YowCH & Grace

On Saturday evening, after church, we had a nice dinner with the Lims at their place.

But we had to rush off as Grace worked overnight from 8:30pm.

On Sunday, we rested mostly at home. Then we went for a movie, thanks to a movie event by our Prudential insurance agent where we were given 5 free tickets to watch Star Wars 7 – The Force Awakens at Lido Theatre, Shaw House, Orchard Road. We left Samuel with Grace’s parents because he talks very much nowadays. The children brought along the lightsabers (certainly a must!).



The movie was interesting and entertaining enough, but lack of dark realities (Disney owns Lucasfilm now…). Still having the classic Star Wars feel to it, but much of the plotlines seemed borrowed from Episodes 4 to 6.

After the movie, we joined Gene’s Christmas party for her friends. Very nice pasta by mum.

There were many young children, and Samuel had a good time. The Starbucks log cake was great, too.

Here’s a photo of the LED solar-charged garden lights we picked up for Gene when we were at Melbourne. Very nice against the night lights of the pool. Only $1 each, weather proof!

Tags: Church, Family by yowch
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We went to church early in the morning. Samuel was very excited over the beautiful Christmas decorations.

He was also very enthusiastically singing along the Christmas songs during service.

Here’s a family photo taken after church. Thanks to Bernard Wee.

After church, we went for an early lunch at MacDonald’s followed with groceries shopping.

And here is Joseph, having completed the Lego Advent Set.

In the evening, we went to Gene’s place, Sorrento, for a swim, followed by dinner with the family and a nice time of singing.

Tags: Church, Family, Joseph, Samuel by yowch
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As we did for the past few years, we went singing carols with our church on Christmas Eve. YowCH was with David and Joseph at NUH lobby, while Esther went to the wards of NTFH.

Here’s Esther leaving church, getting on to the bus.

And this is the NUH lobby.



David played the cajon, Joseph played tambourines and maracas, while YowCH sang and played guitar or, ukulele.

We gave Joseph a set of Lego City Advent Calendar, which he started last night.

And Samuel, now older than 2 years, we took out the Duplo box, and he was overjoyed, saying “Samuel’s Lego” immediately.

We then had dinner with Grace’s parents, packed Indian-Muslim food from Al-Amaan.

Tags: Church, David, Esther, Joseph, Samuel, YowCH by yowch
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Esther went for the 5km Hello Kitty Run with Gene, which was held on Saturday evening.


Here’s Esther at the starting line.


And here, at the finishing line

From GPS, the run measured almost 5.89km, which is closer to 6.0km, and at 54 minutes, Esther kept a rather good pace. It didn’t help that there were many slow ‘runners’, making it difficult to run.

Here’s her tag and the Finisher Medal.

Tags: Esther by yowch
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A busy weekend, starting on Friday evening, with YowCH’s company, T.Y.Lin, having the Annual Dinner with Peranakan theme. The company band played again.

The food is certified Halal specially for the event.


The food is peranakan style, and tasted pretty good for hotel food.

YowCH was the lead singer and played the electric guitar.

The band consisted of YowCH, Mark (vocals and acoustic guitar), Vincent (percussion), Arlinga (bass) and Sandi (keyboard). YowCH sponsored the Malay shirts for the band members. Click on photo below for link to the low-res video uploaded to Facebook. The performance was 30 minutes long, and the video is large file (unlimited Wi-Fi connection recommended).


The band played 1. Engkau Laksana Bulan, 2. Medley of Rasa Sayang, Lenggang Kangkung, Chan Mali Chan, Dayung Sampan – 甜蜜蜜, 3. When You Say Nothing At All, 4. Tetaplah Di Hatiku, and 5. Hotel California.
At the end of the dinner, we had a company group photo taken.

After the dinner event, we went to a nearby pub to have some fellowship with our foreign guests. Grace had a margarita while YowCH had a mojito, rather than beer.

Thanks to Grace’s parents for helping us look after all the children.

On Saturday morning, David continued his games in the soccer tourney disrupted last week by heavy rains. David played in Under-12 while YowCH managed and coached Under-10.


We had some snacks while waiting for the prize giving ceremony. Under-10 won bronze, but U-12 was sadly eliminated at the knock-out section.

After church, we had dinner with YowCH’s sister and family at Tung Lok Teahouse at Square2.


We ordered some strange food – pan-fried charcoal bamboo meat pao, and truffle crystal skin dumplings.

On Sunday, we went for swim, then YowCH, David and Joseph went to church for carolling practice. Grace took Esther and Samuel to Funan, for Esther’s ballet lessons and collection of the Hello Kitty Run Kit (Gene will run with Esther, 5km). This is Esther with the run kit.

We also bought another Fujifilm camera, the XQ1 (nearing end-of-line, since XQ2 is coming out very soon), for $300 to replace the spoilt XF1 (only 2 years old, but repaired several times, we decided to retire it).

The price when newly launched was about $500+.

Tags: David, Esther, Family, YowCH, YowCH's work by yowch
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We had a nice dinner at Shin Yeh (Taiwan food) at Liang Court on Sunday night. We ordered quite a large selection of dishes.


Here we are, all digging in:

We actually finished almost all the food!

And then, we had dessert (red-bean pancake and yam balls):

Later, YowCH sent Esther, David and Joseph to their grandparents’ place at Sorrento. Esther and David will stay over one night, then go to Church Youth Camp at Kota Tinggi on Monday morning, and return on Friday. With the older children away, we sent Joseph on a holiday-stay, too.

They will come home on Saturday, after YowCH’s company annual dinner on Friday night. We will also send Samuel to Sorrento on Friday for one night stay!

Tags: David, Esther, Family, Joseph by yowch
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On 26 Nov, Thursday (just before our trip to PJ), Esther performed at Victoria Concert Hall. Grace, David and Joseph went with Gene (YowCH was at a corporate event).
This is the combined choirs of several schools:

That’s Esther highlighted.

This is Queenstown Secondary School choir.


Esther in her choir gown (the gown is a little short, as she grew quite a lot in 2015).

And the family photo, with thanks to Gene.

On Saturday, YowCH brought David and Joseph to the Yuhua soccer tourney at Shuqun Sec school. That’s Joseph playing the goal-keeper:


YowCH helped with admin work for the West Coast Wolves.

And that’s David at training/warm-up.

The medal presentation for the Under 7 teams. The Wolves took 3rd place (5 teams participating).

Towards the afternoon, the games were stopped due to lightning and rains.

Sadly, our Fuji XF1 camera spoilt again during the games. The photos above are all from our soccer friend, Liew, except for the combo of Joseph.

Tags: David, Esther, Joseph, YowCH by yowch
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YowCH manage to find at Parkson, One Utama (PJ) a Waterman fountain pen of similar design to the set that he has been using for over 15 years, and at only $97 (RM294 after 20% discount of RM368).

Here are views of the new pen against the original set, and a detail against the older fountain pen.

The mid-barrel band of the new pen is larger (more gold) and the pen is slightly slimmer than the old. The older pen is so well used that the cap is loose and the pen tends to drop into his shirt pocket, causing ink-stains. Also the Fine nib has been worn to Medium over the years of usage. The new pen, however, is Medium nib, hence the writing is thicker now.

The ball point and the pencil are still in good conditions and being used daily. The old fountain pen is now decommissioned, washed clean and lies in the box in retirement.

Tags: YowCH by yowch
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We had a short weekend break and visited YowCH’s parents in PJ. While we were in PJ, YowCH’s dad suddenly weakened and was we brought him to the hospital. Click on the photos below to get to the page.

Tags: Family by yowch
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