Watermelon grown at my balcony

Yes, watermelon takes a lot of space and it almost impossible to grow them at our highrise apartments in Singapore. After doing some research on the internet, I saw people across the world growing watermelon vertically.

I have a balcony and it is not a big area for the watermelon to grow. I have other plants and trees growing in my balcony already and there isn't much space for watermelon. I was determined to grow at least one. One day, I was eating watermelon and saved a couple of seeds to sow. These were the red flesh watermelon. I placed two seeds into the soil. Another day later, I ate yellow flesh watermelon and placed two seeds into the soil too. I marked them but in the end, I got mixed up and couldn't distinguish them. Only the fruit will tell us in the future.

The watermelon seeds germinated almost the same time and grew quickly. In a couple of weeks, they were already one foot long. They started bearing flowers and mostly male flowers. After say 5 to 10 flowers, I saw the female flowers appearing. The female flowers will have a small under-developed watermelon beneath it. I plucked the male flowers and rubbed the pollen onto the female flower until the stigma is covered with pollen. The flowers will wither in the afternoon and it is better to do the manual pollination in the morning. Of course, if there are natural pollinators such as bees in near the flowers, it is not necessary to do the manual pollination. I needed to be sure that the female flower was pollinated.

The watermelon were growing and spreading quickly. I had to put a "trellis" over the pot to let the vines climb. I let the watermelon circled itself and made sure that the leaves get enough sunlight.

After one or two days, the watermelon will "drape" over and hang onto the stalk. If the pollination is successful, the watermelon will grow gradually in size.

It is amazing to watch it growing bigger each day. However, during this stage or earlier, you will need to do some examinations on the leaves and vines to see for spidermites and mealybugs. They are the worst enemies for watermelon. The spidermites will hide under the leaves and suck all the juice from the leaves. The mealybugs will also be there. I have a tough time to get rid of them. The watermelon stopped growing after 30 days because of the spidermites and mealybugs. I let the watermelon to stay on the stalk for another 30 days before harvesting. So, the total number of days is 60, after the pollination.

Watermelon ready to harvest

The diameter of the watermelon is about 7 cm. The flesh is red coloured and it is 2 times the sweetness of the watermelon in the supermarket. The skin is about 3mm thick. There are about 20 black seeds that I have saved for the next growing season.

Balcony grown watermelon

For the growing of watermelon in Singapore, please refer to my blog.

Growing durian tree in a pot

When I mentioned to my friends or family about growing durian tree at my balcony, they said that I'm crazy. This is because they had never seen a dwarf durian tree before. Well, I have not seen one either and only saw dwarf durian trees in YouTube videos.

We went to eat at Ah Seng Durian store and packed some Bayou （肉油）durians back home.

I managed to save three Bayou durian seeds and placed them onto moist sphagnum moss. The seeds will germinate within a couple of days.

Bayou Durian Seed germinated

After the seeds had germinated, I buried them into the potting soil in a pot. After a couple of months, I transferred the seedlings into bigger pots.

8-month old durian seedling

The only thing that I need now is a scion from a mature, fruiting durian tree. I can graft the scion onto my durian seedling.

Growing grapevine from seeds in Singapore

Recenlty, I bought some "red/purple" grapes from the supermarket. They were quite large and round, and had many seeds. It was annoying to eat grapes with seeds and more so when they were large.

However, the grapes were quite sweet and juicy. I took the seeds and just buried them in the pot of soil. I had forgotten about them and thought that they would never germinate. I was wronged. They did germinate after a couple of days. I was surprised and quickly transferred them to another pot. The seeds were buried in a pot with watermelon cuttings because I thought that the seeds would never germinate.

I already have three green grapevines already which I bought from World Farm. They were with me for a year already but there is no sign of flowering. I think there is something wrong with the soil or missing nutrients. I need to do more research on this.

I didn't expect the grape seeds to germinate in Singapore's climate. I hope that the seedlings will grow well and develop into vines. Recently, my balcony's garden has been infested with spider mites. My watermelon plants have leaves with spider mites. I didn't notice them until the leaves started to dry up due to the spider mites sucking on the leaves. They are very tiny and can be found under the leaves. I didn't want to use any chemical, so I used a stiff brush to manual brush them away.

Grape Seedlings

6 Days 5 Nights Hong Kong Free & Easy with kid

I have been to Hong Kong many times and this time we wanted to bring my kid along since it was school holidays.

I think for Hong Kong, 6 days 5 nights are just right and maybe you can do with 5 days and 4 nights. You will probably need two days for Hong Kong Disneyland and one day for Ocean Park. We only planned one day each for Disneyland and Ocean Park.

Day 1

Star Wars display at T3

We took a Sunday morning Singapore Airlines plane to Hong Kong. The flight was full and I was "lucky" to get a seat with a spoilt monitor. So no KrisWorld for me. The attendant did serve me meal earlier than the rest, but I told her that I needed to be compensated. So, near the end of the flight, the lead stewardess gave me a $75 dollars voucher to purchase things from the KrisShop. My wife used the voucher to buy SKII on our flight back. I had encountered this before 10 years and the compensation was only $50 dollars. So, if your monitor was spoilt and not working properly, please ask for compensation politely and you will be given. You had paid for the full ticket and it is only right that they compensate you.

Of course, SQ flight is great and we landed in Hong Kong on time. We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel at Mong Kok. Cordis hotel offers free wifi and complimentary IP phone. You can call home or anyway free of charge. You can bring the phone with you when you go out and search for location using it. We used the phone a number of times to navigate to our locations as well as calling home.

The hotel manager that day was Nicole and she is very polite. The room is big and the view is picturesque. My wife said that she had the million dollar view of the city and Victoria Peak. Nicole had help us to reserve a table at Super Star Chinese Cuisine seafood restaurant at Tsim Sha Tsui. This is a very popular restaurant in Hong Kong that serves very good roasted duck. They had double-boiled soup which was very tasty and you can't get it elsewhere.

They had the LINE characters at Langham place where you could take photos.

Day 2

We decided to go to Victoria Peak on Monday as we think that the crowd will not be huge on a Monday. We had lunch at the Hello Kitty Chinese Cuisine restaurant. It is about 10 to 15 minutes walk from Jordan MTR station. We had the IP phone from the Cordis hotel to guide us there. You could use Google Map to navigate to that area. It is just beside a park.

The dim sum and food are ok level. It is a themed restaurant and normally, the food is so-so level. Don't expect much from the quality of the food. It is a place for you to take photos and be merry about it. Another thing which I was disappointed is that the tea cups are very dirty, they had stains in them. I had requested the waitress to bring me new ones. Of yes, the washroom was under repairs and we need to use the toilets in the park.

After the lunch, we set off for Victoria Peak. We took the MTR train from Jordan to Central. At Central MTR station, you can walk to the Peak Tram station via J2 Exit and walk up to ground level. Turn right and walk through Chater Garden, then cross Queen's Road Central, and make your way up Garden Road. You will pass the Bank of China Tower and Citibank Plaza on your left and St John's Cathedral on your right. Watch out for the tram bus at the crossings. The journey up to the Peak Tram station is quite steep and you may want to wear comfortable footwear.

If you need to go to the washroom, there is a sports hall nearby (on the left side), you can use the washroom there. Depending on the timing, the queue to purchase tickets as well as the queue for the tram can be very long. You can expect to queue for at least 20 minutes for the tickets and then another 15 minutes for the Tram. Inside the waiting area for the Tram, it is air-conditioned.

Trickeye museum.

Day 3

Tuesday Ocean Park

Day 4

Disneyland

Day 5

Shopping

Day 6

Home sweet home

Growing strawberry from seeds in Singapore

Recently, I have posted on my sgmygardenisgood blog on starting the growth of strawberry in Singapore using seeds. I think planting strawberry in Singapore is a challenge that can be enjoyable and yet satisfying. This is because majority of the people in Singapore will think that this is an impossible task. But I can tell you that it is something that can be done if you know how. Of course, in the course of growing strawberry from seeds, you will learn how to be patience (same as fishing I guess). Another thing is that you may not know what kind of variety of strawberry you are planting. The other way of getting strawberry plant is to buy one. There are occasions where the local nurseries may carry the strawberry plants from Malaysia (I think). You can get the plants from there.

One month ago, World Farm had many strawberry plants on sales. I managed to get two pots.

However, I want to share with you my journey of growing strawberry from seeds and we can learn and share experience together.

Growing strawberry from seeds in Singapore

Kids Haven Children's Bed

We went to the Kids Haven at 31 Woodlands Close, Woodlands Horizon, #07-11, Singapore 737855. You will need to call them to confirm the timing.

We were served by Vivien and I think she is the founder for Kids Haven (correct me if I'm wrong). She is knowledgeable and is very patient with us. We were deciding between the loft or the normal bed. As our daughter's room is quite small and we want to create some playing areas for her in the bedroom. The only way to do it is to have a loft bed and create the play area under the bed. However, the bed will be quite high, about 1.5 m above the ground. My daughter has a habit of tossing around the bed and we are afraid that she may fall. But my daughter likes the loft bed and we ordered one for her and also a Hello Kitty canopy. The Hello Kitty canopy is quite new and Vivien has not figured out how to assemble it yet. But we like it so we proceeded to order it.

We ordered on 21 Dec 2015. The item is Victorian Lovely Hearts Loft Bed with Lovely Cottage Canopy (includes rooftop, wall pockets, metal frame and curtains) plus castle curtains. The total cost is $1200. We were told that the leadtime is about 2 to 3 months. We were hoping that the bed can be delivered before the Chinese New Year on 8 Feb 2016.

One day, my daughter fell from our King-size bed. We were worried that she might fall from the loft bed in future. We went back to Kids Haven to change the bed and Vivien was kind enough to let us change it. We made some amendments to the requirements and removed the castle curtains as we didn't have the loft bed. We added in the three drawers under the bed. In the end, the cost is $1100. We had paid a deposit of $600 and the remaining $500 will be paid by interbank transfer.

We waited patiently and luckily my master-room bed is King-size, there is no problem squeezing 3 of us on the bed. The week before CNY, I received a call from Kids Haven that the bed will arrive in 2 weeks' time and will arrange for delivery once they receive them.

However, the Hello Kitty canopy had missing parts which were not delivered to Kids Haven. They had to air-flown the parts in and would take a couple of days. Two workers came to deliver and assemble the bed. We were quite excited and the assembly took quite some times. The finished product is quite good and my daughter loves it very much.

The Hello Kitty canopy arrived after a week and we had to assemble it by ourselves. Luckily, I'm an engineer and it was quite easy. There were 54 poles instead of the 60 poles as mentioned in the instruction guide. Anyway, the instruction guide was quite complicated but to an engineer, it was rather easy to read and understand. Just need to make sure and identify all the poles with the numberings.

However, the connection between the poles will be quite loose and the structure is quite unstable if there is any stress on any pole. It will be better if you can glue or secure the connections.

Bed & Canopy from Kids Haven

Growing grapes in Singapore

I have heard of someone in Singapore who grows grapes successfully. It was reported in Yahoo news last year. I was fascinated about this but I think if you were to grow from seeds, it will take very long or in the worst case, the seeds will never germinate.

Last weekend, I was at the World Farm (aka Hua Hng) and I saw about 10 pots of plants with very faint label. Looking closely at the label, I saw it was written "Grapes $6". I was surprised and inspected the plants. I googled on my iPhone and found that the stem was the grapevine cane.

Grapevine at World Farm

It was not very common to find grapevine here in the nurseries. After visiting the farm and selected some pots for my Phalaenopsis orchid, I had decided to buy two pots of the grapevine since there are relatively cheap. I selected the two best ones and quickly went home. It was very hot here, almost 35.6 degrees. Strangely that they didn't have the orchid mix for Phalaenopsis. So, I just have to use the sphagnum moss for the orchid.

I asked the worker about the grapevine and he said that it is green grapes. He said that it needs plenty of sunlight and water, also the fertilizer is quite important. He recommended a 5-5-5 organic fertilizer for the grapevine. The fertilizer is $4 per pack.

I was very excited about this grapevine and hopefully the plants can survive at the balcony. I think I need to make a trellis for the grapevine.

Yes, I had made a DIY trellis for my grapevine to climb. It was very simple to make and I had actually made two versions. For the first version, I had used 5 extendable rods from Daiso (3 rods @ $2). I tied them to make a fence-liked structure and attached it to the pot hanger. The second version was much simpler, I bought garden wirings from Daiso @ $2. It is 3mm in diameter and 1m long. I bent and wrapped it around the hanger to create a fence.

Check out my Instagram @tanbk168 for the DIY Trellis.

Total Solar Eclipse messed up the automatic headlights - 9 Mar 2016

The total solar eclipse today has messed up my car's automatic headlights. At about 8.45am, the automatic headlights are still turned on even though the sun rays are shining on my car. I was quite puzzled and I thought there is something wrong with my car's sensors. At about 9am, I heard from the Radio News that there was a total solar eclipse going on and I thought that this had messed up with my car's sensors.

I turned it to normal headlights and back to automatic and the lights still remained switch on. I thought of going to the servicing centre to have it checked. I will check the function again later to see whether it is due to the total solar eclipse or the sensors need to be checked.

Kangaroo Mobile Desktop by InFocus

I have a gigantic desktop PC which I had assembled by myself a few years back. I enjoyed the D.I.Y. portion where you can easily upgrade your hardware as you know what are the possible upgrades when you first purchased them. The one that I had assembled is quite huge and takes a lot of space on the floor. When I have moved house, I have limited space and have forgotten to cut an opening on the desk compartment to allow the wires/cables to go through the study desk and reach the floor area where the desktop PC is placed. There is not enough space on the compartment to allow this hole.

I have googled and searched for information on very small PC or laptop. However, my budget is very small, in the ballpark of SGD200. I know this is very little and I think a monitor will cost this much, not to think of adding a small PC. I have the existing monitor which I can reuse for the small desktop. I googled and most new laptop will be around SGD300 plus. I wanted something very small and portable which I can carry around.

I saw in the internet and Kangaroo Mobile Desktop came up as one of the top searches. It has quite good review and the price is USD99.00. This is definitely within my budget. But the only problem is that it is only sold in the USA. It is available in Microsoft Store and Newegg. I saw that Microsoft Store still have stocks and was thinking of using vPost or comGateway to buy and ship it to me in Singapore. I know that if I were to do this, the cost of the Kangaroo Mobile Desktop will be much higher than my budget. I went to the Newegg Singapore website, this product is out of stock and may not be available anymore. I quickly think of a way and realise that I have a friend in USA who is coming to Singapore in middle of March. I'm not someone who likes to ask anyone to buy thing for me so I was quite reluctant to ask him to buy. But finally, I overcame my awkwardness and emailed him to ask him whether it was convenient to buy for me. He said ok!

I sent him the link and in an hour's time, he bought it and delivery was within 3 working days. He ordered it on the 1 March and the Kangaroo Mobile Desktop was delivered on the 3 March.



Ordered the Kangaroo Mobile Desktop on the 1 March 2016

Today, I check the Microsoft Store and the Kangaroo Mobile Desktop is already out of stock. I was thinking whether it is because there will be another version of 4 GB Ram and 64 GB eMMC. But there is no Windows 10 in this latter version and will cost higher. At this moment, I think the Windows 10 with 2 GB Ram and 32 GB eMMC is ok for me. I need the operating system because a new operating system will set me back by a lot.



Out of Stock on 7 March 2016

My friend will bring back the Mobile Desktop from USA to Singapore on 14 March. I hope he remember to bring it back for me! Keeping my fingers crossed! After I receive it, I will do the unboxing and review on the Desktop. Come back again to read my review on the Kangaroo Mobile Desktop. Thanks.

How to turn your iPhone and iPad into a surveillance camera

Have you ever think of buying a surveillance camera for your home or office? You want to see or monitor what is going on at the other place. You went to a mall or internet to look for the best surveillance camera but when you looked at the price-tag, you had to put this aside because the price is too expensive or not within your budget. I got this a lot and had been looking around for the possibility of using my old iDevice to connect to the internet for surveillance camera purpose.

Yes, it is finally here and it is literally free but of course you need to have a spare iDevice around. I have an old iPhone 5 which I didn't manage to sell it off when I bought an iPhone 6. Someone offered to buy my iPhone 5 for $550 but I was looking for $600. In the end, I have forgotten about it and have let it in my closet. When I wanted to sell now, iPhone 6S is already in the market. I think the price that I will get is quite low and not worth it anymore.

So, when I want to buy a surveillance camera for my new home, I think of whether my old iPhone 5 can be used as a surveillance camera. I did some research and found that it is possible now.

The free app that I used is Manything. Go to the Appstore and download the app called "Manything". It is free if you just need to monitor an area with only an iPhone. The basic free plan allows you have live streaming, motion alerts and set detection zones for one camera. If you need more recording options, then you can check out the pricing.

If you have many cameras, you can have the options for multi-camera views or switch between each camera. Also, there is a beta Android app which can be used as a viewer.

I tried out the app using an iPhone 5 as a camera and iPhone 6 as the viewer. I must say that the user interface is smooth and there is a slight lag in the live streaming. But it is quite good and better than I have expected for a free app.

I used the front facing camera and the image quality is quite bad on the viewer. I switched the camera to the rear and the image quality improved significantly because the rear camera itself has higher resolution than the FFC. It is recommended to use the stock or genuine charger to power the device because it is going to consume energy during recording and you wouldn't want the camera to go flat in battery. For non-genuine parts, there will also be a risk of overheating and may cause fire.

Christmas Wonderland at Gardens by the Bay

I didn't know that there will be a Christmas Wonderland at the Gardens by the Bay. My wife happened to have the Fun Attractions Card worth $10 each. You still need to exchange the card with tokens. Each token is $2 and you will get 5 tokens with the $10 card.



Fun Attractions Card 

The fun attractions card entitles you with $10 worth of tokens to be used for the attractions at the event and a 15% discount at the cooled conservatories where there is an exclusive Christmas Toyland exhibition in the Flower Dome. The card is valid till 27th Dec 2015.

For more information, you can refer to the Christmas Wonderland website.

SuperTree Grove

Token Booth

 

The rides and games can be quite expensive. Luckily the cards are free if you happened to have some. One ride is about 4 tokens (which is $10). The games are typically 2 tokens per game (depending on the game, you get 2 or 3 tries). I think the rewards (soft toys) are a bit small. Not sure how the people get the big ones. I'm assuming that you can exchange two small soft toys with a bigger one. Anyone can correct me? Thanks.

Wonderland Map

Wonderland Map

Some of the rides for children. Not much crowd in the late afternoon. The rides are quite space out and not much queue.

 

Swinging Chair - 4 tokens per ride

The Marina Bay Sands Hotel in the background.

 

MBS hotel in the background

When the night falls, you can enjoy the great lightings and atmosphere. It seems liked you are in a Christmas Wonderland minus the snow. Yes, you get occasional rain instead.

 

Carousel - 5 tokens per ride

Supertree Grove

Christmas Wonderland Decor

Lighting displays at the Supertree Grove

Supertree Grove

We waited till 8pm on a Saturday but didn't see any blizzards. Not sure whether it was because of raining that there was no blizzard.

The Blizzard Time @ the Saplliera schedule is:

• Mon - Thur, Sun: 8pm, 9pm and 10pm
• Fri & Sat: 8pm, 9pm and 9.45pm

If you are driving, please come early to avoid the long queue to enter the carpark. You can take risk by parking some places nearby but watch out for the traffic police. You might end up with a summon ticket. Try to go early or take public transportation. The crowd can be quite big and you need to take care of your personal belongings and children.

AKIRA Ionic Air Purifier AP-606C

When the recent Haze condition persisted over a couple of months, people started to find a long term solution to minimize breathing in harmful particles that are smaller than 0.0025mm (2.5 microns). The Pollutant Standards Index or PSI in short, had gone above 100 points in most days. The living rooms, bedrooms, kitchen areas all smelled of smoke. Imagined that you are sleeping and breathing in all the pollutants.

People started to go crazy and snapped up all the available air purifiers that they could find at the electronics shops.

My colleague from Finland actually went around to search for an air purifier for his home. He remembered that he saw a branded air purifier in his homeland that looked similar to the AKIRA ionic air purifier. The price was selling at $249 and after a hundred dollars discount, it was selling at $149 at the Giant Singapore at IMM. He immediately bought one and started to use at home.

When he came to the office, he recommended us to buy the same model because it was cheap and value for money. My boss went to buy three for the whole office. One is placed at the door entrance, middle of the office, and the third one at the area near the back of the office. The rest of the colleagues realised that the price is very attractive and wanted to buy for their own homes. On the same day, the air purifier was sold out. We couldn't find any AKIRA AP-606C at any electronics shops anymore.

The design of the air purifier is sleek and small. The operation of the purifier is simple and just needs to press a few buttons on the front to get it going. It is not noisy and you will not notice whether it is there or not.

You can set timer to the air purifier if you want. The filters are at the front. Just remove the magnetic cover and the filters will be exposed.

It eliminates airborne allergens and germs via negative ion generator, germicidal UV lamp and high efficiency filters. It is a multifunction purifier which combines purifier, ionizer, disinfector in one machine.

AKIRA Ionic Air Purifier AP-606C

AKIRA Ionic Air Purifier AP-606C

Manual

The precision of the HEPA filter is 0.01 micron. It is able to eliminate particles which are larger than 0.01 micron with the filtration rate of 99% or more. Dust, bacteria, fungi, viruses, allergens and other small and tiny particles are not able to get through the HEPA filter.

Filter 2 (Antimicrobial and HEPA Compound Filters)

You can see dust particles trapped at the edges. I'm not sure whether this is the dust particles from the floor/carpet or from the haze.

 

Dust on the Filter 2

Filter 1 (Cold Catalyst and Activated Carbon Compound Filters)

Types of Filters

Parts and functions of the purifier

Electrical specs

Remote controller

How do you know your radiator coolant is leaking?

My Mitsubishi Lancer is almost 10 years old now. It has not given me any major headache or repair. The only time I have to replace is the timing belt. There are no issues with the suspension, brake, engine, gear-box, etc. It has an issue though that the horn will sound even without you activating it. That is a pain while imaging when at night, the horn will sound by itself and wake up the neighbourhood, or even worst, the police will knock on your door to ask you to deactivate the horn.

It is time for me to change my car. I still have about 6 months before I need to scrap my car. I will take back about $7K at the end of its tour cycle. It has served me well for the past 9.5 years and I have not regretted buying it.

During my last servicing at the garage, I was told that my radiator coolant was leaking. I didn't believe it as I did not have any issue with it. There are green stains on the radiator and based on the servicing agent's experience, the radiator is leaking. It will cost me $900 to change the radiator. The agent advised that since the car will be scrapped early next year, it is not worth it to replace a new radiator. He advised me to top up the radiator with water every morning before I start the engine. It is very troublesome and I tried to change the water level. There was no change in the water level for a week. I guessed the agent was trying to pull a fast one on me.

It is now almost 5 months since the last servicing. The car is due for servicing next month. I was stopping for a while to wait for someone and I noticed that the air-con was not cold. It started to become warm in a few seconds. I was thinking that the air-con was going to spoilt soon and did not take note of the car engine temperature. After my car moved off, the air-con became cold again so again, this did not cause an alarm to my mind.

Then, I was at a traffic red light and I stopped my car. Immediately the air-con turned to warm again, I looked at the car engine temperature. Normally, the indicator is at the middle of the range. Suddenly, the indicator went to the hot zone quickly. It was hovering between the three quarter mark near the H. I was panicking and thought that the radiator would shutdown and whole engine would stop. Luckily, the lights turned green and I managed to reach home safely. I wasn't sure whether it was the radiator problem but from the surface, it seemed like one. I couldn't open the radiator cap as it was still very hot and remembered not to open the radiator cap when it was still hot. It is better to let it cool down overnight and open the cap in the morning.

The next morning, I opened the radiator cap. True enough, the radiator was almost empty. I poured in about 600ml of distilled water. I was thinking whether I should buy some coolant water to top up instead. Any one has any suggestion? Thanks.

I went to the petrol kiosk and bought one liter of radiator coolant. I hope this will temporarily keep my engine cool and prolong its life till next year March. I was choosing between a Japanese brand and this local brand. Well, as long as it does not cause any problem to the radiator, it is ok. I will let post here whether I will encounter problem in the near future. 

Rad Kool Prediluted Longlife Coolant

Apple iOS 9.0.1 software update

Apple iOS 9.0.1 software update is available now. I have not even upgraded to iOS 9 yet but I think this iOS 9.0.1 update has fixed the privacy vulnerability bug. According to the computerworld.com, Apple iOS 9.0 has a nasty lock screen bug as it allows anyone to see your photos and contacts. Well, I can't verify this yet because I have not even updated to iOS 9. 

Apple iOS 9.0.1 software update

You can refer to the Apple site on the bug fixes or the below:

iOS 9.0.1 : This update contains bug fixes including:

• Fixes an issue where some users could not complete setup assistant after updating
• Fixes an issue where sometimes alarms and timers could fail to play
• Fixes an issue in Safari and Photos where pausing video could cause the paused frame to appear distorted
• Fixes an issue where some users with a custom APN setup via a profile would lose cellular data

I wouldn't recommend anyone to update to iOS 9 yet until there are enough users to feedback all bugs to Apple. It may take a while say one month or two. Apple will release more updates to the iOS 9 and hopefully can iron out all the bug issues. In the meantime, for those who have updated the software, please update to the latest to see whether the bugs have been fixed. If not, continue to wait or feedback to Apple. Hopefully someone in Apple can fix them.

The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus have been launched yesterday 25 Sep 2015. My colleagues have already bought them and we will test the phones out. For those who have bought them, congratulations! You will not regret buying one.

Apple iPhone 6S

Apple iOS 9 software update

Apple has rolled out the iOS 9 software update in anticipation of the release of the iPhone 6S and 6S plus on 25 Sep 2015. I have not updated my iOS 8.4.1 yet because I know that based on history of iOS 7 to iOS 8, there were many major bugs that needed to iron out before it was safe to upgrade.

Apple iOS 9 software update

If you search through the internet now, you will start to know what kinds of bugs or issues the end users are suffering now. For examples:

(1) Apps crashing frequently
(2) Slow performance and lagging
(3) Messages such as Software Update Failed, Slide to Upgrade.

The Haze is back in Singapore with PSI in unhealthy range

Well, the haze is back and this time, it seems to last longer. Life in Singapore is good when the air is fresh. Right now, it is very miserable and people are starting to put on their masks. Everyone is talking about the PSI which is Pollutant Standards Index. You can track the air quality over Singapore in the NEA Haze website.


PSI index category

You can tell the air quality is bad not just by the smell but when you can see the sun with your naked eyes. The haze has blocked most of the sun rays and the sun looks liked a dull egg yolk.



Photo taken at 7.15am in Singapore

 

Without the sunlight, the plants or vegetation will not grow well and will probably wither away. Without the plants and trees, there will be no photosynthesis to remove the carbon dioxide and introduce fresh oxygen for us to breathe. The high carbon dioxide level will create a green-house effect and cause the heat to be trapped and eventually the global temperature will raise and cause the ice caps to melt and sea level to rise. More land mass will be covered by sea water.

You just wish that everywhere you go has air-conditioning and fresh air. Most schools in Singapore are still not air-conditioned and it is bad for the students to study in unhealthy air situation. They will need to install air purifier in the classroom to remove the harmful particles. I hope the schools have business continuity plan in place to react to this type of emergency. Looking at the website for the Ministry of Education, they have some Haze Management Measures in place. When the PSI is greater than 300 (Hazardous), the schools will scale down lessons. All student will be spread out in enclosed indoor spaces (classrooms) to allow for better thermal comfort and ventilation. Students and staff who are unwell will be temporarily accommodated in an air-conditioned room with an air purifier, before they are taken to seek medical attention. Parents of these students will be notified.

The occasional downpours did not reduce the PSI much. The harmful particles are smaller than 2.5um and the rain will be get rid of those.

Singapore has experienced this type of emergency before a few years back and they have already stocked up enough masks for the whole population. But I was wondering the stocks can last for how long. If the haze persists for a few months, then it will be very detrimental to the health of the people as well as the economy. Firstly, the tourism will be affected. The Singapore Grand Prix will be held on 18 to 20 September at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. The haze situation may affect the turnout at this annual event and hopefully the drivers will be not affected by the air quality.

I think in most people have a common wish - we wish that the wind direction will change and divert the haze to a place or the sea where there are not people there.

9D8N Taiwan Free & Easy Trip - Day 6

Day 6 of my Taiwan Free & Easy Trip was greeted with a lovely breakfast at the Minsu (Echo Villa). The breakfast was light and tasty. Ah Cheng mentioned that they were prepared by his mother. I think the recipe is from his mother and it was probably not prepared by her. Just my opinion. However, the breakfast was good.

Breakfast @ Minsu



Breakfast @ Minsu

I took a panoramic view of the interior of the Minsu. There were four of us and we managed to squeeze into this room comfortably. However, we needed to share one washroom and this was quite annoying. In the washroom, there is a bathtub and I think it is quite unique but water will be splashed out as there is no shower curtain. 

Panoramic view of the Minsu

After the breakfast, we got to check out the Minsu and moved to Qi Xing Tan (七星潭) and Taroko National Park. Ah Cheng recommended a tour guide (former Taxi driver) for us. I think his name is Bei Er. He told us to call him Bear. He said he was a former taxi driver but resigned due to his health. His first stop was at an open field in front of an army camp. You could hear firing shots in the far distance as they were having firing practices at the firing range. The panoramic view of Qi Xing Tang is fantastic and no word can describe this. The wind is too strong here and if you are wearing a scarf, remember to tie it or secure it, if not, it will fly away. We were even struggling to stand straight as the winds kept pushing us away. Remember not to stand too close to the edge and the lands were a bit loose.


Panoramic view of Qi Xing Tan

The deserted open field in front of the army camp. You could hear gunshots in the distance as they were having training.


Open field near an army camp

A small narrow road that led to the open field. Only a local guide can find the way here. There are bicycle trails and I think you can rent a bicycle from the Minsu/hotels at Qi Xing Tan to get here.

Small road



A landmark at the Qi Xing Tan 七星潭



Pebbles at 七星潭 beach



Pebble Beach at 七星潭 



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