Tuesday, July 29, 2025

July's the waifu's birthday month, so I'm always on the lookout to see what to do or bring her to. Last year, we did the murder mystery dinner. This year, I kept it simple with a fancy restaurant, Scaramouche. I didn't know they were located at the first floor of a condo, so when I entered the condo lobby, there was a valet to take the car. After passing him the car and keys, we were like... what if he's just a very suave thief and we just gave him our car, lol. Ambience at the restaurant was very cozy. People looked rich, but not filthy, freaking rich types. Dinner was lovely, and I got to enjoy my date with the waifu. Our server was very friendly and recommended stuff, some of which we tried. He also offered to take us outside where we could get pictures with downtown in the background. Very nice!

I've been playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 the last few weeks, as it's what's everyone been harping about, and our BPS friend Celine in Malaysia is also playing it at the same time. So we bought it at full price. I rarely play games at launch due to the poor optimization and parasitic implementations of many games. I normally wait until prices drop, since I'm in no rush, and my backlog of unplayed games is huge anyway. So far I've been really enjoying it, and parrying is a bitch to learn when enemy fake outs are common. I'm dying at some of the memes about the game. The music is amazing and there are so many bangers. And the cutscenes, as Carbot Animation says, is "Absho-lute cinema!"

We're also in the midst of watching Jewel in the Palace (Dae Jang Geum). Yes, that old, classic Korean drama, lol. Some context. 20 years back, I was at Jonathan Lim's house, back when the show was playing on Singaporean TV, on Channel 8. The constant crying and cooking never interested me, so I didn't care much, and I hated the stupid "Onara" ending theme, and made this known to anyone who cared. Jonathan laughed and told me to give the show the chance. So we watched a bit, and at one point, the two women on the screen were crying, because she (and this is what I falsely remembered) put prawns in her soup. I laughed! I said it was even stupider than I thought and he said it's just one scene and it gets better. I didn't bother, and I continued to make fun of it whenever the show was brought up. Jonathan would tease me occasionally by singing "prawns in her soup" with the tune of Onara. Well 20 years later, Onion heard about it and asked me what episode it was. I had no idea, and I wasn't going to watch 54 episodes to find a woman crying about prawns in soup. But she asked me repeatedly, so I kept looking to no avail. We looked it up on ChatGPT and it gave several contradictory answers. We looked through 4 episodes it mentioned that might match on YouTube and eventually found it on the 4th one, episode 13. I misremembered it a bit. It was putting prawn in the broth, and they were crying because Jang Geum lost her sense of taste but she managed to overcome it with her skill and used something so unique. So yeah. 20 years later I actually get context. We've been binging episodes since, and so far it's alright, I enjoy it. Getting near the end of the series now. Something bad always has to happen.

We also met up for our tri-annual meetup with Victoria. We were supposed to meet for board games a few weeks earlier, but her grandmother, who's been in poor health for a while, passed away. The time for grieving, going to a chalet with her family and just resting delayed it until July. We were also meeting her new boyfriend, Liam, for the first time. He was nice, friendly and was very open about asking for how to play the games better and what strategies to use. We played her copy of Finspan, then DroPolter, Here to Slay, Pompeii and then grabbed our as of now, traditional dinner of Thai food from UberEats. Then after a bit of chitchatting we played Parks to end the night, as playing Critter Kitchen would drag way too long.

The next day I was at church, and we were in our temporary location, the parlour. Due to ongoing roof and ceiling repairs, it wasn't safe for congregants, and for the next few months, we'd be here. That meant a complete change in the tech for Zoom. Since everything was hooked up in the Sanctuary, we made do with an EMEET speaker as a mic and a laptop for us to use. Sound quality was... subpar to say the least. We're still learning and experimenting.

Also on the 19th, I was the driver for Onion and her mates from pole dancing, Charmaine and Harmony. They've been talking a lot for several months now after getting to know each other in class. Charmaine, a Filipino, spent 10 years in Malaysia and basically considers it her home. She danced at the same pole studio as Onion, so they really got to bond over their shared time there, despite not knowing each other when they were still in Malaysia. Anyway, they arranged a winery trip to the Niagara region, but needed a driver. So, of course, I ended up being the driver. I picked the girls up and due to a massive jam, took 2 hours to reach our first stop, Two Sisters. Victoria recommended them and said she goes there every year to stock up on their wines. We went there as it was the furthest away; Onion and I planned to start further and go further back so the drive back would be shorter. Anyway, gorgeous environment! They had a big dining area and a massive fountain next to a place where you could get some wine and very expensive chips. After chilling a bit, we didn't buy any icewine there because it was pretty pricey, but we went away with a decently priced Riesling. We proceeded to AMO, a new winery that just opened up. While most established wineries have old-school rich, mansion aesthetics, AMO was industrial and modern. Very sleek and sharp, with lots of insta-worthy decor. We drank a flight of wines and ate some really nice pizza. We proceeded to the last stop of Vineland, but on the way, encountered Château des Charmes. We joked that it was Charmaine's business and popped by since it was so near. The staff at their boutique were wonderfully friendly and engaging, and we took lots of pictures in and outside. Got some wines and went to Vineland. The waifu and I were last here several years ago with Chloe, her boyfriend at the time, Stanley, and the couple Dan and Vika, whom we last saw in 2018 during the New Year's Party Chloe invited us to. We loved the environment and we were considering it as a wedding venue before finding out the exorbitant costs. They had rearranged the tables and chairs quite a bit. It could fit much more people, but it looked a lot less cozy and idyllic. We got a seat upstairs all to ourselves where the girls posed on the very comfy recliner. At this point only I was still drinking, as the girls had enough alcohol from all the wine flights from the other three wineries. After it closed at 6pm, we proceeded to head off. We also supported a local farmer's market selling lots of corn and fruit on the way. On the way back, traffic was much better. A whole lot of good conversation throughout the whole day at the wineries and in the car. We spoke a lot about politics, racial and religious issues in Malaysia and relationships.

It's getting to be a tradition at this point, but I discovered my friend Jackson Choong passed away in Malaysia. He was a fellow schoolmate at Marsiling Secondary, and one of the students who commuted from Malaysia to Singapore every day for school, like me. He was very friendly, and a jokester who everyone really liked. Played basketball with him a few times back in the day and although we didn't talk much after graduation, I followed his band on Facebook and he was active in the Johor Bahru music scene. I don't know what happened, but it was extremely sudden and came out of nowhere. Aye, saw a ton of Marsiling alumni offer their condolences and respects on the post on his passing.

And I can't talk about that without mentioning Ozzy Osbourne and Hulk Hogan. Two massive legends from their respective industries. My love for metal stems from progenitors Black Sabbath and all its evolution into the sound now. Great respect for the Prince of Darkness. And for Hulk Hogan, he's a mixed character. His racism, being a union scab and his Trumpist politics afterwards are contrasted with his immense influence for wrestling as a whole. He's still an icon, but there's a lot of baggage there.