Sarah learns how to snowboard in Singapore

Hey guys, I saw an ad on instagram and it was saying “From Noob to Not so Noob” and I thought that was the most accurate ad ever because you can’t promise that you’ll be an expert after a class. So I was intrigued on what it was, and it was…

Trifecta’s pretty obvious when you arrive at Somerset MRT too.

Trifecta at 10A Exeter Road. Where is Exeter Road? I googled it and was like “Oh”, it’s that spot next to Somerset MRT and across Orchard Gateway. If you’ve been in the area, it’s now directly in front of the old skateboard area.

Continue reading Sarah learns how to snowboard in Singapore

Hololive Events in Singapore 2022/2023

Hololive Meet & Watame Night Fever 2022

It’s fortunate that we had some official Hololive events in Singapore and I managed to attend them!

Anime Festival Asia 2022 in Singapore had a hololive meet and the event was from 25-27 November 2022. There was a special holomeet postcard for Singapore but of course it’s super limited and all the fans got it so I didn’t get one.

I did get to stand next to the standees and take a picture with them!

That and I was there for AFA Night Live! With the hololive Meet concert. Buying a VIP ticket for that was so worth it.

No photos or videos of the actual concert but you can have a picture of Ash the translator/emcee of the evening.

We played games with the HoloID girls like Moona and Anya. It’s really nice to know hololive friends from all around the world especially South East Asia came to Singapore to attend this convention. Everyone was trying to help each other because we wanted to listen to Moona being a tsundere during the batsu.

Then after, Calli and Gura sang some songs. Look, I know this was mostly a Hololive MEET and a Watame Live concert but I didn’t expect they’d go all the way for us. They sang songs in turn. As usual the HoloEN curse happened because of the audio though it’s expected especially if you’re a Deadbeat (like me) and know it is a thing.

With that they also talked with Watame too. We did have a little talk with Watame but basically with Moona, Anya, Calli and Gura they entertained us all in between while Watame was getting ready with the concert (Watame Night Fever).

This is her first live concert out of Japan and wow.

And yes, Watame was there in real life in Singapore. We know from her actual pictures on twitter. But wow, if the technology was like this to bring Watame to a concert in Singapore and that’s impressive, imagine how it would be in Japan when you have an actual set up stage with everything in it.

I will never forget how she sang Blue Clapper and everyone in the audience knew what to do. It was one of the most tiring concerts I’ve ever went to since we all did the light stick movements for so many songs.

BUT IF IT WAS TIRING FOR US, imagine how it was for Watame because she was singing it all by herself non-stop!! We needed to cheer for her and to support her with our energy too.

If there’s another Hololive Meet/ concert in Singapore, just spring for the VIP tickets really. It’s so good that you get to sit in front and all. Plus we got an autographed poster too.

Hololive x Aniplus Cafe 2023

Next up was the Hololive x Aniplus cafe that I went on 25 Feb 2023.

We had booked our timeslot over their website. When the announcement was out about this collaboration, within a few minutes it was in the hundred plus range of people in the ‘waiting’ room of the booking system.

Anyway this was the menu list which we could order while waiting outside before the previous slot people would leave.

Just slide to the next picture to see the official menu items there. It is what it is.

These were the free items we could get at random when you bought food and drinks from the menu too.

Unfortunately we got some duplicates so we didn’t have the “full set” though we got both placemats!

I had Risu’s Nutty Milk Tea and my friends had Kronii’s Blue Lagoon Ade and Baelz’s Cream Cherry Ade.

My friend had the IRyS potatoes & meatballs. So it was a BaeryS pairing. We got the table with a little maid Hakotaro standee too!

I had Fauna’s pesto pasta. It was a lot… (It could do with a little more salt but I know the standards of Aniplus’ food anyway.)

For dessert, I had Mumei’s Salted Caramel Cake. This was pretty nice.

Basically, if you ever went to an Aniplus collab with anything, just don’t expect super wow food. Their drinks and desserts are good but their mains have always been average. It’s not the most spectacular of mains but it’s not bad either.

Besides food, you could get the collab goods. I just got a keychain and file for myself. With that, I got a free sticker. Those who spent above a certain number got some other special free ticket thing but I don’t know what it looks like since I didn’t buy that much.

Isn’t Kronii just perfect?

And there were standees you could take pictures with at the front of the cafe.

Sarah travelled to Puchong!

You might ask, where the heck is Puchong?

That was my question when I first saw the info for APAC Wrestling‘s Rise event

which happened on 10 and 11 December of 2022.

Where the heck was it? It was somewhere in Malaysia. It’s one of those not really here nor there places. Out of ‘town’ but close enough to it. I decided to take a plane trip there and this was my first plane trip after the whole Covid-19 circuit breaker/lockdowns etc.

Continue reading Sarah travelled to Puchong!

Playing at Sandbox Training Ground

I was invited by a friend to go to one of the trial classes and that the theme currently they were teaching was “Gladiator”.

Which totally fits me because I’m still into Kassandra of Assassin’s Creed.

Anywho, Sandbox Training Ground does fight choreography, wireworks and much more. You want a dramatic fight scene? You can learn from there.

At the time of this post, they’re at 10 Raeburn Park which is nearish Outram. It’s a clean and quiet place. I like the spring floor of Sandbox’s it’s very springy (duh) but if you know how to do acrobatics and stuff like that, it’s a fun floor to bounce off.

With my background of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) and pro-wrestling, fighting for film is totally different!

I had to reverse my usually steps which made me confused until I got it somewhat. Usually I really WOULD hit a person with my sword and the twirl while it looks dramatic in film and is so cool, it’s totally something I would not do in tournaments because it’s the best way to get stabbed quickly.

And fight choreography is safe, but you have to “sell” it which means you have to do the acting too. Which seemed odd the first time for me because in fight choreo, it looks great in FILM but it’s all “air”. It is so, soooo different from when I get smacked or something.

Did I enjoy the session? Yeah. The community there seems pretty neat and the instructor does have safety as an important thing.

Check them out if you ever want to learn how to do stunts or fight choreography, more info on their website because they’ll have the ‘fight’ of the season of teaching and you’ll be able to see what it is since they’re constantly trying to improve their syllabus.

Also, their instagram, @sandboxtrainingground is very updated so you can have a looksee too.

Giving Up

Firstly, happy International Women’s day. I am a woman. Happy me (?)

Secondly, it’s raining once more. Sheesh, I keep writing about the rain but last weekend. Upon a Sunday, it was raining so heavily and the Saturday night prior, I was watching a Malaysian movie called Imaginur (it’s really good and feels, if you have the opportunity to watch it, go for it!) and went home around 11pm or so?

It was considered ‘late’ to me but to wake up in the morning of a rainy Sunday at 8am, I went “Meh…” because I had booked a session at the Gympod. Instead of letting the slot go because I do know the ‘balance’ of is it worth wasting your money or your time, I checked and I could swap the time around to evening instead.

If I gave up, I would have just not gone to my gym session, instead I made the effort to at least swap it to a different time but still do it.

Which worked because it rained much heavier after I swapped the booking while in bed and it would have been horrible to travel all the way to the specific gym location I go to.

Yet, AUGH I could have just given up. Yet I didn’t. Which is totally different from quitting or knowing when to stop and restart.

For one thing, I always “stop” and not go to events or exercise sessions or training sessions if I’m not feeling good that day. It’s totally a different feeling and it’s a NO don’t do it because in general, I would also have to be considerate and think about the safety in others. If I’m not feeling good, it’s not safe to continue, thus try another day.

But giving up is different in my definition. There’s a sense of “You can do it but you choose not to because you just don’t wanna” for me.

Then there’s quitting, quitting because I know something is not going to work out and that should be ‘quick’ because that means I’ll try ANOTHER way. It’s a cut losses, you know this won’t work so let’s find an alternative method because… we aren’t giving up.

So are you the type that gives up, do the stop and restart or quit and find a different method kind of person?

Meanwhile, it’s annoying.

One of the reasons I keep on training is not the adults, no no. It’s ESPECIALLY the children. Like thanks. If they want to keep seeing me in a ring or stage and such, well. I can’t disappoint them can I? They are highly likely not able to read my blogposts or social media stuff but they’ll be able to pop up whenever their parents bring them along.

And if it’s just for the one kid or whomever that says, I wanna see you there or gets all “GASP!! It’s a girl!” like Anya from SpyXFamily all excited with her Waku waku-s…

Then sheeesh, I got to work on for it, won’t I?

Song of this post recommendation, listen to Tuyu’s song. Click CC for English subtitles!

App fatigue

Do you guys get app fatigue?

Recently Kopitiam is stopping their Kopitiam cards and are switching to an app based one. I do go there once in a while but let’s just say I’m not the target audience because I didn’t use their Kopitiam cards to have significant ‘discounts’. But their announcement to switching to an app based one while would be ‘easier’ to download it feels meh to me because that’s just another new app to register to.

Before this, the Passion card’s services for some places like Giant and Guardian changed to Yuu. I don’t know what’s worse. Hearing the song “Nobody like you” by Phua Chu Kang (the character, not even Gurmit himself) on loop as you go to these places to purchase your things or that now you have to install another app (Yuu) for rewards.

I liked the tap tapping for Passion card because it was there, it’s linked to the debit card for mine and I didn’t have to install anything if I wanted to use the points.

Then there’s the SimplyGo Ezlink app that Ezlink is promoting so people can use their wallets more too for more rewards and topping up stuff.

No, I’m tired even if you get a $2 cashback for converting your regular Ezlink card to a SimplyGo one. I’ll top up my ezlink card manually at the train or bus station with the machines there.

But Sarah, it’s just installing an app, easy one!

NO!

Bit by bit, installing more apps, you might think it’s free but at this rate. Guys. At this rate. How much space are these apps going to take? You might think ohh it’s just so small but no, at this rate, how much space is it really going to take up on your phone?

It might be even worse if you keep installing all of these apps and then you realize you run out of space for more apps that you need a smart phone with a bigger space or something.

I’m tired of apps. Can we just get multi usage apps in a digital environment instead of ‘solo’ apps just because management of whatever company says ‘We should have an app’ to track customer spending and rewards etc?

Surely ‘creating an app’ is not one solution to things.

Are you guys tired of this or do you like all these apps nowadays?

It’s raining today and probably tomorrow

It has been such a wet season. It’s raining almost daily ever since my post about going to the Istana during the holidays. It’ll only be sunny for a just a few hours and then back to rainy skies once more.

Having a dryer at home is really useful during this season. In the news it had said we were supposed to have sunny skies by this time in February but I guess, global warming’s affecting it.

Continue reading It’s raining today and probably tomorrow

Sustainable Exercise

It was a cool night

Firstly, this isn’t an advertorial post because I gotta pay for it but if you wanna try Gympod like I did. Might as well get 10% OFF your first paid booking.

Download The Gym Pod App and use my code SARAHGYM when signing up OR just download via my link: https://app.thegympod.com/refer/SARAHGYM

Ok, that’s done with. It’s that little button under ‘profile’ that you too can refer a friend for it.

This is a review of it. I had been looking pretty much at many gyms but I wanted something ‘private’ or something worth it, you know?

I went with gympod cause apparently if you book the session, the whole pod is yours! It’s true. Except for the bigger ones like “The Dungeon” which is made for sharing with others.

Continue reading Sustainable Exercise

The Istana

It’s open house time!

It’s been around 13 years since I went to the Istana. I remember posting about it on national day in 2010.

And this year, 2023, I went to the Istana once more during their open house!

For those who don’t know, it’s free for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents.

For tourists and others, it’s $2. Unlike 13 years ago, everything has to be paid via qrcode so you should have paylah/now or its equivalent ready. Ticket proceeds go to charity.

Do also note what you can or cannot bring into the Istana grounds, there are rules on their website and you can also take note on the dates they’ll have it.

Entrance also depends on the weather and if it is too bad, you won’t get in since it IS a large space and the probability of being struck by lightning is high during a storm.

Continue reading The Istana