Review: Swing Studio

I fucking love being aerial.

It is this feeling of invincibility. Like hey, whatever you can do on the ground, I can do it in the fucking air. Couple that with my insane competitiveness and you get me doing poses I've only seen once just for the kick of it.

Me and Fiona are going to redo all these gorgeous moves at Motionwerkz. We were upset because Swing Studio has more fun lessons, but Motionwerkz has a more picturesque studio. So we'd have to learn moves here then photograph over there. BUT AT LEAST WE HAVE A PARTNER.

We came across this delightful little wall with the most anally arranged plants ever. She kept talking about the wall when we first passed it but I didn't think much of it, till the photos came out. What an oddly pleasing contrast.











Met baby straight after class!

He's been very sweet all day, helping me with the errands for our budding Carousell empire and letting me go for my event and yoga in peace. He wanted to go skate today but the skies started to weep when we reach Bedok.

But of course, my invincible man being my invincible man, took the weather change in his stride and instead bought me to have North Indian food. THERE IS NO BAD DAY TO HAVE NORTH INDIAN!

After a while, we decided to take the bus out to East Coast anyway, with the aim of chilling in the McDonald's there till the rain subsides. We headed to the bus interchange and waited.

He wanted to Dota tonight and I said not until I'm asleep and he mused out loud where to get sleeping pills and I gasped out loud and he deliberately said something else worse and I gasped again and he laughed at how cute it was awww my silly man.

The skies took a stormier turn and we ended up seeking shelter at Parkway Parade. He asked if I wanted to shop at Challenger and I almost shook my head till I saw the excitement in his eyes awww so of course, I need a cable, I need to shop there.

We looked around for a place with a charging port because my phone was dying and he had the cutest way of describing me. I asked him later that night why he loved me today and he said it was, "the way you looked for a charging port, like a little mouse scurrying all over!"

We eventually found a spot in Starbucks!












I love long bus rides with him. 

The rain wasn't letting up so we headed home to close a last-minute meetup. Today's bus ride was him trying to hug me and me telling him to stop it because I am burning on the inside and he's making me hotter and him sadly turning away then neglecting me the rest of the trip haha.

So of course I turned to my camera.






















We cleared the meetup, after me embarrassing him in public by repeatedly jumping up and down to see how much further above his head I can see. But I worried that wasn't embarrassment enough so I also humped him twice for good measure. Poor boyfriend.

My energy died down when we reached home and he attempted to be loving. I got very affected again and started to cry. He kept hugging me and kissing me and saying he loves me even if one day, I cut him off completely.

And to prove it, he lifted his hands off me and put them next to his ears and adorably said, "See! I still love you even when I'm not touching you! Hands-free!"

There went my heart into a little puddle :)

And then we made love and halfway I started to get upset and he, lovable, patient him, buried his face in my hair and hugging me close, started stroking my head and cooing me to relax. We finished in a beautiful unison.

After that I was tidying up as he laid lazily on the bed. He looked at me tidying up and when I met his gaze, he pouted and went, "You don't ever cuddle after sex! Come here and cuddle with me," mirroring exactly what I always used to say awww SO DAMNING CUTE.

We watched Friends for a bit till I fell asleep and he Dota'ed to death.

(post starts below) 

I almost sold out and named this post "Review: Caffe Bene". Almost.

But my swing yoga usurped the title. Still, I'm going to go ahead and review them. I have an unstoppable romantic idea of bringing baby to bingsu because even saying it sounds romantic but our eat-cheap policy is in place so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So anyway, Saturday morning was breakfast at Caffe Bene!





I was invited to an exclusive lunch for the beauty bloggers and beta testers (myself inclusive) involved for Althea when they first expanded their horizons to Singapore. Althea's head of editorial Tammy was an absolute doll, exactly as I expected from her emails!

The girls and I all ordered different items so that we could try it all.

I regretted my Tiramisu Waffle when I saw the Garlic and Cheese Bread. Look at it, it is a work of art! We waited too long to eat it because they were busy snapping photos so the cheese hardened :( IT IS A HATE CRIME TO LEAVE SOMETHING SO GOOD ALONE FOR SO LONG.

But knowing me, I got restless really quickly and keep calcualting the time needed to get to my next yoga appointment. And as if she read my mind, Tammy came over to annouce the rest of the day's plans - an Althea surprise and a DIY session on our new cushion!



I didn't do it and chose to give it to my mum to do. She is amazing with artsy stuff. I am amazing with misshaping glue. It was a good call. Moving on, I couldn't stay much longer and risk being late so I left a little ahead of everyone and headed to swing yoga.

And it was so much fun I could cry.

Review: Tirisula Yoga

I have no photos because I was almost late so neh.

Tirisula Yoga is a fitting time to come in my timeline of yoga studio reviews because it is just two shops down from Anahata Yoga. I was first attracted to their "Yoga Workshop" session. It promised fun usage of props such as sashes, blocks and walls. I was in!

Most of the folks in this class were experienced. We ended up only using a block against the wall and that activity was dangerous for me because I put my weight on it to deepen my stretch and if it slipped, my forehead would've went crashing onto the floor.

The lesson concluded without me learning too much. Hatha I was up and it was in a class full of inexperienced people, so the experienced folks shone through like a beacon. I spotted two girls who could stretch like circus whores. Too bad they had faces only a mother can love.

You cannot judge me from this. They were asking for it!

One of them saw me struggling with a deep stretch and instead of looking away, she stared straight at me while going into the pose effortlessly. What's your point, you butt ugly fuck? The other I was legit nice to till she dissed me so hey, I hope your back fucking snaps at your next lesson.

Doing yoga while holding a seething grudge against them in the subsequent Hatha II class worked out great for me. To prove myself and piss them off, I went for the kill in every move the instructor offered, even in poses that were sheer murder to me before. I stretched all my limits.

And the thing about pushing your limits, is that you never seem to find it, reaching to find only more space where you think your limits reside. SO GUESS WHAT YOU BUTT-UGLY FUCKS, YOU GAVE ME A NEW STRETCH!

The instructor was brilliant and I loved her for coming up with a Hatha II class so amazing. I learnt lots of new poses and revisited old favourites today. I am fucking amazing with my crow now with the bouncing technique. TIME TO TRANSITION INTO A TRIPOD STAND WITHOUT CRYING!

It was a good three-hour yoga marathon. I am satisfied!

Review: Anahata Yoga

Started my morning at Bikram Yoga.

I'm a simple person. I see complicated poses, I get excited. I see repetitive poses, I cry.

My first experience with yoga cardio was at Bych Hot Yoga. It was military style yoga. My vision buzzed out twice in that class. I never knew what the term for that kind of yoga was, I purely thought it was just called Torture Yoga but apparently, it's called Bikram.

And how did I get to know that? By unwittingly signing up for a 1.5 class of course!

INHALE AND LIFT YOUR ELBOWS, EXHALE AND CHIN UP. REACH REACH REACH LOWER LOWER LOWER NICOLE OPEN YOUR EYES NICOLE BACK STRAIGHT NICOLE ARE YOU DEAD YET. By the way yes, yes I am.

I know Bikram is supposed to have its perks, like its an accelerated path to weight loss or balance or something but for me, it is an accelerated path to death. I hate it. I don't learn new poses and I have to breathe like an idiot.

So anyway, I managed to survive the 8am to 9.30am class. I had no time to rest or bathe, rushing straight off to Anahata after that. I enjoyed my session the last time so I thought okay, thank god I can come back here happy again.

The instructor entered the room.

And his first words, "Okay inhale and lift your elbows."

I think I broke out into internal crying laughter.

IMAGINE ME. I just travelled from a torture session at Bikram Katong to Anahata Bugis, in the hopes of not going through the same disaster again, only to meet it AGAIN. My life is a never ending cosmic joke.

So 2.5 hours of bikram yoga later, I collapsed on the floor and got bored after a while and started to try my assisted tripod stand. I fell the first time and my neck twisted slightly but the second time round, I managed to go wall-free for a grand total of 1.5 seconds before collapsing.

My sprayed elbows will be the death of me.



















Right after the hot yoga class was a yin class.

In general, I hate being slow so I didn't want to try this. But my Ziva yoga instructor recommended it, saying that inflexible people should go for yin yoga because they are forced to keep a pose for minutes on end, thus making sure the body truly stretches out.

I do hot yoga blindly. It has become a duty. Hot yoga exists to simply make sure I stay in shape. Everything else, HIIT and pole and dance and varied yoga, are there to respectively build my strength, my grace, my skill set and my pose arsenal.

But yin is a gorgeous combination of strength and pose arsenal building.

The instructor seen me earlier on for hot yoga and he figured out I like to go for the challenge so he would show the class how to do the basic moves then call out to me and show me the advanced version, coming over to press me into place if I get it wrong.

I LOVE THIS PLACE DAMMIT. This place is my second Ziva Yoga. Fuck I'm so in love, Fuck me for maxing out my visits for both these places.

I wanted to carry on to my backbend class after that but I felt my Worms Armageddon call out to me and so I rushed home, in time to play a round with my sister as we devastated the other team before accidentally fucking up and suicide mission-ing our last worm hehe whoops.

Night time was me slightly losing my temper at baby despite him going over to collect our stocks by himself (because I overslept) and being absolutely on time to meet me.

I know he's not used to being a good boyfriend because when he does truly sweet gestures, he will pout if I don't acknowledge it and honestly tell me he doesn't feel appreciated.

SO CUTE MY MAN UGH.

Like when we met, I was still pouting because he almost, almost chided me for lashing out at him earlier today but he didn't in the end. And despite it fully being my fault, he still hugged me senseless and happily led me into the theatre, cheerily showing me a cupcake he bought for me awww.

Backstory: we were collecting a parcel and I usually like to buy cupcakes from a little stall next to it but that day it didn't open. So I settled for a brownie and he remembered because today, the stall was open and he sneaked the cupcake in his bag all the way to Ang Mo Kio just to surprise me :')

And the moment was all the more cuter because I was reaching back into my bag to pass him his favorite taro milk tea JUST AS he was reaching back into his bag to pass me my cupcake too WE ARE MEANT TO BE.

The movie was Point Break and holy fuck the whole movie was so good. Lack of a better plot yes but the visuals were stunning and the activities were inspiring. I need a screen-grab of the board where the guy wrote the Ozaki 8 bible list.

The last challenge was a mystery but of course my boyfriend figured out it, way before the show had any telling. He said he didn't want to tell me what he thinks it is but he was also hopping as if bursting from the inside so naturally, he told me seconds later.

Apparently, to my boyfriend and possibly the director, the final challenge was to Trust in Man.

Ozaki died trying to save the whales, but he could've lived if the whaler ship had decided to let him go, instead of crushing him to his death. Ozaki falsely trusted Man to save him and he lost his life for it.

So conversely, Bodhi trusted Utah to save him before he fell back and down the fountain. And Bodhi did try, falling after him. And so Bodhi managed to complete the last challenge, which left him back to owing the Life of Sea challenge, the one he missed to save Utah.

But the point is, my boyfriend thinks the final challenge in Point Break's Ozaki 8 is not about Nature, but about what it shares itself with; Man.

But me, I think it is about being one with Nature.

Of course my perspective is hard to compete with Gabriel's because once he said it, I felt so "whooooa" that even talking about mine made me feel meek but hey, mine is a legit alternative.

If every challenge is about being with Nature (jumping from a plane and parachuting into a hole in the ground, being where the sky meets the earth) and subsequently returning to Nature (the diamond and money heists), then shouldn't the last challenge be the biggest return of all, the return of Self?

I can give up everything I own for Gabriel. He means the world to me. But the final thing I can give him is my life, because it truly will be the final frontier, the final challenge, the ultimate sacrifice. I can no longer give after this because it is the last thing that I have.

So to them if as long as they are alive, they are indebted to Nature and so to finally unburden/ gracefully return this life, they simply have to be beautifully as one with Nature.

My idea is sounding better and better by the minute.

After that we went home where I obsessed over my kitty kats. He got excited because he bought a cowboy hat and there's a cowboy hat playing with it. I sadly told him I could only afford a marble and a cake box and he "awww so cute"-ed me and suddenly my poor cats seemed okay heh heh.

He also excitedly said he's gonna dig out all the photos of us sky diving and bungee jumping and tag it under the respective categories. And he said we only do mild versions aka rock climb at Kallang instead of free climbing at a mountain face but he still wants to tag it all with Ozaki 8 CAN HE GET ANY CUTER.

Fell asleep with the most adorable man I could ask for.

Kitty kat fever

Today was unintentional lavish day!

We've been living frugal for a while, with the Bangkok trip coming up and both of us regularly choosing to have more cash on hand to buy new stocks as opposed to new food. So yesterday, after closing a bigger sale than usual, I decided IT WAS TIME FOR MOOKATA!

I had work so I didn't have time to yoga :( I convinced myself to return the debt tomorrow when I'm off. But it didn't feel good. The guilt of missing a workout day ate at me. I had a 12-day streak that I broke. But still, work was on my mind so that's that.

Our mookata was spent with him stressing over money issues and me trying to not scald my tongue. It was one of our quietest dinners in a while. I still feel sad reflecting on it. So we decided to go on a mini shopping spree!

No I didn't quite see the link either.



I dragged him into Renoma and kept stroking their new silk boxer shorts for a while before he stopped me. And I kept telling him SILK PANTIES ARE WHY WOMEN ARE HAPPY 24/7 and he laughed and I got him a really loud color that he's now wearing! Yay!

He couldn't decide on a shirt from there and instead, mentioned the crying cloth I kept saying I wanted. It's a thing I invented when he was sailing. I said I want a crying cloth to cry into when I miss him and that I can give him this cloth when he comes back.

Verbally he said aww so cute but physically his body said what the fuck am I dating heh heh but so, we decided to upgrade from crying cloth (I'll be back for this) to soft toy and we spent a while trying to pick one out but nothing met my bar.

Headed to my place after to close a couple more meet ups and he found the perfect life sized plushie for me! It reaches to about my hips. We were short of an amount to get a card and he bought me a smaller version so I can carry it around. I HAVE THE SWEETEST BOYFRIEND EVER.

After that he spotted a shirt he liked from Everlast so those were his functional loots for the day! A shirt and underwear so silky, SKII is trying to make a Pitera out of it. My loots were non functional but adorable so WHOSE TO SAY ADORABLE ISN'T A FUNCTION.

He downloaded Worms Armageddon for me while I bathed and I totally kicked his ass at it. Naturally, my sister couldn't resist either and came to kick my ass at it. In the end we tried to kick the CPU's ass together. We both got our asses handed back to us by the CPU. It was a big assed day.

In the meantime, the boyfriend laid back while me and my sister squealed over the training ground segment of Worms and went back to playing with his cats hehe.





My boyfriend's palace vs my mini cottage!

What separates you from the rest

Is how constantly scared I am of you leaving me.

Yes, it is unhealthy but I can't help it. I am constantly hyper-aware of how acutely happy you make me. It is a happiness degree that no one else, by far, has come close to matching. You are the most amazing thing, and I love you more than life.

I've tried to dissect our relationship and you, to see what it is that makes you so unbelievably lovable to me. And each time I think I have it figured, you go and do something so wonderfully sweet that I lose count again.

There was the day where I woke up beside you in the foulest of moods. You didn't do anything wrong. I was just in a bad mood and I broke your furniture and tried to start a fight with you and you just took it in and let me cool down in your bed. I was crying and crying uncontrollably and you kept hugging and kissing and patting me. And you said all the funniest things and the most offensive jokes and I couldn't be sad anymore.

There was the day where you went to the kitchen where I was and lovingly tried to hug me from behind while tugging at my shorts. And I let you in and you joined me deeply, but midway I started crying and I ran from you into the room. And you, you adorable you, continued the iced milo I was making and came into the room, shorts and drink in hand, comforting me and vowing to stay away from my body if it makes me happy, all the while offering me the iced milo animatedly.

There was the day where you wanted to eat coffeeshop food but I pouted a little and looked at Popeyes and you smiled genially and said you have a Popeyes craving too, even though just minutes ago you said you wanted coffeeshop. You snuck away midway our meal, telling me you had to go buy cigarettes. And before I left you for class, you happily told me to check my bag for a cookie that I didn't even realize you put in till your mention.

And these moments, these moments were all in one day.

In a day, I can fall in love with you again and again, time and time over. Imagine how it is like to be me, enjoying you every single day since 3 January. The memories you gave me are indomitable and untouchable. I will love all of them forever.

And I will love you forever too.

Happy 291 days, my perfect better half.