Dad's Trip to Down Under

Other than his honeymoon with Mum to Hong Kong way back sometime in the late 1960s, my Dad has not gone for an overseas trip (Malaysia not included) to anywhere else. So I thought it would be easy to convince him to go for a trip since he very much deserved it after all these years. Well, not what I had expected ...

I had accumulated miles on my frequent flyer account and they are going to expire end of the year. Was initially thinking of sending him to visit my cousin in the UK but now is not a good time (i.e. Winter). So decided to get him on a trip to Melbourne to visit my youngest brother, Danny.

It actually took a few phone calls + lunch + lots of saliva before he was finally convinced. Basically he did not want to go as he didn't want to impose on Danny and was afraid that he would be "neglected" once he was there. But as things turned out, Danny was currently in between jobs and welcomed the visit. I told him to plan the itinerary + provide the accomodation while I settled the travel arrangements.

I only just finished redeeming the ticket and applying the Australian "visa" (a.k.a. ETA). Now our job is to make sure he knows how to get on/off the plane next week!

New Blogger Template

Yes, this is a new Blogger template that I am using, and it looks exactly the same as the old one! After trying several designs, I still like the clean and simple look of Minima.



There are plenty of new templates created for Blogger Beta on the Net. This example shows how to modify a template to create 2 sidebars (i.e. 3 columns).

Blogger Beta

Just mustered enough courage to make the "plunge" to Blogger Beta. What's the worst that could happen ... lose my entire blog?!

Anyway, it took about 2 minutes for Blogger to migrate all the pages to Blogger Beta and it sent me an email notification when it was done. I think the Blogger Beta servers are not highly utilised as the access speed after migration was much faster.

The only major changes that I've seen so far is the change in the login parameters, change of user interface and the ability to add labels to your posts. Also, posting is much faster as it does not need to keep on refreshing the web page to tell you how much it has published.

When there is time, I will also play around with the new Templates. Cross my fingers and hope this new Beta remains stable!

Organic Apple Cider Vinegar

My wifey's friend had just given birth not long ago. The last visit we had to her place she was telling us the weight loss benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV). Next thing we knew, we had bought a bottle of Organic ACV to try out. The bottle we bought is from the Organic section in NTUC. Cost is around S$10. The recommended serving is 1-2 tsp mixed in a glass of water before every meal (i.e. 3 times per day). For those who cannot take the smell/taste of vinegar, this concoction may not be for you! Food_

Anyway, hope it works for me. A quick search on Google for ACV revealed that it was not just for weight loss but is beneficial in other ways too.

一度赞 Instant Noodles

Wifey and her colleages has just shipped a huge stock of instant noodles back from ROC (several cartons of the stuff apparently!). Apparently, this brand is a hot favourite among our soldiers who go up there for training.

We tried one yesterday morning for breakfast and it brought back memories over ten years ago. At that time I was in ROC and we sneaked out of the camp to the provision shop across the road and had instant noodles! The noodles were the same, springy and it came with a super spicy soup (great on a cold ROC morning!) and authentic tasting chunks of stewed beef. Oh yes, and the shop assistant was real "chio" too!

Bon Appetite! Food_



Afternote: As with all "instant" stuff, try to eat only as occasional snack!