Saturday well spent.

Spend the morning at a Fitstop class, had some concerns about going for weekend class alone for the first time (because I have always joined my friend for weekend classes) as the classes are always packed to the brim, but after experiecing an almost packed class during the the weekday session the past week, I think I kinda got used to it.

That being said, I still had a lot of anxiety about it the night before for some reason, but the class itself went really well and it's always invigoraating to start the day with excercise.

Met up with Zo later in the aftenoon for Matcha and catch up, we were supposed to meet around late morning, but there were some army related stuff that he had to deal with, so we only ended up meeting late afternoon instead.

We went to Rituals of Kora, this is literally my third time there, it's a good spot for Matcha but not exactly a spot I would keep going back for, so that was a bit excessive, but Zo had seen me posting about it on my Insta-stories and wanted to pay a visit, so I decided why not.

Got ourselves cookies and Matcha, duh. 

I had offered to pay for this meal because he had just came back from Korea/Japan not too long ago and brought back presents for me. 

The main item I had met up with him to collect was the Blue Elephant shades, this is the exact pair I had wanted to get back in Korea, but couldn't decide whether to or not until it was too late, and whilst he was in Korea, I noticed that he had posted about getting a pair of Blue Elephant for himself, so I shared with him about how I had missed my window to get it and congratulated him on getting his, to which he immediately offered to help me get the pair I had wanted, and so here we are.

I had wanted the shades, but I think a bigger reason I accepted his offer to help me get the shades was that it would give us another reason to meet up, not to rekindle any romance, but just purely to have a reason to meet up again as friends.

Anyways, Blue Elephant shades were what I was expecting, the rest were extra surprises, the biggest one being the small carton of Matcha he had gotten for me from Japan.

We stayed at the cafe for a bit, did some catch up there, but because the cafe was a bit crowded that day, I wasn't too comfortable sharing about my own Korea trip experience with him, so I kept telling him I will share more during dinner.

Popped by Orchard, did the usual perfume stops to smell a bunch of perfumes at Ngee Ann City, so the usual Diptyque and Byredo, walked around the mall a bit to look at random stuff before he suggested we go to a pasta bar for dinner.  

So we headed over to tipo Pasta Bar at Waterloo, 

We got ourselves pasta and a side to share, the side was fried Lasanga, it was a lot of pasta and it was quite filling, but it was a good meal.

This was where I started ranting to Zo about my Korea trip with Drew. 

It felt a bit weird talking to him about Drew because I pretty much started seeing Drew about 2 weeks after Zo called things off with me, but one thing about Zo is that he is a very good listener.

I shared what happened during the trip and, with everyone I have shared this experience with had a universal reaction of just disdain towards Drew, Zo was no different, he was shocked and he was upset for me me and I guess this is my way of  taking "revenge" against Drew, by painting him in that negative light to other people. To my own friends who will probably never meet him, and to people in the community who may potentially see his profile on Hinge, so that they will steer clear away from him.

Anyways, during my sharing, it got a bit uncomfortable because the table next to us had diners as well and I really didn't want complete strangers hearing stories about my dating life, especially because of the context of it all, it's weird, but it was a bit too late to switch seats, so I just tried to talk a bit softer, unfortunately, I think they were still able to listen in on my rant and I did not enjoy that, was kinda annoyed at how the staff didn' spread the diners out a bit more sparesely, there were literally seats around the resturant that they could have been seated at, but the waitress had to slap them right beside Zo and I. Sigh.

Zo and I stayed in the restaurant for a while because I was talking so much, I had to do a lot of setting up for the story to do in order to be able to help paint a fuller picture for him, and because he was such an engaging listener, he was also asking me a lot of follow up questions during my sharing and it just felt really therapeutic chatting with him, it's feels like I am talking to a therapist. 

After dinner, we walked over to Bugis for dessert, had originally wanted to go for Chinese Dessert, but the queue was long, so we opted for Ice Cream instead and landed at Tom's Palette.

This was when it became his turn to rant, but his was more about work, so I did my best to offer a listening ear.

We were only technically only allowed to dine in for 40 minutes, but I think we ended up staying there for a little over an hour, no one chased us out so we just overstayed our welcome and chatted as much as we wanted.

After this, we called it a night and made our way back home because it was already past 10pm, close to 11pm at that point. I really enjoyed meeting up with Zo, he reminded me how fufilling it had been when I was actively dating someone, whether it was him or Drew (during the early stage when he was still consistent).

I tried using Hinge again after our meet up, matched with some people, but I honestly don't think I am all that ready to get back into dating game because the moment I swiped my very first match, I started having all these expecations again that I know the other person will not be able to fufill, at least not at the start, and it is just so mentally exhausting to think about having to go through all the vetting again.

Random Updates and Photo Dump

Entering my fitness era, which is probably like 15 years late compared to peers my age who were doing it when they were in their 20s, but it's better than nothing.

Decided to join Fitstop because this is where one of my Secondary School friend frequents as well, she mainly comes for the evening classes and I prefer the morning classes, so we actually have only had 3 class together on the weekends ever since I joined a month ago. 

One of my friend replied to my story that I had posted about going to Fitstop, and said he would give me a maximum of 5 sessions before I call it quits, well I am about 13 - 14 classes in now, and I will say the classes have been great, but there are definitely moments where I feel like I am not pushing myself hard enough because I am not feeling as exhausted as everyone else in the class after the session, and almost everyone else in the class are a whole lot fitter than me.

My introverted self is definitely still struggling to initiate proper conversations with the regulars there, there are a few friendly ones whom I will usually Hi Bye before and after the class with, but I have yet to make any new friends there.

There has also been a steep increase in the number of gym-goers for my 7am  morning slot, what used to be a class of a maximum of maybe 4 - 6 people have now doubled because the main group from the first 6am morning slot have decided to come in at 7am. I get that the point of this gym classes is to have a lot of people to motivate one another, but honestly, I just feel a bit overwhelmed when I am surrounded with so many people that I am not close with thanks to my social anxiety.

Hopefully this can continue for the long run because I really do want to get into better shape, not too big, but enough definition to shed the skinny fat aesthetic that I have going on right now.

Random Photo Dump / Life Updates.

13th Dec.

Wanted to try out the newly opened Chick-Fil-a with a friend, but the queue was insane as anticipated, so I had already prepared a second option even before we met, I knew we were probably gonna end up visiting Sides, that also had a lot of hype when it first opened, but that hype has since died down.

Honestly decent for what it was without the need to queue, the chocolate shake was actually really good because they were using good quality dark chocolate ice cream.

After our meal, since we had no plans, I decided to look for a Matcha cafe nearby and realized Calligraphy was just a short walk away.

Had really wanted to give this place a try since I started getting into Matcha, so this was a very pleasant surprise.

Pistachio Matcha Latte and Apple Pie, it was not bad, but I would have probably preferred either a plain one or strawberry one a lot more. The cafe itself was surprisingly quiet for a weekend, so we just chilled there for a while and I remember making plans with my Sec School friend on Instagram to join her for a weekend Fitstop Class.

Headed to Suntec after this because it was also walking distance, found the Strawberry Puree in Donki, got a few packets, and then we walked so much afterwards within Suntec, I was honestly in a pretty bad mood during the latter half because the cafe we had wanted to take a break in was packed and I really really really needed a seat from how sore my legs were.

We did eventually just settled for a seat in the Foodcourt and then zoned out until we both had recouped enough energy to go back home.

Anyways, this was pretty much how that Saturday was spend.

20th Dec

Went for my very first weekend Fitstop class, it was the first time I attended a full class, so that was really overwhelming and I would have backed out if it hadn't been for the fact that I had booked this class with my Sec School friend.

She was definitely a lot fitter than I was, a bit of a bummer that we didn't really end up catching up much during the class because we were busy getting our asses kicked by the exercises, which I actually ended up enjoying. She did however told me that we could catch up again during the next Saturday class over brunch, so that is something to look forward to.

After the class, I went home to shower and then made my way over to Yen's place for a Christmas lunch with her husband. 

I had been hoping for a bigger group of people and she had planned to invite our ex-colleagues from the furniture store, just so everyone can have a catch up session with each other, but sadly, they were all busy, so she had no choice but to just invite me only.

Her home was quite Christmassy, she actually got a real Christmas Tree from IKEA, so there was this natural scent of whatever that tree was just wafting throughout the house, and then this is her little dog just chilling under the tree.

I wanted to have a "Christmas" looking meal, so I got a Christmas set from Kenny Rogers, it was way too much for 3 people, but I was glad I ordered this.

Anyway,s I also opened up to Yen about my Korea trip with Drew, and essentially came out to her while her husband was in the toilet taking a shower because I wasn't so sure if I wanted to come out to him as well. She offered a listening ear and I think like most friends whom I have come out to and shared what actually went on with Drew in Korea, she just told me to forget about him because he was never going to make a good partner.

It's so nice to be able to actually vent about Drew to friends and have them validate my feelings about him.

Sadly, Yen had a work appointment later that afternoon, so we only ended up only hanging out for 2 hours before I had to leave.

21st Dec

Met up with someone I had matched with on Hinge, we had matched many months ago around the same time I had matched with Drew, but this isn't a date, I met up with him purely as a friend, so there were zero expectations.

I visited Rituals of Korra again, he had reached out after he saw me post about my last trip there and asked when I could go with him, so here we were.  Total damage was $30, which is to be expected when it comes to having Matcha at a nice cafe.

We had a meal at the nearby Hawker afterwards and had a good chat about random topics we could think of, it didn't feel too awkward, which was great. I think because I came into this meet up with no expectation of meeting a potential partner, the whole expereince just didn't feel as initmatidating.

After the meal, we dropped by Elijah Pie. I have tried their Pisatchio Pie before and I really liked it, and since it was literally just beside the Hawker Centre we were at, we popped by, but not to have dessert there since he had another meeting with a bunch of friends and I had a family Christmas dinner to attend to that evening.

I got myself a full slice of their Ceral Milk Pie and also a box of 9 mini tarts for the Family Chrismas Dinner later that evening at my brother's place.

The dog ended up climbing on the table during dinner and attempted to eat the only chocolate tart that was left in that box of 9 minis I had gotten.  Also one tart is missing because my Mum helped herself to a piece at the start of the dinner.

24 Dec and 25th Dec

I had wanted to book a Fitstop class on the 24th Dec, but they only had 2 morning classes that I couldn't attend due to work, so I didn't end up booking any class in advance.

Then my boss announced on 23rd Dec that Christmas Eve will be an off day for us as well, so when I woke up that day, I was contemplating whether to go for a session or not and ultimately decided to make a booking for it literally an hour before the class started.

I really had nothing else planned the entire day, if I didn't attend the class, I would just be home doing fuck all, so it was so much better to at least do something productive that day.

I couldn't join the first class because it was packed, and the first class was where all the familiar faces were, so I didn't really enjoy this class very much in the end because I just didn't enjoy the company of the particular group of people in the second group that day. That being said, I didn't regret going for the class because of the endorphins it gave me when the class ended.

Christmas day had nothing on as well, and the gym had no lessons that day, so I pretty much just stayed at home and played Wuthering Waves or doomscrolled on TikTok. I avoided Instagram as much as I could because a part of me knew if I started seeing people's stories of them having their Christmas parties, I will get a huge sense of FOMO.

27th Dec

Joined my Secondary School friend for our 2nd Fitstop session together.

It's actually nice to go for the session knowing I have a friend whom I can talk to when I reach, my main struggle visiting the gym now is going in and not actually having that "go-to" buddy for me to talk to and team up with.

After our session together, we went for brunch at the nearby Hawker Centre and it's just nice to chat and catch up with one another. This was definitely one of the better classes I had just because I am in the company of an old friend. It made up for the not so great session on Christmas Eve.