Jeremy Karyn Lynnette Marcus Nelly

RIP Nokia. Thanks For The Great Times

2012-01-09T10:43:00.001+08:00

I just traded in my Nokia N8 on 10 December 2011 after it started to reboot itself. It is the last of a line of great Nokia phones that I have owned and used. Looking at the way things are, it looks like there isn't going to be a return for Nokia any time soon so I decided to just dedicate this post to all the Nokia phones that I have used.

My first mobile was a Motorola Startac GSM1800 phone. Old timers would remember we had a GSM1800 / GSM900 network and the GSM1800 network was the lower priced tier network with slightly less coverage. Nice looking phone, stylish. But really embarrassing when you flick the phone open and the battery flies out.

Having given up on style for functionality, I went next for an Ericsson. They were up and coming and their tell tale ring tones could be heard everywhere. Got the SH888 and used it for quite a while.

Then came the Nokia 6110. Similar in form factor to the SH888 that I had and realising that Nokias were the up and coming new kid in town I got my first Nokia. The 6110. One of the best phones I ever had. Simple, dependable and tough. Until the day it fell out of my pocket and into the loo.

Ericsson fought back with some stylish phones. I got the T28 and was very happy with it. Then got the T66 which was tiny but a piece of crap. All it had going for it was its small size but the battery was hopeless.

Nokia got back into the fight with some nice sized phones and that was when I had a string of them one after another (while Ericsson and Motorola fought it out and one lost the race). My first return to Nokia was with a 8210 courtesy of my insurance agent. The same familiar user friendly menus was the main selling point for all the rest that followed it. The 8250, 8850, 8310, 6510. I never looked at any other brand. There was nothing separating them at this point. It was only the size and the familiar menus.

Then came the colour screens. The 6100 (which my mum used till 2011), 6610, 6220, and 6230. All very sturdy in the candy bar form factor. I stuck to them until it be came very clear that Nokia was losing the plot.

Their LCD screens were lagging behind in pixels. They also did not see that people stuck in commuter buses and trains appreciated great quality music in a mobile phone that would put MP3 players to the grave. Memory card slots also became important just as phone cameras started to become an important feature in mobile phones. The strength in the mobile audio and digital camera arena became the critical point. The new giant that rose from the ashes of Ericsson - Sony Ericsson caught my attention for the next few phones that I had.That's the first countdown that Nokia got from the mat.

The first Sony Ericsson I got was the T610. Stylish and proved that Sony's know how in Cameras and MP3 players have now found their way into a mobile phone. The display was also light years ahead of my old Nokia. Funny enough, Nokia continued to produce later models with sub standard colour displays.

Logically my next phone was the K750. It was painful to convert from Nokia to Sony Ericsson after being so used to the same menus for so long, but the camera, memory card, mp3 player with MegaBass and the headphones that came with the phones only lead me to my next phone the W800. Now truly a Walkman and still having a good camera and accompanying headphones.They continued their K series and W series in parallel and I stuck to the W series phones because of the audio qualities. Naturally traded my W800 for the W810 the moment I could. I continued with the W850, W880 and finally the W890. The W580 and W890 are still serving me today as I had kept them way past the period when their trade in had dropped. So I kept them as spares. Still, the Mars bar form factor and the great camera and music and generous M2 memory card made this generation of Sony Ericssons my choice phone for almost a decade.

Nokia continue to try and get back into the game and they produced some really weird phones with outlandish buttons that only a martian or octopus could use properly. Next came the really huge and downright ugly phones that only my mother in law would use. Still equipped with substandard displays, they had large form factors and large buttons. For the oldies that were using Nokias for the last decade, long sightedness and difficulty in learning how to use a new phone probably made them happy to stick with a huge Nokia phone with a big display.

Strangely enough, Nokia rose back from the ashes. They stuck to their large form factor and started to pack in everything except the kitchen sink into the phone. They came with good cameras, decent display, SD cards GPS, FM radio, FM transmitters etc. Basically you get hell of a lot in a phone.

So it was I that I went back to a Nokia with a N85. Must smaller than the ugly beasts that helped Nokia stay in the market. The N85 was of the same similar Mars bar form factor and had everything you could ask for. Impressive Carl Zeiss lens with a good flash got me sold on the camera. It also had a amoled display. Nokia realised that clear cutting edge displays are also a big factor. Samsung was producing lots of phones for the past decade with very very beautiful displays. After less than a year on the N85 I upgraded to the N86. The buttons were much better and the camera even better. Now in love with Nokia again, I got the N97 mini. That was a bummer. I got rid of it as soon as I could....the touch screen was mediocre when you are comparing with things like most of the other smart phones out there. It was about at this time that the iphone 3 was around. I stuck to my N86 and then got an iphone 4.

At some point in time I remembered owning a Samsung or two. Lured by the big buttons and extremely clear displays and later some of the touch sensitive buttons on the U600. However, I could not sms properly with the Samsung phones. So it was back to the Nokias.

Less than a year ago, my N86 started to show signs of wear so I upgraded to the N8. Again sold by the big screen and the top of the line camera. The N8 was obsolete shortly after it was launched. I got it for a very reasonable price knowing that it will be obsolete. Nokia announced that Symbian OS was going away and something called MeeGo is going to rock the world. Now we all know MeeGo is now MeeGone. And the latest Lumia is a Windows phone. My trusty N8 started rebooting itself for no reason, so I took it as an excuse to upgrade my phone. It was well under performing in its class.Only its camera and video capabilities were outstanding. I went down to the shops on the launch day, hoping to get a Lumia 800. I like the form factor. Very similar to the N8 and had curves in the right places. But off all things, Nokia had to do away with the SD card slot and put Windows into the phone. I could live with the non replaceable battery but.....Windows and no SD card.....not worth the risk. Not when I can get a Samsung Galaxy S II Android phone for the same price.

So it is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to my long line of Nokias. They have performed well. They fought back with courage, but again lost sight of what the competition was doing. With wi-fi and mobile data so easily available in Singapore, I cannot live with a phone that has a substandard OS and poor range of apps. Now Microsoft is putting its funding and marketing power to help Nokia buy customers. Two big losers coming together hopefully to survive to the next big battle. We have to wait and see what happens. I would have gotten a Sony Ericsson Experia Arc S if not for the fact that the shop gave me $250 instead of $200 for my N8. The Arc S only cost $198. So I decided to top up $48 and got the Galaxy S II. No regrets.

Autumn Trip To Switzerlandand France

2011-11-24T02:24:00.001+08:00

Saturday 19 NovMeet Daniel in the gardenSarah and RackletteToysChocolate workshopSunday 20 NovDrive to Lachen to meet LouisEinsedeln MonastaryGreat Pizza and pastaThin snowAlpthal rabbitsRapperswilMonday 21 NovZurich zooTuesday 22 NovDrive to Laufen to see the RheinfallsDrive to Neustadt Titisee Germany through schaffhausen, came back by Tiengen KoblenzDrive back to LuzernWednesday 23 NovToday we start our tour of the Luzern area. It was foggy in the morning, but nevertheless we headed straight for the town of Engelberg right after breakfast.The morning drive from our hotel at Malters towards Engelberg was depressing. Visibility was poor in thick mist. However once we headed south and climbed in altitude, we saw clear skies and as we rose above the foggy valley below.Unfortunately, the light drizzle in the thick fog last night, no snow fall was in sight. After 40 mins of driving we reached Engelberg. The mountains were clear with patches of frost at the caps. But the town of Engelberg looked clear of snow except for some thin frost on the shaded side of the valley.After parking in the town, we walked towards the Titlis Rotair Bahn. The cable car ride up to Titlis was under pre winter maintenance so there was no way up to Titlis. Fortunately, we managed to find some frost to play with along the lowest ski slopes. We were also lucky that they had tested the snow making machines and there was a thick patch of snow, just enough for Marcus to experience his first taste of snow. monastery in EngelbergKarpelbrukeLion monumentGlacier GardenHall of mirrorsMcdonalds

Best Air Tight Glass Bottles

2011-10-25T00:35:00.000+08:00

I have been using these bottles for a long time now. Almost 10 years and I have a full collection of them of all sizes. They are all air tight. You can keep pop corn or potato chips in them and they stay fresh for weeks.

The coffee brand Moccona sells their coffee in these wonderful glass bottles which are well worth their price - get the coffee for free :P

50 Frogs Released This Year

2011-05-31T00:15:00.005+08:00

Today we reached our 50th Frog milestone.

The frogs were brought home as eggs during the rainy season in February 2011. Although hatched at the same time, the first 10 percent of the frogs were very fast growers. They were the first month. After that, the tadpoles seemed to grow very slowly with an average of 3 frogs every week or so being released. This week we are getting about 2 frogs a day being released.

We have not quite figured out what causes them to grow at different rates as we fed them as much as we possibly could. We highly suspect that it has to do with the growth hormones or its inhibitors produced by the fast growing tadpoles. It was only when the total number of tadpoles in the tank reduced to a lower density that the remaining tadpoles managed to grow at a decent rate.

All of them eventually reached about the same size when they turned into frogs. Some of those that were severely affected by the reduced growth actually became skinny and died although food was always in abundance.

Interesting results.

We still have many more to release this week.

01 June 54 Frogs
06 June 57 Frogs
07 June 58 Frogs
09 June 65 Frogs
14 June 66 Frogs

More information at this post

The Cherry Shrimp Tank 2011

2011-05-26T22:15:00.002+08:00

The number of Cheery Shrimps in the tank have dropped to critically low levels after we put in the tadpoles earlier this year.

The tadpoles got big and they produce lots of ammonia waste which is toxic to the shrimps. We started losing at least 1 shrimp a day at least when it was bad. It was also pretty hard to catch the tadpoles when they were big and fast. The thick growth of Java moss also did not help. I had just hoped that the tadpoles would all turn to frogs and then the shrimps would get to repopulate.

This week, I decided to clear up the tank. We caught out the few remaining tadpoles and put it in the main tank. I was a little concerned that we were down to less than 5 shrimps left and there possibly be no females left in the population. I bought 2 new Red Sakura Cherry Shrimps to add to the population before cleaning up the tank.

You can see the cleaned up tank and one of the new Sakura females can be clearly seen foraging on the right side.

I removed all the Java Moss and re-mounted them on the rocks and metal plates. So the tank looks pretty bare right now.

During the clean up we found 2 dragonfly and 1 damselfly nymphs. They are probably the reason why the population went down so fast. They must have eaten all the newborns. The smaller shimps tend to be able to withstand ammonia poisoning better than the older larger shrimps.

It also appears that we have about 10 shrimps in the tank excluding the two new ones. Out of the 10 2 or 3 are females.

I lowered the temperature in the tank this week by daily application of ice blocks. The female shrimps are all about to lay eggs. Hopefully in two weeks time we will see some female carrying eggs around.

This is a picture of the tank in an earlier post when we first caught the tadpoles

Good Flash Calculators

2011-05-24T10:39:00.002+08:00

Rainforest Walk - Singapore Botanical Gardens

2011-05-20T19:04:00.000+08:00

This is the list of plants and trees that they saw during the rainforest tour.

Replacing the toilet flushing mechanism.

2011-05-12T23:44:00.000+08:00

I guess by now some of our fellow residents would have had to do some work on their flush systems. One of ours started leaking a few years back but I let one of the contractors do the job. This time round I decided to DIY and found out some interesting things about the parts used in our condo.

As you can see from the above diagram. This is the old filling system. The water comes in through a flexible metal braided hose at the bottom and then joins to a copper pipe inside the reservoir. The water metering system is attached to the top of the copper pipe. There is an overflow stand pipe attached but is has no use at all. In fact, it is often the cause of water leakage from the metering valve that leads to overflow. The floating valve control mechanism is also very ancient and flimsy.

This photo shows the old filling system and the new one which I bought from the hardware shop at Loyang Industrial Estate. The new one is more compact. Its water level adjustment mechanism is also more 'state of the art'. The best part is that the rubber seal at the bottom is a lot more sturdy than the old one.

The flushing mechanism is right in the middle. Which I had to remove to get some space to take out the refill mechanism. Most flushing mechanisms are very easy to temporarily detach by just turning it anticlockwise until you hear a click. Putting it back is just the same. Make sure you align the slots and then turn clockwise.

All that remains is a small hole on the left side where the flexible metal pipe from the outside connected to the old internal copper pipe.

This the new refill system sitting beside the flush mechanism which i temporarily removed. The flush mechanism was also replaced about a year back because the old black rubber seal was eroded until it leaked. I suspect the parts used were not meant to be in contact with chlorine/flourine which is in our tap water. All the rubber parts looked very eroded.

This is the view of the hole from the bottom where the flexible braided metal hose connects.

Now everything back in place and working. Fingers crossed, my leaking problem will end.

TIP: If you have a shutoff valve upstream of flexible braided metal hose, turn it half closed. A contractor told me that if left in the fully open position, the constant high pressure will cause some of the parts of the system to fail faster. The plastic mesh that I found in the copper pipe was badly damaged which I suspect is due to this high pressure.

Singtel having too much business that they are turning away current subscribers.

2011-04-17T23:53:00.003+08:00

The Terminator
----------------

I had a wonderful day at Tampines Mall today. Despite the title, I came home a very happy person.

But credit was all to Starhub. Before we get to the end, lets start at the begining.

I signed up for the MiO plan many many years ago. It was a good deal...mobile phone + broadband + home phone line etc for a reasonable and competitive price - a couple of year of contract and a free wireless gateway.

2 years down the road, I saw a pretty phone and realised hey, my contracts up. Time to get a new phone and in the spur of the moment, I traded in my phone and went home happily playing with my new toy.

1 year on, I took a look at internet prices out there in the market and got a shock. I am paying hell a lot for a 1 Mbps line when I can actually get 3 Mbps or more for the same price. Only then did I realized that I had been suckered into signing on for another 2 years for the WHOLE Mio plan. Not just moblie phone contract.

At around the same time, Singtel called and my wife took the call while I was away. She told me that Singtel called to say that I can recontract. Now thinking my contract is up, I headed down the the shop to put things right. Only at the shop did I realise that I had only served 1 year of the new contract after the handphone upgrade. I have one more year to go!

Now Singtel is really keen to get you suckered one more time and roll for another contract.

This time round I made a point to put an even reminder in my online calendar for the contract end date.

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Terminator 2 ........

Now armed to the teeth. I headed back to Singtel shop last week. I am going to take down this beast known as the Mio Plan and rip it apart.

At the counter, a young boy if he could help me. I told him I want to split up my MiO Plan and my contracts up. He came back very quickly and naively and said that if I were to get all the services as individual items, it would cost more. I told him briefly what a con-job the plan is, in the long term but he did not see the point and insisted that it would be more expensive. I told him that was what I wanted to get done regardless.

Now finally at the counter, I told the lady I would like to split it all up. Just retain the phone line under a standalone corporate plan and retain the BB service on that line. After an extensive chat about the BB service. I realised that she could not tell me the difference between the several BB data plans offered by Singtel. Now how would you expect a normal customer to understand all that when your own staff is clueless about it.

Anyway, to put her out of her misery, I told her exactly which BB data plan I wanted (I have done my homework and paid for it in blood for several months of internet data charges when i thought I already paid for 1G in the plan).

Next I wanted to trade in my phone and get a new phone. I have traded in many phones in Singtel. Every time it was simple, the guy took the phone, put in his own sim card, did some tests and put set a way. This time round, this silly woman kept rebooting the set and asked me to key in a code to reset the phone. I told her i don't know any code to reset the phone. The only code I have it the SIM lock code which is not active now that she put in her own SIM. I told her she better check with the experts. Guess what, she told me she did not need to consult the experts as she knows what she is doing. She fumbled with the phone a few more times and passed it back to me to key in a code. I keyed in 1234 and passed it back. End of problem.

Next she spent an eternity at the keyboard ripping apart the Mio Plan and reconfirming that the phone will now be on a new contract with the BB BIS service. Sounds like what I wanted, so I signed on several pages of rubbish.

Next I went on to ask, I would like to sign up for the 6 Mbps plan at $36.90 per month promotional plan. Imagine, I get an upgrade to 6 Mbps by tearing apart my old MiO Plan. Amazing.

The lady told me you don't get a free wireless modem as you are existing customer. I told her the modem is a very old one from two contracts ago. She said if got problem then call tech support. Next I got a shock. The home voice phone line will not be free. I have to pay $10 bucks for it!

Shit me! for $46 bucks starhub will give me the same plan with a new modem thrown in.

I showed her the brochures I have printed out for homework. Guess what....she told me that many people experience internet interruptions with other providers! I asked her if that was a threat and if it is Singtel's policy to bad mouth competitors? She quickly replied that it is the customers choice on who you wish to choose. I would have like to tell her that there is this outfit called IDA that is supposed to ensure proper service standards are adhered to but I think it was beyond her mental capacity.

I called for the store manager and hoped that she will see the light of retaining an existing customer. I told her she could save me the trouble of walking across the mall and just offer me the broadband at $36.90 with the home voice line FOC. Well even the store manage seems to have her hands tied by very 'broad bands'.

Happy with the MiO plan finally ripped up and a new Nokia N8 phone. I walked over to Starhub to get the internet bit settled. At least I won't be worse off.

Now at Starhub, the customer service experience is a world of difference. Took me less than 3 minutes and I was at the counter at almost lunch time crowd. I asked if they had a corporate discount plan for internet. The guy flashed me a promotional leaflet. 'Sir, this is better than any corporate discount in existence'. I looked at it and I would have clobbered myself to death with my new phone if I had signed for the broadband at Singtel moments ago.

Titled 'Unbeatable Home Broadband Deal' - for $38.95 a month I get 16 Mbps plus the cable modem and now a D-Link Wireless N router for free. I was told it was their Maxonline Express plan at 30% discount

I took the queue number and sat down, thanking the lucky stars that saved me a lot of money just by walking an additional 50m or so. Also thanked Singtel for hiring such thick customer service staff that were really instrumental in my decision to walk that additional 50m across the mall.

Now the guy Edward T Mateo who looked after the entire process at the counter was a sparkling example of customer service. He was cheerful, he knew his company's products well and was never afraid of stepping away to check on something if he wasn't 100% sure.

Walked home a very happy man. Thanks to Starhub.

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Terminator 3 ......

The very next day, Singtel hit back with a vengence. Revenge by the terminators was swift.

My wife screamed at me first thing in the morning. WHY DID YOU CANCEL MY BB PLAN!
I said I didn't cancel your BB plan. I actually upgraded it to the full $13.90 plan where the 1G is for all internet use.........well err technically yes they had to terminate everything and then re-connect it under a new plan. But I thought I made it crystal clear to the lady what I wanted and she repeated it back very clearly too.

Went back to see the printouts.....shit BB plan cancelled on the fist piece. On the second piece...new plan is correct but no BB plan.

What an idiot.

Ended up calling 1688 to get it done. Thankfully their 1688 staff were slightly better. But they called my wife again to confirm if she really wanted a BB plan when I did not buy a BB phone. HELLO! I may have upgraded to a Nokia N8 with the line, but you mean you never swap the SIM cards around depending on which phone you liked to use at the moment?

Took them hell a long time - two days in fact to finally get the BB service up and running again.

Hopefully I don't have to continue with Terminator 4 below.
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What do you expect....there has to be a Terminator 4

The 19th of April came and went, my singnet broadband account was not terminated, neither was my phone line.

I called Singtel help line and they said the broadband was disconnect. I told the person I am staring at my computer right now and I am surfing the net with Singnet connection. (:P they don't even know what the hell is going on.)

Then I called Starhub customer care line and asked about the home phone number porting. Their request to have the line ported over had been cancelled by Singtel. Now that made me furious. I called Singtel help line again. They said they tried to call me several times and could not reach me to confirm the number port. So the reqest lapsed and they just left it at that. I told the chap on the line that I had signed on the dotted line to terminate when I was at the Singtel shop. Why is there a need to confirm another time (hopefully this is not their idea of customer retention). I told the person on the line that I would like to leave a standing order and she can put the remark in their system that they have all my blessings to terminate and port the number over to Starhub.

So she checked and then asked me to check the line again at about 5pm and it should be ported.

5pm came and by about 6pm, the line was finally ported over to Starhub but with a minor glitch. I could call out to other phone and the caller ID would display correctly that it was my old phone number. However, Singtel mobile phones trying to call my house would get an engaged tone. Starhub and M1 mobile lines had no such problem.

So I called Starhub at about 7pm. They said normally their tech support guys would get back to me in 24 hours but they will try and accelerate the matter. They sure did. I got a call at about 10pm (they could have called earlier too but I was out). Their tech guy was on top of the issue. Made a few test calls using several other different mobile lines and confirmed the anomaly. He said they will be doing more tests through the night and resolve the issue.

Not long after that I got another call from Starhub. I recognised the voice. I thought it was a follow up from the tech support guy and initially was a bit confused when he said the request to port the line was declined by Singtel. Then I realised who the guy was. It was Edward Mateo, the guy from the Starhub shop that handled my applications. So I told Edward that everything was under control, and that Starhub's tech guy is already on top of the matter. In fact the line has been ported but with some technical problems.

I was impressed. I had to chase Singtel to find out what the hell was going on and here I have personalised service from Starhub chasing me to let me know that something had gone wrong.

We heard the home phone ring a couple of times through the night. Clear signs that the Starhub people we working through the night on the issue. They were careful not to let the phone ring more than once or even half a ring so that we would not be too disturbed.

The line and all its problems were fixed when we tested it first thing in the morning.

There is a big chasm between Customer Help Line and Customer Care Line. Starhub's Customer Care really shines. They get things done and are fully aware of your problem and they keep their colleagues up to scratch about your problems. Singtel Help line.......totally helpless. They don't really pass on enough info for their colleagues to work on your problem and you end up repeating yourself several times over. Trying to he helpful but helpless to help you.

Deadheading The Crotalaria Retusa

2011-04-14T12:22:00.001+08:00

After deadheading the crotalaria plants, the side shoots are all starting to grow.

4th Gen Trench Digging

2011-04-09T00:22:00.002+08:00

After all the hiatus about the photo circulating around of the NS boy having his maid carry his back pack. I chanced upon the above video. Was showing it to my maid and Marcus and jokingly told her that when Marcus' time comes, she will not only have to carry his back pack, she will have to dig his trench for him too!

I sincerely hope that the the video is all 'wayang' because most of the guys there look as though they are doing some weekend gardening. One of the chaps was even sitting down and 'digging', not even realizing that the soil is just falling back into the the same spot he dug.

After a while I noticed the time stamps on the video. 0740 - 1410. That is bloody 6 and a half hours to dig a shellscrape! I did my fair share of digging in 1991 and I definitely think that a shellscrape should be done in about half and hour!. To be fair, I checked with a friend that night on the way to a squash league game.

Paul was also an infantry section leader in his days in NS. I probably did mine 10 years after his. By my time, the 'tekaning' probably went down a notch or two, but standards were still pretty much the same. He too felt that a shellscrape should be done in half an hour.

Bearing in mind the reason why we all dig shellscrapes in the first place........

Having reached an objective that you want to dig in and defend, either you or your buddy starts digging the shellscrape, while the other adopts a 'stand to' position to guard against threats while the other digs. After that you switch roles. This is the most critical part of job as everyone will be sitting ducks if the enemy decides to counter attack or if your location is spotted by enemy scouts.

After the two shellscrapes are done, then we dig the two men trench which probably takes about 6-7 hours or maybe even more, I honestly cannot remember. If these chaps take 6.5 hours to dig a shell scrape, I think they better just forget about it and start on the two men trench as they are sitting ducks anyway!

The poor 'casualty' was even dropped while another 'casualty' stretch out his hands and probably helped himself onto his platoon mates. They better thank their lucky stars I was not their PC or they would have had hell.

The only thing that looks up to scratch is the 'shack' look on their faces. We looked like that too, but we were whacked hell a lot more to reach that stage.

So Marcus....better tell Kak Tin that shellscrape must be done in setengah jam, not enam setengah jam. BETOL?!

Marcus Pretending To Throw A Grenade

2011-04-08T23:54:00.002+08:00

I was showing Marcus the above episode of 'Every Singaporean Son' the other day. He suddenly got very into throwing grenades. Been throwing his toy grenade all over the house the past few days so I decided to ask him to do it while we were walking in Pasir Ris park and take a video.

On the way back we drove past a commando company route march. I asked him if he wanted to wind down the window to have a look. He happily shouted 'grenade' and 'fire in the hold' at them. Hmmmm....don't know where he get the sadistic streak from.

Transformers on YouTube

2011-03-30T21:56:00.001+08:00

Marcus's favourite song at the moment

Dividing The Gerberas

2011-03-23T14:30:00.000+08:00

Been reading in the web about making more plants by dividing the plant by a process known as crown division.

I chose the purple Gerbera that was not flowering at the moment. Dug it up and used a spray to clean up the roots so that I can get a better view of what can be done. Quite daunting at first as there is no clear line to cut as the leaves are all criss crossed. So I slowly divided the leaves into two haves and found a clear line to cut without cutting leaf buds.

In the end after the cut, I had 4 separate plants. Hopefully they survive.

Here is a picture of all the four small plants beside two undivided Red and Yellow Gerberas.

Will post photo update in a month

Pets Of GSPS 2.2 - Plain Tiger Caterpillars

2011-03-23T01:52:00.005+08:00

Dear friends of Class 2.2 of GSPS,

I heard from Karyn that you all are interested in keeping the caterpillars that we caught from Pasir Ris Park. Unfortunately we don't have that many to pass around, moreover some of them have already started to turn into chrysalis.

What I suggested to Karyn is that we select 2 caterpillars and put them on display in school. The two caterpillars should also turn into chrysalis by the end of the week.

Karyn will be in charge of looking after them as she has a lot of experience looking after the caterpillars. There is enough food there to last a few days. If there is not enough, Karyn will bring more. Just make sure the tissue paper at the bottom is moist. It is to keep the leaves fresh. Caterpillars who eat very dry leaves may not have enough moisture from the food to pupate properly. They may also emerge with damaged wings later. So water for them is also important as it is for us.

Remind Karyn to bring them back on Friday in case the chrysalis 'hatches' during the weekend. The butterflies won't last half a day without nectar. She will bring them back on Monday.

Hope that you all can learn something while observing the caterpillars.

These are caterpillars of the Plain Tiger butterfly.

Pasir Ris Park has got lots of them, near the garden at the pony riding area. The caterpillars are very very beautiful but are very harmless. They are colourful because they eat the leaves of poisonous plants and the poison stays in the body of the caterpillar and the butterfly. So anyone thinking of eating them better think twice or end up with a bad tummy or maybe even die.

The eggs are laid on two types of plants. The two plants belong to the milkweed family and all parts of the plant are poisonous to man. They produce a white sap.

Indian Milkwood (Calotropis gigantea)

Blood Flower (asclepias curassavica)

The butterflies seem to like to lay its eggs on the colourful milkweed plant. However, the caterpillars tend to eat up all the small leaves of the plant very quickly.

They can also eat the leaves of the Indian Milkwood plant. You can see the two types of leaves in the container.

We discovered something very interesting. The seeds of both plants are very similar. However, one grows into a thin plant with thin leaves. The other can grow into a shrub with thick and large leaves.

Another Plain Tiger butterfly goes free....

Propagating Marigold

2011-03-20T23:56:00.003+08:00

Marigolds are very easy to propagate by stem cuttings.

Choose a healthy side shoot with no flowers. Cut about 3cm below a pair of leaves and let it soak in a cup of water. The water should cover the 3cm of stem.

Change water everyday for best results. Stale water may cause bacteria to grow and block water flow up the cut stem.

Leave the cutting in bright sunlight and within 3-4 days you will see white dots protruding from the stem which is soaked in water. Long white roots will grow shortly after that.

This is the same shoot 2 days later.

You may then plant it as you wish.

9th April 2011

The plants are doing well and one of them has even continued to flower.

Stuart's Desert Pea

2011-03-20T23:50:00.000+08:00

Managed to get my hands on some Stuart's Desert Pea seeds from Australia.

Successfully germinated some of them after soaking in warm water.

The seeds are pushed into damp sand and left there to germinate.

Here are the germinated seeds with the first root visible. I planted some in the garden just below the soil surface.

Propagating Gloxinia - Sinningia speciosa

2011-03-20T23:46:00.003+08:00

I chanced upon this plant at the nursery during Chinese New Year and thought that it was quite stunning for a $6 per pot plant.

Now my mum is also crazy over the plant because it keep producing stunning long lasting blooms with minimal care.

The plants are growing very well so we are trying to reproduce them using leaf cuttings. These are two freshly cut leaves stuck into moist potting mix.

Update 6 April 2011

I think only one of the four leaves planted has made it. It is the only leaf that seems to be still firm and healthy. The rest have shrivelled a bit

Will be trying out advice to put the leaves in water first until they root. In Singapore, because of the chlorine in the tap water, bacteria etc do not grow so easily and will not clogg up the vessels of the cut leaf, thereby giving it a better chance of rooting.

Earth Day 2011 - 22nd April

2011-03-19T02:12:00.001+08:00

Just in case we get too caught up with school and work with Earth Day just round the corner, we decided to do our bit right here in Taman Simalem Resort.

We planted nearly 80 seeds in the plot of wasteland just beyond the playground at Kodon Kodon cafe. Hopefully in a few months time there will be some results.

Right now the area is a ripe spot for new pine seedlings to germinate. We keep finding new pine saplings there each trip. We relocated them when they are big enough as this plot will be developed in the future. The saplings will get a chance to grow up at some other location within the resort.

Karyn and Lynnette busy planting Crotalaria seeds

Marcus doing his bit for Earth Day 2011

Back To Taman Simalem For The March Holidays

2011-03-17T14:37:00.011+08:00

We decided to spend the 2011 March Holidays back in Medan this year. Nelly has tonnes of work to do at the Resort and most of our visits to the resort have been rather short. Not really worth the 3 hour long car ride from Medan to Taman Simalem Resort and stay only for 2 nights only.

We decided to break up the journey and left Medan in the evening and stopped at Hotel Sibayak on the first night. After breakfast on the first morning, we then left for Taman Simalem Resort and we where there just after lunch time.

*The road to Berastagi and Taman Simalem Resort goes through some very rural roads.

We stayed at the Dormitory for the first night as the units at the Waterfall Lodge were all fully occupied. We managed to fit our whole family of 2 adults and 3 kids in one dormitory. The Dormitory is circular in shape so depending on which unit you take, you might have views of the hills, the valley or Lake Toba.

We managed to get a unit that faces the lake.

*The South view from the dormitory faces Lake Toba. The lake is about 2000 feet below the hills.

*The Eastern view from the dormitory comprises steep hills that are higher than the location of the dormitory.

*This is the unit with the a view towards the East.

*One of the 2 dormitories

*Just next to the dormitory is Tongging Mart and the Amphitheater. The view of Lake Toba from the Amphitheater is spectacular.

*The clouds that form above the lake often touches the hills as they drift Eastwards.

* The area around Agro Centre is one of the best places for great photos. Facing East you get the cloud covered peaks of the hills of the Merek region.

* Facing South and you get the view of Lake Toba and on clear days, you can even see Samosir, the island in the middle of the lake clearly.

* Truly a place where the clouds touch the hills.

* Karyn, Lynnette and Toba Cafe in the background.

* Karyn and Lynnette with the Eastern hills covered in afternoon clouds.

* Enjoying the playground at Kodon Kodon Cafe with cousin Roderick Tanoto Sukardi

* Visiting the Strawberry plantation at the resort.

* There are cherry tomatoes too!

* Uncle Eddy and Nelly inspecting the inter-cropping area where the oranges and other vegetables are grown.

The kids decided to visit the Out Bound Adventure first thing in the morning. Located just beside the Nursery, it has a rope bridge that goes across the river and several other medium height confidence courses which ends with a breath taking ride back to ground on a flying fox.

Here's the video of them doing the flying fox:

* The kids getting geared up for the Out Bound Adventure. Lynnette has agreed to do the flying fox solo after her tandem try during the last trip. Marcus is still the ayam refusing to do it tandem.

* All ready for the big ride of the trip.

* Warming up the confidence by crossing the river on a rope and wooden step bridge.

* There's no turning back now. You can still opt to return by the second bridge, but the way to come back is by the Flying Fox.

* Karyn is off the blocks on the Flying Fox even before you can say GO! Immediately after leaping off the starting block, you cross the river.

* Karyn obviously enjoying herself on the long gentle flying fox.

*Lynnette still wondering if she should do it solo.

* Before you know it, she is zipping through the canopy

* Another satisfied customer.

*After crossing the river and the canopy of trees, you gently descend to the open field below the obstacle course.

* Karyn deciding to try the advanced height confidence obstacle course.

* The advanced height confidence course is built amongst large pine trees which have been preserved during the construction of the area.

* An all encompassing view of the advanced hight confidence obstacle course.

* The reward at the end of the obstacle course......another Flyinhg Fox. This time it s a shorter and steeper ride back to ground zero.

* Karyn getting very used to doing the flying fox.

We moved over to the Tea Tree House at Waterfall Lodge for the 2nd and 3rd night. Nestled in a small fork of the valley that runs through the resort, it is built right next to a 30m high waterfall that feeds additional water to the river that cuts throught the resort. The self contained units are located within the canopy of the surrounding rainforest. You can experience the light afternoon showers that drench the rainforest from the comfort of your lodge or sit outside under the shade and listen to the sound of the waterfall just 20m away or the light splatter of raindrops on the leaves of the banana trees and yam plants. All the units have a view of the waterfall and the river against the backdrop of the rainforst canopy.

* This is the master bedroom of Tee Tree House.

* Next door is the Single and double decker bed.

* The kitchenette and dining area to the right of the entrance.

* The hall and cozy corner to the left of the entrance. There's a TV at the cozy corner and the master bed room

* Taman Simalem Organic Coffee, Green Tea and Brown Tea

On the second day we did the forest trek which led us to the twin waterfalls that supplies the main river that runs through the resort.

We some some interesting creatures along the way.

The giant millipedes are a regular feature at the forest trek. We saw two millipedes that day.

It is shiny black with bright orange feet.

Very pretty mushrooms growing on a stump of wood.

After about half an hour's walk, we reach the twin waterfalls.

This is the one on the left.

This is the one on the right. Due to the rains the day before, there was a lot of water coming down the falls that we could not go near the river as the water spray was getting us wet.

The water from the waterfall and the river is a natural dark brown in colour. This is due to water passing through the peaty substrate in the hills before reaching the river.

Another common millipede that can be found in the leaf litter in the forest trek is this one. It is only about 5-6 cm long and rolls into round ball when disturbed.

We are out of the forest trek and back on the main road. Time to head back back for lunch at Kodon Kodon Cafe.

This is Kodon Kodon Cafe. It has a good view of the surrounding hills. The local goreng pisang is good.

This is the Nursery located just beside Waterfall Lodge.

Karyn looks like a blue beetle.

We have set up a tank to display the local tadpoles. They are big.

Moth Caterpillars on Crotalaria Retusa

2011-03-07T23:56:00.003+08:00

The moths whose caterpillars feed on Crotalaria retusa are quite pretty. I am trying to see it they will appear on our plant below in the next few months. I might be tempted to go out hunting for some of the caterpillars too.

Here are some photos of the beautiful caterpillars found on Crotalaria Retusa:

Utetheisa Lotrix (Crotalaria Moth) from the Tiger Moth family, Arctiidae

[Image From http://africanmoths.com]

Image From http://tidechaser.blogspot.com

Argina astrea

[Image From : http://www-public.jcu.edu.au]

[Image from http://www1.ala.org.au]

Borrowed all the images from the web. Will replace with my own once I get a chance to take them.

This post is linked to my other post on Crotalaria Retusa

Life Cycle Of The Plain Tiger Butterfly

2011-03-05T23:26:00.003+08:00

Yesterday afternoon, while looking for some Crotalaria retusa seeds to harvest at Pasir Ris Park, I came across a plot of Blood Flower that was almost decimated by the caterpillars of the plain tiger butterfly Danaus chrysippus chrysippus.

The Plain Tiger butterfly is beautiful and the caterpillars are just as beautiful. Unfortunately, the plants on which they feed on are slow growing and have rather small leaves. Hence an outbreak of caterpillars normally means the end of the plant. This draws attention to the gardener and it may also spell the end for the caterpillars.

I decided to pick as many of the caterpillars as I could and hopefully I can raise a couple to adulthood.

I also had to look for an alternate source of food to make sure the whole lot survives.

I have never seen the caterpillars of the Plain Tiger butterfly feeding on the Crown Flower. However, the caterpillars I collected seemed to readily feed on the leaves of the Crown Flower.

Here is a write up at the Butterfly Circle website about the Plain Tiger Butterfly.

Although pretty dangerous looking and its movements are quite fast. The caterpillars are quite harmless and can be easily handled.

The smaller caterpillars feeding on the leaves of the Blood Flower (Asclepias currasavica)

Here are the larger caterpillars feeding on the alternate food source Calotropis gigantea or Crown Flower

The first caterpillar started purging its gut in the afternoon. The poop is much greener than normal. That's how you tell that the caterpillar is preparing to pupate. Here it is after it has anchored itself to a twig in preparation for the transformation to a chrysalis.

By this morning, it has already become a green chrysalis.

Marcus and Lynnette releasing a newly emerged Plain Tiger butterfly

A Close Encounter With The Green Baron Butterfly

2011-03-05T23:17:00.002+08:00

This morning we decided to pay a visit to Hort Park. Wife wanted to look for gardening supplies, kids wanted to go to the playground and I needed a big supply of leaves to feed my Plain Tiger caterpillars.

When we arrived and got out of the car, Karyn spotted a butterfly on the floor. At that time of the morning, we suspected that it had just emerged from its chrysalis and probably attempted to fly too early and landed right in the middle of the road in the carpark. It is a Saturday morning and it would have probably been squashed if we had not saved it.

A close look at it bring back no memories. I have never seen this butterfly in my life. Not even during my kampung days as a kid.

The perfect formation of the wings and scales, the 'damp' look on the wings and its constant squirting of liquid from its rear end confirmed that it had just started its life as a butterfly.

We set it free on some vines further in the park away from danger.

Here is a writeup in butterfly circle about the Green Baron. Apparently it is not a common butterfly to see in Singapore, so that makes it all the more special to see it at Hort Park.

The Green Baron resting on Karyn's arm.

See the beautiful patches of red?

The metallic dark green hues on its upper wing surface.

Safely perched on a vine in Hort Park waiting for its wings to dry before it takes flight.

Home Made pH indicator

2011-02-20T16:34:00.002+08:00

During the last school holidays, we made a crude pH sensitive liquid. We used the flowers of the blue pea plant and ground them in a little boiling water.

The blue liquid was decanted and we tested it by adding eno solution, soap water and vinegar.

The soap turned it green,

Eno turned it purple,

Vinegar turned it red.

The kids playing with water filtration science set. The mess we created with garden soil and cooking oil is on the right. The stuff that came out is one the left. After a second pass, it was clearer.

6 Legged Frog

2011-02-20T16:18:00.002+08:00

This pet shop has been selling frogs as fish food for some time. They have recently found a few 6 legged specimens and have been keeping them for display.

Last time I checked they had 4 already in the tank.

Crotalaria Retusa

2011-02-20T12:13:00.015+08:00

I am doing some experiments with C. retusa in the garden. Will post the results here.

Tried planting a stem cutting from the active growing regions. The thin hollow stem rotted very quickly and the whole cutting wilted very quickly.
Going to use a thicker stem next time round when getting rid of the big plant.
The seeds also respond to soaking in hot/warm water as recommended from Crotalaria cunninghamii
The plant can be encouraged to be thicker from the bottom by cutting away the apical bud at an early stage of growth and encourage side shoots to sprout early. May improve the overall look of the individual plant. The unaltered plant seems to lack growth at the bottom 50cm of the plant and gives it a bare look if used to plant a hedge.
Once it starts flowering, it rarely stops. The terminal inflorescence produces about 12 flowers in a spike which develops quickly. The pollinated flower also grows into seed pods very quickly.
Below the inflorescence normally 3 new side shoots will appear and send out 3 new terminal inflorescence. So in theory, you should get more and more flowers. Just wondering how will the plant structurally handle all that exponential branching plus the increased water pressure demands as the plant grows taller.
The tap root system grows deep and seems to provide the plant with sufficient water to grow in very dry environment, tapping on water sources that are much deeper in the ground. The hydration state of the plant seldom reflects the state of dryness of the top soil layer once the plant is established.

Below is the same plant one week later with a lot more flowers.

I have purposely removed all new flowers and shoots from the top. Even the seed pods look pretty on their own. Very symmetrical arrangement.

Some of the pods are turning yellow and then ripening already. Takes about a month or more for the pods to mature.

Once I have harvested the seed pods I will flatten the top of the plant and see if new shoots are produced. It it is successful, then it would be very easy to maintain as a hedge plant.

Update 6th April

The last of the seed pods are about to ripen. I have pruned back all the top shoots after harvesting the seeds. Now to see if the the plant survives the pruning.

9th April 2011

Shoots are appearing below the cut line.

More updates on deadheading the plant on this blog

Here is another blog with more information about this easy to grow and beautiful plant that will add some stunning dash of yellow to any garden.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have also been collecting Crotalaria plants from wherever I go. Here's a collection of the species I have encountered:

Young seedlings of C. Retusa plants

Young seedlings of the C. Retusa plants I collected from Australia. Notice that the shape of the leaves are slightly different. They are more pointed than round at the end of the leaf.

These are another type of Crotalaria that I found in Singapore. They have red flowers. The leaves are heart shaped or oval.

This is the Crotalaria from Sumatra. Looks similar to the red one I found in Singapore but the flowers are yellow. The seed is totally different.

This is Crotalaria Cunninghamii

Crotalaria cunninghamii- Green Bird Flower

2011-02-20T12:10:00.010+08:00

I managed to get my hands on some seeds of the Green Bird Flower. So far I managed to germinate some of the seeds. Hopefully I have some flowers to show in a few months.

Crotalaria cunninghamii seeds need to be soaked in boiling water in order to germinate. The seed on the left is the dry seed. The seed in the centre has been placed in boiling water and allowed to soak until it has swollen to almost 3 times its original size. On the right is a Crotalaria retusa seed for size comparison

Here are some websites with more information on this beautiful Crotalaria species

Australia Native Plants Society
Wikipedia

01 March 2011

So far I have managed to germinate a few of the Crotalaria cunninghamii seeds. The boiling water treatment works, but don't get carried away. Just use a small cup, and about 1cm of hot water and let it stand until it is cool. Repeated treatment with boiling water tends to cook the seed instead. The initial hot water treatments seems to force out some air bubbles from the seed. Once the seed is planted in drenched sand, it continues to soak water until it is 3 times its original size and germinates within 3 days.

More photos to come.

Gloxinia

2011-02-20T12:10:00.003+08:00

More info here

Injury Induced Cannibalism Of Tadpoles

2011-02-15T15:05:00.003+08:00

We observed an injured tadpole of the Field Frog Fejervarya limnocharis being set upon by its siblings after it was injured.

The tadpoles were kept in a 1 foot tank and were well fed. There were tadpoles of different sizes in the tank. The smallest of which would easily fit in the mouth of the larger tadpoles. However, when they were well fed, the could be seen feeding almost mouth to mouth on bits of fish food.

During a routing water change, one of the tadpoles was accidentally sucked by the siphon and was collected and released back into the tank. It was swimming awkwardly and it was evident that it had been injured. It was almost immediately set upon by other tadpoles that came near it, both large and small. The tadpoles even ignored the presence of the fish food lying next to the injured tadpole and there seems to be a rush to get a piece of the injured tadpole.

It is interesting to note that the large tadpoles ignored the presence of the tiny tadpoles and every individual was concentrating on picking a piece off the injured tadpole.

When food was scarce, the large tadpoles do occasionally attempt to consume tadpoles smaller than themselves.

Cannibalism seems to be an adaptation by the tadpoles to ensure that at least a few individuals survive to become frogs at the expense of others. This behavior seems to suit the habitat in which the tadpoles live in. The shallow puddles of water evaporate quickly when the rains stop. The amount of food in the puddles is also very limited.

Tadpole to Frog Count

2011-02-05T18:04:00.022+08:00

[5 Feb 2011]

Last year we released about 7 froglets. This year we decided to start a count.

Today we released our first frog of 2011.

So now we have a total of 8 Frogs

Here is a running total number of frogs released so far.

10 Feb 2011 - 9 Frogs

11 Feb 2011 - 10 Frogs

14 Feb 2011 - 13 Frogs

19 Feb 2011 - 15 Frogs

28 Feb 2011 - 18 Frogs

09 Apr 2011 - 30 Frogs
25 Apr 2011 - 34 Frogs
05 May 2011 - 37 Frogs
06 May 2011 - 39 Frogs

19 May 2011 - 41 Frogs
23 May 2011 - 43 Frogs
26 May 2001 - 44 Frogs
29 May 2011 - 48 Frogs

Marcus with one of the frogs that was about to be released.

Here are some pictures of this years frogs:

These eggs are about a day old. The embryo is already starting to elongate

The tadpoles hatch on the second day. You can see how small they are compared to the 2cm shrimps and an older tadpole we caught last week.

The tadpoles are now much large after a few days

4 More Frogs released in March 2011 and we still have more than 20 swimming in the tank

Butterflies Release Count

2011-02-05T18:02:00.003+08:00

[5 Feb 2011]

Today we released 2 more so now we have 73
14th Feb 74
March 2011 we released 2 more lime butterflies plus 11 Tiger Butterflies

Total Butterflies Released 87

See here for more information about our caterpillar / butterfly count

Using Tadpoles To Get Rid Of Filamentous Algae In Your Aquarium

2011-01-27T12:25:00.007+08:00

My small 1.5ft shrimp tank has, on several occasions, been overrun by filamentous algae. The long strands of filamentous algae are accidentally introduced by new additions to the tank. The other tank is even more prone to such outbreaks as it is exposed to some sunlight from the window.

The shrimps do their part in keeping the algae under control as well but sometimes when I forget to change the water, disaster strikes and a large number of shrimps die. It takes a few months for the population to recover and during that time, algae will run wild.

Last year, I changed to energy saving light bulbs and although bright, the java moss do not grow at all. They just wither away and algae takes over.

Today I finally found a FREE solution to most most freshwater tank algae problem.......tadpoles.

A couple of years ago, we collected some tadpoles to add the shrimp tank so that the kids can learn more about life cycle of frogs. Back then, the tank was already heavily populated with Cherry Shrimps with lots of Java Moss that was growing so fast, I had to throw them away. Basically, all the waste generated by the shrimps was being used up by the java moss and the lighting was sufficient for the moss to grow well. Even when we added many greedy tadpoles to the tank, it still managed to cope. The tadpoles came and left as frogs.

After the change in aquarium lighting, things took a turn for the worse......the moss started to die slowly. With the moss not doing well, the water quality started to drop. The water was never crystal clear anymore. Algae started to grow, and the shrimps also started to die one by one. Only the most tolerant shrimps survived.

Two months ago, I decided to revert to the old type of lighting and added new java moss. The tank slowly recovered. The moss started to grow, and the shrimps started to multiply.

The tank is now with crystal clear water again., but the algae problem did not totally go away. The shrimps could deal with the filamentous algae but not the type that grows on the walls.

The other tank is a complete mess, the 6 white cloud fishes in it killed and ate the few shrimps that I put in to help clear the algae. The algae and the moss became a unified mess in the tank. Green slimmy algae clustered at the filter sponge.

Now here is the miracle......

After last weeks heavy rains, I went about looking for tadpoles. Now looking for tadpoles in Singapore is not as easy as it used to be. Fortunately, while exploring a newly constructed foot path in Pasir Ris, near more secluded areas, I noticed some movement in the small puddles of water. The water was clearly treated with anti mosquito oils and the tadpoles are now clustered in the every shrinking puddles of water after the rain has gone.

I managed to get about 20 tadpoles and cleaned them up and put them in both tanks.

These are the same type of tadpoles as mention in our earlier blog. (please see this blog for more related information)

They are extremely active, have a voracious appetite and live as though everyday was their last day alive. Considering the conditions in which I found them in, they were not very far from their last day to begin with.

I was thought that tadpoles have mixed diets. They start off as herbivores, and then towards their later stages, they become omnivores or carnivores. However, with this particular tadpole, they seem to be happy to stick to algae and fish food. They even enjoy the cooked rice that I throw in, which the shrimps love.

Whatever signs of algae in the tank are all gone. Even the patch that was growing on the snail and was looking more and more like eyebrows is also gone.

As for the other tank, another bigger miracle. I was using a tooth brush to clean parts of the tank glass every now and then so that I can see trough the tank.

Now a week after the tadpoles arrived. The tank is crystal clear. A couple of days back you could still see patterns on the glass....evidence that someone is eating the algae.

All the filamentous algae are gone. The java fern is left. Now the tadpoles are zooming in on the thick patch of slimy algae filter. Even that is disappearing by the day.

The mouths of these tadpoles are small. I do not observe them attacking any of the fish. The fact that the shrimps are all doing well and good despite the tadpoles huge appetites means that they also do not attack the tiny shrimps. The java fern also has no complaints with the tadpoles.

So if you want an efficient and well targeted biological solution to your algae problem in your fish tank, try tadpoles. I have tried 3 different types of tadpoles in the tank. See my older post.

The transparent bodied type are useless. They just float in mid water and seem to be filter feeders. So if your tank is clean. They will starve to death. They do not attempt to eat anything at all at the bottom or at the top of the tank.

The black tadpoles which we are more familiar with have a huge appetite. They grow large very fast. But for some reason, they do not progress to the next stage. In the end they just wither and die. My shrimps just make the funeral a quick one after that.

It is only these smaller brown mottled tadpoles that survive. Initially they are smaller than the black tadpoles but their speed allows them to get out of harms way. Whey they are big enough they slow down but still retain their explosive burst of speed when needed. These are the ones that cleaned up my tank this time round.

Looks like I will be on a constant lookout for them as regular guests in my tank.

------

More updates:

A friend who is an expert in local amphibians identified the tadpoles as possibly those of the Field Frog Fejervarya limnocharis or the Crab Eating Frog Fejervarya cancrivora.

I understand that the the field frog's call is a flat low pitched tatatata, like one of those toy guns. Can be heard after heavy rains that have created puddles. This frog is often heard but less often seen. They jump pretty fast and in several hops at once. So unless you have quick eyes and a very bright torch. You probably will not see it.

More information on the above frogs can be found at the following links:

Field Frog
Amphibiaweb
Wildherps.com
Frogsofborneo.org
Ecology Asia

Crab Eating Frog
Ecology Asia
Amphiweb

Natural Pesticide For Spider Mites

2011-01-10T00:59:00.002+08:00

In tropical Singapore, Marigolds (Tagates), Blood flower (Asclepias curassavica), Morning Glory (Ipomea nil), Blue Pea Vine (Clitoria ternatea) and several other species are often decimated by a population explosion of spider mites.

It begins with a few mites on the plant, but the population of mites grows very fast and the leaves of the plant become dotted with them and they suck the leaves dry.

It was very frustrating to find no cure for such an attack until one day, I decided to try and experiment.

I realised that in the garden, the lime plants never get infected with the spider mites. There must be something in lime plants that the spider mites did not like.

So one fine day I decided to squeeze one green lime fruit into a 250ml bottle of water and sprayed a blood flower plant that was covered with spider mites and was a sure goner. To my surprise, the mites totally disappeared within a day. They must have died because I found no trace of them on any of the neighbouring plants which I did not spray.

That was more than a year ago and it might have been sheer luck until two weeks ago. My neighbour's clump of Blue Pea Vine was being attacked by spider mites. The plant was loosing the battle and only the top 10 percent of the young shoots were without mites. New leaves were getting smaller and smaller while the cells of the old leaves were sucked dry.

Karyn and Lynnette with the now healthy and spider mite free Blue Pea Vine

I told her there was no cure for the plant. Better if she got rid of all of them and started again. But before that, I told her to try out using the lime spray.

I did not notice the clump for a few weeks and when I did take a look, it was growing vigorously. There are tell tale signs of yellow dots on the leaves from the attack by the mites. But even the leaves that were attack are growing bigger and producing new cells. Not a single spider mite was in sight.

Blue Pea Vine

Out of curiosity, I checked with my neighbour. Sure enough, she had started to spray the lime water every day for a week after I told her about it.

So for those of you whose plants are infested with Spider Mites, here is a proven cure.

My next experiment will be with Marigolds. I have lost many marigold plants to spider mites before. This time round I have the secret weapon. I just planted some new seeds today. I am sure the spider mites will show up in a month or two.

Then I will have something to add to this blog.

Another Year ...Another Lesson

2010-11-02T16:19:00.002+08:00

Tomorrow I will be 38.......

Today I went down to Kallang Squash Centre to collect two new rackets that I have sent for stringing. Instead of driving, I decided to take a bus. It is on a day like this, taking a bus and walking, the you have time to stop and look around you.

As I was walking back to the bus stop, I noticed the row of mahogany trees. Some of them have grown very straight and their girth is almost the length of my squash racket. If no one cuts them down, they would have seen generations of squash, tennis and netball players come and go.

What a pity if they were ever to be cut down.

Then it occurred to me, here I am almost 38 years old, and these very same trees were watching my every move when I spent countless hours at the squash courts at kallang since the age of 13. That's 25 years!

They too must have heard the many times I look blankly at them and asked WHY?

Why am I born skinny and weaker than most other boys?

Why despite putting in more effort in training...i still cannot improve as quickly as the rest?

Why despite fooling around during training, most of the other guys still beat the shit out of me on court.

Why am I the only one still using a wooden racket when everyone else have moved on to aluminium and even graphite rackets?

Why when you ask for some money to buy a better racket, your dad asks if there's something wrong with your wooden racket?

Why does your dad know so much about how new graphite technology that has crept its way into his set of irons and fairway drivers....how the flexible carbon shaft hits the golf ball cleanly and sends it way past the distance he used to hit.....and not realize that they have also started to make graphite squash rackets.

Why does it take a next door neighbour to realize that a Yonex Carbonex 8 badminton racket would be a damn good present to give to my younger brother on his 10th birthday, when my dad was the one playing badminton with us most of the time. (that same racket is now with me and my kids are using it. what a cheapskate father I am. My father gave me a wooden badminton racket made by yoneyama and said that it was a damn good racket, when there were already carbon shaft badminton rackets out there already).

Why would I want an expensive dinghy for my 10th birthday when when the same amount of money can get me a brand new Chopper bike to replace the ladies bicycle which I use to ride for recreation and commuting to church.

Why the best best bicycle I ever received from any body was a free Shimano racing bike from an expat family who sold my dad their cocker spaniel dog.

It took $14 to restore the bike to decent condition. At least I don't have to ride a ladies bike to church. That night when I looked at the cracked paint work on weather beaten bike that was left in the sun to corrode, at least I knew that the bike was made of good parts. There was no brown rust on the rims. They were real aluminium rims dulled by oxidation.

There is a God after all. I don't have to ride a ladies bike to church when all the other boys were riding BMX or Kuwahara bikes.

Now after buying new rackets and new strings.....WHY the hell am I still playing badly?!

Some questions will never be answered in your lifetime

Hopefully I will play better by the time I am 40.

Its November and the Calotes Lizards are back again.

2010-11-01T23:11:00.001+08:00

As surely as Summer passes in Autumn, the Calotes lizards are starting to show themselves again around the condo. After being inconspicuous for the past year, the males are now showing their orange head during the breeding season.

The hormonal rush not only changes their colour, it makes them bolder too. You can now walk right up to the lizard and it will not run away so quickly.

The breeding season also coincides with the winter arrival of predatory birds like the shrike. Many calotes lizards end up as meals for the shrikes when they start coming out into the open and take on their breeding colour.

The price of defending your territory and hopefully mating and passing on your genes to the next generation by be one own life......

Back Up Your Digital Videos and Images

2010-10-30T07:27:00.000+08:00

I have lost 6 months worth of photos due to a relatively new hard disk drive crashing on me. As a result, some of my son's photos and videos of his first few months are gone forever.

I have backed up my stuff since the CD-R and DVD-R days. One lesson learnt is that in the digital world, once gone its gone forever. You don't even get a dirty deteriorated copy of what you once had.

With standalone large external storage easily available these days, you can get one that swallows up everything. Get another one to mirror it in case of failure. It will only set you back $300 for two 1.5TB Seagate Expansion Drives

Make use of Microsoft's Synctoy software to synchronize the drives. You can stop and resume your back ups as and when you want.

I just got my drives from Sim Lim at about $150 for 1.5 TB worth of space.

Catching Up With The Arms Race..... Prince O3 Speedport

2010-10-30T07:04:00.001+08:00

My Prince Triple Threat Viper finally retired. After using it for almost 4 years. I recently restrung it for the WAST tournament after the NSL league. When it came back, it felt weird. Most of the time when it comes back from stringing, I would play very very well with it. This time round, I could not hit straight and cannot seem to hit the centre consistently.

Two days ago, I took a closer look at it. Despite all the punishment it took. It still looks pretty good. But there was a swell somewhere near the position where the impacts were. I used it as an excuse to go down to Sports Planet to have a look at the rackets.

Took two of the prince rackets to try and was surprised that I could hit straight with a racket that had larger grip than my normal.

Ended by buying the O3 Speedport Black and the O3 Hybrid Light.

When I bought the triple threat viper it was already at the end of the product line. So I finally caught up with the arms race and got the O3 series rackets.

Now to see if I can get back my strokes when they come back from stringing.

Visit Prince Squash for more product info on the above rackets

Newspaper Origami Cuttings Handed Down From My Aunt

2010-10-11T17:28:00.001+08:00

Was clearing up my room the other day when I came across this stack of origami instructions which were cut from old newspapers. They are probably older than I am and handed down from my aunt when Karyn was starting to fold some origami.

Was considering throwing them away but I thought I give them a second lease of life in the 21st century. So here they are for all to enjoy.

Self Drive & Car Rental Basics - Australia

2010-09-24T18:40:00.002+08:00

This blog is written for those who intend to have a self drive holiday in Australia for the first time.

With our last trip to Sydney in September 2010, I have had a total of 7 self drive holidays in Australia :

2 in Western Australia : Perth,Bunbury,Mandurah,Margaret River-Pemberton, Albany
2 in Victoria : Melbourne-Yarra Valley,Mt. Buller,Dandenongs,Williamtown,Great Ocean Road, Grampians(Halls Gap), Ballarat, Sovereign Hill
1 in South Australia : Mt Gambier, Penola, Naracoorte, Kingston, Coorong NP, Victor Harbour, Cape Jervis, Kangaroo Island, Mclaren Vale, Barossa Valley, Adelaide
2 in Queensland : Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Tangalooma / Cairns
1 in New South Wales : Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley, Port Stephens, Sydney
1 in Tasmania : Launceston to Hobart

Before the trip, here are some of the considerations:
The Singapore driving license is recognised in Australia, and you don't need an international driving license.
For child seat requirements please visit the RACV website www.racv.com.au

What type of car to choose?

Manual or Automatic - If you have more than one driver, make sure the least experienced driver is also comfortable with driving the car should the main driver get too tired to drive or for some reason becomes unable to drive safely (e.g. had one wine tasting too many, or twisted an ankle from Snowboarding.)

Bootspace and comfort – Choose a car that give you sufficient boot space and sitting space. Although a normal sedan is sufficient for a small party of 3 or 4 people, choosing a larger hatchback or 4WD may be a better option. On long trips, you want to have easy access to items in the boot area without having to stop the car, and the boot area is much easier to clean. With a 4WD road handling is better should you find yourself driving to certain areas where the roads are not sealed.
Ford Territory
Nissan X Trial

Navigation

I strongly recommend you use a GPS. It really takes the stress out of driving. It is very accurate and you get a very good estimate of when you arrive at your destination. With this information, you can then decide if you can make additional sightseeing stops with spare time.
Rather than hiring a GPS from the car rental company, I suggest that you buy your own or borrow from a friend. Firstly, with the cost of hiring the GPS, you probably can almost get your own. If you borrow from a friend, buy him a good bottle of wine and you still save money. More importantly, you get to get used to and also learn the functions of the GPS while playing around with it in your home country. Maps for Australia are easily available on the web for the major brands of GPS.
When planning your trip, use Google Maps and take down the latitude and longitude of places that you will be visiting or staying at. It helps when you find it difficult to search for the location on the GPS. Putting in the co-ordinates may be faster. This page gives you the latitude and longitude of positions on google maps. You should also use google maps to find out the driving distance and time of the routes you will be taking to get an idea of how much driving is involved in your trip.

For advanced GPS users, you might want to download Traffic Junction Cameras and Speed Trap Camera locations to your GPS to give you a warning when approaching them. This is reason enough to even buy your own GPS as one traffic infringement and you cough enough money to pay for a GPS.
For Garmin users, there is even a free trial for Australia Safety Camera.

Speed Limits
The most difficult part of driving in Australia is to comply with the speed limits. Speed limits can change suddenly from 110 to 60 as you pass through a small town from a highway and then just as soon as you pass through the small town it increases again back to 80 and then 110. Taking your foot off the pedal is not enough as you approach the down. You do have to use brakes to make sure you reach the 80 or 60 limit. Plenty of cameras waiting for you to bust the speed limit unknowingly as you are concentrating on the driving and not watching the exact speed. I personally had a fine for driving 65 km/h on a a 60km/h limit road when I was looking around for the apartment which we were supposed to be staying at. How on earth to look out and look at your speed at the same time and 65km/h is not much.

Rest when you are tired or change drivers.
Once you have your GPS running, it is all a matter of managing your alertness while driving.
I strongly suggest a break after each hour of driving. Just stopping and stepping out of the car for some fresh air or a toilet break makes a very big difference. Never push on if you start to yawn regularly or your eyes start to drift and close. These are warning signs that MUST immediately be headed or you will end up in big trouble. Keep a small bottle of mineral water handy. Small sips of water every now and then from a conveniently placed bottle also helps you keep awake.

Car Ventilation
Manage ventilation of the car. Exhaust fumes from traffic entering the car also makes you nauseous and sleepy. The moment you get the smell of fumes in the car, open the windows to get it out and once it is clear close the windows and put on the recirculation mode to keep the fumes from outside the car from getting in. Once you are driving in better conditions, then you might want to open the windows or allow external air into the car air-con system. Fresh air helps keep you away. A blast of wind from the windows also wakes you up. Get the other passengers to manage the windows rather than you try to do it all while driving. Never only open one window. You will get an irritating humming noise as the air in the car gets compressed and decompressed from oncoming wind through the same window. Open on in the front and one in the rear at the same time by about 1 inch and it should be enough to provide good ventilation.
Ventilation also quickly gets rid of mist build up on the windows when the outside is cold and wet while the inside of the car is relatively warm. Mist builds up faster with more passengers inside due to our warm and humid exhaled air.
Immediately put on the demisters and put the air conditioning vents to the windshield to prevent the misting from building up again.

Keeping The Car Clean
I know it is not your car, but keeping it clean also make the ride comfortable. A lot of dirt can build up in a few days of drive. I bought a nice pan and brush set which I have used again and again. I brush away the sand from floors of the car every morning before I start. I also keep 2 x 2 litres of water in the boot. The bottles easily available from used milk / fruit juice bottles from the local supermarket. You might even find them lying around at motels etc. Just use the brush and water to rinse critical areas of the car like the rear and the door handles and side view mirrors. The brush is useful in brushing away insects that have hit the car and accumulate on the front of the car. If you drive through dusty regions, use the dry brush to brush away the fine sand/dust before using the water. A little maintenance each day keeps the car in very very respectable shape.
I also bring a small bottle of car wash which I put into the wiper water system when I top it up with water every morning.
Plastic bags hooked onto the head rest of one of the rear seats can be used as dustbins which can be easily disposed off when making a stop.

What to do when you arrive at the airport and proceeding to pick up your car.
Now you have arrived after a long flight. Hope you managed to get some rest. A couple of considerations when you plan your first day's itinerary.
Try not to put your longest drive leg on the first day. You never know how much rest you will get on the flight. Try also to leave the city driving to the end of the trip. Driving in the city on the first day can also be quite tiring since you have to get used to the car, the GPS etc etc. GPS can also get confused while driving in the city due to poor signals blocked by the buildings. It is not as easy as driving in the open.
I personally like to drive from the airport out to the first place on the itinerary that is outside the city. I leave the city to the last part of the trip. Shopping normally adds to the bootspace requirements. No point buying the stuff and then driving it all around for the next 10 days.
Now you get your car keys and the lady asks you several questions:

1. Do you want to purchase the full tank of fuel at discounted price.

It is true that the price for the tank of fuel they are offering you is discounted from pump prices outside. Probably about (4 cents per litre if you manage to get discounted fuel. See below) 10 cents more outside. However, can you drive the car to the airport with the last drop of fuel in your tank as you arrive? I can't and don't want to be stalling the car from fuel starvation as I am about to go the airport to catch a flight.
If you take this option, you probably be returning the car with at least 10 to 20 litres of fuel in your tank which you have paid for. Multiply that by the cost of the fuel per litre!
I prefer to return the car with full tank. On the last two days of travel, I just top up with 5 bucks or 10 bucks whenever I see the fuel gauge start dropping from full.

2. Insurance and excess coverage.

This is a personal preference. It is a huge cost to add on to your car rental costs. My brother had an accident some years back during one of our Australian trips. The total cost of the damage was about 3000 bucks but we had insurance cover which reduced it to 500AUD max which we took from the car rental company. The 500SGD in turn was recovered from our travel insurance. So we only ended up paying the difference in currency value. Insurance cover is about $30 per day and normally reaches a cap at ten days of car rental. So if you so happen to get into a major accident. It will save from a really bad situation. Once covered you don't even have to worry about the scratches which almost happens on every trip. I don't know where we pick them up from but they appear on the car. But it is a good idea because you are driving an unfamiliar car in an unfamiliar place and sometimes under very different conditions from home.

3. Additional Drivers

Remember to add the names of additional drivers should they be driving the cars at some point. Just in case an accident occurs when they are at the wheel and you have to claim the insurance.
Once these items are settled, go collect your car!

Now we are ready to hit the road....

Once you get to your car, spend some time to load the luggage properly at the back and take out your personal comfort items for the drive ahead. Once all the luggage is up, you don't have to worry about getting your bags stolen while you are distracted inspecting the car.

Small bottles of mineral water

MP3 player

GPS etc.

Once all the luggage is loaded, get someone to walk around the car to look for visible damage and mark it down on the vehicle report. This report will be handed to the car rental company representative as you leave the car park. So whatever damage that came with the car will not be attributed to you.

The first driver should be nicely seated and getting comfortable with the car. Controls for hand/foot brakes, side view mirror adjustment, demisting/ventilation controls and front hood and refueling panels should be located.

All the rest of the stuff the passengers can help read up. Another person can take the GPS and go out into the open space nearby to let it get is bearings for the first time. It takes about 5 mins or more for the GPS to get its bearings after it has been relocated over long distances. Most of the time, rental cars are parked under shade or multistory car parks at airports and you will never get a proper GPS signal. You might even be driving around in circles or going on a wrong highway in the opposite direction if you just drive out and hope for the best before the GPS gets its first alignment.

If there is cruise control, you might want to read the instructions on how to use it if you are using it for the first time. (see below for cruise control).

While the GPS is being set up, someone else might want to register your car online for cashless toll payments. Many tollways in Australia do not accept cash payments and you must set up an account for the amounts to be deducted from your credit card.

Check out the following sites for more details :

www.roam.com.au for Sydney

Discounted Fuel

Finally, when you shop at Coles or Woolworths, check your receipts. They usually offer fuel discounts at petrol stations that they are partnered with. They offer up to 4 cents discount per litre and an additional 4 cents if you purchase something at the station. All in all you can get 8-12 cents off the pump price, which makes purchasing the whole tank of fuel at the rental company look a bit silly. So don't throw away the receipts. Having a nice ice cream while waiting for your turn to go to toilet at the pump station may just help you get more discounts off the pump price.

Have your passengers keep an eye on the fuel pump prices as the stations pass by so that you have a good feel of what is cheap and what is expensive.

On some routes, there are no petrol stations for a very long distance. I suggest you always keep at least half tank to be safe. Otherwise you will find yourself either running out of fuel or forced to pay higher for fuel when you do get to a pump station. Such is life on the road.

Cruise Control

For most of us in Singapore, cruise control is something new. Practically useless in Singapore, cruise control is quite handy on long trips on highways. It is like having half an autopilot.

Normally you will have a button on the steering wheel to arm the cruise control mode. At this stage nothing has changed.

Next, you speed up or slow down to the speed that you want to maintain and then press the SET button. Now the cruise control will automatically work the accelerator pedal to keep the speed that you set. You should feel the pedal move automatically assists in keeping the speed.

At any time, if you press the brakes, cruise control will be switched off and you are back to normal driving. If you do press the accelerator to speed up, once you let go, cruise control will still be there to keep the minimum speed that you last set.

You must arm the cruise control in order to SET the speed. Without arming it, pressing set will not do anything. This is probably a safety function to prevent accidental activation of cruise control.

Once in cruise control and on a flat highway. You can use the SET+ and SET- buttons to increase or decrease the cruise speed. Basically using your thumb to control the speed of the car.

Always keep your foot rested on the brakes and accelerator pedals as you normally would while driving so that you are able to revert quickly to normal driving in case of emergency.

DO NOT STAY TOO CLOSE to the car infront.

Cruise control is good for flat straight road driving. When you approach a climbing slope, the car has no idea that it will be reaching the slope and only reacts when the speed starts to drop and it over reacts normally and you will see a sudden increase in accelerator pedal force and engine RPM.

If the driver in front of you has no cruise control, the likely hood is that he is maintaining a constant engine power and his speed is slowly dropping before be reacts.

You might end up hitting his rear if you keep too close.

To save fuel, you should also assist the cruise control by anticipating the approaching hill and press the accelerator pedal a short distance before you start the climb and then slowly releasing it as you keep the same speed as before. Then you will not encounter the previously described surge in pedal force by the cruise control.

The converse happens when you go downhill. Cruise control has no auto braking. So as you past the top of the hill and go downhill, the speed will increase even if the cruise control is in force. You have to brake manually to keep within speed limits and then re-engage the cruise control by pressing the SET button. This is where most speed trap cameras are located too!

As always, the primary function of cruise control is only recommended for straight and level segments of long journeys on highways to ease your workload on maintaining the speed and constant pressure on the accelerator pedal.

Great Music Videos

2010-09-24T17:31:00.002+08:00

These are some of the great music videos:

Linkin Park's New Divide with vidoes from Halo, HAWX etc

Sydney Trip Day 13

2010-09-13T20:05:00.003+08:00

The kids wanted another trip to the Sydney Botanical Gardens so we headed there first thing in the morning on the last day of our trip.

After spending the morning with the cockatoos at the Botanical Gardens, we headed off to The Rocks to show the kids some of the older buildings in the area.

The car park at the end of Hickson Road area is a very good place to park and take photos of the Sydney Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.

View Larger Map

Next stop after the photo shoot - The Sydney Fish Market. Getting there is a little bit tricky even with the GPS. The turn into the car park is just after a ramp to the Anzac Bridge. One wrong turn, and we were on our way across the bridge and spent another 10 minutes getting back to the Fish Market.

We had a great seafood lunch there were so many cooked seafood outlets to choose from. Of course we over ordered, but you don't get such fresh seafood that often back home.

The remainder of the afternoon was dedicated to shopping. One stop at Bunnings in Ashburn for some gardening supplies and then on to Homebush DFO for more factory outlet shopping.

We gave in to the kids and went to a McDonald's along the way for dinner and more fun at the play ground.

Day 12

2010-09-12T06:53:00.000+08:00

Oceanworld Manly
Botanical Gardens
Opera House

Day 11

2010-09-11T14:21:00.000+08:00

Wildlife World
Sydney Tower

Day 11

2010-09-10T23:19:00.000+08:00

Saturday
Sydney wildlife centre
Sydney Tower

Day 10

2010-09-10T23:17:00.001+08:00

Sydney Aquaruim
China Town

Day 9 Hunter Valley To Sydney

2010-09-09T21:25:00.002+08:00

Our 9th day of the trip and this will be the end of our open country driving phase of the trip. By night fall we were in Sydney.

We started the morning once again heading out to see some wineries. We told the motel manager that we were not really serious wine tasters but would rather visit a more scenic property. He recommended Audrey Wilkinsons. So we headed out and made our first stop at Tempest 2 winery. A large and touristy winery. Several coaches of tourists were there by the time we got there. So we just took some pictures and moved on.

View Larger Map
Tulloch

Leaving the Comfort Inn motel in Cessnock for Sydney on day 9

At least there's some greenery in this vineyard to make better photo opportunities.

When we reached Audrey Wilkinson Winery, we were glad we decided to drop by. The drive to the winery was scenic and the property is sited on high ground with rolling hills around it.There were visitors to the winery but of a different category. While Tempest 2 had more international visitors. This place had more local visitors.

The external appearance of the property was not overly exciting, but it was the warmth of the staff in there that impressed us.

Lynnette already getting high on sparkling water.

The hills behind the winery

Karyn finding out more about the history of the winery on her own by reading the information on the walls.

The tools used to make oak barrels are on display.

I wish I could take back more bottles!

The next winery we visited was Tulloch. This one is more like your usual winery catering to constant streams of visitors in and out of the main door.

Two wineries was more than the kids could take. We headed back to the hunter valley gardens to so some shopping at the cluster of outlets located next door before heading back to Cessnock for lunch.

All that's left to be done was the 2 hour drive to Sydney. I am going to miss the scenery of the open country while driving. I hate driving in cities. Not to mention finding parking space, and the parking charges in Sydney city centre are legendary.

Day 8 The Hunter Valley Gardens

2010-09-08T18:33:00.005+08:00

Our first day in Hunter Valley and luck is with us. Clear skies and sunny weather. The perfect day to visit the Hunter Valley Gardens. Although it was not the best of times to visit the gardens, we had to make full use of the September school holidays which puts us somewhere in the middle of spring. Late spring/summer would be better when the gardens will be in full bloom. Compared to Katoomba, they would be in early spring as the temperatures there are still much lower than here in Hunter Valley. Hence some of the same plants are at different stages of floral development.

Group photo at the entrance to the gardens

The Hunter Valley Gardens is a definite must do when visiting the Hunter Valley, other than the usual winery visiting. With kids, one winery is one too many for them. Besides, there was no grape vines in growth this early in the season. Most of the vineyard's vines are only starting to sprout new growth in September. Would have been much more scenic if the vineyards are covered with ripe grapes and lush foliage.

Typical winery region scenery

There was a flower arrangement and decoration exhibition at the gardens.

Marcus' sharp eyes found something amongst the flowers again.

Marcus pointing out a ladybird on the flower.

Nelly got dragged in by Karyn to do a second session after lunch

If you ask Karyn, the highlight of the day was probably the floral arrangement lesson. They had a short 30 min workshop where you get to learn some basics of floral arrangement. At the end of the lesson, you have your very own creation to take home. FOC and all materials provided.

Proud graduates of the after lunch session.

Karyn watching from the sidelines during the first session in the morning. Some of the old ang moh aunties were terrible...rushing with small kid for materials. Had to put my foot in once or twice to prevent them from misappropriating Karyn's share of the materials while she was busy concentrating on her decoration.

She finally got her turn on the second morning session.

Karyn with the end result of the morning session. Made with small pink Gerberas and Irises and some vine twigs.

The children of course loved the Storybook Garden....

Humpty Dumpty

Mary Had A Little Lamb

Alice and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party

A Japanese themed garden

Kids rolling all over some of the softest and bounciest grass they have ever encountered

The hot chocolate is good too

On our way back to Cessnock, we decided to drop by Hunter Resort and at the same time spend some time at the Blue Tongue Brewery

Karyn and Lynnette posing in front of my paddle of the different beers for tasting

After I finished the paddle of 6 different beers, I thought that was it, I did not realize that the price of the paddle of tasters includes a mug of your favorite beer from the 6. Now I still have to drive .....

Most of the vineyards are still bare at this time of year. The old vines have not produced the new foliage for the year yet.

Day 7 Drive From Nelson Bay to Hunter Valley

2010-09-07T18:09:00.037+08:00

Since it was a relatively short drive of under 2 hours from Nelson Bay to Hunter Valley, we decided to do some sight seeing along the way as we left Nelson Bay after breakfast.

Checking out of the Mantra Aqua at Nelson Bay

Some units had views facing the sea

Ours had a view of the swimming pool.

We have been driving past the turnoff to Gan Gan Lookout almost everyday during our stay at Nelson Bay, so we decided to drive up the hill to get a bird's eye view of Nelson Bay before we left.

View of the Nelson Bay area from Gan Gan lookout

Looking in the direction of Little Beach and Shoal Bay

After a short detour to Salamander bay, we headed off towards Hunter Valley and had a lunch stop at Williamtown where we visited Fighter World.

The two old hangars at Fighter World housed a very good collection of old fighter aircraft. One of our very own Hunters from RSAF is on display there.

The unique thing about this cockpit display is that they have live air traffic control audio played inside the cockpit. While sitting int the trainer, you can hear the broadcast from the Tower frequency of Newcastle airport. Newcastle Airport and Williamtown RAAF air base share the same single runway so you can hear the Tower controller give instructions to both military and civil air traffic at the same time. Just as we took this photo, I heard the tower issue instructions to an aircraft with the callsign 'Apache'. I suspected that this could be our first chance to see the F-18 Hornet and he is due to arrive at the airport in about 5 minutes as he got his descent clearance. So we quickly took our pictures and climbed up to the observation deck to hopefully see the Hornets up close before the rain hits.

As we reached the observation deck, 2 F-18 Hornets took off. Not long after that, two F-18s arrived overhead and did two practice landings before calling it a day and parked at the airbase. All the time we could hear the instructions from the tower to the aircraft as the tower broadcasts are also played at the observation deck. A very good experience for those who like to have a taste of how air traffic control talks to pilots in real time.

The first Hornet arriving overhead.

Turning crosswind and slowing down on the downwind leg of the circuit pattern

Going Around after a practice landing

Making a tight 90 degree bank turn straight to downwind for another landing.

This one is calling it a day. This particular aircraft with the blue tail did a cheeky wave of its wings after take off when we first arrived at Fighter World. Two more Hornets with the Yellow tail apparently followed it out for some exercise.

Must be hot in the cockpit. This pilot can't wait to open his canopy while taxiing back to base.

Newcastle airport on the opposite side of the runway.

Karyn with the parts of the Matra missile on display. I think my iPhone has got a better guidance system than the Matra missile!

Karyn and the Matra Missile

A cut-away showing the working parts of the missile guidance system in the nose cone.

Not often that you get to stare down the rear end of a jet engine.

The impressive collection of old war planes in the small hangar. Note the RSAF's retired Hawker Hunter on display in the background.

The Dassult Mirage is one of the 'newer' generation of fighters on display at the museum

Karyn in front of some really old technology jet engines.

The famous Rolls Royce Merlin engine, used on WWII aircraft like the Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane and Avro Lancaster.

Karyn and Lynnette posing with our RSAF Hawker Hunter

The second hangar had some WWII fighters on display.

We spent more time at Fighter World than we expected and finally arrived at the town of Cessnock which will be our base for exploring the Hunter Valley for the next two days.

Day 6 Dolphin Cruise at Nelson Bay

2010-09-06T20:50:00.006+08:00

We decided to take it easy on day 6, we were almost halfway through the trip and hopefully the kids do not fall sick any time soon.

We did the Moonshadow Dolphin Cruise in the morning. A leisurely cruise on board a catamaran into the large bay in search for dolphins.

Karyn at the helm of the Moonshadow catamaran.

Enjoying the sun, the wind and the view from the top deck.

After about 50 minutes of cruise, we finally catch up with the dolphins. They playfully swim in front of the catamaran.

Back at the car park, Marcus pointing out to the rest that a bee was busy at work harvesting nectar from the flowers.

Still feeling energetic, we decided to explore some nearby bays in search of nice beaches. We drove to Shoal Bay and Fingal bay. At Fingal Bay, the kids found a nice beach and ran around for about an hour.

The water around Fingal Bay was a very beautiful blue, probably due to the shallow waters of the bay. Every now and then we could see a low flying F-18 Hornet in the distance as they operated in and out of RAAF Williamtown.

Some parts of the beach had a fine black layer. This is probably washed up coal dust from the coal port of Newcastle down south from Nelson Bay.

Marcus enjoying the cold fine sand under his feet.

Now to put the feet into the cold water....

Marcus....all wet after falling into the water, while trying to run away from an oncoming wave.

Fingal Bay and Shoal Bay would be a nice place to chill out for a week if you intend to just relax and take it easy. Very peaceful and quiet with several double storey properties on a residential street facing the bay where we took the pictures. We met a few American couples holidaying there and this was not their first time staying at Fingal Bay too.

Day 5 Port Stephens 4WD Adventure

2010-09-05T12:39:00.011+08:00

Although we seem to have left the gloomy weather behind us, we now face another challenge of nature. The wind conditions were gusty and that affects the two important activities at Port Stephens - Dolphin watching and 4WD Sand Dune adventures.

Today we decided to try do the Port Stephens 4WD Tours. With the winds still gusting out at sea, I don't think it is a great idea to test our sea legs on a day like this.

The rain is gone, its time for sunglasses and sunblock

A 20 minute drive from our accommodation at the Mantra Aqua and we were at the car park where Richard, our tour guide and driver for the day was waiting for us.

The tour starts at the Eastern End of the sand dunes that stretches all the way to the town of Newcastle.

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The conditions weren't exactly ideal for activities outside of the 4WD. With the gusting wind and the dry conditions, the fine white sand was being blown around like dust. For those who have not experienced it, it can be quite intimidating. The kids were told not to rub their eyes no matter what. It will only make things worse. They were told to just let the tears, eye lashes and eyelids do their job.

Unfortunately, Lynnette and Marcus were afraid to step outside of the 4WD when we came to the highlight of the trip - Sandboarding down the dune!

Standing on top of the dune just before 50m slide down.

It's easy to slide down but the walk back up is tiring!

Karyn goes sliding down....

Being the more adventurous of the 3 kids, Karyn managed to overcome the fear of the blowing sand and try the slide down the dune. She says its still one of the highlights of the trip.

Sliding down the highest dune

After the 4WD adventure we all headed back to the apartment for an afternoon nap after we have clean up all the sand from our clothes and shoes.

We were told that there is a flock of pelicans that hang out at Little Beach so we took a drive there in the evening to watch the sunset and hopefully see and feed some pelicans.

Feeding the pelicans at Little Beach

The pelicans live off the constant handouts from the fish cleaning station at Little Beach. Fishermen can clean their catches in at the station and dispose of the unwanted parts that slide into a bin. Some do throw the parts to the eagerly waiting pelicans. One unwary fisherman lost his catch to a cheeky pelican who stole it from right under his nose while he was trying to decide which direction to toss the unwanted fish part to the waiting pelicans.

Can you see the two dolphins?

Watching the sun set at Little Beach

Sunset at Little Beach. Great place for taking sunset pictures.

More Cornetto ice cream from the local Coles. We averaged 1 cones per person per day during the whole trip.

Day 4 - Blue Mountains Scenic Skyway Ride, the 3 Sisters and the long drive to Port Stephens

2010-09-04T20:36:00.003+08:00

We woke up at 8am to feed the parrots again. The daily parrot feeding sessions seem to be one of the highlights of each day.

The drizzle seemed to have stopped and although the sky was overcast, there might be a slim chance that the weather might be clear enough for us to have a good view during the Skyway ride at Scenic World.
We left the resort at 10am and as we drove towards Scenic World, we had a glimpse of the 3 Sisters. The view across the valley was clear so we wasted no time and pressed on to do the Skyway ride while the weather conditions held in our favour.

The decision to save the Skyway trip for the fourth day paid off. We had a clear view of the valley below and Katoomba Falls. The 3 Sisters were there in full view for us to take our holiday photos. It would have been pretty embarrassing if we had stayed in the Blue Mountains for 3 nights and had no photos of the 3 Sisters and the Valley to show for it.

Totally satisfied with the photo taking we decided to lunch in Katoomba before we pressed on for Nelson Bay. We should have been half way there already if we had stuck to our original plans, but this is the price to pay for a glimpse of the scenery of the Blue Mountains.

The journey to Nelson Bay/Port Stephens is about 5 hours long. This is the longest drive of our journey. The original plan was to take it slow, planning to arrive only at late evening with several stops in between. Now we have to do it non-stop. We would have loved to do Hunter Valley first to shorten the drive but it's a weekend and accommodation cost sky rockets. There is plenty of accommodation at Port Stephens so there is no weekend surcharge.

The drive turned out to be quite manageable. Only the first third of the journey was tough because of the roadworks and the variable speed limits. Once we started to head north on the main highways, the drive became easier. The only problem was that I had not topped up on fuel and we had to make a short detour off the highway to get fuel. I would have thought there would be petrol stations along the main highway like in Europe.

The X-Trail has a unique cup holder next to the side view mirror. That's where I kept my bottle of drink and that also helps keep you alert and awake on a long ride.

We arrived at our accommodation, the Mantra Aqua in Nelson Bay at 5:20pm as predicted by the GPS.

The apartment is huge. The kids were already playing hide and seek while we were inspecting the in room facilities. They had no problems helping themselves to the LG LCD TV and Home Entertainment system as we have a similar set at home. Before long, the familiar tune of Ben Ten was playing in the background.

Day 3 - Blue Mountains Scenic World Rides

2010-09-03T10:12:00.009+08:00

Despite the bad weather, we decided to go for the Scenic World rides. The visibility was very bad and it was drizzling heavily most of the time.

We started day 3 with the parrot feeding as usual, Karyn loved the parrot feeding sessions so despite the heavy drizzle, she was still happy to put on the full gear and go out and meet the parrots.

We still kept our fingers crossed and hoped that the visibility would be good when we got to Katoomba. Unfortunately, the visibility was still poor. The photos says it all:

Arriving at the entrance to Scenic World and its still drizzling heavily

The white flowering plum trees blend well with the wintery weather

We did the Scenic Railway down to the rainforest and took the Scenic Cableway back up.
Click here for a map

The rainforest canopy below us almost covered in mist

See how steep the railway is?

At least the kids got an experience of what the conditions in a rainforest is like. We decided to keep the Skyway ride for the next day and we will make another trip back here in the morning just before we leave for Port Stephens. At least the weather can only get better and not worse than what it is currently.

The cables seem to disappear into thin air.

The cable car suddenly appears out of the mist

We headed back to the cabin as Marcus had a slight fever. While Nelly and Marcus slept in the cabin, the 3 of us went to walk around Evan's Lookout.

We should have had a beautiful view of the Grose Valley below us from the lookout which was a 50m walk from the car park and 700m from our resort. Unfortunately we were once again staring into the blur grey mist only able to make out the faint shapes of trees shaking violently in the wind below where we stood. As our faces and hair caught the water from the mist blowing up from the valley below, we walked carefully along the cliff edge while taking a closer look at the native plants that grow in the area

Its just a blanket of grey past the cliff edge at Evan's Lookout

Quite puzzling how the mist persists in the strong winds that blow from the bottom of the valley. The tree on the hill below was shaking violently in the wind.

Karyn and Lynnette looking at the unique plants found only in the alpine forests of the blue mountains.

The other highlight of the day was the dinner of fish and chips from the take away shop at Blackheath.

As I write this at 10pm it is still drizzling. Still hoping for better weather tomorrow.

Click here for day 4 >>>

Day 1 - Australia New South Wales Holiday September 2010

2010-09-03T10:10:00.044+08:00

Day #1 of our 14 Day Australia New South Wales Self Drive Trip in September 2010

We arrived at about 9:40am on the overnight Singapore Airlines flight SQ231 and got our rented Nissan X-trail from Hertz at the airport and were on our way to the town of Katoomba in the Blue Mountains

Lynnette enjoying the movies on board the flight

Karyn also busy with the movies

Marcus making full use of spare seats on the flight

See this blog for more details about the car rental.

The car we got was a Nissan X-Trail from Hertz. Not quite the Ford Ford Territory that we would have liked but they are of the same class of rental vehicle. See our Melbourne trip blog for a picture of the Ford Territory.

The kids were wide awake as they managed to sleep during the flight. Nelly and myself probably not had more than an hour's sleep on the flight. Luckily we brought our GPS along and have signed up for cashless toll payments on the highways. The iPhone kept the kids occupied while I drove and Nelly tried to get some sleep.

Batteries went flat again after a short drive.

Luckily the car audio had an AUX input so I can plug the iPhone directly in for music.

By the time we left the airport it was already 11am and the GPS says we will be in the town of Leura by 12:50pm.

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The first turn out of the airport and I made a wrong turn and headed on the highway in the opposite direction. Luckily the GPS got us back on track with minimal loss of time. That's why our GPS always travels with us. It's almost like part of the family! The Nissan X-Trail has it's advantages - we have a Nissan Presage at home so the controls for most of the stuff we need are familiar. But its road handling is not as good as the Ford Territory. We saw many X-trails on the road so it must be a very popular car here. But like most Nissan cars that we have driven, it feels a bit under powered and has a bit of oversteer.

Driving with our 2 Garmin GPS (Nuvi 255W and Nuvi 1490T)

We made our first stop at Leura as planned for a quick lunch and a short walk down the main street Leura Mall. While letting the kids play at the playground, we got our first taste of how cold it can get with the wind blowing.

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It was a very short drive to Katoomba from Leura. Not more than 10 minutes throught residential area. We got our provisions for the next two days from the Coles at Katoomba while trying to get our first glimpse of the '3 sisters' rock formation at Echo Point. Unfortunately, thick mist and fog blew through the town and we could see nothing beyond 100m due to the fog. It was also starting to drizzle and we hoped that the weather the next day would be better.

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The drive from Katoomba to our accomodation at Jemby Rinjah Eco Lodge was approximately 20 minutes. It is situated close to the smaller town of Blackheath and within comfortable driving distance from Katoomba where all the tourist attractions are located. It is located at the end of Evan's Lookout Road. It is a residential area and the road leads you to the National Park at Evan's Lookout. Jemby Rinjah is the last property on the road bordering the national park. The cabins are nestled in surrounding vegetation that is similar to what you will find in the park's forests.

Nature at your doorstep at the resort.

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You can see the roofs of the larger cabins and the main building in this satellite photo. If you zoom out, you can see that it is situated on a high plateau overlooking the southern fork of the Grose Valley.

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We checked in and started unloading and had dinner. After we got the fireplace going, we had an early night. Promised the kids that there will be parrot feeding first thing the next morning at 0830.

Nice and warm after the fire is started.

Plenty of firewood for the night

A quick check on the iPhone's weather forecast wasn't good. Rain was forecasted for the next 3 days.....

Click here for Day 2 >>>>

Day 2 - Blue Mountains - Jenolan Caves

2010-09-03T10:10:00.042+08:00

Our first morning at the Jemby Rinjah Resort and Karyn was all excited about the parrot feeding. She was probably the first one up in the morning. By 8.30am sharp, we were at the BBQ area and all the birds were there waiting to be fed. About 20 Rosellas and King parrots were rushing to get their fair share of the handouts. The resort feeds them just enough sunflower seeds to attract them each morning. They will still have to forage for food in the surroundings for the rest of the day. That probably explains the mad rush for food when it is served. It was drizzling through the whole night and it looks like it was going to drizzle through the whole morning too. The bad weather also affected the turnout for the bird feeding. The care taker says that when the weather is better, usually a bigger group of parrots turn up for the feeding.

Lynnette a little scared when the first parrot landed on her head.

A King parrot

Karyn with 3 King parrots on her.

Marcus with a Rosella sitting on his head.

The birds patiently waiting at the feeding place at 8.30am

All aboard!

This one refuses to leave Lynnette's head.

The whole crowd at parrot breakfast

Sometimes all you see is a blurr of red blue and green as the parrots make a dash for the sunflower seeds being handed out.

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The weather was still very misty after breakfast so we decided to visit the Jenolan Caves and leave the Scenic World trip till the next day. It was an hours drive from Katoomba to Jenolan Caves.

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After Mt Victoria on the way to Jenolan Caves, we descend into the Kanimbla Valley from Mt York. The drive from here to Hartley is very scenic as you now get to see the rocky cliffs that drop off from the plateau above. On this drive you get to see the scenery from two perspectives.

A quick lunch before our tour of the Chiefly cave starts at 12.30

Marcus' favourite - potato chips

We visited the Chiefly cave, one of several caves that were discovered at Jenolan. This is the kids first visit to a subterranean cave and was quite an experience for them. We were told that the caves are one of the oldest caves in the world as the stones in the caves do not show any plant fossils but are made up mostly of marine creatures. There were plenty of steps to climb during the hour long tour but Karyn and Lynnette both managed it well only Marcus was a bit troublesome.

Not a bad shot considering it was taken in pitch darkness. The Nikon D80's auto focusing beam did a good job.

Very impressive stalagmites and stalactites all over the cave.

Karyn at the entrance to the Jenolan caves.

There are many caves and this is the entrance to another one.

There is a gaping hole in the rock formations above the entrance to the caves.

On the way back to Katoomba we stopped by to have a closer look at some of the road kills we passed by in the morning. There was a large wombat and two large wallabies. They were still lying in the middle of the road when we passed by in the morning but have been moved to the side of the road by noon. Imagine the damage to the car after hitting something as big as a large wombat, not to mention losing control of the vehicle after impact.

We passed by the Jenolan State Forest along the way where I explained to Karyn that the pine trees were being grown and harvested for wood. Some plots were full of tall pine trees planted in straight rows. Others areas were filled with similarly planted pine saplings. But there was one big plot where all the pine trees were just harvested. It was a sight of complete destruction. At least here in Australia, they replant the site with new saplings. Reminded the kids not to waste paper and cause more trees to be destroyed for nothing.

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In this satellite picture you can see the pine trees planted in neat rows bordered by natural vegetation. Bare patches show where the trees have been harvested. Zoom in and you can see the neatly planted rows of pine trees.

The sky was clear with bright sunshine at 3pm so we tried to reach Katoomba by 4pm, in time to do the Sky Way ride. Unfortunately as we reached within 10 minutes of Katoomba it was pretty clear that there will be no scenic rides today. Thick mist reduced visibility to not more than 30m at times. We saw nothing more than a grey blanket from Echo Point.

We headed back to the resort and decided to explore Evan's Lookout instead.

The drizzle got heavier through the night and it was at times raining heavily. We went to bed hoping for the weather to improve in the morning.

Click here for Day 3 >>>

HP Compaq Presario V3700 (V3847TU) Downgrade To XP

2010-07-20T16:01:00.003+08:00

I never thought downgrading a laptop from Vista to XP would be such a pain. I did it on my Fujitsu Lifebook S6410 without any fuss. To Fujitsu's credit, they had all the necessary XP drivers on their webpage for the S6410 although the laptop shipped with Vista. Not their fault that Vista is hopeless, but at least they provided the option for you to easily go back to XP.

I got an old Compaq Presario V3700 (V3847TU) from my brother. He got it free from the Starhub Maxonline promotion.

I thought it would be a walk in the park this time round again considering that the HP website had tonnes of support pages. Boy was I wrong.

HP's support pages does not have a page dedicated to the V3847TU and they also say they do not provide support for XP for this model. Fair enough, but all I want are XP drivers for the stuff in the laptop which is not rocket science stuff and provided for by all their parts maunfacturers.

Enough ranting, here's how you do it:

1 Installing XP Pro

If you have a XP Pro SP2 installation disk like mine, you will probably run into a dead end almost immediately. The windows install programme will not detect SATA hard disk in your system.

The only workaround is to use this software called Nlite (http://www.nliteos.com/) and include the drivers that load during the windows setup. Visit this site on how to create a new windows xp installation disk which supports the SATA drives of your system

For this particular laptop, I used the drivers downloaded from HP (sp38088). It is under Driver - Storage. All HP downloaded software will install into the folder C:\SWsetup and into a folder with the name of the spxxxxx. Point to this place when using nlite to incorporate the SATA HDD drivers for compilation into your customised XP installation disk.

2. Install windows XP normally

3. Now you would have rebooted the PC and all is running well except that you have no audio, no LAN, no WiFi and the graphics is not at its best.

4. Install and run the Intel(R) GM965 Express Chipset Identification programme which you can download here. Select Chipset - Chipset Software - Intel Chipset Identification Utility

5. Confirm you have the Intel(R) GM965 Express Chipset and proceed to down load the Intel 900 series chip set update file infinst911autol and also the Intel Graphics Display Driver winxp_14374.

For Wi-Fi access you can download and install the Intel PROSetWireless WiFi Connection Utility for the Intel WLAN 4965AGN. There are two files available at Intel's website. One with drivers only and one with the Intel ProSet Wireless Connection Utility. Use the drivers only file (ICS_Dx32) if you prefer to use Windows to manage your wi-fi connections

For LAN access download the Marvell Yukon 88E8039 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller Driver sp37854 from HP's website.

6. Download and install the Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Bus Driver for High Definition Audio (sp33566) from Microsoft's Support Site. This is required for the Conexant High Definition Audio and Modem to be installed later.

7. Download and install the Connexant High Definition Audio Driver sp36090 and Connexant Modem sp36089. You will get errors during the installation process but just ignore them. Reboot the PC and you will get the new hardware found wizard during startup. Now follow the instructions on this website and install the drivers for the Audio and Modem. You are basically manually specifying the location of the drivers to install for each device.

8. Reboot and your audio device will be working.

9. Download and install sp34264 for your bluetooth device

10. Download and install SP33604 for your Ricoh5in1card reader.

11. Download and install sp40139 for your quick launch buttons.

12. Download and install sp36770 for your HP wireless assistant (pretty useless tool)

13. Download and install sp35384 for your lightscribe capable DVD drive (another useless tool).

There you have it. A fully functional Presario V3847TU running windows XP. HP could have made it much easier with the same instructions as above on a product specific webpage. But then again its HP.

Hope this helps. Took me almost 24 hours to find all this info. Credits Nyutech for a very detailed and understandable description.

Using Meal Worms To Recycle Vegetable Waste

2010-06-27T23:00:00.004+08:00

We are exploring a novel idea of using meal worms to recycle vegetable waste from our kitchen. So far, the fine dry powdery waste of the meal worms have been used on several plants in the garden that were not doing too well. The results were good. One of the Chilli plants is now starting to flower and the leaves are big and dark green, compared to a few weeks ago when it was almost going to die despite the heavy rains.

Why meal worms?

Meal worms are easily available from local pet shops as they are widely used to feed aquarium fish and pet birds. They are hardy, reproduce easily and produce a dry powdery waste which is ready to use as an organic fertilizer.

Our Prototype Meal Worm Re-cycler

First produced on 8 June 2010, our prototype is built from easily available material which are also recycled from waste materials available from our resort.

How to build the Meal Worm Re-cycler:

The materials required are a plastic 1.25 litre bottle, a metal can (those from evaporated or condensed milk), a 1.5mm nail.

1. Cut the bottle into two at the 1/3 mark from the top or any convenient line around there using a pen knife. Hold the bottle flat on a table so that it is easier to cut a straight line round the circumference of the bottle.

2. Use a pair of scissor to level the cut surface from the imperfect pen knife cut.

3. Invert the top half of the bottle and it should fit nicely into the bottom half. It should make a snug fit so that it will not easily topple from the bottom half. You can shave off more from the bottom half until the neck of the bottle is just about 1-2cm from the bottom when assembled so that the recycle is more stable.

4. Make many holes on the bottom of the empty condensed milk can using a pair of pliers to hold the 1.5mm nail and then use a hammer to make the holes. The holes should not be too large such that medium sized meal worms can squeeze through them.

5. Once assembled, you can use the same nail and heat it up using the pliers and a flame and burn holes on the bottom half of the recycler. This will provide air through the recycler and help keep it dry to discourage bacteria and fungal growth.

The completed meal worm recycler prototype

Add the worms in and just put in sufficient waste for the worms to handle. Excessive amount of waste will only rot and encourage fungal and bacterial growth and may kill the worms.

The hole at the bottom of the can will allow the worm waste to fall through and funnel down to the bottom of the recycler.

Give the recycler a few shakes before harvesting the waste below to make sure most of the waste has fallen through.

Dismantle the recycler and clean with chlorox to kill any bacteria that has built up in the recycler before reusing again.

Bandos Island - Maldives

2010-06-24T18:41:00.002+08:00

Bandos Island Resort

My first trip to Male since moving over to the A330 fleet.
Nice quiet island with very good reefs for snorkelling.

1m long black tip reef sharks are a permanent feature in teh shallow water below the Sunset Bar.

This is the view from the Sunset Bar towards the Sundowners Cafe.

This is the view in the opposite direction. This is where we start snorkelling.

This local agamid lizard looks more prettier than our own.

June School Holidays Activities.....back to old school

2010-06-24T18:18:00.005+08:00

The grassy patch beside our condo has got lots of butterflies, especially the Blue Pansy which is a very beautiful butterfly. Took the kids for a walk there one day and the were screaming to return the next morning armed with nets to catch butterflies.

[Photo of the Blue Pansy from Butterflies of Singapore Site]

Marcus was the first to catch on even before we reached the field. There were lots of butterflies beside the path on the way to the field and Marcus went all out to catch his first butterfly. Encourage by his first catch of the day. He bolted off in search of a second catch and got bold and took a step onto the grass, not realizing the ground is recessed about 10cm from the pavement but obscured by the tall grass. He fell over and was lying sideways in the grass. Too shocked or too embarrassed from all of us laughing, we don't know. He put on a brave smile and we had to help him up. When we got him out. There was depression in the grass roughly in his shape and size and we were all laughing at it.

At the end of the day we had about 20 butterflies. After accumulating and equivalent number of mosquito bites and with the sun getting hotter and us getting sweatier, we decided to call it a day. We released the butterflies at the condo after we had a good look at them.

More information on butterflies in Singapore:

Butterflycircle.com

Butteflycircle.blogspot.com

Rubber Band Skipping Rope

I came across this pack of coloured rubber bands in the 100 yen shop in Japan and thought it would be great to make one of these old school rubber band skipping rope for the girls. I never made one but luckily Nelly remembers how to make one.

Now only if someone can remember how to do the skipping.