18 Nov 2017 - Was it drug allergy?

Javier has been coughing on and off for almost a month.  This morning, he developed high fever so I quickly brought him to the clinic.  After understanding his condition, the doctor prescribed a stronger fever medicine and a course of anti-biotic.  I fed him the medicine once we reached home.  After about an hour, we observed the area around his lips was "darkened" and slightly swollen.  I immediately suspected it could be due to drug allergy.  By the time, the clinic that we went earlier had closed.  I then brought him to another nearby clinic for consultation.

When the doctor saw Javier, he did not think it's drug allergy.  He was pretty sure that it was a bruise caused by sucking of water bottle.  The reason was because there was a clear round marking around Javier's lips.  When asked, Javier insisted that he did not suck on any bottle.  As such, it's not conclusive whether it's a case of drug allergy.  To play safe, I decided to stop all the medicine that was prescribed this morning and see if the swell will subside.  Fortunately his fever has also gone down after the strong fever medicine.  Hope that he can get well soon!

17 Nov 2017 - Javier's P2 results

Today is the last day of school and Javier got back his report book.  In general, he did pretty well with all subjects in band 1.  Once again, the subject which he needs to put in more effort is Mother Tongue (Chinese).

He also received a certificate of appreciation for being a Group Leader.

15 Nov 2017 - New workstation bought during "Bachelor Day" (光棍节) Sale

Since Javier is now into Scratch programming, we bought a new PC desktop for him during the "Bachelor Day" Sale.  The PC was delivered this afternoon.  Now he can program comfortably in his own room without having to borrow my machine.

 It's an Acer All-In-One desktop with a 24" screen.

So far, Javier has published six projects to the community which you can try them out.  There are now two players games as well as a game with story mode.  :-)

11 Nov 2017 - Javier got his Red Belt!

Javier passed his Taekwando grading exam that took place 3 weeks ago.  He received his Red Belt from his coach today.  Time really flies and it has been two years since he started Taekwando.  He is now one step closer to his personal target of junior black belt.  Keep it up, Javier!

7 Nov 2017 - Jerlene did OK

Jerlene got back her report book today.  Overall I think she did not do too badly.  As expected, she needs to work harder for her English and Chinese.  Considering she had no tuition so far, I am pretty satisfied with her results.

4 Nov 2017 - What kind of insect is that? Mealybugs?

While doing our usual weekend gardening, we discovered one of our Cherry Tomato pots was infested by many little white bugs.

They're quite hairy and crawled all over the pots, soil and on the plants.

I did a search on google and these little white creatures seem to be called Mealybugs. Mealybugs are insects in the family Pseudococcidae, unarmored scale insects found in moist, warm climates. They are considered pests as they feed on plant juices of greenhouse plants, house plants and subtropical trees and also act as a vector for several plant diseases.  We tried dropping Eucalyptus oil on them and seems effective.

Fortunately, my Jasmine plant was not infested and it was blooming with nice little white flowers, which smells good when we get close to them.

3 Nov 2017 - Javier's first Scratch Programming Project

Javier had been playing a game called Scratch Junior in his tablet for quite a while. Recently we introduced him to a Scratch programming website developed by MIT. Since then, he became very interested in creating his own games. He learnt the coding himself mainly by going through the tutorials and looking at how other people code. I am really surprised at how fast he picks up the skills.  There are currently many private schools conducting such classes or programming boot camp for kids but they are generally quite expensive.  Since his daddy and mommy were once programmers *grin*, I believe he can do equally well at home with our supervision.  :-)

Javier published his first ever Scratch project this afternoon.  Click here to play!  Btw, his nickname is JJJwong.

He even wrote instructions for his game and a bit of credit notes.  Please give him your support!  ;-)

If you are interested, below are some of the coding that he had done for the game.  He now understands the use of IF-THEN-ELSE statement, FOREVER LOOP, CONDITIONS, OPERATORS and many more.  Programming is one thing, I am more impressed with his creativity in designing his game.

He currently has 7 unshared projects in the pipeline. There is even one that is meant for two players.  So stay tuned.

I am his beta tester and had a first try at his Pong Game.  I did not manage to beat the game.  Try to see if you can.  :-)

28 Oct 2017 - Impact of fertilizer

All these while, we did not use any fertilizer for our plants.  Recently we decided to give it a try and what a difference it makes for our plants.  Flowers start to bloom with super bright colours and leaves start to turn much greener.  On the other hand, weeds also start to grow faster, which means we have to do more weeding.  We do not mind more weeding as long as our plants grow healthier.

23 Oct 2017 - Persistent Cough

Javier has been coughing on and off for the past few weeks.  As such, we brought him to the clinic today and below are the medicine prescribed by the doctor.  When the doctor heard his cough, he said it sounded asthmatic.  He prescribed a course of antibiotic and if it still does not help after a week, he suggested to try with the neubilizer.  Hope Javier will get well soon.

22 Oct 2017 - Taekwando Grading (Blue Belt Red Tip)

Once again, Javier went for his Taekwando grading at Toa Payoh Sports Hall this afternoon.  As usual, they did their warm up and practice before entering the hall for the grading.

If Javier passes this grading, he will be promoted to Red Belt.  Let's see how he did during the grading and we shall know the results in a few weeks time.

21 Oct 2017 - More minecraft videos from my boy

Javier created two more minecraft videos and had published onto his own Youtube channel.  Just wanted to give him my support and help him promote his videos.  In fact, his classmates had requested him to create more of such videos.  Glad that he already has some fans......  :-)

15 Oct 2017 - Celebrating Mommy's Birthday at The Boiler Restaurant

We were at The Boiler Restaurant this evening to celebrate mommy's birthday.

First we ordered a rainbow cake as we were a bit hungry while waiting for our main course.

If there is a diner whose birth month falls within the current month, the restaurant will give out 1 Free Boston Lobster with purchase of a Boiler’s Bombdiggity Bag.  Jerlene loves it so much but not for  Javier.

And below is the Bombdiggity Bag, which consists of Dungeness Crab, prawns, mussels, clams, sausages, corns and buns.

Let's take some photos before starting our feast.

It was a wonderful meal and we finished everything that we could find in the bags.

Finally we ordered a Lava cake and sang the birthday song.

Javier gave us a surprise as he secretly created a slideshow using his Nintendo DS while we were enjoying our seafood earlier.  :-)

10 Oct 2017 - "Rosyth Got Talent" Certificate

Recently Jerlene and her friends participated in a school event called "Rosyth Got Talent".  She received a certificate of participation from her teacher today.

I am very curious about what they had performed.  So I asked her to show me one of the stunts that she did during the event.  I was really impressed with what she could do, considering she did not go through any proper training.  In fact, she said that they had trained and practiced all by themselves.  :-)

9 Oct 2017 - Watching Getai (歌台)

After our dinner at a popular porridge stall in Hougang, we walked by a huge stage with lots of audiences sitting right in front of it.  Ironically, we did not come across a single "Getai" throughout the entire hungry ghost month which had just passed.  We stayed there and watched for a while before leaving.  It was the first time Jerlene and Javier experienced such an atmosphere.  Nowadays, Getai comes with such a high tech stage.

7 Oct 2017 - Did a Hurricane visit my place?

In the afternoon, it was raining so heavily that it had caused our MRT tunnel to flood for the very first time.  I was following the crisis of our MRT system the whole time until at night when I went up to our roof terrace.......  OMG, I had a crisis of my own!  Did a hurricane visit my place earlier?!!??

It was such a mess.  The huge metal rack fell over my outdoor furniture.  The chairs and hanging racks were all over the place.  Several of my plant pots toppled over.  We spent the next few hours clearing up the mess.  :-(