BKK BAWLING

I finished The Ink Black Heart (all 1012 pages of it) in Bangkok, and am consequently feeling more literary than I have for a long time. Which makes one thing clear: a good, long book is always an essential travel item.

But I haven’t written anything for a while, save for tedious advice on the legal problems that plague the G0v+ (what? You mean the G is plagued by legal problems?!?!), so this will be structured like one of those. If you found this readable and easy to understand, you are most welcome to go to my LinkedIn page and endorse the relevant skills I have demonstrated. 

Background

I was determined on this trip that we would do something other than take the Chao Phraya tourist ferry (one of our favourite things to do, hasn’t gotten old). Accordingly, we ended up at: (1) SEA LIFE Bangkok Ocean World (“Aquarium”) – totally unplanned – and (2) Safari World Bangkok (“Confused Zoo”) (sort of planned, but evidently we did not plan ENOUGH as you will see). 

Food and accommodation

We had enough Golden Circle points from previous holidays and staycations in Singapore to make staying at Shangri-la Bangkok (again) worthwhile. We got a suite, which had a sofa in the “living room” that converted into a bed, where we unceremoniously told Them they were to sleep. They had a blast, of course, saggy mattress and likely unwashed sofa cushions notwithstanding. 

The shops in the area mostly survived the pandemic – I went back to Serene Massage (about 5 minutes’ walk from Shangri-la) for a full body massage, foot reflexology and a pedicure; the coffeeshop across the road was still bustling, and I recognised the roasted meats uncle from when we were last there. The noodles didn’t taste as great as they did the last time, but I put that down to Their being able to squabble more loudly and coherently now. 

Sarnies Sourdough opened just down the road from Serene Massage. The food is great, and if you’re lucky like us you’ll get to see influenzas in action, posing in front of the quaint and cute storefront (I typed that with a small eye roll), and holding up plates of eggs benedict while smiling appealingly at the iPhone wielded by their long suffering insta bfs.  

Things we did

(1) Aquarium

12/10 would recommend going:

a. Nicer vibe, more thoughtful exhibits than the S.E.A. Aquarium. Jon’s thoughts on this are summed up thus. The S.E.A. Aquarium was RWS’s afterthought, built to distract from the main business of the casinos. The Aquarium felt more like it had been built for its own sake. 

b. We paid for a combo ticket that gave us free popcorn and Pepsi (Coke?) (which we didn’t redeem), and a 4D Aquaman show. Which turned out to be a highlights reel of the Aquaman movie (i.e. the worst one in the Marvel franchise, ever, or so I was told) in 4D. You decide whether you want to skip it.

c. Also included was a glass-bottomed boat ride, and entry to Madame Tussaud’s Bangkok. The former is quite short – the boat just takes you around the tank that makes up the underwater tunnel exhibit – and the guides are enthusiastic young people who speak heavily accented English that isn’t the easiest to understand, but it was cool enough and it’s always nice to see young people enthusiastic about something meaningful (in this case marine life, and its preservation and care of). We skipped the latter, because we spent a good 3h or so in the Aquarium, inclusive of said boat ride. 

d. Highlights of the Aquarium include the spotted garden eel, and manta ray feeding – look out for the other fishes fighting over the scraps the manta rays failed to grab with their flat, always smiling but are they really mouths. 

e. The Aquarium is located in Siam Paragon, which appears to have been renovated since the last time we were there pre-pandemic. The oyster omelette at the Bangkok’s “Best Of Hawker Food 2022” pop-up was better than the one we had in Chinatown (we didn’t manage to get a table at T&K this time so went to the restaurant opposite), and the “award-winning” tom yum seafood noodles were so-so. BUT there is a Smokey’s in the food court, with proper baked beans.  

(2) Confused Zoo 

Confused Zoo is divided into two parts: Safari Park and Marine Park. The latter is a bit of a misnomer, because there were more than marine animals there. 4.5/10, but maybe this was because we didn’t do enough planning? 

We naively thought it would be like the Singapore zoo (Bangkok generally gives me a Singapore-esque vibe, it’s quite efficient and clean) – buy tickets online, rock up and enter by scanning the QR code. 

This, of course, was not the case. It was an exceptionally crowded day, and we ended up queueing for close to an hour before we got to the counter to scan the QR code to get hardcopy tickets, which were the only means by which one could gain access to the Confused Zoo. 

Our Grab driver initially offered to queue for us – the queue for Thai citizens was relatively short – and we think he wanted to drive us into the safari, but because we had no clue what to except, we rejected his offer. We ended up having to queue for tickets for the bus to the safari as well. 

I’m on the fence about whether the queueing was worthwhile (hence the 0.5 deduction to 4.5/10):

a. Because of the above, we missed the not-to-be-missed orang utan, dolphin, and elephant shows. But this could have been mitigated through better planning and research? We caught the sea lion and bird shows though. Overall, Marine Park was more like a show-based theme park than a proper zoo with exhibits for learning about animals. 

b. Kids generally like seeing real giraffes, zebras, tigers etc., so that was nice for Them, because we got to see said animals in their “natural habitat” in the Safari Park (on that note I heard a HK tourist say to his companions that he asked whether he could walk through, and was told that it was a 7km journey. It would in any event have been dangerous. Best to go to the Safari Park after visting the Marine Park). 

c. The Confused Zoo is probably best suited to young adults wanting a laugh and something different from the usual Bangkok eating and staycation without parents activities (sniggers): the energy to get there, into, and back from the place; gawping at the cage-on-a-truck from which tourists can feed tigers (an additional 1200THB which we did not pay and anyway it was all booked out); signs peppering the tiger enclosure in the Safari Park entreating you not to get out of your car under any circumstances, and if your car stalled, to stay in your car and keep horning; the wild west stunt show at Marine Park that featured a lot of shooting and people falling into “wells”, and had a scene where two characters were caught in flagrante delicto (the many children in the audience notwithstanding); and the piece de resistance, the “MUST-GO” River Safari which had robotic animals, extremely politically incorrect exhibits (life-size dioramas depicting a “tribal” village, complete with dark-skinned robot natives holding spears and a captured (robot) white explorer hanging upside down above barking (robot) dogs), and a SCARY CAVE meant to depict coal mining but how do you explain the (robot) wild boar which pounced out at us?! Here's a YouTube video of the entire River Safari. A throwback to the 90s and a simpler, more uncomplicated time. 

d. You can feed giraffes at Marine Park (I TOLD you this was a misnomer), but Jon and I were too drained from queueing for tickets to engage in this activity, even for Them.

e. The Indian buffet looks marginally better than the International buffet (this place came with a “buffet lunch”) but Jon made us choose the International buffet, whereat I could only bring myself to eat Thai mango salad and slices of guava. Word to the wise: best pack your own food and bring it in surreptitiously. There was a bag check which suggested they would confiscate food not purchased there.   

f. The journey to the Confused Zoo took about 45-50mins from the hotel. Obviously we didn’t plan for how we were going to get back to the city; Grab predictably failed us and Jon ended up having to walk to the main road to get us a taxi, which only agreed to bring us to the nearest mall (it was called Fashion Island, I kid you not, and was surprisingly modern and crowded).

(3) Last full day in Bangkok

This was the day after we went to the Confused Zoo. We had breakfast at Sarnie’s Sourdough, Jon went for a run in the hotel gym while I went for foot reflexology and a pedicure while They played Woodoku on my phone. Then we all went to the swimming pool, ate hotel food poolside, then went up to the room and piled into the big bed after we all showered and watched NatGeo and ordered more hotel food. The boys declared this their favourite day of all 5 days we spent in Bangkok. 

Conclusion and next steps

I hope you enjoy your next holiday. Or, you know, you could just save the airfare and staycate again (see third activity). 

Perth/Margaret River: Running Auntie and Slacker S**t Parent Edition

In this post, I will discuss the three things we prioritised on our recent trip to Perth, as well as give you a pro auntie tip, for living your best Singapore life on holiday (why would anyone want to do THAT?), in better weather. Follow my guide, and you can too! Caveat: if you go during the December school holidays (summer in Australia), there might not be better but potentially worse weather. At least the sun sets a couple hours later and it’s cool in the morning?

I will answer the most important question first – yes, Aesop is cheaper in Perth, but not THAT much cheaper. Look up Singapore prices before you go and decide whether it’s worth the luggage space.

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Our No. 1 priority was staying near outdoor running routes.

In Perth, we stayed at Quest on South Perth Foreshore. The main pro of this property was that it was about 50m from the run/bike paths that circle the Swan River. I ran twice, the Strava maps are shown below. For exact details, you can follow me on Strava.  

Other pros:

• Connected to Mends Street Arcade, which has a Jason’s/ Cold Storage Fresh equivalent.
• Rooms come with a microwave, washing machine and dryer, basic cooking facilities, and the beds are turned daily. 
• Really good banana bread at Atomic Espresso in Mends Street Arcade.
• Two playgrounds in the vicinity. One is about 50m from the property, and the other is slightly further down, maybe about 400-500m away. 

Breakfast sandwich without barbecue sauce in the foreground, banana bread and Andy Lau in the background.

Cons:

• Nearest supermarket is a Jason’s/ Cold Storage Fresh equivalent, i.e. overpriced groceries at Singapore prices, even the fresh produce. But after travelling all that way with young children (the flight is only five-ish hours, how weak are we) you’ll willingly fork over the money for their ready to heat, surprisingly healthy meals.
• The nearest playground is a sand playground. Offspring will for sure truck sand back to the room.

At Margaret River we were originally booked to stay at Riverglen Chalets (where we stayed on our last trip), but had to give up the booking because we got COVID and had to postpone our trip. This cluster of chalets is quite near the town centre, maybe a kilometre or so, and a couple hundred metres from the entrance to Rotary Park, which is where the Margaret River parkun is held (Saturday mornings, check out the website).

We ended up staying at Chalet on Percheron (single chalet), a lovely if ulu property, essentially an Airbnb. It’s ~1.5km from the main Margaret River running/bike path, ~3.5km from the town centre, and ~3.8km from Rotary Park. But there are wild kangaroos and a huge backyard, where you will set your children free and be disappointed that they are still full of beans after running around for close to two hours.  

I did three runs when we were here, but am only showing two Strava maps because two of the runs were on the same path. Even if you don’t make it for parkrun, the route in Rotary Park is quite nice and has some trail (but nothing technical, mostly packed mud fairly free of tree roots. Why don't we have anything like that here?). The run to Prevelly is excellent, and if you don’t want to do an out and back, you can get your family to drive down to meet you (don’t worry your sweat will dry quickly and it will feel like you never ran at all) and have breakfast at The Sea Garden restaurant. The banana bread is good as well (sensing a theme here).

Admittedly there aren’t as many runners/ bikers as there are in Perth and definitely way less than on the PCNs in Singapore, so it takes some getting used to. But I daresay it’s pretty safe (nothing untoward happened to me, and I felt safe enough to not bring my phone), just go during daylight hours OR if you should be so lucky to have grandparents along, someone can watch the kids and you can go with your spouse. 

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Priority No. 2: Cooking. 

I suppose the point of being on holiday is not to have to perform such menial tasks, but I was already going to do laundry anyway, and I cannot resist the lure of fresh produce and an uncluttered kitchen. Also, there is only so much restaurant angmoh food Asians can consume.  

The no. 1 thing you should cook is steak, potatoes, and broccolini. The last time we came to Margaret River I also made cream of mushroom soup, but as Jon pointed out we prioritised regular runs this time round so there was less time and energy for cooking.  

Pro auntie tip: save the small containers of butter you will keep getting when you order banana bread (see first priority above), and which they give you on the aeroplane. You can use the butter when pan-frying the steak. It will be a bit melty, sure, but just stick it in the freezer the first chance you get.

I would also do a mashed potato, though I tried to do roast potatoes this time round. The problem is the ovens at most of the properties are a bit temperamental and don’t heat evenly so it’s not easy to get the nice golden brown one is used to with a familiar oven. 

From the Woolworth’s receipt below, you will see that I bought “chicken bulk” for $6.20. This consisted about 10 good sized drumsticks, which I roasted, took the meat off of, then boiled the bones for stock together with the chicken drippings and kale stems. 

The shredded meat was just about enough for two meals for the four of us, one of pasta and one of ramen soup (I bought a jar of miso paste and added about a tablespoon to give the soup some body). Pictures below. 

Ramen on our last night in Margaret River. Because Asian.

Tomato (cooked down), kale and chicken pasta

Steak in the background  (it was really very good), and not quite golden brown roast potatoes.

 

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Priority No. 3: Don’t bother about visiting wineries for food and wine (scandalous). 

If you can get a booking, great, but if you can’t, don’t sweat it. And if you don’t buy any wine, it just means you will have more luggage space to bring back 4L of your favourite detergent (AUD$17.80) which now costs a whopping $9.80/L at Cold Storage. 

How long will you last me? ㅠㅠ

A lot is said about how expensive eating out in Australia generally is, so here I present to you pies from: (1) Margaret River Pies; and (2) Witchy Pies (this is in Witchcliffe, which is on the way to Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse). Said lighthouse was undergoing renovation when we went though, so check before you go. We went to Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse instead this time round. The guided tour (by a very tall man named Paul) was good, as most guided tours in Australia usually are (it’s the angmoh accent perhaps), and I bought a book at the gift store called The Ways of the Bushwalker. 

Mexican Pie from Witchy Pies

Beef pie from Margaret River Bakery

Sausage Roll from Margaret River Bakery

Jalapeno Pie from Margaret River Bakery (similar to Mexican Pie, above)

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Picspam – what you're really here for, because it's easier to look at travel pictures, except these aren't really travel pictures, are they?

Offspring with red kangaroo at Perth Zoo. Admission is a bit pricey but well worth it. If you have to choose between the zoo and Caversham Wildlife Park, I'd choose the zoo. Unless, of course, you must join the ranks of Singaporeans who have 100001 videos of their children feeding kangaroos, and must upload a picture of your family with the wombat to social media. The #fomo is real.

I'm a sucker for all this naturally dried fruit. I'd skip the cauliflower puffs, and the avocado chips are available at Cold Storage.

The nice thing about this brand of yogurt (about the cheapest of the lot and readily available at most supermarkets) is that random jokes and facts are revealed as you eat the yogurt (the tub is clear plastic and said random jokes and facts are printed on the inside of the label). Just be prepared that your offspring will not stop with the knock-knock jokes thereafter. We had a joke-telling contest one night before bed, I think mine was by far the funniest: Knock-knock! Who's there? Ander! Ander who? No, Ander-roo! 

Fish and chips from Zamia Cafe at King's Park, Perth. I spent four hours at a playground there with the boys, because Jon had to work one morning. These fish and chips were surprisingly good.

Offspring at the playground near Zamia Cafe. The playground where these stone sculptures were located is pretty good (it kept Them occupied for 4 hours, so...). Not pictured, the awesome obstacle course. But D and his wife took their kids to the Rio Tinto Naturescape which he said has even more fun things (like a creek!), so consider this my PSA to go to the more heong King's Park playground.

View from the top of Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse (thank God for the beautiful rainbow); in front of Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse.

Other places of note:

• Underwater aquarium at Busselton - we couldn't get tickets this time, but I highly recommend it. 
• Swings & Roundabouts (restaurant, probably related to the winery) which is one of the first restaurants you will see when you drive in to Margaret River from Perth. We had some doubts but the supermarkets were closed by the time we got there on our first night, so we gave it a go. We had the inferno pizza (nduja!) and shared the duck rillette, and They shared the fish nuggets (real fish). 
• Eagle Bay Brewery. Food wasn't great and I didn't feel up to driving so Jon couldn't drink much, and who in their right mind goes to the Margaret River region to drink BEER?! But we didn't need to make a reservation (perhaps this post is really a lesson on the need to make reservations, but what kind of holiday is it if you have to make so many reservations?) and there was a large grass patch with a small hill for Them and Their ilk to roll down.
• U&I Cafe, Perth. Open 24 hours, serves pho and other Asian food. 

***

I hope you have a nice time, if you choose to go. But maybe don't tell me you're going to Perth until you're back, unless you want to bring back more laundry detergent for me. 

SUGEE CAKE

A few weeks ago, Andrew set his heart on a sugee cake for his fifth birthday cake. This was due entirely to The Marvellous Sugee Cake by Quek Hong Shin. It’s one of a set of four children’s books, the other three being The Incredible Basket, The Amazing Sarong, and The Brilliant Oil Lamp. The illustrations are gorgeous and the writing is engaging and doesn’t grate (which is more than I can say for some adult SingLit, but I digress. The Stacey museums series by Lianne Ong is pretty good too, if you’re on the lookout for local children’s books). 

I wanted to do the sugee cake justice, because when it comes to making things like these, these occasion cakes, I know you will agree there is no doing things by halves. As it is when I make something for the first time – and I generally don’t like testing recipes for sweets so I have to get it right the first time I make them, haha – I spent Too Much Time trawling the Internet for sugee cake recipes. 

There were surprisingly few websites/ videos for traditional Eurasian sugee cake recipes (compared to other types of cake). And the recipes were either vague in some parts (e.g. 90% of the ones I found) or just really bossy in tone (e.g. Kitchen Tigress. But I guess with a blog name like that, what was I expecting?). Even the video Hong Shin made with his friend Andre was a bit vague. 

Anyway, I consulted Jessica at Sunset Railway Café – she makes sugee cakes to sell every week – and in the week before Andrew’s birthday decided to go with Mrs Cecil’s Sugee Cake recipe, with tips from Kitchen Tigress’ recipe (I didn’t want to use the latter because she had you measure your egg whites and egg yolks by weight. Not a bad idea if you are really picky about this sort of thing, but come on, separating eggs is already so sian, who wants to weigh yolks and whites after that???). 

Eurasian grandmothers might be rolling in their graves at the following, but if you, like me, were looking for a sugee cake recipe and found them all frustratingly vague, this is for you. I hope it turned up when you Googled and that is why you are here.

Caveats: 

• I prefer my cake on the less moist side, so this is not super rich and is a bit crumbly – but as I said,    my mother told me it tasted like sugee cake from an old-school bakery. I’ll take that. If you want a    sugee cake that is richer and moister, you’re better off bribing a Eurasian friend for their Top Secret family recipe, handwritten in neat cursive in a tatty, held together with scotch tape notebook whose yellowing pages are stained with rempah fingerprints. A recipe where the proportion of egg yolks and butter to semolina flour/ all-purpose flour is higher than what’s stated below will result in a richer, moister cake (duh). 
• I used my stand-mixer, and both the paddle and whisk attachments. I think a hand-mixer would do the job ok (bonus if yours has a whisk attachment).
• I made 18 cupcakes and a six-inch cake with my first batch of batter (doubled), but if you clicked here from my Instagram, you will know that the six-inch cake sunk in the middle, probably because I opened the oven door one too many times to check on the cupcakes. And, I confess, also to check on the bread I was baking at the same time. Moral of the story, don’t try to bake too many things at one time when you’re trying out a recipe for the first time. I scooped out the middle and the rest of it had baked up nicely, so that was ok. 

RECIPE

Makes one 8-inch cake. I used a dark springform pan, 3 inches tall. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, and grease the sides with a liberal amount of butter.

Baked for 1 hour or so at 160C without fan. 

p/s also my apologies, the formatting is terrible but I haven't been writing often enough to spend the time required to look up formatting on blogger, haha. 

Ingredients

About 170g semolina, err on the side of a bit more, e.g. 175-180g (original recipe called for 150g, but see step 1b)

200g butter (I used salted, because I use salted butter for all my baked goods)

1 tablespoon brandy

6 egg yolks

140g sugar (original recipe calls for 150g)

2 tablespoons vanilla

80g all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

40g whole almonds (I used skin on)

3 egg whites

Method

1.   Toast the semolina. 

• (a) Spread semolina thinly on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. 180C oven, no fan. Give it 10 minutes, take out the baking tray and give it a good stir, then stick it in for another 5 minutes.
• (b) I found that the semolina reduced in volume by about 20g after baking – so you want to start with about 170g semolina at least, to get 150g toasted semolina. 

2.    Toast the almonds.

• (a) When you take the semolina out to give it a good stir, you can stick the almonds in. No need to line the baking tray.
• (b) Remove toasted almonds and toasted semolina when the semolina is done, i.e. after the full 15  minutes of toasting the semolina.

3. Let semolina and almonds cool. The semolina should cool pretty quick as you measure the butter.

4. Cream the butter and semolina, and add the tablespoon of brandy to the mix as you are finishing up the creaming to incorporate (see 4b below). 

• (a) This is where I found most recipes too vague – “mix” the semolina and butter? “Combine” the semolina and butter? Do I melt it or what??? But thankfully Jessica was able to give me some tips. 
• (b) It’s actually like creaming butter and sugar. USE YOUR STAND-MIXER’S PADDLE ATTACHMENT. The butter should be room temperature (I admit I don’t bother with letting it come to room temperature from frozen, but you definitely should especially if you are using a hand-mixer. It doesn’t matter so much with a stand-mixer because it’s powerful enough to get the butter creamed from a frozen-ish state (but recipe bloggers are frowning, I know)). Do not cream for more than 5-8 minutes or so. Err on the side of longer if your butter is in a frozen-ish state. 
• (c) But because no mixer is made equally, I will just say – DO NOT whip the butter and semolina to death i.e. it should NOT be too fluffy and pale. If it is, this means you have overwhipped the butter and your cake might not have enough structural integrity (fancy term. Also King Arthur Flour did a write-up on over-creaming butter and sugar and why you Should Not Do So. I think similar principles apply here).

5. Let the semolina-butter-brandy sit for about an hour. I left mine out on the counter and it was fine, it didn’t melt and was still quite fluffy after an hour, but my house is generally quite cool even when it’s boiling outside. You might want to stick your bowl in the fridge.

• (a) It did cross my mind that if the point of creaming the butter and semolina is to incorporate air into the mix, wouldn’t the air escape if I let it sit for a while? But what do I know?
• (b) Jessica says an hour should be sufficient, but I know some recipes say to stick it in the fridge overnight. There’s never enough space in my fridge, so I didn’t do this. 
• (c) In Andre’s version that he made with Hong Shin, Andre soaked the semolina overnight in cream (see the YouTube video and the comments). 

6. If you’re using a stand-mixer, transfer semolina-butter-brandy to a clean bowl, if you haven’t already done so. Add egg yolks and sugar to the bowl you creamed the semolina-butter-brandy in (or if you’re using a hand-mixer, just use another bowl). WHISK the egg yolks and sugar (i.e. use the whisk attachment) until you reach the RIBBON STAGE.

• (a) This was also a step no one really bothered to explain in their recipes. Mrs Cecil’s sugee cake video tells you to beat the egg yolks and sugar until they are fluffy (or something). Which, ok, is kinda correct, but “ribbon stage” is a more commonly used term. It essentially means the stage where the egg yolk-sugar mixture is dropping off your whisk in “ribbons”, when you stop mixing. You can google videos of this.  
• (b) But note interpreting this step was pure guesswork, although to be fair the point of all these steps, after all, is to incorporate air into the batter for a cake that’s not too dense. 

7. Add vanilla extract to egg yolk-sugar mixture. Whisk to incorporate (I continued using the whisk attachment). 

• (a) Please don’t use Bake King brand imitation vanilla extract unless you really must. 

8. Add semolina butter to egg yolk-sugar-vanilla extra mixture. 

9. Sift the 80g all-purpose flour and 4 teaspoons baking powder (to avoid doubt, 80g is the unsifted weight of the flour) together. Add this to the mixture that resulted from step 8, together with a fat pinch of salt (I agared, since I used salted butter). You can continue using the whisk attachment to incorporate the flour, but since I am paranoid about you over-mixing the batter, better to just fold the flour in with a spatula. 

10. Remember the toasted almonds? Chop them in a food processor, then add to the batter. 

• (a) I went with around 25 pulses or so – you want a mix of bigger but not too big (I can also be vague) chopped pieces and finer almost almond flour like bits. You could also do this on a chopping board with a sharp knife, but I sliced into my left thumb chopping kale during Phase HA HA HA (was it only barely a month ago? What is time, in 2021?) and have been chary of chopping things ever since. Almonds have a tendency to bounce around when chopped, so definitely a no-go. 
• OR you could just buy ready chopped almonds, I won’t judge you. But then I don’t know about toasting chopped almonds (step 2), will they burn easily?

11. Whip the egg whites in a CLEAN, DRY bowl until the soft peak stage. 

• (a) I have a hand-mixer in addition to my stand-mixer, so I just used that. But if you are using your hand-mixer, please wash and dry the beaters before doing this. I’ve never tried, OBVIOUSLY, but every recipe blog I’ve ever read reminds me that my egg whites will not whip properly if my bowl and beaters are not squeaky clean. 

12. Fold the whipped egg whites into the batter. 

• (a) I did this in thirds, by hand, with a spatula. Do not use your mixer for this step. You want to be quick and thorough, and you don’t need to be TOO gentle with the egg whites. The key is to have a decisive folding motion and incorporate the egg whites into the batter quickly. 
• (b) Do not overmix – just repeat the folding motion until no streaks of egg white remain.

13. Scrape the batter into your prepared baking pan, bake cake. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR UNTIL AT LEAST 50 MINUTES HAVE PASSED. If making cupcakes, I think this amount of batter makes about 12-18 cupcakes, depending on how full you fill the tin. I filled each hole slightly more than two-thirds, and they baked up to the top. Some also spilled over, but they were still good to eat. Check for cupcake doneness around 18-20 minutes in.

Parting comments

Decorate as you wish! I didn't make royal icing because I don't like icing (or frosting) (what is cake without icing/ frosting?) but I did put blue pea flowers on top (Popo brought some from her blue pea flower plant, all that were whole, she said).

  Crumb shot, after the blue pea flowers were plucked off the top of the cake and placed in water so Daniel could show the grandparents and uncles a "blue pea flower experiment" over Zoom (now everyone knows they turn water blue. "If you use hot water, they will release the blue more quickly!" said Popo. Did you know that?). Jessica also says the tunnels (holes) are because of air bubbles/ slightly too hot oven temp (I couldn't really hear her properly through her mask and the social distance ha ha).

#wfhdiaries: Days 33-37

When you can’t get your kids out of your hair:

Courtesy of the cover of The Economist, 30 April issue (The 90% economy)

This was actually Andrew’s class’ craft, 快乐的理发师 (Happy Hairdresser!), but Daniel asked to do one too. The boys’ end products are below. No prizes for guessing who created the above.

I see someone tried to wash the glue out of your hair. My, what large teeth you have!

Daniel’s class is embarking on learning 量词. To the question 小朋友们，你们家有几辆车呢？, I heard someone say FIVE! Daniel was momentarily flummoxed – I popped out of the study to check on him when I didn’t hear him joining in the chorus of responses, and came upon him staring at the screen askance. But Mummy, I have Lightning McQueen and Jackson Storm and all these other small cars, how do I count how many cars I have at home?

Jon also had some craft work. Imagine my ire when he realised he was supposed to contribute “L” instead of “A”. Waste rough paper only.

As you know, I made Taiwanese oyster meesua last week to celebrate the super nice thing that happened to Jon at work. But in the ultimate act of spousal betrayal, I procured all the key ingredients from Qoo10 (dried cuttlefish and frozen Korean oyster meat). Would you trust a company that suggests the perfect homecation would start with me unboxing a spin mop, and thereafter smiling beatifically as my helpful, well-behaved child and I undertook to mop the floor together?

Last week was super hectic at work, though I found it quite enjoyable, like old days. Because of it, I ended up having an unexpectedly heartfelt conversation on Saturday night with W, my old roommate, after I thought to tell her that I have over the years (and that is very many years, about 7 I would say) channeled the efficiency and focus she radiated the moment she barged into our room in the morning. I hated it at the time (of course), but I will always be grateful for the sense of discipline she helped instil through her exacting demands. The satisfaction and pride that the knowledge of a job well done brings cannot come about otherwise (though I can hear D snidely remark that it’s the competitiveness talking.)

But the week also reminded me, again, that it was right to have left so soon. I was snappier than usual with Jon and the boys, the fact of the matter being that when you’re both chionging, there just isn’t much, if anything, left for the kids or the household. The slack usually picked up by mothers is just left to… slack. And no matter what a wonderful learning experience! it is to realise that you cannot have or do it all blah blah blah [insert feel-good statements here], it’s just irritating AF when the slack is left to slack, like dishes being left too long in the sink, festering dirty laundry and tons of clean unfolded clothes, the eco-guilt of getting takeaway but really you cannot face cooking again….

The emails that need to be sent have been sent; no celebratory drinks by the river in these times (not that there were for a long time pre-CB anyway). These days the reward for the pleasant exhaustion is a book and a nap, maybe an episode of World of the Married...? I hope you are having a good public holiday.

#wfhdiaries Days 28-32

It dawned on me earlier this week that I am currently responsible for the boys’ vegetable intake. Prior to the CB I depended on childcare and to a lesser extent, grandmothers, to enforce vegetable consumption, so I knew the boys got at least one meal with vegetables a day. At home, Daniel kicks up a huge fuss if there is so much as a sliver of green in his food, and Andrew is at a stage where he just follows suit, so for most CB meals they’ve just eaten carbs and meat, and get their fibre from fruit and wholemeal bread. And, hopefully, Meiji biscuits (with oats – that’s the green coloured one). My mother is probably shaking her head as she reads this, but now she knows why we are all so vague in our responses during video calls. Are you eating vegetables? *giggles* *act cute* ok say bye to Popo.

The aforementioned epiphany struck when I realised that the big 32-pack box of Meiji biscuits with oats that I’d bought on Tuesday was more or less gone by Friday (each packet contains 7, I think Jon and I combined only ate 2 packets at the most, so by elimination you can guess where the others ended up). By Thursday, Daniel had already taken apart the box to make the beginnings of a “house” that has been torn down and is awaiting recycling.

M helpfully reminded me that there are “veggie” Meiji biscuits (tomato and assorted vegetables?), but I haven’t seen them anywhere recently; even the 32-pack boxes only made an appearance at my preferred NTUC on the day I purchased them. Perhaps other parents are facing the same dilemma as we are regarding vegetable consumption, though from what I can see on Instagram, it seems like everyone else’s pre-school children are more than thrilled to consume vegetables (but maybe those whose children are eating Meiji veggie biscuits in lieu of fresh vegetables aren’t posting about it, obviously not).

The theme of Daniel’s English/ Good Citizen class this past week was recycling. All well and good, but then 20 minutes before Andrew’s Chinese class a few days later I read the instructional email more closely (common theme, this. I confess to Nelsonian blindness on first readings) and realised that we needed two empty plastic drink bottles for the craft. We have not purchased drinks in plastic bottles for a very long time, and I wanted to tell laoshi that even if we had I’d have recycled them. Why isn't there a common theme across classes? So I ended up providing two take-out containers for the craft. Whatever floats your boat, right? 

Yes people it's a boat ok

Except that the boat also ended up getting taken apart before we could see whether it floated. Andrew’s English teacher has also sent me a message to ask me to send pictures or videos of Andrew’s “crafts” and any “work he has completed”. I sent her the  above photo of the boat, which she said she would forward to laoshi, and repeated her request, this time emphasising that she "needed" them, and adding cute thank-you stickers.

She can see the double blue ticks on that last smiling cat emoting a pink heart but I have not replied her. I suspect the stickers are her way of hiding how she really feels about the fact that I have allowed Andrew to, essentially, anyhow-ly with korkor, is my best friend! (Awwww.) After the Meiji biscuit with oats debacle, I realised that most afternoons Jon and I just ignore Them and really work, and we have no idea what They do. Or what Daniel does after Andrew finally deigns to nap (Mummy, I’m very tired, I want to lie down. *proceeds to moodily mooch at the window*). At least this past week we know he was consuming Meiji biscuits with oats.

Jon recently got through an intense period at work (well he’s still working intensely but the previous intensity was for a different reason) and so I felt more expansive this past week about the food we ordered. I went out on a limb and decided to try Artichoke’s Vietnamese deli set. It wasn’t mind-blowing, maybe because it was takeaway, but what it had going for it was that it was thoughtful and comforting. I appreciated how much they stuffed into the hoagie, and what they stuffed into the hoagie – the large, thinly-sliced pickles were a nice touch, just like how you would make them at home.

It was also the first time EVER that we tried anything from Artichoke (children, etc.). In fact I got lost searching for it, although we used to walk along that stretch of road back in uni when it was nice to stay out late and just walk around. We always called that yellow building the faux church.

I also took the plunge and ordered The Secret Mermaid’s all-day drink set. This was my third drink delivery from them during the CB (fourth if you count the drinks I sent to R). This CB is unleashing my inner alcoholic, except that I pass from the pleasant buzz to grumpy sleepyhead stage in less than half-an-hour, so perhaps it’s a bit of a waste. The drinks are excellent though, and they don’t stinge on the alcohol.

Frankly, I don’t think many of us will be going back to work in our respective offices any time soon (even after the CB is over) so for your reference, I leave you with a list of the best places we’ve dapao-ed or ordered take-out from this CB. Largely for the Clementi/Dover/Holland/West Coast area (one cannot cook all the time. Really. I love cooking but ---):

1. Nude Seafood (I drove down to collect it). Yes, it really is as good as it looks on your friend’s IG stories.
2. La Pizzaiola (Sime Darby). Currently 1-for-1. We usually order the four cheese pizza and spaghetti bolognese, and we finish it all in one meal. #carbs4lyfe
3. Blk 19A Dover Crescent kuey chap. The uncle collecting money and taking your order is grumpy AF but don’t be deterred. Order extra duck, you won’t regret it. The gravy is divine. Also at this coffeeshop: the best ice lemon tea in Singapore (price and taste wise, ask for siu dai, bring your own container), the shao la I ate a lot of when I was pregnant and therefore cannot eat so much of now.
4. 365youreverydayfood (Science Park).
5. Sunset Railway Café (down the row from Daily Scoop Sunset Way). Won’t deny it, we’re supporting the gentrification of our neighbourhood.
6. Sushi Tei. Nothing like a Rainbow Roll, no mayo.

#wfhdiaries Days 24-27

It has been a while since we’ve done any activity that required either Jon or me (usually me) to be the designated driver (“Designated Driver”). Not that we undertook many activities that required a Designated Driver before all this circuit breaking took place, especially after the boys came along. Jon used to say that he could probably still drive better than me even after he’d had a few drinks, not that this theory was or ever will be tested. It wasn’t that long ago I was sitting in the bowels of the TP building, signing minutes. The fate of a man, the power of a pen, and all that.

But far more important and enduring than the Designated Driver is the designated dishwasher (“Designated Dishwasher") (surprise, also me!). So imagine my consternation when Andrew sidled up and had the gall to solemnly inform me that I had to wash dishes like Papa, you know?, as he rubbed the palms of his hands together in imitation of Jon’s dishwashing. I suppose it has increased 100% compared to pre-circuit breaking days (1 to 2 represents a 100% increase), but the fact remains that as the Designated Dishwasher, even if I wash my hands off the dishes, I will still be washing my hands off the dishes. Instead, my nod to the customary Mother’s Day household chore concession was to only mop 2/3 of the house. Not that the last 1/3 mopped itself as part of the customary Mother’s Day do-goodery by one’s husband and children.

This past week, mothers all around Singapore were given the privilege of making a Mother’s Day craft with their child as part of HBL. Daniel, of course, interpreted Mother’s Day craft to mean that his mother should be the one assisting him in its creation, despite my pointing out to him that what this really meant was that his father should be doing so. But I got my own back when Teacher P asked what have we planned to do for mummy for Mother’s Day this weekend? by gleefully informing the assembled six and almost-six year olds and their accompanying parents (almost all fathers) that whatever we were doing, it would involve A L C O H O L. I kid, I kid, though I’ve probably had more cocktails in the past 3 weeks than in the past six years, thanks to delivery services and the fact that there is no need for a Designated Driver.

Teacher P replied Chloe, I thought Daniel was supposed to be making the flowers?  

I slunk off, properly chastened. But once the Zoom meeting ended, I finished the craft. Might as well make it pretty.

This morning, I got to enjoy almost 3 hours ALONE with a run and my favourite ice lemon tea because everyone else slept in (Jon splurged on aircon). Not a bad start to Mother’s Day at all.

   

#wfhdiaries Days 20-23

Keeping small children alive, the house in a livable condition (the cleaning lady hasn’t been coming, obviously, so the standard which constitutes a “livable condition” has unsurprisingly plunged dramatically) and having to decide, AGAIN, what we’re going to eat for dinner (and now lunch and sometimes breakfast), was exhausting before the CB started, and is still exhausting now. Who knew?

I finished my training plan for the cancelled Income Eco Run last week and took this week off running completely, which means I have spent an irrational amount of time fretting about how this will affect my Strava stats. Funnily enough, I had more motivation to keep to a plan when life was going on “as normal”. I peaked just before the CB started, and it was a struggle to get to the end, though I knew I would feel worse if I just called it quits. I ended the training cycle with a crappy time trial, which made me sad for a while, but overall I was just glad to have some closure and certainty during this unsettling time. It’s been a weird couple of days without getting outside for a run, but I made the discovery of the CB just last week: I can cast my phone screen to my TV screen without a Bluetooth dongle. It has made Les Mills On Demand workouts more fun; almost like being in a live class where you know exactly what joke the instructors are going to crack next.

Other family members have decided they would also like to do a spin class

On Monday, Daniel’s class had Show-and-Tell. The topic was “A Weekend With My Family”. What the kids were supposed to have done with their families over the weekend that didn’t involve TV and multiple naps eluded me, although when I read the email again I realised that they could talk about a weekend Before CB. It didn’t stop one of his classmates from happily chirping, “Last weekend, I watched TV and play phone!”, a perfectly acceptable way to spend a weekend these days. Teacher P’s response was disappointing but expected; she suggested that this kid tell her parents to read to her more. Daniel drew a picture showing him taking the bus to music class with Mummy and Andrew (I later wrote “I like taking the bus to music class with Mummy and Andrew” on a separate piece of paper for him to painstakingly copy onto his worksheet as I tried not to freak out that he is 6 this year and does not appear to know how to spell “I”.)

On Wednesday, I logged on to my work laptop bright and early and made sure my IM status was an optimistic, green, “Available”. I continue logging in as “Available” every weekday morning despite the fact that it is an untruth because it makes me feel like I am “Available” and actually doing what WFH Parents are supposed to do, namely, WFH. But right after that I usually go to the living room and turn on the family laptop to play the videos the boys were supposed to have watched a couple of days ago for that morning’s HBL. That day I also double-checked the timetable which I received at least a week ago and remembered that I blatantly ignored the fact that there was craft, because we have no craft materials – when you let two small boys muck around on their own around the house pretty much 90% of the time, you end up getting rid of a ton of craft stuff, otherwise the mess is unbelievable  (I collected all their oil pastels and stored them in a washed take-out container and put it in the storeroom after I spent a good part of the first CB weekend scrubbing oil pastel stains off the floor).

My mother thinks I should instil in them the good habit of Cleaning Up After Themselves. I agree, but am currently lacking the fortitude required to undertake this herculean task. In 5 years’ time I will be complaining about how no one helps around the house, and I will only have myself to blame.

I tried to start working but Andrew got really emo seeing all his friends and teachers on Zoom instead of in real life, so I allowed him to sit on my lap and look solemnly at the laptop screen while laoshi did her level best to engage a bunch of four/almost four year olds. I told her we didn’t have any construction paper and she said oh, any kind of paper will do, which is when I remembered the stack of old Economists lying around. Andrew snapped out of his emo-ness long enough to create a craft from an article about the future of artificial intelligence and a hastily retrieved roll of masking tape.

The theme was "traffic". I am available to clarify your interpretation of the craft.

During my trip to NTUC this week, I noticed that some enterprising member of their staff had brought in a whole bunch of assessment books for ages 5+ and up. I only threw the Spelling and Writing one into my germy cart which I was pushing without disposable gloves on before I realised that there were at least three other topics available, so I took one of each. Daniel is obsessed with writing the answers down as neatly and perfectly as possible, which means that he keeps erasing and re-writing and then I have to get out the vacuum cleaner to vacuum up all the eraser droppings. But I did have the foresight to replace our very old, on its last legs vacuum cleaner just before the CB started. We have the amazing Phillips PowerPro Expert 2100W, and I have to say, I have never enjoyed sucking things up more.

****

See you next week. 

Even Though It Hurts

Two Saturdays before the half¹, I fell about halfway through the last long run of the training cycle. I was running along the pavement just after Trevose Crescent, around the Raffles Town Club area, when I tripped on some uneven pavement and didn’t regain my balance in time. I sustained external injuries to both knees and my left elbow, and there was a weird feeling in my left knee. I didn’t think too much about it at the time because I’ve fallen while out running before, and the worst pain is usually during the first shower after the fall, and to the external injury. Anything that felt weird internally usually resolved itself pretty quickly. 

 _________

¹ I feel like I should refer to it as the “Singapore Half-Marathon 2019” because I think that’s what the organisers intend, what with the WMM bid and all, but it’s just been so many years of “Eh are you doing stan chart this year?” and “Ya, but half only”, I can’t refer to it any other way.

So I ran home, which took another hour or so, to finish that run (it was meant to be 2 hours long). I didn’t have much choice really because I needed to be home to get the boys to their Saturday morning let Husband sleep in activity, and I didn’t bring my ezlink card or my phone². 

 _________

² Though I did see Riana from Coached out running on the way back, I recognised her from social media and the video Coached released (a meet your teammates kind of thing), but how weird would it have been to have stopped her mid-run with bleeding knees? In retrospect, perhaps I should have, but I put it down to Singaporean paiseh-ness.

***

One to two hours later, it became clear that something wasn’t quite right. There wasn’t any swelling or bruising, but every time I stood up and put weight on my left foot, my left knee was horribly painful, like I would gasp in pain kind of painful. I had to hobble the first few steps before the pain eased up, and I came to dread sitting down (because I’d have to get up).  

Needless to say, I Freaked. Out. Wouldn’t you?!  We had a birthday party to attend later that Saturday, and Sunday was the school concert, so I had a lot to distract me³, but if you’ve been my real life friend for a significant enough period of time, you will know I magically still had the ability (and energy) to freak out⁴.

_________ 

³ Andrew’s class did an “Under the Sea” item (the Chinese version), and he was a red starfish. Daniel’s class did “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”; by virtue of age alone, the cute factor wasn’t as high, but I feel that I need to give a shout-out to both boys, because I am trying to be fair that way. 

⁴ Probably why I don’t have that many real life friends. I am thankful for those who stuck around, all four of you. Five if you count Husband. 

I Googled “knee injury” incessantly for the next few days, and kept praying that I would wake up one day sooner rather than later, with my left knee magically feeling better, and I could get on with tapering as planned… But surprise, surprise! obviously that didn’t happen. By the Wednesday after my left knee was still giving me problems every time I stood up, and I was freaked out enough to get in touch with two doctor friends (Kok and Mark), and made an appointment to see an osteopath. Because I had some slight swelling behind my knee, and Google said it was a Baker’s Cyst (the osteopath had his doubts), and Google also said osteopathy was helpful. I probably rely on Google too much.    

The osteopath was really nice – after doing some tests he said he couldn’t find anything wrong with my hamstring, and I think he did some tests to rule out a meniscus tear, so he said based on what I described, the not quite right feeling, it was probably a ligament sprain or tear (you can imagine the effect this had on me). He couldn’t make a formal diagnosis, but suggested I consider an MRI, if only because the half was so soon. He did also say that even if I had torn a ligament, I could probably still run because I would be running in a straight line. Being a paddler (he seems to have represented NZ at competitions), he was really understanding about my wanting to run despite this injury, and he didn’t discourage me from doing so. He encouraged a wait and see approach, and told me it was ok to try spinning and some easy running (I will be eternally grateful for him). Mark, being an orthopaedic doctor, did try to dissuade me from running, but I told him I was going to wait and see because I’m stubborn AF. 

Anyway, I sucked it up, plugged in to Les Mills On Demand⁵, and spinned. Spun. Did spin class. Went spinning, by myself. (Which is the correct way to say it?)

_________ 

⁵ Not the cheapest, and a bit silly because Les Mills classes are part of the Fitness First membership,  but it proved to be a good decision to subscribe. It also helped when I had ITB issues earlier this training cycle.

I continued to spend Too Much Time at work Googling knee injuries and just generally freaking out. My No. 1 Supporter, (Jon, for avoidance of doubt) said that the greatest injury was to my BRAIN, and given his experience with sports injuries, he was sure I would be fine by the time the half rolled around. “No, you have not got an ACL tear.  I have seen people who’ve torn their ACL, and I am very certain you have not torn your ACL.” He also said he thought I had been on the brink of overtraining, which is why the fall affected my left knee so badly (“The way you fell, it’s almost impossible to have sustained such a bad injury”), and that it was just as well I had an enforced break from running. 

***

I was grumpy and cantankerous and a pain to be around, but on the bright side, it finally gave me the ba*ls to do what I have always longed to but been just ever so slightly humchee to do. One week after the fall (so 3 days after I saw the osteopath and consulted doctor friends), we were at dinner at La Pizzaiola (Sime Darby Centre), and were seated at a table next to a family of five – father, mother, two teenaged girls and one teenaged boy. The oldest of the kids couldn’t have been more than 16 or 17.

The very first thing Daniel did after the first round of food and drink came was to knock over his glass of lime juice⁶ right after we had told him to be careful around it. Somehow being at a dining table turns children into bulls in china shops. 

_________ 

⁶ This is atas, freshly squeezed lime juice, and is wonderful. So this was a tremendous waste, both of the lime juice and money.

Jon was uptight because I had been on the friggin’ edge the entire day (missing running terribly, Googling knee injury recovery time, fretting about whether it was a sprain? A tear? If it was a tear, what did I tear? Messaging the long-suffering R miles away in Dubai but still willingly subjecting herself to my s**t because that’s what friends are for, worrying about how much fitness I was going to lose, OMG, etc.), and as the lime juice trickled off the table (Daniel did not get any on him, can you believe that?!), he said quite loudly and irritably, “GET OUT”.

As Jon swept Daniel out of the restaurant, one of the teenaged girls said, very audibly, “Why did he have to say ‘get out’? You can say, like, ‘Can you follow me outside, please?’”. 

I turned around and rolled my eyes at her. Without any fear!!!

To her parents’ credit, I heard them sheepishly mumble something like “You don’t understand, you don’t have children….”

Later that night, to make me feel better (and despite how annoyed he must have been at my level of unwarranted cantankerousness), Jon told me about the year he won at national schools after sustaining a hamstring injury two weeks from the competition (“I just did what I had to do to maintain my fitness, like push-ups” *mimics rapid succession of push-ups in the air* – this earned him an eyeroll, because not everyone can do push-ups in rapid succession like a 14 year old national schools pole vaulter, least of all ME), and the story of Steve Hooker at the 2009 World Athletics Championships (this is super inspiring, give it a read). I am hardly (and am unlikely to ever be) an athlete at Jonathan Lau’s level, much less Steve Hooker’s, but I have to say I was inspired and cheered up enough to actually take up Jon’s suggestion of giving pool running and swimming a go the next day⁷.

_________ 

⁷ I was waiting for Jon and the boys to pick me up for church outside Clementi 321 when this guy started chatting me up – he was from India and was here studying, and he was just really weird. When I finally managed to get away, right after refusing point blank to give him my number, HE FOLLOWED ME AND ASKED ME FOR MY NUMBER AGAIN. I just said no and walked away. The worst part was despite the number of people around, I felt no one would have helped because in their Sunday morning stupor, they wouldn’t have realised if anything was wrong.  

***

I recovered sufficiently to do the last two runs of the taper plus another spin class, and really, in the week before the half, I felt God reassuring me that I would complete this half and that my knee wouldn’t give way and I would have to give up running FOREVER and I would never find another sport as fulfilling and----- 

It wasn’t about PR-ing this time. Of course, one always hopes that one’s best effort on a given day will result in a PR, but I knew it would be difficult and a lot would depend on the weather, despite the whole “first time it’s an evening race!!!” thing. It may be cooler in the evening, but it also has the potential to be really humid, more so than the ungodly hour of 5.30am. 

It was that I’d put in a whole lot of training, committing to doing my weekday long run after work for about 6 weeks (this was dreadful, mentally) and all but giving up dessert and sweet things for about 5 weeks⁸. I’d also eaten the same thing for lunch for almost a month⁹– probably more – because it just worked for me calorie and nutrient wise and was easy to digest. I had promised myself that after I finished the half I would go on a major baking spree, starting with this apple pie that caught my eye a couple of months ago, and I knew it wouldn’t feel right if I went ahead with the baking spree without completing the half¹⁰. 

 _________

⁸Redman sells Bob’s Better Bars – I stocked up on the PB & Chocolate on Wednesdays. $2.50 a bar before the Wednesday 10% discount. And I did allow myself some dark chocolate and a few bites of Jon’s grandmother’s birthday cake. 

⁹Rosemary chicken sandwich, no lettuce, add avocado, on rye bap or spinach bap or beetroot bap or sourdough or if they were out of all the aforesaid breads, country white. The counter staff at Cedele Metropolis now start shouting out my order, down to the type of bread, the moment they see me walking up. 

¹⁰I question whether this shows that my relationship with food has regressed?

Most of all, it was just about having some closure to this training cycle. I knew that I shouldn’t sacrifice long term knee health, especially since I’d already got runs planned for the first half of next year, but as I told my boss (yes, this wore me down to the point where she noticed and asked me why I seemed so tired and I told her I was tired from being grumpy because I was worried about not being able to run the half on Saturday), I’m just one of those shen2 jing1 bing4 people who will insist on wanting to do this kind of thing despite being, essentially, injured¹¹.

 _________

¹¹Actually what I said was, I was one of those “irritating” people who would do this kind of thing, because it IS irritating. But she didn’t hear me because I mumbled it sheepishly so I went with shen2 jing1 bing4 instead when I repeated myself.  

***

I rushed through the race expo on Friday, stopping only to chit chat with Ben for a bit at the Coached booth, and was almost at the exit when I spotted a booth selling Bauerfeind knee guards. There was a cheerful young chap with neatly combed hair, and a bald uncle type with a tag on a lanyard that read PHYSIO. After listening to me rush through why I thought I needed to buy this very expensive kneeguard ($145), bald uncle type casually said I probably had a cartilage problem (my already frayed nerves almost snapped at this point) and informed me with a smirk on his face that I probably shouldn’t try to PR on Saturday. 

I had prayed – this sounds silly, but bear with me – that God would lead me to things that would help me get through Saturday – and impulsive as it was ($145?!?! On a kneeguard I didn’t even Google because I was in a rush to meet D for lunch?!?!) and as annoying as I found smirky uncle, I got fitted for one by cheerful young chap, handed over my card, and rushed off with the box containing the kneeguard sticking out of my resuable shopping bag where I had earlier stuffed the race pack. 

***

The half itself was, to be honest, quite horrible at parts. Despite the cooler evening air, it wasn’t pleasant running weather because of the humidity. I knew I didn’t have enough experience and training to tough it out at a PR or even close to PR pace, so I focused on just putting in a sustained, consistent effort. I ran a positive split, which I expected – as I came off the West Coast Highway (about the 16km mark) my core was hurting, I was slowing down despite putting in the same effort as I did at the start, and I wanted to give up so badly and run/walk the rest of the way. But I knew I would be disappointed with myself if I didn’t at least hang on to the end, and my training with Coached this past year and a bit helped me to keep on keeping on. I didn’t even get a rush of motivation when I spotted Jon and the boys at the side of the road near his office – the best and nicest surprise of the night. 

It was a HUGE relief to finally finish, and I was really happy with my time (and the kneeguard!!!) because I knew I’d given it my all (even more than at Gold Coast earlier this year). Walking to get my bag was a literal PAIN, as was the walk to the nearest MRT station after that (I’d also sustained a huge blister on my right foot from dumping water over my head, which soaked my socks and shoes), but I was happy and relieved and above all thankful that I got to run at all. And my left knee felt okay! And I knew Jon would say I TOLD YOU SO but I didn’t care!

Maybe I will never run well in Singapore – and I don’t have the time or money to fly around the world to races with cooler weather¹²– but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop working hard and trying. 

 _________

¹²There is a whole conversation to be had about running and privilege, bla bla bla; I think of this way too much already so nope not going there here. Haha. 

***

To apple pie, chocolate cookies with mint chips, chocolate chip cookies, maybe cheesecake again, a tea pound cake?, and most definitely BANANA CREAM PIE! I wish you a blessed December. Also, Jon has declared that he never wants to hear the word KNEE again. You know what to do the next time you see him. And D, I know you’re reading this – thanks for eating Cedele-esque food for lunch on Friday. It's been ten years since we did pupilage together, and as you predicted right after you issued the challenge, I failed to not not mention the K-word for the whole of Saturday before flag-off spectacularly.