Life Sucks

Got something to complement my toy. Been meaning to get one for the longest time but some how heart pain to part with close to $400 for a Nikon SB600. Finally after scouting around for so long, settled on this Tumax DBT386. This is a Hongkong made flash. Not that many review on the web site since it is fairly new. What was available was a mixed bag of praise and brickbats. Anyway stingy me decided to take the plunge anyway.The more impressive specs* of the flash was what sold me in the end. In fact, the sales guy said it is more close to the SB800 than SB600 which was my original choice. My more camera savy colleague who accompanied me to the shop thought I was a bit crazy to just buy like that without finding out more. He wasn't too impressed with its weight and felt that it was not powerful enough. But for slightly under $200, I deemed it worth taking the risk. For good measure, I also took a CPL and a remote shutter release. Now all I need to do is to find time to play with it....

Been quite some time since we went 'oversea' to Batam island. The last time we were there, we went straight to the resort and nuay there the whole time. Before that, was when there was only one Matahari dept stall, 1 big wet market and 1 main street and the only tourist spot that the local guide brought us to was the tree planted by our LKY. So when the Company organised a free day trip there, we went. Dunno how tall is the tree that LKY planted has grown but there are now many more malls and hotels there. We didn't get to any tourisy spot - heard there is a Chinese temple; a mini kingdom or something but instead of t hose places, all we got to go to was one local product shop after another. Will I go there again? I don't think so unless it is to one of the beach resort to nuay again otherwise spare me the agony!

Continuing the story of the URA reply. So after some persuasions from friends, I shot another reply on 9 September 2009 to URA: Dear Ms Wan, I referred to your 4 similar email replies requesting for my personal particulars. I reiterate I am not asking for a wavier for the notice. In fact, I have already made the payment. I am asking for an explanation why the Certis Cisco officer did not book those vehicles that are parked illegally along Changi South that day. If you are not in the dept responsible for this, please redirect accordingly. And I got this reply. Finally a real reply. There are humans in URA after all! We refer to your email. As all feedback sent to the authorities from members of the public are viewed as official correspondences, we require members of the public to furnish their personal particulars like NRIC/Passport no., full name and address for us to authenticate and process their feedback. We would appreciate your co-operation in furnishing your full part...

Paus have been getter bigger like the Gozilla bao or smaller like this one but kong bak pau (stewed pork bun)? Was at Toa Payoh and went and got the miniscule pau and saw that they have this whole tray of what looks like the yong tau foo roll. It turned out to be the smallest kong bak pau I ever see. Just how small is it? Look at the picture. It is about the length of the cashcard and about 3/4 of it. That's how small it is. 1 pop and its gone. At $0.50 a pop, it is a bit costly but hell, it taste good despite the not so flattering picture here. But anyway, all the paus there are good. Just look at the queue. Or maybe it is just that the small size made it seem more palatable?

The Princess made this lovely Cinnamon roll for this old man. Okay shape wise don't really look too good but taste wise they are pretty good. The gesture is so very much appreciated considering that she doesn't like cinnamon and can't stand the smell of it. Meanwhile, the young man got his old man this small little piece of gadget. I am blown away by the sound that came out from it. I never knew such small speaker can produce such a rich sound - and this from a Singapore company. Hopefully, they will be another Creative! The X-mini capsule Sound beyond size Hmm I have 1 more item due to me. Shall I ask for a pair of Nike Lunar or a flash for the camera?

Been meaning to check out the Ebisboshi Shotengai at Iluma @ Bugis since it opened and finally went there last evening. The restaurant is actually 7 restaurants in one featuring food from various cities of Japan in a sort of street setting. The interesting thing is that you can choose to just go direct to one of the restaurant or sit in the open area and order from the menu. Of course, we being typical kiasu Singaporean, must try everything so we choose the open area. I like the decor especially the front entrance with its paper lanterns, figurines and the typical fake food all so colorfully done up. The front entrance Colourful Lanterns A poster instructions on how to order the food in the restaurants A colourful paper lantern of the Ebisu God from whom the restaurant is named after A map of the Food Street and the usual display of fake food We were fortunate that there was a HSBC 1 for 1 offer and we took advantage of that to order the drinks, some food from the HSBC offer menu (whi...

Got booked by a Certis Cisco for an expired car park coupon last weekend. The gahmen had outsource almost everything under the sky and enforcement of traffic offences is just one of them. In this case I was at Singapore Expo and since the carparks were all full (NATA, Food fair, John Little Sale) I had to park along Changi South's streetside lot. I wasn't too peeved about the ticket. This is the problem with the paper coupon. One can never fully judged the time required and so it is either over displayed or under display sufficient coupon to cover the time but the issue I had was the guy was walking around looking at the dashboard of all the cars parked in the car lot (presumably checking for expired coupon or no coupon) and he was ignoring the many many cars that were illegally parked on double yellow line; next to fire hydrant etc. Which made me very kapo. Just exactly what was in the terms of the outsourcing contract to Certis Cisco? Does it cover only parking within a desi...

Among my biggest group of relatives, friends and acquaintances, other than those who work in 'offices', I think the next biggest group are teachers. Not doctor, soldier, lawyers or any other profession but teachers. Let me see.. of course among sgrunners and the RL group, there are a big number of teachers. And among our relatives and family friends, there are at least 5 current teachers, 2 retired and 2 ex. Being the kapo me, everything I meet a teacher, when I get the chance, I love to ask them why they take up teaching as a profession. Is it a love for children, for teaching or just another job? The answers vary but most of them started with a passion for teaching and for children. Sadly, a fair number soon get disillusioned with the system and the fire soon die out and teaching thus become another routine job. It's sad but I hope they do realised that they are doing a very important job and will continue with the drive and passion and to challenge and fight the system ...