Sudoku Attraction

Sudoku. A game I chose to be disinterested to, in spite of the frequency I encountered it; whether in newspapers, friends who talked about it or on best sellers book shelves whenever I visited Borders...

Recently I finally gave in and decided to learn how to play this game. Let me give you a brief introduction if you are unfamiliar with this "addictive" game -

Sudoku is a logic based number placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes (also called blocks or regions) contains the digits from 1 to 9, only one time each (that is, exclusively).

The modern puzzle was invented by an American architect, Howard Garns in 1979 and published by Dell Magazines under the name "Number Place". It became popular in Japan in 1986, after it was published by Nikoli and given the name Sudoku, meaning single number. It has been an international hit since 2005 (from Wikipedia).

Now, I will play a Sudoku puzzle at least once daily (From my daily free copy of Today newspapers). My wife, Aileen too caught the "fire" after seeing me cracking Sudoku puzzles :-P Think she is more "ON" than me because she bought a Sudoku puzzle book from Popular recently. I prefer to play it for free :-)

If you decide to have a go at it, check out this website - WebSudoku. You can play the puzzle for free online and advance to more difficult levels once you get the "hang" of it. If you wish to download it to play offline on your computer, check out Sudoku Portable too. This game will exercise and train your brain. Enjoy!!!

Impressive SG Airshow!

I brought the children to the inaugural Singapore Airshow 08 on 24 Feb last month. Personally I was excited because it was the first time that the children would be up close and personal with the aircraft which they often see in the sky.

We arrived at the Show Site (Changi Exhibition Centre) a hour before the aerobatic flying display. So we took time to walk around the exhibition hall and view the static display of military and commercial aircraft in the open square.

We were very impressed by the aerobatic display by our country's very own team - The Black Knights. The Black Knights which consisted of 6 F-16C aircraft wooed the crowd with their daring, precise and sophisticated manoeuvres. Joann was thrilled and especially fascinated when the Black Knights performed the "flaming heart" manoeuvre on the sky! As for Jayden, he was making noises; wanting to go home as he was afraid of the loud noise from the aircraft in flight :-P

Overall, it was a great airshow by Singapore and I am looking forward to the next one in 2010. If you missed the Black Knights, click on the video link below!