After 9 months of hiatus, I went for my bodycombat class today. Well, I thought I went 1 closer to end of the year but somehow my Apple Fitness app tells me that my last bodycombat class was in July 2023. Well, I hit the highest number of calories burnt today in any given workout in my life so far (at least I think so)! It is a 45 minutes class instead of the usual 60 minutes class but I somehow managed to hit more calories burned.
409KCAL. That’s how much I burned in a 45 minutes class. Wow. Somehow I am able to power through the entire class and did most of what was taught in the class too. Haha all these efforts in my personal training definitely helps in improving my physical fitness!
Categories: Friendship, New stuff, Personal life, Shopping
I went to ACrysty Co new store opening today and Public Gardens. I wanted to get a pair of pearl hoop earrings from Stories in Jewellery (a Taiwanese handicraft jewellery shop) and is very glad that I found it. I actually saw it in an Instagram advertisement but forgot the name of the shop. I only know got the one “stories” in it. So I walked the entire Public Gardens to try to find it. So glad that I found it. It’s quite expensive though because it is made of real pearls. Most likely is freshwater pearls given the price lah… It costs S$75 and it was the last pair. So glad that I managed to get it. Pretty sure someone tried it on because I saw a hair strand stuck in the earring but I really like the design so I just took it.
I went to ACrysty Co and did their AYO (ACrysty Your Own). Basically I customised my own earrings. I picked silver rutile and a chinese knot as design. It’s quite pretty lah. Took me some time to decide which crystal to use though. It’s a dangling earrings which I know will look good on me. Hehe. It costs S$32.40 after opening day discount.
I also got a new pair of pearl ear studs for S$43.20 (after the opening day discount). Somehow all the costume earrings I got these days all have pearls (freshwater pearls or faux ones) in them. I’m definitely in my pearl era. LOL. 😀
Something happened this morning and I am very glad that I have supportive friends around. People like Zijian and Rui Yun agreeing with me and Alex and Jin Quan for hearing my morning rants. It lasted quite long lol. The grand award for gratitude goes to Gulabi who took the call and was advising on the spot while the entire thing unfolded. Thanks to her advice and reassuring that my gut feelings was correct and stuff, I was able to elegantly handle the situation while still holding back my power and at higher ethical/moral grounds.
I’m definitely improving my gut feeling. All these internal self work and healing is definitely helping! 🙂
Categories: Friendship, Personal life, Pictures, School life
As I mentioned earlier, I went to NUS with my university friends. We started off the journey from Kent Ridge MRT then walk to Faculty of Medicine through National University Hospital. Then we explored the NUS Medicine museum before heading to Faculty of Science. That’s when we got really lost there and it was quite hilarious. Byron, Kuei Ni, Geck Keat and myself just laughed out loud at ourselves. It’s quite refreshing. It’s totally giving Las Vegas vibes – whatever happens stays within ourselves at that moment. 😀
Then we found our way and took bus 95 when it came to Yusof Ishak House before walking to University Town. We had this really amusing conversation when we were walking over.
Me: The tree is still there! (not sure of the tree name but it is at the entrance of University Town pathway)
Byron: Erm….. (fully judging me)
Geck Keat: Because of bai nian shu ren! (literally translated to it takes a 100 years to build the tree/human)
Byron: Wow. Simply wow.
Me: Wow (shocked expression and started shaking hands with Geck Keat for her action of defending me haha)
We had our lunch at the korean restaurant, Hwang, which was there for over a decade. Even the soondubu soup tasted the same! It’s definitely deja vu. It’s the best comfort food I have and it’s very nice to be able to revisit it. I never liked to dine alone in my school days but I will dine alone at Hwang. It’s also my comfort food when I am feeling really stressed with school and home. I also have my meals before my orchestra practice after it moved from CFA to University Town.
After lunch, we chatted a bit before heading to find Chicha San Chen. It’s quite cool that they actually have the self service machine too. I think that’s the only Chicha San Cheng store that I know that has the self service machine. So cool! Rayner and Yi Lin joined us after lunch.
Then we walked out of University Town and went to NUS Museum. It’s actually new as I never seen the exhibitions before. Glad that we followed Geck Keat’s recommendation for it. 🙂 We also saw the new residential buildings that is probably like condo for faculty staff (aka professors). It actually looked quite nice from outside. So nice of NUS to provide such luxurious looking residential units for their professors. Although I don’t think the inside looked that nice lah. Haha. Well, I am just guessing. Lol.
We then proceeded to Faculty of Engineering and was quite shocked at how much have changed. We can recognise the older buildings but the newer parts is really shocking.
We can no longer recognise the Engineering canteen and it is extremely sad. I really love the old Engineering canteen. 🙁 So much memories there.
Then we went to School of Design and Environment (SDE) and was a bit lost there. Well, I wanted to find the spot where the hornbill which YJ mentioned was spotted. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it then we gave up. We discovered a very different side of NUS though and the entire vibe is quite different. I think the most epic is this “Bee Hub” which we literally thought is some bee related stuff but it turned out to be some workshop place. Lol.
We also discovered there are like at least 5 wild chickens roaming around in SDE too.
We then went to Central Library and wow, the entire place looked really different. You can now enter the library from ground floor. 😮 Anyway, we proceeded to go to School of Computing. Yes, we skipped Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences because it is about to rain and is getting late. We are also old and is getting quite tired. Jonathan and Si Hui joined us at this time too.
COM1 building is still the same and wow, there are many students around, unlike other buildings. Well, I’m glad that School of Computing is making their students work really hard because when they go to workforce, it will be even harder. Lol. Just look at me. I literally work till 1am almost daily. 🙁 Anyway, we went to the new Biz/Computing canteen and it looks quite different. NUS really renovated all their canteens. We cannot recognise Science, Engineering and Computing canteens. I feel the saddest when it comes to Engineering canteens because of all the memories there. My core memory from university days. :'( Anyway, we were trying to find COM3, the new building and it took us some time before we found it. It’s like in between COM1 and COM2. It’s quite interesting because it adopted the circular architecture. To be honest, that’s what attracted me to want to come to NUS to explore. It certainly does not disappoint. What we noticed is that for the new building, there are a lot more research labs and tons of PhD students there. Then we walked past 1 out of 3 staff offices there and noticed how between every few office, there is a balcony like area. Not sure why though. COM3 also have a rooftop garden and there’s even steps/staircases to climb up too. Not sure why the staircase is there. It’s as if it is enabling people to jump down from the building? Creepy. I didn’t go there and see because it was raining which was a pity. The rooftop garden does look quite interesting.
I don’t know why the professor/staff offices are like all glass. It’s like no privacy for the professors. I texted Alex and Jin Quan about it and they are like… maybe it is designed this way? So cannot do anything intimate behind closed doors? Well, given all the sex scandals related to NUS, I can certainly see why it is designed this way. LOL! Even some of the bigger research labs for PhD students are also in glass walls/doors at COM3.
It’s a pity that it was raining when we were there. COM3 will look quite nice with sunset though. I love the circular architecture and I can see potential in taking nicer photos if it is not raining. I do like the rooftop garden. Will I go back again? No. NUS is simply just way too far.
So that’s it. That concluded our NUS hiking tour and gosh, we were so tired after the entire hiking journey. Lasted about 5 hrs? That’s intensive. I took more photos but didn’t upload all of them on my Instagram.
Let’s see which university we will go visit next! My friends were thinking of NTU or SUTD but let’s see. Haha. Definitely loving to explore my home country like a tourist in university campus – especially without the school stress. Haha. 😀 I already have my Bachelor and Master degrees. Definitely not going for more degrees and also not going for PhD. Unless I relocate to US or Canada, then I may consider taking a part time PhD to pass my time. Lol.
I am on my way to NUS to do some hiking. Well, it’s planned 1 month ago with my bachelor degree friends hoping that everyone can join. It ended up only 3 of us are going for it while the remaining 2 will join after lunch. Oh well. At least they are planning to join?
I am wearing my Alo Yoga leggings. Yes, my most expensive but also the most aesthetic leggings. Alo makes Lululemon seems like a steal lololol. Then I match it with a mini skirt (like my shortest ever and can see the bum) from Shopee and my workout top from Muji. Then I added my UV protection jacket from Uniqlo – specifically from Haneda Airport hahaha. Of course, not to forget my trusted and handy hiking sling bag – Hermes mini evelyne bag and my backpack. I really go hiking everywhere with my mini evelyne. Haha, don’t ask why I always bring a Hermes bag for hiking. I just love how convenient it is and there is no other bag that looks so good yet so functional for hiking! Best purchase ever lah. Can go shopping, travelling and even hiking with it! Hahaha.
I told Ahrah (my personal trainer) that I am going hiking today and she made sure we do not do any leg exercises yesterday. I was really tired yesterday so she reduced some of the weights too. It was a real struggle for the session but she has made things significantly easier for me for sure.
I asked my violin teacher, Mrs Masako, about my Japanese name and if Reika is an accurate translation of my name from the Chinese characters. It turns out that in terms of the meaning of the Chinese characters, Reika is an accurate translation. However, Japanese people will not be able to translate Reika to my Chinese name. There’s different characters if I want to translate my Chinese name to Japanese in terms of the pronunciation. In fact, she also tried to translate it in the traditional characters (the one that looks like Chinese characters but is actually Japanese), it actually means prosperity and wealth. The characters will still be able to translate back to my Chinese name.
Hmm… So I was in a dilemma earlier which one to use. Should I be known as beautiful flower or prosperity? Haha. Both are good for me personally. In the end, I decided to just stick to Reika since Sakura also means a type of flower – cherry blossoms.
So now my online name is both Sakura and Reika. Or Sakura Reika. Haha. Call me Reika!
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