1 day old Audrey

Our Lovely Audrey.... Day 1, basking in limelight..

CordLife

A gift that can make a difference. Got this from a mama fair and wow... so many people are signing up. What a real money making machine just to store your redundant bio waste in deep freeze and hope it will not be put to use.

It preys on our fears that we might regret not having store the cord blood should someday we need it to save life. Well, we fell prey to it and so begin the lifelong journey of subscription. The irony is that we do not wish to thaw it for use, ever.

Gadgets For mummy

Baby is going to enjoy the goodness and freshness of breast milk. For that, we need a gadget to extract the secretions as efficiently and effortlessly as possible. So to transform mama into a milk producing machine, we will hook her up to a fully electric milk extraction pumping machine. Every drop is precious; let it not be wasted.

Single suction cup instead of dual to let at least one booby get a chance to rest and not overly stressing it. According to mama, the suction is rhythmic just like the extraction machines used on goats seen in goat farms. Maybe I will become the first human trial to test the suction power on myself then write a review here once I get bored playing with it.

With that, we also need to prepare some auxiliary consumables such as the padding when production is offline. Think not enough with these two boxes so going to get more when the time draws closer to the due date.

For added comfort, we got a contoured cushion for the routine feeding so mother and baby can enjoy their private moments and hopefully can drink more of the good stuffs. Baby might even dose off while feeding with such a comfortable padding.

Another unnecessary buy - baby monitoring unit. Don't know why become so obsessed with electronic gadgets for baby all of the sudden. Well, maybe the lullaby tunes function can be used to hypnotize me to sleep too! We tested the reception quality immediately after buying. I am quite impressed as we can also set the sensitivity to trigger on any slightest noise made by the baby tandems.

A trendy bag for mummy to lug around, carrying all the milk bottles, clothings and baby's gadgets when we are going for family outing. Hopefully it will also look good on me when I am carrying it.

Getting more and more excited as the arrival draws nearer....

Toys

Our new toys are getting now expensive. Introducing the Quinny Buzz as our latest collection. Very futuristic looking black/grey model and maneuverability is above the rest with its 3 wheel design. Fold and keeping the stroller is quite easy for me, by depressing the knob on each side of the stroller and pushing it all the way down to the floor. Pneumatic mechanism makes retracting to sitting mode with little effort. Cushion seat is comfy for the foam of this thickness. We hope the baby will enjoy and spend more time sitting inside than we carrying her around. We have to make full use of it and bring out the fullest potential in its use to justify the cost.

Brand New Toy for baby and Daddy

Baby's "BMW"

With its futuristic design, the Quinny Buzz is a real eye-catcher. The use of its revolutionary gas spring technique means that the pushchair unfold itself automatically. No more wrestling with the pushcahir just to open it!

It also comes with an infant carrier that can be attached to the car seat. Nice package deal to lure suckers like me...

Baby Infant Seat from 0-3mths

Now the drawbacks that we discovered. The larger than average wheel makes storage a bit cumbersome. Even when in compact mode, the stroller is still relatively large to be put into our small car, but with some space allocation it should be fine. It is heavier as well but I think still manageable.

When the Quinny was delivered, we quickly did a test to try to fit the stroller inside the car boot. Great, just barely have enough room for it and might have a bit problem if there are many grocery items. Maybe it’s time for a bigger family car??? Hehehe!!!

We also bought a head set to provide more cushion support to the head. Baby is getting too pampered, we felt..., but no regrets.... for our new love. There is also a drink holder accessory that we bought so that it will come in handy for us.

Daddy, Mummy's cup holder and Baby's comfy cushion.

More items

The addiction continues...

All these as a result from the Great Singapore Sale season. It turned all mama-to-be into credit card fanatic and dishing out cash effortlessly during the month long propaganda. We started off with some gadgets, sterilizer, food warmer, rubber changing mat and compact changing mat, etc... Then realised we did not buy any essentials. So quickly went over to the diapers corner and cleared the shelves off all available newborn diapers as it is 20% off as well. Took half a day off work for this! Also, some girly collections we have now... Things are looking good so far.

Then came the playmat bought online by mama. It's costier than some available in store, but people commented its well worth the money. As it turned out, I am quite impressed with the quality, comfortable and big and 15mm thick! I am comtemping to have some nap time on this as well.

Front

Reverse side

Buying spree

A new addition to the family will be arriving. Such wonderful and pleasant surprise! And with an overzealous mom-to-be, things are stocking up fast in preparation for the arrival. My majesty, the Queen largely oversees all the new purchase, savaging for all offers and discounts in possibly every corner in this earth. She even has a dedicated online forum to go where all the queens congregate to discuss all the worldly issues on baby gadgets and to critic lousy products.

Its entirely a new experience for both of us, unsure of what to do next. So unknowingly, we started off with several quick purchase.

All-white attire; looks too innocently cute to resist not buying... More coming up...

First Inhabitants

The next task was to create mountains and valleys in the tank. Scraping the tank took quite a bit of effort because of the height and the long forgotten ladder we bought finally found its use. Bigger sized rocks were introduced first and gradually stacked to create as many cleverages and shelter for the fishes. The rocks were arranged such that chances of collapsing were minimal. More rocks were placed in the sump for biological filter where the bacterial could colonize. After an hour spent just to scrape the rockwork, the mini mountains finally took shape.... Good enough for a start for now and a fish only with live rocks aka FOWLR.

In the evening, we picked up 1 fresh prawn from Giant during our weekly grocery shopping. The prawn was thrown into the tank and left to rot to jumpstart the biological cycle required to sustain life inside the tank. The bacterial will help to breakdown the harmful ammonia toxic to any life fishes into nitrite and then finally to nitrate which fishes can tolerate. The prawn turned red overnight as if it was cooked and could fool everyone to eat it if I placed it onto a plate. Tested the water for ammonia using a test kit and indeed it showed some reading. The prawn slowly started to disintegrate and I think it would be better to remove it before the smell becomes unbearable. Waited for 2 more days and tested the water again. NH4- undetectable, NO2- undetectable, NO3- trace amount. Seems like the cycle is completed and the bacterial were ready for fish loading. Forums usually recommends cycle duration of 2-3 months for the bacterial to establish themselves, but I suppose since I am re-using the rocks from the old tank setup, these rocks are matured enough with sufficient bacterial and hence my short cycle time.

Hippy! Time to introduce the very first inhabitants. They should be hardy enough considering they survived the grilling car temperature under the afternoon sun and dying for a decent environment than the miserable red pail.

So let me introduce the pioneers fishes were the Twin Tigers...

They started darting around upon realized into the tank. The remaining fishes followed the next day, little blue damsel, green chromis, cleaner shrimps, sand shifter to gradually load the tank. These inhabitants were left in the tank for another week to allow the bacterial to further multiply and cope with the increasing fish waste and ammonia produced. The week was especially long before the weekend and then the fun begins again! We went down to a fish shop in Bedok and came back with a pair of Nemo, black/white damsel, yellow tail damsel, bicolor dottyback. All supposing small hardy fishes and cheap to start off.

The tank still looks pretty empty and dull. But few months down the road, it is going to transform from this lifeless rock scapping into a reef tank, with corals swaying in motion with the wave and more exotic fishes happily swimming around. But this requires the tank to mature to a certain level so have to be very patient.

Setting up

After a day wait for the silicon gel to dry, it is time to do a leak test! I was praying very hard the nite before that the the return pipes were well sealed as any leakage will be disastrous. The aftermath to this will ultimately incurred von's wrath and likely lead to a premature death to the new hobby.

We do not have a long hose, so filling up the tank was done in bucket and pails. So 'let there be water'.....

Filling up.... and more to go...

Half-way mark, everything still holding up....

Almost there.... keep the water coming....

And finally... the first drop of water overflowing into the sump... No leakage so far. Continue the topping up to flood the sump tank.

Holding our breath for any signs of water leakage.... Phew... and then we pause for a moment to savour a job well done. 400+ litres of water.... not sure von wants to know how much is the utilities bill this time.

We poured some chemicals to de-chlorinate the water and powered up the skimmer and pump for circulation and then wait for a couple of hours for it to settle. The amount of salt mix was calculated to achieve the desired salinity of 1.023 and we quickly drove to the fishfarm to get the salt pack. (not sure of amount now as the excel spreadsheet was accidentally deleted by von... Doh!!)

Came back with a carton of salt and we discovered that the salt was caked-solid. 'Gosh... we gonna have to scrap the block to disintegrate it into its original form so the salt can be readily dissolved in the tank', I commanded. The first few scrapes were easy, but as it goes, the salt block got tougher and our skin started to have this burning sensation. Poor von... diligently scrapping away with a despondent look. 'We got to put on gloves!', exclaimed von. 'Okok before it gets any worse', I quickly responded to quench out further protest... hehe

The water slowly turned cloudy as more salt were poured in and the required salinity was reached with about 10% of leftover salt to spare. Water started to become clear again in about 2hrs, only to become cloudy again when the sand was introduced the next day.

After salt mix:

Almost clear after 2hrs

The sand dumping was fairly quick and the sand was lowered down to the bottom using bucket to reduce the debris storm.

And finally, tara!!

Pearly white sandbed:

3ft marine tank

After fiddling with the tank setup for 3 months, I shall do my 'backdating' blog as much as I am able to recall. I hope to record all the mistakes and good tips I've picked up and serves as a reference for others keen to take up as a hobby.

The empty void to spice things up

The first important element is to acquire a decent size tank. Not too small and most importantly not too big to invoke von's displeasure. A good indicator is to observe her eyeballs on the verge of popping out from its socket.

Anyway, a small capacity tank will have problems with water stability because any slight change in parameter will have an adverse effect due to its small water volume. A larger tank will have a much better tolerant to the change in the quality of water. Also, the number and size of live stock will be limited in a small tank. Future expansion of tank will be crippled, which is no good for long term. Decided to source for either a 4ft or 3ft minimum for novice like me.

New good quality tank is too expansive for my 1st attempt. So have been brawling around a particular forum for suitable tank for sale. Sale of marine equipments are quite rampant in the community since many people decom their tank to upgrade or giving up due to many factors. I happened to chanced upon a decent 3 x 2.5 x 2 ft tank with all the equipments included and went to his place for a look before deciding.

The tank is not really cheap, but can see that the glass and cabinet is of better quality. 10mm thick glass joined using industrial grade black epoxy and solid wood structure for the cabinet. Don't want to risk flooding the entire living room with over 400litres of salt water if the tank is of poor quality. Cheaper tank will be typically 8mm thick with conventional clear epoxy to join the glass edges. This will give way due to the enormous pressure from the water after many years. The pictures from some members of the forum experiencing tank cracks speak volume by itself.

So parted with $800 for the tank, sump, skimmer, pump and light set and all the cheapo fishes and sandbed. I returned to his flat the next day to help him with the clearing of the tank inhabitants and dismantling the pipes for moving, and at the same time, learning as much as possible on sustaining the life stock. The tank mover is professional as they have many experiences in large tank moving.

I bought back all the fishes and shrimps contained in a pail before the tank is moved over to my place the following day. The journey took 30mins but it took its toil on the life stock. The intense heat in the car wiped out 50% of it and I am left with the most hardy and strongest surviving fishes. 2 cleaner shrimps survived but many died. Most of the surviving inhabitants eventually recovered from the ordeal and awaiting to be re-introduced back into the tank.

The tank arrived without any damage, great! The men quickly assembled and silicone all the piping back and the gel was left to cure over 1 day. Meanwhile, off to a fish farm in Pasir Ris to get marine salt and other additives for start up.

Tank arrived together with 2 FOC hardworking unkown species

Me working on the sump connection after the movers lave left

Final post on reno

The painstaking effort in setting up our ideal home is finally taking shape. The renovation was completed as scheduled and we only have a window of a few days to do a thorough cleanup and arranging for all the furnishings to be delivered. On the whole, we were quite satisfied on how our home interior turned out.

Living room - Natural light from balcony

Living room - Illuminated with warm florescent lighting
Living room - Illuminated with downlights
Sofa and coffee table combo
Overzealous array of light switches
Dining area with black mirror backdrop
Dining lights
Walkway to bedrooms

Wedding photo
Our Bedroom
Movable sliding tabletop
Our Bedroom - Illuminated by frosted glass lamp
Our Bedroom - Illuminated by warm florescent light
Our Bedroom - Illuminated by 'Mr Pee'
'Mr Pee' table lamp
Don't mess with 'Mr Pee' when he is turned on
Bedroom
Study room build-in table
Study room window view
Study room with only the table light illuminated
Balcony view
Nite view from balcony
Outside Lift lobby

We noticed that the wall at the back of the sofa to the door entrance is too plain. We are trying to get some large landscape canvas type pictures. We wanted a canvas painting of a blood red rose but can't seems to find a decent and cheap one. So we leave it as an empty space for now, hoping to stumble upon one in future. Anyway, 'Project Aquarium', which is going to commerce real soon, hopefully will fill the void. Stay tune....