Just Saturday stuff...

Spend the whole of Saturday out...

We had Matcha at Spring Coffee, it was not bad. 

We couldn't decide between Strawberry or Mango, so we went for both.

That's the great thing about having a someone along for a cafe visit is you can actually try multiple menu items. We also got a croissant to share, just a small bite.

After this, we actually walked to The Scent Parlor at Circular Road to smell more perfumes, my plan was to leave the store with something since this was the second time the both of us were visiting the place and I had my eyes set on a Discovery Set from D'Annam, on the walk over, I suddenly had to take a number 2, so we did stop at Burger King for a bit for me to release before we continued our journey to the perfume shop.

The store was on the emptier side this visit, so we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves, once in a while there would be 1 or 2 customers that would come and go, but overall, it felt like a very private experience, the staff was quite helpful and was recommending the different perfumes to us, I had work messages coming in in the afternoon and that really ruined my mood a little, but everything sorted itself out.

This Discovery Set, which was about $80, was the last set they had in store.

It has scents inspired by Vietnam and it is very interesting, they had White Rice, Pho Breakfast and Vietnamese Coffee, which were 3 of the more interesting scents because it was food inspired, and then a few that were nature inspired. 

Sadly, the longevity of the perfumes aren't great, so I will probably not get a full bottle yet.

We didn't really have any solid plans for lunch, so we just got lost for a bit and then decided to go Funan, our legs were tired because we had been walking and standing so much prior to this, I think we had been standing and walking for 2 hours prior to this.

So here is lunch, it was around 3.30pm by this time. 

Not gonna lie, the food here ain't super great, the tempura batter isn't really tempura-ing for me, there is a severe lack of panko crumbs. It is halal, so I think that they may have something to do with the way the food was prepared.

We sat, we chat, I gave him the option to choose a fragrance from the Discovery Set I had gotten, told him the ones I definitely wanted to keep, which honestly was only 2, so he had the option of picking from 7 scents, and he picked one that he liked. 

After our lunch, we headed over to Orchard because I had read up about this Tofu Ice Cream placed called Tofu-G.

Here is the sample station, we join this queue to try samples and then head over to the next station to order. I thought it was a nice idea to have a dedicated tasting station.

I got myself the black sesame, came up to about $8 per cup. It was alright, taste very much like the Soya Milk ice cream I have had in Taiwan.

The store was pretty packed, so we couldn't dine in and ended up just walking around Mandarin Gallery as we consumed our ice cream.

We then walked over to LV at Ngee Ann City after because I wanted to smell the perfumes there, and I would have gotten myself a bottle, but the common sense side of me just couldn't fathom paying $480 for a 100ml bottle of perfume, that is fucking nuts!

If they had sold a 50ml for half that price, I may have considered it, but almost $500, that is crazy talk! I ended up smelling every single fragrance they had, and then left the store. We headed over to 

The both of us were exhausted at this point, so we just sat on a bench in the mall to rest up for a while, he was actually socially drained, so I did bring up just calling it a day then and there, it was around 7pm-ish by that point, I would have been more than happy to go get a dinner to go at Takashimaya and then just go home, but we ended up chatting a fair bit on the bench and by the time we were done, it was already close to 8pm. I think we proceeded to go smell more perfumes after at B2, and then walked to ION Orchard to look for a place to have dinner, contemplated on what to eat, he felt like having McDonalds, I didn't really have any preference, so we walked over to Forum for McDonalds.

We were just completely drained once we reached McDonalds, had a late dinner there, felt a bit more energized after and then just chit-chatted until about 10.30pm. I only reached home at 11pm, which was a pleasant surprise because I had thought we would run out of things to do by 6pm or 7pm.

Life Updates. Dates and stuff...

 Not that there is much to update...

I have applied for my BTO and it has been an interesting experience for my indecisive ass. I changed my mind 3 times over that single week and ended up paying a total of $30 in application fees because each application cost me $10. 

I kept see-sawing between Clementi and Tengah, now my final choice is Clementi, it is going to cost me at least $250,000, which is insane. If I don't end up getting a ballot number for it, I honestly feel like I will be fine with it.

Last week, I also went for my follow up medical check up at the Polyclinic for my depression stuff, happy to report that I am feeling a lot better recently thanks to me just cutting contact with the individual who triggered it, reaching out to friends to make plans for meet ups and also meeting new people through the dating app who are actually considerate individuals.

Photo dump updates starting from  15th July.

15th July.

Met up with my Hinge Match for a second date after work at Suntec.

We had very very average Korean Food, and the reason why it's subpar is because it is the kopitiam standard type.

That was soon followed by a visit to Matchaya for Matcha, he had warned me that the Matcha from this place is a bit on the chalky side...

....I got myself a Caramel Genmaicha Milk, which was fine, he got Houjicha, and it definitely left a chalky feel in the mouth.

We got each other blindboxes as well, I got him Butterbear and he got me Mr Bones during his weekend trip to Malaysia, it is a series he liked, but I honestly didn't really have too much interest in. I was still very appreciative of the gesture and I did end up pulling the secret figurine, so there was a short burst of excitement.

We ended the day with Laderach, I got the both of us 50g of their limited edition Apricot Passionfruit Popcorn bark, it was pretty good, but I still much prefer their Rocher Almond Milk one. 

25th July.

Got invited to a friend's place for a personal housewarming, this is someone I had matched with on Hinge late last year, whom I actually cut off for a while, reconnected back again, and then he cut me off for a month prior to this meet up because I think I was texting him a bit too much after we reconnected and he got texting fatigue from it.

I had gone to his place before back in May to help him with his furniture layout, he started ignoring my text messages about a week after that, I attempted to reach out but was pretty much ignored, so I also didn't really bother reaching out anymore until he suddenly started liking my Insta-stories again after a month of no-contact, which I took as a sign that he had regained the energy for us to start chatting again.

I got us cakes from Awfully Chocolate before I made my way over.

His place felt a lot more homey, with everything all cleaned up, it was really nice, we chatted for a bit, had a meal together, then I helped him with the styling of his shelving cabinet, which took a while and was actually quite tiring, well, it was mainly because the meet up was a bit last minute and I literally came from work, so I was also feeling a bit tired from work, so that didn't help.

He had an interest in fragrance like myself, so he had many many bottles of perfumes, and his whole living room was just scented, there were reed diffusers, some heated diffuser and when I left his place, my shirt actually smelled like his diffusers, it was the first time I left a place smelling better than when I arrived, it was a good problem to have.

26th July.

Third date with my Hinge match. We were suppose to meet at 5pm due to work commitments on his end, but his work got cancelled so we met for an early dinner at Plaza Singapura.

I had a late lunch, so I got myself the kids meal, I was expecting a smaller serving size, but I was not expecting it to be served in a chibi dinosaur themed plate and bowl.

The date actually went quite well, we headed over to Best Perfume to smell dupe perfumes, after which he suggested we could go to Raffles Place and visit another perfume store called the Scent Parlour to smell more niche fragrances, which I was completely down for, so we headed over and it was a really interesting shop, we smelled quite a fair bit of perfume and I do have my nose set on a bottle that I may or may not get the next time we pop by the area again.

He then recommended we go for dessert at this placed called Dopa Dopa, which serves Gelato, and since he had paid for dinner, I told him I will cover dessert.

It was a pretty good serving of waffle and gelato, we got 1 scoop of Pistachio and 1 scoop of dark Ferrero Rocher, it would have been much more enjoyable if I hadn't been coughing the entire day. I am not sure what is up with this persistent cough, but it needs to leave me the fuck alone! 

After waffles, we continued walking for a bit, found a quiet sofa area outside an unopened bar to sit and we pretty much just chatted for I would say an hour or so, location wasn't the greatest because it wasn't air-conditioned, so I did start to feel a bit sticky after a while.

By the time we were done chatting, it had gotten pretty late, so we walked over to Chinatown Point, he got a cup of Bubble Tea and we called it a night after that.

31st July.

Went to the nearby cafe around my office area to get Matcha and some pancakes, the shop owner was super nice gave me 2 extra waffle egglets for being a loyal customer.

1st August.

I had taken an off-day today to visit the Polyclinic for a follow up check up regarding my depression, the timing was at 12pm, so it was a bit hard to take half day leave, in the took, I opted to take a whole day off for it.

I am doing much better than when I first visited them back at the end of May, meeting up with friends and focusing my attention on considerate individuals on the dating app definitely helped me a lot, especially the former, I relayed my feelings to the doctor and told her I didn't take any of the anti-depression medication because I just wasn't comfortable with the side effects. I am actually really glad I didn't take them, otherwise I would have assumed how I am feeling right now is because of the medication and might end up developing a reliance on it.

So for now, everything is good and I will have another appointment with a psychologist at the end of the month, which I think will be good. I have decided to drop the therapist that my sister had recommended to me because she was unresponsive for a whole week after she told me she was sick and had to reschedule our second appointment, which I did not appreciate, especially as a therapist. You are suppose to be one of the numbers that your clients can contact in the event they are in a very bad place and need someone to talk to, so to just be MIA for a whole week is a huge no no for me.

Anyways, a friend of mine actually also texted me to ask me if I wanted to have lunch together, and the timing was just perfect, so I agreed and he drove over to pick me up from the Polyclinic. 

We took the opportunity to go to his new place for a impromptu housewarming, so I told him we can just visit the new mall near his place for our lunch because I was quite interested to visit. I had seen the mall slowly getting developed earlier this year when I was at Tengah working on my colleagues home, so to have been able to visit the mall as well as to see how much Tengah has changed since I last visited was pretty amazing, it didn't feel like a war torn country anymore.

We visited a cafe recommended by him, it was not bad, I could use my CDC voucher to pay for the meal so all of this is technically "free"

Visited the newly opened Hooga at level one, came across this lights that I thought would have been a nice addition to that other friends place I visited last week. I had wanted to send the picture over to him, but his home is already scented enough, so I don't think having another diffuser would be ideal.

My friend (whom I met today) then drove us over to his new place and it was done up pretty nicely, exactly to his vision, the lighting gave the space an art gallery feel and most importantly, it was air-conditioned when I arrived, so it was very comfortable. 

I was originally suppose to be the Interior Designer for his space, or at least was shortlisted, but things didn't work out so he ended up engaging someone else. 

We chit chatted for a bit in his new place and then headed over to his parent's place which was like a few units down, met his son for the very first time and even though I have a nephew that is almost the same age, I am still really awkward around kids, all I did was wave and smiled, but I couldn't bring myself to talk like a baby or whatever. His son is adorable and kept running around the living room in his little walker, when my friend was showing me his parent's room and what he had done to the space, I suddenly felt a presence behind me and it was his son, who had walked over in his roller and was just looking up at us, or more specifically at his Dad.

Seeing my Poly friend now being a Dad just made me realize how old we have gotten and it is frightening to think just how so many years can pass by in a blink of an eye when you are a working adult. 

After the visit, he brought me to the roof garden, here is the view of the upcoming BTO on the other side, if I had picked Tengah as an SBF option, I may have been able to select a unit there, but alas I think it makes more sense at this current moment to try the Clementi one first. 

We hung out and played the exercise machines at the roof garden for a bit, I felt like we were 2 man child just fiddling around with the machines, even though we were really trying out the machines

After that, he actually drove me home because Tengah is currently still not very accessible, so I was extremely grateful for the 2 way trip. 

5th August.

Fourth date with my Hinge match.

We met for dinner at Bugis after work...

Decided to have Poulet.

I wasn't really feeling it, it felt very meh, and we couldn't finish the sides because it was a bit too much. After the meal, we headed over to Orchard to smell perfumes.

Or more specifically, Le Labo because they are releasing their City Exclusive scents this month and he really liked Gaiac 10, which is a Tokyo Exclusive.

One medium sized bottle of their City Exclusive is about $700, so I could only smell and not buy them. I did smell one scent that I thought was quite nice, and I thought I was fucked because I liked it so much, only to realize later that it actually reminded me of another scent from MFK, which is like $400 for 70ml, so if I really loved that scent so much and wanted to get it, I could just get a small 35ml bottle from MFK for about $200.

We lingered in the store for a while and were the last 2 to leave, the staff had already closed the doors at this point to prevent people from coming in, and he started to do the "closing" by turning off the cash register and what not, so we headed out soon after, our arms coated in the perfumes that we liked.

Headed over to PopMart because it was still opened, I got myself a Pucky blindbox and he got himself a Duckoo one after I enabled him to.

It's cute. 

It was a great meet up, I enjoyed it. One thing I enjoy about meeting up with this Hinge date is we never linger in one spot, we will always end up going to another mall, so there is variety and it just makes the meet up so much more varied. 

Anyways, that's about it. 

Random Life Update

Work has been overwhelming as of late thanks to one group of customer who has been requesting to meet almost every other fucking day.

They will be getting their keys to their place next week and there are still so many details that have yet to be confirmed because they have just been postponing the initial meet ups at the start. 

Here I am, on the way over, still blissfully unaware about how long the meeting will take, but also expecting the worst! 

I met them on Saturday with my boss, that meeting ended up lasting for 4 hours! We met at 10am and I was only able to leave the place at 2pm, I had made lunch plans with a friend for 2pm, thinking I would probably end at 1pm, and then just linger around Nex for a a while as I waited for him, I ended up having to push our meeting back by half an hour.

Thankfully, my boss was nice enough to actually drop me off at Nex after our meeting and I met up with my friend for Joji Diner.

This was at 2.40pm-ish, we had about a 20 minutes wait, so it was a late lunch for us, I was feeling especially hungry because the meeting was so long.

I got myself a Banana Shake, not a great option because it doesn't help quench the thirst, the drink was also just not very cold, so I don't know what's up with that. I don't think there is a lot of ice cream in this drink, mainly frozen bananas and milk.

We ordered an appetizer to share, this was calamari, pretty good flavour!

And then my main course, pancakes, eggs, sausage and potatoes, the pancakes may look small, but they were extremely filling. I couldn't finish it, and my friend also ordered another pancake dish, that proved to be equally filling. 

The flavours were great and it was objectively a very good meal, but the pancakes fucked the both of us up because I was so tired after that from the fullness of it all, and I was already feeling mentally drain from the 4 hours meeting prior so it didn't really help.

We then watched Superman together at Nex because I had nothing else to do at home, movie was pretty good, but by the end of it, I was honestly so tired and full I just had not much mood to talk, I got myself a drink from Fruce and then we headed home. That was Saturday, pretty eventful, it was shitty work in the morning to early afternoon and then a much needed hang out with a friend after to balance it out. I ended up getting home at round 8pm.

After this meeting, the clients actually texted me again on Monday morning and requested to have a meeting at night. I barely had anytime to process the changes we had discussed on Saturday, it was fucking ridiculous, but I agreed to it anyway because we really had to settle all the drawings. 

They told me they will see me at 5.45pm, I acknowledged their message and at 5.45pm, they told me they were on their way over.

They only arrived at 6.20pm.

They did apologize for being late, so I told them it was fine, even though it wasn't and I was really quite annoyed, we got started and the meeting lasted for 2 and a half fucking hours! It took so fucking long, I was so exhausted at the end of it, my boss had something on so he conveniently missed the missing and I had to deal with the clients on my own. 

Fuck, I only left the office at 9pm! 

And the VERY next day, the client reached out again and ask to meet me TODAY! 

For Fuck Sake! 

They cancelled last minute, so it has been pushed to tomorrow instead, I have so many meetings to deal with tomorrow that I had to postpone a housewarming with another friend. 

My life right now would be so different if this project did not fucking exist! So fucking different, I would be so much happier and less stressed out right now, I hate it.

Satur-date

Went out on another date with another Hinge match today and to date, I will say this was probably one of the better dates I have been on with anyone from the dating app.

We matched on Hinge after sharing a common interest in Fragrances, he was a very good conversationist and I really appreciate it when the other party really takes the effort to keep the chat going, this is the second person I have met on the app whom I have been able to click with really well, who has the ability to actually sustain a conversation, the first one that I knew is sadly no longer interested so I have since had to move on from them.

Anyways, with this date, whom I shall refer to as Zo, we had matched on Hinge last week, and at the start, Zo reminded me of the first guy, both had a similar form of texting as well as similar shared interest, but then when the first guy just completely ghosted me, I started chatting with Zo a lot more because he was just very consistent. He proposed that we meet up today, which I was all for.

A part of me was worried that we might not click as well in real life because that is what happens most of the time from personal experience, after the first date, their text messages just start tapering off until we just stop texting one another completely, that happens even with dates that have gone well, they just stop being interested for some reason.

Well, meeting Zo in real life, I was glad to have all my initial concerns about our lack of chemistry be proven wrong, because of how good he was at initiating and sustaining conversation, everything flowed pretty smoothly and the meet up actually lasted pretty long, whilst most of my earlier dates would last between 1 - 2 hours, with better ones lasting maybe 3 -4 hours, this one lasted for the entire day from 12.00pm  - 8.30pm.

We first met up at Nicoll Highway MRT and headed towards Golden Mile Complex for some Banana Pudding Matcha at this place called Haus Coffee.

The general vibe of the place was very vintage, and we had gone pretty early at 12 noon, so there wasn't a lot of people yet

 

We had both ordered the exact same drink and it was about $10.50 per cup, pretty pricey but it was also pretty good, so was definitely worth the splurge. He paid for this, so I offered to pay for lunch later. We made small talk for a bit because it was the first time we were seeing each other in real life, thankfully he was pretty good at holding conversations, so there wasn't too much awkward silence in between, we then discussed where we should head to next and agreed to go to Orchard to visit the fragrance stores there.

To get to Orchard, we had to walk over to Lavender MRT, transfer to CityHall before we can go to Orchard, so when we were at CityHall, he suggested why not drop by Raffles Place for a visit, so we did just that, we visited MFK first, followed by Killian, walked around a little to explore if there was anything we could have at Raffles Place, decided there wasn't and went over to Diptyuqe to smell more perfume and then finally to Sephora, it was really nice because when I go out with friends who don't care so much about Fragrances, I always feel bad that they will have to wait for me as I sniff through the different bottles, which then makes me not want to smell too many, but because Zo was also equally interested in the fragrances, we stayed in each boutique store for quite a while.

I had planned to get a bottle during our meet up and had been joking to him that I will be getting a new bottle of perfume home today... well, I didn't. 

After we were done, we headed over to Somerset for lunch at Genki Sushi, I paid for that meal, it was fine, nothing to really scream about. My stomach was feeling a bit uncomfortable, so I suggested to find a cafe nearby for us to have desert, that way at least he could have a proper place to wait for me while I go do my business, our cafe visit led us to walk all the way to Ngee Ann City, where we settled for The Dark Gallery...

... he paid for this, it was actually pretty good! $30 set meal that comes with waffles, 2 ice cream and 2 drinks, both of us went for decaf because it was about 4.30pm at that point and I really wanted to be able to sleep at night.

We did more chatting, and it was just really nice to have been able to vibe so well with him, I have gone on a few dates before and I have never felt this comfortable hanging out with someone I barely knew in real life, well, aside from the other Hinge match that Zo reminds me of who has since ceased communications with me for some reason.

Once this was done, we explored more perfume shops in Ngee Ann City, starting with Le Labo, followed by L'Artsian, which he really liked, and then Byredo. Decided to head over to ION after that since it was just an underground access away, and we headed to Esecentials to smell even more perfumes! 

Zo did however open up to me about his past relationship status with his ex, and it was complicated, he had essentially ended things with his ex by not contacting him for 2 months, and since his ex did not contact him, I guess they came to a silent agreement that they were done with each other, it is a bit... odd, so I am not really sure how I feel about that, but I really didn't want to pry too much and just left it at that.

I asked him if he had any dinner plans and he told me he had none, so we agreed to have dinner together before going home, headed over to Cuppage Plaza, but sadly the store he wanted to bring me to has since closed down, so we actually went back to Somerset and had Sukiya. I didn't like the restaurant because the tables were so close to each other and I just didn't feel comfortable having a conversation with anyone when I know the neighboring tables can eavesdrop really easily even if they have no intention to, so dinner was relatively quiet.

After the meal, we just started walking around the mall a little more, headed to Muji, then to Miniso, chatted for a bit more and decided to call it a day.

We spend almost the entirety of Saturday together, and this is with someone I have only met for the first time, it was a pretty awesome date if I do say so myself. Anyways, that is the date update.

Coffee-date.

 There was a sudden spike of viewers from my last post and it's a bit weird.

Anyways, it's Sunday and today, I went out on a coffee date with someone I had met on Hinge. I didn't have a lot of expectations when it came to this particular meet up because I felt like we didn't really establish a lot of rapport, he suggested a coffee date and I agreed because I really didn't have much planned over the weekend and figured it would be nice to just go out.

He recommended this cafe at Outram called Double Shot, and their name derives from the way they prepare their drinks, which is always served with double shots of espresso, I was open to it, but the only thing I had a slight problem with is his request to meet up at 3.30pm in the afternoon for coffee, which is a time when I definitely do not want to be drinking caffeine anymore otherwise I wouldn't be able to sleep.  I did check the menu beforehand and noticed they had decaf option, so I agreed.

According to Google, getting to the cafe from my place will take about an hour, I decided maybe I should buffer more time, so I left home at around 2.00pm, thinking I might reach there at about 3.15pm. 

I got there at 2.50pm, 40 minutes before the meet up time, figured since I was there, might as well just get a drink and a bite, read my book on my kindle app and just wait for my Hinge date to arrive. I got myself a cup of iced chocolate and a chocolate twist pastry, it's like as thick as 2 fingers and shorter than a whole finger, it cost me $3, it's fucking expensive, the drink was about $7, so this whole thing was $10.

 

The chocolate drink was actually pretty good, there was some kind of spice in it so it wasn't just flat chocolate. I was seated right beside the casher, so I just read my ebook on my Kindle app and waited for like the next 30 - 40 minutes and thankfully, he was actually pretty punctual, he came in at 3.30pm and headed straight for the counter, looked over and we just waved at each other. 

As with all my dates, the first few minutes were a bit awkward, I was struggling to find conversations, so was he, we hadn't really established any shared common interest so it was hard to really have a deep conversation about anything, it was just a lot of small talk. I kept sipping my drink because I felt like I had to do something, and then when I had nothing left to sip..

...I got myself another cup of Decaf Cafe Latte and we continued just small talking, there were moments when the conversation felt like it was picking up, but then it would also just end really quickly. 

I don't know how I feel about meeting over coffee or a simple meal anymore, they are always just so awkward, it's so much better when the both of us are doing something, like maybe hotpot where we can actually be prepping the food together, or maybe at their place where we can do some sort of activity like baking, just to keep us entertained because to be with a stranger and expect conversation to flow like how it would with old friends, well, that is not going to happen. 

By about 4.45pm, we decided to call it a day, we walked to the MRT Station together, I will say that walk to the station, and the conversation we had, it felt better than us sitting in the cafe, we were able to chat a bit more comfortably, talk about about our surrounding, it was so much better than sitting in that small cafe, I honestly feel like the awkwardness that was radiating from the both of us were palpable enough for the other customers in the store to feel it.

We bid goodbye at the station and I just decided to drop him a courtesy text to thank him for the meet up, I mean it was a bit awkward but it wasn't the worst. He did try to make the conversation last, so I can appreciate that. We did chat a bit more through Instagram, but whether we would actually meet up again for a second meeting is still up in the air, I personally don't think we will.

Wednesday meet up...

Had a meet up with some of my ex-colleagues yesterday at Plaza Singapura for a catch up session and it was really nice.

I had actually reached out to my ex-Manager earlier this month to just check in and see how she was doing because it had been more than a year since we last met up, also because I was pretty depress then because of the shit I had to deal with from the online dating experience and really needed people to just chat and make plans with, she was very happy to meet up but then arrange for us to only meet up at the end of the month (which is yesterday), wasn't too happy that she scheduled it so far back to be honest, but I have to say, all that build up and anticipation to yesterday was worth it because the meet up did not disappoint.

She requested to also invite another ex-colleague of ours, whom I had met just a few days ago at the furniture store that we worked at together, and I was glad he was invited along for the meet up yesterday. She had originally told me she will do research and share with me places that we can visit for our meal, but I think she kinda forgot about it, so when I reached out to her the day before our meet up to remind her about it, she asks me where I wanted to go, so I ended up doing the research and we settled for Arteastiq at Plaza Singapura.

Here is what we ordered,  instead of ordering one dish per person, we ordered a bunch and just shared.

It was a pretty good meal, I was in the presence of great company, and the three of us had a great chat. Conversation kept flowing and we were just talking about our past working at the store together, our future plans, a bit of gossip here and there, and some occasional shit talking about our ex-boss. We also ordered a bit too much food and had 2 slices of pizza leftover, almost everything was cream based so it got really jelak really quickly.

The restaurant had assigned us sofa seats instead of regular chairs, and it just got a bit uncomfortable slouching and eating our food, plus the restaurant was going to close at 10pm and it was already 9pm, we weren't going to go home anytime soon, so we headed over to Starbucks instead, which was open for 24 hours.

Not sure why, but the Starbucks was so warm, it was also still relatively crowded, but we managed to get seats...

.. and I got my Matcha fix for the day.

Wasn't very good to be honest, also this Matcha Latte didn't help me sleep that night, in fact I only slept at like 2am after I got home.

Anyways, we continued chatting, I got my Matcha and a slice of cake to share, but I ended up eating like 90% of it on my own. 

Since everyone had to work tomorrow, we decided to call it a night at 11pm and made our way home separately, I had originally planned to take a cab home, and so did my ex-Manager, but then the cab fare was like $40, and that was fucking ridiculous, so the both of us ended up taking the train back together. Didn't take very long to get home thanks to Hume MRT, saved myself $40 and was also able to spend a bit more time with my ex-Manager before we bid adieu to each other.

It's nice to have friends to meet up with, sadly my ex-Manager has shared with me that she doesn't like to meet up so often because she runs out of social battery very quickly, so it is a bit unfortunate that we will probably only meet like once every 6 months to a year maybe. 

Now I need to start looking for more friends that I can hang out more regularly with.

Saturday Meet Up

Had a pretty good Saturday this week, I wasn't cooped up at home, but instead made plans to meet up with a old friend I have known from Army...

The weather was alright, it was still hot enough to make me a bit sweaty when I got to the train station, but it wasn't uncomfortably hot like it had been the past few weeks where the morning Sun felt like an afternoon Sun, that was fucking nuts.

My original plan was to go Suntec City to catch a movie, have a meal there and then get a Matcha kit from Matchaya because I have been all about drinking Matcha lately, but my friend proposed why not we watch another movie called The Wedding Banquet that wasn't avaiable at Suntec and was only showing at VivoCity, I figured it has been a while since I visited VivoCity, so why not.

I have seen the trailer on YouTube before and it looked quite funny, so I agreed and since I reached Vivo City first, I went ahead and got the tickets, then we headed over to have steak at Yappari Steak..

... this was pretty good! I also really like steak so unless the restaurant really fuck it up, there really was no way this couldn't be good. It's a pretty simple meal, just steak on a hot stone, there is an array of your own sauces to choose from on the table so you don't have to get up to get the sauces from a communal area, I really liked it.

We were done within 30 - 40 minutes...

....visited Maison Margiela after since we still had like 30 minutes to kill, and I had wanted to try out their Sailing Day scent because I had been looking for a new aquatic scent lately to get, I remember trying it before at Sephora and the whole Maison Margiela fragrance honestly didn't leave much of an impression to me. 

The visit to the Maison Margiela store itself was no different, it wasn't my style, so I left empty handed, but with my hands smelling like an amalgamation of all the different scents I had sprayed on.

Headed to the cinema on time, got Popcorn and Drink because obviously, and the theatre itself really wasn't pack, which I had kinda seen coming, this movie really doesn't appeal to the masses, especially in Singapore because it tackles LFGBT themes, and if I were to be honest, the movie really was quite boring, it's suppose to be a romantic comedy, so I was expecting lots of laughs, but all I found myself wanting to do was just go to sleep. There was this guy who was seated a row behind my friend and I who was just obnoxiously loud, we think he might be on the spectrum because he was being really verbal and laughing at scenes that weren't suppose to be funny, like making loud "OOoooohh" when the characters kiss and stuff, it was really awkward, and when someone else in the theatre started laughing at certain scenes, he will also start laughing along. I noticed my friend's head turning back a few times to check how that person looked like and I did see how he looked like once the movie ended because he was the first to get up and leave the theatre, he was an awkward looking, chubby guy, the type where you would look and then just think to yourself...

"Yup, that's about how I would imagine someone like that would look like."

... so the movie was really boring, my friend also shared the same sentiment, it was a boring movie because I guess it just wasn't comedy enough to really be considered a comedy, my expectations were simply not matched,  and I told him we probably should have watched Ballerina instead, which he agreed.

Usually after having a meal and movie, I would call it a day and just head home, but I decided you know what? Let's go have desert, I could use a friend to chat with because I am still not in a great mental space and talking it out might make me feel better we headed to Awfully Chocolate and because of how noisy and packed it was and how close everyone was sitting to one another, we didn't end up chatting a lot, so 70% of the time was just us eating and drinking in silence.

...  should have just went home right after the movie because this cake and drink cost me $30.

I had drank the hot chocolate before a few years back and it was super rich, but I had forgotten how thirsty I would get after, and I got really thirsty after having like 2/3 of it, especially because I had gotten a slice of cake, so it was really really really really sweet. I really couldn't take anymore and so we headed to FairPrice to get water to clear the palette.

We ended the day after that because I was just tired from being out all day, but I was grateful that I had been able to spend the day outside with a friend rather than at home doing fuck all.

TGI - Friday

I have learnt of this state that a person can be in called Limerence and I think it is what I was experiencing with that Hinge match of mine....

...everything that this content creator is saying just ticks all the boxes of how I had been feeling towards that Hinge match.

Anyways, on to what has happened today, which really isn't much. 

I started off the day today meeting my clients at a tile shop in the morning, so work started with a visit to Hafary...

... the great thing about working with this couple is that they are pretty easy-going and don't over think like most of the older clients, so our tile selection was pretty snappy and I was in and out of the tile shop within an hour. The last time I visited with another client who is in her 70s, that visit took us 3 hours because she kept overthinking everything, it was so exhausting, she is a nice lady but I was so frustrated during that visit.

Once this was done, I knew I didn't want to go back to the office immediately because accountant was on leave today and my boss is away for his church camp, that meant that was no one in the office and there will be no one in the office today except for me, which means I could technically not even go in and no one would know.

I walked over the PLQ from Hafary and had cafe food for lunch, this was from Joe and Dough, Croque Monsieur and Matcha Latte, total damage was $17, honestly not that great, I have been drinking a lot of Matcha lately and this Matcha wasn't that great. Very overpriced.

Didn't really have else to do in the mall after the meal, tried walking around a bit but didn't have anything of interest to do, so I headed back to the office using the train, had to do a transfer at Bugis, so figured I would just see what is at Bugis Junction, I headed over to PopMart first to see if they had anything interesting and it was all very meh, now that the hype has died down, I don't really get FOMO anymore.

Headed back to the MRT Station to take a train back to the office, but not before getting myself a snack in the form of Waru Mochi.

Got myself a proper cup of Matcha from this store and of course their signature Mochi Pancake, they were pretty good, didn't feel too sinful. Had to carry them from Bugis to Newton, and then wait like 20 minutes for the freaking bus to get to the office.

Reached the office I would say slightly before 2pm and I was just completely unproductive the entire day, I didn't have any mood to work, thankfully I wasn't going through bouts of sadness like I had been the earlier half of this week, my mood has really stabilized, especially after I found out what I had been going through with the whole Limerence thing, it gave me a lot of clarity and that clarity offered me some form of comfort.

I was unproductive because I just feel a bit overwhelmed with the projects I have on hand and don't really know where to start, so instead of starting on anything, I ended up procrastinating the entire half of the day, it was not good, but it definitely beats being sad the whole day about someone I met on a dating app, that was such a waste of energy and emotions.

It's the weekend tomorrow and thankfully, I have made plans with a friend, so I won't be cooped up at home the entire day!

Wednesday felt better...

Woke up today definitely feeling much better, meeting up with a friend to talk through what I had been going through had been really helpful.

Headed out for work a bit later than usual because the thought of going into an empty office with no one around is now a bit upsetting to me, especially after catching up with my ex-colleague at the furniture store yesterday and realizing just how important having a happy pill colleague in the office really is.

As I was on the way to work, I decided to drop by this donut shop at Whampoa and got myself 4 mini donuts for breakfast. 

They were pretty good.

There is also this new cafe that opened up and I have been going there for my Matcha fix, and have gone so many times that the lady boss now recognizes me and will literally tell me my order without me having to say anything. It's a quaint little store, but I am really worried that it might not last very long....

So here I am, waiting for my drink, it was around 10am by the time I was in this cafe, I am suppose to be in the office at 9.30am, but honestly, no one is keeping track because the office is going to be empty anyways, so might as well take advantage of that, plus my boss is also aware that I haven't been doing so well mentally, so even if he knew I was late, he probably wouldn't say anything, and by that, I mean I am generally a well behaved employee so there is nothing for him to be worried about me taking advantage of our arrangement.

I did decide to get a different drink today and went for the Genmaicha, which was actually pretty good as well, it wasn't super sweet so it was a good match with the donuts.

My morning at work was pretty unproductive, I was just playing CNA Live to have some background noise, I didn't want to listen to the songs I had been listening to the past few weeks because music transports me back in time, and the music that I had been listening to, especially Lady Gaga's current album, will remind me of that initial hopeful and then final stretch of heartbreak and depressive period in my life for the month of May into early June.

Around afternoon, my boss came over and picked me up to go for a site visit at Alexandra, where I had my first meet up with that person, the good thing is I am not falling into bouts of extreme sadness anymore, I do still feel a bit sad from time to time when I think about them, but my friend whom I met yesterday dropping me occasional text messages on the phone to chat about random stuff helped, anyways, I digress...

This is the same client we had met on Saturday, we visited them again...

...this is the view from the clients window, which I thought was pretty cool, even though their view is technically blocked, it is a pretty nice building to be looking at.

The site visit / meeting took like 2 hours, but luckily, I wasn't drenched in sweat this time around, the weather this time round isn't scorching hot, so place isn't as hot and humid as another site I had visited a few weeks back where I was just completely drenched. 

Site visit ended at around 2.30pm, so my boss then drove us to Wisma Atria for lunch, which I paid for because it's his birthday and I just thought it's appropriate to treat him...

... the meal was pretty cheap, this was only $13, for something like this in town to only be $12 is cheap and it was filling as  fuck. The only complaint I have about the tonkatsu is that it isn't a full chunk of meat but instead done Mille Feuille style, so it was slices of meat layered together to resemble a full slap of meat, it was very tender because of the Mille Feuille method, but I really wanted to have that bite.

My boss had originally told me he will pay for this lunch and I can treat him to a cake at Awfully Chocolate after, but we really didn't have any space left for dessert, so I paid for this meal instead. He told me I could just go home from there, but unfortunately, I still had stuff in the office, so we ended up going back together and I just stayed in the office till the end of the day. 

It was once again very unproductive, I was so tired mentally to do anything, plus the meal also made me actually want to sleep, my boss did stay around till 6.00pm, so I wasn't completely alone. I was blasting a lot of Utada Hikaru and Yuna Ito because I haven't heard of their songs in awhile, and it's just helpful to play a different genre of music so I won't be reminded of that that person and everything associated with it.  

That's how my Wednesday went, definitely felt an improvement in my mood.