Goodbye and Thank You Harbourfront Centre

We lived at Harbourfront in Singapore for 4 years. We frequented both Vivo City and Harbourfront Centre since that's where my bus stop was located. At the end of the day, Sweetie and I would usually meet up there to buy food at the hawker center before going home. 

We heard that Harbourfront Centre permanently closed on July 27 (early this week). We were sad to hear about it since it was part of our daily life for so many years. We enjoyed going there because it's a compact mall which has a bit of everything. 

We would have quick meals there, sometimes merienda at Toastbox. We loved going there since it has a view of the water. I remember we frequented a resto on the second floor (I just can't remember the name!) and a food court with Filipino food. And we'd sometimes do a McDonald's sundae run at midnight since it was open for 24 hours. It was also the only place we knew where you can buy Dunkin' donuts. 

Harbourfront Centre would often times have special events near the entrance. Sometimes it would be kitchen stuff, books, clothing etc. I remember it had a store that sold purely socks! There was definitely a wide variety of things you can see and buy. 

January 2020

It also had a branch of the Raffles Clinic which proved to be very useful for us. That's where we went whenever one of us got sick. It's also where I got a referral for the doctor who discovered my PE. The funny thing is we never tried riding a ferry from Harbourfront Centre, haha. 

It's just sad to hear about Harbourfront Centre closing. I heard they're going to demolish the whole building and replace it with something better. I tried to look for more photos from the place, but I just have a few and a very blurred photo from one of our McDonald's runs. 

April 2020 during the pandemic

Thank you Harbourfront Centre. You are one of the places in Singapore that brings me fond memories :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

The Big Change

A few months ago, a family member of a heart patient asked if people change after heart surgery. She shared that her husband changed a lot after surgery. He was withdrawn, impatient, sometimes mean and basically didn't want to do anything. 

I thought about it and shrugged it off. It took a while for me to recover after OHS, but I went back to work and traveled a lot. I felt "normal" for the next 5 years and then I had my first pulmonary embolism. 

It's been months since I read that post on a patient group I'm part of. The feedback from other patients and family members were quite extreme. Some even ended up in divorce. I only realized the past week that I changed after OHS. The change was only more significant leading up to my first PE. 

I used to be able to pull all-nighters and had bottomless energy, but since OHS I wasn't the same physically and I eventually started to pull back. After OHS I became scared of crowds. I wasn't stable and could easily fall. I had accidents and lost my balance once on an escalator in the airport. Good thing I landed forward onto my luggage. 

The biggest change happened the year leading up to the discovery of the clot in my lungs. I had breathing issues and had a hard time sleeping. I didn't really want to bother anyone and easily became a recluse. My body became significantly weaker, I couldn't even place my backpack on the airplane overhead storage anymore. 

When I can, I skipped outings, parties, dinner, get-togethers especially when it requires a lot of walking. I used to enjoy meeting up with friends, but it's become too tiresome for me. It doesn't help that I'm an introvert, so my social battery is depleted really fast nowadays. 

So yes, I guess major medical issues can change a person. So...

#BeKind #StaySafe

Black Cat Project Progress

When I started the project I thought it would be easy. I thought I'd finish it in a day or two. What I forgot to take in consideration was the time needed to add the eyes, nose and attaching the tail, haha. I also have chores and make time to play with our cats, so I work on it when I can. 

Working with different fabrics also took time since  I had to measure each one properly. Here's how it's going -

Of course, the tail -

I honestly still have a hard time sewing on the curves. I read though you can use hemostat scissors to help hold down and move the fabric while sewing. I'll dig up my Mom's pair to try that trick. I pinned my finger again while sewing the curved areas, haha. 

I can't wait to finish the project!

#BeKind #StaySafe

What Happened to Our Dab Water Pump

We were happy with our Dab water pump. It was newly installed when we moved into our house five years ago. Together with it was a Bestank water tank that tided us over whenever there were water interruptions. Maintenance was easy and we only called for service once in the last five years. We also had a filter installed to reduce the need to have the water tank cleaned*. We were happy campers.

Until... we noticed all our faucets kept spouting hot water. We thought it was our Bhagwan heater, so we turned it off. The water was still very hot and it made us anxious because hot water can melt pipes. It would be a huge disaster if that happened. I did a quick Google search and figured out it was our water pump causing the issue. Sweetie immediately turned it off and we used Maynilad directly until the Bestank service crew could come over. 

The crew they sent was very knowledgeable. They confirmed it was the pump that was causing the hot water because the primer dried up. They said the primer probably dried up because of the water interruptions. We had interruptions often last summer and we honestly had no idea you have to add water to the pump whenever that happens. 

They declared we can have the pump repaired. It needed 3 parts to be replaced and it'd cost PhP18,000, BUT, we'd have to wait 3 months for the parts to be imported. Sweetie and I discussed what to do and with El Nino affecting all of us, it would be problematic if we're unable to have water (I'm immuno-compromised, so a lot of factors affect my health). Sigh!

It's a work in progress, so will update next week!

#BeKind #StaySafe

*Getting your water tank cleaned costs at least PhP8,000!

Watched "Love You So Bad"

I discovered earlier that 2025 MMFF films have started to trickle on Netflix. We try to watch the annual MMFF films every year and we started with "Love You So Bad". 

We watched most of the trailers last year, but for this movie I just remember who's in it. We first saw Will Ashley and Bianca de Vera when they started in the series jointly produced by ABS-CBN and GMA. Then we saw them on PBB. Like everyone else, we were curious who'd they end up with. 

College days. We all grew up :)

Anyway, we decided to watch "Love You So Bad" while having dinner. To be honest, I expected it to be a teeny-bopper love team thingy. I was so wrong because what it featured was quite complex. It delivered a realistic story about love, being in a relationship and the complexities of growing up. 

Honestly, the film reminded me a bit about myself. I was a mix of the characters and I must say, growing up is truly messy. In the end, we all learn from our mistakes and move on to become better versions of ourselves. 

I'm not going to spoil anything, just go watch it!

Happy Sunday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

July Plant Roundup

July was an interesting month for my garden. It's the rainy season, so everything's a little greener. I also had to adjust the placement of some plants because it gets very windy when there's a typhoon.

Some plants still continued to bloom even with the weird weather -

We harvested some bell peppers and cherry tomatoes -

And I still managed to grow some new plants from seed -

Curry

A variety of orange

I hope to harvest some mustasa to make our favorite dish soon!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Tried Making Salted Egg Chicken!

I accidentally* bought a curry plant. It's a tree now and I thought I'd put it to good use. One of the dishes we miss most from our stay in Singapore is salted egg chicken. We usually buy it at a stall in Food Republic (Vivo City). I wonder if the stall is still there. 

I found some recipes and made it with Miggy. We decided to bake the chicken instead of deep frying it. We don't like oily food, so thought that would help. It turned out tasty!

We didn't make it too spicy. Just add more chili flakes and sili if you want it spicier. Here's how we made it:

Full recipe: https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2026/07/recipes-for-my-son-salted-egg-chicken.html

Let me know if you'll try to make it!

*Garden nursery dupped me. I was aiming to buy lemongrass!