First Ukulele

Quite a few years ago, I was telling Karinna that I wanted to learn ukulele.
Why?
Because guitar is a bit big, and I am lazy to bring bigger item around. Bigger item means bigger storage space as well.

With the circuit break on-going, my backside itchy went to buy 1 ukulele to try.
Actually ordered about 2 weeks ago, and it was delivered quite promptly.

After unpacking, it was put aside for 1 week. LOL.

Today, I made an attempt to play it. With the help of youtube videos. :P

Get to learn how to tune it with the tuner that I bought along with it.
I think the tuner is good, can be used for Zyan's violin as well. :)

Zyan, being the kaypoh one, insisted on using the tuner to tune the ukulele for me.
Afterall, he is the only one at home that has some form of instrumental training.
Just trying to show his professional musical skills to me. Oh well!
Thank you though.

At least now I know the 4 strings are the tunes for "g C E A". Bravo!
And the video tutorial of course has to be easy to learn.  I think generally the videos in there are quite ok for basic learners.
Strumming seems to be the basics.

Learning how to use the fingers to get C chord, F chord, and G chord.
C is pretty much easy, but my fat and stiff fingers have challengers for F and G chords.
Press until feeling pain on the tip of my fingers used, especially the fourth finger.

The song learned in the video is "You Are My Sunshine".
Sun a bit hard to shine with the bruised fingers... lol

At the end, also introduced another 5 videos
This is the video.

Anyway, will see how it goes with more practices....

Oh Fridge!

Oh well.
Not sure we are into the x-th day of the circuit breaker. Never count already.
Still have 4 weeks to go.

Everyone is encouraged not to go out of their home, except for essential stuff and exercise.
Thus, we would need to do some marketing every few days, more for vegetables as they are more perishable as compared to meat stuff.
And eggs. And comfort food. :P

What fun would it be to have the refrigerator play punk on you and stop working.
We had the luck of it yesterday.
Actually, it had sort of stopped momentarily twice previously, few weeks ago.
Managed to revive it somehow fidgeting with the plug.

The switch as 2 sockets. One for the fridge, and another for washing machine.
Switching the plug for the washing machine with the 2 sockets, both are working well.
Switching the plug for the fridge, both won't work.

So went to buy a plug to check if that could be the reason.
Alas, after replacing it with my limited technical household capability, it still didn't work.

Was hoping it can survive the circuit breaker before we replace it. 
Cannot go out how to buy right?
And more over, the shop is not opened.

Well, at least still able to get a fridge during circuit breaker period. It's essential after all right, else how to store food at home? :P

After sourcing online yesterday, we order one in the morning, and pay for express delivery to have it delivered on the same day!
Amazing.

And the delivery man (just one man)is superb.
Hand leg super fast. Chop chop curry pok, less than 15 mins, everything put back in order, and including removing the old one for disposal.
Solid siah.

So now, a new fridge to serve us additionally.

Didn't take a pic of the old fridge, and thank you for serving us for the past 9 years.

Hand Sanitizer

Hopefully by now, most residents should be aware of the hand sanitiser distribution in Singapore

I volunteered to be one of those that helps to distribute the hand sanitiser at designated locations.

They are mostly in the community centres around the whole of Singapore (23-29 Mar), and some malls under Capitaland (until 05 Apr).

All households should have received the pamphlet, which will provide the holder a free 500ml of non-alcohol based hand sanitiser.

To collect, will need to bring the pamphlet along, with your own bottle for collect the hand sanitiser. That’s why it is a BYOB (bring your own bottle) event.

The collection is from 3pm to 9pm on weekdays, and 10am to 9pm on weekends.

For the past 6 days, I was there from 3-6pm on weekdays, and earlier today for most part of the day. Tomorrow will be the last day at Kampong Ubi Community Centre, where I am helping out with.

It’s really nothing difficult. 

Me and the barrel

Essentially, when the people come, they will be ushered to a registration point. They will have to do declaration in relation to their past travel history recently, and temperature measurement.

They will then be moved to a station to have the pamphlet checked and cut as indication of collection, and a hand sanitiser sticker will be pasted on their bottle to remind them it is now a hand sanitiser.

Then the bottle will be push to another counter to fill up the 500ml of liquid.

The 500ml of hand sanitiser were all prepared beforehand onto a measuring cup, indicating the volume. No more, no less, for each pamphlet shown.

When the barrel gets empty, it will be replaced. The hand sanitiser is also mixed in a separate room when the supply gets low. Having extra barrel ready is essential for such event. :P

Once collected, they will be asked to exit from the collection centre, and voila!

Of course, as with any kind of activity, there will always be a group of people who come with different set of challenges for the volunteers.

The men in pink ... ...with me is Arjun from my Neighbourhood Committee

Some come with the pamphlet, claiming they did not receive it (which can be true, as my home did not receive the pamphlet), and some simply just turn up saying they did not bring.

Those that came without the pamphlet, were then asked to write down their name and address as an indication for collection.

Some when given 500ml, asked for more, which would be rejected of course.

Some come with very small bottle, and the volunteers will have more challenge to pour into small bottle.

Some would anyhow walk through and past the registration, and when asked to go back to register, complain every now and then about the ‘mess’.

Well, that is life, no event or process can ever please everyone and all. There will always be some that may not be as appreciative.

Of course, these are just a smaller group of people. Majority of the people would still be cordial and nice to us doing the service.

As for today, there was a kid that join us because his dad brought him over. Cute little fellow that is very eager to help in the stations.

Star boy in action

I asked the kid if he will be there tomorrow. He said don't know.
Shall see tomorrow then. :)

Masks Distribution

Nowadays, if you want to be alone, all you need to do is cough a few times.
People around you will shun away from you.

Last Sunday, after letting Zyan off to attend his violin class, Karinna and I went to Stabucks nearby for a coffee.
Whole I was walking towards to place, I let out a few coughs as my throat was itchy.

In a jiffy, we saw few people who were about a short distance from us, hurriedly walked off.
They were in front of us, contemplating about visiting Starbucks, from what we were able to deduce at the distance away from them.
Oooops. My few coughs cost a little business for Starbucks. :P

Well, this Wuhan coronavirus definitely is causing quite a lot of inconvenience and worry everywhere.
No stock for masks and sanitizers on most shelves of supermarkets.

Then government so nice right? Distributing masks to residences
Each household (rather, resident address) will be given 4 free masks. Information had been disseminated on various channels, letting the people know where they can possibly get the masks.
Collection centre will be centralised at certain location, and each address will be allocated to collect from a specific location.

6 to 9 Feb 2020 (today till Sunday) are the dates allocated for my estate's distribution.
As part of the neighbourhood committee, I went to help out this morning.

My duty is allocated as 0930 to 1300 hrs.
Spent the first few minutes to understand how the agency wants to do the distribution.
The logistic was far from perfect, but to arrange this within a short timeframe, I would say it would still be applaudable.
Small issues here and there can be handled with. No problem.

Perhaps it was the morning time, the crowd was not overwhelming. Only the first 15 minutes there were more people.
Subsequently, only a few people would stroll in now and then to collect the masks.
To collect the masks, just need to show NRIC for proof of address. The address will be matched against the data obtained by the agency for verification purpose.

Probably the busy time would be evening time, when people are off working already.

As expected, now and then will have some people asking for more masks. Their household have 5 persons, given only 4, then the other 1 how? etc.
Seriously, even if your household only have 1 person, and given 4 masks. If you need to use on daily basis, it would still be not enough.
Anyway, there is no single way that will please everybody. This thing bounds to happen.

As I had something to do in the afternoon, and evening, I took my leave after 1pm.

Perhaps will drop by tomorrow also. But tomorrow there are other activities as well. Will see how.

Small Performance

Saturday can be a busy day for many kids.

A lot of them would have different enrichment classes to attend.

For the happier kids, they just have fun and free time with family and friends.

For Zyan, he has swimming and art lessons on Saturdays.

However, earlier this afternoon, he has a violin performance session with his orchestra class, which is his Sunday activity.

Thus, we had to re-arrange his schedule.

Morning 9am, swimming as per normal.

Art class shifted to 12pm to accommodate for the violin performance.

Violin performance at 5.30pm.

Just nearly a whole day event, that’s all. :P

Since it is a performance, the orchestra has been practising for it since May or June.

Well, at least it is an avenue for him to keep practising his musical talent. LOL

不要太像杀鸡就好了。

Well, all the members need to be dressed for the occasion. So had to prepare for his white long sleeve shirt, black long pants, colour bow tie, black shoes and socks.

He doesn’t like to wear too formally. Usually in his crocs and t-shirt and shorts all over the town.

Keep complaining very hot, very tight. Blah blah blah …

Anyway, we reached there just after 5pm. There were already some students there.

All were placed in a waiting room, laying out their musical instruments, and then they run around and play.

What do you expect? Practice? Hehehe

Then it is time for a rehearsal. It’s a full dress rehearsal just 1 hour before the actual performance at 7pm.

Since it is at the lobby area, it is a public area where anyone who goes there can stop by to take a look at the performance.

The fact that there is a performance there at 8pm helps to put some public crowds there to watch the children perform.

It’s a good experience.

Without further ado, one of the 3 songs Zyan’s group performed at Singapore Conference Hall concourse area.

Bus Alone

What have I done today?

I'm starting to get busier lately.
Being sold to a new company, and starting to embark on a project.
The whole thing disrupted my original schedule to transit Zyan to start taking transport home from school next year.

I've been on arrangement for past 1 year plus to do work on 'half-day' basis, allowing flexibility on my part to handle personal stuff.
In particular, more with Zyan due to some exciting adventures from him within school last year.

Anyway, things have been a lot more smoother on that aspect.
During the start of the year, we also stopped the school bus transport for him, as the bus operator said the pick-up time for him would be about 6am, if we use their service.
Crazy right? School is 1.X km away, and he has to be picked up at 6am to go to school.
Instead of making this senseless arrangement, we decided to do the transport ourselves with my 'half-day' arrangement. :P
Going to school is not a problem. Coming back from school is, as it is still within normal working hours.
The flexibility helps, for the past 1 year plus.

With this new company, although still flexible in some sense, I don't think I can exericse it with the same flexibility as I had previously.
Thus, have to hasten the process for him to take bus.

Today, left working place to go to Zyan's school and waited for him.
When he came out, I gave him a task.

I told him, he has to take bus home himself.
Gave him his student pass for transport, and passed him my other mobile phone.
Took his bag, and told him I would wait for him at the bus stop near our house.
Bade him farewell, and drove off without him.

In between traffic lights, when reaching home, and walking to the busstop, I have to message him to make sure he is ok.
Whatsapp messaging with him:

Simon: Make sure call me if got problem
Zyan: Orr
Simon: Good luck
Zyan: Just missed bus
Simon: So sad
Simon: Message me when u are on bus 13
Zyan: Orr
Simon: Is it exciting?
Zyan: I'm on the bus
Simon: Great. I will be at the bus stop
Simon: To welcome you
Simon: 欢迎欢迎 热烈欢迎！
Zyan: ?
Zyan: Still rd
Simon: cool

There I was, waiting at the busstop.
Bus 13 finally came, and off came the little hero that took bus himself for the first time without his parents.

Had wanted to take a picture of him stepping down from the bus, guess I was too slow. :P
Well done my son!

I told him, will have to do a few more times, and thereafter, he should be good to do it himself without me around.
That would be the final desired outcome! :P

Went back to work after that. LOL

Happy Penny-versary

Happy Penny-versary!

It’s been one year! Yes!

Last year this day, a new family member joined us.

I remember I got bitten by her right on first day of her arrival at our home. LOL

Over the past 1 year, I had been bitten a few times. Likewise, Karinna and Zyan were not spared as well.

Come to think of it, the last anyone of us was bitten was around September last year? I think so.

More than half year of non-biting case.

In between, she had scratched Zyan perhaps once or twice, act of biting, but at the end was just scratches. Lucky him.

So would this be considered good?

In certain sense, I do think so.

Her biting cases has reduced. Good!

Her barking cases at dogs passing by our home front, still happening. This would take a long time I guess. Need to keep spraying vinegar at her to help her distract. :P

She is still a fierce dog.

So much so that when there’s visitors to our home, we have to keep her in the playpen. I think that is like a safe haven for her. She doesn’t bark when she’s in there. Amazing!

Also, we have to keep reminding visitors DO NOT touch her AT ALL!

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

We do not know when she will snap like Thanos. :P

Other than these few things, she is actually quite obedient. Just hard to show affection or play with her, even when she wants to. LOL

At least, the lump on her cheek had been removed, and she had been sterilised as well.

She seems much more relax now. Very good.

Still a long way to make her more docile. Would that be possible? J