An ongoing journey

Sunday, February 22, 2015

CNY 2015

This year's CNY holiday (Thu-Fri) was extended through the weekend, we did a whole 4 days of visiting!

As usual, we had sumptuous reunion dinner at in-laws' place on chinese new year eve. Oh boy, the prawns, mushrooms and fish were humongous! We were missing DC's brother and family as they went on a staycation. A ate with interest at the food table while B who was having a mouth ulcer didn't feel like having much...

Day 1
We only managed to leave home at 11am as A didn't feel well and kept coughing that morning. As a result, the itinerary of the day were pushed back and we were not able to go to my uncle's place this year. The kids greeted the grandparents, and some rice before going to DC's uncle's place.

At their granduncle's place, the kids had fun riding the "fire engine" and playing with sparklers before they went home for their nap.

After nap, we brought them to the third grandaunt's place where they had their fill of bah kwa, chocolates and soft drink.

For a change, this year's dinner was not at the kiddos' first grandaunt's place. We had dinner at home.

At night, DC baked some delicious yummies...

Day 2
The kids had their lunch at my parent's place before we go to my uncle's place for lunch. Mum's porridge is the best! B forgot her ulcer pain and ate her pig skin and quail eggs enthusiastically.

Lunch:

After the kids' nap, we went to my aunt's place for another round of yummies! My favorite abacus (pictured below):

Our Selfie pic in the lift:

Kids in the playground:

Day 3
We went to the nanny's place on day 3. The kids stuffed themselves with lots of jellies and chips and took home a lot of sweets there! Their cough worsened that day!

We had a nice family photo there. See my cute A and B in their traditional chinese costumes:

Their third grandaunt came over for a visit and they were too excited to take nap even though they were tired!

After nap, we went to the small grandaunt place. B was terrified by the uncle there whom always ask her for sweets that she hid and cried! LOL!

Look at the chips that B had in her hands. The kids loved and ate non-stop... They even brought home one small container home!

Day 4
Day 4 was a short one. We went to my brother's new place for buffet lunch. Our family photo there:

Tomorrow will be back to normal work day for DC and me, and school day for A and B. I feel the blues already, the 4 days passed too quickly!

Related Posts:
CNY 2014
CNY 2013
CNY 2012

Monday, February 16, 2015

CNY Ang Pows 2015

The 2015 handmade limited edition CNY ang pows are out! :)

This year, I had the fun experimenting with different PS techniques e.g. changing the colour of A's Polo shirt from grey to red, creating texture/ patterns for the background, embossing words, etc...

I did not want my ang pows to look too commercial, so this year, I involved my precious A and B in the making too! I got them to do finger painting on the ang pows... I guess it was not difficult to guess which paint colour was done by who. :)

I then did a few finishing touches on the ang pows such as outlining the "yellow" ingots, branching the "pink" flowers, adding smaller darker pink sparkling flowers and making the gold accessories that B had sparkle using gold pens.

For a change, I actually wanted to devise a couplet [金玉洋洋到、满堂喜气来] but DC preferred the old school greetings. So, I stick to the usual family greeting that I usually used for the ang pows.

Anyway, I think the results was good! The thought that each ang pow was unique and done by the little hands made me warm! :) Good job, kiddos!

Related Posts:
CNY Ang Pows 2014
Ang Pows 2013
CNY Ang Pows 2012

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Before warranty ends

For about the past 6 months, I noticed a clicking sound when the car steering wheel was turned. So before the warranty ends this March, I decided to get it fix asap.

Waited 2 weeks for the parts, I had to write an email to complain about the poor response as VW didn't call me back even after I called in twice ...

Car was down for 2 days. A went with us to drop the car off at VW Macpherson before heading to school. It's a huge inconvenience as we waited 15 min to get a taxi to A's school.

Fixed?
Car Repair

Saturday, February 07, 2015

On the spot

Lately A has been toilet training very well ... sometime too well ... He will ask to go pee every so often ... sometime, we just have to 就地解决 ...

Before-After

A comparison of the before and after.

3 months after move-in, things already start to clutter up but still, the home was comfy and "enjoyable". A kept saying "New home nice"!

Our interior designer, Patrick and his assistant Loh, was rather accommodating with our requests. Rectifications was also done promptly and with proper follow up. Some items I find rather expensive but yet relatively cheap for others, so I guess it balanced out overall.

They were also rather easy-going, a plus point because when I was frustrated, our id was able to maintain his composure and helped us out. I also thought Patrick had good EQ, He didn't outright criticized our ideas but I think I could infer he didn't agree with some of our decisions :)

At the end, it was a good working relationship, unlike the previous one 10 yrs ago. I had to write a letter to them, threatening legal action .... also quarreled with the id back then ....

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Bathroom Accessories

I'm rather glad I had gotten Grohe and Hansgrohe accessories for the bathrooms. Today, I had the plumber help install another bathrobe hook in the common bathroom.

The chrome finish is brilliant and looks good, so far. The other non-brand stainless racks that I bought locally quickly had stains on them and need a good scrub every other day ...

I am also glad I had decided to buy this back in Oct-14.

Grohe 40 663 8-in basket - US$41.8

Grohe 40 664 12-in basket - US$47.3

Hansgrohe 41506000 Puravida Bath Towel Holder, 30-Inch, which is the same series as our Puravida basin faucet. - US$89.95

Hansgrohe 40516000 S and E Accessories Towel Bar, 24-Inch - US$52.38

Related Posts:
Digital Door Viewer - A High-Tech Home

UHD TV

Wall Mount

All Ready ... Almost
Going Digital

A Must Have

Balcony Wood Deck
Open Wardrobe System ... Stucked ...
All Things German
Let there be light
Quartz and it does not mean a watch
Out with the old

Moving Along Nicely

The worst may be over but still must keep tabs

Renovation is tough work - Part 2

Renovation is tough work - Part 1

Rectification

Stop Work Order

Torn Down
New Home Original Layout

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Taking it apart

The car video camera's battery finally gave up ... so the time couldn't be stored in the settings. The time would drift as each day passed and become more inaccurate. After reading on a car forum, I realised that the internal battery could be replaced but it need soldering ... Ok, I can do that. I'm quite good with soldering during my uni days.

So I went to Sim Lim Square to buy the battery for about $10 and a connector cable.

Time for the works ...

That was the easy part. Next the soldering. The battery was soldered to a circuit board and I had to use a solder to take it out. It went quite well.

The de-soldered circuit board.

Soldered back the new battery. When testing it, there was no response so I wasn't sure if the polarity was correct and I did had to switch the connection. Still it told a while to charge for the camera to give a response.

There were a few other hiccups, when drilling a hole through the camera casing for the battery cable to pass through, I drill too fast and it broke the circuit board cables! Luckily, I was able to solder them back but it's a close call ...

The finished product. If the battery died, I can now change the battery from outside, no more taking it apart :)

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Digital Door Viewer - A High-Tech Home

Decided on a digital door viewer.
Installer: An Digital Lock
Cost: $220
Features:
Motion Detection
Micro-SD storage.

Works quite well.

UHD TV

Wall Mount

All Ready ... Almost
Going Digital

A Must Have

Balcony Wood Deck
Open Wardrobe System ... Stucked ...
All Things German
Let there be light
Quartz and it does not mean a watch
Out with the old

Moving Along Nicely

The worst may be over but still must keep tabs

Renovation is tough work - Part 2

Renovation is tough work - Part 1

Rectification

Stop Work Order

Torn Down
New Home Original Layout

Friday, December 26, 2014

Merry X'mas 2014!

Just did quick collages of A and B to send greetings this joyful festive season! :)

Merry X'mas 2014 & Happy New Year 2015 to all!

Monday, December 01, 2014

UHD TV

When I wanted to mount my current 40" TV to the living room, I got laughed at ... So I was "ordered" to get a TV of at least 55" size.

I deliberated between a 60" FHD and 55" UHD TV. The 65" UHD models were out of budget, costing nearly $4K ...

Finally got this at Mega City, United Square. I gave up the 32" LED TV for a further $300 discount.

Samsung UA55HU7000. Built-in digital tuner, wifi and UHD resolution.