YowCH & Grace

Here’s a photo of Esther studying for her PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examinations). She worked hard over the past few weeks. The last paper is on Tuesday 30 Sept (tomorrow).

Today, YowCH brought the Isis to Mova workshop to repair at 10:00am before going for a meeting. Mova gave a very beaten up Toyota Vios as a temporary car to get YowCH to his meetings.

The rear right seat was repaired and aligned (not perfect, but acceptable) so as to be not a safety concern.

Also, the spare tyre cage has been bent to be curving up to reduce the scraping against higher kerbs, especially with the car loaded.

Mova’s service is reasonably good, the Isis was returned at about 3:00pm.

Tags: Esther, General by yowch
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With the Isis returned, we first reinstated the spoiler on Friday night. The workshop placed the 3M double sided tape (for car) and we measured off the bike rack before putting up the spoiler.

David was helping on this as Esther was focusing on her PSLE exams. Below is the before and after photos.

Here, you see David doing a load test.

On Saturday morning, YowCH brought the Isis to Tong Lee Wee (Lengkok Bahru) to repair the wing mirrors. The right wing mirror was repaired on Thursday. However, after opening up the left wing mirror, the motor was found to be spoilt, and a replacement part must be found. We will have to return to the shop in a few days.

While waiting for the wing mirror repairs, YowCH started on the gear knob cover (a project that was conceived a few weeks after getting the Isis back in 2009). Here is the before and after photos. The plastic knob is now grey-coloured fake leather, and stuffed to be bigger (nicer grip).

Here is the process:

Started with a piece of tissue to get the shape and size. Then marking out on the fake leather and cut.

After trial fitting by hand, the slow work of stitching took about 1 hour. YowCH’s stitches are not very neat.

Then the stuffing and finally wrapping onto the gear knob and secured by tie-wires.

On Sunday, the boys went to The RainForest Sports Hub to play friendly tournament with 7 other clubs, under the Community Football League (www.apsm.com.sg).


The opponents were mostly Caucasians and larger in size, plus more experience. Our West Coast team didn’t do very well, but we still had some goals and some wins.




Samuel had fun, too.

While the boys were playing, Grace drove Esther to and from church (baptism class) and then to and from Chinese tuition (prep for PSLE).

Tags: Family, General by yowch
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We got the Isis back at close of business today (25 Sept, 6:30pm), 27 days from the accident on 30 Aug.

The tailgate and rear bumper has been replaced and looks great. The front right fender has been shaped, and the front bumper touched up.

The right back row seat, which was squeezed during the accident, wasn’t set properly. Mova will realign it again, a one-day-job, which will be done sometime next week.

Other than that, everything else seems fine. The repairs comes with 6 months’ warranty. Mova noted that the shocks are not strong enough and the engine mount is not functioning well, perhaps time to replace them (5 years). Mova also recommended a shop in nearby Lengkok Bahru to help replace the wing mirror motors. We will stick the spoiler over the weekend.

Tags: General by yowch
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The car repair workshop, Mova, reported that the car is almost ready, having been re-assembled. Photo below is from workshop manager.

Still need wheels alignment check, road test after alignment and water leakage test. Then to check if the wing mirrors can be repaired cheaply, as the motors burnt out a few years ago.

Probably get the car back early next week. I will need to fix the spoiler myself, as the ‘holes’ in the mounting tape for the bike rack must be cut to fit, the mechanics wouldn’t know where.

Tags: General by yowch
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Here’s a photo of the children at the playground near our home. Samuel can climb the stairs right up to the highest level by himself, and he is now trying to stand up.

It is Formula 1 in Singapore again, we watched it on the big screen, and the TV + monitor provides the internet real-time news feed and race data updates.

And for convenience, we brought home KFC dinner.

Tags: Family by yowch
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We introduced Age of Empires to Esther and David about 2 years ago, but they were just too young then. Now, David started again, and plays reasonably well. The game teaches management of resources, manpower and battle strategies. Very good for mental development.

We had a nice dinner at Tiong Bahru, Two Face. The pizza was great.

Tags: David, Family by yowch
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YowCH visited Mova workshop with Esther and David for an update on the car repairs after the accident on 30 August. Mova’s workshop is far-far-away at Fan Yoong Road (Boon Lay industrial area).

The panel beating, welding and body alignment has been completed. The car is in the spray-shop and the parts are in various stages of painting (touch-up putty, polishing, primer, painting). Here’s the view of the boot, looks rather well repaired:

And the inside has been stripped for repairs of the parts and for painting.

The door has been imported whole from Japan, including the rear window. We were a little worried about the loss of the 3M tinting, but this window comes with the original Japan tint.

The rear bumper was crushed, this is the new piece. The front bumper was repaired, touched up and painted.

Lastly, the right fender has been bent back to shape, touched up and primer done, to be painted soon.

It will be about 1 more week before the car is ready for collection. Probably about $15,000 in repair costs. Esther and dAvid had a great time learning about panel beating, welding and painting.

Tags: General by yowch
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Trouble: Kit Kat (Android 4.4) restricts apps from writing and accessing the SD Card directly as a form of security. You can Google “Kit Kat SD Card” and learn about this issue. One example is here.

After transferring most of the files and data from the “Desire X” to the new “One M8″, YowCH spent the night shifting manually data from Whatsapp, YouVersion Bible and Docs-to-go files. This is problem as the data will reside on the phone and when the phone crashes, the data is not on SD card hence not independent!

Tags: General, YowCH by yowch
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With re-contract and new hand-set purchase, YowCH got a large phone, HTC One M8 with a free HTC 8000mAh Powerbank and 3 months free subscription to Amped (online music, not useful), for $148.00, street price is $750, RRP $1000. The phone is a nice gun-metal gray, and comes with a silicone wrap to protect the brushed aluminium casing.

This is the package that arrived from Singtel:

The phone is really large, as compared to YowCH’s previous phone, the HTC Desire X.

It runs on Android Kit Kat (4.4.3), had stereo speakers, front and back cameras (4MP), and a 5″ full HD screen. Also available in gold or silver, but gun-metal looks best for YowCH. The large screen is helpful for aging long-sightedness.

Tags: YowCH by yowch
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Grace was working overnight shift on Saturday, so YowCH brought the children to the swimming class, 8:00pm to 9:00pm, after Church.


The pool was absolutely empty by closing time, 9:00pm.

On Sunday, Joseph brought Samuel along with YowCH to buy breakfast, and Samuel was in the Maclaren pram.

After this photo was taken, YowCH did some wheel swapping to balance the use, as the back wheels are practically fully worn out.

Then the boys went to soccer and Esther went to ballet. After our showers at home, we went to ARC for dinner, and ate at OKG Express. Rather nice food.

Tags: Family, Samuel by yowch
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