Merry Christmas 2011

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year in 2012.

We got ourselves Apple products this year; iPad2, iPhone4 and iPhone4s.....!



Christmas in Singapore - 2011

We wish you a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year ...!

Here is a slide show of the christmas decorations along Orchard Road and all over Singapore too!

It is now 2 months+ after Jason's knee surgery and his right knee looks normal like before, no more swelling and pain.

The keyhole surgery wounds are still evident but have healed very well.

You can see the previous post that was done in Oct and you can see that the right knee was still swollen and looked more rounded; at http://pcwthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/10/jason-knee-surgery-progress.html

Jason is still undergong physiotherapy sessions, twice a week to strenghten his knee and just started to do some light jogging only. At least another 3 months of therapy is required.

Hole-In-One

Congratulations to our friend, Kui Hwa, for making her hole-in-one on 16 Oct 2011 LNGCC Master Course - Hole#17 !

What Are the Odds of Making a Hole-In-One?

In 1999, Golf Digest reported, "One insurance company puts a PGA Tour pro's chances at 1 in 3,756 and an amateur's at 1 in 12,750."

Penang Food in Singapore

Being a Penang Boy at heart though a Singaporean now, I always miss my Pg food and will always check out what is available here.

Otherwise, whenever I am back in Pg to visit my parents on a quarterly basis, I will be eating out for almost all my meals........ha....ha...

I recently lunched at this restaurant, Gurney Drive, in Suntec City basement and found that the Pg food are close or even the same as that sold in Penang itself. Importantly, the prices are reasonable too compared to another restaurant that I tried out here.

Check it out at this website :
http://www.gurneydrive.com.sg/mainall.htm

The food that I ordered for our lunch was :

- Char Koay Tewo
- Hokkien Prawn Mee
- Assam Laksa
- Lombak
- Rojak
- Chendol
- Ice Teh
- Ice Kopi

So please check it out and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.

BTW, it was full house with a short queue during the peak lunch hour......

Your Penang Boy

iPhone 4s - I Bought It...!

I managed to buy the iPhone 4s this morning without having to queue overnight or even more than 15 minutes...!

I was initially waiting for the launch of iPhone 4s and hoping that the prices for iPhone 4 would drop.... but the Telco are smart and they are offering iPhone 4 8GB at about S$400, which is not a drop in price but offering a small capacity iPhone at a seemingly cheaper price!

I bought an iPhone 4 16GB for Jason, at S$500 ( with contract  of S$38 per month for 2 years ) in early Sept 2011.

As such, I decided to buy the iPhone 4s 16GB at S$498 and re-contract my mobile plan ( good timing...eh! ).

But knowing that my son will get the best out of the iPhone as I am a simple user and guided by him on such technology, I am going to swop mobile with him. I will take his iPhone 4 16 GB and he will take the new iPhone 4s 16GB.

Importantly, I was very lucky to have been able to buy the iPhone 4s 16GB as I just walked into the shop and hope for the best.

I managed to buy the last unit of the Black iPhone 4s with 16 GB from this telco partner shop.

To be honest, my wife and I did not expect that we could get one today as people were queuing overnight to buy one, according to the newspapers.

I was actually expecting to get one when the next round of shipment comes in.

This is sort of a win or victory for me as I hardly chase the latest model and importantly, I did not have to join a long queue and I went to the shop just before lunch time ( expecting to see a Sold Out sign instead ).

So to-date, the family has iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4, iPhone 4s and an iPad 2 too......!

Jason Knee Surgery Progress

Jason has his right knee ACL reconstruction surgery 1 month ago and recovering well.

He was off the crutches after our trip to Penang and now back to school which just started this Monday.

He is wearing a knee support to stabilise his knee as he is not 100% fit and he has to climb up a slope to get to his school on the top of a hill...!

Still some slight swelling around the knee and has attended 7 sessions of physiotherapy to-date to regain the strength of his muscles.

Jason's ex-Kinderland classmate, Ryan Tay, who was back from Geelong to take his NS medical tests dropped by to see him. Both of them have really grown up .....!

Video on Jason's Knee Surgery

The Dr briefly went through the operation done on Jason's knee to reconstruct his torn ACL, a week after the operation by showing us the video taken during the 20 minutes procedure.

I have edited the video to 6 minutes as some of Jason's friends were keen to see it; highlights of the operation.

It is not bloody but I hope you have the stomach to see it as it can be quite gruesome .......

Another Year Older .....

I just celebrated my birthday so another year older and wiser too....I hope...ha...ha...

Thanks for all the birthday greetings that came through Facebook and emails too.

Birthday lunch and cake from my sisters Sue and Wei, during my recent Penang trip.

A durian cake from my family when we were back in Singapore.

Happy Birthday.....!

Penang Trip 4-7 Oct 2011

My family & I visited our parents in Penang and here is a slideshow of some photos taken during the trip.

Jason Recovering Well from ACL Reconstruction Surgery

Jas have been recovering at home for more than a week now and progress is good.

Last Sat, we went back to the Dr clinic and his dressing were removed. Dr put some sort of medical glue over the keyhole wounds and the glue will drop off in good time, on it own.

Jas has also been using the Continuous Passive Motion (CPM) machine for his knee therapy; flexing from 0 to 100 degrees.

He has also started physiotherapy treament, twice a week for 2-3 months.


He is off painkiller but still on crutches and using the cold gel to reduce the remaining swelling on the leg.

Knee Surgery - ACL Reconstruction

Jason came home with a bandaged knee after twisting it in a street soccer competition.

He said that he was running very fast, stopped and turned sideways suddenly, he heard a 'pop' sound like when you crack your knuckles.

Luckily, he got some cold ice water in a plastic bag to apply on his inured knee and stopped playing immediately.

The MRI scan showed a torn ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) and this ligament prevents the knee joint from slipping forward, no wonder Jas was complaining that while there were no pain and swelling, he felt something loose when he walked.

Jas was wearing a knee guard and using a walking stick until his surgery was done.

The Dr ( Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon) examined Jas legs and we were all give a very good talk on the knee joint and the ligaments. HE even did not look at the MRI but by stretching his injured leg in various directions, he was able to conclude the possible problem which was confirmed by the MRI.

We discussed the options and decided on taking his hamstring tendon to replaced the damaged ACL through keyhole surgery, scheduled for last Sat afternoon.

Jas will be on crutches for 2-3 weeks and then go for physiotherapy session for 3-6 months. HE should not be playing any sports for a year to ensure full recovery.

The surgery was a success and he stayed in the hospital for 3 days to get over the pain and learned how to use the crutches ( eg. walking and climbing the stairs as we live in a double storey terrace house ).

Today, Jas is still recovering at home with his crutches, exercise on the CPM machine and also using an ice wrap to manage the swelling on the leg.

The good news is that he is only using 1 painkiller drug instead of 3 when in the hospital.

Luckily, he is on 6 weeks end of 1st semester holidays.

Happy Birthday, Mummy Poh

We celebrated Mummy Poh birthday last month and here are a couple of photos :

Jason appears taller in the photo as he was trying out his new dress shoes, bought that evening, and his puffy hair gave him some added height too....!

Happy Birthday to you, Mummy....!

Happy Teacher's Day - 1 September 2011

Happy Teacher's Day to all the teachers .......!

Teaching is indeed a very noble profession and they are the ones that are guiding our children to be responsible and contributing to our societies in the future.

I noticed how a teacher can influence the students; eg I still remember during his primary school days, Jason came home one day and told me that eating too much MacDonald fries is bad for health according to his teacher. While he has not stopped eating fries but it definitely has an impact on him.

Generally, Jason looks up to all his teachers but there are a few not so good teachers that he told me about. Luckily, these few are from the old generation where they are never wrong and the rule the class with an iron fist.

I have the privilege of teaching in Temasek Poly for a year and I really enjoy my time there. I still keep in touch with a few students through Facebook, mainly.

There is always this one student that have been sending me a Happy Teacher's Day greetings for the past few years. In fact, I just received his greeting through sms just now.

I am glad that I have made a difference to him and hopefully, a few other students too.

It is not easy when you have difficult students but it is very satisfying when you can feel that you are making some contribution or a difference to the students.

So teachers out there, I salute you and keep up the good work!

David

Teeth Crowning

After 4 weeks of recovery from my crown lengthening, I finally went for my 2 crowns to be done this morning.

I have done this before and this is my 3rd crowning to-date.

The price has gone up by about S$300 but my dentist was kind enough to waive it but my total bill for the 2 crowns still came up to S$2K+.

She shaved the teeth and made moulds of the teeth in order make the crowns which will be ready the following week.

I hope these will be my last crowns.....sigh

Apparently, my teeth got stained quite fast by my coffee drinking but luckily, the stains are behind the front teeth so they are not so visible when I smile.

The good news is that the staining does not cause teeth decay but the accumulation of tartar instead so I need to see her regularly to do scaling to remove them. So far, I go for scaling about once a year though she advises me to do it every 6 months.

My parents are wearing dentures but the children have better teeth as we grew up with better dental care and I am sure the grandchildren will be even exposed to better dental care at an early age.

So please take care of your teeth and you will be able to enjoy all the good food and no problem with chewing them when we grow old.

David

Dental Surgery - Crown Lengthening

During my regular dental check-up, my dentist told me that she has problem putting in 2 crowns on my molar teeth as there are quite a bit filling so no original tooth to hold the crown and suggested that I consult her colleague, a Periodontist, to do crown lengthening surgery.

So what is crown lengthening surgery?

Crown lengthening is a common surgery. Gum tissue or bone is taken out. This exposes more of a tooth.

I rather control my own destiny than wait until the filling breaks then panic to get it done.

So I have the surgery done last week and I am recovering now. I am due back in a few days'time to have the stictches removed.

The surgery took a bit longer than expected as my gum were very fibrous ( I think lots of veins as blood kept on oozing out, according to her ) but this means it is very healthy and will recovered very fast.

Also, my jaw bone is very tough as she has to used 3 blades to grind it and they were all blunt after the procedure! She commented that this is very unlikely for Asian men but more for Westerners.

While it did not really hurt during the surgery after having the gums numbed but it is not something that I like to go through again.

As advised, I iced the area when I reached home and on the second day too so the swelling and bruising are kept to a minimu if not almost non-existence.


In 4 weeks' time after a complete recovery, I will be going back to have my 2 crowns done.

This surgery cost me S$2K+ and the crowning another S$2K+.....!

No choice as dental health is also very important.


The areas circled in black are where the stitches were put to hold the gums in place. The red lines indicates the amount of teeth exposed after cutting away some gums and grinding the jaw a bit so that the crown can sit in securely.

Monday Blues - 25 July 2011

25 July 2011, a Monday, was indeed not one of my better days...!

I left home without my mobile but thought that I should be able to manage without it as my wife was with me and we were taking her mother to the TTS hospital for her doctor's appointment; a 2-3 hours event.

Everything went as expected until the taxi dropped us off at my mum-in-law's (MIL) block of flats in Toa Payoh.

We were careful to ensure that MIL took her time to get out of the taxi and was moving with her walking stick.

BUT after a few steps, she somehow switched to two hands on her walking stick in front of her.... and she lost her balance and fell on her left side.

We were behind her but it happened so fast that we were caught off guard.

We helped her up but it was obvious that she was in pain and her left elbow was badly bruised but luckily, she did not hit her head on the ground.

We wanted to send her for an x-ray to check that there was no broken bones but MIL refused and claimed that if she has any broken bones, she could not have walked back to the flat with our help.

Never argue with an old stubborn lady...sigh

We iced her hip area and I cleaned and put some iodine on her elbow wound area.

She was in pain so we gave her her pain killer medicine just obtained earlier from her Dr.

Later in the evening, we managed to convince her to go to TTS A&E to have her hip looked into as she was really in pain and having difficulty walking to the toilet.

I followed the ambulance and got off the taxi at TTS A&E car park.
A few steps later, I realised that I might have dropped my wallet after paying my fare.

My wife called NTUC Comfort and managed to get them to locate the taxi and he agreed to return to the TTS A&E car park for me to pick up my wallet.

We were impressed by their prompt service and very grateful as we were not in the mood to go to the police to report the loss of the wallet and then to call the Banks to cancel all my credit cards.. and replace my NRIC too!

I gave the taxi driver a small reward and he refused but I insisted on it.

The X-ray showed no broken bones but MIL was warded to do a MRI the following day.
By the time she was warded and we waited to meet the Dr on duty, it was almost mid-night.

What a day...... a Monday, the start of a new week too....!

David

My July 2011 Penang Trip

I just returned from my trip to Penang to visit my parents and my elder sister.

I accompanied my Mum to the hospital for her twice a week Physiotherapy sessions, each lasting an average 2.5 hours and about 6 exercises.

This is the Physiotherapy centre, a separate building and entrance from the hospital proper, next to the car park at the side.

I am glad that Mum has gotten used to going for her Physio sessions and she looks forward to them. I jokingly say that it is her social club as she knows all the staff there and also a few of the other patients.

My sister with her car parked near to the Physio centre. There are no taxi running on the road in Penang so it is more convenient to have your own car especially when it is so much cheaper there compared to Singapore.

I managed to go down to Prangin Mall to do some shopping...but nothing much unless you have something in mind; eg I repaired my son's mobile as it was about S$10 cheaper there.

I also went out with my sister and my Dad separately for a meal and a movie; seeing the movie, Transformers - Dark Side of the Moon, twice as there was no other interesting movie showing then. The movie cost me less than S$3 per person...!

It was a good break from life in Singapore....ha...ha...

David

Swimming at Bedok Pool

Hi,

2 years ago, my Dr suggested that I should swim since I have my bad left knee, confirmed that I have osteoarthritis (OA), and no impact sport.

I was not able to discipline myself until early this year when I met my friend, Su Tjing, who told me that he started swimming laps with his buddies. Twice or thrice a week and he feels better; eg better posture and chest muscles are more firm.

I was surprised and motivated by him and I started to swim immediately after the Chinese New Year holidays, that was around mid-Feb this year.

Going to the Bedok swimming pool alone was not very inviting but I have to do it for health reasons so I pushed myself initially.

I only managed to swim 2 - 4 laps during the first week but eventually averaging 8 laps easily.

It has now become a habit or something that I look forward to weekly, I swim at least 8 laps now twice a week in the morning.

I then walk to Bedok Central to buy lunch for my family & I unless I have to rush off for some appointment.

I am glad to say that I do feel better overall and here are some surprising results after 3 months.

I can squat properly now and I could not do so previously due to my bad left knee.

I have also lost 2 Kg in my weight.

I would like to lose more and hope I can do it in the coming months.

It only cost me S$1 for entrance to the pool and $0.20 for a locker. The bus fare for 2 stops is only $0.71 using my Ezlink card, one way.

I also meet quite a few of senior citizens, who come with a walking stick, most of them swimming laps in the deep pool and a few just casually swimming or even walking in the pool.

I am also motivated by them and I am not surprised if they do it daily too!

So my friends, I am a believer in swimming as a form of exercise now.

Well, do consider taking up swimming for your exercise and you will not regret it.

David

Smart Phone

Hi,

Smart phones are getting more popular in the past year, based on the reported statistics.

I think you also need to be pretty smart to use one of these phones too.

Why?

Let me share with you some of my recent experiences on such phones.

I recently decided to download applications into my mobile smart phone by connecting it to my home network.

After doing the downloads, I turned off the connectivity but the mobile will still automatically search for the network and connect itself every few minutes.

I seek help from a mobile shop and I was told that I did turned off the connectivity so we agreed that the best solution is to set the mobile back to factory settings.

So I attempted to do it and was prompted a password to set it back to default factory settings.

Password?

I managed to call the mobile manufacturer help desk for the default password and took the opportunity to tell him my problem. He advised me to turned off the access point through another option and my problem has been solved.

Do you know that your applications continue to run when you exit from them?

We were taught by my nephews who are using iPhone 4 as they incurred high data charges when on holidays overseas and found that they were getting automatic downloads for some of the running applications!

Similarly for my mobile, not an iPhone, as I realise that the battery is running out quite fast lately.

So I wonder what other things that I need to be aware when using a smart phone..?

While I think I do not really need a smart phone but the few applications like stock market, weather, SBS Iris,..... can be useful though.

Otherwise, a mobile with the typical functions is good enough as long as it also has a 3-5MP camera besides music player and FM radio.

Well, this is the new generation where technology becomes so much part of our lives....!

Mount Kinabalu

Congratulations to my neighbour, Daniel, for reaching the summit of Mount Kinabalu!

What an achievement..!

When I google about Mount Kinabalu, this is what one of the climbers said ...
"Mentally, physically and emotionally challenging! Expect to be sore for at least 3 days... Proper climbing boots a must.

Am glad we did it, but would I do it again? No! "

So Daniel, would you do it again....? Ha..ha....

Here are a few photos taken during Daniel's climb.

I definitely cannot make it with my bad knees.

However, it would be nice if I can do some hiking in Katmandu, Nepal....?

David

Lion King Musical at Marina Bay Sands

We saw the Lion King Musical at Marina Bay Sands last weekend and we both agree that it is one of the best , if not the best, musical we have seen to-date.

The costumes and props were fantastic..... and of course, the singing and the storyline too!

If you have not seen a musical before, I think you should watch Lion King musical especially when it is held at Marina Bay Sands instead of Esplanade.

You can have a preview of what it is like here :

Congrats to Jon & Amy

I am proud of my nephew, Jon, and my niece, Amy, who just graduated from their respective universities in Australia.

Amy graduated with a Bachelor of Agriculture and Bachelor of Law( First Class Honours) degrees.


Jon graduated with a Bachelor of Arts & Bachelor of Commerce degrees.

Congratulations again and I am sure their family are so happy and proud of them.

Uncle David

General Election 2011

Wow... what an experience over the past 10 days!

Though I have voted 3 times to-date, I only feel the intensity and excitement during the recent general election.

I must also admit that I am more aware of the issues and achievements through the rallies and info made available through the Internet.

As I was coming home from my breakfast, I saw and heard PAP lorry broadcasting their thanks to the public for voting for them. Similarly, I saw WP lorry doing the same and I managed to take a photo of it.

Congratulations to PAP for being elected to form the government again and also WP for winning 6 seats in this new Parliament.
Well, I just hope that we , the citizens of Singapore, will now put our differences away and work towards a prosperous and secure nation that we will be proud of and for the future generations.

David

iPhone Hung But Recovered

My dear wife's iPhone 3GS hung when I was updating the software through itunes on the PC, caused by a restart of the PC when the installation or upgrade of the software.


I pressed the button on the top to do a reset but it did not work.


I surfed the Internet to find solutions but none of them work and I dare not try some of them too, in case I made the problem worst and the shop may not want to honour the warranty.


So I went to bed and let the iPhone as it was , as it could not be switched off.


The following morning, the iPhone ran out of battery so I started to charge it.


Apparently, this triggered some sort of reset and I was prompted to link the iPhone to itune for recovery or restoration.


I was indeed so happy and managed to get the iPhone restored with the last back-up.

It is back to working status and the latest software was updated too.

Hooray!

Lessons learned:


- When updating the software on the iPhone thro' itunes on the PC, do not multi-task so as to interrupt the software upgrade process


- Backup your iPhone thro' itunes on your PC ( a few of my friends do not sync their iPhones with itunes on their PC or do not know how )


One interesting thing that I observed from this incident.... I put my wife sim card into an old Sony Ericssion mobile while I was trying to solve the problem and she struggling with it as she is so used to the finger touch interface on the iPhone...ha....ha....


I have used other smart phone and I must admit that iPhone is in a class of its own.


I should consider getting an iPhone 4 when my mobile contract expires at the end of this year....

David

My 2nd Election Rally

Since I attended last night rally by the opposition party, I thought I should also go to the one by PAP since it is held at the same venue, near my home.

Just to compare the atmosphere and get a feel of the rally by different parties.
It was definitely not as crowded as last night rally by the opposition party.


Only the grandstand and most of the terrace are filled up with people. The platform was in front of the grandstand.


Partly, we were there as one of the speakers is a brother of our friend and we wanted to see how well he can delivered his speech. I was impressed by his perfromance, good for him!

Enough of rally for this election since I can catch all of them on the Internet, i the comfort of my home especially now that I have an idea of how the atmosphere and crowd response are in these rallies.


David

Singapore Election Rally 2011

Hi,

My family and I attended our 1st election rally just a few hours ago.

We were motivated by the fact that there is always an unusual crowd in opposition rally and we wanted to experience the atmosphere and excitement that we read in the papers and on the Internet too.

Also, the rally by WP is held at Bedok stadium which is near to our home.

Though it started at 7pm but we only left our home around 7:30pm and there was traffic jam along the way and many people walking along the pavement towards the stadium.

We decided to stop one bus stop earlier and walked to the stadium as the traffic jam was pretty bad. However, we found out that there was a car accident just near the entrance of the stadium and it was causing the jam.

Upon arrival at the stadium, we thought that we may not be allowed to get in as there was a huge crowd but we managed to slowly get in through a small entrance.

Wow....! The grandstand and terrace were full with people already and people were standing on the track and field too.

We managed to slowly make our way to almost the centre of the field so that we can hear clearer from the loudspeakers.

Amazing crowd! I have never seen so many people in a stadium before!

If only this is an S League soccer game....ha..ha....

The contents of the speeches were really nothing new as I have read them in the papers and on the Internet but hearing it delivered in person, can indeed stirred up the people emotions as can be seen by their shouting and waving the opposition flags in acknowledgement of the the speeches made.

We slowly made our way out of the stadium before the last speaker as we do not want to be caught in a human jam and also, we have yet to get our dinner. It was around 9:30pm and we have stayed longer than planned.

What an atmosphere indeed..!

Good-nite,

David

How I Look Like As A Student

I was clearing my drawers and found my student cards ... good old days as an overseas student in Melbourne.


Here they are and try to contain your laughter......ha....ha....

First Year at RMIT - 1976, I think this is the longest hair I had.... looks like a poodle dog....?

Second Year at RMIT - 1977, more clean cut...?

Back to long hair again...must be the cold weather there...ha...ha......

Those were the days....... sweet memories.....

David

Cheng Beng in Spore - 2011

We went for Cheng Beng in Spore to pay respects to my father-in-law in the temple in Bishan area.

The temple is much bigger and better organised than the one we went to in Penang;eg. more spacious and tables including parking space too.

Trip to Penang - Cheng Beng April 2011

My family and I flew back to Penang to visit my parents and also for Cheng Beng.

It was the first time that Jas went for Cheng Beng in Penang so it should have been a good experience for him.

I also managed to catch up with brother Charles, who was also back for a visit from Melbourne, and our cousins from Taiping too.

Here are photos taken during the trip :

David

Happy 18th Birthday, Jason!

Time flies and Jason just celebrated his 18th birthday last week.

Glad he loves his new soccer boots.

Happy 18th Birthday to you, Jason....!

Loves,

Mummy & Daddy Poh

River Hong Bao 2011

One of the highlights of Chinese New Year is the River Hong Bao which was held on the floating platform in Esplanade.

Here is a slideshow of some photos taken during my visit there :

David

Hibiscus

On the 3rd day of Chinese New Year, our hibiscus flowers bloomed .......!

We have to put up a fence around the garden so that Jack does not have access to the hibiscus flowers as he jsut loves to eat them.....ha....ha....

David