YowCH & Grace

We cooked some simple dinner at home on Wednesday, 4 Mar:

Esther got herself a guitar looping pedal. This allows several tracks to be recorded and looped (played round after round) to have layered (multi-track) playing. $200, second-hand from Esther’s friend.

The steering wheel cover for the car is all cracked up and loose after 3.5 years. So we bought a replacement, exact same model.

Our church gave out 3 nails for the season of Lent, as a reminder of Christ’s suffering for our sins. We are free to use the nails in whichever way, and most people glues them together to make a cross. Joseph did this:

It is nice and cool, but too dangerous, so after taking photo, he took off the nails.

On Sunday night, we watched Robin Hood (2018) with Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx, in our bedroom because the blu-ray disc can’t play on the living room player.

Tags: Esther, General, Joseph by yowch
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YowCH’s favourite fruit, ciku (sapodilla in English). Grace bought a few large ones, sweet and fragrant.

Driving the Kallang-Pay Lebar Expressway (KPE) is very fuel efficient, having speed limit of 70-80km/h and smooth flowing traffic most of the time. Able to get 11.8km/L over a distance of 130km.

As a reward for Samuel’s good swim, we had dinner at Handlebar. Samuel shared a large platter, and then fell asleep.

Grace bought a serger on Saturday, 29 Feb 2020 before church. This machine is for sewing the edge of cloth. A good partner for the sewing machine. She can now have trimmed edges for the clothes or bags that she makes.

On Sunday, we had our swim followed by chicken rice for lunch.

Football training in the afternoon after a few week’s break, and Samuel did well at football, being very enthusiastic and active.

Tags: General, Grace, Samuel by yowch
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Some miscellaneous stuff:

Esther at piano class:

The Odyssey can actually be driven very economically (on the 70-80km/h KPE, Kallang – Paya Lebar Expressway). Managed to clock 16.7km/L over a distance of 47km in smooth traffic.

Tags: Esther, General, YowCH by yowch
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YowCH’s high blood pressure medication increased after 14 days with review from his doctor. He now take Micardis which is the same Telmisartan 40mg as before, but with Hydrochrolothiazide 12.5mg added. Started on 5 Feb 2020.

YowCH ordered a Marantz SR5013 receiver/amplifier from Lazada last week. The model is a few years old and shops doesn’t seem to carry it. This is to replace the Denon 1708 which we have been using since start of 2008, and is very sickly already. This Marantz SR5013 still has analogue 7.1 input, which is great for playing back SACD.

Then we found out that the Velodyne CHT8R sub-woofer had no sound, so YowCH brought it to be checked and found that the circuit board is burnt, repair is $250 and not guaranteed to work, so we bought another sub-woofer, the Mirage MM8 with 3 speakers. Nice bass sound from a small sub-woofer, and with the low-frequency sounds of movies, our windows and walls rattle!

Grace was not working on Thursday, 6 Feb, so she made a caramel cheese cake for Beacon FG. We had our new-year meeting on Friday night, 7 Feb, where we tossed the lo-hei (also prepared by us, with abalone instead of fish).

Here’s a photo of Grace swimming. She has been swimming 20 laps a week recently.

Tags: Church, Friends, General, Grace, YowCH by yowch
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We got this from PJ, creamer and gula melaka in tubes! Very convenient.

This are screen captures of David in action playing basketball for his school in competition game. The video was taken by a parent who attended the game. Unfortunately, games will be postponed due to the nCoV virus pandemic. David is no. 7.



So, to help prevent spread of nCoV, masks are recommended.

YowCH bought cheap OEM air-filter to replace the very dirty one in the Odyssey. $16 per piece, better than originals at $80 each.

Tags: David, General by yowch
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The car air-con broke down when we went on our trip to PJ for CNY. We sent the car to the workshop for repairs once we returned to Singapore. So o Wednesday morning, Joseph and Samuel walked to school while YowCH walked to work.


Esther, David and Grace took bus to school/work.

Here are some TVB wuxia series that we have watched (except for The Duke of Mount Deer, 鹿鼎記, which we just started watching).
Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, 天龍八部
The Return of the Condor Heroes, 神鵰俠侶

New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre, 倚天屠龍記
The Duke of Mount Deer, 鹿鼎記

We have posted The Legend of the Condor Heroes, 射鵰英雄傳 earlier.

Tags: General, Joseph, Samuel by yowch
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Our soccer team, West Coast Wolves had the annual meeting and dinner on 19 Jan 2020. The children had their weekly games/training, while the parents met at West Coast CC. David helped with the training, and Joseph had to sit out because of his fracture. Here is a photo of the meeting to discuss training needs, strategies, development and plans for football leagues.

At 5:30pm, the children joined the adults at West Coast CC for dinner. We catered nice food.


Grace helped get 2 sets of ‘yu sheng’ (we paid for these). Unable to find the prepared sets, she bought the ingredients from Sheng Siong and sliced the raw vegetables in Church before bringing over to the CC.


We had fun at the party.

Tags: General, Joseph, Samuel, YowCH by yowch
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YowCH’s company, KTP, had a Chinese New Year lunch on Friday 17 Jan 2020.

Later in the evening, YowCH, Esther and David prepared dinner for BCG as we hosted the cell group at our place.

Some miscellaneous stuff:
Wi-fi biscuit:

Pomelo skin helmet for Samuel:

Tags: Church, Friends, General, Samuel, YowCH's work by yowch
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Our first soccer training in 2020 on Sunday, 5 Jan. Joseph and Samuel both trained well.

On Sunday night, David helped cut and fry arrowroot for snacks. Not easy to slice them evenly and thin with a knife, and frying takes a long time.

Here are some final photos of Redhill Close, our home from 2001 to 2005, before they are demolished (likely some time in 2020). YowCH regular runs and the daily commute to Gan Eng Seng Primary School still goes past these flats. We stayed in Block 10 unit 04-122, the corner unit at level 4 furthest from Jalan Bukit Merah.




Refer earlier post here.

Tags: David, General, Joseph, Samuel by yowch
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At 13:24, 26 Dec 2019, an Annular Eclipse happened and it was perfectly viewed from Singapore.

Using the Nikon D5000 with Tamron 18-270mm lens, with an infra-red filter mounted (modified mount using a strip of foam), we managed to capture very nice images from the carpark roof.


Grace also suggested making a pin-hole viewer box, which Esther made 2 units. The results were rather good!

We even ordered McD to be delivered to the carpark for our lunch.

Here is a shot from YowCH’s mobile phone (Samsung S9) as the dark clouds passed, making it possible to take the photo.

Tags: Family, General by yowch
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