Entries Tagged as 'Esther'

Laptop for Esther’s birthday

Esther’s current laptop is rather slow and restrictive for her school work, so after much planning, we got a new laptop for her, an Asus TP412UA from Challenger. The brochure shows a lower spec, but the one we got from Challenger is the higher spec model, discounted from $1598 to $1398.

It is Intel i7, 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD, 14″ Full HD touchscreen, and comes with Asus Pen (a stylus), a lousy laptop bag and 1 year anti-virus.

Looks very nice and elegant, and runs faster than the older Asus.

This will be her birthday present (next week), but she’ll have to share the usage with the boys sometimes.

Swim – butterfly

The children has gotten to swimming butterfly. Firstly, a photo from last week, of Samuel making a good dive:

This is David on butterfly, with Esther doing freestyle. The two had the same timing.

This is Esther doing butterfly:

And Joseph:

And Samuel, trying to do butterfly:

After all the hard swim, we had lunch with coaches Francis and Tobby at Henderson Kay Lee (roast meat):

Disney on Ice

Grace brought her mom, Esther, Joseph and Samuel to watch Disney on Ice. A little holiday treat. David and YowCH not interested.








Samuel’s piano recital

Samuel had his first piano recital just 3.5 months since he started lessons with D-Flat Studios.


That was Aaron Goh (owner of D-Flat) introducing the session before many little children performed (mostly piano, but there were two singers).
Samuel’s turn was almost at the end, and he introduced himself and the songs he was to play. That’s his teacher, Valerie Tjota.


His playing wasn’t too bad, but rather soft (perhaps not confident).


Incey Wincey Spider, the last song had Esther accompanying him.

Updated: Esther’s Cebu mission trip 8 to 13 Jan 2019

Esther joined the Church’s mission trip to Cebu, Philippine from 8 to 13 Jan 2019 while waiting for the O-levels results. Click on the photos below for the page:



Esther’s O-levels results

Esther received her O-levels results today, 3x A2, 3x B3 and 1x C5, good enough for Junior College as her L1R5 = 15 (lower than 20) and she gets 2 more points off for activities.

She will start school in Catholic Junior College on 1 Feb 2019 (Friday).

We thank God for blessing her with good results and letting her continue her studies in CJC.

Esther also received Meritorious Service Award for her duty as Deputy Head Prefect, and Commendable Service for her role in the Choir committee.

Updated with Esther and David at Youth Camp

Esther and David were in the Church Youth Camp at Bethany Christian Church at Kota Tinggi from 10 to 14 Dec 2018 (while YowCH, Grace, Joseph and Samuel were in The Shorea).

Click on the photos below for the page:



YowCH’s bike fall, Church carols singing at West Coast, Joseph’s Batam trip testimony, soccer in the rain

On Saturday, 1 Dec, YowCH went for his regular run and then continued with 5.00km of cycling within the carpark area. At 4.95km, he had a fall and hurt his knees, left wrist and sprained his neck. Thank God all the injuries are minor. The bike slipped at a turn on rather slippery surface.

In the evening, YowCH and Esther performed as musicians for the church’s carols choir team at West Coast area. It was very tiring but fun.

It was rather boring for the boys waiting for the event to start.

The first part started at 7:10pm and we sang for about 12 minutes, before the Member of Parliament conducted the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony and the Aerobics Cheer-leading performance.


David helped with the video and Grace took photos.



During the break, we had to replace one string on Esther’s Takamine which broke during the first part.

The second part started at about 7:40pm and we played adn sang for another 30 minutes. Esther had a soloist part!


After carol signing, we had a late dinner at Xin Wang, West Coast Plaza.

On Sunday, Joseph shared his testimony with the rest of the Juniors in church during the post-Batam trip party in church. We did not swim this weekend to attend this party.

After the party, we went to Decathlon, Joo Koon to get some sports stuff while heavy rain poured outside. We had sushi lunch at Sushi Express, where every plate is $1.50 and the green tea is free. Total of 40 plates.

After the rain, Joseph and Samuel attended football practice. We saw a nice rainbow, which later grew to a full-arc!


And after the rainbows, it started pouring again!

Joseph and Esther on Mission Trip to Batam

From 23 to 25 Nov, Joseph joined our church’s mission trip to Batam under the juniors program, and Esther went along as an adult helper.

Click on the photos below for the page:

Weekend updates

Esther collected her new iPhone XR 64GB (Coral) on 15 Nov. She then sat for her final O-levels paper on 16 Nov (Fri) before changing to her new phone.


Incidentally, YowCH woke up to a stuck door pad-lock and had to climb the window to get out of the house.

We bought a new lock, and the locksmith’s charge to cut the lock was $50.

In the evening, we went to Spruce for dinner and music to celebrate the end of O-levels for Esther.

On Saturday, YowCH ran his usual 2.5km in 12m30s, quite a norm nowadays. After running, he went to Church Management Committee meeting, then his colleague’s wedding (in Yishun) and then attended church. The family went to join Sorrento for lunch before church.

On Sunday, we went for for our swim where Grace and YowCH did 20 laps each (YowCH completing 10 free-style laps non-stop). After which Esther and YowCH went for Christmas Caroling practice and musicians while the rest rested in Sorrento. After carols, YowCH, Joseph and Samuel attended football training, and then we all went to the birthday party of the Ngs, having a nice evening of food, beer/wine and live music.