The Road to 40 Day 274/365: Basketball and Cooking Saturday

After a relatively long week, we had Saturday reserved for rest.

Despite sleeping late, I woke up at around 6am and wondered if I should go out to play basketball. The night before, I saw in the group chat that there would be players in the morning, so I knew that there would be a game.

I felt that 6am was too early, so I went back to bed. However, I also felt that it could rain in the afternoon, so there probably won’t be a game then. So I decided to get up to catch the bus.

Usually, when I arrive at around 7:30am, I’d be playing in the third game, so I thought for sure that arriving before 7am would ensure that I would be among the first 10.

Unfortunately, there were at least 12 people who arrived earlier than me, so I still needed to wait for the second game.

These are the same group of guys who I’ve played with since I first came to Singapore. There are people who have come and gone, and most of the core people who welcomed me are either no longer in Singapore or live in a different area.

I’ve been part of the group long enough to be familiar with most of them, so I’ve chosen to stay with these guys. They know how I play, so they understand what to expect when I’m their teammate. It’s competitive, but there’s always room for some laughs while playing.

I still get to enjoy the game without the fear of getting misunderstood when things get a bit physical. Some players get a bit too serious when playing, which often lead to fights. As someone who doesn’t get to play regularly, I tend to relax a bit at certain points of the game.

If I were playing with strangers who are very serious about winning, they would get frustrated at the way I play. But for me, I just love to play the game, win or lose. Whether I score a lot or none at all, I’m just happy to be able to play on the court.

Today was the first time I played in about a month. I was rusty and wasn’t able to make a shot, but we still lost by one shot.

I went home to rest, and Che was set for a couple of appointments this day. I asked her to buy some things for dinner, as I wanted to try out a recipe I found.

While we’ve been in Singapore for quite some time, I haven’t really been able to learn any particular dish that’s truly Singaporean. I tried chicken rice once before, but for all the effort that I had to put in just to cook it, I decided that the best way to enjoy it was to order it from hawker stalls.
I’ve recently been enjoying minced meat noodles and laksa, but similarly, I think it’s too much work when I could afford to buy it cheaper in a hawker stall.

The closest thing I could replicate would probably be the veggies – kailan or bok choy in oyster sauce. Sometimes I tell Che that I wouldn’t want to spend SGD7 for an order of it because it’s so easy to make. I recently found a technique that works well enough to keep it crispy.

I also found a quick video on how to cook Chinese-style crispy pork belly. I cross-checked it with other videos and found that it’s easy enough to replicate.

Unfortunately, Che wasn’t able to get a whole slab of pork belly, so I had to work with smaller slabs. Since this is the first trial, I thought it was fine, just so I could see if it works.

Steph and James came over for dinner, and while the general sentiment was that the recipe works, James offered a couple of pointers that I could incorporate next time around.

With some physical activity to start the day and some good company in the evening, I think it was a productive Saturday for me, at least.