The Craftsman’s Forge

I’m completing my last few days in my current company. I’m transferring out to another legal entity within the group of companies I work in. This move puts me back in the pharmaceutical industry, and the manufacturing and logistical industry.

I had been in discussions with my new company since last July, and while discussions were still progressing, numerous positions were laid on the table for me. This was when the options of being based in Hong Kong came up. I did some calculations, and decided that the company was not going to bring me to Hong Kong. True enough. It fell through. But they wanted me enough to explore other positions for me, until a hiring freeze stopped the entire process in September.

But talks again revived in December, and I finally signed a contract in January.

Work starts next Monday, and I’m thankful that the company will bring over my years of service in my present company. This will be another new change for the family, and I won’t be able to pick Kyla up from the bus stop every evening now, seeing that my new office is on one extreme end of the island.

It makes me really glad that Christine is exploring a more stable opportunity in the coming weeks. If all goes well, she will be able to get a more stable job with regular hours and help pick up my slack. I’ll get her a new car too!

As some of you might know, Chris is working with a rather large retail chain in Singapore. One of her colleagues required children models for some of their clothing range, and approached Christine to see if our kids could do it. Chris said yes, and we found ourselves at the studio shoot last night at 8:30pm.

This time round, it would only be Ariel and Elkan because of the range of clothing for younger children.

Ariel and Elkan going through the make-up session.

Then, it was Elkan’s turn to start first. He had shaky start, but after he warmed up to it, he enjoyed it like no body’s business….

Here’s Elkan in the photo editing suite…

Then came Ariel’s turn. She was more nervous than Elkan, but still managed to get some pretty decent shots through….

For their trouble, they both earned their first keep…. $50 vouchers each at the said retail chain. We brought them out to get some toys today for their efforts…. Kyla too, of course.

On the morning of the day we were going to fly to Hong Kong, we decided to make a trip to the Southern Ridges, just to take a look at the Henderson Wave bridge.

Beautiful wave bridge…. the highest bridge in Singapore, I think. When you look down to the road below, your feet get a little shaky.

Kyla can finally ride a bicycle without trainer wheels!!! I’m so happppyyyyy!!!!!!!!!
My brother brought her, Ariel and Denyse to the beach to cycle the other day. Ariel still has some days to go before she’s ready.

The other day, I left Elkan watching a movie on the laptop after a long day…. When I came back after my shower, he was dozing away.. man.. he must have been really tired….so cute hor..

A closer look… I just adore this boy.

Just saw this photo of the kids back in 2007! Soooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!!! Decided to post it up again.

The valuation for our current place is out. Our 4A unit is valued at $310,000, and we’re asking for $20,000 above valuation. We’ve got several buyers interested, but we gave preference to our neighbour’s parents.

They paid up a $1,000 deposit this evening, and we’ve sealed the deal.

I didn’t want to drag this further as the impact of the economy will be felt very soon as more and more people get retrenched.

So, it looks like we should be able to complete the sale of our current place by early or mid April, and complete the sale of our new place by end April or early May, allowing us the benefit of not taking any bridging loan. Thank God.

If everything goes smoothly to plan, we should be able to begin renovation on our new place in mid April, and we should be able to move in to our new home by mid to end of May.

I have the rest of the week off, and decided that I should bring my parents for a spot of prawn fishing, since its been a while since they went fishing. Kyla who is in the afternoon session also decided to tag along and have some fun. Overall, I’m really happy we did this. My parents enjoyed themselves very much! No surprises when it was my mum who caught 5 prawns, dad with 1, Kyla with 1. A total of 7, but we lost 3 prawns through a torn net.

Kyla looking bored.

Dad & Mum

I found a buyer for my first tank just a couple of days ago. I found the tank to be inadequate for what I wanted to do, with main complaints in the overhead filter and light department. Got a pretty decent price for it. I got a smaller tank (just like the office tank) instead. (30cm x 18cm x 19cm) Just about 2.5 gallons.

Bought a pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides “triple red”. Triple Red being the colour of the fish’s fins, which can be seen on it’s Caudal, Anal and Dorsal fins.

Heres the male.

Another shot of the male.

Heres one of the male flaring (to impress the female)

Heres the femal (Yellow in colour when she is ready to breed)