Visit Alexandra Canal Park

Last Saturday, while waiting for Grace to finish work at 5:30pm, we went to Alexandra Canal Park for a short walk.


The canal park is part of the Pubic Utilities Board’s efforts to upgrade the waterways and catchment to a fun area, under the Active-Beautiful-Clean program.



The park runs through the Tanglin and River Valley area, plenty of high-end residential condos around.



While it was a hot afternoon, the children had fun walking, running and chasing birds.

Minor car accident on 5 Aug

YowCH bumped into a car (Honda Fit) on 5 Aug morning during the morning jam on PIE (probably too sleepy). The damage on our car was very minor (scratched bumper and small crack on the grille) but the tailgate door and bumper of the Fit was dented.


A gentleman’s agreement was reached, and YowCH paid for the repairs which was done at Ricardo (3 days). The owner of the Fit needed a car to go around, so we paid for a rental car for 3 days at $75 per day (Altis). The repair came to about $700, so the whole incident cost us close to $1000.

On Sunday, YowCH did some home repairs on the bumper using wires, applied superglue to strengthen the crack on the grille and touched up the bumper paint.

Lesson learned: stay alert and awake while driving.

New wipers for Isis

YowCH got a set of frameless silicone wipers for the car at $50. The brand is Crystal, and wipes very smooth and clean. Let’s see if they last at least 3 years!

Comparing the normal type of wipers with the frameless:

Details of the Crystal wiper.

Durians

Mum and dad made a short overnight trip to Pontian and returned on 3 Aug with 5 durians (RM12 only) which we ate at dinner.

The children were great helpers in opening them:


And Joseph loves to eat durians:

There’s a bandage around David’s head because he fell down in school on 2 Aug and knocked his head (the wound is at the back).

Home improvements – Phase 4

With the intention to get new and proper writing tables for Esther and David, we ventured into the 4th phase of home improvements (Phase 1: when we moved in, Phase 2: when Gene and Grace’s parents left, Phase 3: when we bought the double decker bed).

We first looked at some furniture for ideas, then measured and plotted the rooms in AutoCAD to get realistic dimensions. After working out a feasible plan, we broke the process into 10 steps! The detailed planning and physical works started on 10 July 2011.

After moving furniture and stuff around for a few days, including the reconfiguration of our existing cheap Antonius clothing rack, we visited IKEA on 16 July to buy 2 new tables, 2 new chest of drawers on wheels, 2 tall-narrow bookshelves. We wanted delivery and installation sometime between 17 and 19 July, but their earliest available slot was Friday, 22 July. So we reconfigured the car and drove everything home. Our neighbour, Steven, helped us unload and used his trolley to bring the furniture up.

We then assembled the tables and drawers over Saturday and Sunday, and fixed up the table lamps.

With the tables done, and more furniture movement in the home completed, we started packing and clearing unwanted things, throwing out about 8 big boxes of old stuff. Finally, we assembled the two Billy bookshelves and rearranged the study room. With this new layout, Esther gets her own room, sharing with lots of boxed stuff and children’s books, while the boys share a room with toys.

Here’s the final results of Phase 4:
Study room:

Esther’s room:


David’s and Joseph’s room:

Thank God for seeing us through this tiring time but fun family-bonding time. We still have plans for DVD shelves and display cases in the living room, perhaps Phase 4a.

Clay Angry Birds

Last Thursday night, Esther, David and YowCH had some fun with coloured paper clay, making Angry Birds:

The tiny blue bird at the back was done by YowCH and the front white and blue birds were done very slowly and carefully by Esther. The rest were all put together very quickly by David.

Grace’s birthday dinner

This evening (Sunday), we enjoyed a great meal at Amigo (Funan) with Grace’s parents, Yan, PQ and Siu Hei after Esther and David’s dance classes to celebrate Grace’s birthday in advance (actual date is coming Wednesday). Again, Joseph went all out for escargots and foie gras.

Yesterday, YowCH finally washed the car after the long trips to Seremban, PJ and PJ-Penang-PJ over the June holidays. The car was really dirty from the travels and also bird shit, so YowCH gave a thorough soap wash and waxed the car with Soft99. The Isis is now very clean and shiny.

Grace’s new phone

After playing around with the iPod Touch and YowCH’s HTC Desire smart phone, and considering that the free phone with plan re-contract, Grace got herself a smart phone, the HTC Wildfire S running Android 2.2.3 on Monday 20 June 2011.

This phone is about 2cm shorter than the Desire, but works practically the same.

Church Camp, Penang and PJ trip

We have added our holiday and church camp photos in to the following two pages:

Church Camp in Penang


Holiday in PJ


Church Camp was from 13 to 17 June 2011. We drove from Singapore to PJ on 12 June 3:30am to 6:30am (yes, that was pretty fast), spent one night in PJ then drove to Penang on 13 June 5:40am, stopped by Ipoh for breakfast at 7:45am and reached The Gurney hotel, Penang at 10:45am.

After camp ended at noon of 17 June, we visited Fort Cornwallis, then drove back to PJ, starting at 2:45pm, with a rest stop at Ipoh around 4:40pm to 5:20pm, and reaching PJ home at 7:30pm. Then, we spent Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday in PJ with family and friends. We left PJ at 6:00am on Monday 20 June, stopped at Yong Peng lay-by from 8:15am to 8:45am and reached home at 10:00am.

We covered 830km from Singapore to Penang, and the whole trip clocked 1723km.

Esther’s birthday dinner

On 5 June (Sunday) we had dinner with mum, dad and Gene at Cedele, Great World City to celebrate Esther’s birthday:
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Esther turned 9 on 6 June 2011.