My job revolves around many weekends of work. Close to half of the weekends in 2019. During weekdays, there are numerous monthly forums and meetings that I have to attend. In short, it is rather hard to find a good day to go on leave. I am happy that both my wife and I were able to take Monday and Tuesday off. And the last five days – counting the Friday evening – have been amazing. Here is a list of random recollection.

• Nov 1st (Friday) was a very significant date for the fans of Blizzard. It was Blizzcon 2019. Now, of course, due to time zone difference, it would only officially start my Nov 2nd at 2 a.m. in the morning. So let’s rewind a bit.
• Nov 1st was All Saints Day. It has been a while since I have visited a Church. I was happy that my wife could join me for a lunchtime Mass at the Cathedral. Fun fact. I was trying to get my buddy Jeremy – also a fellow Catholic – to join us. The response was: which Cathedral? I was like … dude, there is only one [Catholic] Cathedral in Singapore (I didn’t feel the need to specify)! He responded, “St. Andrew”? I face-palmed. Ours is Cathedral of the Good Shepard. St. Andrew’s Cathedral is an Anglican Church. “Does it really matter?” asked Jeremy. Long story short, eucharistic intercommunion is not possible. So yes, you may. And no, the communion doesn’t count.
• Hero’s is a bar in Singapore CBD that has a lovely live band. I have been there so many times that the band knows me. Miraculously, my wife has agreed to visit Hero’s on a Friday night with me. Her first at Hero’s.
• The 10 p.m. party was amazing. Way better than the one we have attended earlier on. We stayed close to the very end (past 2 a.m.).
• My wife and I watched the Blizzcon 2019 opening ceremony live via YouTube on my wireless phone while we were partying at Hero’s. It was our first time tuning into the event live. The announcements and the trailers were amazing. Diablo 4 – a game we care about a lot and will buy when it eventually releases. Overwatch 2 – a game we had fun with and since O2 will have PvE content, it is a sure buy. World of Warcraft new expansion Shadowland – love the trailer but for sure we will not play that game again.
• I have finished reading The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott. After returning the books at the library, I have borrowed not one but six books! All six books are from the same author called John Straley. Some Alaska bizarre private investigation. I have to finish all the books within six weeks. That means I should not spend more than a week to complete one book. Uh oh.
• It was my wife and my first time trying out Mbar Mini KTV. It is a small Karaoke booth charged by 15-minute blocks. The booth comes with one TV (duh), two stools, two microphones, and two headsets. English song choice is so-so. Pretty decent recording and sound system. Clean environment. We sang for half-an-hour and we had fun.
• Talking about being spontaneous, after Sunday’s dinner, I have suggested visiting a real KTV and my wife gamed for it. There was a promotion at Party World. Twenty-odd dollars per person for not one but FOUR hours of Karaoke. We sang from nine till one in the morning. Again, we had fun.
• And we have finally mastered the art of not-over-ordering at a Korean restaurant. Celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary at Big Mama (in actual fact, we celebrated our anniversary throughout the entire long weekend). We had BBQ boneless beef short ribs and ginseng chicken soup. Yummy.

2019 has been a fun year. Some asked if we are doing something special for our anniversary. In our own way, we are trying to make every day special.