My First Camera - Canon Powershot G15

I got my wish-list item! As an Anniversary gift, Meimei bought me my very first camera! We had deliberated close to 2 weeks on which model to get. And we finally went for the Canon Powershot G15. It had been a close fight between the Sony RX100, Canon S110, Fujifilm X10 and Canon G15. 

The RX100 & S110 were your higher end traditional point and shoot. Small and compact but with adequate figures and picture quality to justify their larger price tags. In fact, the RX100 is considered by many to be the best in class camera and cost around SGD800, which is somewhat close to the low end DSLRs. One of the primary reasons why we were thinking of this 2 models was for the portability. They are slim enough to go into my pocket, lightweight so Meimei can put this into a handbag and still provide good quality pictures. But this tick on the pro checklist was quickly shelved when Sis gave her evaluation ... "If you want portability, just use the iPhone." Makes sense hahaha. We'll look at the RX100 again when Mark II comes out.

As for the Fujifilm X10, the on-off turn dial switch at the camera lens bugs me. You are forced to have both hands free to turn on the camera. To be fair the colours look more realistic on the X10 vs the G15. But then again so does the RX100. Canon has this warmth tone to it's pics which makes some colours distort. But hey, I guess that's why pics of people on the Canon fair better than others.

I think the big plus for the G15 was it's ruggedness. And it's not overly complicated for a novice trying his first camera. It's packed with most of the functions and filters like miniature, fish eye, toy camera, etc. So it fits nicely to what I'm looking for. A point and shoot camera with wide enough grip for my big hands, low fuss on the gadgetry and lightweight enough so I don't dread having to cart it around.

Thank you Meimei *kiss maybe with this we'll start to go on photo-taking trips hehe.

Project Manager Wannabe

Since days gone, I've always liked project work. I don't really take to the 9 to 6, repetitive jobs. I just don't find that you'll learn much. I've always wanted to focus on participating in finance projects either as a member or lead or project manager. It's on my mind but I never really go straight for it. I've been in several roles which had outsourcing projects as major to-do tasks but never one dedicated solely to project work. The last and current job always had the daily operational stuff added in as well.

So recently I decided that I'll really go into this once and for all. I've just signed up for a 5 day PRINCE2 certification course in Aug13 and just signed up as a member of PMI today. I'm intending to apply for CAPM once I've gone through the course. So yeah, this represents the start of my project work life. Hopefully I can find a role on pure project work. Well at least I'm trying to shore up on my educational qualifications on PM. And maybe once I've completed my MBA in the future, hiring managers would give me a chance at it. So I'll just cross my fingers and pray :-)

2013 Anniversary - Champagne Brunch at Greenhouse, Ritz Carlton

Meimei brought us to Ritz Carlton Greenhouse for their Sunday Vintage Champagne Brunch. This is the pinnacle of brunch, with free flowing champagne and assortment of cocktails like margaritas and red wine. And it wasn't the selection of alcohol which attracts, but also the selection of seafood. They had eight different varieties of oysters, cooked lobsters in butter and herb, scallops, prawns, trays of sashimi and sushis. The list is endless, they even had fifty types of cheese and that had an endless stream of angmohs queuing for it haha.

The other foods didn't disappoint as well. The lobster was cooked well and had adequate seasoning. Definitely better than the cool ones they serve at Meltz. I think the other thing that made it a memorable experience was the drinks. Very seldom do I get a chance to drink during a meal since I drive. So because of this, we took a cab to Ritz. 

The highlight though has to be the Foie Gras. It was so good that between the two of us, we had like ten servings of it. It's just simply heavenly. And it goes very well with the champagne and bread. The last time I had it was four years ago on proposal night. Getting the first bite brought memories of that wonderful night that Meimei said yes to our journey. Thank you *kiss!

Hello Kitty Madness 2013

Meow Meow ~ Meow Meow ~, what's so attractive about this kitty? This little kitten makes everyone loose every sense of logic. The first few ones were sold out end of the first day. They even launch one for delivery only and jammed the whole system.

We were lucky enough on Frog Prince to reach early at 7.50am and managed to get into the drive-thru queue at Alexandra. By the next Ugly Duckling kitty, I couldn't get into the drive-thru queue no more. So I parked my car nearby and jumped into the human queue, which had already snaked right out the store entrance. By the time I reach the counter, it was already forty minutes later. Thankfully Meimei was out of town so she didn't have to wait. *kiss the things guys do to make their babies smile.

2013 Anniversary Gift for Her

It's that day of the year again, another wonderful year of togetherness in marital harmony hehehe. Armed with the last experience of buying jewelry, I went with diamonds this time. I've learned you can never go wrong with the blink. So off I went hunting for a gift. I had on my mind to get her a pendant or a bracelet. After browsing several jewelers, it's obvious diamond laced bracelets are out of my price range. So I targeted pendants instead, specifically those with cross motifs.  


So I went with a diamond cross (adding to 0.56 carats) with simple claw design to allow the blink to come through and a 18k white gold box necklace. Definitely looks much more presentable than the previous garnet necklace I got.

These didn't come cheap but hey, it's all worth it when you see that bright glowing smile on her face!

Haze like a Maze

This is the worst haze in years. The first bad sign came in midweek when it went up to 321 psi at night. It was reeking the smell of haze even in the air con bedroom at night. It was a good thing Meimei is in Switzerland with Mama and Sis. She tells me she's breaking cow-poop laden fresh air ... hahaha.

HR announce on Thursday that for employee safety, all staff are allowed to work from home from Friday. Hmmm, the air in the office is so much better without the charred burned smell. And true enough, everyone was in office on Friday. It's just more comfortable to work in the office then cramped up at home.

It eventually hit a high of 400+ on Friday afternoon. Keith and I went around to various stores in Vivo and Marina but all were out of purifiers. The sales persons were saying even the displays sets were all sold by Wednesday ... This is like a pandemic ... everyone is hoarding N95 masks, buying purifiers and even dehumidifiers which isn't really of any help at all simply because of panic.

Seriously everyone, chill ... yes it is bad but do we really need such hysteria?

Candy Crush

Meimei is on a new game, Candy Crush, which is hugely popular on Facebook. She plays it on mobile and has finally gone to the dark side. Why the dark side? Well, she is very particular  about divulging private information on the internet. Thats means highly restrictive settings on her Facebook accounts and basically only posting the mundane photos and posts. So it came as a nice surprise that she was willing to link her Facebook account to the game.

So I helped her play some of the levels she couldn't pass and even setup her account on my phone so we could game together. Eventually I setup my own account one day and for some weird reason, my levels jumped to the same as Meimei's on the iPhone. I suppose there was a bug which didn't reset the levels on the iPhone even as I changed the linked Facebook account. So from the 40s level which I was playing on the lappy, I was suddenly catapulted to the 200s level. Hmmm is this good or bad? Hahaha oh well, I could play the earlier levels again.

I like the quickness of the game, you could just play for a few minutes each time and more importantly I'm keeping up with Meimei on her 'interests'. It's an important part of maintaining a healthy relationship.

Smoke Free, One Year On

It's been a year since I stopped. In the initial months, I constantly had scenes in my dreams where I was sneaking few puffs. I vividly remember one where I was behind a wall in the void deck below our block, hiding from Meimei while I puffed. The funny thing was that I had the 'feeling' of guilt in the dream. I knew what I was doing was wrong, yet I wasn't in control and was just smoking away. And when she came over I quickly threw my cigs away. That's when I would mostly awake and then mull over the dream and feel another bout of guilt. How can I be doing this in dreams?! Over the course of the 3-6 months after I stopped, the dreams come off and on. I guess my body just reacts naturally to having a stick between my fingers and the feel of nicotine in the blood. After all I've been smoking close to 16 years. 

That said, it's been a lot better since the turn of the year. Again I have to thank Meimei for her patience and support. I still joked that she must have taken a cue from the Mentalist and hypnotised me. We'll never know now will we, hehe  no biggie I'm still going to thank her even it were true. It is one of the best things I've did. She is making me a better man *muach!

The Axis of Incompetency

Axis of incompetency. Imagine WWII and the nazi invaders, what can I say, they are truly evil. They are potent, spreading themselves throughout the departments. 

They are lead by this dick sucking ang moh accented bitch who thinks everyone has to bow in her imperial presence. Really she is the person who is the source of all the incompetency, laggardness and extreme resistance to change.

Her right hand is this veteran ACCA qualified douche-bitch management accountant of 5 years who saw through two failed internal audits, haphazard implementations, and total lack of controls in her role as the internal control analyst. Seriously what have you been doing the past 5 years? Sit on your bum, gossip with the supreme bitch queen?

Then there is the accountant who sits on the fence and enjoys the ride, backstabbing me on the way, waiting to pounce on any failings to get ahead. He is one very cunning fella, you would never notice his scheming ways unless you work with him personally. On the outset he seems all obedient and supportive, but he is just patiently waiting to attack.

There is also this accounts executive who is at most an accounts clerk calibre who is being paid like an assistant manager in other companies. Totally useless and crap bitch. Created a whole lot of mess in every function she handled, first AR, then T&E, last AP. We had to clean up a lot of her garbage and she still had the audacity to complain that the senior accountant and me did not support her. Hello, do you know you cost the company hundreds of thousand due to your antics. Oh the accountant was in on it too. I remember him complaining directly to the managing director that we were disturbing her on her premature maternity.

You would think it ends here but there are more incompetent peeps. Remember that they have spread throughout the company. There is the utterly incapable HR executive, the two useless folks from parts and the marketing ass.

And to this end, there is the managing director who encouraged such behaviours. The worst excuse for a leader. Imagine working in such an environment. I've become dumber for it.

A Pirates' Stash

Meimei is away again, this time to US for work. As usual with these trips, I will take the chance to tidy up the house so that she comes back to a clean and speck free home. I would do all the laundry, vacuum and mop the place. The place needs these occasional clean-ups, especially cos Meimei is a slop. :-p Sorry Meimei, it's true. 

She leaves her stuff all over the place, sometimes you can find pieces of plastics, receipts, random paper all over the dining table, her work desk and well any place which she spends time at. The thing about cleaning up is that she may complain that I throw away her stuff or 'misplaces' them. So as much as possible I try to put them where she is likely to find her stuff. This time though I decided that I should create a place where she can stash her stuff away to encourage her to put things away. For a hoarder, she isn't very prompt in keeping her 'treasures' neatly packed away. So tada, I moved some things around in the study room cupboards and opened up a space to let her just throw her stuff in.

On another topic, her flight was arriving on Monday afternoon so to surprise her I bought pretty Lilies to welcome her home. She loves flowers and nothing beats a bouquet of white Lilies to brighten up her jet lagged day. I even went through the trouble of getting a nice vase to place the flowers. Hmmm maybe we can start to get flowers regularly to beauty the living room.

Nemo's Reef

Meimei and I have been playing Nemo's Reef which is basically drawn from the Disney popular cartoon movie Nemo. The pictures are very bright and attractive. Your job is to grow the reef by growing plants and corals to amass gold and algae. There are simple quest on each level and recently they started daily random quest to entice folks to stick onto the game. It looks like most people that play are kids but I'm kinda attract to it's 'building' concept. But well as with all iPhone games, I suppose I would be playing this awhile and then move onto the next game once Meimei gets bored of it.

Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice 海南起骨鸡饭 - Golden Mile Food Centre

This is the best chicken rice in town. I don't eat any other, just this stall at Golden Mile Food Centre ala Beach Road Army Market's basement. The food centre was closed for renovation for a few months ago. We stopped going there for 6-8 months and didn't know it was opened till a while ago. And in that whole time, we didn't have any other chicken rice. 

There is no where else we will go for chicken rice. Nothing beats the fragrant oily rice, the smooth salty sauce, the soft tender chicken. We go there pretty often, and so much so that the auntie at the stall knows I like to have dark sauce on my rice and will draw lucky words or numbers on it.

For those who like chicken rice, this is it. You don't have to look further.

Pretty Pretty Reds

Meimei has this hobby of collecting Chinese New Year red packets. It's a hobby I'm happy to encourage. Red packets don't take up much space, they are pretty much free, doesn't take a lot of time investment as it's only once a year thing and I'm sure they would become collector's items in years to come. 

She gained this hobby from Mami who had started collecting years before. Meimei went one step further by casing the nice ones in clear plastic film bags. You can see her excitement in the glimmer in her eyes when she chances on rare beautiful red packets. To be honest, I'm also attracted to the pretty reds. Nothing says Happy Chinese New Year like a spread of red packets to brighten up the place.

HK Trip 2013 - 1st to 6th Feb

So we are in Hong Kong again, this time just before CNY. Meimei has been there for a fortnight on business trip. So it plays out well that I was there after she was done with the rollout and we could enjoy a proper holiday without having to worry about work.

Every trip we rekindle taste for the 烧腊. I will only eat Hong Kong Char Siew, period. Singapore's version just doesn't work for me. And this trip we had the pleasure of tasting what some would deem as one of the best Char Siew in HK, at the Regal Hotel Hong Kong.

Meimei also brought me to this cozy little Japanese restaurant Asahikawa, just off Sai Wan Ho MTR. It's one of those small eateries you would never find and goes by word of mouth. Meimei's colleagues brought her there once for lunch and we were there again twice. The sashimi was fresh, prices good and service was prompt and friendly. I would definitely patronize it again the next time we are in HK.

One other unexpected find was the Lunar New Year flower market at Victoria Park. On a whim we took the Ting Ting back to Causeway Bay after lunch at Asahikawa and happen to see it while passing Victoria Park. We rushed out of the tram and jumped into the market. What a sight ... so many beautiful flowers. And I don't even bother doing this in Singapore! The crowd in SG is just way bad, plus the hot weather, No way.

And on our walk back to Excelsior, we chanced on the 'famous' round overhead bridge. Why anyone would build it in a circle is beyond me. But I do marvel at it's architecture and design.

What a trip, we discover new things every time, new sights, places to eat, new tastes. And also the old memories, meeting up with relatives, Grandma and as always shopping was exciting. My wardrobe are now replenished and replaced only on trips to Hong Kong hehe. 

Banned Flip-Flops

Back in July I excitedly wrote about new flip-flops. Well, those fail .... they have scratched me several times, leaving me with bloody stains and piercing pain in the shower. It's like it's back to the old $2.00 bata slippers. At least those don't make me limp in pain ....