franky

received an sms from tracy this afternoon informing me that eric's dog, franky had finally succumbed to lung cancer.

i remember franky to be a very well-behaved and caring dog who just loves to herd. my condolences to eric and tracy.

eric posted this in the jcgang mailing list. i thought it was especially moving.


THE RAINBOW BRIDGE

There is a bridge connecting Heaven and Earth. It is called theRainbow Bridge because of its many colors.

Just this side of theRainbow Bridge, there is a land of meadows, hills and valleys withlush green grass. When a beloved pet dies, the pet goes to thisplace. There is always food and water, and warm Spring weather.

Those old and frail animals are young again. Those who have been maimed are made whole again. They play all day with each other.But there is only one thing missing. They are not with their special person who loved them on earth.

So, each day they run and play until the day comes when one suddenly stops playing and looks up. The nose twitches, the ears are up, the eyes are staring, and this one suddenly runs from the group.

You have been seen, and when you and your special friend meet, you take him or her in your arms and embrace. Your face is kissed again and again and again and you look once more into the eyes of your trusting pet.

Then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together, never again to be separated.

surprise party

janet had planned this dinner gathering today to avoid any unplanned disruptions by her delivery. the last time when she was heavily pregnant with cayden, i think he wanted so much to join us for dinner that he chose that very day to come to this world. :P hehe...

even though janet had set up today's date weeks before, it ended up with single parents bringing the kids along. coincidently, one half of all the couples had something on tonight.

it was only in the afternoon that janet had sms-ed to say that it's going to be a surprise birthday party for cayden. caught me and doris by surprise too because we had not gotten a present for cayden. :(

prepared my usual salad for the gathering. jason likes the imitation king crab that i had bought for the salad. eric jested that we've upgraded from mere imitation crab sticks to imitation king crabs.

jason got the kids mad about musical chairs which later became musical chairs in the dark. this led to eric asking how much is the cover charge. haha... :)

g6pd

deficiency of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (g-6-pd) is an inherited abnormality which may provoke the sudden destruction of red blood cells leading to some very undesirable consequences because this enzyme is essential for ensuring a normal life span for red blood cells and for oxidising purpose.

guess who i know has this deficiency? ;)

dear eric who is hospitalised at sgh now has it.

something that i found out today. he was up and chatting with his sister when i arrived. from what i know, his blood pressure is still elevated although x-ray has shown his pneumonia to be improving. 2 ultrasound scans have also indicated normal-sized kidneys which is reassuring.

he complained about the potassium chloride solution iv which he likened to a hard, stinging pinch. having had 2 dialysis sessions so far, with the 3rd one re-scheduled, he's up for a kidney biopsy tomorrow. hopefully, that will provide more insight into what's ailing him.

before i left, i passed eric something to keep him occupied. :P

let's hope he gets well soon.


* g6pd deficiency information from www.g6pd.org

eric's down

received an sms from jeffrey this morning saying that eric is hospitalised and had to have dialysis. gosh! this sounds so serious...

going to visit him later at sgh to find out more.

roaming dinosaurs

eric won some $300 worth of vouchers for double o at robertson walk from one of his racing competitions and invited us to share his bounty tonight.

janet had suggested a 'guys' night out' event for the 'nightlife-deprived' husbands. :P tracy and doris were there too since both of them don't have to put any little ones to bed. sl was invited to help consume copious amount of alcohol because eric and doris had found out that double o drinks are really cheap. only $6 a glass or $24 for a jug of housepours.

we estimated that we could get 50 glasses or 12 jugs. but why would we need help since there're tracy, doris, thomas and jeffrey? that's because eric is banned from drinking by tracy. he had been feeling unwell and had slight pneumonia but insisted that we do not re-schedule.

tracy said eric lost his temper and looked like he was going to have an heart attack when she broached the topic of a re-schedule.

sl & i met tracy & eric at the door. i got free entry before 10:00pm with compliments from safra. doris said she felt weird queueing at the safra line with the nsfs. jeffrey and jason also felt out-of-place when they queued to get in 'cos the crowded was overwhelmingly young.

we sat at the section with the pool tables with 'live' music. the band wasn't outstanding. sl commented that the lead singer didn't bother to dress up at all. none of us got drunk or even high since the drinks were kind of weak according to jeffrey and jason. jeffrey claims there's only orange juice in the screwdriver and insisted that the whisky green tea only had green tea.

sl & i begged to differ. we thought that the whisky was quite strong and can't really taste the green tea. it was nice catching up with everyone. the guys were less distracted without having to look out for their little ones. a pity john didn't join us.

altogether a nice and pleasant night with the jcgang sans the 'mothers'... until jason's friend remarked to him 'eh, dinosaur also come clubbing?' while we were leaving double o. :P jason said his ego was completely deflated. hehe...

the 'dinosaurs' wrapped up the night with good old bak kut teh at the junction of mohammed sultan and river valley road. yeah, we're carnivores. :)

f1

while fernando alonso raced 61 laps tirelessly around the singapore street circuit in a historic night race to an unexpected win tonight, eric also raced and won first prize at maxxium singapore x-tour 2008.

check out the evidence here. :)

petals around the rose

eric introduced this brain-teaser/puzzle to the jc gang. it involves rolling 5 dice and guessing the score. you have to figure out how the score is calculated.

you can crack your brains here.

i took about half an hour and after 10 throws before i started to get the answers correct. my solution involves addition and subtraction. while ky’s solution even includes multiplication!

then i realised we only got the “algorithm” and not THE solution.

have fun!

hong kong café

my phone rang when i was walking home from the mrt station.

it was eric on the line… he said tracy is hungry and asked if i wanted to go hong kong café for supper. his curiosity of the café was obviously aroused when we were talking about it earlier in the evening. probably piqued by the café unconventional operating hours at a not-so convenient location.

my first reaction was “huh?!”

i had just came back from the east side of the island. now still walking home with my stuff and skates and feeling hot and sweaty from the day’s activities, and he’s asking me if i wanted to traverse halfway across the island again when i haven’t even stepped home yet?

on the other hand, it seems like a good opportunity to check out the place since eric and tracy are so keen and doris and thomas are at the nearby chalet.

i said yes on the condition that he comes and pick me up after i had the time to shower and change. he agreed readily. trust eric to trudge all over the island for good/interesting food.

very soon, i was in eric’s car with my hair still wet from my shower on the way to pick up doris and thomas at the chalet. after failing to locate the café “using the force”, eric referred to his trusty street directory to get us there.

the café was bright and easily spotted from the road. the tables outside were all taken. a very good crowd considering it’s around midnight. thankfully, we didn’t have to look too hard for a table.

everything on the chef’s recommendation menu look good. i almost wished i was more hungry! you have to write down the item number on the order chit and place your orders at the counter. the funny thing is, they don’t require you to pay up first.

i ordered the instant noodles in soup with pork chop, bo luo bao and tea with milk. the noodles came with a slice of ham and a fried egg on top. the pork chop, tender and well-marinated was given a unanimous 2-thumbs-up by all present except for thomas who didn’t get to sample it.

tracy looked like she could finish the dry noodles with pork chop and luncheon meat all by herself until she exercised some restrain and push the bowl over to eric.

doris’ french toast was sinfully buttery. while the mini bo luo bao were good too. tracy proclaimed her dumplings with almond paste, “nice!”

my tea with milk was done, traditional hong kong-styled, with lots of evaporated milk. satisfying. thomas likes his yuan yang too.

too bad the hot drinks were not served in those big, white ceramic tea cups typically used at such cafes in hong kong. that would have made the experience truly authentic with the canto-pop playing over the air.

doris noticed that the crowd seems rather young, mainly in their twenties. very similar to one which you’ll see at fong seng. guess the older crowd is not into instant noodles and canned food! hehe…

overall, the food was good and up to our expectations. doris and thomas think it’s way better than central at takashimaya. and i think so too.

a pity that i couldn’t be back often due to its location.

sigh.

fun @ east coast

doris booked a chalet at east coast costa sands resort and invited the jcgang to join her for some sea, sun and sand.

sl [wong], ky and i shared a cab there from clementi. eric arrived shortly after us. we just lazed around watching tv in air-conditioned comfort while waiting for janet and cayden. johann and diane surprised us by arriving before janet did.

doris, ky and i were just kitting up for our skate so johann and diane joined us on a rented “family” bike. that’s a tandem bike with a child seat right at the back.

janelle had been clamouring “bicycle, bicycle!” earlier. she seems pretty excited by it all since it’s her first time at east coast. i think she enjoyed herself very much today.

we skated/cycled over to bedok jetty. took a short break there to enjoy the sea breeze. we didn’t skate too badly considering that we haven’t been practicing for a few months. :) nobody fell. :P

after that we split up as we wanted to skate a bit more in the other direction while johann and family returned to the chalet. i was told later that janelle kept asking for “uncle mun yue” on the way back.

this is proof that nice cookies can buy your way into children’s hearts. :) haha…

dinner was at pasta fresca since we needed a big table and a child seat. unfortunately, it wasn’t one on the beach under the stars. after that, we bought desserts from the food centre back to the chalet.

i recommended my favourite cheng tng to eric and he likes it.

janet mentioned about cayden’s head being slightly big. the paediatrician will measure jason’s head at the next appointment to determine if it’s in the genes. then the talk went to cayden’s smelly poop.

doris wondered if that’s in the genes too. :) we couldn’t stop laughing... it was hilarious… haha…

we left at around 10-something. ky and i got a ride out to bugis mrt from eric since he’s going to pick tracy up.

and i thought i’ll be going home for a good night’s sleep…