Look at that

Look at that inversion, Jesus almighty.

I can hold any pose but I cannot get into ANY of them, except for the stupid tripod headstand, which I am getting bloody tired of.

Anyway, these two weeks seen me take a slower pace to my practices, but going further than before, probably because most of my body is looser now and also because there's more rest periods in between.

Took the day off practice after Strala to visit my grandparents heh heh.

My grandma did a retelling of her plant story and the whole family was sympathic. My dad, the bird expert, suggested building a net just around the nest as opposed to the entire plant.

My grandma lamented that even if she did, the mum has stopped coming back, probably because of how terrifying the netting looks. My mum added it would even scare her lol, let alone a bird.

After that my mum tried to prove that she really does workouts behind closed doors (because she's embarrassed to do it in front of us) and then promptly went into a deeper downward dog then me what the fuck!!!

My mum kicked my ass.

I'm safe with you

I couldn't sleep last night.

I won't go on too long but basically, me and Gabriel had a 50-50 agreement. We are each to contribute evenly to all expenses - wedding, house, kids - no matter what.

It wasn't fair at all, since he knew I was going to undertake a $35k loan for my studies. And speaking of that, I won't have a stable income the entire time I was schooling.

So I told him this 50-50 arrangement would be robbing me of my dream wedding and he retorted with how I should scale it down realistically anyway. And then left the room to let me suffer alone.

Back then, I was pissed. But now, I was resigned. I was determined I cannot have a man who leaves me to die like this. Either he mans up and takes the man's share of a financial responsibility, or I leave.

I know it sounds like I'm an unreasonable cunt but the full story is too long to go into, so let's just stick to that.

Hence, I sent him a longass message. I detailed how if he wanted 50-50, we'll never get married because I need to pay off my loan first and that's gonna take me till 28. And then I need to re-save for the wedding and that's gonna take me till 30. And then there's our apartment.

In the end, I knew one thing with certainty: I couldn't handle that much of a financial dependence on me. If he couldn't help shoulder it by earning power percentage (what I all along wanted), then we'll call our entire relationship off.

So with that heavy heart, I proceeded on with my day.











But of course, this can't dampen my vanity whoop whoop.





















He finally replied.

In what I know must've been a long discussion with himself, he's finally decided that he'll do anything to make me happy, even if it means scrapping the 50-50 policy.

The relief I felt was monumental. I had been so worried, wondering how I was going to go for my degree in exchange for crippling debt and a postponement to our married life, but he's made everything okay again. As he always does.

Thank you.

Putting pen to paper

Today was one of the bigger risks I ever took in my relationship

I've been having quite a nice ride ever since I converted from full time to freelance, giving me plenty of time to chase my fitness goals and meet my friends.

So I had a good day at first. I was due to meet Krista for core werk at Shiva Yoga, which turned out great because the stand-in instructor was Strala-trained and the whole session felt like home.

Krista and I stayed back after class for photos and when the instructor saw, she offered to help hehe.

We get along so bloody well.

It truly is hard to meet friends as keen on keeping fit as I am. My current set of friends are busy working or schooling. No one is as free as I am. So when I met Krista, it felt like a blessing :) We made plans to yoga by the beach next week at Sentosa and then I headed to meet Bel!

We were window shopping for engagement rings with Hua in tow. I then told her about my $300 ring and she reacted with the same level of shock too hahah. But the key difference is she actually offered me a helpful route out.

She gathered the numbers, how much Gabriel earned, how much is his CPF, how much does he spend, and within minutes (with the aid of this adorably drawn chart), she mapped out his financial road to a $5k ring.

To be honest, just saying $5k sounds like a big sum to me. But she divided it into monthly savings and suddenly, it's an achieveable end 2017 goal!

In fact, she made everything look achieveable. She calculated the savings plan for our HBD downpayment and renovation loans and cost of having kids. My God if she whipped out an AIA card, I would've signed on the spot. 

I was so heartened she did it for me. So bloody sweet of her. I couldn't repay her for this :')

Gabriel called (talk about timely) in the middle of our consultation and I got so excited by the achieveable prospect of a better ring (for reasons I cannot discuss to protect Zoe, Grace and Bel hahah) that I blurted out, 'Baby I don't want the orro ring anymore I want a $5k one.'

First thing I said. Right off the bat. Jesus I'm a terrible girlfriend.

He said it wasn't what he had in mind to call me for and I apologized and tried to continue with our usual saccharine sweet nonsense but he was too distracted.

We ended the night on that note.

A day without him

He didn't call nor text today. 

He probably is back at sea again. No idea where he's to this time but I prayed for his safety. At least up till I met my colleagues.

Jesus Christ my stomach.

I was early for them despite me going all the way downstairs the old office TSK. Is this how you treat a guest!? We went to our old haunt because I missed my go-to dish.

We talked about new people and people gone. The old editor was gone. The old marketing lead was gone. The people I knew in the office were dwindling to nothing.

But these two are still my gems. I demanded to know why neither of them are married yet and they unloaded a ton of their financial calculations for me. I was so overwhelmed LOL I spent half the time with my fingers massaging my temple.

They were super shocked to hear that I told my boyfriend I only wanted a $300 orro ring. I was gearing to show them the photo but they were in varying states of 'NO WHAT NICOLE. $15K RING OR NOTHING!'

In case their better halves come across this post, I shall not delve in more. But suffice to say, they took my beautiful idea of an engagement ring and ripped it to shreds!!!

Then when they were done with that, they picked up my idea of having kids and ripped that to shreds too!!! DAMN.

'Got kids mean no time to 'yoga' anymore!!!'

'How can you 'savasana' while worrying about milk powder TELL ME.'

'You cannot 'yoga' everyday if your husband isn't well-off!'

They literally quoted all usage of yoga because THEY MOCK ME IN EVERYTHING I SAY AND DO. But they were really cute hahah. God I miss their nonsense. 

Zoe couldn't compose herself for the last photo because before Grace snapped the shutter, I was posing super vainly with my hips jutted out hahah.

Oh yes I spent the entire lunch doing hand flourishes to my stomach every time I saw Grace's eyes wandering over. STOMACH FLOURISH!

They also made me walk them into the old office and my God did it bring back memories. The place even smelt the same. I miss Weekender.

Sent them off and headed to Strala!

I was early so started exploring. As if God was rewarding me for my vanity, I managed to stumbled into this empty hallway with the perfect peek of Clarke Quay.

Come on, did you really think I'd leave without a photo?

My chase for aesthetics is ETERNAL!

Decked in florals

My grandma has this hulking plant in her little garden.

She doesn't know when, but a while ago a pair of birds started hanging around the plant. They decided to nest on it and started to build their nest systematically. Dad flies out to get sticks, mum stays in and guards the spot. 1 in 1 out. 

So when the nest was finally woven, the mum laid her eggs and then probably decided it was time to go blow off steam for a bit with the equally exhausted dad. 

But somehow, this unseeming plant caught the attention of a neighbourhood predator bird, who promptly came the minute they left and ate all their eggs.

My grandma was devastated. She thought the birds wouldn't come back again. But they did (not too bright huh) and built a whole new nest from scratch and laid eyes again.

My grandma and aunt then tried to guard the eggs by leaving a corridor window open but STILL the predator came, this time bringing a buddy. They sat to feast while my aunt tried to wave them off with a broom. But it was too late and the eggs were gone.

The still-not-bright birds came back, built a third nest, and laid some more eggs again.

This time, my grandma took it upon herself to assume armoury duty. She made my uncle build this mesh around the plant, effectively blocking it from the predator birds.

But obviously, this terrifying cage was so intimidating that even the parent birds didn't dare come back anymore LOL. As we speak, there is one last egg left in the nest that's left unnestled and probably to die. RIP.

Poor grandma. 

Anyway she must've been super sad that the mother bird don't get to feed her baby bird anymore so to compensate, she stuffed me silly by cooking 4 of my favourite dishes and expecting me to down them all hahah.

I miss living upstairs. Back when I lived four floors away from her, I'd always get to come home to great food, all meat because she knows I hate veggies. Now I only get to savor this once a week :(

She then rushed me home because she was worried no one was buying my baby brother food (:/) so I made her come to the carpark rooftop to take photos heh heh.

Does she have a good eye for photos or what!

My stomach is my pride and joy. So is my ass. So is my fab dressing sense. So is my hair. But greatest of all is a grandma who takes photos of me anywhere to make me happy :)

Then we took photos together!

Squint squint!











After this series, my grandma decided she had enough of the sun and went all 'okay I cannot take it already!!!' and sassily sashayed to shelter haha.

I accompanied her to the supermarket opposite her place after, like we used to do. She made me scour the entire place with her just because I said I wanted a drink. 

Today was a great day :')

Hideaway Nicole

Finally back to rhythmic gymnastics!

Today's class was the emptiest. I have the tightest back in the world so certain poses are impossible for me. I can usually hide that in a group but there were only 3 of us today so sigh.

Still, I managed to go into a deeper right split this time so at least I got that going for me, which is great!

Mirroring the Victoria Beckham pose! Except she does it without her hand supporting her leg holy fuck. She attributes it to ballet so TIME TO BARRE MORE.

Come on Nicole, go deeper!

Are we still doing phrasing?

Gabriel safely made it to shore today.

He was sending me touristy photos and one of it was a place called Hideaway Nicole. So adorable. I do want to hide and run away with him.

Spent the rest of the day enjoying my new subscription of Netflix! Genuinely tried to enjoy Daredevil but it was meh. Archer, though, was kickass! I think I'll finish the series before my trip.

Which still terrified me but sigh.