14 Jul 2018 - Weekend Harvest

Our Bitter Gourd has ripen and turned orange!  That's in the morning though.......

In the afternoon, it opened up and exposed the red seeds within.  We are going to use these seeds and plant more of them.

Below are our harvest for the weekend.

8 Jul 2018 - Our mini Bitter Gourd!

We started growing our bitter gourd plant from a few seeds about 4 months ago.  After months of tender loving care, we finally see our effort paid off.  We were extremely excited to see a few bitter gourds hanging on the vines this monring.  This was our first attempt to grow a bitter gourd plant and glad that it turns out to be a success.

Don't you think this mini bitter gourd cute?  :-)

Our cherry tomatoes continue to bear fruits without fail weeks after weeks.

Below is a Roselle plant which we have also started growing few months back.  It will take about 6 months to mature, so let's wait patiently.  We understand that the flowers will only start to grow when it's about one metre tall.

Following is a pot of Holy Basil.  In fact our entire "garden" at our roof terrace is "infested" by them.  Some even grow outside of the pots.

And finally, this is our Jasmine flower and it really smells good, even at a distance away.

7 Jul 2018 - The Lion King Musical

This afternoon, we were at Marina Bay Sands Theatre watching the World's #1 Musical, The Lion King.

Winner of over 70 major international theatre awards, this landmark musical event brings together one of the most innovative and creative teams on Broadway.  The Lion King also features some of world’s most recognisable music, crafted by multi-award winning artists Elton John and Tim Rice.

After having our lunch at ToastBox, we arrived at the entrance of Sands Theatre 15 mins before the show starts.  As we were told that the show will start on the dot and late arrival may result in non-admittance, we quickly entered the theatre.

Our seats were at the second row of the Circle seats and right in the middle.  Initially, the stage seems a bit far from our seats but when the show started, it was actually not too bad.

As Jerlene and Javier had watched the Lion King movie quite a few times, they know the full story very well and were able to relate to the performance.  Throughout the musical, they also sang along with the performers.

We totally enjoyed this musical and it's highly recommend to all!

1 Jul 2018 - Incredibles 2

It has been a while since we last watched a movie in cinema together as a family.  We had an early lunch today before heading to GV Paya Lebar to watch "Incredibles 2", which is a great family movie.  We all enjoyed it!

30 Jun 2018 - Taekwando Class moves to the Pavilion

Javier's Taekwando class has moved from Ci Yuan CC to a big Pavilion near our place.  It means that we can just walk over to the Pavilion instead of driving to Ci Yuan CC as in the past. 

Other than those black belts, Javier is now the most senior in the class.  As a result, he's now the one to give commands for class dismissal.  He's now practicing very hard for his next grading in a few weeks time.

28 Jun 2018 - SYF: Certificate of Accomplishment (Chinese Orchestra)

Jerlene participated in this year's Singapore Youth Festival as a member of her school's Chinese Orchestra.  She received a Certificate of Accomplishment in recognition of her participation.

Well done, Jerlene!

20-21 Jun 2018 - Kidz Treehouse Eco Camp

Jerlene and Javier participated in their Student Care's Eco Camp yesterday and today.  This was the highlight of their June school holiday and glad that it ended on a high note.  This camp was organized by Kidz Treehouse Student Care Centre which involved teachers and students from all of its branches.  It was held at HomeTeamNS Adventure Centre @ Bukit Batok.

On the first day, it was drizzling at the camp site.  Despite the rain and lack of sunshine, the students definitely enjoyed themselves with amusing cheers and ended the day with Zumba!

On the second day, the weather made a total twist.  It was very hot and humid at HomeTeamNS.  Due to the extreme heat, the students once again stayed indoor for other fun activities.  They had a Dance Off Challenge and Jerlene & Javier's team came in third, out of twelve teams.

The children cheered their way through the camp and brought the house down with their enthusiasm!  At the end of the camp, every student received a certificate of participation.

Thanks to the teachers and organizers of Kidz Treehouse Student Care Centre for organizing this camp.  There were several group photos taken but due to PDPA, I cannot post them here.  Glad that both Jerlene and Javier enjoyed the camp.

19 Jun 2018 - Free of tooth space maintainers finally

Three weeks ago, Javier had one of his tooth space maintainers removed by the dentist at School Dental Centre.  Today, the other tooth space maintainer dropped off together with his baby tooth.  After having to live with the space maintainers for more than 2 years, Javier finally is free of them.  Now that his permanent teeth have started growing into the space, his long episode of teeth problems finally comes to an end.  Hopefully he'll take good care of the teeth from now on.  :-)

17 Jun 2018 - Celebrating Father's Day at Cafe 566

We went for a Father's Day Lunch at Cafe 566, a Jungle-Themed Zi Char (Cooked Food) Restaurant in Mandai Estate.  This is a very spacious restaurant and parking is free.  The moment we reached, we found this place very familiar.  Then we realized when we were staying in Woodlands some years back, we used to drive here for a car wash.

Once we got off from our car, we were greeted by a T-Rex at the entrance.

As we walked into the restaurant, more life-sized animals lined up by the side to "welcome" us.

The food here was good and quite economical.  We were all busy eating and forgot about taking pictures of the dishes.  We finally had a photo taken before we left the place.  Happy Father's Day to all the daddies!

16 Jun 2018 - Watching World Cup at Ci Yuan Community Club

World Cup 2018 has just started and all 55 community clubs in Singapore are streaming all the matches LIVE.  While Javier went for his Taekwando class at Ci Yuan CC tonight, I stayed in the air-conditioned auditorium to watch the match between France and Australia.  The auditorium was full housed.  With the big screen on the stage and everyone shouted whenever a goal was scored, it was a totally different atmosphere as compared to watching the match at home with just family members or a few friends.

Anybody wants to make a prediction on which team will emerge as the Champion?  :-)

14 Jun 2018 - Shi Li Fang (食立方) Hot Pot

Few months back, a Taiwanese hotpot restaurant Shi Li Fang (食立方) opens a branch at Hougang 1 Mall, which is just opposite our place.  Whenever we pass by the restaurant during dinner time, there is always a long queue waiting to be seated.  Today, we decided to try it out for lunch when it's not that crowded.  Looking at the portion, we ordered a set for two and a few additional dishes.  Since both Jerlene and Javier do not take spicy food, we ordered two types of non-spicy soups (one is herbal chicken and the other is mushrooms).  Both soups taste GOOD!

The restaurant is full of plush toys and every table got to bring home one as a gift.  Below's key chain is our gift.  It was a great lunch and we spent more than an hour to finish up the food.  As all of us are soup lovers, we refilled our soups several times.

9 Jun 2018 - Will our city view be blocked soon?

The condominium construction next to ours are building up real fast.  There are still one or two more floors to go.  Will our city view be blocked totally by then?  I think we will know within a month's time.  Pray hard........

4 Jun 2018 - 1G or 4G

We came across a FREE mobile plan recently and decided to get it for Jerlene and Javier.  With this plan, each of them will have 1GB of data per month, which is more than sufficient.  We told them that since the data is limited, try to use WiFi whenever possible.

They were so worried that they will exceed the quota and have been very careful with the data usage.
Then came an interesting question from Jerlene.....

Jerlene: What do we use when we are outside without WiFi?
Daddy:  That's when you use your 1GB data.
Jerlene:  What do we connect to in order to use the 1GB data?
Daddy:  Just connect to the 4G network lor.
Jerlene:  But we do not have enough!
Daddy:  What do you mean not enough?
Jerlene:  We only have 1G, how to use 4G?
Daddy:  ............... (followed by a good laugh)

2 Jun 2018 - Merit for Grade 3 Classical Ballet Exam

Jerlene got back her BBO Ballet exam result today.  She had achieved a Merit for her Grade 3 Classical Ballet.  She was slightly disappointed because her target was a distinction.  I told her that it's ok as long as she put in effort during training and tried her best in the exam.  In fact, her teacher said that it'll be more and more difficult to attain distinction as she goes into higher grades.  Below are the comments from her examiner.

Jerlene, do not give up and continue to train hard.  Merit is actually not a bad result and I think you had done well.  I'm sure you will get back your distinction one day with your passion as well as all your hard work put into the practice.  加油!

2 Jun 2018 - Learning Breakfall

As Javier promotes to a more senior rank in his Taekwando class, he starts to learn break-fall, a controlled fall in which most of the impact is absorbed by the arms or legs.  Initially, he was having lots of difficulty doing the front roll properly.  In fact, most of his classmates were having problem, even some black-belts.  However, it got better later on.  It's good that Javier starts to learn such techniques as it'll definitely helps him when he does his National Service in less than 10 years time.  :-)