Good Friday Morning

I am up at 5am.  It is a public holiday and no school yet I am up early.  My boy need to go to school for his PW or project work in late morning.  He was so tired last night that he fell asleep on the sofa and did not wake up to go to his bed.  He is still in his school uniform.

I think his social life is taking up much time.  The amount of texting and watching his and his friends photos, videos and messages dominates and I am a little worried he does not spend much time on his school work.

Seems like this is a common problem as the Deputy Principal and other school leaders talk about making the students drop CCA in J2 if their results is not up to par in J1's final common test.  B3 is quite engaged making new friends and trying out the CCAs he enjoys.  He is experiencing the time of his life.  I do not recall B1 being so enthusiastic in JC.  B1 did well as he was pretty focused on his work.

I had my morning coffee and breakfast at the poolside as I do not want to disturb B3.  It is nice we can go outside when the living room is occupied.

Now that the sky is bright, I am back in my home office just to blog.  It is going to be a beautiful day.

Happy Easter!!

Free Books

I am downloading free books to my Kindle or rather B2's Kindle.  It is fun to read fairy tales.  I feel like I am in Primary School again.  This time I am reading the Folk Tales from Japan. 

Although I have the Kindle for sometimes now that B2 is studying in Canada, I did not use it much.  I have asked him to buy Kobo Aura One.  It has bigger screen at 7.8" and has lighting and so can be read in the dark.  I am looking forward to more reading as it is quite convenient to bring around.

Still I like physical books.  The smell, the thickness and the feel of the paper.  It is something I loved so much growing up.

Red Cross Youth Charity Night 2018

B3 is in Street Dance CCA in school.  This is the first time he is learning dancing from a coach and for free!  Nowadays, the schools engaged CCA instructors who are specialised in their field of expertise unlike during my school days where a teacher takes on additional duties even though he or she is not trained for it.

Last night, the Street Dance group performed in the Red Cross Event.  Considering he is just a couple of months into this program, I am quite proud of his achievement! 

Chong Pang Nasi Lemak

Today is tiring.  We have to do special delivery for B1.  So we go to 5 different locations. From Sin Ming to final location of Woodlands.  It took us about 2 and half hours.  We finish just after quarter past 4 and go from Gambas Avenue to Yishun.  On the way, mummy thought of the famous Nasi Lemak that the boss' son lost millions of dollars in the local casino.  We reached there at 4:30pm.  The store is open and cooking but it is not ready for business.  It start selling at 5pm.  So we kill time by walking to the Northpoint Nasi Bryani shop and buy a takeaway. 

Then go to Gin Thye to buy authentic Teochew peanut candy.  We go back to wait and the nasi lemak store start serving at 5 on the dot!  There are a number of people waiting and the queue formed quickly.  The service is quite slow.  We have to wait for 10mins even though there are only 3 persons ahead of us.

We bought 2 takeaways and one dine-in to share.  The rice has good coconut flavor!  The dishes for quite good.  The total cost is $14 for 3 sets.  Quite reasonable compared to the Punggol Nasi Lemak in Kovan.  The food also taste better.

Monday Morning!

I have not sit down at my workstation for a week!  I noticed my last blog entry was a week ago Sunday!!

It is the start of a brand new week.  Soon I have to send my boy to school.  Then I go fishing.  May have some errands to do.

I also need to consult a doctor on PRP.  PRP is platelet rich plasma.  I have check it out on the internet.  It could help in my healing my sciatica. Or at least reduce the pain.

Home made Yakitori

Last night, my eldest sister came to visit and I invited her for dinner.  I was preparing to cook yakitori.  Early in the morning, I bought a large naked neck chicken.  I deboned the chicken following the youtube video on 1 Michellin star yakitori resturant in San Francisco.  I am quite happy with the results.

I made quite big sticks and my meat pieces are in big chunks.  So it is harder to grill.  I also follow the Japanese way i.e. no seasoning, only salt during grilling.  When the chicken is about cooked, apply the teriyaki sauce.  I managed to reproduce the smoky chargrilled taste and it is so similar to those in a yakitori resturant rather than the Tori-Q which is very sweet and heavily flavored.

It is the first time I used the portable high heat torch to light the charcoal and while disengaging the torch from butane cannister, I burned my pinkie.  Now I am sporting a huge blister.  I will need to pay attention when dealing with high temperature metal devices.

Chong Boon Hawker Center

We had our dinner there. After reading Boh Tong's blog on the oyster omelette, I was cracking my head trying to figure out which stall as I do frequent this food center. after.  It was the carrot cake stall.  The price is pretty reasonable at $4 a plate.  The oysters are plump.  However, I prefer Ah Chuan's as it is more crispy.  Ah Chuan is in Toa Payoh and opens only after lunch hours.

We also had the bak kut the.  The soup is very peppery.  I like the braised pork leg.  It is quite nice.  We only ordered lean pork leg, vegetable and bean curd skins.  The total comes to $11.50 as we have only one rice.  The price in Chong Boon is pretty reasonable.