Mrs. Chan agar agar

Twice a year, I crack my brain for a good birthday cake for our two kids.

Below is what I got recently:

The pic is not doing it justice. But I hope you got the thrill of seeing cute agar2 or jelly. It's yummy too.

Mr and Mrs Chan have lots of design to choose from, with reasonable price. 

A minor disadvantage is that I always buy a small cake so that we can poke the candles on. Too weak hearted to damage the sleek shiny surface of the jelly.

Monopoly Zapped

My dearest soul-mate loves games. From snake and ladders to oh-so-complicated computer games, he loves it all. 

Our kids had their first brush with monopoly from the tender age of around 2 plus.

So now, we have an array of board games. From domino to Robinson Crusoe. There's an online board game shop with good service in Singapore, but maybe that's for a later post.

This post is dedicated for Monopoly Zapped, our newest family member. It has reduced kids to tears, as well as elevated them to a whooping joy.

What's that? It's a combination of normal monopoly and iPad/iPhone.

How?

1. Instead of chance or community cards, you'll get to do games, auction, etc on the iPad/iPhone. No more messy or bent cards.

2. Instead of fussing with paper money, each player hold a card which we tap onto iPad/iPhone to charge/collect money. No more calculating everything with the kids arguing in the background. A much welcome relief. But, I wonder how if the card gets damaged. Hope it won't happen so soon.

3. The possibility is limitless. For example, for chance, the player might be required to spin the arrow via device. Something that requires another board on normal monopoly. And the games played allows more player to compete, or even all players. 

4. It allows auction of property. Adding an interesting concept to the game. 

5. Dices and houses are still physical. Not sure whether this is a plus or minus.

All in all, we're very happy with it. 

iPad

Hmmm... I forgot that I haven't wrote anything about iPad.

Anyway, here it is. 

I thought iPad is simply a larger scale iPhone. But, a few days after playing with it, no... I was wrong.

Below are some iPad features and apps that I adores:

1. The larger screen allows us to watch with others. This makes the experience so much more enjoyable. Laughing together amplifies the joy. If course, we can go the extra mile, use Apple TV.

2. Apps in iPad usually pack more functions. You can get things done easier there compared to iPhone. Kids, without doubt, have more and better games. 

3. QuickOffice. I have tried many free apps that allows us to edit MSOffice on iPad. So far, QuickOffice is the most suitable for me. User interface is simple and intuitive, we can upload and download from google docs, etc. Beware  though, documents that are originally created in QuickOffice cannot be edited via normal MSOffice on PC. In a way, it's a one way compatibility. But if the doc is originally created in MSOffice, you can go to and fro. Other two downsides are formulas and data size in a sheet. Only simple formulas are accepted. And, I tried on data 12 columns wide for 1000 rows. It went haywired, failed to save and auto close. Oh... And there is no charting function. Though it seems like lots of downside, it is a good apps. Very useful for mommying. 

4. AXS on mobile... Or something like that. This apps allows us to pay bills by internet banking, just like normal AXS machine. Receipt will be sent to our emails. Plus side, it keeps track of our payment history, easy to check whether we've missed anything.

5. Paper by 53. If you're an occasional doodlers like me, this app is cool. Very easy to use. It is not like other apps which offers many tools combination and sizes. Papers offers a very simple concept. But it is amazing of what we can do, and lots of great artist did, on it.

So there you go, perfunctory acknowledgement of good stuff.

Apple TV

I always try to catch snippets of time to read a jolly rom-com or to watch comedy... Even for 10 mins, it works wonder for me.

A few months back, I was on The Nanny rerun on my iPhone (yay YouTube).

Hubby took a pity on me and my little screen and he bought me an iPad.

Since then, the children have also been enjoying My Little Pony on iPad. Two little bodies were huddled together in front of the VUT (Very Useful Thing).

So... Dear Hubby, bless him, bought us and Apple TV.

Before purchase, I was sceptical. Why pay for something which in essence only allowing the TV to access internet? But he assured me that it will be worth every cent.

So, as I have marveled at iPad, I continued to a greater height of respect for Apple product. (In fact, since this discovery, I have been reading Steve Jobs biography. Very much intrigued on how his mind works, what's the background behind good invention).

As a product, it gave us a wide spectrum of joy. Watch movie, share photos, share videos, karaoke, ... Even the kids had fun using iPad/iPhone camera in one room, and watching what's happening through the TV. 

One thing that I salut most is Apple ability to design a somewhat modular joyful devices that works together, as well as solo. And that, at a price that is acceptable. Based on experience that our iPhone 3G is still working fine until now, I put my hope high that Apple product is also long lasting. 

Sadly, this post is not sponsored by Apple. It's purely my opinion in supporting a good product, of a man who leaves this world with a bang.