I’m happy with how this past weekend turned out.

We stayed up late on Friday night. We made Negronis at home and listened to Taylor Swift’s Folklore and slept past midnight. I love the track, “the 1”, and I had it on repeat a couple of times to appreciate how talented she is.

The next morning, I had to take an antihistamine and a long morning nap to sleep off an allergy attack, but I was blissfully awakened by the aroma of a beautiful, buttery brioche baking in the oven.

Our friends SD came to hang at ours with wine and charcuterie. He’s relocating to Japan and we won’t see each other until September. We talked about the people we used to worked with in Apple – who’s around, who’s moved on and all that. It was then that I realized our simple friendship is more than a decade old. Sometimes you don’t realize how people stick around for many years in each other’s lives, while simultaneously wondering how time could pass so quickly when you’re not fussing over it. He’s someone who has very low maintenance overheads, and I like that in people especially now that I’m older and also because I think I’m the same to others.

On Sunday morning, we had a disappointing cheat meal. It was an old bak chor mee favorite in Tiong Bahru but it turned out to be a letdown. The mee pok was overcooked, soggy and tasted underseasoned. I’m certain shrinkflation kicked in because the portion is smaller than what we were used to. The drop in quality was so steep that we unanimously decided to write this off permanently. Goodbye, Pin Sheng Teochew Bak Chor Mee, you’re just not worth the calories anymore.

To bookend the weekend, we had cocktails and wine with our neighbor, SP. He wants to learn the guitar and I remembered when I first learnt the instrument decades ago when I was 12. It was a different time then. All I had was a photocopy of chord chart, a tuning fork and the radio. Now, there are apps that offer subscriptions to lessons and all that. Whatever the path might be, it’s never too late to learn something new in life.

A weekend with booze, music and friends is always rejuvenating. More please.