Korea Trip 2007

Hi all,

Its been a while since I last updated my blog. Maybe its about time to do some updating.

I recently went up to Korea for a holiday with my gf and her parents. It was a very pleasant trip and very relaxing too. A good break from work and to recharge myself.

Basically, I know nothing much about South Korea except for their electronic gadgets, computer related products as well as their cars.. I don't watch drama so needless to say I know nothing about their movie stars or beautiful scenery from different scenes... But generally, its a very nice place to relax. The people are rather nice (though I don't know what they are talking about) and they have smile on their face when they serve us.

The food there is not bad. But it gets monotonous after a while because you will get to see Kimchi in every meal you eat and I mean EVERY meal. It seems like pork is cheap meat product there because we often have that. But beef and chicken seem to be a rarity. We only had 2 meals with chicken in it, one is the Ginseng Chicken and the other is a chicken hotplate.

I guess the best thing about Korea personally is skiing. I have not tried skiing before but I must say that I love it. It was very fun and quite tiring. Sure would like to try again if given the chance. :)

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Work... Preparation for next year's big event is on...

Hi all,

It has been a while since my last posting about my work life. Basically, there is nothing much to post about 'cos I have just been too busy. Sometimes I am not sure what I am busy with either. It seems like there is never-ending stuff to learn and complete, deadlines to meet, customers to satisfy, projects, etc... Don't get me wrong, my work is one of the most fun that any engineer could be in. The people I work with make that so, the culture present in this company lays the mood and motivation for us, engineers, to work hard and play hard.

The work however is not easy as we learn new things everyday. We get exposed to a very broad base of customers in certain fields of industry that we are not familiar in. All we have in our arsenal is our knowledge of our own products and the drive/guts to help the customer solve their problem.

Back to the 'big event'. Though I have only been in this company for a year plus, I have grown to look forward to this event and take a key personal interest in getting myself involved with it. The biggest part of the drive comes from enjoying being surrounded by all the new technologies being developed over the past year and presenting it in a fun and easy to learn yet innovative and constructive to help customers with relate to their work. The desired to learn these new technologies also pushes me to see through the construction of these demonstrations and helping others colleagues if they face problems. During this period of preparation, we will use of knowledge and knowhow to assist each other if we face any problems. Such a bonding and closeness developed within a company that fast-paced is hard to find; and I am so lucky to have these colleagues of mine. And I am also proud to have my colleagues as my friends.

Let us push on guys and make this a great show.

Take care,
Ken

LIstening Journey continues...

My listening journey in the car audio world continues...

These past months I have been listening to various car set ups with different equipment. I have come to realize that no two car would sound a like even they were using the same set of speakers. It is the combination of the entire set up that contributes to the overall result.

Even with the exact same components but 2 different car models. It would sound a bit different. The ambiance is different, thus resulting in the 'feel' to be different.

By listening to different amplifiers, it made me realized that each maker of amplifier has its own characteristic. Some would focus their power on the low frequencies as well as mid-highs which would give the 'rich' effect; while some would try to achieve a flat gain response over its frequency range. There is no good nor bad in this case as it really depends on the taste of the listener.

The listener's preference to music would determine the judgement of sound quality by his own ears.

My music taste has recently gone backwards, tending towards oldies, classical, soul and instrumental music. I guess it is because I am enjoying the soothing tones from the instruments and love how accurately a sound system could reproduce the instruments. Love the powerful voices of artist filling up the atmosphere in the car but clearly focus.

I am slowly learning the different terms and the meaning of those terms used in car audio (or audio for that matter). They are tonal accuracy, imaging, sound stage, etc. The difficult bit would be learning to use this knowledge and applying it to my own sound system. The goal would be to have a perfect sound stage and imaging, where the instruments and voices are clearly focus in their respective areas of the 'stage'; and execellent tonal accuracy, where in short is basically reproducing the exact tones you hear from the instruments themselves.

I find that I dun yet quite understand how my HeadUnit's functions works but I will slowly experiment and find out. But of cos, I will sure continue enjoying the music it plays every step of the way while I learn more. :)

Regards,
Ken

Some of my old photos.

Hi all,

Recently, I found that I have been losing touch with photography. So I went to look through my old photos and found some that I kinda like. Hope you like them too.

A quick gateaway from the city.

Hi all,

It has been a while since I last updated my blog. Recently, Joline was having her hols break and I also decided to take some time off to be with her. But we were stuck on where to go. I was rather bored of Genting Highlands, Bangkok was a bit dangerous and Bintan was quite expensive.

Then we thought of going to Sentosa 'cos I have never been to Underwater World or seen the new laser show. When we were looking for a place to stay for the nite, Joline stumbled across this new resort, Siloso Beach Resort. It look nice and the suite was the price of a Delux room at Shangrila, so we booked one.

It was fantastic. I will let my pictures do the talking. (hehe.. I am just tired and lazy to type more.. but you can ask me for more info personally).

I.C.E

When we are young, we all have hobbies and dreams of owning this and that. Only as we grow older and start to make a living for ourselves will we slowly live the dreams we once had.

I am an avid music listener. I love to listen to nice music, good music, music with good quality recording. I will spend money to buy CDs and keep them. When I was in Polytechnic, I would read about speakers and amplifiers and wished that I was able to afford them.

As I got older, I just became lazy and got down to listening to stuff like MP3, which is an inexpensive way to enjoy music. However, when I started driving to work, I hardly got to use my MP3 player except while I am jogging.

While driving, I would like to listen to my CDs and MP3. And found that there was something terrrible wrong with my sound system. It was reasonably audible but seriously lacking in quality. It was not even any where close to my iPod nano (on Pioneer Headphones).

So I decided that I would save up (bear with the quality) and have enough to get myself a new I.C.E (In Car Entertainment) system.

The happy day when I got back my car with my new system installed was 12 May 2007. After a month long of asking around and listening around. I settled on following set up below (meant for those who are interested):

Headunit: Pioneer P80
Front Component Speakers: Danish Acoustics Pristinum 6.1
Amplifier for Front Comp: Rockford Fosgate Power Mini T600-2
Sound Proofing: 2 Layer per door (front)
Door Structure: Rebuilt with solid hold for 6.5" woofer.
RCA cables: Ramm Audio Cables/Connects
Extras: Upgraded Car battery, Fuse holder with current readout, Electrical-grounding.



And the results are superb. I do not have a reference sound system setup at home to be a 'pro' to comment on a perfect sound system. But, when I was young, I was obsessed with sound and went to Adelphi (opposite Funan) and listen to the 'uncles' with their reference sound systems at their shops. From there, I learn a bit here and there. And I learn to appreciate that it is not that easy to produce good sound. With a good bass punch (for the very low frequencies ~10-50Hz), good bass hold/reverberation or Mid-bass (frequencies ~50-500Hz), strong Mid ranges for low keys in instruments and vocals' power (frequencies ~500-2kHz) and finally the Highs where most of the details from instruments and sopranos' vocals will emerge (frequencies ~2k- 20kHz). And further to that, a good sound system is able to blend them (all the above) nicely such that they feel like one solid voice in the centre where you should be sitting. The crispness of the strings' instruments, power and impact of horns' instruments, sensations from low key string instruments, and the vocals right in the middle where it will blow you hair standing from your neck.

Back to the setup up in the car.

To me, it sounds just right. Everything about the system sounds right (except for the sounds from the engine). It basically made the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I played the first song as I sat in. I was playing the 2nd track of Steve Vai's album, The 7th song. And I was speechless. I never ever expect that a car could sound good and from then on it changed the perception I had about music in cars. It even made me drive slower just so that I can enjoy the music in the car.

I then tried to put my MP3 CDs in for a try. It made me realized that the quality difference in CD and MP3 was extremely great. MP3 sounded so flat and bland. It is not that the qualtiy of the MP3 is lousy. I usually encode my MP3s at 192kHz which is High Quality. They still were no where near the quality of CDs. Something even more shocking happened after that. My mom loves to sings and is learning to sing as well. She has quite a collection and passed me one set of CDs which is a collection of nice singers titled, Essential Voices. It was recorded using the DSD (Direct Streaming Digital) format from Sony. And I was totally blown away and I had NEVER known CDs to sound that good, to be able to reproduce sounds that are so real, sounds that I thought I would only hear if they were singing live.


The first song from CD1 is evidence to that. Amigos Para Siempere by Sarah Brightman & Jose Carreras. If I remember correctly, its the theme song in one of the Olympics games. Though it may be a modern song with digital instruments being used, there is no denying that the vocals are at a level which is hard to achieve from these 2 singers as examples. The clarity of the song was beyond me and I was speechless enjoying the celestial music and heavenly voices. The system reproduced the bass thumps with vigour and power, the low-mid and mid ranges was carried so pleasantly through the song with the reverberations being felt that draws you into the mood, the highs from Sarah Brightman is a marvel to 'see' and the system was able to clear shine her highs with warmth and clarity without stretching or scratching the listening pleasure. And at the meantime, throwing the power of Jose Carreras voice to your attention with his very powerful vocal range all the way from the Mid-ranges.

This entirely changed my perceptions that all CD recordings sound the same. The fact is that they DON'T sound the same. That is why some CDs cost 19 bucks while some cost 50 - 100 bucks. And with that thought, I set out to find the CD that I have been wanting to own for so very long.

Hell Freezes Over - Eagles


This album is like THE test album for most of the sounds systems in audiophile stores. And needless to say, those who have a bit of liking into rock music will know which song I am referring to. It is Hotel California, live version after 14 year vacation. I know, in theory, the reasons why a lot of people would choose this song as a test track for systems. But to physically hear the 'reasons' being displayed with such grace from a system is over-whelming (in a good way). This song covers a very wide dynamic range of the audible frequencies. (If I remember correctly) There is one bass drum which thumps the very powerful low thumps that you can actually feel the slight blowing wind from the thump. There are 2 Brazilian shakers (dun know the exact term for that instrument). There is at least one bass guitar player which plays the low bass strings with the so detail reverberations that you heard from the track. There are at least 3 main guitar players, one at Mid-low frequencies, another at Mid range frequencies and another at Mid-High frequencies. And of course there is lead singer, with his voice that matured over the years, the husky tonal from the voice makes the song 'feel' real and alive. And basically I can tell you that I can hear all that from the driver's seat of my car, feeling the kicks from the thumps onto my chest, feeling the guitar strings tingling my senses with each pluck, and all the details of the husky voices revealed. It is totally a heavenly feeling.

These days, I am cruising down the expressways with the accompaniment of great music. My colleagues even joke about the importance of a good sound system in the car to keep my dangerous driving at bay. So if you happen to spot a Wish cruising at the speed of <100km/h, before it gets on your nerves, remember that I have a good sound system.

There is surely better systems out there. And I would surely like the chance to hear them. I would also love to share my passion with my friends. If you are interested, do let me know and we shall see if we could arrange to meet up for coffee.

I will look out for more CDs to add to my collection.

Take care and Best Regards,
Ken

Ristorante Da Valentino @ Mayfair Park

Hi friends,

Recently, I visited the above Italian restaurant for my 1st year anniversary together with Joline. Both of us wanted to find out how good this restaurant was because there is much good reviews and hype on how good they are. So we decided to give it a go.

This place is surely popular. Its hard to even make a reservation especially on a public holiday. And I was told by the staff that its best to make a reservation about a week in advance.

The restaurant is situated at Mayfair Park. Its the first left turn after the Railway track when you get onto Dunearn Road, travel for about 2mins and you will reach Mayfair park. If you are driving, parking may be a problem as there are limited spaces there (max at 10 cars). But the velvet parking can sort it out for you for $4 dollars.

The surrounding is peaceful and somewhat 'rich' environment. You get the sense that people around here are loaded. The entrance of the restaurant is simple and looks like a family run setup. The staff ushered us to our table and a italian guy (probably) brought us the menu and explained the 'specials for the day'. We could hardly understand what he was saying as we are not use to that accent. But we thanked him anyway.

The menu is rather impressive for an Italian restaurant as you would find a number of dishes that would be rather uncommon in Singapore restaurants. Looks authentic enough as it reminded me of the time when I was in Italy dining in a family restaurant there as well.

We ordered a basic salad with smoked salmon, a squid-inked pasta with crabmeat, a steak in Gorgonzola cheese sauce and a mixed cheese pizza. First up was our salad, it was good. The ingredients were fresh and the vinegarette was soothing and a good starter. My only complaint is that it is a tad too oily for our liking, it had just a bit overdoes of olive oil.



Next up, it was the Pasta. And my god, it tasted fantastic. Some reviewers of this restaurant gave their 2-thumbs up for this. And I am going to do the same. Its 2-thumbs up for this dish. It was simply delicious. The pasta was fresh made and you could taste the difference as compared to those commercially packaged ones. The famous squid-inked sauce was really good. It didn't have the over-powering feeling that you would normally get when you order this dish. It was tasty with the hint of the ink's flavour but not covering the other tastes' of the dish. The crab meat was from real crab!! I must emphasize this because most of the time you would only either get crabsticks (which is gross) or frozen crabmeat. But in this, you can taste the crab meat straight from the first bite to the last piece of crab. Awesome.

Then came the steak. The first impression I had when I saw the dish was that 'hmm.. there is something not right or missing'... They served me with a tossed salad on the plate together with the steak which made it looked weird. But thats fine by me, I would just simply ignore the vegs and enjoy. I first ate the potatoes and I love it. It was those soft and sweet type of potatoes. It was boiled to perfection and tasted great with a pinch of pepper and salt. Everything about this dish is in the sauce. You could have the best beef in the world but if you can't bring out the intense feeling that this dish is supposed to give from the cheese used, then it would not be worth it. And I am happy to report that the sauce didn't disappoint. Just by using your fork and dab the sauce slight and tasting the sauce would make you feel good (if you are a cheese person). It had the flavour and complexity this sauce is suppose to give. Much could be improved on the steak though. The meat was rather tough though it was done to perfection (medium rare for my case).


Thirdly, came our mixed cheese pizza. As expected, the aroma of the cheese filled the air. This was it first test and it passed. And for cheese lovers, this pizza would tingle your senses because of the strong Gorgonzola cheese.

This restaurant was also famous for its deserts which they claimed to be their own creations. So we could not leave without trying some even though we were already full. The lady staff pushed a desert cart to our table showing the cakes and pastries for the day. She explained the difference of each and recommended 2 to us. One was the White sponge cake with a hint of rum and the other was the Dark Chocolate cake. I must emphasis that we are already very full at this point. But when we took our first bite on the white sponge cake, we were very glad that we had ordered them. It was simply yummy. The sponge cake was very very soft and the cream used was not thick at all. This made is a very light and fluffy cake for a after meal enjoyment. The hint of rum was good enough to tingle and made the cake extra special. The chocolate cake was a different feeling altogether. It was thick and rich, filled with bittersweet dark chocolate bits on the top and cream of the cake was also made from bittersweet chocolate. Dark choco fans would sure love this. But we were too full to finish up this cake though.

The prices are reasonable for a well-known restaurant like this one. The pasta and mains would range from 17 to 30 dollars. Of course, there are certain dishes which are more expensive.

I would say that, all in all, this restaurant is quite good. But I have expected much more from them as the media have given them very high scores. In my personal opinion, this 'family restaurant' isn't very family actually as you would get a sense that the people around came here because of its name and have a certain 'air' in them. In terms of food quality, it is good no doubt, when you compare to 'typical' eateries that serve Italian food. But in my own personal opinion again, only their signature dish which is the 'Squid-inked pasta with crab meat' lived up to the hype from the reviews. On the 2 other mains which I tried, the mixed cheese pizza and the steak in Gorgonzola sauce, I was expecting them to beat my expectations as compared to the other Italian eateries I have tried; but sadly, no, it didn't.

From this point onwards it would be my own critical opinions.. The pizza came as expected, flat and thin crusted like a Italian pizza should but the aroma was lacking in punch. This pizza is supposed to be heavy and strong with its different cheeses filling the air and making non-cheese lovers 'eee' at the scent of it. But that was present. In my view, what makes Italian pizzas stand out from the rest would be the quality of their crust. It should give the feeling that it is flaky and light, blend in with the other ingredients seamlessly making the crust taste simple, strikingly simple. It should make you feel that you want to have more and allowing to savour the flavours of the toppings without telling you that you are feeling full because of the crust. I am not sure if you could understand my feelings, so in short, I want to say that this pizza's crust is not perfect and was a tad hard when it cooled down.

The steak in Gorgonzola sauce. First up, I want to point out that I love this dish (regardless of restaurant) and would taste this dish in whichever Italian restaurant I write about. One reason I love this dish so much is because of my first encounter with it. It was just sheer chance that I have ordered it from another restaurant and I was pleasantly stunned by its sauce. It is something beyond what I can describe. (Those who know me would know that I usually would describe the ingredients used in different dishes, if I can figure them out.) I could not figure the ingredients of this sauce and my mind just tells me to ignore it and enjoy all the pleasure of the Gorgonzola cheese sauce.

Okay. Back to the subject. The steak in Gorgonzola sauce. The steak was done to perfection (medium rare) as ordered but it was just a tad too tough. As a beef lover, I would expect some quality from the beef chosen for a steak to be served. But I can forgo that for this dish as the most important thing here is the sauce. (Having said that, I would still be looking out for the 'perfect' steak in Gorgonzola sauce.) At first tasting, the sauce was good. It had the feel of Gorgonzola in it and the aroma was there. But as I go along, I felt that something is missing. The sauce didn't draw out the feeling I had above when I ate it at that restaurant mentioned above. It lacks the finesse and detail which I had expected. And basically, serving tossed salad on a steak plate is plain weird to me.

I came to this restaurant expecting their main dishes to blow me away. But only the pasta managed to impress. I didn't expect much from their deserts so that was a pleasant surprise. If you are planning to visit them in future, remember to make a reservation early and one important point, ask for ICED WATER or they would serve you with STILL WATER which cost 8 bucks when ICED WATER is free.

In my opinion, food is a very personal thing and you would only know it when you try it. Like I would always say, try it for yourself.

Happy dining,
Ken

P.S. I am collecting more photos first before I post my detailed review on 'that restaurant' I mentioned above. Look out for it. :)

The Road Ahead.

While waiting for my hair to dry after my shower, I decided to write some updates.

On the work front, things are starting to pick up steam. A lot of things are ahead of me and I need to prioritize them one by one. It may be just pure luck or it may have been arranged to be but it seems like somehow I am able to do the things I would like to do and plan to do.

These type of opportunities do not come easily and I will surely make good use and do a good job.

I just hope I don't tire myself out.

I am going to sleep liao. Nitez

Ken

Halia @ Botanic Gardens

Hi all,

I know I have not posted any food reviews recently. So here is one... :)

Recently, me and my friends went to this restaurant in the Botanical Gardens called Halia. The ambiance is nice with a romantic setting with nature. So if you are looking a nice romantic place to bring your love ones, this could be your next consideration. However.....

Hmm.. I think I can sum my review up in the following below... (its up to you to interpret)...

==================
I was asked by the waitres:
"So how was everything? Was the food good?"

My reply to her was:
"It was alright..."

But in my heart, the reply I would like to give was..
"Your food is alright, but I had better for less..."
"Your service was ok, but I had better as well..."
==================================


Okay... Here is a bit more in depth review of the place.

Food..
I must say the food is not bad at all.... I had a roasted rack of lamb... The Lamb was perfectly done to my desired done-ness (medium) and the marinate of the lamb was pretty good.... But it cost a whopping 43 bucks.... On top of that, the garnish sauce the chef chose to put on my plate tasted like some cheap maggi chilli sauce.

Service..
It was really quite bad... (Maybe 'cos we are not dress in a 'proper' attire... most of us are in berms n T's)... The attitude they showed was not a 'you are not very welcomed here' type of attitude.... I would expect for these places that ice water would be served when u are seated.. But no.... I had to ask for it when I was ordering a drink....

It got worse when suddenly a downpour came... and we asked them if they could arrange another seating arrangement for us as the rain was pouring in a bit (we were seated near the corner of the open-air area)... Their reply was... all the tables are fully booked and there was no way to arrange.... So we asked whether we could shift to the air-conditioned area. The waitress checked and told us we had to split tables if we chose to sit inside. We were all shocked and found it ridiculous so we asked them why can't they just shift the tables to fit our group. The waitress then went back in and let us waited for 10mins before telling us that our tables are ready. (This was really poor service if you ask me...)

In all fairness, they have a nice and romantic setting for couples to have a lovely meal. Their food isn't at all sub-standard. It just does not suit such a large group like ours...

Give it a try... and you can let me know what you think... :)

Ken

Dreams, Aspiration, Perspiration...

Recently, I am feeling rather disorientation and down with my own life. Things around me seems to be doing alright but something inside me seems to be missing and I can't seem put a finger to it.

Dreams... It is something that is always in one's mind and it should be something that keeps one going. It is a far-fetched reality that one strives to achieve and reach. Be it something tangible like money; or motivating like carving an idea into physical reality, these are things and should be things that one have within to push himself forward to new heights.

Aspiration... Someone or some 'thing' to look up to as a model or role-model. There will always be someone in one's life that he admires and trying all he can to live up to his standard. Pushing beyond bounds to attain that 'thing' that makes his soul feel satisfied.

Perspiration... The long hard road to bring oneself to reach the above 2. The everyday work that makes the tiny step forward to bring oneself closer towards them. The soulful giving everyday in one's life knowing that he is giving for a reason and for a greater good; and to know that the result is his to keep.

However, in recent times, I feel that I am lacking in all 3 of the above. I feel that I have lost sight of my dreams, dampen my aspirations and resulting in my loss of perspiration towards them.

Inside me, it breaks myself down to know so. And I really need to get my mind back on track. I know I am able to do so. With all the good people that make up my life story, I thank you all. You all may not know the impact you make to my life but the fact is that you do make a important impact to me everyday. I am lucky to have met you all, even if it was only a brief coincidence. I believe in one sentence I heard before. 'It is the little things you do in life everyday that makes a big difference.'

With time and effort, I will get out of this slump and relight my inner flame.

Thank you all,
Ken

Love is a journey...

To my darling bb,

I do not know whether you would visit me blog and read this but I really hope you do. 'cos I want to let you know that I cherish you...

Things that I may not usually show in words.... Things that I do not usually show in person at times... But I hope you do feel that you are the special one for me at those little times I show how I truly feel for you.

I am not a person who usually pour affectionate words of praise and love... but I try to use my subtle ways to show that I love her... Simple day to day things... Things like making coffee that you like... Fetching you to school when it rains... pampering you to slp.... sayang you when you need a hug and hug you back... Things that I can do and will do continuously 'cos I want to.... I want my bb to be safe... to enjoy being around me... and to be happy....

It hurts me to see my bb being sad... especially if the reason is because of me...

I am no saint.... I make mistakes all the times.... like saying the wrongs things... not doing certain stuffs.... not being sensitive enough... making you angry.... But I do not mean for those things to happen.... and I am doing my best to make sure that I am not bad as I was the previous day....

I want to be a better person because of you... 'cos I love you... And I hope my bb to shower me with her ways of love as well...

I can feel it... sometimes even when you scold me... you shout at me... when you are upset with me.... you show how much you truly care for me.... I do know it.. and feel it...

bb... this road is very long... and I will do all I can do slowly and walk this journey with you... Like I said in our photo... Let our future be forever filled with happiness and laughter forever n ever....

I love you.

Your big bb

Ivy's Wedding

Recently attend my Sec Sch friend's wedding... Therefore, took this oppurtunity to explore the finer details of my DSLR...

Hope you all like to photos.

Ken

Japan (Honshu) Experience...

Hi everyone,

Its been a while since I last updated my blog.. So I guess its about time I update it....

Recently I had been really busy with work... Our company's annual tradeshow is coming up in Feb and I had to prepare demostrations to be displayed during the show.... Anyway, I needed sometime to relax... therefore I thought of updating my blog with a little photo treat with my new Nikon DSLR... :)

I went to Japan for holidays recently... It was a Honshu experience (whatever that means.?!? :P)... Basically, the tour covered Tokyo, certain parts of Kyoto and Osaka... We went to Universal Studios and Disneyland too....

On the whole, it was a nice tour... With a lot of lovely sight-seeing... and fun and games at Universal Studios and Disney.... (But we fell sick near the end of the tour so could not really enjoy Disney.. sobs... ) The only comment that I have is about the food of the tour... I always have the impression that Japan have really great food and I was expecting to be greeted with mouth-watering dishes (too much of Japan Hour I think)... But sadly... the food was only ok.. There were of cos a few very good ones... i.e. the Sashimi Boat dinner... and the BBQ dinner... Other than that.. it was not to my expectations.... The tour guide did tell me that this tour's focus is more on sight-seeing..... I guess must really look for a food guided tour. :P

Well, below are some of the photos I took.. :)

Enjoy...
Ken