More Toddler Fashion

Yesterday (19 August 2026) was Cycle 12 of Enhertu. Cycle 11 was a four-week cycle instead of three because I skipped the would-be sesh last Wednesday so I could be in top form for the Assemblé Anniversary Showcase on the Saturday.

But my body decided to restart the three-week cycle anyway by having my head hair shed madly since last Thursday. It's still shedding Huskily now, fun. Showers are taking twice as long again. But I refuse to buzz it off this time because I have a hair dye appointment next month - I need to have some hair to dye!

I also had horrible body aches from head to toe. We're talking migraines, kneecaps feeling like they're 'boutta pop off every time I bend my leg, and feet that wouldn't quit aching no matter how much I lacrosse-balled them. This also hit me from Thursday and it just started getting better today.

Fever, sore throat, and extreme fatigue hit me this Tuesday. Erm but I still headed to work in the morning because I didn't want to miss a puff embroidery workshop I'd successfully balloted for! I was legit dozing off in the bus with my mouth open (thank God for mask) from the moment I boarded until I dragged myself off. 

My finger joints protested every needle jab through the fabric. I succumbed to using pliers like the old lady I apparently am. I think I did good work though. I didn't grab a pic cos erm, sick. I'll take one next week. Anyway, thankful for an understanding boss and team because I took the rest of the afternoon off to sleep and they didn't bother me!

Fever was gone on Wednesday morning so I went to the cancer centre (by bus, no longer dozing off) hopeful they'd let me do my chemo. And they did!

I took my lunch break at Elijah Pies where I had the clam chowder pie, iced yuzu drink, and the warm apple pie. Ughhh I love pies and I would bake them myself but I'm also a lazy bitch. 

I'm a pie-y girl

The chemo itself went great - needle poking was smooth, I didn't have a fever or any infection showing on the blood test, and my blood pressure was 128/88 which is better than the 150/IDK I presented at the previous cycle's infusion. It went so smoothly that I forgot to ask for my one day hospitalisation leave. But it's cool, I called the hotline later and got my MC after some light nagging from the nurse.

I was done around 420pm so I rewarded myself (I'm always rewarding myself - is two pies not reward enough?) with a Gold Class Express ticket to the 605pm Spider-Man screening! I don't even follow this Tom Holland franchise but it had great reviews and I have this recent popcorn addiction which I love to feed. GV's popcorn has always been top 5 for me - I remember buying just the large popcorn at 15 with my bestie Baba and sitting at the GV Bishan lobby savouring it slowly. Now I can finish the same size in the duration of this Spider-Man movie. Mm-hmm.

This popcorn was really really happy to be crunched by me

The movie was indeed excellent. I gasped and cried and yelped and laughed. Loved the little throwbacks to past Spidey and Marvel and whatever movies. The chemistry between the kids made me cry. And I was sitting in a solo seat so I didn't have to feel judged or anything! So good, 10 out of 10 would do it again. I'm thinking of doing The Odyssey in two weeks, we'll see. It's cool to be productive and go for pole prac but when you've just gotten over a fever and sore throat, why not treat your creaky knees to a Gold Class recliner moment?

Chemo 'Fit is another toddler one: Golden Girls tee and pleated Adidas skirt plus apple ring in lieu of earrings. Not in pic are my pastel aboriginal tube socks and white sneakers. My hair needs help, can't wait to see Eugenie next month.

This is how a normal skirt looks on me. I would get dress-coded (booked) all the time in secondary school. I ended up having bloody detention, just because my butt is bigger than the standard! Anyway, reclaiming the short skirt/skorts now with no fear of being booked. 

Why does "Open" level need inverts?

It's 3am and I'm suddenly feeling so passionate about this topic that I want to draft the thing now. (Edit: Just posted at lunchtime!)

My first pole photoshoot! In my baby 6 inches. Photographer: Millie Robson

Open choreo classes need inverts 

Around my 5th year of pole, pole friends (some instructors, some indie seasoned strong-ass dancers) asked me if I ever wanted to compete (like at Exotic Generation and stuff). 

Me: "Oh but my inverts suck and I can't do a handstand."

Them: "You don't need to invert or handstand at all to do a nice routine!"

Okay great, you don't need to be able to do any inversion to be a good pole choreo competitor apparently. 

So then why do some studios require you to have a good invert - or worse (for me) - solid aerial inverts/one-handed pole handstands, in order to attend an "open"/lowest level non-formulaic choreo class? 

"Open" means "mixed levels" to me, which implies that someone with wonky inverts and a year of regular pole classes should be able to join and do the things too.

Inverts alone are so hard, and aerial inverts even harder. Even when I was less fat and poling multiple times a week, it took me a year between invert to aerial invert. (Then I lost it again while still being that same size.)

Yes I know, I should train harder and eat less calories and get my inverts back and it's all my fault.

But also, no. I can dance and I can take dance instruction and I also choreograph so I know there are ways to modify the tricksy parts of a choreo to meet the dancer where they're at. (Provided they've actual done pole dancing classes before, of course.) Sure, it will kinda lose something with the modification but the dancey parts will still be vibey and everyone will have fun!

Can't level up without inverts

I'm ranting primarily regarding choreo classes but I also note that we also require students to get their inverts to progress to the next level, which is really limiting to lazy fatasses like me who also might have some missing mind-body connection in this area. 

When I'm on Reddit, so many commenters say, "You can descend into your jasmine. You don't need to invert! Your teacher should have taught you that!"

Well, no. My teacher did not want to teach me that until I could already invert. Then I was like, "Huh why didn't we learn this entry first?"

But also, my eyeballing sampling of pole studios' website shows that inverts are a common prerequisite to get to a certain pole level, so IDK where these Reddit commenters are from. I'd like to visit their studio.

My personal current physical limitations 

Being fatter again, dealing with joint and muscle aches that refuse to go away, not to mention random skin sensitivity, is not fun and I just want to do fun things i.e. dance and do the baby tricks I can manage.

So when people ask me, "You're not taking pole classes?"

I'm not taking term pole classes because open classes have prerequisites I can't currently meet. Pole (read: all) classes are expensive now so I'm trying to be more discerning about where I spend my money to achieve my goals of doing fun things (defined above) while balancing my chemo side effects schedule.

I am going for workshops, though. I read the class descriptions a million times and study the promo video before booking. So far, my choices have panned out great! There was some extreme DOMS from some workshops (ahem Gemi.Ai) and some elements I just couldn't execute but variations were given (Subby Souza) so I'm still a happy customer.

I'm also training my meagre repertoire of tricks at pole prac twice a month, and doing some of Marlo Fisken's Static Rotations recordings. So far, the first four videos have no compulsory inverts, wow!

My humble ask

If you haven't written me off as a grumpy lazy fatass poler (GLFP), my ask from this rant is if you are a teacher or studio owner, just take some time to consider the possibility of making "open" choreo classes more open by lowering the prereqs and offering progressions and regressions. 

For level classes, we could do conditional passes so the student can learn new things in the higher level while still working on that one skill that eludes them, and demonstrate it to the instructor in 3-6 months?

If you're already doing this, great! (And let me know who you are if you're not on my radar.) If you're not but after reconsidering, you still wanna keep the prereqs, that's cool too. Maybe someday my suggestion will make business sense. Then I and fellow GLFPs can join!