Mervyn Hoe: My Daily Happenings

Today, I managed to form another set of Escape Room game for my children and their friends.  When they entered the room, they saw this. This is actually a code for the grid that I have placed on the table. How to decode?  The yellow biscuits, green biscuits and red biscuits match the color of the Lego blocks. Hence the code is 534. Using the grid, they'll form a word BED.  Hence, they headed towards the bed to find another clue. At one of the bed legs, I hid this message.  They have to unlock another code using another grid. The pictures are all pasted around the room. And they managed to find them! These pictures form SEOSS. It makes no sense. However, when they managed to get it right,  the word LIGHT is shown in front of their very eyes! They have to go to a light bulb in the room. And they found a key!  Messy room huh! But that didn't dampen their findings. They only have fifteen minutes to solve! The key was found and they unlocked the luggage.  I...

Cycling has never been so exciting, and to see the children enjoying and exploring the new places, it's truly rewarding.  On Wednesday morning, our family with Josh's friend met to venture the Kallang Park Connector!  All geared up with scooters and bicycles!  We were thankful that the weather was fine and windy too!  Personally speaking,  I really love this bridge! The children were exhilarated when they reached it! Unblocked view 360 degrees!  Thanks to Kelly for the family photo. Initially, I intended to jog throughout the Park Connector. Instead, I rented the Ofo bike. I'm really thankful to find one at a nearby block.  We reached Potong Pasir, and it was well built with new bridges and greens. The Kallang River was clean, rubbish free!  We spotted many patches of plants mixed with lalang, cow grass, creeper plants and morning glory. We tried to find grasshoppers. Instead, we spotted butterflies, carpenter bees, Sting bug, water hens and their...

Today, initially I wanted to hold one Escape Room for my children, because Gwen kept asking for it. So I planned it and invited our neighbors to join in. After playing, they enjoyed it so much that they requested me to form another game! Hence making it 2 sets today! It's challenging to me, and I'm glad because it tested my creativity.  I'm just sharing some ideas here (not all)...  I hid the Uno cards in the blinds and they managed to find eight of them. The clue was to make the room dimmer! And they used the numbers to call someone to unlock another clue!  Josh told them to wind down the blinds fully! That's tactical of him!  Kate went to another side of the living room to find more cards!  The children solved a puzzle together and found out the missing alphabets!  I made my very own decoder kit. It's very simple and I'm amazed by myself to engineer this at the very last minute!  And after they turned the dial to the coded text, they had to look arou...

It's really thank god that we managed to complete the MacRitchie TreeTop Walk this morning with four children, Eve and I!   We just wanted a nearby trekking experience and it's very near our place.  Hence we started from Venus Drive and started on our trekking trail from 9.30am and ended at around 12.30pm! The trek towards the TreeTop Walk was one that was motivating because the sign boards just kept showing shorter and shorter distance. From 2.5km to 500m,  we were thrilled!  Initially Gwen didn't enjoy the trekking, when she reached the suspension bridge,  she was so excited and wanted to come again! The view was spectacular and we spotted monkeys on the supporting beams of the bridge!  Eve and I took turns to sling Sara. She slept midway and she woke up when we reached the TreeTop Walk! I felt a sense of achievement once we reached there as a family!  The journey back to the starting point was a challenge. It's around 3km of trekking but we jus...

This morning, as I was cycling back home from market, I skidded and fell on my back! One of the bicycle's pedal pressed onto my left ankle. I felt the entire weight of the bicycle on it and it's very painful. I couldn't move. I used my arms to push up the bicycle, but it's too heavy. Everything happened so fast. A moment, I was cycling and I'm just a few steps away from the house lift. The next moment, I was on the floor, stuck under the bicycle. I used all my might to lift the bicycle up slightly. And I managed to get my ankle away from the pedal. I came out of it eventually. A passerby came and asked if I'm ok. I was fine, sort of. I didn't feel any pain yet. When I reached home, Gwen saw me and told me I was bleeding. I said no because I didn't feel any pain. She pointed at my left knee. Indeed, she was right! I was bleeding. And suddenly, the extent of the pain slowly intensified. I felt it in my left ankle, my left shoulder and my left bleeding k...

Recently, we have dismissed our helper (21 Aug 2017) due to theft and things are back to normal. Now, we prepare meals for everyone, and do the marketing, household chores etc. Yes, we had much more things to do. However, we were pleased. We have gotten back our control of the house! The cooking In fact, I have missed cooking and preparing of the food for lunch and dinner. Most of the time, the helper had been preparing and I would do some of the cooking. For the past week, I managed to whip up 4-5 dishes within 30 minutes! It's amazing! I enjoy cooking so much! We grew our own mushrooms too!! It's really amazing! They took about 1 week to grow to this size Look at the amazing mushrooms! Breaded Almond Chicken Fillet Boiled Organic Asparagus, Potato Salad and the Breaded Almond Chicken Fillet  A meal served with brown rice The dining table Josh and Kate will assist in the laying of plates, utensils and making sure that the din...

Wow! On 24th May 2017, our 4th baby was born! It's a new milestone in our family! The day when we have a new family member in our family!! We were so excited and amazed that we witnessed the whole birth process! The Estimated Due Date (EDD) was supposed to be 22nd May 2017. We waited and waited and was so blessed to have God to choose such a wonderful date for the birth of the baby. Wonder Woman: Eve's pregnant at 40 weeks! Happy picture of us! However, immediately after this picture, she had contractions! Schedules of the Contractions Early morning, Eve woke up with contractions and they were not the Braxton Hicks contractions. They were regular and quite immense. I noted down the first timing, which was around 8am. Here is the list of timings that I noted till birth! It was very owl of me. However, it's important! 827am: Left home and took cab. 833am Contraction 837am Contraction  839am Contraction)  We went to the delivery ward. 842am Contraction 8...