YowCH & Grace

Happenings on 27 Dec 2019 (Friday)

YowCH had a good 2.5km run in the morning, completing it in 12m20s which is his best time equally the run back in Nov 2018. 2.4km was reached in 11m55s, which is very good.

YowCH decided to make fresh ginger juice (to make ginger honey or ginger soju). Did it the traditional way, with Joseph preparing the ginger, then pounded using classic pestle and mortar. Esther and Samuel also joined in to help. David was in school for basketball practice.

While the ginger juice was being prepared, we prepared seafood for the Beacon Family Group Christmas party at the Lyes’ place (Castle Green). We bought salmon, ikan kuning and prawns. YowCH collected the seafood from the market (pre-ordered 1 week ago) after the earlier morning run and dropping off David at school and Grace at work.
Salmon was prepared with salt, lemon, thyme, and butter.

Ikan kuning with sambal belacan sauce.

Prawns with salt, garlic and ginger.

We celebrated the Dec and Nov birthdays, so Joseph was included.

Tags: Church, Family, YowCH 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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Some Christmas makan and photos.
On Christmas eve, we had brunch at Uncle Ho’s Tuckshop Vietnamese Food at Pasir Panjang.

The children on Christmas day.

The family photos:


And a nice grill dinner with Grace’s parents and sister.

Tags: Family by yowch
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YowCH’s dad, Yow Ka Meng, passed away peacefully on the afternoon of 6 Dec 2019 (while we were in Busan, Korea). He was 74. We rearranged our flight immediately to return to PJ (via AirAsia from Busan to KLIA2) on 7 Dec 2019, arriving home at about 5:30pm. Here’s a photo of dad, taken in 2006 (Yan’s wedding) which we used for the death notice, the framed photo and also to put with the urn.

On Sunday, we prepared the home to received dad’s body and casket. Friends and relatives started coming over to visit from Sunday late morning.


Dad final rites were conducted in a Buddhist ceremony. Mom was offering dad his favourite KL Hokkien thick noodles.

Some rites were conducted on Sunday night, before the guests left at about 11:30pm.

We stayed up the whole night, as per tradition.

On Monday (9 Dec) morning, we viewed the body once more before the coffin was sealed.

Then the procession to send him off.

We cremated dad’s body at the MPPJ Crematorium at 10:20am.

After the cremation, we went home for a quick lunch, before returning to the crematorium to collect the bones.

After preparing the urn with the bones, we drove to the Kwangtung YiSan Columbarium.

Dad’s urn is housed in 9-C-3002.

Esther and David left with Gene and Grace’s parents by car as they needed to run Youth Camp for Church.

With the funeral completed, the family went out for dinner at Paradigm Mall.

The next morning (10 Dec, Tuesday), we had food at Taikong.

YowCH, Grace, Yan and PQ then went to Uptown for massage. Later, the Tans, the children and mom joined us at Uptown for dinner.

To end the night, we had supper at Kayu.

On Wednesday, 11 Dec, we flew with Yan’s family to Singapore via AirAsia.

Tags: Family by yowch
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We had another family holiday to Korea, this time to the Southern areas of Jeju Island and Busan. We flew on 1 Dec and planned to return on 8 Dec. However, the trip was cut short by 1.5 days as we rushed back to PJ, following YowCH’s dad’s demise on 6 Dec 2019.

Click on the photo to start the dedicated pages:

The 3 pages can be reached here:
191201 to 02 Trip to Korea 1/3
191203 to 04 Trip to Korea 2/3
191205 to 07 Trip to Korea 3/3

Tags: Family by yowch
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Joseph turned 11 today. We got him some professional yo-yos and a mini basketball hoop.

In the morning, regular swim:

And in the afternoon, regular football, with friendly match against Bukit Batok East.

In the evening, dinner at Handlebar with the Yongs:

He starts his 1-week Maths Olympiad classes at NUS on Monday. It will be 9:00am to 12:30pm daily until Friday.

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Samuel’s graduation concert was held at SOTA on Saturday, 23 Nov 2019. The concert started at 2:30pm and ended at 4:45pm.
First, the portrait taken by the pro back in the school:

Just before entering the concert hall for the march-in.

YowCH and Grace attended the event, the fourth and last one for us. Learning Vision also leaves KKH next year, with the childcare operations taken over by another operator. Our family had a long 17 year plus with Learning Vision.

Performing the Chinese song/show:




And the English song/show:



After the show, we took photos outside the concert all. His teacher Wang Laoshi and Teacher Faridah:

Posing with his friend, A-on:

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YowCH’s hair was long. Snip snip:

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This year’s Junior Camp, from Saturday 16 Nov to Sunday 17 Nov, was Joseph’s last and Samuel’s first.


On the first day, they made lava lamps.

They brought containers and utensils for their meals. Good food prepared by Mrs. Loo.



The performances on Sunday night, after dinner with family and a parenting talk for the parents.

On Sunday afternoon, YowCH and Grace took Samuel out of camp for 2 hours to attend his Swim Safer Stage 3 exam. He skipped Stages 1 and 2. YowCH had to read to him the multiple choices questions as he could not read. He had to swim breast stroke, survival back, wear a life vest in water, swim survival back with life vest, tread water for 30 seconds and dive 1.5m to retrieve an object. He did all that fastest and smoothest, although he was the youngest and smallest guy in the batch of students taking the test.




UPDATED 25 Nov 2019: He got his cert!

The same evening, David played football for our church, The Bible Church, Singapore, in the regular friendly match against Mount Carmel Bible Presbyterian Church. Esther took the photos.

Tags: Church, David, Esther, Samuel by yowch
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On Friday, 15 Sep 2019, Gan Eng Seng Primary School had orientation for the incoming Primary 1 student. Grace took leave and brought Joseph and Samuel to the event.


We bought uniform for Samuel. This is a new design, not for tucking in.

That evening, YowCH attended KTP’s 50th Anniversary Dinner at Grand Shanghai Restaurant. The theme was Old Shanghai, and many colleagues dressed to the theme.

Tags: Samuel, YowCH's work by yowch
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