ThudGuard ...

No more improvised helmets, now the boy has the real deal!

Hood Ornament

Ferrari?? Mustang?? Rolls Royce??

Christmas 2008

This year's Christmas was eventful. There were plenty of gatherings with family and friends. However, somehow the mood seems to be less festive than previous years. I think maybe it's the current state of the economy, or maybe its because I am in the middle of working on a tender...

24 Dec (Christmas Eve)
There were some plans for "snaking" but most of us in the office (CPO) were invited to a corporate Christmas Lunch which was held at a restaurant in VivoCity. The food was good but the quantity not really enough. Not everyone had a chance to go for seconds. Anyway, as with any "standard" corporate lunch, there were games and prizes and also a gift exchange. Exchanged my Ferrero Rochers for box of biscuits ...

25 Dec (Christmas Day)
We postponed our Christmas BBQ to Sat, so today was a simple dinner at another cousin's place where we exchanged and opened presents for the kids.

26 Dec (Boxing Day)
Today is family day. Yes, a day for just the three of us. We mostly relaxed at home and went out for some shopping, dinner and also attempted to walk a bit of Orchard Road to look at the lights and decor. Unfortunately, it was hot, crowded and very super noisy with all the street performances and DJ music, so we only made it to the stretch in front of Takashimaya before we gave up...

27 Dec (Sat)
Two gatherings today, one for lunch and one for dinner. Lunch is at wifey's friend's place and dinner is a BBQ at my cousin's place. It was pretty much a huge logistics operation bringing the boy out for almost the whole day. The car was fully loaded with presents, baby essentials such as food, milk, diapers etc, and even his bathtub/basin and baby monitor were not left idle at home. What a tiring day!

28 Dec (Sun)
It's back to work tomorrow, but today, it is still the long weekend. Lunch was out with some of wifey's friends at a family friendly restaurant in United Square (GlobeTrotters). Got to get myself back into gear to clear up most of the work required for the current tender that I am working on. Only then can I enjoy the New Year and be less stressed.

KooshLog: Cayden's Diary: 7 months

KooshLog: Cayden's Diary: 7 months

Some photos to add on to the boy's 7 month diary entry...

Spicy Noodles

This is absolutely THE spiciest instant noodles I have ever come across in Singapore. If you want to try, the only place I know where you can get it is in a provision shop in Tangling Halt.

Cayden's Diary: 7 months

The little boy is growing fast. He is coming to 7 months and has finally achieved his first mobility milestone ...

Last week, I was in San Diego when I received news from wifey that the boy has "discovered" crawling! I was excited. When I can back, he was really doing it. Today, he crawled towards the walker and started climbing, and he managed to get himself up into a standing position! I guess his legs are well conditioned to support his weight from the endless hours of jumping up and down.

San Diego Arrival

After more than 20 hours on the road, finally arrived at San Diego via San Francisco. By the time we drove up to the hotel, it was already 5pm. Post check-in, we went to a nearby mall at La Jolla Village Drive for dinner.

Dinner was a huge burrito. After that the weather got pretty cold and foggy, so we went back to our comfortable rooms. Attached are some photos of the room itself.

San Diego

Yes, I am travelling again. This time it is for a one week business trip to San Diego. It's going to be a pretty hectic five days of discussions. Will be there with two other colleagues. There's no time allocated for any sightseeing but we will probably be able to visit a mall or two in the evenings.

Cayden's Swimming Adventure

From his bath time and the fun he had in Bintan, we can see that the boy loves being in the water. So the first thing we got for him after the family trip was his own swim diapers, swim suit, kiddie sun block and "deluxe" starfish kiddie float!

We took him downstairs for a short while in the late afternoon today and boy did he have fun!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Kenny, Hee Young and little Lim Yae-Na!

Family Trip

This trip was mooted over half a year ago and "some" planning had gone into it. We haven't had a family trip since ... well, I can't remember ever really having one!

Anyway, since we are no experts in family holiday logistics, we decided to have ours "nearby" in Bintan. And as there were about 10+ of us, a nice "community" type place to stay was selected.

The place, a three bedroom hilltop Indra Maya villa at Nirwana Gardens Bintan.



We were originally deciding between Banyu Biru and Indra Maya villas. In the end, we decided to up our budget and go for the more "luxurious" Indra Maya as it came with a private pool (while the Banyu Biru did not).


Day 1:

The ferry was departing at 2pm so we went to Tanah Merah ferry terminal before 1pm as instructed. Parked the car at the ferry terminal. Unfortunately, bro Dom (who had all the tickets) was a bit late. This resulted in a "mad rush" (well, at least for me ... ) to check in our luggages and to board the ferry. We were the last to exit the gate and were also the last in the queue to board!

We managed to get ourselves seated nearby each other (free seating). The ferry ride was less than an hour but will seem like an eternity to those who are prone to seasickness.

We reached Bintan at 3pm (2pm Bintan time). By the time we collected our luggage, took the shuttle bus, checked-in and drove our buggy to the villa, it was coming to 5pm.



The villa itself had a rustic charm to it. Yes, it looks and feels a bit old and worn down, but still pretty acceptable. After a brief orientation of the villa, sleeping arrangements and a little freshening up, it was time to prepare for the BBQ. Bro Dan, GF and another cousin arrived via a separate ferry later in the evening after work.

The BBQ food was from City Satay which we brought over from Singapore. The raw food in Bintan is expensive. Anyway, our City Satay "Set A" + some of our own raw food was more than enough for 10 adults. In fact, there was quite a bit of left over for the next day.


Day 2:

Woken up by the boy at 7am (his usual timing). The BBQ from the previous night attracted several visitors, two of which are large monitor lizards! Of these 2, one became a regular and kept coming back several times looking for food.

Breakfast was at the nearby Mayang Sari Beach Club. Breakfast buffet was unimpressive, feels like a canteen.



After breakfast, it was exploring time. All of us managed to squeeze into the villa buggy for a trip around Nirwana Gardens. We were surprised that they had a mini "zoo" on the grounds which showcased some of the local wildlife. We also took the opportunity to visit the main resort to have a look around before going back to the villa.

After lunch, it was swimming time! All of us had a great time in the private pool. Even Cayden had his very first swimming experience! The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling out around the pool area. What a relaxing day!


Day 3:

From our recce on Day 2, we found that the main resort had a much better restaurant for breakfast. So we proceeded there instead of the "canteen" at Mayang Sari, and we were not disappointed. The variety and quality of the food was much better.

Before checking out, we managed to get about an hour or more of swim time at the public pool at the main resort. More swimming fun for Cayden! This time, we even managed to dunk him underwater (although he wasn't too happy about that).

Finally we checked out of the villa around 1230hrs (Bintan time). The journey back to Singapore was pretty uneventful until the ferry ride where little Nikki decided to puke ... :-P

Anyway, all was well and everyone reached Singapore safe and sound. The total cost of parking for 3 days and 2 nights was about $38. The skies opened on the way back and we had a nice cool drive back home in the rain.



The photo album slideshow is available HERE.

I wonder where we should go the NEXT time ... :-)

"Zhng Chia" #1

First performance mod, RS*R down springs. Made in Japan. Lowering: 1.4" front and rear.

Was considering Eibachs when the special offer for RS*Rs came about. Eibachs would have cost 1.5 times more.

Result:
- Looks better without the big gap between the wheels and the fenders
- Springs stiffer but ride quality still very good
- Not too low so no scraping of bodykit with the floor or speed bumps
- Better handling especially at high speed (less air going under the car) and cornering

There was no alignment done, will have to monitor for uneven tire wear and woolly steering, but so far so good.

Kerb Rash

:-(

Kerb Rash ... got it two months ago at City Hall basement carpark entrance. Looks pretty severe from this close up but luckily it is not noticeable from a distance.

Picasa 3

If you don't already know, Picasa 3 (non-beta release) is available for download. This new version has lots of cool features. Some of what I like (after playing around for a few minutes) are:

- viewer capability (can acts like a photo viewer)
- new fully customisable collage creator (can move, rotate, size and bring forward and backward photos in the pile)
- post entries straight to Blogger



Download your FREE copy today ... :-)

Sun and Moon

A collage of photos from several visits to the Sun and Moon japanese restaurant at Wheelock Place.

Smarties

Testing the N78's camera produced this Yummy shot.

Only Smarties have the Answer!! (so are you a smartie?)

E1111E

I think this Hyundai Matrix has the coolest license plate number in Singapore. The number itself should be worth much more than the car!!

Parking Idiot in 6SNA5

Taken at 6 Serangoon North Avenue 5 basement carpark.
Having plenty of lots in the carpark shouldn't automatically translate to irresponsible parking ...

Another new car gadget

Have been using this "Rear View Mirror DVR" product now for about a month. I think it beats the el-cheapo "Drive Recorder" which I bought earlier this year.

Here are some general comments:

Pros:
- Overall package is quite nice
- Build quality is not too bad
- Wide angled adjustable camera
- Auto recording start upon ignition on
- Capture until last second upon ignition off
- Loops recorded video in first-in-first-out fashion (1GB can store approx. 100 minutes of video)
- The recorded files can be saved in 1 min, 3 min, 5 min or 10 min blocks
- There is also a feature where you can "lock" files to prevent them from being deleted / overwritten
- This thing can support 2 cameras. You can put a second camera for your car interior, or facing the rear. When there is power to this camera, the DVR and LCD will take this as the input. So by hooking up the reverse camera to the reverse lamp (for power), you can have a reverse camera view on your rear view mirror with DVR recording! You can do the same thing with the interior camera by hooking it up to the interior cabin lights (for power). That way, the interior is recorded everytime any of the car doors are open (great for taxi driver safety)!
- The unit captures audio too, not sure if this is a pro or con cos your conversation in the car will also be captured! (Good thing is that you can turn this feature off)

Cons:
- Mirror is quite big and bulky so may have a problem for those who like to use the sunshade, or those with small original mirrors which hang high
- Resolution too low (320x240), would have liked at least 640x480
- Prompts you to format SD card every 7 days, suspect it is to clean up any bad files that could have been created during ignition off
- There is date/time on the unit but somehow it cannot be captured in the video. It is used only for timestamping the recorded files
- The fast forward and rewind functions are buggy
- Price is not cheap

Although the video is not as hi-def as I would have liked, I think it would still come in handy as evidence should any accident occur through no fault of yours.

Anyway, have attached some interesting videos captured by the unit on YouTube. The quality is slightly better in the original file than what can be seen online. As you can see, both videos are of taxi drivers ...

1) Idiotic taxi who cuts into my lane, slows down, and then recklessly swerves into filter lane to avoid red light!!




2) Another taxi which abruptly cuts queue inside yellow box ...

Packed Weekend

It's been a long time since I had so much activities on the weekend ...

Sat (AM):

Was supposed to have lunch with Wifey's friends at Vivocity Marche. So we happily went there and when we reached, we realised that we were 24 hours too early, thanks to some mis-communication (not on my part ... :-P ) In any case, we attempted and succeeded in having lunch with the boy at Shin Kushiya. Most part of it was taking turns looking after Cayden as he woke up before our set lunches arrived. Not very glamorous but we managed to finish our Mixed Kushiyaki Set and Cha Soba Set before he made any fuss. In fact, we were so busy with him that we forgot to take photos ... shucks!

After that it was shopping at Giant before heading down to in-laws place for part 2 for the day.

Sat (PM):

It was Wifey's aunt's birthday. So she treated us to dinner at Joe's Kitchen Thai Restaurant. Its a small restaurant at Alexandra Village with cheap but reasonably good Thai food. HERE are some pictures of what we ordered.

Sun (AM)

Went back to Vivocity AGAIN and this time we finally had our lunch at Marche. Spent about 2 hours catching up and taking some photos before we left

Sun (PM)

This is finally when we got time to relax for the weekend, although about an hour was spent trying to get the boy to sleep, and another hour trying to get him to stop crying and go back to sleep after he woke up (probably from a bad dream or loud noise).


I think the picture below aptly sums up our weekend ... :-D

Singapore Motor Show 2008

For 8 bucks, during F1 season, this show was quite a disappointment. In fact, the show occupied only one floor and had only 3 major brands showing their cars; Subaru, Nissan and Honda. None of the other brands were there. I guess the slowing economy and realisation that car shows in Singapore had almost no ROI kept them away.

Even the car and bike "babes" were in short supply. Anyway, here are some photos of our 1 hour walkabout ...

Singapore Motorshow 2008 pics ...

Lunch @ Shokudo

When we wanted a place to go for lunch during the Hari Raya holiday, we decided to go to Shokudo as all (except me and wifey) have not been there before.

This is the third time I'm here and this time its with family. It is also Cayden's longest outing yet. Although we (those with kids) were late for 45 minutes, we had a blast ... heh heh!



Click on the Photo above to see Flickr Set

Hypertension

Recently I have been feeling a "general sense of tiredness". Sometimes headaches and maybe occasionally the "stoned/dizzy" feeling. Also, my right eye recently also started to be more sentitive to bright light and can get slightly blurry in bright environments.

So on Wednesday evening, I decided to go see a GP to check out what is wrong. After checking several things, the main conclusion is that my BP is high. The first reading gave him a shock, 155 mm/Hg for Systolic! The second reading went down to 145 mm/Hg.

In any case, I already had this suspicion about my BP because of the recent stresses at work and the lack of sleep/rest.

Anyway, the prescription was for REST so I got 2 days MC. In addition, the doc also gave some meds which I checked out are more for relief of "anxiety". Anyway, I don't think I will be taking them. Also, I will be ignoring my office email for these two days as well. :-P

Today is my 2nd day of MC and I decided to get myself a BP monitor so that I can monitor BP myself. There were several models but eventually I settled on the mid-range model which has most of the features I need. Cost about 150 bucks.

I have taken several readings already. Some are normal and some are above 135/85 (which is supposedly the guideline for being borderline hypertensive). As you can see from the pic, this is in a normal relaxed setting at home and my BP is still borderline hypertensive (137/86). Can't imaging what would be like in the office!

Gonna go swimming later to excercise the body and the mind ...

What the numbers mean:

http://new-fitness.com/Blood_Pressure/numbers.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_pressure

Babies and Phones

Tuesday I took child care leave and brought Cayden to NUH for his second round of vaccination. The pediatrician seemed to be pleased with "little botak's" physical development. His comments were that he was about 2 months ahead. (i.e. He can now turn over, interact through voice, grab stuff and even stand supported for a few seconds). Obviously mummy and daddy were very happy to hear this.

Anyway, the vaccinations this time round included 1 oral (Rotavirus) and 2 injections (Pneumococcal and the 5-in-1). There was screaming but it was short.

After that, we brought him to Takashimaya to accompany us while we went to convert our broadband, home phone and wifeys' mobile phone to MIO plan. The process was so complicated that it took almost 2 hours! What came out of it was that I got a Nokia N78 (with the S$100 discount) for S$38 only.

The N78 is quite an amazing phone packed full of features and it was on offer for just S$138 with a price plan. Its got the works ... 3 megapixel Carl Zeiss with AF and LED flash, 3G, Quad Band, WiFi, A-GPS, Bluetooth, stereo speakers, FM radio, Internet Radio etc. etc.

Tested out all these features and they worked like a charm. Only thing is the GPS took quite some time to lock on to the Satellites (even with the A-GPS).

Sample shot taken with the 3MP Carl Zeiss below:



Unfortunately, my office "officially" does not allow the use of camera phones, so this N78 will either be a weekend phone or it will be used "discreetly" since I have an "offical" non-camera E51.

Oh yes, we also managed to finish a nice dinner at the Japanese restaurant at Takashimaya B2 today without any problems with the boy too!

Botak Boy

The boy's head was shaven on Monday ... looked like he didn't mind a bit!



In fact, his hair is back with a vengeance. It's Friday today and the stubbly regrowth is now quite obvious.

Suckky Weekend

The (last) weekend was not a good one. After the last blog post, got sick with a bad headache and fever. This went on for 2 days until end of Saturday. Then after that, the home desktop PC's graphic card died. Arrgh! As if that was not enough, during Sunday's lunch, as I was chomping down some salad, one part of my molar (yes, my tooth) broke off!

Now, I'm about 90% recovered (still got a bit of headache whenever I'm at work but no fever), got a new entry-level nVidia 9500GT graphics card (cost me 139 bucks), but have yet to fix my tooth. Made an appointment for next Tuesday. Hope they are able to rebuild the broken part of the crown. Anyway, it's probably gonna cost a few hundred bucks and some pain too.

The only good piece of news so far is a project incentive "bonus" that I will be receiving soon. (Most of which I think will be used to pay for the graphics card and dental work ... bleah!)

Dubai Day #2-#4

I'm back in SG. In my current state of partial consciousness (I dunno why since its only 4 hours difference between Dubai and Singapore) I shall attempt to summarise the last 3 days of activities:

Day #2
Other than work, the day ended pretty well when our partner hosted us to drinks (wanted to go to Buddha Bar but it was closed for renovation) at Bar 44 (located on the 44th floor of the Grosvenor House Hotel). Had a "Blackberry Mohito" which tasted a bit like a mix of Ribena and a normal Mohito.

After that, dinner was after a buggy ride round the beach at the Royal Meridien. The restaurant chosen by our host was a Lebanese restaurant (I think its Al Khalma). Food was authentic (to me at least) and excellent. Had kebabs, hummus, parsley salad etc. before ending the day close to midnight and taking a 1 minute taxi ride back ... :-)


This is Dubai Internet City, where we had our meetings.

Day #3
Not much happening on this day. After work, took a stroll around the apartments where we stayed (Jermeirah Beach Residences - also known as JBR). Bought some clothes for Baby Cayden. After that we ordered Papa Joe's Pizza to eat in.

Day #4
Today was very rush. After work, we went to Ibn Battutah for some very late lunch. It was kind of a disaster; 1. No Taxis ... 2. No Food cos its Ramadan month. In the end, we managed to find some take-away food at the food court (some subway type sandwiches) after 20 mins of walking. After that, we had to walk 20 mins again back to the taxi stand! The mall was huge but empty cos most people were fasting.

Since taxis were so hard to find at this time of day, we took the cab from the mall back to the apartments and asked him to wait for us for 10 minutes to "get our luggage" ... which to us meant packing + eating lunch + changing!

Anyway, other than the fact that I had to work, it is a nice first trip to Dubai.


This is the view from our apartment.

Dubai Day #1

We reached Dubai at 3am in the morning. By the time we got to the apartment it was already 3:45am, and that was when the fun started...

1. The door key can fit the lock but cannot turn (I was afraid of turning too hard and the key breaks), meaning we are stuck outside the apartment with all our luggage. Made a few calls back to Singapore to the last person who used the apartment. Finally, 20 minutes later, I was able to turn the key forcefully. The key could not turn easily because there was another key stuck in the keyhole on the other side of the door.

2. After getting in, we got a shock when we found strangers sleeping in some of the rooms! Apparently, our Dubai project manager lent the key to some friends who where moving apartment and needed a temporary place to stay. Luckily, they stayed only one night and left on the afternoon of the same day we arrived. Because of them, I had to sleep in the "maid's room" for one night. :-(

3. I also discovered that the water heater for the apartment is not working. Will have to bathe in ice cold water for the next few days.

Anyway, one of my colleague who is here had a bad fall on Sunday and is now hobbling around. Hope she gets well soon. Let's see what other interesting things happen over the next few days.

Forgot to mention that we also visited Mall of the Emirates today.

Waiting ...

The flight departure time is 2340, boarding time is 2240, I've already checked-in, found myself a quiet spot and it is only 2115. This reminded me of the time last year where I had to wait about 4-5 hours for Wifey at Arlanda Airport. That wait was worse cos there was absolutely NOTHING to do!

Anyway, the departure gate is E8, which is super far away in some little corner. I'll probably listen to some new tunes on my Zen or surf YouTube till my laptop battery runs flat.

Next update should be in Dubai.

Travelling Again ...

The last time I set foot on a plane was almost a year ago, when Cayden was smaller than a peanut and Gold was around US$600/oz. (Argh!)

Anyway, I am now working on a tender for Dubai (among several other things, as usual). About two months ago, I was asked to go but I managed to excuse myself from the trip as Cayden was only 1+ month old. This time round there is a second trip, and being the officially appointed technical lead, I think it's better that I go.

Which means ...

I will miss baby Cayden for 1 week
I will feel the heat in Dubai (close to 40 degrees Centigrade) for 1 week
I will experience Ramadan in Dubai for 1 week (no food/drink in public during the day)
I will be working full-time with overseas partners for 1 week

The only plus points that I see is that this will be a new experience as I have not been to Dubai before. Hopefully as well, I can learn much from working with these overseas partners.

Stay tuned for updates and maybe some photos if I have time.

KooshLog: Family / Work Life Balance

KooshLog: Family / Work Life Balance

Just an update to the last post, I have just received a "New Born Gift" from my company, 50 bucks. Wifey's "New Born Gift" from hers was 20 times more ... :-D

Family / Work Life Balance

The last hope of a great family / work life balance faded away during the weekend as the last TOTO ticket was carefully scrutinised, and then dumped into the trash bin. Is it really that hard to achieve?

Wifey has only started going back to work for less than a week after maternity leave and we were "forced" to leave the boy at the in-law's place overnight because of work related reasons:

1. Meeting at 8:30am in the morning, too early to fetch the boy from home to in-law's.
(A whole bunch of people turned up ... and mostly wasted their time)

2. Meeting until 9:00pm at night, too late to bring the boy home.
(Probably so people can claim for their taxi fare home)


Recently, there has been talk about raising the declining birth rate. I just heard on the news that Singapore's current figure stands at 1.29. A quick search on the Internet revealed articles in 2004 at which the birth rate was 1.25. I'm not sure how accurate these figures are but a 0.04 increase over 4 years is hardly encouraging.

Personally, I think $$$ may not be the factor for most couples when it comes to having children. Time is more important. Working environments and working habits and expectations of bosses need to be changed.

Anyway, both of us work in government-related industries. Wifey has a better deal from her HR which offers an encouraging pro-family/baby package, but unfortunately, mine doesn't even offer a single day of paternity leave ...

Lancer EX GT Fuel Consumption

Today I had a meeting very early in the morning (first thing at 8:30am) so I went to office straight from home. The journey from Yew Tee to Serangoon North was Expressway all the way.

Driving normally, the average FC meter for the GT reached a peak of 13.1 km/l, pretty impressive for a short highway drive. I wonder how high it can go if I ever get a chance at the North South Highway ...

Rolling Over

As with many new parents, every first giggle, wobble, sneeze and coo is a milestone of achievement for their child, and so true is it for us.

Little Cayden has learnt how to hold his head up while lying prone on the bed for some time already, but now, he can roll himself over ... and back!

Changi Airport Terminal 3

For the past few weeks, wifey has been staying with my in-laws during the daytime while I was at work. Because of the little prince, we have not had time to go out for a meal for a couple of months already. So as a sign of appreciation, wifey decided to bring them all out to T3 to take a look as they have not been there before. It is also a good excuse for me to take 1/2 day leave to escape from the "mess" in the office.

Anyway, weekdays are the best times to go relax. We went there in the afternoon to walk around. T3 is huge and there are not too many people around so seats were aplenty. Took quite a number of photos before ending up sipping Pure Caramel Ice-Blended while surfing the net with my new E51. So relaxing. I definitely need more of these outings ...



Click photo for the Flickr Set

Nokia E51

Being in the technology business, I must say that I was "ashamed" not to know of the existence of the Nokia E51 non-camera phone. It is known as the E51-2. (The E51-1 is the camera version)

It was only recently that I saw the E51-2 for sale at a popular local shop (MobileSquare). The E51-2 was only available in Steel Silver at the shop. This gave the phone a very business/professional finish but also made it a fingerprint magnet.

The specifications were exactly what I wanted. 3.5G, WiFi, Bluetooth, Outlook Sync ... the works, and all in a slim and sleek body. The phone runs the latest S60 operating system and it is quite rare to find a phone with such features but without a camera. The lack of a QWERTY keyboard was not really an issue as I found that I have not lost my number pad thumbing skills.

Needless to say, I told wifey about and and the next day, we bought 2 of these phones. We particularly like the WiFi features as we could surf the net and download applications, themes, ringtones etc. for free both at home and outside. TomTom GPS navigation and MSN Live is also available for the E51. Apps such as iScoot and Gizmo also allows free VOIP calls and chats, neat!

Time Flies ...

The past 2 weeks have gone by in a blur. It's 11pm now and I intend to catch up on some much needed sleep after this blog entry while the little guy is still having his nap. Anyway, he will be 2 months old tomorrow, how time flies.

Some milestones/events that has been achieved these last 2 weeks:

1. Started the daily routine of fetching Cayden and Wifey to in-law's place in the morning and then back after work. This will be the de-facto routing after Wifey starts work.

2. Cayden has learnt to "talk" to people who "talk" to him.

3. Cayden has also almost doubled his weight since birth. He is now just over 6kg. He can now take on the title of "Michelin Man".

4. Cayden has also taken a liking to sleeping in the sarong cradle, so his other nickname is "Sarong Boy"... so guess who is the "Sarong Man".

5. The new car has travelled 1000km and its time for its first service.



Click photo for the Flickr Set

Going Flying

Took leave yesterday and went down to C&C's new car collection centre to pick up the car. First time buying a car from C&C so it was a new and interesting experience.

As Wifey was cooped up at home for so long so we took the opportunity + leave + new car + inspiration from Cactus' post and went for a short trip to the Singapore Flyer. It's been quite a while since we went out to a new place. Going "Flying" was a great experience, our very first outing as a family and it felt like we were overseas although we were only in downtown Singapore.

For those who have not been there, I highly recommend it. Go during a weekday if possible, parking is not full, plus there are less people. In fact, the ~60 bucks we paid for the 2 adult tickets was really worth it cos we got the WHOLE CAPSULE TO OURSELVES! Check out the photos HERE.

As Cayden is only 1.5 months, its not advisable to go for long trips (in fact, any trips) so we kept it short. Dinner was originally at Popeye's Chicken and Biscuit restaurant but the air con was quite cold so we decided to take-away instead. Yummy!

Red ...

Bubbles is no more, the Lady in Red has arrived ...



I do apologize for the lack of quality in the above photo which does not do her justice. This is the only decent shot out of the few hurried snaps in the carpark in low light. As you can see, the plastic wrap around the seats haven't even been removed. Will take and post more later.

ScribeFire

This is another cool plugin if you are using FireFox. Makes blogging much more convenient and faster. However, it used DIV for formatting which I don't like because it is inconsistent with the rest of my pages.

(Published via ScribeFire plugin for Firefox 3.0, edited to remove DIV tags)

PicLens

If you are always viewing images from Flickr, Google Image Search, Facebook photos or even YouTube videos, this is one of the coolest plugins to get!

Check it out at http://www.piclens.com

KooshLog: Goodbye Bubbles

KooshLog: Goodbye Bubbles

I think I've had it.

Today the car stopped (gearbox error) at a busy junction while I was about to go for a right turn. After fiddling for 3-4 minutes with the hazard light on, it managed to move off and later nearly stopped (gearbox error but manage to recover) when nearing the entrance to the CTE. Quickly dived into a carpark and it stopped again (gearbox error) just as I was reversing into the lot!! (I was half in the lot with the nose of the car sticking out) Couldn't push the car in also, cos the lot was a bit of an upslope. Took another 5 minutes before the car could move and reverse properly into the lot.

After all the "excitement", went to have a super late lunch (2:30pm) at a nearby coffee shop. Had cheap Lor Mee and Lime Juice accompanied by several pigeons (who were walking around picking food off the ground ... :-| ).

Decided to wait for the car to cool down so did some work in the car till 3:40pm. Took the route to the closest Expressway entrance. Once on the Expressway, its pretty safe cos its 5th gear all the way.

Anyway, the car has been stripped just now of all its good I.C.E. (In-Car Entertainment) and replaced with a cheapo S$60 used head unit. (I can work part-time as a car audio installer liow ...) It is now grounded and will only be used to drive down to trade-in for the new car.

Taxi ... !

Growth Tracking

For those who want to really track their children's growth closely, WHO (not who, but the World Health Organisation) provides an application called WHO Anthro. This application is basically for healthcare/social workers who need to track the growth of multiple children. It can produce charts and also tell you if your child's development falls within the "norm" of WHO standards.

You can download the application and manual HERE. Get the one for the PC. If you like, there is even one version for PDAs.

I'm using it to track Cayden's development.

Goodbye Bubbles

The C3's SensoDrive gearbox, once the selling point of the car is now its Achille's heel. It is highly unpredictable nowadays. Sometimes it goes well for days, other times, I will get stuck at junctions and carparks more than once a day.

Its very frustrating to not know when the problem will come, and every journey is am unknown. We had also sent the car in for servicing and the agent couldn't find anything wrong with the SensoDrive. Being the agents, solving the problem would probably mean replacing the entire gearbox, which will cost a bomb.

In the end, we decided to trade in the C3 to save on the unpredictable frustration (safety reason also) and get a more reliable car. After checking out various models, we decided on the Lancer EX GT. Will post some pics next week if I can collect it by then.

Weekend Domestic Help

With barely 5 hours of sleep last weekend, boy were we glad to see the hired weekend domestic help last Sunday. We arranged to have about 4 hours of help every weekend to clean up the house and do the ironing. The rates were S$15 per hour.

The lady assigned to us was quite nice, and she stayed just a few blocks away. The first 4 hours were supposed to be doing vacumming, mopping and ironing the clothes. However, there were so much dust tucked away in all the corners of our house that it took her 5 hours to clean up on Sunday, excluding ironing. In fact, she came back on Tuesday to complete the rest.

So far, a total of 10 hours have gone into cleaning up our place and I must say it is really very clean now. Even the day curtains are white, not grey! Tomorrow will be cleaning time again. This time, we are going to limit her to 4 hours (told her we are going out) cos there is probably still lots to clean. Better to spread it out over the next few weeks.

Cayden's 1st Month

Although officially Cayden's 1st month is on 14th June 2008, we decided to hold it a week earlier as the confinement nanny will be going back before that (we need all the help we can get!)

Anyway, we had two (yes 2!) first month affairs, one for the in-laws and one for my own. It was held across the weekend and we kept it simple mainly family events to keep logistics to a minimum.

Pictures from Saturday can be viewed HERE. (The 3rd party battery for the IXUS850 died after taking one shot at in-laws place, so had to rely on someone else camera ... so only 1 photo for Sunday)

My First Crustacean

Recently just added a freshwater red lobster into the small tank in the study room after all the fish in there died. :-)

Anyway, he (I think its a he) promptly helped me do some gardening by cleaning up ALL the DEAD and LIVE plants in there. Basically, he eats everything, from worms, flakes to plants.

Oh and BTW, his name is Mr. Sashimi ...