More Breakdowns....

Bad luck does not seem to stop coming.  After the VAIO breakdown, I had an episode with my handphone where it would suddenly stop detecting the SD card every now and then....  I'm now torn between waiting for the contract to expire - which happens in September or get a new phone now at additional $100 of the contract price.

But that phone will have to wait now because suddenly my refrigerator broke down.  The repair cost is really..... costly.....  One of the motherboard had broken down most likely due to overheating.

My daughter had been opening the fridge door every now and then searching for sweets and chocolates.  The temperature in Singapore had been see-sawing between 34-36 degrees for the past 2 weeks during daytime while the real feel on the ground would go as high as 44 degrees - it feels like a sauna outdoors and an oven (convection oven, if you turn on your fan.. :p) indoors; that might have caused some overheating within the PCB circuitry as the evaporator fan had to work overtime to cool the fridge whenever the doors are opened for long periods.  I still find it ironic that it's the PCB that got burnt instead of the fan motor (the brain burned out instead of the muscle breaking down).

One of Those Fridates

My wife and I have a ritual of always going on Fridates - we would date again on every Fridays.  After work Friday is the time when we spend time together dating like we were in our twenties again.  Its' the time to just get together and feel that the world belong to just the two of us.

This week we decided to have a special Fridate as a break from our usual visit to Vivocity.  My wife suddenly craved for burgers so we went to the best burger joint in Singapore - Three Buns by Potato Head Folk in Keong Saik road.  This would be our 4th visit here in a year.  We absolutely love the burgers here.

As fate would have it, this time we sat at the rooftop bar of Three Buns for a change of scenery.  It was a very nice experience indeed.  We came too early for sunset, so we didn't have the chance to view the blue hour.  Gotta remember to do it next visit!

Wall Illustration That Adorns Three Buns Everywhere

A Quiet Week

This week has been rather quiet, I was rather busy in office with lots of things to do for Thailand office.  They have new requirements, old requirements that need fine tuning and some clarifications on existing features and requirement.

I've been not feeling well too from earlier this week due to the gastric pain which eventually settled down on Wednesday.  But guess what...  I got a viral infection in the eye and a sore throat.  Seems like I'm going to end up with flu sometime soon.  Singapore has been hot this week and I think I didn't stay hydrated much which contributed to these ailments...

Tomorrow's a new start to the week again. Hopefully things go well.

Here's a closing shot for this short entry.

Orchard Road From ION

~ Photo taken with LG G3 ~ 

Surabaya Trip - Part 8

This will be the last entry for my Surabaya trip series.  Quite short too....  Day 9 was spent with the kids.  Again, I didn't bring my Sony as I wanted an easy day so I just used my G3.

We started the day by going to Livana to buy some spikoe cakes.  The cake shop is very near, just outside the roundabout in Jln. Mayjend Soengkono.  My wife, myself and the kids absolutely love Spikoe, so we never fail to get some whenever we're in Surabaya.  After that we went to Ciputra World to let the kids play around and just jalan-jalan.

On the way back Lindsay mentioned that she wanted ice cream.  That gave me an idea to try a new cafe in Kupang Indah.  It's a cafe specializing in matcha desserts and some Japanese food.  The place is called The Matcha Cafe (unsurprusingly....) - UPDATE: Matcha Cafe has since been closed.

Nutella parfait, green tea cake parfait, matcha latte - taken with LG G3

Surabaya Trip - Part 7

I spent day 7 for a day trip to Bali to take care of some things with my brother.  It was a rather unpleasant trip but it had to be done.  We left the house at 9 in the morning, arrived, did what we have to do and left promptly, arriving back in rainy Surabaya at close to 9 at night.  So that's how day 7 was spent....

Day 8 was relaxing as it was time for me to finally have dating time with my wife.  I didn't bring my RX100 Mk3 so I just made do with my G3 to record the happenings of the day.  

We satisfied a craving for Medanese kway teow at a famous restaurant called Apeng in Kedungdoro.  The exact address will be in Jalan Kedungdoro No. 267.  Between the two of us we ordered quite a fair bit: Hor fun, Chap Chay rice & dumpling noodle (which was immediately scarved the moment it arrived, I forgot to take the photos).  The conclusion, Mie Kriting 33 near our home is currently better than Apeng.  But if you're living near the city centre, Apeng is not a bad choice. 

Horfun & Chap Chay Rice, complete with menu - taken with LG G3

Surabaya Trip - Part 3

Day 3 of the trip is Chinese New Year's eve.  This is the most important part of the trip as we'll be having reunion dinner later that night.

We started the day easy with a quick breakfast at Pasar Modern in nearby Puncak Permai.  Nothing to hoot about as the food are really quite simple and well..  ordinary....

A signboard in the market - taken with LG G3

Surabaya Trip - Part 1

So from 5 - 14 Feb we went back to Surabaya for Chinese New Year.  We don't usually go back this long for CNY but since Lincoln is already attending regular tuition classes for English & Chinese, I'd really hate to arrange for make-up classes at other times.  So I thought let's just spend more time in Surabaya and save on the air fares as well.  My wife suggested that we go to Batu as well which I thought is quite a great idea.  So we planned a 3 days and 2 nights visit to Batu this time.

We departed Singapore on a 7:50 a.m. flight early in the morning and arrived in Surabaya at 9:30 a.m. Unfortunately immigration and baggage clearance took about an hour so we only got out at about 10:30.  We were then greeted with the traffic which seems to get worse every year I come back, I'm still trying to digest that it took us nearly an hour to get home from the airport, twice the usual time it should be.  

I swear the traffic seems to be getting worse every year... - Taken with RX100M3

A Nice Weekend Brunch at Spathe

[UPDATE: Spathe has since been closed]

I don't usually do "reviews" of places I ate in since I don't consider myself some fancy foodie.  Delicious food is just plain delicious food, and great food should be shared.  As I haven't made good on my intention to go to Orchard road this week, I still don't have anything to write on the Christmas lighting.  BTW, there's fire again in Lucky Plaza this time and rat infestation in Orchard Central - Orchard road is extremely jinxed this year.

Since "Tri juga suka makan" (Tri also likes to eat), I think I will make a slightly different entry this time.  :)

Inside Spathe

Purwokerto Trip

Every year at around October or November we always take a family trip to Purwokerto where my wife comes from.  Its a time for the kids to visit their grandparents and for us to take a short break.  This time though I didn't stay long as I didn't have much leave days remaining.

Pukis, my favourite snack from the days I was still in Surabaya, on sale in a roadside stall in Purwokerto

Batam Life - Part 5

Part 5 will be the last entry of my Batam Life series, this post consists of random shots of Batam.

Harbour bay during sunset - Samsung Galaxy S4