... so good to visit Ken in New York

Ken will be moving to San Francisco in July 2015 - so we took the opportunity to visit him in New York one last time and spend more time in New York and with him. Hopefully he will have a better work life balance when he moves to the west coast and a PE firm.

Took a side trip to Philly and Washington and returned to New Haven for the Ivy Scrimmages (first for us after 4 years of college).

It was a good relaxing holiday visiting museums, walking the Brooklyn Bridge, exploring Chelsea Markets and just exploring New York.

The side trip was just too short as we were rushed from one highlight to another. It would be preferable to spend at least 4-5 days in Washington, DC alone. Each of the memorial will take at least 3-4 hours each. Well - maybe another time.

It is so good to have a spouse that enjoys travel - same sort of approach to sight seeing and just enjoying our time together.

..so good to attend the first WTA finals in Singapore

Connie and I took the opportunity to catch the top 8 players from WTA at the Indoor Stadium and try out the my new lens (Tamron 16-300 that was sponsored by Kenneth - bought by Jon in Hong Kong).

It was amazing tennis action by Maria Sharapova, Serene Williams, Petra, Ana Ivanovic - we saw just 2 match but they lasted 5 hours! It was top class tennis! Definitely worth the $50 for the tickets though the snacks (drinks and hot dogs) cost just as much!

#	Players	Points	Tours	Date Qualified
1	Serena Williams (USA)	7,146	17 (15)	5 September
2	Maria Sharapova (RUS)	6,680	15	9 September
3	Petra Kvitová (CZE)	5,597	18	27 September
4	Simona Halep (ROU)	5,403	19 (18)	15 September
5	Eugenie Bouchard (CAN)	4,523	22	2 October
6	Agnieszka Radwańska (POL)	4,441	20	2 October
7	Ana Ivanovic (SRB)	4,390	21	2 October
8	Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)	4,045	19	2 October

... so good to catch up with the Thompsons (Holy Land cruise friends)

It was great catching up with Larry and Holley. They came to Singapore to catch a cruise to China with Princess Cruise. It was a lovely time of catching up over local food fare at Straits Kitchen.

We caught up on each others development and talked about cruising together again - maybe South America!

Though we disappointed with the quality of the food but the company was great!

Thank God for friends that we made in the most unusual circumstances yet we are able to share so much 

... so good for Kenneth to be home for a short visit

Kenneth's application for H1B visa was approved and he had to get his passport stamp at a US consulate - meaning he had to leave US to another country. He initially wanted to just cross the border to Canada to get it done. But since he had to travel we suggested he come home - even if it was just a week. 

So Ken came back for 10 days - 5 days of leave plus 2 weekends. He met up with his friends as well as Zainal and the Maos. We played a round at Keppel as well - it was obvious he has not touched his clubs since graduating! 

He took the opportunity also to catch up on his sleep - apparently he has been having only 3-4 hours sleep a night for the last few weeks. Working in New York is really bad of health!

We had all the usual local food (like cereal prawns, fried Hokkien mee, chee kuay, pork chop curry rice, etc) whilst renewing his friendship with some of the uncle at the hawker centers). We finished the feasting with a seafood (Chilli crab, oyster omelette, etc) dinner on the eve of his departure to US. 

Overall, it was good to see him again. Looking forward to seeing him again in a few weeks time in New York! 

... so good that the S40 gave us 9 years of faithful service

Our Volvo S40 is almost 9 years old but finally the wear and tear is beginning to show - crankshaft worn out, air conditioning and gear box threatening to need replacement.

So with a sadden heart we considered a replacement. Our hearts were set on a Mazda 3 but a chance meeting with our friendly Volvo salesman (Richard Yeo) and an off the cuff offer of hugely discounted asking price (from $159,000 reduced to $145,000 all in without finance rebate plus lots of goodies thrown in), we settled on a S60. Richard took a look at our S40 and recommended 3 colors that would suit our non-washing car style - we settled on a electric silver! We were actually surprised that the company accepted our offer and even bid at the current COE level. 

So we took delivery of our S60 Diesel (new experience) Turbo after our Perth trip. We are looking forward to spending a lot less on fuel (Volvo claims that our full tank of $100 will last 1 month compared to our $300-$350 monthly petrol bill)

We are going to miss the S40 workhorse but we are looking forward to worry free driving for the next 3 years?