How did we get by without Google?

Went off to work very frustrated because my sewing machine would not re-tention and came home with the idea of searching Google for troubleshooting ideas.  What would we do without Google? I discovered that when you change thread you must always be sure to have the foot in the raised position or the tension won't auto adjust.  I'd never known that, since you just always have it raised normally. Its only a problem when you have no foot lever you see, but I can get around that. And it works. Thank you again Google, my mood has lifted and so has Eric's as he was expecting to see the living room stay in this mess of mending and half finished projects continuing for another week. He still might yet, I haven't mentioned the next project I have in mind.
On Thursday Eric tried out his new personal GPS that Luke and Tahlia sent to him for his birthday. They sent it thinking it would be useful when we are trekking but Eric has discovered the world-wide game of geocaching, thanks again to the internet. He did his first Geocache activity last week, its an activity something like orienteering but instead of reading maps and contours you follow coordinates.  Unfortunately in a place like Singapore you have to keep negotiating road crossings too as you try to get to your destination. Its a bit like an outdoor treasure hunt really, using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location by another keen geocacher. As he is just beginning he chose to look for one he thought was just 1.5kms from home. In fact the cache ended up being 4 km from home and he walked all the way there and back so was feeling a little tired but still very pleased with himself. The GPS takes you to within 20 sq m of the item and the owner leaves a clue to help you. In this case the clue was 'a park within a park' and it turned out to be in the car park of a condo, of all places a condo where a friend lives!  He has now logged onto the geocaching web site and recorded his first find. The second one was obviously at Nex, the big new shopping centre here at Serangoon. Problem was, every time he tried to find it he would loose the satellite connection as soon as he went inside the building. The clue was 'beware of the spill from a bucket'. At last he twigged, it was hidden in the rooftop garden where there is a water park for children. That's 2 found successfully, there are over 100 more to find just in Singapore. Keeps him out of mischief while I've been sewing. First work dress completed and now also one for the Annual Dinner  which has a 'Black and White' theme. 
Our bird watching this week recorded first sightings of the Australian Sulphur Crested Cockatoo in our local Serangoon park.  It is introduced here, probably through caged ones escaping (or being released because they are so raucous). The impact of introduced species always seems to have dire consequences but we couldn't help enjoying the familiar calls of this small flock who had claimed a hollow in one of the big trees.  
This week the walkers changed the scheduled walk from Bukit Timah to Bishan Park and Peirce Reserve so they could go to Chunjiou's place afterwards and eat Mooncakes. Unfortunately I woke up feeling like I was about to come down with another cold. That would be 2 in 3 weeks so I stayed at home on the couch instead. It was a good thing as I feel so much better already just 2 days later and Eric was away for about 7 hours, then came home and slept the last of the afternoon away in my spot on the couch. We have the group so interested in bird spotting now that they even found a flying lizard this week. 

In the evening we joined the group, which included Chunjiou's husband Chengwei and Peters daughter Kate and fiance Luke, for dinner at the New Everest Nepalese Restaurant in Little India. This is the first time we have met Chengwei, he and Chunjiou live a typical wealthy Chinese lifestyle. He is a Chinese National and lives in China above the ball bearing factory he owns, sleeping and cooking for himself in a room above the workshop.  She is a Singaporean National and lives here, bringing up their daughter who will start her last year of school in 2013 and then hopes to go to university somewhere in Europe or America. Chengwei visits every two months and stays a week or so. I don't know how many years they have lived like this but they own several properties here and possibly more in China too. Its all about the money and the daughter's education. But he seems like a lovely fellow and he and Peter are very good mates.
I think I told you the trekking group have a team t-shirt planned for the trip to Nepal. We volunteered to get it printed but then had all sorts of trouble getting all the participants to agree to a fabric and colour. Eventually we narrowed it down and thought we had it all under-way, even paid the deposit, but now the graphic designer is unwilling to use what design ideas we had given her. So yesterday I spent much too long fiddling around on the computer trying to design a graphic of our own using Windows Paint. It was very clumsy but the only graphics program we have. 
This is testing week again at MAE so no preparation at all and you get to mark the test while you administer the next class. Very simple now we are in the routine of all the administration required and so once again the week will scoot by.