The Road to 40 Day 8/365: Slow, productive Saturday

Weekends are pretty slow, especially if Che had a busy week at work.

This particular Saturday was typical. Vino and Che slept in while I got up to wash the dishes I neglected the night before. Hearing them at around 9AM is actually pretty early, so I cooked breakfast after a while.

We lounged on the living room and took turns just succumbing to sleep while Vino was either playing on his tablet or kicking his mini soccer ball into the net. Before we realized it, it was afternoon already.

I haven’t washed the dishes from breakfast yet, so we had delivery food for lunch. That way, I only had to wash dishes once.

I saw that my basketball group was able to gather enough people to play that afternoon, and while I did want to play, I figured I shouldn’t because Che had a 5:30PM appointment. Later, she told me that she canceled it because she wasn’t feeling great.

We’ve tried several ramen places, but he always defaults back to Ippudo. It almost feels like a lost opportunity when we didn’t try Ippudo in Japan, but hey, all the ramen we tried there was good.

Back in Vietnam, we tried different shops that sold ramen, and none could give the same vibe as Ippudo for him. It was only after half a year that I realized there was an Ippudo shop in district 1, which we then frequented until we went back to SG.

 At times, Vino could finish a whole bowl of ramen and the kids’ meal is too little for him. But there are also days when I should have just waited for them to finish because it would be enough food already.

Basic tonkotsu ramen with no spring onions and black fungus, then a side of tuna carpaccio would be our staple orders.

Of course, we chose the branch of Ippudo that was in our usual hangout place, The Shoppes at MBS.

It’s not as packed as Vivo, so it’s less stressful to walk around on, and we enjoy window shopping here just to try out what we see online. The norm is share a few laughs with our person in the shop and then leave, saying we’ll have a think about it, but really just later talk about how the price is what it is.

This night was almost the same, as Che wanted to check out a couple of shoes. But things don’t always go according to plan.

We ended up in a different shop because she wanted to check out a replacement strap for her watch. Vino and I stayed on a sofa playing, and while I thought she was done, I was surprised to get served orange juice for both Vino and me.

Turns out, she was getting something else.

It was something that she said she thought about getting on Mothers’ Day. It was something I would have totally gotten her on Mothers’ Day but was out of budget. What I did get her was alone time and a short dance Vino and I saw on an IG reel.

Che deserves things like this, and if I’m being honest, I wouldn’t even be able to surprise her if I had unlimited budget. She is someone who knows what she wants and how to get it. She knows her style and her tastes.

While she appreciates clothes and accessories as gifts, she would have a hard time using it often if she can’t make it work with the things in her closet.

As such, my best gift for her is always saying “yes” is she asks if she can buy something for herself.

Before going home, we stopped by another Vino favorite, Angelina.

Now, we’ve had macarons from a lot of places, but none of those have Vino wolfing down at least 4 at a time. Angelina’s raspberry macarons are his go-to.

The problem is, since we got back here in SG, it hasn’t been a daily staple. Maybe it’s sourcing the ingredients, or maybe it’s just that it doesn’t sell as much as the other flavors.

On this night, we tried our luck, but the manager said they just ran out of it. Vino was disappointed, so I asked if they would have some tomorrow. Dude said yes.

But luckily, someone from the kitchen was there, and he and the manager both saw how disappointed Vino was that there were no more raspberry macarons. Other guy said something and manager said they will check the kitchen.

He came back saying they can offer a box of 8, but we’ll have to wait one hour to consume it. Vino was more than happy to wait, since we were going to go home anyway.

At 10PM, an hour after we got the thing, we were home, and Vino was munching his favorite snack.

We slept late, put on Resident’s Playbook until we’re sleepy enough, then put a random movie on until we slept.

For a day that started slow, we got a lot done this day.

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