13 Jan 2024 - MayDay's Nowhere (五月天诺亚方舟) Concert

We attended MayDay's Nowhere (五月天诺亚方舟) Concert at National Stadium today.  

 Mayday’s Nowhere world tour had lasted more than 12 years and would finally conclude here.

Though our seats were considered pretty close to the stage, the band still looked very far when they were on stage.

The audiences, we included, were singing along throughout the concert.

The night’s biggest treat came when the band performed on a gigantic float fashioned into a ship that traversed the length of the National Stadium.  A physical representation of Noah’s Ark, one of the album’s defining numbers, the impressive prop was complete with glowing potholes, rotating fans, stairs and an upper deck. It transformed the concert into a lively parade, and brought fans much closer to the action.

What made the crowd went wild in the finale was that the concert had encored thrice!  In the end, the lead singer, Ashin, seemed to have suffered some vocal problems.

Below was a short video showing some of the concert highlights.

As expected, the nearest MRT stations were packed with people after the concert.  However, the movement was still considered smooth, and we managed to get onto a train within minutes.

13 Jan 2024 - Edusave Award Ceremony

Javier received his Edusave Award today during the award ceremony at Ci Yuan CC.  He had received this award yearly since Primary 1 and he's determined to work hard to continue this tradition.  Well done, Javier!

11 Jan 2024 - Release of GCE "O" Level Results

Jerlene was very nervous since the start of today because she would be getting her "O" level results in the afternoon.  Due to anxiety, she did not have much appetite for lunch.  As such, we just had ice-cream pancakes at a cafe before going to her school to receive the results.

After we all assembled at the school's hall, the vice-principals began by presenting the procedures to apply for admission to Junior College, Polytechnic and ITE.  It was followed by the Principal's sharing of the overall performance of the school for "O" level 2023.  Everyone in the hall was so happy to hear that several records had been made this year.

Finally, the moment was here.  The students started to queue up to receive their results.  When we saw Jerlene receiving her results from the teacher, we quickly walked over to show our support, regardless of what results it would be.  And the moment Jerlene saw me, she came over, with a bit of tears in her eyes, and hugged me.  I immediately tried to console her and told her it's ok.  However, when she showed me her results, I saw that she actually did quite well!  It was definitely better than all of our expectations.  At that moment, I then realized those were the tears of joy!  With the results, we were confident that she would have no issue getting into the course that she wants.

That night, we went out for a good dinner to celebrate her good results.  Well done, Jerlene!

1 Jan 2024 - HAPPY NEW YEAR (2024)

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

28 Dec 2023 - Two free Apple IPads for Real

We collected two Apple IPads from Challenger (Bugis) today.  They were absolutely free.  All we did was to apply for a specific credit card via SingSaver website and once the application was approved, simply charged $500 in the first month.  Though it took a while from the time we applied for the credit card (Aug 2023) till we collected the IPad (Dec 2023), it's worth the wait, at least it's REAL!

However, the IPads were taken over by Jerlene and Javier the moment we brought them home.  :-)

26 Dec 2023 - Our Escape Room Kaki getting bigger

Playing escape room before school starts has been a norm over the years.  This school holiday is no different than any other and that's what we did today.  The key difference was that our "escape" party now has grown bigger.  Jerlene's best friend had joined us today.  :-) 

23 Dec 2023 - Christmas is just round the corner

While we were having our lunch at Casuarina Prata shop, members of a choir group from the next-door church entered the restaurant and sang Christmas Carols to the customers.  Christmas is just 2 days away so wishing all a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

13-17 Dec 2023 - CodeDay Singapore

Javier registered himself for a free beginner-friendly app development workshop from 13-17 Dec 2023.  CodeDay was a worldwide event, hosted by National Junior College, where student artists, programmers, musicians, actors and writers get together to learn and build something new. 

The first 3 days of the event were workshops where participants were introduced to beginner projects in the world of Computer Science such as web development, game development and bot development. Participants do not require any coding background to participate in the event.

After attending 3 days of workshops, Javier found it to be too basic and not very interesting.  As such, he decided not to attend the next two days of the workshop, which was mainly a Hackathon-like event.  Will keep a lookout for other more challenging events for him.

2 Dec 2023 - Admiring Nature's Beauty at Upper Peirce Reservoir

After our Prata lunch at Casuarina Curry (Thomson), we drove to Upper Peirce Reservoir via the Old Upper Thomson Road.  Along the way we saw many monkeys sitting along the roadside.

It always feels great and refreshing to visit such place which is away from all the busy districts.  A bit like visiting a park or a lake in overseas.

Though this island is mainly a huge concrete jungle, you can still find some nature's beauty if you are willing to spend sometimes to observe the surrounding.

When we were about to leave, we saw a family of otters swimming in the reservoir.

1 Dec 2023 - Technology Refresh for my personal laptop

It's time to refresh my personal laptop.  My previous Acer Nitro had served me well over the past 3-4 years.  However, it's getting slower and noisier lately so it's time for a replacement.  Today, I received my Acer Predator Helios 18 laptop.  Hopefully it will perform as I have expected and can last for at least the next 3-4 years.  With all the Lazada vouchers and bonuses that I had accumulated, I actually bought it pretty cheap.

Below is the product specification:

Predator Helios 18

13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900HX (36 MB Smart Cache, up to 5.4 GHz, overclock capable)

18" 16:10 WQXGA(2560x1600) IPS, 300 nits, DCI-P3 100%, G-Sync LED-backlit TFT LCD, supporting 165 Hz refresh rate

NVIDIA RTX 4070 8GB GDDR6 (140W)

32GB DDR5 5600MHz RAM

1TB PCIe SSD

Windows 11 Home (64-bit)

Bluetooth 5.2

Killer Wi-Fi 6E

Built-in Webcam (1080p Camera)

3.16Kg, 90Wh Battery Capacity

per-key RGB mini-LED keyboard

Dimension: 405 (W) x 311.61 (D) x 27.15/29.15 (H) mm

3 Years On-site Local Singapore Warranty

23 Nov 2023 - Thunder Storm is coming!

Dark clouds accumulated all over the sky.  Nature is beautiful and scary at the same time.

20 Nov 2023 - Osaka Day 11: Kansai Airport and Flight Home

We heard about the situation at Kansai Airport whereby there was always a long queue to enter into the transit area.  As such, we took no risk by arriving at the airport early.

After checking in, we followed a long snaking queue and eventually saw a man (below) holding up a sign saying, "End of Line".  When you need a person to do this, you can imagine how crowded the airport was.

Our flight took off on time.

As usual, when we reached a specific altitude, the cabin crew started serving our meals.

After my meal, I managed to capture the evening orange sky in the horizon.

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