29 Oct 2022 - Iphone 14 Pro Hunt around Marina Bay

I had been using my current iPhone XR for the past 4 years.  It's time to refresh it with a new iPhone and I hope to get it before my upcoming year end trip.  From the Apple website, we found that of all the three Apple stores in Singapore, there is only one left at the store @ MBS.  However, by the time we reached there, it's been sold!  We then decided to check out the other authorized distributors nearby.

Firstly, we went to Gain City at Marina Square and the salesman told us the entire island is currently running out of stock for iPhone 14 Pro.  As we were not going to give up so easily, we decided to "hunt" further and walked towards Harvey Norman at Millenia Walk.  We were glad that they still have stock and I bought it without much hesitation.

We then had our dinner at MBS and as a Sands Rewards member, we were able to accumulate sufficient points to redeem the car park fee, which is very steep.  :-)

20 Oct 2022 - Bronze Award for Singapore Mathematical Olympiad (Junior Section)

Javier participated in the Singapore Mathematical Olympiad (Junior Section) recently and had received a certificate for Bronze Award today.  The SMO Junior Section is for Sec 1 and 2 students.  As a Sec 1 student, it's a great achievement for Javier to be able to get a Bronze Award.  Well done, Javier!

18 Oct 2022 - First Visit to Our Tampines Hub

Javier had a Learning Journey with his Infocomm Club members to MakeIT Space at the National Library Board (NLB) Branch in Our Tampines Hub (OTH).  This program includes an introduction to the facilities in the makers' space and a hands-on workshop on the operation of the Lionsforge laser cutter.  The event ended at about 6:30pm.  We went to pick him up and had our dinner there.  This is our first visit to OTH and we did not expect the place to be so huge.

This place used to be just a stadium and now it has become a huge all-purpose mall with the stadium still intact.

14 Oct 2022 - Dinner at ​ALTRO Zafferano

The highlight of today's celebration is our dinner at Altro Zafferano.  It's an Italian restaurant located on the 43rd floor of Ocean Financial Centre in the heart of Singapore’s central business district.  Its stellar location and magnificent view of Marina Bay waterfront makes Altro Zafferano one of the best dinner places in Singapore.

Below are some of the awesome views of Marina Bay waterfront from the outdoor Terrace Lounge of this rooftop restaurant.

Altro Zafferano has an outdoor Terrace Lounge and an indoor Main Dining Room.  After enjoying the wonderful views from the lounge, we returned to the main dining room to have our dinner.

We each ordered an Experience Menu consisting of starter, pasta, main course and dessert.  Below were the dishes that we had ordered.

The bread and specially made sauces come default prior to the actual meal.

We had Hokkaido Scallop, Smoked Pear, Potato Mousse, Guanciale for our starter.

As for pasta, we had House-made Tagliolini, Langoustine Carppacio Amalfi Lemon Garum, Sea Grape and House-made Ravioli, Wagyu Beef Genovese, Anchovy Colatura.

Our main courses were Silver Cod, Peperone Crusco, Mussels Veloute and Mediterranean Sea Bass, Caponata Elements.

We were served with Palate Cleanser before our desserts.

By the time we had our dessert, we were actually quite full.  We had Espresso, Mascarpone, Clementine Orange and Giffoni Hazelnut, Guanaja Dark Chocolate and Raspberry.

As I've indicated Tracy's birthday in our reservation, they had prepared a candle with the dessert and several staffs also came over to wish her Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday, my Dear!  Hope you enjoyed the dinner tonight.

During the course of our dinner, we were allowed to go out to the Terrace Lounge to have a superb night view of Marina Bay waterfront.  It is really very beautiful!

Following were complimentary Italian sweets before we left the restaurant.  The photo is actually short of two pieces of sweets because it was in our tummy before we remembered to take a picture of it.  Haha...... We had a wonderful dinner and did not expect it to be almost 3 hours. :-)

14 Oct 2022 - KTV at Cash Studio @ Cuppage Plaza

Today is Tracy's birthday and we kicked off the celebration with a KTV session at Cash Studio @ Cuppage Plaza.  Before the session, I had prepared a playlist of songs which we intended to sing.

Comparing to Teo Heng, we prefer the room at Cash Studio which is bigger and more comfortable.  We particularly like the standing microphone on a mini stage. :-)

13 Aug 2022 - Sport Education Programme (Muay Thai)

With exams out of the way, Javier and his IP1 cohort of TJC got to learn the basic technical know-how of Muay Thai and adapt it for self-defense, as part of their Sport Education Programme.

They learnt some tips and tricks on how to protect themselves and to get away from danger as soon as possible.

3 Oct 2022 - Passport Renewal approved in a day!

Just few months back, there were so much news about passport renewal taking up to 3 months before it's ready for collection.  It seems like things have changed and it's now a lot more efficient.  I applied for my passport renewal yesterday, which was a Sunday, and today evening, I received an email saying it's ready for collection!  The reason could be either those who wanted to apply for passport had already done so in the past few months, or the entire verification process has now been streamlined.  Regardless, it's good news to everyone. :-)

1 Oct 2022 - The LKY Musical

Though this is a Formula One (F1) weekend in Singapore, we chose to watch "The LKY Musical" instead of going to the F1 track and pit to watch the race.

The LKY Musical is one of the most successful Singaporean shows of all-time.  Starring Adrian Pang and Kit Chan, with music by Dick Lee, this is the first large-scale musical to take place here in over two years!  This home-grown musical tells Lee Kuan Yew’s story - from his student days in 1941 to Singapore’s independence in 1965.

The stage presentation was fantastic, and the casts were amazing.  Kit Chan's singing is no doubt one of the best in this region, but I was surprised that Adrian Pang can sing equally well!

At the end of the show, the entire casts came on stage to receive huge applause from the full house audiences.  Well done and congratulation to the entire production team for creating such a successful local musical.