Tagging along with the TYLin Taiwan annual dinner at Taipei on 16 Jan, YowCH and Grace had a short work/holiday trip from 15 to 17 Jan 2013. We met up with YowCH’s cousin, Wei Lian, too.
Click on photos for the dedicated page.
First posting for 2013.
On 31 Dec 2012, we bought a replacement camcorder for our Canon HV30. The HV30 is about 4 years old only, but the flip-screen ribbon-wire has snapped and Canon refuses to replace/repair saying it is end-of-line model. In any case, looks like MiniDV tapes are getting oudated, too. So we bought a new full-HD Canon HF-M56 for a little less than $1000. Uses SD cards, performs very similar to the HV30, and it is lighter. The only problem is that there is no mini-jack mic-input. The next model, HF-M52 has mic input and more built-in memory (32GB against 8GB) but costs $200.00 more, so better not pay to have a mic input which we rarely use.
Samples below are all auto-exposure, auto-white-balance and no digital filters.
Joseph has started his Kindergarten earlier (in December 2012) and the new school uniforms (formal and sports) has recently changed. Here he is in his new uniforms on 2 Jan 2013.
This is our family photo taken by Gene as we had Christmas dinner at O’Leary’s (Singapore Flyer). We are all wearing Paul Frank T-shirts given by Gene.
Last Sunday, Esther and David practised jumping further on in-line skates (over the sewer manhole cover):
Our new V.hive glass shelves also arrived on Sunday, two more of the earlier ones we bought, now filled with Lego.
Note the white shelves unit under the window, it was one unit, now two as YowCH built another last weekend. Previously we had 2 glass shelves and one book shelf.
And dad celebrated his 66th birthday over durian dinner.
David sat out of this, had KFC instead.
This closes 2012. We thank God for an eventful 2012 and look forward to more excitement in 2013.
While YowCH was at church and Alexandra Hospital with Esther and David to bring Christmas Carols to the inpatients, Grace drove Joseph home, parked, then drove out again to meet again for dinner. This is the first solo drive for Grace, and parked quite well in a one-stroke reverse in.
The Gan Eng Seng Primary School Choir performed at Amara Hotel (Sentosa and Tanjung Pagar) for Christmas on 21 Dec. Esther is standing on the left (front):
YowCH and Grace got 3 sets of 2nd-hand Hotwheels Wall Tracks for the children at $50 (these three sets totals about $130 new) after studying them while on holiday in Malaysia. The advantage is that the tracks are all on the walls, minimising floor space, and allows fast action at the slopes. The bad news is that Tomica cars runs better on the tracks than Hotwheels cars. Note that the tracks can go round a corner!
We took a short holiday to visit YowCH’s parents in PJ, and to do some year-end shopping.
We left Singapore at 5:00am on Saturday, 15 Dec. Grace drove from home to Pagoh R&R, 2 hours in the dark and foggy pre-dawn, covering 180km. Then YowCH drove the rest of the holiday.
We brought along the in-line skates. Esther and David practiced ‘jumping over a drain’ at the neighbourhood badminton court (the drain being the two ‘out’ lines of the court).
We had lots of great food, mum’s cooking, chinese nasi lemak, roti tisu and maggi/indomie goreng (supper with friends Chee Kean, Thean Seong, Vooi Lee and Ai Lin), Japanese food Yakuzen at Tropicana City and Bak Kut Teh at Sunway.
At One Utama, our regualr shopping mall, Shell-Lego had a booth, here’s Joseph standing alongside the not-so-mini-fig.
YowCH also had some time to visit TYLin KL office on morning of 17 Dec, catching up with some colleagues and MD Mr Wong.
On Tuesday, 18 Dec, we drove to Pontian Kechil after lunch to meet up with Grace’s parents and sister. The children had a nap in the car.
We then had dinner with Grace’s uncle and 4th aunty, very nice and highly affordable seafood at Mawar. There’s even free wifi at Mawar.
Uncle also got us some local fruits – langsat, rambutan and pulasan.
Pulasan is very much like rambutan, but not as sweet.
We reached home on 18 Dec at 9:30pm. We thank God for good drives (we covered 889km), great time with family and blessings of friends and food.
We took a trip to the zoo on Monday, 10 Dec (Grace and YowCH on leave) to visit Pandas, recently opened to public.
Please click and and on photos to the page.
Kai Kai:
Jia Jia:
YowCH brought Joseph along to the driving range on Monday (3 Dec) to try out golf. He can hit the ball, but unable to keep the posture. The club also seems to heavy for him, maybe next year.
Esther and David continued to train, perhaps best to get a professional trainer for them soon.
Today, we took some time to cycle, also to let Joseph train on 2 wheels, but he is not yet ready for 2 wheels yet as he can’t balance. We had to raise the seats on Esther’s and David’s bikes, they must have grown taller!
But he is great on the Y-Glider.
We also updated an earlier post (TYLin 40th Anniversary Dinner) with a group photo of the TYLin Pricipals on stage for the birthday cake. Click here.
Chee Kean came over to Singapore for the Standard-Chartered Marathon on 2 Dec. He completed within time to claim a finisher T-shirt and medal. The night before his run, he coached Joseph to start off on 2 wheels on his bike.
Chee Kean also brought along an item ordered on-line by YowCH (Malaysian internet sale), a solar powered fan for car cabin ventilation when parked in the sun.
Under direct sunlight, the fan works and quite effectively reduce the stuffy air when parked under the sun for long period.
Joseph received from Sze Wee and Hong Kian a Y-Glider for his birthday, you can see it in action here:
This was at West Coast Park while David (number 40) was having his soccer training session.
Joseph also went with Esther on in-line skates.
Esther went 2 rounds (about 1km each round), Joseph 1 round on skates and 1 round on Y-Glider, Grace 1 round on skates and YowCH 2 rounds on skates.
Today, Joseph turns 4.
We had lunch at Suntec City Turkish Deli (thanks to Yan and PQ) with all our family members staying in Singapore. Very nice kebab meal with fantastic desserts Künefe and Baklava.
