Comex 2008
Comex 2008 was held in Suntec City Convention Center from the 28th August 2008 to the 31st August 2008. I hooted the following:

For My Mom:

• Canon Color Ink For Canon Printer MX700 - SGD$50 (Free SGD$10 NTUC Vouchers)
• 2x Canon Black Ink For Canon Printer MX700 - SGD$44 (Free SGD$5 NTUC Vouchers)

For Li Xiang:

• Canon Color Ink Value Pack Canon Printer MP160 - SGD$55 (Free SGD$5 NTUC Vouchers)
• Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse - SGD$19.90

For Myself:

• D-Link DNS-323 - SGD$199 (Sim Lim Square’s Fuwell selling for SGD$235)

D-Link DNS-323
I have been aiming for the DNS-323 for quite a couple of weeks, Fuwell is selling for $235 which is a little steep. I am quite surprise Comex is only selling for $199 as from what I heard PC Show 2008 which is held back in June is selling for $189. But nevertheless, it is still cheaper than $235. I went to Comex on Thursday, 28th August 2008, and at 12pm sharp, when the doors are open, I headed straight to the D-Link booth. I have already did my homework on where the booth is located. Once I am at the booth, I told the temp staff I want the DNS-323 and he got stun for a few seconds as I think he didn’t expect me to buy it so fast, if I am not wrong, I am the first customer of the booth.

2 weeks before Comex 2008, I have already went to Sim Lim Square’s Fuwell to buy Western Digital Caviar Green Power (GP) 1TB for SGD$220. At that time I did not want to run RAID 1 and hence I only bought 1 HDD. But after getting the DNS-323 and playing it on Friday, I decided to try RAID 1 and hence the next day I went to Sim Lim Square’s Fuwell to get the exact same hard drive which I bought 2 weeks ago. The price is still the same.

Western Digital Green Power hard drive is fantastic, it is very quiet, even when I put the 2 hard drives into the DNS-323, overall it is still quiet. The only irritating thing is the blue LED lights which is so bright when all the lights are off.

I got a major problem when running RAID 1 on the DNS-323, the formatting of drives always get stuck at 94% and after lots of goggling, I realized that it is a firmware bug. I downgraded to 1.04 (currently is 1.05) and set the inactivity timer to 90mins instead of the default value and that seems to solve the problem.

D-Link DNS-323 Box

D-Link DNS-323 Box Contents

Western Digital Caviar Green Power (GP) 1TB

Space Chimps
Caught Space Chimps a couple of weeks ago and the movie was just average, the funniest part of the movie are all in the trailer.

Death Race
Caught Death Race last week, starring Jason Statham, Joan Allen and Ian McShane. It is directed by Paul WS Anderson. The movie was good and basically it is a action packed movie almost throughout the whole movie.

WALL-E
WALL-E stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class and EVE stands for Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. I have been wanting to watch this movie since the trailer aired in Singapore quite a number of months ago. Managed to catch it at GV Max on Friday midnight show. The show was good in terms of both storyline and humor. Go and catch it.

I saw the toy selling for SGD$19.90 for both WALL-E and EVE. So tempted to get it but in the end didn’t get it. You can view the toys here.

Dad’s Back For 4 Days
My dad came back on Saturday for 4 days and will be leaving on Tuesday, 2nd September 2008. Vietnam has a public holiday and his company give them another day off and my dad just need to take 1 day leave and he can come back for 4 days.

We have been bringing him around eating and eating as Hanoi food is not suitable for him. He lost about 2kg and now I can see his 6-pack.

The next time he will be back shall be in December 2008 where his contract ends. He might renew his contact if the offer is good.

I was interviewed by Kenny Chee of My Paper (我报) regarding IT fairs in Singapore.

my paper (我报) is Singapore’s first free chinese newspaper, launched on 1 June 2006, is designed for bilingual, young adults aged 20-40, who have been exposed to Western and Chinese cultures and want their voices to be heard.

Here is a snippet of the interview within the article:

“IT fairs have better promotions at times, compared to stores, and they tend to bundle more gifts,” said Mr Chan,who has also worked as a web developer.

You can read the full article here (my picture is included).

Thank you Kenny if you are reading this.

Had an informal gathering with Nokia, Text100 and several bloggers at The Straits which is located at 31 Pekin Street, Far East Square. At first when I heard of The Straits, it was referring to the The Straits Kitchen located at Hyatt Hotel. Luckily the full address is given, if not I will be going to the wrong place. The last informal Nokia event was held on the 13th June 2008. How time flies, 2 months just passed like that.

We get to play with the Nokia N79, N85 as well as the long due N96. I would like to say that my views are PURELY based on the prototypes as N79 and N85 will not be launching that soon. For the N96, it is quite closed to the final as it will shipping next month (September 2008) and the RRP for it is SGD$1258.

Nokia N79
The first phone that I got to play with is the N79 and it is the successor of N78. It is the smallest Nseries device that is built by Nokia so far and indeed it is small. The build quality of it is solid, similar to that of my N82.

As you all may know, the Xpress-on cover is back. I have not heard of that term for a long time. This time instead of paying separately for the covers, Nokia has decided to bundle 2 other colors cover within the package. 2 colors of the N79 will be available, Canvas White as well as the Seal Grey. The Canvas White will come with the the cover color of “Olive Green” as well as “Light Sea Blue” and the Seal Grey will come with the cover color of “Coral Red” and “White”. Both sets of the N79 will come with a default cover color which is Espresso Brown.

I am quite impressed by the Xpress-on cover. For example, if you change the cover to Olive Green, your S60 OS’s theme will also change to Olive Green. There is a chip located below at the back of the cover that does the magic.

The shutter speed for the N79 has been increased and hence it takes lesser time to snap a photograph an hence when taking a slow moving object, it will not be that distorted anymore.

Nokia also added Nokia’s Widsets to the phone. WidSets is a clever service that brings the Internet to your cell phone. You can have your Twitter, Friendster, Flikr, Digg, Wikipedia, etc services within the application.

The N79 also has an accelerometer and this time it can rotate any screen within the OS itself (even the main menu). Just rotate the phone, and the screen will be rotated as well. It is much better than my N82 when they first introduce the accelerometer where it can only rotate certain screens.

The N79 will have the common stuff such as 5 megapixels camera, dual LED lights as well as GPS.

The only thing I do not like about N79 is the menu key as well as the clear key. The left and right screen key as well as the answer/hang-up key are “popup” but on the other hand the menu key as well as the clear key are flat and hence it is a little harder to press the menu and the clear key or worst still you will press the wrong key like me. I tested it and when clearing my message, instead of pressing the clear key, I pressed onto the right screen key.

Nokia N85
The Nokia N85 is the direct successor of N81 and N81 8GB. It is built for playing N-Gage games similar to the N81. The N81 is a normal sliding phone but the N85 is a dual slider phone.

The N85 spot a new OLED screen never seen before in the Nseries. With this screen, whatever is displayed on the screen is brighter, sharper and consume lesser power. You can definitely notice the difference.

The keypad on the N85 is very flat and hence it is very difficult for me to press. I have to press the menu key quite hard for it to recognize my action.

Similar to the N79, it also have faster shutter speed, Nokia’s Widsets, accelerometer, 5 megapixels camera, dual LED lights as well as GPS.

A lot of people are saying N85 is the N96 killer as N85 has better screen and much better battery life. You can read about the comparison here.

Nothing to say much about the N96 as I have discuss it many times. I personally think that it is a long due phone since February 2008, it has been more than 6 months and finally it will be launched next month. If Nokia were to launched it before June 2008, I think it would be good as I think that the N85 will eat into the market share of N96 as they are very similar and DVB-H is not ready in Singapore.

Nokia N79 and N85 will launched sometime in October 2008.

Once again, do note my views are still based on early prototypes and some of this problems may get solved before the actual release.

PS: I forgot to bring my Canon iXUS 860IS as well as my Nokia N82 and hence when I use my iPhone to take the pictures of the phones, it turns out to be crap and hence I did not upload it. iPhone camera really not up to standard.

I was there at the Singapore iPhone 3G launch over at Singtel ComCenter which happen at midnight on the 22nd August 2008. I reached there at about 9.15pm and started queuing. I was the 43rd in the queue according to the sticker pasted on my application form.

There are 2 parts of the queue, the first part (Killiney side) is where you queue up and then the part time sales people will write down all your details in the application form as well as the equipment form. Once you are done, they will bring you in batches to the second part of the queue which is in front of the glass house. You will wait at there till midnight. There is a live band EIC and Glenn Ong from Class 95 to entertain you. I brought my laptop along as well so I can provide live updates on Hardware Zone forums.

Approaching midnight, all the top brass from Singtel came and together with the first person in the queue who started queuing since 12pm stand in front of the glass house’s doors. At the stroke of midnight, they pulled the big ribbon which is wrapping around the glass house to unveil the launch of Apple iPhone 3G in Singapore and “mini” fireworks were released. The first guy went in together with the top 10 customers of Singtel into the glass house to get their iPhone 3G. I think the top 10 customers are the one who gave Singtel the most money.

The first guy took about 15 minutes inside and once he is out, all the media are taking pictures and interviewing him. Once his 5 minutes of fame is over, it is the time for the rest of us in the queue to get ours. I think there are 2 places to buy your iPhone 3G, one in Hello Store itself and one in the glass house. The staff directed us to the Hello Store instead and gave each of us a queue number. My queue number was 1032. I waited for about 5 minutes before it is my turn as perhaps the counter is still setting up.

The staff who attended to me is extremely polite and knows his products well. I applied for the Singtel iTwo Value Student which is SGD$48.15 per month and Broadband on Mobile 1000 which is SGD$22.42 per month. Totaling it up would be SGD$70.57 per month. I got the Black 16GB iPhone 3G at SGD$508 but because of the student plan, I get another SGD$50 off the phone and hence the phone cost SGD$458.

I suppose to meet Weiquan and queue together but I was too early and hence I queue first. Nevertheless after purchasing my iPhone 3G (I was done by 1.30am actually), I waited for Weiquan inside the Hello Store and we waited for his turn. He also applied for the iTwo Value Student which is SGD$48.15 per month and also got the Black 8GB iPhone 3G for SGD$298 after SGD$50. He said he will wait for a while before applying the Broadband on Mobile 1000. The staff who attended to him was not very polite and I am not really happy with his work attitude.

There are 32 counters inside the Hello Store if I am not wrong, but there are only 3 cashiers and that is the bottle neck. Every sales staff just put the customer iPhone on the floor, chair or any available space they can find. And when it is the customer turn, they will ask you for your name and the color of your iPhone 3G and they will search through the whole floor of iPhones before finding yours. A lot of people make noise about the issue especially the guy behind us, he was making a very huge fuse about it.

We left about 3.30am and I sent Weiquan home and drop by Li Xiang house to say hi.

Later at night, my brother said he saw me on Channel 8 10pm news but I was not at home. I wanted to watch the Channel U 11pm news to see if they repeat it, but to my disappointment, they didn’t run it. I managed to catch a video posted by xin.sg (it was Li Xiang idea) and I managed to see myself in the video.

After watching the video, I was like WTF! How come only the first person in the queue got served by Singtel Staff wearing gloves while the rest of us do not have that. That is so double standard.

Here is the “mini” fireworks video that I took:

I have uploaded the few pictures that I took to my gallery:

Been a long time since I blogged about my personal life because there is nothing much to blog about. Also I have not watched any movie for the past 1 month plus! The last movie that I watched was The Dark Knight in KL!

School
Just ended my first week of school. It is a 4 day week for me where Monday is my off day. Just when I thought I have to take 4 exams for this semester, I was wrong, the new module CS3361 do not have an exam! Our lecturer who is the CTO of IBM Singapore, told us this piece of good news today. So now I have 3 papers to study for and my last date of my examination is 27th November 2008.

Taiwan
I will be going to Taiwan with Li Xiang during December. My mom got 2 free tickets for a 6 days 5 nights trip to Taiwan as she bought 2 lorries for her office and each lorry is entitled to 1 ticket. Li Xiang and I was thinking of extending the trip to about 2 weeks instead of just 6 days so that we can explore more. Hopefully we are able to do it. Keeping my fingers cross.

Wanted to wait till I am in Taiwan before I get the Asus EEE PC, but apparently the price difference is not that great. According to some online site I checked, it is just a different of SGD$50 and the keyboard layout maybe in Chinese and Taiwan has different voltage from Singapore. Since there are so many factors to consider, I think I shall get my netbook in Singapore. Now I am considering between Dell, Lenovo and Asus. Dell and Lenovo will launch their netbook soon.

Comex 2008
Comex 200 will take place on the 28th August 2008 till 31st August 2008 at Suntec City Exhibition Center (entire levels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6). The opening hours is from 12pm to 9pm.

Thinking of getting the D-Link DNS-323 (2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure) and along with a 1TB Western Digital Harddisk Drive for my home. The DNS-323 is running on Linux and hence I can do a great deal of stuff on it like use it as a Torrenting machine, FTP server and even a Web Server.

Going to get Li Xiang a USB mouse as her mouse gave up on her a few months back.

Apple iPhone 3G
Singtel will be announcing the price plan for Apple iPhone 3G next week before officially releasing it on 22th August 2008. I have gotten all the documents (authorization letter and my mom’s NRIC) ready for me to jump ship from M1 to Singtel. Apparently when doing the true number portability from one operator to another operator, the account name must be the same for both operators. My M1 line is under my mom’s name and hence when I use the true number portability in Singtel, I need to apply under my mom’s name as well and not mine.

The funny thing is that my mom is using my name for her Singtel line as last time when I was in National Service (NS), they offered discounted plans for NSF and hence my mom switch it to under my name.

My M1 plan will end officially on 24th August 2008 and Singtel will launch the iPhone on the 22nd August 2008. This means that I have to sign up an account with Singtel on the 22nd August 2008 as well. I called Singtel to ask whether 2 days does make a difference in the true number portability as technically my plan with M1 have not ended yet and the CSO said it is fine. Woot!

I am using the iPod Touch and I dare to say that no other devices can come close to the iPod Touch/iPhone in terms of web surfing experience.

With the voice and data plan bundled together with the iPhone, I can surf the Internet wherever I go without worrying about the data charges.

Now the only thing we can hope is Singtel don’t disappoint us with the pricing.

Dad Coming Back For 4 Days
My dad is coming back on the 30th August 2008 for 4 days as there is a long weekend in Vietnam during that week and my dad just need to take 1 day of leave. I have already planned on where to bring my dad go eat to make my dad gain back the weight that he lost in Hanoi.

2 weeks ago, I have already book a table at MELT for Lunch on the 31st August 2008.

I would like to start off with ADSL sucks and Cable is the way to go. It is restarted to authenticate and use a telephone line to start a connection as that is so 56K era. ADSL connection disconnect you more than cable. ADSL modem has full of settings that requires you to set in order for it to work normally, with cable, just plug the cable into your modem and you are ready to use the Internet. How easy can that get?

Yesterday, I went to the my mom office to solve a very peculiar Internet problem. My mom is using Singnet Business Internet which is like SGD$100 per month for a 512K downstream and a 256K upstream for more than a year before this problem occurs.

The problem happen like 2 weeks ago where my mom is unable to use the Internet before 2pm (roughly) but after 2pm, she can use it without any problem. This problem occurs every day for the past 2 weeks.

The Singnet people came at least 4 times to solve this but for the first 3 time, they are unable to find out why. The 4th time, the technician came and he suspect it is our router problem.

We are using the 2wire 2700HGV-2 (Singtel’s MioBox) and Linksys WRT54G. So as you can see there are 2 routers as the 2700HGV-2 itself is also a router. Previously I set up wrongly for my mom and this wrong setup works for more than a year and only start giving problems 2 weeks ago.

The thing I did wrong is creating 2 routings. My 2700HGV-2 will initiate a PPoE connection and connect to the Internet and my WRT54G will also initiate a PPoE connection using the 2700HGV-2 and connect to the Internet. And hence I got 2 external IPs for the 2 PPoE connections, 1 each for the router.

According to some Google searches I made, 2 routings will cause a major lag and slowdown to the network. This problem did not happen a year ago as my mom’s workplace is new and my mom is the first few tenants there and recently it seems that the whole building is fully occupied and morning seems to to be the peak period and hence a lot of people is using the Internet. There is no cable point installed, so the tenants can either be using Singtel’s Singnet or Starhub’s ADSL.

After figuring out this, I went to disable all the shit in 2700HGV-2 making it into a pure ADSL modem and bridge it using my WRT54G. I managed to bridge it using only just my WRT54G to initiate a PPoE connection. My WRT54G managed to get the external IP, gateway, DNS and MTU and it seems everything is working perfect, but it is not! I can’t surf the Internet or ping out at all. And I have no idea why this is happening. I asked FRRO’s Michael for help and he told me it is weird and recommend me in worst case scenario, get a ADSL modem plus a router. I know that the 2700HGV-2 has a inbuilt wireless and 4-port wired router function but it lacks A LOT of features that the WRT54G has like the DDNS service which my mom need the most.

I heed Michael’s advice and went down to Funan to get the Linksys WAG200G, for SGD$99, it is basically a WRT54G with ADSL modem inside.

Went back to replace both the 2700HGV-2 and WRT54G with only WAG200G and BINGO, everything is perfectly working alright (just got feedback from my mom this afternoon).

Why can’t just Singnet give us the bloody ADSL modem with no shit inside just like Starhub’s Cable modem and it would make the solution easier.

Last but not least, I would like to add that my WRT54G is version 7 and I can’t flash it to DD-WRT. How unlucky!

I will be taking the following modules for my 3rd year, first semester:

CS3251 - Technology Strategy and Management (4 MCs) [1 PT]
CS3361 - Service Science (4 MCs) [1 PT]
CS4254 - IS Project Management (4 MCs) [999 PTs]
CS4251 - Strategic IS Planning (4 MCs) [1,000 PTs]

Module Code - Module Name (Module Credits) [Points Bidded]

Time for me to rant about NUS or in particular School of Computing (SoC) in NUS. I seriously think whoever plan those modules in SoC deserved a knock his head on the wall.

Direct Honors is NOT a new thing and I think as of 2 or 3 years ago, students entering NUS will have to go for compulsory 4 years course (Direct Honors) instead of 3 years (Bachelor). SoC did NOTHING to anticipate the increase of students taking level 4000 modules. They asked us to do a survey on what modules are we taking next year during the last semester and I think this survey is pretty much USELESS.

Imagine there are only 50 places for almost all level 4000 modules in Information System (IS) course and 100 students are fighting for the 50 places. As you can see from above, I spend 1,999 points just to bid 2 level 4000 modules, and every semester I am only given 800 to bid ALL my core modules. I must at least accumulate 3 semesters before I even can reach 2,000 points.

I wanted to take another level 4000 module, CS4266 (IT and Customer Relationship Management) but I do not have another 1,000 points to bid for it. End up I have to forgo it and take CS3361 instead.

I can’t appeal as I still got non-core modules not yet taken and I will only be graduating in December 2009 and hence I still got another semester 1 to go.

I doubt I got enough points to bid for level 4000 modules next semester as I need to take 3 level 4000 modules. But next semester I am able to appeal as it will be my LAST semester 2.

I also want to add that not all level 4000 modules are offered every semester as it takes 1 semester for the lecturer to prepare the exams paper. That I fully understand, but the thing I don’t understand that why must they limit the places to 50 instead of 100! If they cater for 100 people, this problem will be solved.

Before I went to KL, I received an email from Felicia and an SMS from Supriya saying I won a contest that I took part with Text 100 at the Nokia Connection 2008. As Nokia Connection 2008 saw the launched of Nokia E71 and E66, the first thing that comes to my mind is that I might have just won either of the mobile phones. Few minutes later, Felicia sent me the 2nd email and told me that I won SGD$300 Takashimaya Vouchers. I was like WOW.

I have not won anything since my polytechnic graduation dinner and dance draw which I only won a SGD$50 Converse voucher. This is the biggest prize I have won so far, but nevertheless, I still don’t believe in lucky draws or contests =p

I would like to thank Felicia, Supriya and Liyi (in no particular order) from Text 100, Nokia Communication Team for the prize. Thank You!

I am going to get myself a leather shoes and perhaps get one for my brother as well.

SGD$300 Takashimaya Vouchers

Today, went down to Bugis’s Singtel Hello! store to get a Nokia N78 as my grandfather line contract has expired and Singtel has kindly sent a voucher to my grandfather. I can choose to get the Nokia N78 with a SGD$100 discount or any Nokia 3G/3.5G phones with a SGD$30 discount. Wanted to get the Nokia E71 but it is quite expensive (SGD$400+) after the SGD$30 discount. End up getting the Nokia N78 for SGD$298 (after SGD$100 discount).

My mom told my grandfather that I wanted the phone and hence she traded with him the older Nokia 7610. If not my grandfather will either bring the phone to China and sell or give it to some China man (no idea whether he got tricked or cheated into doing those).

Anyway, I will keep the Nokia N78 in the meantime and once my dad is back I can passed it to him to use and hence his old Nokia N73 will become a spare phone.

Nokia N78

My M1 line will expire on 24th August 2008 and after that, I will definitely switch to Singtel as M1 can’t be bothered to retain their customers and hence I can’t be bothered to stay with them.

Friday, 18th July 2008
I had a short weekend (Friday to Sunday) trip with Li Xiang, mum and my uncle (mum’s elder brother) to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My uncle drove there. It is about 340km from Singapore all the way to Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. We supposed to set off at 2pm but somehow my grandfather GTAed the car without telling anyone about it. When we managed to contact him, it is already about 3.30pm and my uncle has to send him home first before driving the car. So we are late by about 2 hours.

On our way to KL, my uncle got distracted as we keep talking and he misses one of the turn on the highway. We reached KL, he also misses a turn to Bukit Bintang and hence we reached out hotel at about 8pm. My uncle is driving at about 130km/h to 140km/h, so technically we would need about 2 hours and 30 minutes to reach KL.

We stayed in The Royale Bintang Hotel. We only booked one room and the price is quite reasonably. We paid RM299 for the first night and RM279 for the 2nd night and it includes a breakfast for 2 excluding tax.

We had dinner at Outback which is located in BBPark just beside our hotel. Food there tastes the same as in Singapore but prices wise, it is definitely cheaper. I think it is also cheaper than Outback in Thailand.

After dinner, we went to take a introductory walk around our hotel. Most of the shopping centers are closed after 10pm, however the streets are still filled with people and cars.

We went back to our hotel about 11pm and Skype with my dad and to have an early rest. The Internet rate is quite reasonable, RM24 for 4 hours and it has to be used within 24 hours from the purchase date.

Saturday, 19th July 2008
Could not sleep the whole night and hence woke up at 7.30am. Had breakfast at Sunflowers Brasserie which is the hotel cafe. The food was lousy and the variety was quite little as well.

After breakfast went to visit “Thong Hock Toys & Foodstuffs” which is a shop/company which my mom’s company has shares in it. While my mum and my uncle talk inside, Li Xiang and I walked around and took random pictures as we are really bored.

Once my mum is done, we took the rail (Rapid KL) to Suria KLCC for our first shopping trip. We stayed there till lunch and then my mum re-joined them for lunch while Li Xiang and I headed to Sungei Wang Plaza to shop.

At about 5pm met up with my mum at The Pavilion. As my mom was early, I asked her to buy tickets for The Dark Night. We wanted the 11pm slot but it left the first 3 rows and hence we settled for the 12.30am slot.

We had a late lunch at Food Republic in Pavilion and the food is good and the variety is similar to that of Singapore’s Food Republic, just cheaper.

Joined one of my uncle’s friend for dinner at a restaurant called Restoran Overseas (Near Berjaya Times Square). The food is fantastic and the Soy Chicken has to be the best Soy Chicken I have ever ate.

Went to Berjaya Times Square to take a look as it is located nearby, was quite disappointed with it as there is nothing much to shop there. Maybe people go there for the Amusement Park only.

We went back our hotel after that to take a rest and left again at 11.30pm for our movie at Pavilion. At 11.30pm, the streets are still filled with people and cars and it was very lively.

The Dark Knight was fantastic and I love the underground level as compared to the bat cave. The show lasted about 2 hours and 30 minutes. My mum got confused after watching the movie and Li Xiang said the movie was boring and slept 3/4 through it.

I don’t like the facilities at the movie theater. The toilet is so small and even guys have to queue up for it. After the movie, we had a hard time finding a toilet and we found it only at the ground floor and it was crowded with people as the toilet is again, small.

However, the movie ticket is cheap, RM12 for a weekend ticket, which is only like SGD$5 and in Singapore the cheapest you can get is SGD$8.00 at Cathay.

But I think VivoCity still has the best movie experience especially the toilet part.

We walked back to out hotel at 3.30am and the streets are still filled with people and cars definitely much more than Orchard Road if we compared the timing.

Sunday, 20th July 2008
As usual, woke up at 7.30am and have breakfast at the famous Imbi’s Sun Hong Bak Kut Teh. The taste is slightly different from Singapore, it is more towards the herbal side while in Singapore it is towards the pepper side. But I like the way or the idea that they give you a big claypot of Bak Kut Teh and then you scope whatever you want to your own bowl rather than each a bowl in Singapore.

After breakfast we went to Star Hill Gallery which is located beside Pavilion as my mom wanted to take a look at Loewe. It is like a ghost town inside as I can hardly see a single soul inside.

On our way back to our hotel to checkout, we went to Gloria Jeans Coffees and the prices there are very cheap. It is about SGD$5.60 for a large GJ Ice Chocolate and if we pay using May bank, it is a buy 1 get 1 free offer. So that makes SGD$2.80 per cup, in Singapore the same cup will cost at least SGD$7.

We also pop by to Sungei Wang’s Giant to get some last minute supermarket shopping.

After our hotel check out, we went to Low Yat Plaza to get some IT Stuff. Some of the electronics there are MUCH cheaper than in Singapore. 2 weeks ago, I bought for my mom’s the Microsoft Lifecam VX 3000 for SGD$83 and at there they are selling it at SGD$50 which is almost half price. My uncle immediately bought 2 of it.

My uncle also bought Canon IXUS 800IS for RM599 = SGD$249.47 and I bought a Canon IXUS 860IS for RM1180 = SGD$491.46. The latest pricing for Canon IXUS 860IS in Singapore is SGD$540, see the difference! On top of that the warranty is international.

The last thing my uncle bough is the Canon Pixma i1880 for RM139 = SGD$57.91. In Singapore, it is selling for SGD$99, but the down side is that the warranty is in Malaysia only. But for SGD$58, once it is spoilt, you can just throw it away.

And all the while I thought electronics in Singapore are cheaper.

We left Bukit Bintang at about 1.30pm and we reached Singapore at 3.30pm. This time my uncle is driving 150km/h to 160km/h and hence it only take about 2 hours to reach.

The bottleneck is always at Singapore side regardless whether you are going into Malaysia or coming back into Singapore. It is ALWAYS the Singapore custom holding the queue. I seriously think that Singapore custom need to do better than that.

Petrol in Malaysia is DIRT CHEAP, 1 litre of petrol only cost RM2.70 = SGD$1.12 and in Singapore 1 litre of petrol cost at least SGD$2.20. Malaysia’s government can subsidize so much for their petrol and I wonder why Singapore’s government can’t do that. I only saw Singapore registered cars pumping petrol in the last petrol station when coming back to Singapore.

Overall, I love and enjoy this short trip! Hope there is more to come. I shall learn how to drive to KL someday.

Last Friday, 11th July 2008, marks my mum 50th birthday. We went to celebrate at Pete’s Place in Hyatt Hotel. Food there was rather disappointing as compared to their Sunday lunch buffet. The price range from SGD$20 to SGD$40 for a main course. Each main course is entitled for the bread bar.

Skype with my dad when we came home and we cut the cake “in front” of him. Technology really brings people closer regardless of the location he is in.

We bought my mum Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000, i.Tech CLIP V and Altec Lansing BXR1120. I also ordered flowers on behalf of my dad to my mom from FarEastFlora.com. She likes lilies, so I ordered a bouquet of 6 stocks of lilies (PN27 - Pure Bliss).

Last Monday, I also surprised Li Xiang with a bouquet of 18 stalks of roses (PN17 - In Love with You) from FarEastFlora.com, delivered to her office. Been a long time since I sent her flowers, so I think this surprise comes in quite well.

FarEastFlora’s flowers maybe a little more expensive then others, but it is worth every cent of it. The quality of the flowers is excellent and you can even track your orders online. It has been more than a week since I gave Li Xiang the bouquet of flowers and the flowers is in excellent condition. I would definitely recommend FarEastFlora if you are ordering flowers online. They even except PayPal payments too.

I will be going to KL for a short trip with Li Xiang, my mom and my uncle on Friday and will be back on Sunday. My uncle will be driving there.