Ready to fly!

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just one last thing to do.....

A Little Visit to the Woon & Lam Family

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It was one day that I was working and the thought of Junion, Scully & Tong came to my mind. It's been more than a month since they shifted over to Hong Kong. i reckon that while they are starting a new life there and having fun with Scully's family, somehow Junion will miss most of his friends in Singapore. Given that the air ticket to Hong Kong is affordable these days and at the same time I could use this chance to take a break, I made an impromptu decision and wacked an air ticket booking less than 2 weeks back.

When I finally reached Hong Kong, it was very heart-delighting to see Scully, Janice, Junion and of course my cute hyperactive god-daughter Tong waiting for me at the arrival hall. We then hopped on Janice's car so that I can have my first Hong Kong dinner with their family. Before driving to our dinner spot, we went to one of the Disneyland's hotels so they can show me around as well as to take some shots. But judging from Tong's reaction, guess she is more excited about the place than me lol.

After the short tour there, we proceeded to our dinner spot, which is a restaurant near where Scully's family lives. They had ordered some local delicacies which some of them was my first attempts like roasted pigeon and long shellfish (frankly, I have no idea the actual name of that dish but it tasted awesome anyway haha).

Once we are done with the dinner, we went ahead to Junion's residence to explore his new home at 马鞍山. As compared to his SG home, of course is very much smaller but I would say it is definitely much more cozy than the former. Since they had only moved into this apartment for a couple of days, I was their first overseas visitor to their new home (oei Junion, got some kind of certification presentation like what we have in Town Meetings bo? Haha just kidding)

Since Junion had to work on the following day, Scully and Tong will be my "tour guide" for the daytime. She brought me to the restaurant in their apartment building and had tim sum, which is one of their common local fares for breakfast/lunch. Afterwhich, we took shuttle bus to the city centre to take a bus to 大屿山 area, where Charlie, Scully's youngest sister, met us up to take the 帛坪360 cable car, which will bring us to the famous giant buddha statue. The cable car on this one is unlike what we have back in Singapore. It's higher, longer, more windy and more exciting. We roamed around the giant buddha area, took a couple of shots then we head back to the station to take the cable car back to the station. When reached the station, we went to the shopping mall nearby called Citygate Outlet mall where we have our High Tea.

Charlie and Scully showing the cable car tickets

An Excited Tong Tong




Tong Tong simply loved to pose in these LOL

There I finally get to try the 冰镇奶茶 which is not found in Singapore. It's basically a cup of milk tea placed in a bowl of ice. The concept is to maintain the taste of the thick smooth milk tea in chilled state without the melting ice diluting the tea. Simple yet ingenius idea :) Scully and Charlie also taught me some cantonese pronounciation off the menu words so I'm 0.01% closer to the fluency of the cantonese language lol.

冰镇奶茶

Right after we roam around the mall and I got myself a Crocs sandal which is 40% cheaper than what is sold in SG. Well, I needed a pair of sandals anyway. But looking at the kind of price they are selling in this mall, there's no guessing why Hong Kong is a women shopping paradise lol.

Shortly after we met up with Charlie's BF, Random, before we take the MTR to meet up with Junion and Janice at 尖沙嘴city centre. Once we all gathered up, we headed towards the Victoria Habour, moving along Nathan Road, which is akin to our Orchard Road but much much longer. The weather had been kind to us, providing a cloudy and windy one instead of rain. There we stroll along the habour and waited for the light show where the building lights on the opposite end of the habour "dance" synchronously with the broadcast music.

After the spectacular light show, we proceed to have our dinner around the area where they claimed to have one of the best wanton noodles. The noodles really lived up to its name but couldn't finish it due to high tea meal I had earlier. What a waste, sigh. Janice then ordered a plate of 肠粉 with fruit fillings. Surprisingly it's pretty nice despite the weird combinations. After the dinner, everyone went their separate ways to head home.

On the following day, the family had planned a karaoke session at 旺角 for some singing fun. They decided to go for the KTV lunch session as it is more worth it as compared to the evening session, as they told me. I would say the KTV experience I had in HK is much better than in SG, given that they provide mic covers for hygiene and the Honey Lemon I ordered tasted more like the real deal than those in SG, which tasted like diluted honey. Guess I'm the lousiest singer in the group as Random, Scully, Janice and even Junion sang so much better haha. Even Tong Tong also have so much fun singing those alphabet songs that she sang the same song more than 3 times! That was really good fun :)

The KTV group (sans Junion as he is the one behind the camera)

Tong sang the Alphabet song 4 times!

After the Karaoke session, we proceed to the city area to look around where it is similiar to Sim Lim Square in Singapore, an extremely poisonous place for techies like me. Knowing that I like military weapons, Junion showed me the shops that sells airsoft guns that looks like the real weapons. Crap, I may just get one if I really get to stay in HK man....the bloody weapons all looked so tempting haha. We also went to check out a building where half the building is selling games and console while the other half is selling porn movies. I almost got myself a Wii as the price is pretty attractive but managed to hold back in the end since I could come back next time to get it lol. Random then brought us to another complex where camera equipments are sold. While the price are attractive, they are way out of my intended budget. As I and Junion had checked out Random's tripod earlier at the KTV session, which I find the build quality is decent plus the price is very good(since he is more experienced in camera stuff so I have faith in his choice of equipment), I told him I could get the similar tripod as his. However he mentioned that we will have to travel to 深水埗 to get it. So we took the MTR, got the stuff and head back to 旺角 to meet the ladies. There we also met up with Scully's fifth sister, Kit, and her boyfriend Benny but we split up with the group on the way back to Junion's apartment, leaving me, Junion, Scully and Janice. We had planned to go to the Peak for photo taking but scrapped the idea due to bad weather. So they decided to spend the rest of evening at Junion's home for Guitar Hero session. While we chilled out at his home, Scully's sisters and their came one by one and soon enough, they started having the Guitar Hero session right after dinner. First time I see one whole family so eager to play the game, and it's heartwarming to feel that kind of atmosphere :)

GH Session @ Woon's Nest


See how happy Pak Kei is LOL


Potential Rock Chicks LOL

I and Junion later went down for a chat, about work and stuff. It seems like a long time since I last had a good chat with him. We seems to be so engaged in the conversation that we didn't even realize that it was 4am in the morning already haha.

Next day morning, we woke up to wait for Janice to pick us up to the airport. When we reached the airport and I got to check in, we realised that I had go to the boarding gate already. I really wished I could have one last breakfast session with them before I leave for Singapore.

I am really delighted to see the Woon and Lam family and I am really touched by their hospitality during my stay. I will like to especially thank Janice, Charlie and Random for making time to show me places, and I really appreciate that greatly, and not forgetting Kit, Benny, Tracy and Pak Kei as well :). I'll miss you people and will also miss 冰镇奶茶, 云吞面，杂果肠粉 and 星州炒米 plus other great food you guys had recommended me lol

And lastly to Tong, be a good girl and Uncle Johnny will come back to see you soon :)

More photos can be viewed here

N97 Rants

With the launch of N97, there are numerous sites putting up reviews of the phone for current and potential owners to check out.

Since these had been done to death, I will go by a different approach: stating out the flaws and bugs I had experienced on the phone. In a way, you can say I'm nitpicking on it.

So I'll list them out in 2 categories: Hardware & Software.

Hardware:
- the placement of the Menu button is placed on bottom left side of the front panel, which makes it difficult to press the button with my right thumb when holding the phone single handedly.

- no protective cover for the microUSB port

- have to press shift button in order to input full stop punctuation

Software (based on V10):
- No user customisation on setting the widget update interval

- low resolution (crappy) individual photo display in photo viewer. No such issue when using the experimental Nokia Photo Browser

- video files is displayed as well in photo viewer, wonder what's the point of having a separate video viewer.

- intermittently, phone will ring with default tone instead of user defined tone

- contact photo unable to display in full screen

- Share Online upload unable to activate access point to perform upload task (intermittent)

- screen requires to unlock twice to light up

- the phone showed HSDPA access point as first choice despite having defined Wireless network in the area. Both connection options are parked under INTERNET destination settings

- phone did not prompt user to re-select access point for widget updates when the original defined access point had been moved to another connection destination.

- No N-gage client

- No DLNA application available for the phone.

- when select a contact with multiple numbers from the contact bar for sms, phone did not prompt user to select the number to send to, hence user will not know which number the message is sent to.

- No HTML support in Nokia Messenging and Built In email app

Basically this is what I had observed based on 2 weeks of usage so far. You can share more by putting them in your comments. Hope some of the listed bugs can be fixed on the next firmware.

1-Day Malacca Trip

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As Quizesilver is itching for a Malaysia bike tour before he starts his lessons, he had organised a one-day trip to Malacca for some speed blasting, good meal and shopping spree. I figured since my Thailand trip I had not been on a road trip for a while so might as well take this chance to bring my Fazer and the Fazer Devil for a spin.

Basically it is only a one-day ride up and down the city of Malacca, 270km from Customs. Since it is only a short ride, there is nothing much to pack except a tank bag containing basic stuffs and my D90 camera. I brought the charger for my N97 as well just in case the juice runs out before the end of the trip.

The group met up at Gelang Petah Petronas petrol kiosk early and I found myself in a station crowded with Singaporean cars and bikes. Apparently many had planned some short road trips similar to us.

The group consists of Mudi on FZ6 with Maran, QuizeSilver & Alan on Hayabusa and yours truly on the FZ1. This is the first time Maran and Mudi joined us for a road trip. These 2 dudes are very nice peeps and bloody humorous thru their constant taunting towards each other hahaha....



The ride up is pretty smooth and traffic is pretty light, enabling us to keep a average speed of 120km on most part of the roads. We stopped by Pagoh R&R for petrol top up before we continue with the journey. The weather is freaking scorching with passing shower on one SMALL area of the journey. We kinda got conned into wearing our rain gear only to realise that...imagine riding in that gear under a 30+ deg weather....

Upon reaching the city, we rode thru the narrow streets to find a good spot to park the bikes and thanks to Maran, we found this Famosa Chicken Riceball restuarant where we can park the bike just outside the place. This is one of the reasons the group came for this trip: the Chicken Riceball. I came to this restuarant years back and now I'm back again.





So once we had our stomach filled and thirst quenched, we walked around the streets where this area is part of the tourism spot. Under the burning weather, with one carrying his bike gears around, it's not a real pleasure walking along these streets, as I find myself super drenched in my own sweat.. yes, I am constantly sweating as we were walking along the streets.

Along the street, we stopped by this seemed-to-be-famous dessert shop (typical Singaporean mentality lah, you see long queue means it's good :p) and some baba Ice Kacang and Chendol. Nice, but a tad too sweet for me. The rest are enjoying them though. Guess that's the reason why I can't say sweet nothings LOL.



After going one round the streets, we proceed on to the nearby shopping centre (about 15 mins walk) where we can get some cool air. We roamed the place for like a hour before we head back to the restaurant to collect our bikes.

The road is slightly more crowded as it is Sunday and most drivers/riders are heading back for Singapore, but nevertheless it was a smooth ride back. Had some dinner at Gelang Petah R&R before heading back home. That pretty much ended the day... a short but enjoyable one :)





More photos can be viewed here

Made in China

I know it's made in China but need to put such BIG sticker meh?

Mobile Powerhouse for the next 18 months

While I still like my 5800 XpressMusic, I find the lack of hardware qwerty keys provide limitations as I frequently write down song ideas and notes on the phone whenever inspiration strikes.

And upon a deal that was hard to resist (technically I paid less than half the retail price for it), I gotten this phone to suit my needs. Good camera, hardware qwerty keypad, massive storage are all in this phone.

Will come up with a review soon enough

Enlightenment

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gained some enlightenment today which is long overdue after confiding to 2 close friends with regards to my train of thoughts....

Appreciate to my close friends for sacrificing their precious sleep just to lend their listening ears.

:)

A Farewell Gift

from a colleague, good friend, and father of my god-daughter

The Black Devil wanna Breath!

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Yes, yes, my babe.

I know you had been trying very hard to tell me that you have problem breathing when you bring me places. Even with the power of the Power Commander 3 unit, you still gasping for more air. Since today is a sunny morning and I'm not feeling lazy, I decided to perform a little surgery on you to "clear" your nose.

When I removed the "lung" (aka airbox), I find that your intake is pretty small. So what I've done for you is to open up the intake so that more air can get into your filter. Opening up the intake didn't take much effort as the plastic is soft enough for me to use cutter to cut it through. After the operation, more air will go thru it.





Next your nostrils (aka the chassis air vents) is pretty much clogged too, thanks to the cluster of wires going thru it. I unblock them by re-routing the wires thru another way so as to unblock the vents. After the re-routing, the vents are now less clogged with wires and you should be able to breath better.



Now the only thing left to do is to take you out for a ride to see if the surgery works. Since many of your kind had been operated that way with good results, you should be fine :)

Spare Helmet

Wondered who or what it can fit haha