Happy 45th Birthday Singapore! This post, I bring to you some highlights from the National Day Parade 2010, from home. =X Yeah sadly from home because I did not have a chance to be at the location, as much as I really wanted to. I even wanted to be at Marina Bay Sands, SkyPark. I was so jealous when on television, I saw how close the aerial planes display flown past the SkyPark. If only today was the day I was with her up there. Unfortunately that is not going to ever happen again. :( Okay this is supposed to be a happy post! Before showing you the videos, I was able to photo two of the planes making their descent back to base (because the air base is near my home).
So as sad as I was not being able to be there at the location, I decided to video down the fireworks on the television so I can show it to the world! The very least I can do the celebrate Singapore 45th Birthday. There are altogether 3 videos. Part 3 is the one that has most of the fireworks. But do watch them all! :) All videos are uploaded to YouTube.
With Singapore’s National Day just a day away (9th August), I went out few days ago to take some photos of Singapore flags decorations. Not a lot of photos but still I am able to show case some of them.
Also not forgetting Singapore will be playing host to the Inaugural Youth Olympics Games 2010.
After much reading about care for DSLR cameras, I decided I had to buy a proper shelter for my Canon 550D. I considered from the expensive dry cabinet to a normal dry box to the cheap D.I.Y storage box. Although the best option was to get the expensive dry cabinet, it was too expensive for me. Even though there are those just over a hundred dollar which I did seriously consider but because I realised another factor to why I cannot buy that. Because I do not have space in my room to put that cabinet. So I ended up looking for the cheap D.I.Y storage box. That is using a Lock & Lock box and buying silica gel to absorb the moist and finally buying a gyrometer to monitor the humidity inside the box. However after calculating the cost of all those 3 products I need to D.I.Y a box, it was not cheap after all.
Then I was in Challenger computer store when I spotted this dry box. It has all that a proper storage box would need, including the silica gel and the gyrometer, all for just $25! The size of the box was 10L, just nice to put my 1 camera with 2 lenses. I was quite reluctant to buy in the first place because the box had no brand or anything. And it was really dusty as though it has been there for years. But when I came home and check, I realised it was from the famous brand of camera storage products – Digi-Cabi!
The box now maintains the humidity at 42%. Highest when I open the box, it will jump to 52%. But it does drop after a while and can drop below 40% while being above 30%. So I am happy to have got this dry box! :)
DedicatedTV, my source of getting television programmes, is really gone. Last week, Raymond Bennelsworth, the administrator of dedicatedtv.net, announced late that he was retiring from running the site. He stated the reason being that he had funded the entire website out of his own pocket for three years. Hence he put the website up for sale and that if a new owner wasn’t found the site would go offline August 7th. But is only 3rd August and the domain now is no more.
What is more is more disappointing is that he left without any word or notice. Simply no goodbye or anything. He removed all his other linked sites like Twitter and Facebook group much to my dismay. And I believe that is also much to many dismay. Trying to Google about them now comes up with nothing.
Where am I going to get my source of my weekly television programmes now? :( Anyone has any similar source to share?
-Edit- People looking for alternative sites, read comments.
On a rainy Sunday evening, Louis asked me out for shopping as he wanted to buy his long-wanted G-Shock watch. And since I wanted to also shop for some cameras products, I agreed to go out. After all, I was not going to play basketball in the rain. So we decided to travel to VivoCity to shop. It was quite a headache for us to find a place to eat. We wanted to eat something affordable, not too expensive, and hopefully nice. We did not want to eat at a place we eaten before such as PastaMania, Pizza Hut or fast-food. So we came across this Barcelos restaurant on the 2nd level. Erm, not sure if it is called a restaurant since it is kind of order over-the-counter style which makes it like fast-food. But the food was delivered to us.
Barcelos is a place we have not eaten nor even seen before. But when we asked the waitress, she mentioned they have been around for about 2 years. And they had other branches located a Holland Village and Square 2 (or is it U2?). The ordering system is like we get to order the main course, and if it comes with side dishes, we get to choose from a range of side dishes such as rice, spicy wedges, fries, soup, coleslaw, etc. And finally the kind of sauce you want ranging from non-spicy to extreme spicy. There are total of 4 kinds of sauce. What is strange is that after Louis and I tried the different sauces, we feel that it should be ranging from sour to extremely sour and not non-spicy to spicy. Haha! It was kind of unique taste though.
What we ordered was their 1/4 chicken. The portion of the thigh turned out to be quite alright. I was afraid it was going to be small. Kind of like KFC’s 2-piece chicken combined. The price was about $13. Including a canned drink that cost $2.20. They have free-flow of drinks too if you pay $3. Still I think is a little more on the costly side. But at least it was something different and the taste is good. Probably I will not mind trying again another time.
And yes, at the end of the shopping trip, he bought what he wanted (after we actually went to Bugis too) and I bought what I wanted. What I bought? Will blog about it in my next entry. :)
Bryan Chung
