We have uploaded our photos of the Beijing trip from 21 to 25 Oct 2015. This is the TYLin annual company trip and YowCH serves in the committee this year. This is also an escape for YowCH and GRace for the 15th anniversary (in 2 months).
Click here or on the photos below to go to the site.
Grace and I got back from TYLin annual trip to Beijing on Sunday night, in time to spend Monday 26 Oct with Samuel for his birthday. We had dinner with Gene, and grandparents at Brotzeit Star-Vista.
We will update on the Beijing trip later.
Esther’s school project, Life-straw, is on display in the school. It is a project to improve the filtration straw to may muddy water drinkable.
Esther’s school works include machine-craft. She used some heavy machineries and built this nice pencil holder shaped like a peacock. One of the best in class, it seems.
Here is a photo of our very large terrapins, and they are eating the cuttle-bone imported from Australia (we brought the cuttle-bone back from Melbourne). This will save us some money on turtle chalk.
And here’s the big surprise, David suddenly wanted to try out the violin. after 30 minutes of very basic training, he can play Twinkle-twinkle Little Star!
After getting the violin and practicing at home, YowCH can now play some very simple tunes. Much more training to sound good, but it is a step forward. We are arranging for Joseph to attend classes.
Grace was working again on Sunday. We went for swim, then ballet (Esther) and football (boys). After football, we went to Tiong Bahru park to meet up with Esther’s friend, where they ran 3.2km and the boys played at the playground.
Thank God that the haze was rather low (PSI 80) over the weekend, and we can enjoy some outdoor activities.
We bought a second-hand full-sized electric violin for $100, a Cecilio, for Esther, David and YowCH to practice with Joseph. The seller says only played 2 time!
Looks new, feels good, sounds OK, and we can amp the violin. Without the amplifier, the violin still plays, but not loud, hence good for practice.
On 8 Oct, the childcare centre celebrated children’s day. There was a dress-up party, with the theme of ‘superheroes’ and using recycled materials. Samuel went as a Spartan, with armour made by YowCH and David!
He won the best-dressed for toddlers, and brought home this push-dragon as the prize!
With Esther on piano and guitar, David on drums, we started thinking about Joseph on the violin. So we got a 2nd-hand Synwin 1/2-size violin for him to start off, then send him off for lessons. The violin is only $40, good conditions but one string is broken (easily replaced).
With some very basic instructions from YowCH (who has no training in violin), Joseph is able to play the instrument without the screeching sounds within the first few minutes. We are off to a good start!
YowCH went for a run on Sunday early morning, at 5:55am, prior to sending Grace to work (start at 7:00am). The haze was quite low at that time, but the sky was still very dark, so YowCH had the red blinkers for safety on the roads.
While running, he dropped the HTC One M8 phone and it is now cracked, but still usable.
Then YowCH brought the children to swim, and had a fun time in the pool while the lessons were on-going.
Later, Esther went for ballet while the boys went for football training. Samuel:
Joseph:
David:
The haze started getting heavy towards the end of training.
Grace finished work at 3:30pm and met Esther at Funan. the two girls then went to Marina Bay Sands Grand Theatre to watch Sleeping Beauty on ice.
The boys had Western dinner at Anchorpoint Jack’s Place, and went home to watch a movie.
With very high PSI due to the haze, we couldn’t go anywhere outdoors. So we had an indoors vegetarian dinner with the Yongs at Lingzhi Novena Square on Hari Raya Haji holiday (Thursday).
School was closed on Friday, since the PSI went beyond 300. We also sent the Isis for servicing, changed fan-belt.
At close to 50,000km and 27 months, the Good Year Eagle F1 Asymmetric tyres have worn off quite badly at the edges although the general tread is still deep.
So, for safety in cornering and handling on wet roads, we changed the tyres, to the same model. The stock from Arrow Tyres is from Germany and marked 1815 (made in April 2015!) very new. At $155.00 each, the price is good for our 225/45/17.
At Arrow, the Amaron 55B24R is selling at $100.00 each, so we also changed it at the same time. The previous battery lasted 31 months with no problems at all, but being close to 3 years, we can change it. We will probably stretch this battery unit until we scrap the car at 10 years.
Thank God the haze cleared up over Singapore. Parents and Gene have moved to their new home at West Coast, and stayed since last Friday.
Esther went for the Garfield Run with Gene on Saturday afternoon (19 Sep) 5:30pm in Sentosa. It was supposed to be 4.0km, but due to the lingering haze, reduced to 2.5km. Here are the girls at the Start:
And Esther finished at 17 minutes (together with Gene, who ran with her).
This is Esther’s GPS tracking.
And a nice photo after the run, with Garfield.
The rest of the family attended church at that time.
On Sunday, again blue sky, so we went for our swim in the morning. Esther, David and Joseph took their swim exam (which was supposed to be taken during the week we were in Melbourne). And in the afternoon, Esther attended Chinese extra class at the tuition centre, and skipped ballet (which is at Funan, partly affected by Formula 1 road diversions). Grace and all the boys went to West Coast for football training, but the training was cancelled due to the afternoon rain and lightning.
We went home, and fixed ourselves a simple dinner to watch the Singapore Formula 1 race on TV.
