YowCH & Grace

We got out National Dimension 4 Genius 35L microwave-convention-grill oven back in 2001 at about $700 when we moved to our place at Redhill Close. The magnatron finally died, although the convention/grill heating element is working fine. Here’s the over that served us well over the past 17+ years:

We replaced it with the new Panasonic Dimension 4 Genius 42L microwave-convention-grill oven, which is larger, for $935. However, the baking or grill mode must be on a turn-table rather than trays.

We also got ourselves an acoustic bass guitar, an Ibanez, for $350, through Carousell. It is not fantastically built, but sounds reasonably good. It comes with built-in pick-up and once amped, the bass is nice and clear.


We played some songs together, and with the bass, the music is certainly richer.

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Finally there is a toy with Bumblebee at Volkswagen Classic Beetle. Very nice! We got this in a sale, only $25!

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On Sunday evening (after Joseph and Esther return from their mission trip), we had dinner with the Yongs at Canton Paradise, Star Vista, for Joseph’s birthday.

click on this picture for the pano view:

On Tuesday, we had a simple macaroni 芽菜鸡 for dinner. The tougeh and carrots were bought by Samuel in his school trip to the market!

Just an update on our Skylanders, we bought Trap-team for Joseph for his birthday, and this is our line-up now.

On Wednesday night, we went to Timbre @ Gillman for dinner and music. It was very quiet unlike the weekends where the place is super crowded.

And we sold the iPhone XR 128GB that we bought with Joseph’s phone plan for $980 to a young man (student).

Tags: Family, General by yowch
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Just like the Isis, we added spring buffers to stiffen the car springs to reduce bottoming out when riding over humps. We got it done at KCG, and brought along Joseph and Samuel.

The installed buffers in the front:

And in the back:

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We found a pair of very small sized soccer boots in Adidas Outlet and bought for Samuel (discounted from $99 to $45).

YowCH also ordered two very strong liquors, Bacardi 151° rum (flammable) and Absinthe (75% alcohol!)

We got a pair of underwater headphones for David, to encourage him for the 50 laps challenge. Finis Duo is designed to transmit sound through bone conductance. New price in Singapore is about $240, we got this second hand at $100.


[added 21 Aug 2018] Photo of the headphones in use in the pool:

Joseph built these 7 Gundam SD models over the past 3 months. He really likes doing this.

Today, Joseph participated in the Bukit Batok East Tourney. We did not win, but had lots of fun and game time.

Tags: David, General, Joseph, Samuel by yowch
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YowCH had an eye infection started on Tuesday. He saw a doctor on Wednesday and got some medication. But the swelling got quite bad and pushed the eyeball, causing double vision. So he made an eye-patch out of foam card and black elastic band to wear to work.

We needed a replacement workhorse camera (with wide angle and long zoom) after the F500 (bought second hand in March 2014) started showing mechanical and digital problems back in October 2017. With a 50% discount on an old and discontinued model, YowCH bought a new unit of Fujifilm F850 EXR from Harvey Norman for $224.00. They had only white or red, and he chose the former.

Tags: General, YowCH by yowch
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We sent the Odyssey for servicing on 2 March 2018, with engine flush and polishing (top-up of the glass coating).

Honda reported that the air-con filter is dirty and needed to wash the coils! That’s quite ridiculous as we don’t use the air-con that much. The battery potential was weak, so we will have to change. Similarly, the tires are worn out (especially at the outer edges).

On 7 March, YowCH took the car to Arrow Tyres to change to a high capacity (80A, instead of the normal 60A) Amaron battery. On the Isis, the Amaron can last 60,000km! for the larger battery, we had to cut off some spacer plastic on the battery tray.

To use the preferred performance tyres (Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3), the rims were upgraded from 17″ to 18″. The rubber became wider, too, from 215mm to 235mm. The change is from 215-55-R17 to 235-45-R18.

The grooves and pattern on the F1A3 provides a much better grip and wet weather performance. However, with the lower profile, the ride is rather bumpy. We chose a simple rim pattern, but Arrow did not have stock for darker coloured rims, so we ended up with the 5 twin-spokes rims.

Comparing on the car body:

And comparing the wheels:

After the tyres were changed, YowCH sent the car to Kenny for alignment, and a slight re-cambering (1°20′) of the front wheels to minimise the uneven wear on the outer edges of the front wheels. Kenny is famous for such detailed works and accurate alignment tweaking.

The original bolts were replaced with the after-market bolts which allowed the tuning of the re-camber.

All in, the car wheels has been upgraded and improved in performance for safety and better drive.

Tags: General by yowch
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On 10 Jan, looking out of YowCH’s office window, nothing much could be seen due to extremely heavy rain.

That evening, a good time to have grapefruit and vodka.

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We picked up a nice DeLorean model (Back To The Future) from the trash area at our flat, with intact box!

New Year’s dinner at home.

Tuesday 2 Jan, first day of school.

And Samuel enjoys his Y-glider with our neighbour’s boy.

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The Odyssey is now 1 year old, at driven a reasonable 19,200km. YowCH sent the car for servicing at Honda on Friday 18 August, exactly 1 year from the day we got the car.

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