We got David a G-Shock Gulfmaster GN-1000B-1A for his Gold achievement in swimming and an early Christmas gift.
Here’s comparing to his current G-shock AW591.
The Gulfmaster has a nice white LED light.
Now the family has the full range of the Masters of G, the aviation-themed Gravity Master (Esther’s), the rugged land-based Mudmaster (YowCH’s) and the marine-based Gulfmaster (David’s). We are all wearing very large rugged watches.
We started Samuel on piano classes (same place as Esther) on 25 Oct 2018.
He enjoys playing and is learning well, albeit very naughty in class.
Here are some home cooked food. Dinner prepared mostly by David and a nice Cheesecake by Grace, David and Joseph.
We went for our regular Sunday swim, even with Joseph and David completing the Gold standard. Our coach helped us take some nice underwater family shots.
In the afternoon, we received our 2018 West Coast Wolves soccer jerseys. One set for each of the boys!
In the evening, we watched live telecast of the Singapore Formula One while we had pizza.
The older boys took the Swimsafer Gold Standard (Stage 6) test on Sunday 9 Sept 2018. After the written paper, they swam the following:
Swim (use standing dive entry for Front-Crawl, Breaststroke):
1. 100m Front-Crawl (within 3:00 min)
2. 100m Breaststroke (within 4:00 min)
3. 100m Backstroke (within 3:20 min)
4. 50m Survival Backstroke
5. 50m Sidestroke
6. 15m Butterfly
Dressed in swimwear, long pants, t-shirt, perform the following sequence
1. Enter deep water using a compact jump
2. Perform a head-first surface dive to a depth of 1.8m (and perform ear equalisation, if necessary)
3. Swim through hoops on pool bottom for 5m and resurface
4. Swim 45m quickly using front crawl
5. Then, swim slowly for a further 50m using any preferred survival swim stroke. Remove pants in deep water and make a float with it while treading water for 5m.
6. Demonstrate Heat Escape Lessening Posture (H.E.L.P.) technique for 1min with the self-made float
7. Then swim 25m with the self-made float and climb out of the water
Here’s the freestyle (David much faster than Joseph):
Backstroke:
Butterfly:
And they passed!
Esther swam 10 laps and then escorted Samuel for 8 laps, while YowCH did his regular 10 laps.
Grace was at work this Sunday.
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.
This is the Church Youth Weekend, and service is conducted by the youths in church. These are photos from the Saturday service.
Esther was playing in the band for worship.
David did the decorations with his team.
In the evening, we met YowCH’s family in Bishan for dinner.
The Tans and YowCH’s parents came over the Singapore on Friday noon and left on Sunday morning.
On Sunday, Esther and David continued the Youth Weekend service, so they skipped the swim lesson. After swim, we fetched them from Church and had lunch at Handlebar, Gillman Barracks.
We collected a Wii Dance-Dance Revolution 2 box set from Yan, who picked this from her neighbour’s disposals. The set still works fine!
Another new toy, and free!
We bought some Transformers, the Minicons (15) are for Samuel and Joseph to share (but more for Samuel).
Rodimus Prime was on offer, got it for $80.00 instead of $99.00.
This is a 2-figures-in-1. Rodimus Prime is the combination of Hot Rod and the caravan. The Matrix of Leadership is inside the chest of Rodimus Prime.
Last Sunday, we went for swim and celebrated Fathers’ Day with a meaty lunch at Henderson Road Kay Lee.
Soccer training had a small turn-up, due to school holidays. We had some games and also theory lessons by the coach.
Here is David in his Gan Eng Seng School official school team uniforms, for home games and away games. He is officially in the school team now.
As part of the school holidays homework, we made a lantern using recycled materials – large 2L PET bottle, old hangers, ice-cream sticks and butter-paper.
The lantern is great, burns the candle very slowly and well shielded from wind.
We went to church on Saturday, and the our family group went to a few blocks in West Coast to deliver flyers to announce the West Fest, our church’s 60th anniversary community event to bless the neighbourhood. Esther had some practice in church, so David, Joseph and Samuel helped with this activity.
On Sunday, we went for our swim, where Samuel started on free-style. After swim, we went to Handle Bar for lunch. This is a biker-western theme bar-restaurant and adopts lots of DIY furniture. Good food and ambiance for reasonable prices.
Due to rainy weather, our soccer training was cancelled.
In the evening, we cooked Italian at home. David did a pasta vongole while Grace did baked veges and grilled prawns. We also had scalded cockles. We shared this nice dinner with Grace’s parents.
We watched with great interest the developments of the Malaysian General Elections 14 (2018). By 2:45am on 10 May 2018, it was announced on RTM1 that BN has lost the majority.
Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the fourth Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003, returned to the PM post as the seventh PM under Pakatan Harapan (the opposition to BN) at 9:30pm on 10 May 2018, as he was sworn into office.
This is the first change of ruling party in all 61 years of Malaysia. Many records were made in Malaysia, including the youngest elected MP at 22, oldest elected PM at 92, ending of longest reign of the ruling party, most states not won by the incumbent ruling party. All-in-all, we thank God for a smooth and organised election and transfer of power.
We also re-contracted David’s line, and he now has a new iPhone 8 with 64GB, and a jelly case with his basketball hero.
For David’s 14th birthday, he got a nice steak meal at Alibabar:
We also bought him an interesting board game, Khet 2.0.
