YowCH & Grace

YowCH got hooked on the G-Shock Mudmaster that his ex-colleagues gave him, and decided to get a nice dress G-Shock for daily use. He was initially looking at a black metal G-Shock, but most metal models are way too large and heavy, and very costly (more than $350.00, up to $3000.00). Moreover, the current G-Steel models have a very sharp-scratchy connection to the band/bracelet, easy to scratch just about anything.

Finally, he settled for this black Aviation GA1000FC-1A Aviation model, with compass, thermometer and fine resin composite band (resin and steel), making the watch much lighter yet strong and scratch-proof. Listed as $349.00 at City Chain, he paid $298.40 for the watch after discounts.

Here is a photo comparing the Aviation against the larger Mudmaster GG1000-1A3, and the Seiko 5 which he wore since August 2014.

The Mudmaster was listed as $469.00 at City Chain, and should be $401.00 after discounts.

He will be wearing the Aviation daily for work and home, and the Mudmaster for weekends (sports) and holidays.

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David received the EAGLES Award from Gan Eng Seng Primary School for outstanding performance as the Captain of the Basketball Team.

Edusave Awards for Achievement, Good Leadership and Service (EAGLES)
All Singaporean students from primary 4 onwards in Government and Government-aided schools, junior colleges/centralised institute, independent schools or institutions, specialised schools or Institute of Technical Education who demonstrated leadership qualities, service to community and schools and excellence in non-academic activities, and demonstrated good conduct are eligible for the Edusave Award for Achievement, Good Leadership and Service. The award is given based on their achievements in co-curricular activities and contribution to community services over a one-year period.
The awards are given to a maximum of 10% of Singaporean students in every school selected by the school at the end of the year. The values of the awards are as follows:
$250 for Primary 4 to 6
$350 for Secondary 1 to 5
$400 for Pre-University 1 to 3
$500 for Institute of Technical Education/Specialised School

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Supermoon (when the moon is nearest to Earth) is not very common, the next visit is 2034. It was yesterday, 14 Nov, but last night was really cloudy. But tonight, 15 Nov is quite OK although we lost a bit of the moon on the top.

Using the 1.5x factor S5pro (12 megapixels) and a 400mm lens with a 2x tele-converter, and cropped to be 2x the size, this is the 2400mm equivalent.

Actually, the above was cropped from the 1200mm equivalent:

Taking out the 2x tele-converter improved the quality and sharpness, but at 600mm it is much smaller:

Here’s taking the shot with 200mm lens (hence 300mm equivalent), with the lit toilet lights of a nearby neighbour’s flat, and the clouds moving in to cover the moon:

And lastly, at 70mm (105mm equivalent) the neighbourhood can be seen together with the cloud covered moon, rather eerie:

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From 1 Nov 2016, YowCH is a Director (Civil) in KTP Consultants Pte Ltd, 1 floor below T.Y.Lin in E-Centre @ redhill.

He shares a temporary room with Fen Leong while the new office space is being renovated, expected to complete by mid-Nov.

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28 Oct 2016, 18 years and 5 months from the day YowCH joined TYLin, was his last day. Kenneth Ivan (leaving on 31 Oct) bought some snacks and YowCH bought some drinks (including the Brewerks Beer) to thank the colleagues.


YowCH also received a very personal card from his closer colleagues and a G-Shock Mudmaster GG1000 watch as a parting gift.


The watch is very nice, but huge! Good for outdoors with compass, thermometer and mud/water resistance.

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We bought a set of non-original window visors for the car on 27 Oct 2016. We can now leave a small window opening for ventilation when we park, and we can drive in teh rain without air-con. The chrome strip is not very nice, but this is cheap.

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Today Samuel is three! We thank God for looking after him and giving him growth in age, wisdom and strength.

We bought some kazoos as gifts to his class mates, and here’s the strawberry cake that he specifically ordered.

We celebrated at his class, with David and Joseph joining the fun (Esther had afternoon choir class).


The children had a great time making lots of noise with the kazoos.



For dinner, we had ribs at Morganfield’s, Vivocity.

When we got home, Samuel got to open his presents. The Yongs gave a box of Lego, David and Joseph gave a toy spider-monkey, Esther and us gave two Thomas the Train sets.

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Esther got full marks for her fitness tests (NAPFA test) and the school gave her a T-shirt for the perfect score.

YowCH will end at TYLin this Friday and joins KTP from Tuesday. Here are two new ‘studio office’ photos.


As before, the set-up for the studio was our bedroom. Here are the outtakes (uncropped photos).


Compare with the one taken on 2009 here.

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Here’s Samuel with his wings. Inspired after watching Falcon in action in the movie Captain America: Winter Soldier, David and YowCH built this for him.

We got ourselves some 2nd hand foam sheets to enjoy in the Sorrento pool. Most other people use these for yoga or children play area. These are good one-inch thick ones, most are only half-inch.


We also got ourselves another inflatable ride to accompany the Crocodile, a new Shark.

Grace found a used Takamine EG531SSC 12-string guitar on Carousel for sale at $800.00. We bargained down to $700, and picked up the good buy on the night of 24 Oct 2016 (Monday).



The fret-board was good, the pick-up working well and comes in a nice padded (furry) case. The strings are rather rusty and one G-string was missing, but we need to re-string the guitar anyway. Bright and sharp sounds typical of a Takamine, with nice reverbs. But the 12-string needs harder strength to play and Esther may not be playing this until much later.

This 12-string is most probably the last guitar to add to our line-up.

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We got a birthday cake and had small celebration at Gene’s place on Sunday night.



David managed to cut the cake into 9 pieces (almost all equal in size).

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