Quiet

My place is dead quiet save the whirling of the fan.  The sky is cloudy yet, some stars are visible directly overhead.  I am reminded of the clear sky in Reno.  The millions of stars dot the nightsky.  No wonder UFOs are usually sighted in US.  The horizon is not covered by tall buildings.  No clouds, so any moving lights can be easily spotted and video taped.

My throat is quite sore and I feel not so good.  My low back is giving pain.  I am up early.

Now I will wait for day break to send B3 to school. 

Down with Cough

First started with phlegm in the morning.  Then sore throat and now I am down with cough.  I am taking the medication and they makes me tired and sleepy.  With my low back pain, it is difficult to cough as pressure on the abdomen cause shooting pain.

I will need to seek treatment for my lumbar problem.

Fixing Up Additional Lights for B3's Study Table

We moved B3's study table to the visitor's balcony.  There is insufficient lights in that area.  We had spotlight and it is not bright enough for reading and writing.  So we have to figure a way to install additional lights.  This morning, we went to Philips in Toa Payoh to buy a 4ft strip LED light.  This is like a flourescent light but very light and low power consumption.  Cost on $17 and change.  We install the light right away.  It was not easy to fix the wiring as it is in a confined space up in the false ceiling. 

After many tries to connect the wires into a connector, I found a way to put both hands inside the false ceiling through the small opening that is used to put in the recessed light fixture.  What a relief it worked!  I am pretty proud of my handy work:)

Now the study area has bright light and B3 can study in a well lite environment.

Chinese New Year Day 2

It was mad rush to clean up the house during eve and also I got myself into a big project of changing the plunger for the toilet in my boy's room.  The water closet was leaking and I had to change the plunger.  I thought it is just take out the water tank and put in the new plunger.  Boy!, was I mistaken!  The metal that holds the tank to the toilet completely rusted.  It was almost impossible to remove. 

My wife went to Google this problem and the best recommendation is to saw off the part.  Sawing takes more than 2 hours.  The rust is stubborn, the tank is made of porcelain and I had spray the rust liberally with WD40.  First, WD40 is unable to work through the rust.  Then it made the porcelain extremely slippery and the rust is thick.  These combination made it very hard to work in a confine space.  Finally, I manage to remove the rust and fit in the new plunger. 

To add insult to injury, the leakage came back after 2 days.  So it maybe another part I have to replace.  Now the plumbing shop is closed until Feb 23.  So I will have to wait until then to get more parts.

Or I need to remove the tank and look at my installation.  I may have done something wrongly.

Stock Market Correction

Finally, the stock market no longer keeps going up.  The forecast on the stock market crash was on the video for so many years and stopped being produced about mid 2017.  The doom prophets had been proven wrong! 

All the doom prophets say there will be a crash and it will be the biggest ever seen.  But the stock market has been defying the forecast!  Now there is a correction which is 10% drop.  When will the crash happen?

Many people will be affected.  Many will gain.  So like elevators, stock market goes up and down.  The only problem is when it go down, it is so fast. 

Day 2 in JC1

B3 want to go to school early before the 7:30am official time.  I send him at 6:25am and we reached about 6:40am.  I thought the school was going to be empty and boy was I mistaken.  It looked empty but as I go to the Marymount entrance, plenty of students are going in. 

RI JC is a motivated group or maybe because they are taking MRT to school and it is better to be early as the crowd will be massive at the later time.  I can only speculate the reasons for being so early.  I know I was late many times as taking bus making bus skipping stops for overcrowding.

Day 1 for J1

Today is the first day of JC for JAE students.  JAE is joint admission exercise.  This is for "O" level students.  The IP or integrated program students started their J1 classes earlier as they do not have to worry about posting.  So now it is integration time for both "O" and IP students in JC.  They have orientation programs for a few days before the lectures starts.

There are lots of SCGS girls, one St. Margaret girl going to school after we drop B3 off.  We saw a boy in white with buttons on his shirt and long pant with his parents.  They are grinning happily as they go to into the school.  He must be from a ex-Chinese school maybe Chung Cheng.  I have no idea how the school uniforms looked in the different schools except for RGS, SCGS, St Margaret, St. Joseph and a few other brand schools.

It is nice the kids have a break after the grueling exams.  Now it is team building time before they get back to the grind again.

School Posting

B3 received his posting at 6:10am via sms.  This year, the cutoff points for RI is 5 higher than last year's 4 and before that 3.  It is now easier to go RI for JC.

The reason for this is there are less cohort and many JCs merged.  Luckily, B3 is in "O" level.  If he is in IP or Integrated Program, he will have to go Eunoia.  Cutoff points for Eunoia is 11 points.  The standard will be much lower than RI.

Sky Clear for Good Times!

I am so glad the sky clear up time to time.  So the total eclipse can be seen clearly before the cloud obscure it time and again.  I managed to take some pictures.  The pictures are taken with my cellphone camera.  It needs a stand to get stable picture.  Also the lens are not as good as a proper camera.

I am so glad to experience the lunar eclipse live and see it!  Most time, the clouds obsure these events in Singapore.  I tried to observe by naked eyes since young and the chance is usually low as our sky typically has cloud cover.

Lunar Eclipse 31 Jan 2018