September Photo Dump

4th Sept

Visited a close to completed project recently to take some photos of the place for my own viewing pleasure and also to keep a record of it.

I don't normally visit my sites because most of the time, they aren't really worth the visit with how much changes the clients would make to my original proposal, but this particular project is different, the clients for this project gave me full creative control and this is one of the first few projects that I have done where I felt like we had to make very minimal compromisation when it came to the general design direction of the space.

There were definitely areas where I could have improved, but this was definitely quite a fufilling project to do, it's the type that makes you enjoy doing your job as a designer.

8th Sept

Met up with my Fitstop Seconday School friend for lunch.

She has been talking about meeting up for lunch during a work day for a while now because we both work somewhat close to each other, and after I told her I will be moving to Ubi within the few weeks and won't have much time left to have a meal with her in the Novena area anymore, we decided to finally set a date.

I did my research and came across this cafe called Otter and Pebbles, so that was where we had our meal. Since it was also her birthday like a few days back, I decided to treat her to this meal.

We each ordered our own Udon, our own drinks and she got a side of fried corn to share, ( I only ate one corn because it was still on the cob and a bitch to eat), the total damage was $89.

I had thought it would probably cost me below $50, but nope, cafe prices are now insane.

We hadn't done a gym class together for a while now so it was nice catching up with her.  we mainly talked about our plans to get a BTO and I ended up taking a 2 hour lunch break, thankfully my boss didn't come into the office that day so I didn't get into trouble, not that he would really care as well to be honest.

12th Sept

Had a hangout session with Lily on Saturday.

Lily is like my new bestie that I have made from gym class after we bonded over our shared interest in perfume.

This meet up revolved around a visit to a perfume store called The Scent Parlor, which is a store that was introduced to me by Zo, and a place I had only visited with Zo. I have tried going with other Hinge dates before in the past but none of those ever came to fruition.

The Scent Parlour only opened at 12noon, and Lily and I made plans to meet up at 10.30am, so we spend the first part of the trip at this cafe called Pout Cafe Bar.

They are quite popular and this was a spot I was suppose to visit with Drew, but then back then, Pout only opened on the weekday, so it was a bit challenging. 

They decided to open on the weekend as well recently and by then, Drew and I had already called things off and we are no longer in contact with one another. 

I am glad to be here with Lily though.

If there was one thing Drew was good at, it was finding aesthetic cafes... and lying a lot. The view from the cafe is of Marina Bay Sands and The Singapore Flyer.

The whole place was such a vibe.

The items we had.

We were supposed to be joined by another gym friend of ours, but he had a last minute appointment, so he couldn't make it in the end and the entire day was just Lily and me.

It was nice though, she knows about my sexuality so I was very comfortable talking to her about my relationship stuff, and she in turn also feels very comfortable talking about things she wouldn't normally share with a straight male friend.

We ended up staying in the cafe for close to 2 hours before we decided to head over to the perfume shop.

I didn't take any pictures in the perfume place, but we were the only 2 customers there and we took our time sniffing the different fragrances.

Lunch was at this Vietnamese place nearby, I had originally intended for us to visit this Matcha cafe that was a 1km walk away, but after loitering around the perfume place for so long, I just really didn't feel like walking so far.

The food here was not bad, but the shop itself could have been cooler, I just felt really a bit sticky because of how humid the weather was and if the restaurant had been freezing cold, it would have been a really nice spot.

Popped by DOPA for Ice Cream after our lunch because I honestly didn't want the day to end so quickly, this was a spot that Zo had introduced to me as well, and I had Waffles and Ice Cream with him that time,  Lily and I just both got 2 individual cups of Ice Cream. It was really nice Ice Cream, but would have been great with the Waffles.

After this we went back to the perfume shop because I told her I wanted to go get a bottle of the cheaper perfume, she was really excited to just have the day last a little longer. I ended up NOT getting anything because I really didn't like the perfumes THAT much. 

Still, we had a fun time, Lily ended up spilling half a bottle of one of the cheaper perfume samples because she opened it wrongly, luckily the staff was nice and did not get her to pay for it.

That concluded our meet up on Saturday. 

19th Sept

Went for gym class and met Lily for breakfast after.

We went to Offsite AGAIN.

Ordered the same sandwich we had the first time because it was really nice, then stayed in the cafe for 3 full hours from around 9.30am all the way till 12.30 noon. 

We had different group of gym friends coming and going because there were 3 classes that day.

This was what I had ordered during our 2nd hour in the cafe with the last group of friends. 

Total damage that day was about $70 on my side because I paid for Lily's share as part of her birthday meal.

I really enjoyed just being in the cafe and having a bunch of friends to chat with, it has honestly been a while since I had a proper gathering like this.

Oh, and Lily actually gave me 2 candles from this brand to summer because she had extra ones leftover at her house that she wasn't using, I graciously accepted them and they smelled amazing!

I really can't bear to use them though, but I will use it very sparingly.

Photo Dump Updates

 Life has been a bit dull lately.

Now that gym class has become a routine of sorts, the intial excitment that I had towards it has slowly died down and just become a norm to me, a good norm because it has given me a consistent social life.

8th August 

Had breakfast with a few of my gym friends after our Saturday class, we went to visit Offsite cafe, which is super close to the gym.

Our usual spot is actually another coffeeshop in Beauty World, but that day, I decided to splurge a little with a friend I have made from gym, whom I shall just refer to as Lily. 

Lily has very similar taste in food as me, we prefer more westernized food, so instead of visiting the usual breakfast spot that we would go with majority of our gym members after class on the weekdays, we decided to splurge a little and visit Offsite instead, along with another gym member.

It was nice to be with a smaller more initimate group, we just chit chatted for maybe 2 hours before calling it a day. 

9th August

Made plans with Yen on this day to finally have a catch up session.

We visited this cafe called Mozmoji in Chinatown.

The entrance is at the side alley, so you will have to look for it.

It's a cafe that also sells handmade cups and plates, the whole cafe is very chill and quiet, at least when I was there.

I got myself a cup of Salted Chocolate Latte and Tofu Cheesecake, which were both really really good!

Yen was unfortunately like an hour late because she had forgotten it was a weekend and actually ended up waiting for a bus at her place that only operates on a weekday, she was really apologetic when she finally arrived at the cafe and we just took that time to catch up with one another about work and life in general.

We did stay in the cafe for a bit too long and were eventually asked very nicely by the staff to leave because everyone was only allowed about 90 minuts of dining, and at that point, we were probably sitting down for 2 hours, or at least I was because she was an hour late. 

Visited a few more spots around Chinatown, she was joined by her husband midway through and I did tell them I had to get home soon because I wanted to see my nephew who would be visiting that evening. 

10th August

Visited Offsite AGAIN with Lily.

What is funny is Lily and I had told ourselves that a visit to cafes like this should only be done once every 1-2 months because it's not cheap, but then here we were again, 2 days later.

I went to the café with Lily and two other gym members. Lily and I ended up staying there for so long that the other two eventually left, and later, we were joined by another gym member who had attended a later class that day.

All in all, Lily and I spend a total of 3 hours in the cafe.

This was an expensive long weekend.

15th August

Visited ANOTHER cafe, this time with my secondary school friend whom I usually do Weekend classes with.

Unfortunately, she had overslept that day and I ended up doing the class alone, well, not alone alone, I did pair up with someone in the class for the excercise, but I don't usually attend the class at that particular time because I am not close with anyone in that timeslot, so when my friend told me she wasn't able to make it for class, I did feel my social anxiety acting up a bit.

The guy whom I did pair up with eventually was fit, so I actually felt like I was going to pass out at one point because of how deseprate I was trying to keep up with him. 

Anyways, my friend came to the gym once the class was over to meet me and another friend of hers (who had taken the earlier class) and we headed over to the cafe together.

the Ritual.

Located at Stevens, this is the first time we had to take a travel via train for food, other times when we have breakfast after gym class, it is always walking distance from the gym.

Verdict for this cafe. It's good, not neccesarily mindblowing, but it's worth the visit.

18th August

I remember having breakfast alone after gym quite a lot this week, and this was one of the shots I took from my solo breakfast. 

A lot of the usual breakfast people either didn't come for class or they went for 5km runs after class, it's a bit crazy. I thought me joining them once or twice for a 1-2km run after class was already crazy, but then to go for a 5km after is insane.

But this week, I think I also wanted to take a social break and just have some quiet time during breakfast, so I went for my usual spot at TOMORO Coffee, which was the cafe I would frequent when I first started attending Fitstop back in December last year.

22nd August.

Had breakfast with Lily at another nearby cafe again after our Saturday gym class, she had just returned from her Malaysia trip, so she got me peppers and we talked about trying out Strawberries and Black Pepper together, thus the presence of strawberries in the photo.

She even brought a plate from home, as well as bottles of balsamic vinegar, it was very extra, but we had a good time.

This time it was just the two of us, so we really chatted a lot about our personal life and work life stuff, after breakfast, we went to an ice cream shop nearby to have ice cream as well because one of the other food combination we wanted to try was Vanilla ice cream with Olive Oil and Sea Salt, the latter 2 items we actually got from the supermarket after class, it was actually a really good combination, much better than the strawberries.

29th August.

This was the same day as my shitty interview that I had blogged about previously.

Went on a date with someone I met on Hinge in the afternoon.

Things with Bee are currently an enigma, like I don't know what the fuck is going on between us, so I have been matching with people on Hinge and going on dates, I did go for one the week before, that one was really awkward, this one on the other hand was a lot better, that being said, I don't think I will be seeing this guy for another date because we have stopped texting each other since then date and I also don't feel very compelled to want to reach out for more meet ups after this so there is that.

But back to what's going on with me and Bee.

We haven't really met up for an entire month now and our text messages to one another have been extremely sporadic, like maybe 2 -3 messages a week and they are super short messages that don't carry any sort of conversational weight. Things have definitely tapered down between us.

He did tell me we should get a meal together soon during our last sporadic text to each other and I told him we could meet on his next available day off from work.....he just left me on read. 

I will be honest, I had been thinking of calling things off with him for a while now because I have been struggling to find any romantic attraction towards him,  he is someone who is great on paper, has his own business, owns a place, drives his own car, and he is genuinely a very nice guy, but everytime we meet up, it feels like I am hanging out with a friend, not even like super close friend, but just a friend, much less a romantic partner. 

I guess him leaving me on read also proves that he probably feels like whatever we had has ran it's course, so a bit of me feels relieved as well, but the whole lip service aspect of bringing up the idea of meeting up again, and then not following through after I agree to it, it's very iffy. 

2nd Sept.

Met up with Zo

Zo had went to KL a week prior and offered to help me get Niko Neko Matcha from there, naturally I accepted his offer because the Matcha that I had gotten from Naoki and Crafti really cannot make it anymore after I had tried Niko Neko.

Another reason why I accepted his offer is also because it would present as a perfect oppurtunity to meet again, we had made plans to meet before this a few times but they just never materialize because neither of us ever followed through, but now that he has something that he has to physically pass to me, it makes the whole idea of meeting up feel more concrete.

We met at Bugis+, had Chick-Fil-A, he passed me the Matcha and we just chatted for the entirety of our time together, even after we were done, we just made rounds around Bugis talking non-stop about releationship stuff, work stuff, gym stuff, etc. 

Zo is a very thoughtful person, so it's just nice to chat with him about stuff, and also the reason why he has sort of become my benchmark for how thoughtful I would like the people I date to be.