Personal posts and the diary I have kept since 2002: birthdays, year-in-reviews, milestones, and whatever is on my mind.
Cantonment MRT station (CC31) opens on 12th July 2026, completing the Circle Line loop. Construction started in 2017, was delayed by COVID-19, and after 42 years of living in Singapore, I finally have an MRT station within walking distance.
Have been playing with Claude Code after subscribing to Claude Pro for personal use at S$30 per month. I vibecoded an iOS app for lesterchan.net with no prior Swift knowledge, and the results surprised me.
To celebrate my 42nd birthday, Li Xiang proposed weekly steakhouse visits throughout March. We kicked off with The Feather Blade, where I had the Feather Blade Steak and Li Xiang ordered the Portobello Burger.
Looking back at 2025, the year AI went mainstream and triggered two big shifts: widespread layoffs and a global memory chip shortage. RAM, graphics cards, and NVMe storage all saw price hikes, with 2026 expected to be no better.
Officially past 40, I'm trying to slow down and prioritise quality of life over quantity. That means splurging on Japanese produce at Donki and booking bigger, more convenient hotel rooms when travelling, rather than always chasing the cheapest option.
Looking back at 2024, the year I turned 40 and inflation bit hard as Singapore's GST rose from 8% to 9%. My standout gadgets were the Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer and Anker's Prime 250W charger, plus a new iPad Pro 11-inch.
A look inside my travel gadget pouch, now a Peak Design Small Tech Pouch, packed for both me and Li Xiang. As iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch users, we each carry an Anker MagGo to charge all three devices.
Four years on from my 2020 setup post, COVID has come and gone and I've moved to a more central home. An updated tour of how my partner and I now play and work from home.
I celebrated my 40th birthday with family, reaching the midpoint of life. In gaming terms, my health bar is down to 50%. The plan is to enjoy life and make quality of life my top priority.
Looking back at 2023, the 'back to normal' year as most countries ended COVID restrictions. It was also the year I tumbled into the coffee-making rabbit hole and built a full setup.
My last birthday before turning 40, marking over 22 years of blogging since my first post on 24th March 2002. I celebrated with Li Xiang over a hearty dinner at Bedrock Bar & Grill in Somerset.
Looking back at 2022, the year Singapore reopened and masks became optional, finally feeling almost normal again. It was also when I joined Roborock's PR list and received the Q7 Max and G10 for review.
My 38th birthday, ending nearly a month of blog silence. The first celebration was with Li Xiang at Cure, a one-Michelin-star restaurant serving 'Nua' Irish cuisine by chef-owner Andrew Walsh in a casual yet refined setting.
Looking back at 2021, another COVID-shadowed year but one packed with more gadgets than 2020. On the smart-home front I added an ILife Shinebot W450 mopping robot and a Roborock S7, replacing my ageing Roomba 980.
My Apple Watch Series 3 is nearing end-of-life past the four-year mark, though Apple kept it alive another year. Rather than wait, I upgraded to the Apple Watch Edition Series 7 in 45mm Space Black Titanium.
I bought the Elgato Stream Deck MK.2 from Amazon.sg for S$203.59 with free Prime shipping, below the local S$228 retail. The second generation's main upgrade over the original is a detachable USB-C cable.
Synology DiskStation Manager 7 (DSM 7) launched on 29th June 2021, with upgrading still a manual process via the Download Center. I walk through updating both my DS920+ and DS1621+ from DSM 6.2.4.
Having upgraded to a Sonos 5.1 system, Beam, Sub (Gen 3), and two PLAY:1, I wanted to confirm it was working correctly. With resources scattered, I pieced together a guide using Netflix Test Patterns.
A step-by-step guide to installing Ubuntu Server on a Synology NAS. You download the roughly 1GB Ubuntu Server ISO, install Virtual Machine Manager from Package Center, and create a virtual machine from the image.
My 37th birthday, celebrated jointly with my brother, whose birthday falls just four days after mine. We dined with family at JAAN by Kirk Westaway, a one-Michelin-star restaurant atop Swissotel The Stamford in Singapore.
Looking back at 2020, the year I revamped this site to version 5. On the smart-home front I swapped failing MCO Z-Wave switches for Sonoff Wi-Fi ones, and built an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X gaming PC.
Circles.Life launched eSIM support, letting existing customers switch from 23rd July 2020. The process was far from intuitive on the app and website, so I share the key URL, shop.circles.life/manage/order, to make the switch easier.