Good Day for Parties

2 of my neighbours have parties.  The smell of the bbq meats perfumed the estate. I realise I am the one who usually makes the estate smells of bbq smoke.  The only difference is I am cooking for my family only.  The kids invited their schoolmates.  So they have plenty of fun at the pool.  I loved parties.  It is great to have friends or family over and just chill.

Great Deals in Metro

We went to Wisma for lunch and we needed to change some cash for our trip next week.  B1 want to make shirt for his workwear but mummy insist on ready-to-wear or make to measure locally.  So B1 relented and go with mummy to check out the shirts in Metro.  There they found office shirt going for $10/ piece.  The quality is quite good.  So B1 tried them and decided on 5 which will help in his wardrobe as he will be starting work after we are back from holiday.

I bought 2 shirts even though I really don't need anymore. 

The cool weather makes it nice to walkabout along Orchard Road and the mood is quite festive with the decorations.  I am relax about the new year.

B2 in Montreal

It is good that B2 went to explore another city during the yearend break.  He took viarail train to Montreal and then travel by subway to the city center.  His apartment is right downtown and cost only $35 per night.  What a great deal.  I am not sure if $35 is his portion only or to be shared with is friend.  I am glad he is exploring the country.  In fact, he goes much further than my wife and I on our tour trip there.

B2 in South Commons

I just called B2.  He is having Christmas dinner in a friend's home.  It is good that he has a family style meal during Christmas.  South Commons mall is near the Mississauga campus of U of T.  He is quite lucky to have White Christmas as it snowed the day before.

Best Weather

It is nice and breezy.  Best of the all the air is cool.  I wish we have this kind of weather all year round.  Otherwise, we should 4 seasons.  I love the seasons especially fall.  The world turns into a myriad of colours and then all the leaves fall out leaving only bare branches.  Only cone shape trees are left with their spiky green leaves which looked beautiful when the snow falls on them.

I am enjoying the cool breeze floating into my living room.  It is relaxing.

Progress in Programming

Now I am making more progress with Python Programming.  My B1 tells me to go to the video and also use the StackOverflow or Github.  I realised my mistake and slowly making more progress.

It is a hard road ahead as I am still unable to get some basics right.  However, it is getting more fun as I can get some programs to work.

Electric Toothbrush Repaired

Last week, I send my toothbrush for repair and was told to replace with a new toothbrush as it is usual for the battery to wear out after a couple of years.  So I paid $75 for the replacement brush and then found that it is the charger that is not working.  However, I had already dismantled the old toothbrush which mean it is totally destroyed.  I took the charger back last Friday and they repaired it back for free.

I hope it will last me for a few more years.  I loved this toothbrush and it has served me well.

Lai Heng Fried Kway Teow

Lai Heng is a better known fried kway teow.   I have not eaten it for long time.  I tried it for lunch today.  I find it is not as good as before.  Like the fried kway teow in Marine Parade, the standard has dropped.  The price is still reasonable at $2.50 and $3.00 per plate.  The cockles are basically uncooked and there is a generous sprinkling of sliced lup cheong or chinese sausage.

The best fried kway today is Outram FKT in Chinatown hawker center.

Man Man Unagi

I had unagi takeaway last Saturday from Tampopo in Ngee Ann City.  So B1 reminds me of the place where the unagi is freshly slaughtered and grilled.  I had told him when he first tells me about this place is that I tried in fresh unagi in Japan and it did not taste good even though it was quite expensive. 

Today, he brought me to Man Man and there is a long queue outside the resturant.  We had to wait for at least half an hour.  We got lucky and sat on the counter seats.  So I can see the grilling.  I did not notice until B1 points out to me the fish is still moving.  Then I saw the mouth gasping for air and the fins are still moving.  It is a little gross even though the fishes has been split and left in the basin for a few minutes before being skewered.  It is probably moving about for more than 10 mins after it body was split, backbone removed.  

The unagi tastes pretty good.  The problem is the price.  It cost $38 for one bowl of rice topped with unagi.  It is quite a nice experience.  I do not thiink I will go back.  I prefers the char siew from the famous char siew wanton mee on Keong Siak Street.

Breakfast at Intercontinental Hotel

A friend from Korea is in town and invited me to his hotel for breakfast.  I had French toast.  The salad, fruit juice and cut fruits are self service.  The fruit juice is quite good.  The breakfast is quite high standards although I think it is better in Seoul.  I stay in Intercontinental there most of the time.  I also like Chosun Westin which has huge stretch of tourist foodstalls and market across the road.  Intercontinental has the Kuan Yin temple and underground mall.  The underground mall is not as nice since the upgrading.  The bookshop is gone as well.  However, the resturants are still familiar such as Friday's, pho and Outbacks.  Plenty of coffee chains like Starbucks, Coffeebeans and Korean brands.

After breakfast, I went to the library to borrow books.  Library has also been renovated.  No more librarians sitting at the counter.  It is now converted to a event hall.  So library services are automated and it is not easy to see a walking librarian anymore.

Programming Frustrations

It is really not easy.  There are so many ways to do programming wrong.  The smallest mistake such as not having ":" or no tab in the line or extra tab.  These quite easy to fix as it is visible compared to "attribute error" which may have something to do with my software setup or my file not downloaded properly.

Then there is version difference.  Even the simplest command such as "print" tripped me.  For python 2, print does not need "()" but it is needed in Python 3.

Slowly, painfully slowly, I am making small progress.  The joys is discovering the mistakes I made or the setup tuning I need to do.

Last Day of Exams

Today is B1's last day of his Part B exams.  He went out with his friends after the papers.  I am so glad he is done for now.  He has been working hard studying for the exams.  He deserves a break!

B3 is learning wonderful stuff like genetic engineering in Biopolis.  He is doing experiments and pipetting bacteria, making agar to culture them.  He is quite excited learning how to do the experiments.  He learn to splice the DNA and using eletrophersis and centrifuge to separate the DNA strands and insert different DNA into the spliced DNA.  After which, he has to culture the bacteria and ensure they mulitply.  It is very interesting and advanced science.

B2 is also studying hard in Toronto.  He is doing well in essay questions but not good with multiple choice.  MCQ papers, he barely clears but essay papers are 23/25 and 28/30.  He is good in articulating his thoughts and understanding of the topic he is writing about.