Meow ... It's CATS!

Media Invite

Let the Memory Live Again!

The record-breaking 2015 Olivier award nominated musical CATS by Andrew Lloyd Webber is back again in Singapore!

On just one special night of the year, all Jellicle cats meet at the Jellicle Ball where Old Deuteronomy, their wise and benevolent leader, makes the Jellicle choice and announces which of them will go up to The Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a whole new Jellicle life.

Look out for world-renowned theatre star Joanna Ampil who reprise the role of Grizabella. Joanna Ampil has performed in several West End musicals, including Miss Saigon, Jesus Christ Superstar and Avenue Q, and she played the role of Fantine in Les Miserables in London.

This is my first time watching CATS musical. To be honest, I'm not a cat-lover, I don't quite understand them, only that cats are proud and sensitive.

And the musical performance totally blew my mind!The performers were not only phenomenon, their dancing and how they portrayed cats were simply inspired and brilliant!

Never have I thought a performer can show me so much of a cat just by his/her dancing and every little movement. If you are a cat-lover, you have to watch this musical! If you are not (like me), you will be pleasantly surprised and entertained too!

For a limited season only at Sands Theatre at Marina Bay Sands, the musical will be performing from 17 Dec 2019 to 5 Jan 2020.

Get your tickets here!

Photo credit: CATS Tour 2019 Photography by Alessandro Pinna.

Presbyopia aka 老花 – What’s Next?

Advertorial

What is presbyopia?
Long-sightedness caused by loss of elasticity of the lens of the eye, occurring typically in middle and old age.

Do you switch between different pairs of glasses?
Do you struggle to focus up close and to see things far away?
Do you find it difficult to see in low light?

You are not alone!! There is help!! =)

So I am turning 45 this year and 老花 has definitely caught up with me. For those who knew of my Retinal Detachment Surgery in 2017, ever since then my myopia has shot up to more than –1000 for the affected eye. Technically without my glasses, I am really as blind as a bat. Now with presbyopia, the situation has become a dilemma of whether to move the object nearer or further to be able to see clearly.

Give you an example, when I read a text on my phone, because of myopia I have to move the phone nearer, but due to presbyopia, when I move the phone nearer, the words become blurry. What to do??
Real case scenario: To see the menu in a restaurant, I have to take a photo of the list and enlarge the picture on my phone. Facepalm!

When I was about to resign my life to reading glasses with contact lenses or just normal glasses with on & off difficulty in reading. I was blessed to receive the chance to try try Varilux progressive lenses by Essilor.

Varilux® X series^TM
The Varilux® X series^TM brings the best technology to modern generation of presbyopes who want lenses to match their everyday lifestyle needs. The Gen-X that we have today are multi-taskers who lead fast-paced lives and want to live a full life that is not hindered by the quality of their vision. With this in mind, Varilux X series is a progressive lens designed by Essilor to reinvent near vision and deliver extended near vision within arm’s reach.
With Varilux® X series^TM progressive lens, presbyopes can now swap between screens comfortably and seamlessly capture every detail within arm’s reach with high precision, extending their sharp vision by 100%, in width and length. They will enjoy outstanding sharpness, continuous vision, and fluidity from near to far, without having to adjust their arms or heads to see sharp at close and beyond.
The Varilux® X series^TM is developed by using Xtend™, a new revolutionary technology. With focused efforts on vision at arm’s length, this technology provides an impressive 75% match with wearers’ visual needs. A significant improvement of 59% on average compared to other premium progressive lens. This pioneer approach addresses the main limit of other progressive lenses – the need to adjust their heads or arms to have clear and sharp multiple near distances views.
Furthermore, Varilux® X series’^TM customers can opt for further personalization via Near Vision Behaviour (NVB), a new in-store personalization tool to get patient’s measurements. NVB is a new and simple measure that takes into account a wearer’s behaviour and posture while replicating a key and familiar activity at near, so that their own vision area is positioned and shaped where and how they need it. This new first level of personalization will provide reliable and robust measurements of the wearer’s near vision.

Alright! Enough information for those who really read through the above … Now let’s walk with me through what goes on during the actual action!

 Step 1 – Eye Check
This is very important! Many of us are quite informed when it comes to health checks (full body check up). But do you know that it is equally important to have a proper eye health check every year (especially if you are over 40 years old), or if your family has history of eye problems (cataracts, glaucoma, conjunctivitis, night blindness, red eyes, lazy eye)?

At W Optics, I was treated to the best eye examination in my entire 30+ years of spectacle life. The test was super thorough and it lasted for 1.5 hours.

I went through Refractor test on the machine. I did Slit Lamp Examination. Both my eyes had an Intraocular Pressure check. Amsler Test. Fundus Examination.

Sounds comprehensive right! And thank God, my eye health is fine! Need to stop wearing contact lenses for long hours though.

Step 2 – Understanding of Varilux lens & Near Vision Behaviour (NVB)
Again kudos to the staff at W Optics, with their wealth of knowledge and professionalism, I had a clear understanding of how the Varilux progressive lenses works, and what kind of adjustments I need to have when I am wearing it.

For example, with the new progressive lens, if I want to read an article or my phone, I need to shift my book lower and adjust my eyes to look through the lower portion of the lens, which will help with my far-sightedness problem. I was gently reminded that it would take a while (maybe a week or so) to be comfortable with the adjustments. But little did I know, I was totally rocking the reading skills in less than a day! The power of a 30+ years specky! Haha!!

After choosing my frames, let’s go on with the Visioffice measurements. This machine basically measures the behavior of the person who is wearing the specs.
Things like – What is your eye position behind the frame? What is your reading distance and behavior?

Step 3 – Collect your specs (about 4-7 days for customized lenses like Varilux progressive lens)
Fitting and final check on how to read using the progressive lenses. If you read like the picture on the left, you will not be able to see the words clearly, cos the middle and above portion of the lens is for seeing things in the far. You have to move the paper like the picture on the right. Then while reading through the bottom half of the lens, it works like a reading glass.

Step 4 – Enjoy your life!

With the new lenses, and a bit of adjustments in lifestyle behaviors, I am totally enjoying the convenience of having the best of both worlds!
No more difficulties of reading my phone or menu. No more worries of missing my bus.
Oh … did I mention that my glasses comes with Transitions lens!! How cool!!

Stop procrastinating! If you have not done an eye examination before, head down to one of the outlets at W Optics and get your eye health checked today. And if you are interested to know about Varilux progressive lenses by Essilor, do drop by any of W Optics stores to find out more from their friendly eye care professionals.

Aladdin the Musical - too good to be missed!

Media Invite

If you are looking for a musical to wow your friends or family, this is the one you can’t miss. Bring your kids, bring your parents, bring your neighbors, bring someone! Cos this is a show you cannot enjoy alone, it has to be shared!
(spoiler alert: there is scene stealer that is absolutely top class)

Genie + Princess Jasmine + Aladdin

   

Why do I recommend this musical?

1. It is a storyline most of us are familiar with.
Hence, you can follow the musical from beginning till the end and be totally immersed in the pleasure. The songs are easy to follow, and of course the all time favorite “A Whole New World” definitely wooed the crowd to the max!

2. It is highly interactive.
Not your usual musical where the show is just one way, from stage to audience. But the casts include the audience in some scenes and even asked for applause. Highly entertaining.

3. Simply magical!
From the dancing to the singing, from the costumes to the stage set, everything was done to perfection. Watch out for the flying carpet scene! Don’t even blink!

Get your tickets from https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/aladdin0919.
The musical’s ending its run in Singapore on 1 Sep 2019 (In fact, Singapore’s its only Asia stop!).

International Women’s Day - A Time to Love the Ladies

Giveaway

As we approach the International Women’s Day (8 Mar), it is befitting to celebrate the women in our lives and shower them with some love! What better gift than flowers? And furthermore, teddy bear flowers!! (double win)
Thanks to Little Flower Hut to send us this extremely cute and pretty Teddy Bear series bouquet!

It’s almost like Christmas when we reached home to see this huge surprise sitting on our floor.

It makes a nice decoration piece for the house!

Most guys will agree with me that going to a florist to choose flowers, showing our ignorant side (lack of knowledge of flower types), is not one of the things we would enjoy to do. So when it comes to online ordering and delivery of flowers, we tend to look for the best deals and fast delivery.

Little Flower Hut provides both a wide range of flowers to choose from and same day delivery (order by 4pm), making sure even if we missed out of preparing a bouquet for that special event, we won’t be late.

Talking about International Women’s Day, it is a day to celebrate women’s right. Although like the Chinese date would suggest (三八妇女节), I would like to take the opportunity to celebrate and thank the women/ladies in my life.

As many would know, I live with a house full of women. My wife, my 2 daughters and my mother. It is hard not to find them “nagging” much, but it is hard to find me being appreciative much too.

So here it goes …

To my youngest daughter, Jayne. Papa loves you very much, I know I haven’t been showing much attention to what you always eagerly share with me, like your mini-projects in school, your quirky talks with friends, or even your latest YouTube channel. But I want you to know from the bottom of my heart, I love you very much! Even though I don’t response as much as I should (promise I will improve), I do hear every single events you have related to me. Promise, you will continue to share your stories with me ok? Love.

To my elder daughter, Joey. You are already a teenager and I feel like time is running out between the 2 of us, pretty soon you will have more friends, more outings, and eventually a boyfriend (I know I am thinking a bit far here), but you get the point. I just want to say you have grown up to be a fine lady. Pretty and smart, and also caring to the people around you. All I ask for is your heart to be pure towards God, and I know the rest will be ok. Papa is always around to hear from you and support you ok? Love.

To my wife, Klessis. Have I say enough to thank you for all that you have sacrificed for me? Well, you know it but I still have to say it. Love you to the moon and back. No one else on this earth knows me like you do. You embrace me with the good and bad. So appreciative of your support in my ministry, my work and my dreams. But I want you to know, I am equally supportive of whatever your dream is. Be bold and do what you want to do, I will be behind you 100%! Love you much!

Lastly, to my mother who gave birth to me, nurtured me, taught me about life and love me for who I am. Thanks mummy for your years of sacrifices. I know it has been few words between us, but it doesn’t mean my love for you is few. I cherish you and love you like never before.

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To top it all, and thanks to the generosity of Little Flower Hut, I am giving out ONE FREE TEDDY BEAR BOUQUET to a lucky reader! Just follow the instructions below and submit your chances.

Deadline is next Tuesday 12 Mar.

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新年来咯! CNY Goodies!

The most exciting festive is just round the corner! Chinese New Year is my personal favorite festive of all times!

Not only are we able to gather as a family and enjoy some time of catching up, getting Angpows for the younger ones, giving love to one another, and one main thing of CNY is the chance to eat all the delicious CNY Goodies!

As the years passed, CNY goodies are getting more and more popular and thus, many of the products out there are done as mass productions (factory production). Thus every year, we are just looking around and asking friends if they have any recommendations for homemade CNY goodies.

If you also one of them, look no further! Let me introduce to you the homemade CNY goodies that is available online!
Yes! You can get homemade CNY goodies without going all the way to your Malaysia relative’s place or some friend’s Auntie’s daughter’s home. All you need is a few clicks on your laptop or even mobile phones, and you will have your favorite goodies sent to you within days!

www.cnydelivery.com

This online platform is exclusively selling homemade CNY goodies from bakers established in 1971, Poon Confectionary.

With a wide range of selection, you will surely be able to find your usual favorites and some new flavors to add on to your CNY display when relatives and friends come over in the coming weeks.

And for this CNY, a personal note – stop counting that calories and just enjoy the goodies!
Because they are worth it!

 

For a full list of what is available, just click on the link and browse on.
www.cnydelivery.com

From the Kuan Family, we wish all our readers a Prosperous and Happy Chinese New Year!!

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Just to top it off, we are giving away 1 Golden Pillow Pineapple Tarts each to 3 winners in total.
Just follow the following steps to win a delicious CNY goodie for you and your family!

The giveaway will run from today till 20 Jan 2019 (Sunday), 10pm. All the best!

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