YowCH & Grace

Today, YowCH spent some time working on improvements to the terrapins tank:
1. Rewire the lights.
2. Remount the UV lights onto a suitable holding board.
3. Changed water.
4. Replaced the support boards (sawn to size last night).

One of the UV bulbs had burnt out, need to buy replacement.

Here the new pump can be seen working very well in clearer water.

We went swimming and due to the dark skies the whole morning and perhaps school reopening tomorrow, the pool was practically empty, although the sun came out blazing hot again.

After 1 month’s holiday, school reopens tomorrow. Time for Esther to push hard for the last few months before PSLE.

Tags: Family, General by yowch
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We got ourselves a larger tank, and with more water, the smaller pumps and filters can’t filter enough, so we got ourselves a much larger pump/filter for $22.50. Comes with charcoal pack for smell removal. And another 2 bunches of plants to decorate. You can’t see much as the water is rather murky.

Samuel is now able to sit for a short while and play, he really likes to sit.

Tags: General, Samuel by yowch
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After the tank from our neighbour cracked on 14 June just before our trip to PJ, Ipoh and Tambun, we checked the online second hand postings and found this guy in Katong selling a large tank with lights for only $50! We confirmed it immediately and took the tank home on Monday night. It is certainly much larger:

The light set consists of 2 sets of 2 fluorescent lights and 4 blue LEDs. We added our IKEA spot light and will figure out a way to mount the UV lights later on.

The terrapins now have a much larger tank to swim about, and should be able to house them for another year before they out-grow the tank.

The tank is so large that we need to add some supportive planks between the tank and the shelf. Again, we will trim these planks down later on.

Tags: General by yowch
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The glass tank for the terrapins broke during cleaning when YowCH hit it (rather softly) when positioning the rocks. They now sit in a plastic container while waiting for a new (and larger) tank.

Tags: General by yowch
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The Isis wiper has bad streaks and we changed to new silicone frameless pair. However, the blue silicone is NOT our choice. YowCH found this pair discarded in the carpark, apparently the previous owner ‘broke’ the clips off when he tried to install them. However, nothing was actually broken and a small ‘click’ got everything back together again. The sizes were about right and fits our Isis. David helped install them. Thank God for free wipers.

Samuel is no longer vegetarian. He had meatball porridge made by popo and he really enjoyed it.

Here’s a photo is Samuel sleeping, rather lean and long now, but still under-weight and under-size according to National charts.

Tags: General, Samuel by yowch
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The car fuel efficiency started at a rather poor 8.5km/L when we started and with better driving skills, the efficiency has gone up to a stable average of 11.0km/L for the past 2 years. For cruising long distances in our trips to KL and back, it has clocked about 12.0km/L if we keep below 120km/h (but that’s normally not the case as we drive at upwards of 140km/h).

Last night, driving Grace’s parents and sister to the airport on the MCE and ECP with very clear traffic and keeping within 80km/h to 90km/h, the car registered a high 17.1km/L or realistically 16.2km/L (adjustment by 5% from past records, the car meter is too generous). That’s 3L of fuel at less than $6.00 to run 50km to the airport and back. Not too bad for a heavy car like the Isis.

Tags: General by yowch
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A short update on our terrapins, they have grown rather large, twice the length they were when we got them. The colour has also gone rather dark, and they eat much more than before.

The tank will probably have to be upgraded someday, but we won’t have the space for them…

We had dinner at Far East Square and here are the children posing with some bronze sculptures of Ching Dynasty children playing.

Tags: David, Esther, General, Joseph, Samuel by yowch
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Esther and David had an evening to play and we started on Bloodbowl (2nd edition) which was the set and rules that YowCH played with his friends in his teenage years.

YowCH brought home a rubber mouse-pad (Acer) from office, and we stuck it to the cajon to make is a non-slip seat-pad. Much nicer to sit on now.

Joseph helped peel the 3M double-side foam tape.

This is probably the last thing we add to the cajon. We had also bought a sports duffel bag (medium large) for the cajon at $27.

Tags: David, Esther, General by yowch
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The website server was down from Tuesday afternoon until Wednesday afternoon. The reason given by the host is that the operating system (Linux) was lost! and although the data was intact, it might not be recoverable! That means the loss of all the blog entries! After the site recovered (thank god!) we started a a new operational procedure to have regular back-up of the blog files.

YowCH bought a new $50 guitar stand with 5 slots, now the guitars are nicely stacked and takes up less space in the house.

Compare to the older chaotic ‘layout’:

Tags: General by yowch
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The Suzuki guitar was broken earlier before Christmas, and after YowCH fixed it, it still plays rather well, so the set (guitar, cable and amp) has been moved to T.Y.Lin office for lunchtime and after-work playing.

On Friday, 7 March, David left for Scout camp at 4:00pm, and will return on Sunday 12:45pm.

We got a second hand Fender Mustang II amp for $200, big, powerful and nice sound.

Here’s the guitar to scale:

And this is the current guitar family at home:

Tags: David, General, YowCH's work by yowch
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