CNY08 Day 1 – YuSheng Extreme

Clié and Cleo CNY Day 1 Outfits

Its the first day of CNY and the girls are all decked out in their new outfits. NICE! I think my wife is a real good shopper. I’ve seen many parents put their kids into China Doll outfits and i think that style can be quite tacky.

Grandparent’s Place

First stop was my parent’s place in Katong area. We had the traditional long life noodles and stayed around abit, then it was off to my in law’s place at West Coast. We had nice red dates longan dessert and just chilled out at my in law’s place. We both feel asleep. Yawn… the sofa i tell you… it has mystical powers… when ever i sit on it, i feel like sleeping. lol…

YuSheng

Then off to my wife’s granny place in Bukit Panjang. We had snacks, watched abit of cable TV, then its off again to our next stop which was my wife’s uncle place in Yishun. We had steamboat and everyone ate alot.

Every year without fail, we will also Lo Hei, this year its super extreme. The YuSheng was laid out directly on the table and it formed a huge “Fu” (Prosperity in Mandarin) shape with Abalone at the peak of the mounds.

YuSheng in Fu Shape

It is quite an amazing sight.

Floor Protection

It will surely get messy, so the floors had to be protected.

Weapons distribution

As everyone came into the kitchen, weapons were distributed. Here you can see my bro-in-law passing a pair of chopsticks to my father in law.

All in Position to Lau YuSheng

Everyone was poised and with a loud “Huat Ah” (Prosper in Hokkien), the chopsticks tossed the colourful dish in the air.

ATTACK the YuSheng

I’ll try to put the 30sec video up when i’ve got time.

Cleo with Playing Cards

And without fail CNY will always have playing cards. Here you can see Cleo trying out her knowledge with numbers.

Thats basically how the first day went.

Excellently slow SISTIC website

www.sistic.com.sg

OMG! they actually spent $1mil to revamp the site? Apparently that is what was reported on the Digital Life supplement today in the papers. Ok maybe i don’t know the scope of work involved, but still the obvious optimisation stuff are not done and i’ll just name 3.

  1. Nested tables 9 levels deep, meaning super long render time needed
  2. Rendered HTML file alone is more than 300k!!
  3. Super super lots of options in drop down box which takes a long time to render

I can’t look any further and don’t want to analyse anymore. This guy ran some tests and I agree with him on many issues.

I would LOVE to know who did it. If you know, pls tell me.

Silly Accident

Car Accident

Got into a small accident on 19 Jan Saturday. A Taxi turned out from a small road and hit me at a T Junction while i was driving straight on a main road. That guy must be blur or something… Its just strange that the accident happened. He got off and apologised, it was pretty clear it was totally his fault.

As this is the first accident on my first car, i was not too sure what was the procedure. Anyway i knew i had to take down the other party’s info, so i did.


View Larger Map

It happened at Meyer Rd, Crescent Rd junction.

The following monday, brought it down to the workshop and they told me the repairs would cost at least $1,600. It was steep & the other party felt i should provide him at least a second opinion, so i did. It still came up to $1,500+ so we decided to go thru insurance claim, as he felt he could not absorb the high repair cost all by himself.

The following day, his taxi company called and offered to pay for the full repairs, all i needed to do was to send it to their appointed workshop. Since no need to activate insurance, no need to wait till after CNY, so i sent it in and manage to get back my repaired car within 4 days.

The door had to be changed and the metal part above the front right wheel had to be knocked back into shape.
*sigh* i really hate to run all these unnecessary errands, especially when the house is currently upside down.

Monster House

Cleo fighting for my attention
^ Cleo the superhero

There will be no one taking care of my girls in the day till we get another helper. Pearl just took 2 weeks leave and her mega project just started and she was the main coordinator. I had to be the one and i’m glad my understanding boss allowed me to work from home during this difficult period.

Cleo fighting for my attention
^ Cleo fighting for my attention

I’m still quite new to this and am trying to get things into a routine.

The Routine

6:30am – get kids ready for school
7:10am – bring kids down to catch the school bus
7:20am – start the computer and work starts
7:50am – kiss wife as she leave home for work
9:00am – have a simple breakfast at the computer
11:50am – wait for kids return from school
12:15pm – prepare lunch for kids
12:30pm – Lunch and FEED!!! (hardest task ever)
1:00pm – clean up the mess
1:15pm – shower and change the kids
1:45pm – give kids their milk bottles
2:00pm – make them sleep
2:15pm – back to work
5:00pm – kids get up , give them snacks
5:15pm – keep sane and reply multiple work MSN
7:00pm – Dinner and FEED!!! (argghh)
8:00pm – washup everything
9:00pm – wife returns / family time
10:00pm – wife get kids to bed
10:00pm – I wash, laundry, sweep, mop, tidy
11:30pm – shower / time out
12:00am – prepare next day’s work
2:00am – sleep

Cleo with her toys
^ Cleo with her toys

My kids love to see me at home as i’m usually at work and at weekends, i’m sometimes just too tiered to do anything. Its been 1 week. I’m damn tired.

I’m glad we have confirmed another helper already and I pray hard that she will be a good helper. Most likely I’ve got to keep to this routine for about another week more, then my wife can take over for a few days and train our new helper.

Its time for me to taste what its like to be a single parent. Its been just a week and i have LOADS of respect already for single parents. May my kids have mercy on me…