Esther received her first dose of Covid vaccine on Sunday, 14 March, arranged by Rainbox Centre.
For lunch, we at at Duckland, a Tunglok restaurant. Very tasty.
In the evening, we invited the Yongs over for popiah dinner. This time round, we made our own popiah skin.
David doesn’t like popiah, so he made Japanese garlic fried rice (yummy).
On 17 March, we met Grace’s parents and had dinner together at Anchorpoint.
On Sunday, after our regular swim, the older children went SCUBA diving at Queenstown, under Yen. This intro class is $60 per person for 3 hours.
Swim coach Francis and his children joined too.
Esther:
David:
Joseph:
Fun diving!
While the older children were diving, YowCH, Grace and Samuel had lunch and dessert at Star Vista.
On 21 Feb, Esther invited YowCH to try out her new Audiotechnica AT2020 mic, and did this impromptu recording of “Have You Ever Seen The Rain”. Click on the first photo to watch the video:
YowCH did the vocals, guitar and bass, Esther did the backing vocals, more guitar, keyboard, digital drums and arrangements.
We then had homemade popiah for dinner:
On Monday evening, we had Japanese fried rice (egg and garlic) and wagyu steak for dinner.
On Tuesday night, YowCH went for his run after work, and at about 3km, felt a sharp pain on his right leg.
He stopped running and walks for a while and later, called home to have Grace pick him up.
Likely to be shin splints, with swelling and pain. So he got a walking stick to relief the load on the leg.
For lunch during work, his colleagues helped him tapao food. Some examples:
Chye Joo has a very festive CNY, with ‘start work hong bao’ for everyone:
The a nice lion dance (permit from Government):
Lion at YowCH’s seat:
The company provided packed lunch:
And later, order some pizzas and fried chicken for afternoon snacks.
Esther had pizza at Rainbow Centre for CNY!
Esther’s A level results were released on 19 Feb 2021, she got BCCCD.
Beacon CG had a small CNY gathering at Patrick’s place. We made siew yuk 2 nights before and cooked the sea cucumber stew the night before.
We also bought the stuff for the lou-sang.
Our friends made nice chapatti and humus, and a very different type of niangao (very nice).
Some photos of YowCH doing his regular 2x 6.0km weekly.
YowCH was consistent in his runs, rain or shine, day or night.
In fact, sometimes, Esther and David also ran.
For the month of January, YowCH managed 6.0km runs on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings, and also gym and stretching on Saturdays.
This is the run summary of the 30 Jan run, 6.0km in 34min00sec, his second fastest 6.0km run (the fastest was 5 secs faster at 33m55s). Heart rate ave 162 and max 176 (which is quite consistent with all the other runs). Average pace of about 5m40s or ave speed of 10.6km/h.
This calendar shows his runs for the month of January.
We also have our regular weekly swim (about 45 mins), typically about 500m each person. On 31 Jan, Grace had just finished night shift and missed swim. Here are screenshots of videos of Joseph, YowCH, Esther and David doing butterfly, and Samuel (middle) swimming freestyle.
We fried some nian-gao in the afternoon after swim, wrapped in spring roll skin. Tastes great!
We shared the dessert with friends, neighbours and the Yongs.
In the evening, we visited the Yongs and had dinner at Bishan.
We had our weekly swim on 24 Jan. Here are screenshots of Esther and David swimming videos taken by coach.
After swim, we had chicken rice for lunch.
Then YowCH re-dyed his hair again using Dixmondsg hair dye he bought online to maintain the blue. Also bought matte brown for Grace.
We had satay and yakitori dinner with the Yongs, while we watched the announcement of results for Siu Hei’s Maths Olympiad. He got Gold!
Esther made cookies, cake and sandwiches at Rainbow Centre for the children. She also did balloon crafts.
On 28 Jan, David received news that his first choice of ACJC was not successful although he is exactly at the cut-off points. Instead, he has been posted to CJC. He has made an appeal. In the meantime, he attended CJC on 29 Jan (Friday!) in his secondary school uniform.
YowCH picked Grace from her afternoon duties and had dinner together at Josh’s Grill, Bugis Junction.
YowCH teaching at KFC, Samuel’s in class too.
Sunday’s lunch after swim at Gyu Kaku, Novena Square.
We fried arrowhead as a snack.
Wanton mee dinner with Grace’s parents and Gene. Has assam prawns, and bought braised duck and char siew.
A gift from Gene to Esther, Steinberg UR22C Interface to record analogue and digital inputs into the computer.
Joseph started secondary school at Gan Eng Seng School (same school as David).
Esther and YowCH started working.
Esther works as a temporary helper at Rainbow Centre, Margaret Drive, while waiting for the A-levels results. It is near home.
YowCH started working at Chye Joo Construction Pte Ltd, as Commercial Engineering Director.
His seat, a view from his seat and eating packed lunch at the roof garden.
Last post of 2020. Our dinner on 29 Dec before getting Grace from work.
YowCH had lunch and dinner with some colleagues, as he will end his work at KTP (and SJ) on 31 Dec 2020.
Thursday, 31 Dec, last day of the year, last day of YowCH’s job as a Civil Engineering Consultant and also his last run of the year.
Throughout 2020, YowCH covered 562km in 171 runs.
The fake Adidas shoes bought in Vietnam in 2019 lasted only 3 months. Next year, he will run in $25 Decathlon shoes.
In the afternoon, YowCH packed the last of his stuff in KTP and moved them over to Chye Joo. This was done over two days (30 and 31 Dec) with David’s help.
And our last dinner of the year – McDonald’s.
After dinner, we joined the church online thanksgiving service, and the song Blessed To Be A Blessing was shown. YowCH and Esther recorded for this song.
After thanksgiving service, the family played mahjong, and YowCH cooked fried beehoon for supper.
An end to the pandemic ridden 2020 and the start of the new year!
Christmas day, during Covid pandemic. We went to the 12:00noon church service.
During service, the song Esther and YowCH recorded was played:
We then visited Sorrento for a short while.
At home, just before dinner, YowCH, Esther and Samuel sang some Christmas songs.
A photo of our Christmas presents. The lemons are from YowCH to the children (this year’s joke).
We prepared hot-plate dinner and ate with Grace’s parents and Gene.
David bought some donuts for the family.
After dinner, we opened our presents.
On 27 Dec, we had mince meat pies for breakfast. Actually, there is no meat, mince meat pie is an English name for fruits pie.
We invited the Yongs over for dinner, and prepared the seafood earlier.
Again hot-plate.
The children had a good time cooking and eating.
We drank Swedish Glogg, Ikea brand, which Yan bought.
For dessert, we had fruit cake and Christmas pudding.
The Christmas pudding was really too sweet.
