu and vege and a few drinks. Yiyong had 30% off and my sugar cousin Wei Ling treated hehe.

Then I went to Thom Browne and found my blue t-shirt sold out already but I'm really not sure if I'm gonna spend so much on a t-shirt. But I also wanted a card holder to replace my wallet so I went Valentino and found some nice ones.

But I really want the LV aerogram pocket organiser. It's so expensive but so sexy. 

Sigh. I need a sugar mummy. 

New Year's Day

I stayed at home to drink and watched Harry Potter during NYE, not much of a celebration kinda person I guess. 

New Year's Day, ate a bit of breakfast at home, had coffee with Brian at Thomson. He just came back from Sweden and Finland so he bought me a bottle of gin from Finland although I prefer Swedish gin haha. And I was late for our annual dim sum buffet at Peach Garden. We have been meeting on the first day of the year for some years now and also last year at the same date at the same place. 

The food was good as usual, I love their yee mian and drunk prawns. So nice. After that we went grocery shopping (same as last year lol) and then split. I was so full I couldn't eat dinner.

Looking back 2021

January to March
Met choir peeps on 1 Jan again lol it's becoming our tradition

Birthday dinners

Crazy drunk Kathy

Spent CNY in Singapore at Four Aunt's house and Wei Ling's house

Got IPPT gold

More buying and selling in Carousell

April to June

A lot of eating and drinking

Still going into office once or twice a week until it was stopped

Discovered some good Izakaya

Started to go to Sophia Road and drinking sake almost every weekend

Got vaccinated

July to September

My stocks and emotional stocks became redder and redder. Everyone just asked me to enjoy the moment but I can't

Depressions stage, began drinking almost everyday, doubting about life

Started breeding guppies

Pottery with Jessie

Bought 7 boxes of wine from Alex

Finally bought wireless earbuds

September to December

Shikai back and brought back my Evas and started building them

Alex moved to Dawson and visited

Bought Ipad Mini, stopped Andy

Bought a lot of things during 11.11

Adele's new album

Coloured my hair

Health checkup

Watched Spiderman: No Way Home

Went Bazi reading

Pre Xmas and Xmas at Jessie's

2021
Financial
As of every year, I just saved more and more because my salary is increasing and this year's bonus is the best in my career haha. Never regretted the move to my new company. 

This year I managed to save 68.46% of my total cash, excluding CPF, compared to 65% last year it's an improvement but below my targeted 70%. I am actually surprised because I should have saved more since I didn't travel anywhere and my bonus pool is much bigger than last year. I really spent a lot on alcohol. I bought 42 bottles of wine from Alex, bought a whole lot of Strong Zeros - almost every weekend, gins and sake (but I stopped sake now). Also into luxury items like all the Diytyque candles and room sprays, my dior polo tee etc. Kelvin was right about revenge spending since no travelling allowed, people used the money to spend on other things. 

I'm still selling things and earning from Carousell. My wallet has became looser this year. I guess I don't really fret those small coins anymore and I'm more willing to spend. Like I drink $5 coffee almost every weekend at Cedele and eat $80 meals at Izakaya with Kathy, and considering buying $3k LV bags (but I did not). Probably a result of my increase in income. I broke the 1k mark on my daily spending in December. Too many dinners and drinks I guess, I should watch my spending more. 

Physical
I guess not much changes physically, unless I'm taking creatine which will make me really bulky. I've got gold for IPPT and after that I stopped running haha. I also have high cholesterol discovered from the health checkup but it has been high for many years. Health wise I think I need to cut down on my alcohol - for my wallet and for my liver.

I coloured my hair after many years because not going into office and also I want to change something. I felt like my face aged more this year but I guess it can't be helped.

My facial routine as below.

Morning: Pola lotion, Elixir moisturiser, sunblock.
Night: Orbis lotion, EL Advanced Night Repair, Elixir moisturiser, hair serum.
I really love Elixir moisturiser. After I started putting it on at night I realised my face became much better and moisturised.

Social

Not much of a social actually. I only met Jarren and gang once or twice this year. I got to know CC, Alex, Paeng and hung out quite a bit in the middle of the year. Oh and I also visit my cousin Wei Ling a lot at Bugis - it's one of my fav places actually. Ever since July my mental health has been deteriorating, my emotional situation and the pandemic added a lot of negative vibes. I've talked to friends about this and discovered I'm not the only one feeling this way. On the surface it seemed everything is fine but everyone has their own problems underneath. Also Adele's new album really described my situation - I drink wine haha.

Overall
Honestly this year hasn't been easy for me mentally on the second half of the year when things started going downhill, not work wise but social. It got better at the end of the year, probably with all the celebrations, distractions and everything.

My tagline of 2021: Emotional
Looking back, I'm quite mixed for this year. It's not a good year but not the worst either. We've gotten used to things - working from home, check in check out app, dining restrictions etc.

2022
I hope 2022 will be a really good year. It will definitely add a lot of stress but I will be consistent and manage those things. Looks like we can't go for any winter season in Japan this time but I think everyone should remain optimistic. 

Be patient, consistent, and work towards my future.

Just a pic from happier times.