Celebrate A Merry Minions Holiday @ NEX

[Event Listing]

The kiddos took part in a fun kid's party, sang and danced along with Santarina and her friends, and even met up with the minions Kevin, Stuart and Bob for a group photo at NEX last week!

 

Tropical Family Fun (1st December to 10th December 2017)

Dance and sing along with Santarina and her jolly friends on a beach holiday, daily at 1pm and 7pm and groove with life-sized animal balloon floats. The fun doesn’t end there! Step into the Tropical Balloon Land from 12pm to 8pm daily and enjoy activities such as waterfall fishing, monkey feeding and pineapple golf. Don’t forget to grab a photo opportunity at the Surf & Shoot! booth, where you can ‘surf’ on a wave made of balloons.
 

Surprise the little ones and let them get creative at the Kids’ Party happening daily at 4pm, where 30 children will get to play with Santarina. The tea-time activity is complete with entertaining Christmas songs, yummy ‘catch of the day’ snacks and craft-making*. Every child will bring home a balloon sculpture, handmade reindeer head band and a Christmas Sand Bucket filled with treats – perfect for outings in sunny Singapore this December!
 

 

*Redeem a Kids’ Party pass with $50 minimum spent in one receipt. Limited to 30 kids (aged 4-12 years old) per party. Each pass admits 1 kid only. All passes are available 1 hour before each session from the Atrium, Level 1. Strictly 1 pass per shopper/NRIC per day. 

Minions Mania! (23rd November to12th December 2017)

Your favourite Minions – Kevin, Stuart and Bob – will be visiting NEX from 1st to 3rd December and 8th to 10th December at 1pm and 7pm.Redeem a One in a Minion photo pass to get an up-close and personal experience with these adorable yellow characters*. For more Minion fun, head down to the NEX B1 Walkway near KFC to guess the number of Minions plush there. One lucky winner will walk away with a $500 nex Voucher. Visit NEX Facebook to find out more.

*Redeem a photo pass with $30 minimum spent in one receipt. Photo passes are limited to 50 passes per session. Each pass admits a family of 4.All passes are available 1 hour before each session from the Atrium, Level 1. Strictly 1 pass per shopper/NRIC per day. 

Holiday Bonanza (23rd November to 31st December 2017)

For shoppers busy with their last-minute Christmas shopping, we’ve got another great reason for you to spend more at NEX! Spread the Minions festive cheer with your friends and family. Stand a chance to win a 5D4N trip for two at the Minions Theme Park in Osaka, Japan,when you participate in our exclusive lucky draw*. Double your chances by simply charging to your American Express Card#. If it begins drizzling in this tropical paradise,take shelter with the NEX Inverted Umbrella!The exclusive umbrellas can be redeemed with a minimum spend of $200 or $350 (if including Cold Storage and Fairprice Xtra receipts) and American Express Card members# need only charge $150 or $200 (if including Cold Storage and Fairprice Xtra receipts).

*Only applicable with every $50 spent. Maximum 20 chances per shopper/NRIC per day or 40 chances per American Express Card Member/NRIC per day. For American Express Card Members, payment must be made by American Express Card issued by American Express International Inc in Singapore (excluding American Express Corporate Card and American Express Cards issued by DBS Bank Limited,United Overseas Bank Limited and Citibank Singapore Limited).

#All spending must be charged to the same American Express Card.

Share the Holiday Cheer (14th December to15th December 2017)

During this festive season, let’s not forget to embrace the spirit of giving. NEX is partnering with Make-A-Wish Foundation® Singapore (MAWSG) to make giving back an easy and enjoyable experience for the family. Take home an 8-inch Minion plush for $10 or a 12-inch Minion plush for $20. Your donation will go towards making a child’s wish at MAWSG come true this Christmas.

It was definitely an enjoyable afternoon for the kiddos! Thank you NEX Singapore for inviting our family over!

New D-Link Stuff with 4 Antennas!

[Product Review]

Internet is an essential part of our everyday lives these days, and while we survived on fixed lines and dial-ups in the past, it seems like we cannot survive without our mobile data whenever we are out and about these days. Wi-Fi connection is of course important as well when we get back home, because who would actually wan a LAN cable attached to their devices? We all love the Wi-Fi connectivity, without the physical connection don't we?

I had never bought any Wi-Fi router before, because they always came free with my broadband contract with the telco. I would like to assume that the models worked reasonably well since they had to be used by so MANY subscribers. In my case, my old router was a D-Link DIR-850L was from Starhub as well. I thought it worked quite well, till my wife complained of slow loading of her Korean drama when in our bedroom, after which we got a extender which improved the situation.

As the saying goes, “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link” and it holds true for all things, even for Wi-Fi connection. You can subscribe to the fastest speed from your telco, but you still require a good modem and router to be able to broadcast the Wi-Fi out. Let me introduce you to the DIR-882 AC2600 EXO MU-MIMO Wi-Fi Router which we had the good fortune to try out. Where my old D-Link DIR-850L was a simple cylindrical-shaped device, this new router sure looked intimidating and beastly with its four antennas sticking out from the sides.

The download speed I got from the old modem.

I did a speed test on the old router setup and it showed a download speed of 35.4Mbps on my mobile device in my master bedroom before the new setup. After changing my router to the new DIR-882 and pairing it with the DAP-1860 AC2600 MU-MIMO Wireless Range Extender, it actually increased my download speed to 47.1Mbps from the exact same position! I am no techie and I have to admit that I know very little about what all these numbers mean but I can safely say that the loading of browsers and rendering of videos are so much smoother now and the uploading speed also increased from 26.5Mbps to 47.1Mbps!

Paired the new modem with another 4-antenna device! The DAP-1860 extender which supported multi users well too!

Pretty good increase of downloading speed!

Just so for the sake of my own curiosity, I tried the speed test on my mobile, standing right beside my new router but it actually only registered 46.5Mbps. Weird but I guess that is about the max speed it gets, and with my new DAP-1860 extender boosting the signal into my room, there was no loss of signal nor speed!

Change your device name and password after you connect to it with the original password printed on the configuration card.

Setting up of the router should not faze most people as it was as easy as it can get with the steps clearly stated in the instruction booklet. And can you believe that this non-techie user did the setup in merely minutes, even without reading the instructions at all! With the school holidays now on, the kiddos have “regained” access to their tablets from your truly and could watch their favorite YouTube channels already. I still recall many occasions where they would complain of “videos not moving” due to slow speed but no issues with that now, no matter which part of the house they are, because the router support multiple users getting high-bandwidth Wi-Fi signal at the same time! At the point of writing this post, there are a total of 6 devices (including my helper in her own room) signed onto the network and everyone was happy with the coverage. 

One may have a high speed plan, but it is only with the right equipment that one can enjoy the fastest speed possible and not let the monthly payments go to waste! Thank you D-Link Singapore once again, for keeping our family very well-connected indeed!

Celebrating Christmas in Hong Kong Disneyland

We had only been to Hong Kong thrice, but there is one place we never fail to visit on all the 3 occasions, and that is none other than Hong Kong Disneyland! Our first 2 visits were when my older 2 were still much younger, and we were only able to get on the kiddy rides. We did spent a considerably long time in the queues for photographs with the mascots since that was the only other thing worth queuing for besides the rides. Even though we adults knew for a fact that the characters were merely staff in costumes, the characters never fail to bring smiles to everyone whenever they appear. I had ever heard screams of joy from even adult women too when they see Mickey and friends!

The first character we got to take a photo with and we were the first in the queue!

With the festive season upon us soon, the characters in Hong Kong Disneyland  were also decked in red when we visited last month. The park was transformed into a magical wintry Christmas wonderland, with Christmas trees and ornaments adorning every nook and crannies. The rides were pretty much the same when we last visited, and we went back onto quite a few of the kiddos' favourites such as Slinky Dog Sling and RC Racer. But what was different this time round was that the kiddos had grown taller and were finally able to get onto scarier rides!

What I love about going to Hong Kong Disneyland during this time of the year, would have to be the wonderful cool (bordering cold) weather, that made the queuing so much more tolerable. The queues at the rides were also shorter this time round as compared to our previous visits too. Perhaps due to the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, where I think where a good portion of previous crowd might be at now? All these made for a pleasant and stress-free visit!

I thought that there was not that much of people around initially but when the special Mickey and Friends Christmastime Ball came on in front of the castle, you can then really see ALL the people appearing from nowhere, trying to catch their favorite characters performing! The same thing happens when the parades come on too!

The kiddos are Marvel fans and we were glad to finally visit Stark Expo and try out the Expo Edition Iron Wings! The ride reminded us of the Transformer ride in USS and was rather realistic with the StarkVision glasses on. We went on it 4 times and there would be screaming every time, without fail. Leroy even donned his Spidey suit and gave Iron Man a surprise in the Iron Man Tech Showcase! I am impressed with the voice over and the comical reaction of the actor in the suit. This definitely made the kiddos' day! Can't wait for more Marvel themed attractions in the years to come!

I was surprised, Leroy was surprised and even Tony was surprised. 

Didn't knew Tony sold burgers too!

We only managed to catch Piglet and Santa Goofy for photos this time round as the kiddos were more interested in going for MULTIPLE rollercoaster rides this time round. I would recommend the Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars if you have not tried it before. It is truly an awesome ride and my kiddos loved the adrenaline rush! Oh you can also send a postcard with a special Goofy stamp directly to friends and family anywhere from Disneyland!

Had to make do with the statues of Mickey and Minnie because they were too busy elsewhere already!

It's with much sadness when we read about the cessation of the firework displays by the end of this year. We were truly lucky to be able to catch it during our recent trip, because I was actually contemplating going back earlier as the kiddos were pretty tired out after a full day at the park. Glad we stayed on for the magnificent display and even managed to take a snowy family portrait to end the fun-filled day. Big thanks to Hong Kong Disneyland for hosting our family!

I recommend that you do it fast if you want to visit so as to make it in time to catch the nightly firework display before it temporary stops with the last display on 01 Jan 2018. Do check out these following perks if you have the intention to visit Hong Kong Disneyland any soon -

• Singaporean guests should start planning their magical journey with the Advanced Purchase Room Offer to save up to 40% on a guest room at either Disney Explorers Lodge, the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel or Disney’s Hollywood Hotel. 

• The Discounted “2-Day Fun” Ticket Offer will give Singaporean guests two days in the park’s immersive Christmas atmosphere with just HK$60 more over a 1-Day ticket! From today, Singaporean guests can also buy the 1-day ticket and receive a HK$50 merchandise coupon and one “buy one get one free popcorn coupon”. For more details, please visit: www.hongkongdisneyland.com/disney-christmas-intl/

Me and my wife each had our Changi Recommends WiFi router with us while in the park and remained contactable with ease even when we had to fulfil the different needs of the four kiddos! Picking up the devices just before our flight and right in front of our check-in counters gave us the peace of mind, as well as the ability to navigate Hong Kong the moment we touched down. 

Just need to drop the routers off at any of the counters in Terminals 1 - 4 when you return!

Returning the devices was equally easy. I forgot to return it upon checking out from Terminal 1 and ended up returning them at Terminal 3 without any problems. So if you are thinking of fuss-free internet access where ever you are going from Singapore, check out ChangiWifi! Thank you for providing us with reliable internet access throughout our Hong Kong trip!

POSB Smart Buddy Watch

I applied for the POSB Smart Buddy watch for the 3 older kiddos recently. I would say that the technology behind making contactless payment in the watches is not ground breaking since we have had Android pay or Apple pay for quite a long time. But what I was really interested in, would be the App that comes with the watches as it allows me to "control" the kiddos expenditure and to know what there were up to. I can now easily set the daily limit for them, and also find out for myself if they were buying food during recess or some random useless stuff from the bookshop. I am so glad that the school is one of the first few to get onto the program and now I need not search for the right amount of allowance early in the morning anymore!

You get all the above, plus a payment chip.

You will need to use the pin to push the slot out, and then place the payment chip (shaped like a SIM card) into the watch.

I have heard from Steffi and Leroy that they ever borrowed money from their friends and even from the general office before, when they forgot that they have to stay back for CCA and did not get enough money for lunch. Borrowing is definitely not a good habit, and I would make it a point to remind them to return the money. Now that I have the App installed, I can remotely wired any money to them should the need be, and not have to worry about their repayment to anyone. Not to mention that now I will have greater insights into their spending habits.

The watches come with residual battery for your setup, but needed to be charged before use.

As with many other parents who are concerned that that the younger children may not be able to grasp the concept of digital payment and the idea of money, I too have my own reservations. I had ever heard my own kiddos retorting me, that the stuff they wanted only required my credit card and not my money! Scary thoughts indeed, but I guess it is really up to us parents, to educate our kiddos on the different types of “money” in the market, besides the physical cash. There is no escaping technology unfortunately and we should be prepared.

This about sums up what the watch is all about.

After I downloaded the app on my phone, I only needed to edit the profiles of my kiddos and sync their watches.

From the individual profile, I am able to set their individual allowances, check their spendings and more.

My kiddos could also set their own saving goal with the end in mind and work towards their ultimate reward at the end, purchased with their own savings of course! On top of that, they also buy their digital POSB Smiley stamps at their tuckshop for the National School Savings Campaign as well, with the option of crediting the stamp savings into their ePOSBkids account directly too.

The kiddos have yet to really test their watches out by purchasing as they are currently having their holidays, but they already got the idea that it would be somewhat like tapping at the MRT gantries, albeit with their watches and not their cards. Now I shall just wait till school reopens, to find out what exactly they will be buying during recess! You should really check it out their official website too!