Tokyo, Japan 2022

 Went to Tokyo for business over October.

Spent a week with the Tokyo office and it was such a fruitful trip. 

It was really enjoyable for me as well because Japan was finally opening up and I got to enjoy all the Japanese food.

Of course my busy schedule meant that I didn't have the time to travel to see the sights of Tokyo, but every single night, I had colleagues bringing me out to try all the various local food and restaurants. It was extremely pleasing for my palette. All my meals were so so so good!

Here are some photos of the trip.

Shoulder Pains

 I had some shoulder pains over September and October.

Decided to go try a chiropractor.

Since I had an army buddy whose now one, I decided to pay him a little visit. 

Dr Ashley Liew from Family Health Chiropractic Clinic was at hand to help guide me through!

He helped me adjust all the necessary stuff around my shoulder, spine and even my pelvic bones which caused me to walk unevenly (horrendous as that sounds, I never noticed!)

In the end, my shoulder pains gradually went away a few days after visiting him.

Would definitely recommend 10/10 :)

Kevin Magnussen & Saxo F1 Meet The Driver

 We had our Meet The Driver event after so many years (previously we did it with Romain Grosjean).

This time around, we held it at our new Saxo office with F1 car simulators around. 

So clients got to race against Kevin Magnussen as he set the best lap record in the house.

It was a fantastic event and I even got a selfie with him!

Good luck in your F1 career Kevin!

Golfing At MBGCC

 Its been so long since I last golfed.

Managed to sneak out for a game with Eugene, Victor and Mark.

Marina Bay Golf Course has always been a forgiving place to play, as long as you stay out of the bunkers!

I actually hit really well and scored a 97!

How lucky was that!

Wonder if I will find time for golf again now that Covid is over and work is really getting super busy!

PSLE Boy

 This is the boy's PSLE year.

PSLE is Primary School Leaving Exam.

He studied SO SO SO hard. Since July. 

Unfortunately, the PSLE rolled around and a few days before his first paper, he catches Covid. 

Like seriously. 

WTF.

Cannot get more suay bong than that. 

We tried all sorts of stuff to help him recover quickly in time to sit for his first paper but it was to no avail. 

He was still positive going into his first paper.

The next day was his second paper and he had to miss that one too.

Finally he recovered over the weekend, and had to sit for his third and fourth papers. 

So in the end he missed two papers and sat for two. In fact he missed his strongest two papers (English and Maths) and sat for his weakest two (Chinese and Science).

We were so worried as the consequence of this was that his first two papers were assessed based on his preliminary exams' marks, which he did not do well in.

Sadness.

We start expecting the worst and considered schools in the poorer academic range.

In the end who would've thought.

He outperformed the two papers he sat for, and the Ministry of Education benchmarked his prelim results and gave him a slightly higher score. 

So he ended up scoring a lot better than we expected and could go into his original school of choice.

In fact he scored so well that we could even entertain the thought of even better schools!

What a journey it has been for us. 

But I really cannot be prouder of my boy. 

Seriously.

I12 Malaysia Boleh

 The new food court at I12 Katong is called Malaysia Boleh.

It claims to house many of Malaysian culinary delights. 

I love eating there actually, because of the carrot cake, the KL hokkien mee, and the bak kut teh.

Quite unhealthy, but definitely a treat for anyone who loves local fare.

Missing Covid Home Delights

 The Covid period brought really lovely homecooked food to our household.

My wifey turned out to be a magical culinary master chef, where even the simplest of meals were so delicious.

Now that things are back to normal, I do miss them, as she does not have the time to cook anymore either.

Some of the simplest dishes of hers were really the most delicious.

Yummers.

Ki-sho Omakase

 I made a special reservation at Ki-sho during my wifey's birthday celebrations. 

This was the first time we were trying Ki-sho's famous omakase. 

Safe to say it was a really nice experience and the wifey enjoyed it (she loves omakase).

Here're the pictures of our key highlight dishes.

Menu also can be found.

Definitely would recommend for special occasions.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2022

 Went to KL in mid August. 

It was nice to go back there again after the Covid years.

As we had a rather packed itinerary, the main sights we saw were just the evening food and drinking scenes near our hotel in Bukit Bintang.

That said, we caught a glimpse of the KLCC Petronas Towers though!

Bouldering On A Whim

 We just felt like taking a day off to go bouldering.

There's this really nice bouldering place at Paya Lebar.

This was back in August.

My In-laws

 Here's a funny picture of my in-laws.

This was the first time we visited my SIL's new house in Pasir Ris. 

He's My Brother

 Just me and my brother.

My Choir Girl

 The girl performed at the Singapore Youth Festival this year on 24th August.

It was a closed door affair, but we were all frantically dialing in to catch her in action.

So proud of her!

Argentina Have Won The 2022 World Cup

 Argentina have won the 2022 World Cup!

What a crazy game that was worth staying up to 2am for!

Argentina went 2-0 up in the first half, then Kylian Mbappe turned it on and scored twice in two minutes with 10mins to go, to tie the score 2-2. In extra time, Argentina scores first to take it 3-2 (who else but Messi) and everyone thinks Argentine would win it then, but again up steps Mbappe who scores a super beauty with 3mins left to play, to tie 3-3, and take the game to penalties! Then in the penalties, Argentina wins the shootout 4-2. What a crazy game!

World Cup Semifinals 2022

 And then there were four.

With two shockers in Croatia defeating Brazil, and Morocco defeating Portugal.

Croatia, Morocco, France and Argentina.

Who’s going to win?

Osaka, Japan 2022

 Just back from Osaka, Japan.

It’s been a week now and I’m still mentally over there :(

Pictures will be posted at some point, but first here’s the itinerary.

It was the first time I’d travelled with my kids alone (the wifey simultaneously had her siesta’s trip), and it was every bit as awesome as I imagined it to be. We travelled entirely free and easy, and took public transport (train and bus) throughout the trip.

Really hope I could do this again maybe even annually.

There’s something magical with being alone overseas with the kids. Maybe it is just spending so much quality time with them and being able to communicate with them alone, with my own influences.

Here’s what we did.

Day 1 - Arrived at Kansai Airport at 9pm, reached hotel in Honmachi at 12am

Day 2 - Osaka city tour (Umeda Sky Building, Dotonburi)

Day 3 - Osaka city tour (Osaka Castle, Tannoji Zoo)

Day 4 - Universal Studios Japan

Day 5 - Kyoto city tour (Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Fushimi Inari Shrine) 

Day 6 - Nara (Nara Deer Park)

Day 7 - Mt Rokko Snow Park, Kobe

Day 8 - Departure from Kansai Airport at 11am

What an amazing trip with the kids! I really love Japan.