We went for dinner outside and then adjourned back home for cake-cutting candle-blowing celebration.

Well, after an hour of troubleshoot, I finally found the source of the problem: a broken gear motor. A spot of Google search and I saw that it can potentially be replaced by myself but first, I’ll have to find a place that sold it and sadly, no one sold it via the net.

So I went to Jalan Pasar to look for it and lo and behold, I found one!

It’s amazing what kinda stuffs could be found there. New gear motor on the left, broken original on the right.

Broken gear motor taken out

New gear motor in place

All done, and the washing machine is as good as new. And there you have; repairing a washing machine isn’t that difficult.

Darn it, I gotta stop praising myself for being so GOOD!

Yup, I’ve just turned 40!

Some may say that “40 is the new 30″ and also “naughty 4-noughty” but whatever said and done, I hope I’m older AND wiser.

A shot with the princes and princesses

My birthday wish is for all family and friends to have good health and plentiful wealth.

Not enuff money to put the "nie" to Ronnie?

Happy birthday to ME!!!

This year’s event would be a long one for both the missus and me, as they did the Year 3 to 5 session in the afternoon, leaving the Year 6 graduation ceremony towards the evening. That means we’ll be there from noon till night!

Jason’s dance performance seems an improvement compared to last year. His reflexes and co-ordination looks much better now.

Pom-pom performance

Jason again got the Best Improvement Award for the second consecutive year. I guess he’s slowly but surely improving. WELL DONE, SON!

Hiding his toothy grin behind the award

By the evening, it was time for Julia to graduate.

My princess graduates today

Once again, she proved her abilities by getting an award for the third consecutive year… two awards, in fact. The first being Best Reader – English, which was her second consecutive year getting it.

The icing on the cake was snagging the Best Reading Competition (English), which was held onstage during the event. She was pitted against three other children of equal caliber and she easily outdid them. WELL DONE, GIRL!

Darn it! I need a better camera

Getting her award

My princess with her two awards

Next year will see Julia going to primary school in Standard One, while Jason will be enrolled to a new kindergarten in Midah. Here’s hoping they will carry on with their studies diligently and make all of us proud.

It’s a CD of my favourite Japanese band, Anzenchitai 安全地带, with their latest album 安全地带 XII which wouldn’t be released so soon in Malaysia and wouldn’t be easily found as well anyway. So I did the next best thing: I ordered it via the net from Hong Kong and voila!

安全地带 XII

Arrived just in time before we moved office, otherwise FedEx would have returned it to sender.

It seems the festival is no longer like what it was meant to be, where children of the surrounding would all gather and go for walkabouts while the adults would gather to taste the mooncakes. Modern-day paranoia has made it such that all the kids celebrate within the confines of their own home only, while mooncakes are bought more for giving and not so much for eating. Seriously, have you seen some of the odd-taste mooncakes being sold? *BWEEAAGGHHHH*

Happy faces all round

More of clowning around

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SON!

Time to cut the cake

After all the dinner and cake, Big Prince Darrell tells me that he wants to taste the oxtail soup I’ve been talking about for the last few weeks. *SIGH* Reluctantly, his wish was my command.

Do I look like Gordon Ramsay to you?

And the verdict of my soup-making skills?

Good-ah!!!

We made up for it by deciding to buy a birthday cake but when we went to the cake shop, the choices were limited and uninspired. So we decided to buy 4 slices of different cakes to liven things up.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR.