The Wandering Soul

Family Business

2010-12-27T21:23:00.002+08:00

Its almost coming to end of 2010. It has been a roller coaster year for my career. Peak of it was the process of my departure from my previous employer.

It has been a wonderful 4 and 1/2 years for this company. Though it may have been my first job after graduation, it has taught me a lot of valuable lessons and showed me an important part of the corporate world. Through the ups and downs faced during that time, it taught me to learn from experience, share my knowledge, set goals and importantly push myself and others to achieve goals.

My next career will be an interesting and challenging one. My dad has asked me to help out with his business. Having rejected him for 4 long years I felt that it was time to see how I can contribute.

My family's business deals with with construction; and yet I graduated from the field of Electrical and Electronics. Not quite a match up in expertise I should say. My ultimate goal would be to still make something of myself in the electronics sector. But for now, I would use whatever knowledge I know to help my family's business.

Through the 4 plus years that I have worked in the MNC, I learned something that is very valuable. 'Know what you plan to do. Plan what you want to do. Look in detail of your plan. Always have a back up plan.' These few lines has stuck with me in my job, especially in the final 2 years. They propelled me to think harder, plan further, study deeper and push my limits higher. It has helped me deliver respectable work for my employer and at the same time benefits my colleagues around me. It is a philosophy that works well. However, it seems that when it comes to family businesses, things aren't so clear anymore.

To be frank, I have no clue what lies ahead of me in this business of construction. I do not know the work required or the process of getting work done. But it seems like in the depths of such unknowns lies the beauty of doing business itself. The spirit of taking risks. But I am sort of person that prefers to take calculated risks, know the steps to take, plan the future ahead and head towards it.

And somehow, family businesses aren't so clear and I can say that they do not know what they want to do (besides making money).

However, I am going to see what the world ahead awaits me. Putting my philosophy into action in my new career and see what it takes me.

Chicken Rice Recipe

2010-11-14T23:05:00.010+08:00

As promised, this will be a start to exciting food journeys to come. To kick start, I have decided to make something that I love to eat; and not too taxing to make as well.

Chicken Rice Recipe

Ingredients
1 whole chicken
Finely chopped garlic
Thin strips of ginger
2-3 pandan leaves
(5-6 persons)

The first step to most cooking (personally) is to select the best ingredients. Best does not mean the most expensive but means they are fresh and well-prepared. In chicken rice, the chicken would of course be the star of the dish. It is important that you select a chicken that you like to eat. Some prefer Kampong chicken, some Sakura chicken, some Halal chicken, some prefer fresh chicken. It’s a matter of preference; but an advice would be to choose whole chicken and not get chicken parts. The taste is just somehow different to me.

Once you bought the chicken and other ingredients, it preparation time.
1. Wash the chicken. Cut away the excess fats and head and feet. Remember to wash the inner of the chicken and remove the unwanted stuff. (The fats may be used as an extra ingredient for the rice but if you are health cautious then it can be omitted. Remember to cut the fats into very small pieces.)
2. Use 2-3 small cloves of garlic and chop them up fine.
3. Cut 7-8 thin strips of ginger
4. Get 2-3 pandan leaves and wash them thoroughly

Firstly, get a soup pot that would be able to fit the whole chicken and fill the pot with water. The water should be at a level where it could cover the chicken when its placed in the pot. Bring the water to a boil (you can add a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of cooking oil into the pot). Put the chicken into the pot once the water is boiling; then turn the flame down to moderate low and put the lid on. Cook for 20-25min.

Thereafter, take the chicken out of the pot and put it on a plate and rub some salt around the whole chicken (not too much; just a little will do); wait for it to cool. (Do NOT throw the chicken soup away.) In the meantime while the chicken is cooling down, you can prepare the rice.

For the rice, you can use 3-4 cups of rice. Wash the rice once to rid it of impurities.

After that, take a wok or a saucepan and put it over a small flame. Put some sesame oil (about 2 tablespoons) into the wok and let it heat up. It should take less than 20 seconds. Put the garlic into the wok and stir fry the garlic to expose the flavor, then add the ginger slices and stir it evenly. If you are using the chicken fats, you can add it in as well. Reduce the flame to a very small one and stir the mix evenly for 30 seconds or so. You know you are done when you can smell the various flavors.

Pour the mixture into the rice and mix the rice evenly. Tie the pandan leave into knot and place it into the rice pot as well.

If you look back at the chicken soup, you would notice that the is quite some oil floating on the top of the pot. Use a soup ladle and gently scoop the oil together with the soup and pour it into the rice pot. Try to remove as much oil as possible from the soup for the rice. This makes the rice flavorful with the chicken soup as a base for the rice. Use your own measure of soup for the rice as you would when cooking rice normally. **Note: If the soup is still hot, do not cook the rice immediately. Let the rice pot mixture cool down a bit before cooking.)

We are pretty much done. Now all that is left is to cut the chicken and serve it up on a large plate. My preference is to have my chicken rice meal with a dash of light soya sauce + sesame oil mix and superior dark soya sauce. I am not a big chicken rice chilli fan, hence I don’t know the recipe for the chilli. (Consult my mom if you want to know. :P)

Change is good. The way it changes is more important.

2010-06-20T13:53:00.007+08:00

Time waits for no one.

Its almost approaching a year into my 2 role stint with my current company. It has been an enriching yet eye-opening year for me.

Handling 2 department is certainly challenging both mentally and physically. It has made me learned that things may not always go the way you want it; and sometimes even well-laid plans can play out with a turn to the cynical.

Management is just one word. However, when you put the management word into a company, the whole ballgame changes. So many factors contribute to the way management applies to running of a company, e.g. business climate, talent, structure, etc. Lets face it, it is not easy.

But knowing that managing a company is not easy, it should propel leaders to grab the bull by its horns and tame the wild beast. The key here is that if one leader is not able to tame the beast by himself, he could and should influence the environment around him to conquer the beast through team effort. On paper, at least, this sounds like an easy task to do, i.e. select the right talent, delegate to bright managers, implement the right structure and model, etc. In the real world, its easier said that its done.

But even with the right people, the right attitude, the best of business climates, things can still go wrong. Can we handle all possible scenarios? I do not believe so. But can we manage a company in a way to be versatile in handling unforeseen scenarios? I firmly believe that it can be done.

How to achieve so? I guess no leader or manager can give you a straight answer on the 'sure-win' low level implementations. It depends on so many factors. But having the foresight to see that a company requires to have the versatility to handle unforeseen circumstances (even within the company itself) would make the leader make better decisions.

My goal is to be able to be able to achieve such foresight with a good management attitude to lead my future to a brighter tomorrow.

Big changes only after exactly a year...

2009-10-01T23:39:00.003+08:00

Hi all,

It was not so long ago (a year back) when I started the Marketing Engineering role in my current company.

My drive then was to do what I deemed was necessary to put things back in order and create a seamless process that will help the Marketing team achieve great results.

Through the year, I feel that we as a team have achieve much greater heights than was ever thought possible amid these dire times. Much priority was given to the Sales teams to bring in revenue and even I agree with that move; but even so, the Marketing team soldiered on and created a series of excellent events that strengthen our customers confidence and wow-ed new customers increasing our brand awareness (even our own Sales teams were impressed).

This is credited to all the hard work that the entire Marketing team has put in through out the year.

And on this one year anniversary of my role as Marketing Engineer, I was asked to take up additional responsibilities as Applications Engineering Manager on top of my current role. I gave this task a serious thought for sometime as I know it would not be easy.

I spoke to my parents about my situation and they felt that it was up to me. At first, I thought they didn't really care much but I realised it was really up to me and how far I would like to take my abilities to and beyond.

And hence, I decided to take on the task. A lot of discussions and talks are going on right now on what I should/shouldn't do but no concrete actions as yet. It is nice to see and hear what others have to say as it shows their own motives and desires. I shall learn more along the way... :)

Cheers,
Ken

Damaged GTI

2009-09-21T17:27:00.003+08:00

2009-07-27T09:28:00.013+08:00

Building Relationships through collaborative networking

2009-07-18T21:23:00.004+08:00

Everywhere you go or in everything you do, the relationships you build with people you meet is very important. We all know that for a fact.

Powerful and brilliant people tend to be able to use that to their advantage in creating a collaborative network of people to attain a successful life. Most well known politicians and business figures are capable of maintaining such a network.

I feel that this is a skill that most people inherently has but just that it is maintained on a personal level. Maintaining friendship, forging good relationships among friends and relatives are some examples.

In the corporate world, it is also vital that such networking is practiced. The truth be told is that collaborative networking is about forming mutually beneficial relationships with people. The fact that ambitious individuals or groups thriving to attain greater achievements is the underlying motive that pushes a collaborative network. When being applied to good, it is a very healthy situation where all involved strive to succeed.

I believe that no man is an island. To succeed in life and in work, we will need the help of others and helping those who needs our help. Building good relationships with them, forming a collaborative network and working together towards being successful.

I also believe that every man is unique. And thus lie the how, which is unique to each individual.

Quote "Grant me the serenity to accept things I can't change. Courage to change the things I can & Wisdom to know the difference."

2009-07-10T09:20:00.003+08:00

I refer to the title above.

Got this quote from a colleague of mine and I found it very meaningful and can be related to everything in life. And in my case, I felt it had a close connection relating to my work environment.

Is it better to leave things as they are even when one knows that there is something wrong and one can fix it?

Is it okay to stand by wrong actions that results in foreseen negative consequences?

Should one that has the will to act righteous and responsibly not do what is right for those who can't defend or stand up to wrong?

I believe those who are strong to take right action have the responsibility to act on behalf of those who cannot and lead the way.

In this current unstable climate, I hope I do have the strength to stand up to such a belief, to live and stay strong and withstand challenges that lies ahead of me.

I tell myself 'Believe in thyself and thou shall overcome.'

Best Regards,
Ken

Awaiting new challenges... :)

2009-06-27T22:19:00.002+08:00

Had a chat with my boss recently...

Spoke about some past events and how I performed for these... And I spoke about my ideas of what I would like to do in the near future with this company...

Then my boss told me that he have some ideas on this too but have not thought it through thoroughly as yet... and said for me to arrange a meeting with him in mid-Jul to discuss this again..

I can't wait... :)

Regards,
Ken

My new In Car Entertainment...

2009-06-21T22:34:00.006+08:00

Hi all,

Just some updates on my ride.... I am a person who is pretty particular about sound.... and since I spend more time in my car listening to music than in my home... I decided to improve the existing sound setup in my GTI.

The original one was 'acceptable'. It was not weak nor soft... It had punch and it had loudness... but it is also no where near 'good' in my standard...

Therefore, I went searching for a reputable In Car Entertainment installer to fix my GTI.. And finally settle for a audio installer recommended by a number of members from the VAGSG forum...

The installer is Swift Motion at Ubi area.

I wanted my car to have in-built bluetooth and GPS navigation as well as great music player all-in-one. Thus, Sam (boss of Swift Motion) recommended me all the parts that would make my car a complete ICE setup...

Below are the breakdown of the components of my ICE setup (some are from my previous car):
Headunit - Alpine W502E (Bluetooth kit and GPS navigation added on)
Audio Processor - Alpine H701
Front Speakers - Morel Elate 6 - 3 way
Rear Speakers - Danish Acoustics 6.1 Pristinum
Center Speaker - Morel CDM-88
Subwoofer - Morel Ultimo 12"
Amplifiers - Genesis Miniblocks x 2 (Front speakers), Celestra FA475 (Rear and Center speakers), Rockfort Fosgate T600-2 (Subwoofer)

My intention was to have the ICE setup to look as 'stock' as possible comparing to the original car setup. It means that I am reusing the original positions of the speaker placements within my car for my new ICE setup. I also wanted to have a very usable boot where the amplifiers will be neatly tucked away and I still have a decent boot space for use.

To many ICE enthusiast, my decisions would be a rather odd one.. because for most cars in the market, the original speaker placements are not ideal for producing a good sound stage and will not give a good imaging for the music. And on top of that, I am going 'passive' which means using the in-built crossover of the speakers and that would be making even more difficult to get a better sound setup.

Considering I would like an ICE setup that looks inconspicuous and is 'passive' in setup.. I went ahead with my decisions.... This would pose a good challenge to the tuner for my setup too... Hence, Sam is tasked with making my ICE setup sound as good it can....

I must say when it was finally done, I was very impressed with Swift Motion's craftsmanship and workmanship of my ICE setup. They were very meticulous and careful with my car ensuring that all necessary precautions are taken care of. They even compiled a CD of photos on the process of the work done. I am very very impressed by that as it shows you that there is no slipshot work in whatever they do...

After inspecting the looks of the ICE setup, it was down to listening to the tuning done by Sam. He was very detailed and explained to my what all the settings are and how to operate the Headunit.. From playing CD to DVD movies, GPS - searching a place, storing favourites, to usage of Bluetooth.....

Then comes the all important music tuning.. He explained the various different listening modes he has setup for me. From Standard, Smooth, RnB, DVD Video and DVD audio... He also explained to me about sound staging and walked me through on the accuracy of my sound stage. After some fiddling and tuning, I got a sound stage that I feel was pretty impressive for an all 'passive' setup... However, I point out that the speakers sounded quite harsh.. He explained the new speakers needed time to 'break-in'.. something like running in a new car.... And told me that there would be a 2nd tuning that is required after the speakers have run-in in ard 2months time. And its absolutely free.... (This is what I call after sales service).. .'cos some installers I know will say 'its like that one, after run-in will be fine...

I have attached some pictures below for your enjoyment... For those few who had heard my setup before, I hope you like it as much as I have... Music is a never-ending journey to be enjoy... and if possible, I am surely glad to share it with friends... :) Enjoy...

My new ICE setup

2009-06-17T12:02:00.002+08:00

GTI.. The legend that will live on and on...

2009-06-01T21:25:00.003+08:00

Hi all,

I am not sure how many GTI fans are reading this. But I am sure if you are, you will agree with me that the GTI legend will live on and on...

From MkI to the current MkVI... And many more future models to come...

Like Jeremy Clarkson pointed out
'Its cheap, practical, fun and fast... And they offer drawback free motoring and ideal for the family who had to wave goodbye to the sports car due to children...'

And through the years, I dare say that all its designs still have the attractiveness for all model...

And for me, it was the MkV... I love it so much that I finally took the plunge and bought one before they stopped selling it...

No matter which model you own (GTI fans out there)... I know you will agree that it is something rather special...

Best Regards,
Ken

Some updates...

2009-05-19T09:39:00.002+08:00

Hi all,

Decided to give my car a thorough wash and wax... So here are some pictures below for your enjoyment.

Uniting different borders to a common goal.

2009-05-15T01:27:00.002+08:00

Hi all,

Its been a long time since I last update my blog. I was recently bogged down by tremendous work pressure which I have put upon myself.

I have almost finished the tour of our company's first conference around ASEAN. But I am also concurrently preparing for the next few in the coming Q2 and Q3. On top of all that, I have also made a tour to our Malaysian office to have a better understanding of the office culture across in KL (which was quite sometime back)...

As my title 'Uniting different borders to a common goal' suggest, an assumption is made here. All employees want the company to succeed.

In this troubled times where the economy is re-balancing itself to a more sustainable state, employee should unite to a common goal ensuring that the company will succeed. It is the survival of the fittest and within an organization if we stand unified, we will have a better chance of success compared to a divided company. It is proven in these few months that even giants can fall.

Being part of an organization with a very open culture, without much rules and regulations, I am given tremendous freedom of free-play on deciding what and how to do things. This also puts a certain amount of stress on me as I question myself at times; 'Are my thoughts and plans correct? Can I effectively deliver continuing success for my company?' These thoughts are constantly in my mind as I ponder on the actions and choices I make for the company day-in-day-out.

One important lesson I learned recently to avoid being over-stressed up is to relay my thoughts to fellow colleagues that also ponder upon such questions as I do and share ideas and opinions. This opens up a whole new window to a broader spectrum of ideas and also good discussion can form concrete plans where we can better work together to deliver success.

I am learning every day; from new technical skills, managing skills, marketing skills, etc to handling my own personal matters, maintaining a balance with my family and friends with my work. And the most important thing is the willingness to learn. If you are willing to learn in all aspects of life, you will be able unite different 'borders' to a common goal, your own goal.

Best Regards,
Ken

P.S. On a lighter note, I also love to enjoy life when I can... and Woohoo... My beloved ride is reaching 3,000km soon.... Loving every bit of it...

My first VW... My dream car coming true...

2009-04-05T18:01:00.007+08:00

Hi all,

On the 4th of April 2009, I have one my dreams come true. My first VW and my dream car the VW MkV Golf GTI. Since its launch in 2004, I have been dreaming about owning it... I have liked other cars too but this is different... No words to explain.. :)

Below are some photos for your enjoyment.

It is now the process of 'running in' the car... Testing various bits and pieces... getting to know it better... and building a rapport with the car...

Will post more photos once I have a chance to take more... **surely, there would be 'slight' changes to the car in time to come..** haha..

Best Regards,
Ken

Are leadership qualities born with the person?

2009-01-13T00:38:00.002+08:00

Hi all,

Its been a long while since I last updated my blog. A lot has been happening around my life recently.... Good and not so good stuff...

For the past few months, life at work has been a never ending struggle to keep up with the never-ending work that surrounds me... And it does not get any easier when there are people in your team that has the position to lead but does not appear to have the qualities to lead....

Are leadership qualities born with the person?

In my personal opinion, I believe that some part of that statement has truth in it... But I am believer that a person can be better even if that person is not born with a innate talent...

That said... There are people who choose not to strive to be better and just live life as it is... Dun get me wrong... There is nothing wrong with them... But if they are in a position to lead a team of people to excel, and yet he does not want to excel himself, it will turn into a disaster....

And I am facing this challenge at work.... I will always try to do better and set a high expectation of myself to my own work... It would not be so bad if I am working alone and my work does not involved dealing directly and working closely on deliverables with such a person... but sad to say, my job requires me to do otherwise....

I shall not go into the pain I am going through... but rather I would rather focus on the various harmful side-effects of such a person when in position to lead a team of people....

From experience, if the person is an long-standing employee in the company... the problem would be even harder to tackle than a new one who is given that position to lead....

In the aspects of the long-standing employee..
1. He would have created a comfort zone within his area of work... Knowing what he likes to do and what he does not like to do... Shoving those aside or worse to those he has power over...
2. The team's morale is generally low... Though there may be 'occasional' perks from the person... but due to the personality of the person, the daily actions at work will show the negative qualities of the person and reflect on his work... And that will have a negative impact to the morale of the team under him.
3. The team's communication will be weaken. Without proper leadership and in a culture of pushing and shoving, most will take the path of being the silent one and have minimal communication with the team members (just in case they get scolded for whatever they did).
4. Resulting on those, cooperation among the team will reduce. There is no one leading the team positively from the start; my question would be 'how would it even start to have cooperation in the first place'?
5. The resulting consequence to the above would be a poor performing team. And its not the team at fault, but the ownership of these issues is always top-down. The leader must bear this responsibility. The poor performance will be felt through the company for those who have to deal with this team. Thus, other people working with this team will have negative comments towards them. And for people who are trying to be better, it would be a brick wall that is hard to tear down.

Nuff said.

And by the way, I am still work @ 1am while typing this.

Best Regards,
Ken

PC Project - Stage 3 (Complete)

2008-09-29T22:28:00.004+08:00

Hi all,

Finally, the longest and toughest part of the PC Project is done.

I have finished sanding and polishing the internals of my Coolermaster case.

I guess I had enough of polishing and it has been taking a tad too long... I feel that it is not that bad.. :)

I will take a while longer to finish the final assembly of the PC... Enjoy the polish case for now.. keke

Cheers,
Ken

Update on Stage 3 of PC Project.

2008-09-16T23:47:00.004+08:00

Hi everyone,

I have working on Stage 3 of my PC project a bit at a time.

I am slowly making progress but its still quite a long way...

I shall let the pictures do the talking..

I actually made a few fan mountings on the casing but cutting holes on the case.

The below shows my unpolished Motherboard tray and the semi-polished Motherboard Tray.

Cheers,
Ken

A new role. A new responsibility.

2008-09-06T10:07:00.002+08:00

Hi all,

Time really waits for no man. I was having dinner with the engineering team in my company and I suddenly realised that I have joined this company for 2 yrs and 4 months. The team only started with 10 AEs when I joined and now we have 20!!!

The strength has doubled in a short 2 yrs. Of cos, ppl come and ppl leave but some of us have seen through thick and thin in this company; made good friendship along the way and still will be even with those who moved on. It's something that is hard to find in a competitive private world out there.

For me, I would be taking up a new role as a Marketing Engineer from 1st Oct. Of cos, it would come with new responsibilities but as of now, I do not really fully understand what lays install for me. But I take everything that comes with my best and take up the challenge to fulfil the set goals.

I am already starting to miss my team mates even though its a month away. But I am sure our bond will remain no matter where I go to...

Lets give it out best to make sure we get the best out of our careers...

Best Regards,
Ken

PC Overhaul - Stage 2 continued

2008-07-30T22:54:00.006+08:00

Hello,

It is rather hard to find time to write everything down in one shot... that's why I have split the sections up... :)

Ok.. here it goes.. the continuation of Stage 2...

Back in the first part of Stage 2, I mentioned that I was not impressed with the cooling effects of the Thermalright 120 eXtreme CPU cooler. But I know that it is a great product so I wondered whether it was the way I used it that was giving me unimpressive results. Therefore, I went to think about how to improve the performance of the CPU cooler....

I know that the airflow of a cooler is very important to the performance of a heat sink. And I went to do a check on the Blue LED fan that I hv bought. The rate of flow is not very good; and thus limiting of amount air passing through the cooler... Hence I decided to change the fan to a much more powerful fan; but yet I want it to be controllable.... And so I went around shopping for one.

On top changing the fan, I was thinking of a better position to mount my CPU fan. From this thought process, I realised that it would be good to think of a complete and efficient airflow system for my setup. Hence, Stage 3 is planned for...

Back to Stage 2....

I finally decided to change the fan position from the current 'front mount suck in air' position to a 'rear mount suck out air' position. Below is how the changes look like.

* The original mounting method. By doing this, I found out that the amount of air that was suck in through the fan into the CPU cooler was limited and there is air 'escaping' from the side, thus being inefficient.

* The new mounthing method. The fan is now mounted at the rear end of the CPU cooler and in a sucking out position. Using this method, the fan is forcing air to be sucked through the CPU cooler from the front; and dumping the hot air that has passed through the CPU cooler from the rear.. And an interesting thing to note is that the fan is speed adjustable; I can turn it to silent which will be slower or highflow which is faster...

The new fan comes with a rather nice looking external fan controller mounting... but I hv not taken a photo of it yet... I will do that together with Stage 3... :)

And the results... I have posted them below... :)

(From the post below...)
Original cooler @ Stock Speed (2.66GHz)
Idle - 41 Deg C
Full Load - 55 Deg C

Original cooler @ Overclocked Speed (3.2GHz)
Idle - 49 Deg C
Full Load - 59 Deg C

Thermalright 120 eXtreme CPU cooler with Blue-LED fan ~1200rpm @ Overclocked Speed (3.2GHz)
Idle - 44 Deg C
Full Load - 55 Deg C

Thermalright 120 eXtreme CPU cooler with Silverstone fan (rear mount suck out - in quiet mode ~900rpm) @ Overclocked Speed (3.2GHz)
Idle - 43 Deg C
Full Load - 54 Deg C

Thermalright 120 eXtreme CPU cooler with Silverstone fan (rear mount suck out - in full power mode ~2300rpm) @ Overclocked Speed (3.2GHz)
Idle - 41 Deg C
Full Load - 52 Deg C

You can notice that even at a low speed of 900rpm, the Silverstone fan that I use is able to cool by 1 Deg C at idle. It may not sound like a lot but the fact is that by making small changes to the way the fan is mount and selecting an efficient fan, you can improve the efficiency of cooling.

When I crank the fan up to its full power, you can see that the temperature of the CPU dropped to 41 Deg C in idle. And that to me is impressive... And when the CPU is under going full load testing, the temperature max out at only 52 Deg C which was 3 Deg C less that the original cooler... I am now rather satisfied with the CPU cooler.

Moving on to the 2nd piece of hardware which requires better cooling as mentioned in the earlier post. The Graphics Card..

Its original heatsink was rather small and flat... This means that the manufacturer was able to keep the card to occupy the space of one slot on the Mainboard and yet keep it running without problems..

But when I stress testing the graphics card with its stock cooler using a3D benchmark software, I found that the temperature that my graphics card was giving out is scary... Below are some figures.

Powercolor HD4850 (stock cooler)
Idle - 82 Deg C
Stress Testing (Max temp recorded) - 93 Deg C

That is scarily hot. I told myself, something must be done to change this. So I went on the internet to find more reviews and came acros a name that kept appearing on forums. Its the Thermalright HR03-GT vga cooler. (I guess it was jus coincidence that both of my coolers are Thermalright's coolers).

*These are the photos from the original GPU cooler. The cooling 'ingredients' used seem to be too inefficient to bring the GPU temperature down.

*The above are photos of the Thermalright HR03 GT vga cooler. As you can see, the packaging is very good and complete. All it lacks is a fan. On Thermalright's website, it is said that the cooler is good enough even without a fan but I do not want to take my chances. There I tried to find a 92mm fan in my 'store'...

Here are some photos of the completed cooling project of Stage 2 for my CPU and graphics card...

The performance of the Thermalright HR03 GT was very impressive... It was simply amazing. I could not believe my eyes when I ran the graphics card monitoring program to check out my GPU's temperature. Below are the results

Powercolor HD4850 graphics card (Original Cooler)
Idle - 82 Deg C
Full Load Test - 93 Deg C

Powercolor HD4850 graphics card (Thermalright HR03 GT with fan)
Idle - 40 Deg C
Full Load Test - 58 Deg C

The temperature at idle dropped by more than half from the original. And the temperature at full load testing of my graphics card, the GPU only went up to 58 Deg C which is still a 35 Deg C drop from the original cooler. Impressive stuff.

Currently I am busy with work and maybe not have time to do up Stage 3 of the project (which would be the toughest bit)... But be sure that once it is done, I will post it online as soon as I can.

Best Regards,
Ken

PC Overhaul - Stage 2

2008-07-27T09:41:00.009+08:00

Hi everyone,

I am back as promised with an update on my PC Overhaul project.

Now I am at Stage 2 of this project. Initially, when I started this project, I knew I was going to split it into 3 stages; but now, I believe it would stretch to 4 stages. :P

Background on what I have been doing with my PC is below in Stage 1.

On with Stage 2...

When I first got the basic system up and running in Stage 1. I decided to do some light overclocking to my system setup. For those who doesn't know what overlocking means, it simply means making the PC faster than it actually is. There are tons of articles and online materials to learn about overclocking but I won't go into too much detail.

I have been playing with overclocking for quite a number of years. It has been a personal hobby of mine and I think it is a form of art. The key to have a successfully overclocked and stable system that can last is to select the right components that can do the job at the intended speed.

At Stage 1, you can see that I have named several brands of different component makers that are out there. These are some of the trusted brands in the business; and of cos there are a lot other brands out there for the job, all you need is to spend some time at the forums.

My choices are based on my personal liking and experiences.

So back to my system. Originally, the CPU is suppose to run at 2.66GHz as stated on the package. But normally, Intel's CPU are good for at least 1GHz higher than their quote speed. Therefore, it is entirely possible to run the CPU at 3.66GHz or even more. The downside of doing this is obviously that the warranty will be voided and the life of the CPU will be shorten.

But I still decide to overclock my system to be a tad faster than its stated speed. I will spare you the nitty gritty details on the tweaking and tuning portions. But I fixed my CPU to run at a speed of 3.2GHz.

3.2GHz - 2.66GHz = 540MHz speed increase.

*In the overclocking world, this is a very small increase. But nonetheless, I decided to keep it as that as I am going to run my system 24/7 without shutting down and would not want to overstress my system.

Hmm.. at this point you may be wondering what's so special about stage 2 then... Just to give you an idea. When a CPU is being overclocked, the heat that is generated increases due to the increase in power consumption.

Therefore, stage 2 is a crucial stage... It is how I cool my system down...

Firstly, I would like to mention that there are 2 hardware in my system that requires improved cooling. The obvious one would be my CPU which has been overclocked.

Secondly, the next hardware to cool is my graphics card. It is running at around 82 Deg C even at idle and going up to a insane 93 Deg C when I was fully load testing the graphics card!!!! Even though, the manufacturer claims it is perfectly alright and no damage would be done to the card even at these temps, I do not believe so. At 90+ Deg C, we could cook at egg with it. Obviously, I can't just leave it alone.. :)

Lets start with the CPU cooling...

When the CPU is running at original speed with its original cooler, it was rather cool. Running at around 41 Deg C (from Mainboard CPU sensor) at idle and a maximum of near 55 Deg C when running fully loaded. However, with the original cooler, running at the overclocked speed, the temperature shot up to around 49 Deg C at idle and 59 Deg C when fully loaded.

Though the increase from 55 to 59 Deg C does not seem significant, it is important to keep your CPU as cool as you can even when its fully loaded. Thus something has to be done to lower the temperature from the CPU. This means trying to spread the heat from the CPU away faster...

This means replacing the original cooler with a more efficient one. For this, I chose to use the Thermalright 120 eXtreme CPU cooler. The reviews on this coolers over the world has been great and therefore I decided to give it a try myself.

So on with the cooling project in this stage 2...

Some photos of the Thermalright 120 eXtreme CPU cooler.

For your information, this cooler is huge... Standing at around 200mm tall, 140mm wide and 50mm thick, it is one of the biggest CPU coolers I have come across... But also notice that the company does provide very good packaging and all essential items.. A thoughtful company I must say...

Here are some pictures of my original cooler system of the CPU and graphics card.

* I was doing my tests on this original system setup. And with this setup, that was how I got the temperature readings...

And so.... after a certain amount of time, removing the original CPU cooler and fixing the new one in... Here are some photos of the newly mounted Thermalright 120 eXtreme CPU cooler in action with a Blue-LED fan sucking into the cooler.

With the new Thermalright 120 eXtreme CPU cooler mount, I began to do some CPU loading test on my system. The sames I did when my original cooler was in my system.

I ran the CPU stress test and monitored my CPU temperature to find the Minimum and Maximum temperature when my system was either at idle or full load.

And below are the results...

Original cooler @ Stock Speed (2.66GHz)
Idle - 41 Deg C
Full Load - 55 Deg C

Original cooler @ Overclocked Speed (3.2GHz)
Idle - 49 Deg C
Full Load - 59 Deg C

Thermalright 120 eXtreme CPU cooler with Blue-LED fan @ Overclocked Speed (3.2GHz)
Idle - 44 Deg C
Full Load - 55 Deg C

As you can see, the results are not too shabby... With the CPU at Overclocked Speed, I am able to get it to be running at a temperature when it was at Stock Speed....

The Thermalright CPU cooler certainly helped cooled the CPU down. But frankly, I wasn't very impressed as I had expected more from this product. Therefore, I started asking myself 'did I do something wrong? Or did I not do something?' as I feel that the CPU cooler is under-performing.

And I went back to the drawing board and the internet to look for an answer to my question...

keke... Stage 2 will be continued...

Stay tuned...

Best Regards,
Ken

PC Overhaul - Stage 1

2008-07-20T23:32:00.006+08:00

Hi everyone,

Its been a really long time since I last update my blog. Anyhow, I am back... :)

Recently, I have decided to upgrade my own PC as I was building one for my gf... Surprisingly, hers is about as old as mine (In terms of the core system).

Its then that I realised that I have not lost the PC geekiness in me... haha... I am still every bit as in love with PCs as I was when I was younger... Btw, my core system is about 5 yrs old... so its also about time...

I started reading up on the forums I use to go to for ideas and recommendations. And soon discovered that I was still able to keep up to date with the technologies rather quickly to find out the best value for money/performance system...

For your info, usually the best value isn't the cheapest but it would be a PC that will give the PC enthusiast the bang for their buck.

Ok... Lets give my system a good introduction... hehe... Lets talk about the old stuff first and those that I decided to change and keep...

Parts that I kept
Casing
- CoolerMaster Praetorian PAC-T01 Chassis (First appeared in 1999 (~$600) and I waited 5 yrs before I actually bought one (~$200)... For cost reasons... )
Drives
- WD Raptor 10k RPM 74GB
- Maxtor DiamondMax 10 7.2k RPM 160GB x 2
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB (IDE, very very old drive)
- BenQ DVD writer (can't be bother with the specs for this one) but works fine

Parts that are to be replaced
Motherboard
- Asus P4P-800
CPU
- Intel P4 2.4C (OC to 2.8)
RAM
- Patriot DDR 400 512MB x2
Power Supply
- SilverStone 500W PSU (Very good unit but sadly cannot be used in the new one)

NEW Parts going in
Motherboard
- Asus P5Q-E (Avid followers of Asus: This board does not disappoint and it sure lives up to it name of being a very complete Motherboard for PC enthusiasts. Its not the most 'high-end' board but the board with almost everything you need.)
CPU
- Intel Core2Duo E8200 (2.66Ghz , L2 6MB)
Ram
- Cosair XMS2 DDR2-800 Matched Pair (1GB x 2)
Power Supply
- SilverStone ST75ZF Zeus 750W PSU (One quiet Power Monster)
Add-on Cards
- Leadtek Winfast TV2000 Xpert

When I got my parts back home and really had a good look at my PC, I realised that it really collected a lot of dust and dirt for the past 4 yrs I last touched it.. It was so scary that I decided to do a PC Overhaul before putting anything new things in. So I began my PC overhaul project, removing all the old parts from the chassis and dusting and wiping them clean. Once all the parts are removed, I set to work on cleaning my chassis inside out. It took me ard 5 hours to clean everything (from removing covers, grills and internal fans; to cleaning the grills where the air intake is, cleaning the filter mesh on the front and top of the chassis, cleaning all the fans that are present (all 4 of them) one by one.) But the end result is just fantastic, seeing your chassis like new is a good feeling...

Okay... So now its time to get the new parts in... The core system went in first... together with one HDD that I was going to use as the boot drive and the DVD drive.... obviously to install Windows.. The reason for doing so is..... you see this is Stage 1.... So there is more stages to come in this project... :) Will update soon in due time.... In the meantime, some photos for enjoyment.. hehe

Korea Trip 2007

2007-12-16T17:19:00.000+08:00

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...

2007-09-11T21:40:00.000+08:00

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...

2007-08-27T23:13:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-07-08T22:16:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-06-26T23:03:00.000+08:00

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

2007-05-24T20:52:00.000+08:00

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

2007-05-05T09:29:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-04-20T00:30:00.000+08:00

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

2007-04-16T21:24:00.000+08:00

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...

2007-03-29T21:58:00.000+08:00

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...

2007-03-05T23:46:00.000+08:00

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

2007-01-14T22:18:00.000+08:00

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...

2007-01-14T21:18:00.000+08:00

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

Hill Crest's Grill @ Bukit Timah

2006-11-19T20:15:00.000+08:00

Another food posting from me...

This time is a treat from a friend of mine. And we went to this nice place at Bukit Timah where it seems a lot of foreigners know about but not a lot of locals... Hmm... Most of the people there are foreigners... Japanese, Germans, Brits, etc...

Oh well, back to main point.... (This review will be rather short... But will give a more detailed one when I get my digi cam)

Hill Crest's Grill... Situated at Bukit Timah...

The setting was nice and and quiet. I would say its a romantic place to bring ur guy or gal out on a date. The parking there is rather bad.. and its really hard to find a parking lot... Oh well, so we parked illegally... :P

Food wise.... I guess the restaurant is famous for its steak... so I ordered one of it. My friend however did not want to eat beef... and ordered a cod fish.... On the fresh catch of the day, there were also fresh NZ Oysters on the menu... so without hesitation... we order half a dozen of them....

The oysters tasted great..... it was so fresh.. that there is NO fishy smell at ALL!!!!! I just ate it with lemon and sea-salt.... it was fantastic......

The fish is.... welll... .not so good.... a bit fusion in style... and over-well-done for my liking.....

The steak was good... and it was juicy while maintaining its medium rare taste... (that's how I like my beef)... the freshness of the beef.. with its raw filling taste would make you feel like u are enjoying something truly wonderful.... There are 2 sauces that comes along with the steak.... A red wine sauce... and another 'sort of creamy' sauce (which I can't recall the name)... The red wine sauces suits it well.... brings out the aroma in the beef..... :) Puts a big big smile on my face..

Deserts wise... it serves a good array of classy deserts.... e.g. Creme Brulee... Tiramisu... some cakes..... which I dun remember... The Creme Brulee is good.... not too sweet... yet not too thick..... just nice... The Tiramisu was also not bad.... the whip... was soft.. and light.... the flavour was jus nice... not too sweet.... n fluffy... the base was good... with the coco top being aromatic... n the finger was soaked nicely.. with a good dose of espresso and a hint of liqueur... :)

That's all folks... will give a more detailed description when I go abck there again...

International Buffet Dinner at Greenhouse (Ritz Carlton Singapore)

2006-11-05T01:27:00.001+08:00

It is our (Joline and I) half year anniversary and we wanted to celebrate it with a nice dinner. So after some discussion, we decided to patronise the Greenhouse at Ritz Carlton (Joline’s recommendation).

I made reservation for two on a particular Saturday night and was told that I was lucky since there were only a few tables left.

We reached the hotel around 6.45pm and I must say Greenhouse really lives up to its 6-star accolade. All the staff were polite and more importantly, they gave guests a genuinely warm welcome (which is not fake like some places).

Ok. Lets jump into the main topic. The Greenhouse.

Starting with the ambience. The Greenhouse is situated on the ground floor of the hotel (on the left side of the main entrance if I remember correctly). It adopts an open concept without any clumsy doors to open. In the open space, you can feel the vastness of the dining area which makes the environment comfortable and suitable for private dining affairs or for those who haven’t quite overcome claustrophobia (just kidding). Greenhouse’s design was modern and functional surrounded by the use of beech wood as a base (complementing the granite buffet tabletops) and the whole place is lit with a soft natural yellow lighting. I would not call its interior design contemporary or bold or unique but it does provide a very good setting for comfortable dining. For me, it translate to 'I am going to sit here for a long long time just to enjoy my food slowly!'. :p

Now to the most important part. Its food. haha...

Joline and I went for a walk around the spread. And I must point this out. The spread is very well distributed with each course of food with each own location (instead of all the food on a long table) and there is ample space to move around. There isn't a occasion throughout our meal that we had to queue for our food.

The first starter we went to was the soup section. There were 2 choices on offer that evening (shark's fin soup and Creamy Pumpkin soup). So naturally, we took both and shared. The pumpkin soup was GOOD; even though I am not a fan of pumpkin I could tell that the cream base is full and you can taste the pumpkin's freshness. The shark's fin soup was not bad either (there are really chucks of shark's fin in it). The soup base thinkness is just right and not just thicken by corn-starch. You could taste that it is slowly boiled to perfection. One tip for you here. I noticed something rather 'cute' from a lady who was taking the shark's fin soup in front of me. She was scooping the top of the pot for her bowl. For all shark's fin lovers, take the scoop and give the pot a good stir from the bottom up (so that you will find the 'treasures').

Did I mention that all the hot beverages are included with the buffet? And for coffee lovers, their normal brew is not bad at all. But you might wan to have it with cream as it is rather acidic (a bit tending towards Columbian).

We went straight for the main course on our 2nd round. And wooooo..... the spread was jus so tempting. The main dishes were located in the centre of the buffet spread forming a circle and the main theme was Indian & Chinese dishes. The staple food was E-fu noodles and nasi-bryani, thus I chose nasi bryani 'cos I am not really a noodle fan. There was a sort of yoghurt sauce beside the bryani which I was hesitant to take at first, not knowing how it would taste like ( but I absolutely did not regret it). Moving down the circle, there was chicken braised with dark soy sauce topped with melted cheddar cheese (most unique), seafood assortment (a bit like Peale without the rice), braised beef (normal), sea-cucumber with different types of mushrooms (really LARGE sea-cucumbers with ultra succulent mushrooms), vegetable korma (suprisingly tasty though simple), chicken masala (light tasting spices and feels like I was back in the UK eating Indian takeaway [in a good way]), stir fried red snapper with peppers and onions (normal), king prawns stir fried with veg (they were big but taste so so, maybe 'cos I took the last one on the warmer).

The nasi bryani was very fragrant and the best thing abt it was that it was not oily. The yoghurt sauce made it even more appetizing. Mixed together with the vegetable korma and chicken masala, it would easily be a very satisfying Indian meal (but of course, this is a buffet so one flavour isn't enough). The chicken was one of the best dishes there. I was quite surprised that the combination of cheddar cheese oven-melted on top of the braised chicken was such a wonderful combination. The chicken was braised to perfection and (I must add) they are FRESH.

The sea-cucumber with mushrooms was silky smooth too. It was soft and chewy. Those feelings where the sea-cucumber melts in your mouth as you savour its juices with the flavour of the mushrooms together with the sauce. Heaven!!!

Round 3. Time to attack the seafoods section.

I have always enjoyed fish. But ever since I started eating steamed fish head, I have slowly enjoyed eating raw fish. And I am 'quite' particular about freshness of fish. Therefore, I took a plate and lined it up with sashimi (consisting of salmon, swordfish and tuna). I was lucky enough to receive a brand new serving of fresh salmon from the kitchen (than those laying out for sometime) and it was good. The swordfish was also not bad. The tuna was ok ('cos tuna will only taste good when it is really really really fresh). Hmm... it may sound as though there is nothing spectacular abt the sashimi; but know this, I ate a whole buffet plate filled with the 3 fishes all by myself... :P (my gf ate a few pieces too). Its just that I don't know how to make raw fish interesting (those who eat fish often should know how to enjoy anyway:P).

Beside the raw fish, there are also a wide variety of other seafood. E.g. baby lobsters, oysters, mussels, big prawns, etc. There are also a section for seafood salads. One unique dish I taste from my deardear's plate was a barbercued salmon with assorted vegetables. You could taste that the salmon was really either flamed grilled or BBQed.

By this time, I am actually rather full... (Gone are the days where I could eat endlessly..) So we stayed there for a while, enjoying our coffee (a new cup will be served to you in replacement rather than taking a pot and pouring it in your old cup) and enjoying the surrounding area where we were seated. Like I mentioned earlier, the interior design of the place tends towards being practical and functional rather than bold or intriguing. It makes one feel that it is really a place to dine in rather than just to be wowed at. The waitresses are generally well-mannered and immaculately dressed. The captains are all very professional and could handle the crowd very well. Oh, I forget to say that by this time (ard 8-8.15pm), Greenhouse is totally filled to capacity. But yet, you won't feel that you are encapsulated or trapped in a tight spot... All the furnishings are well spaced out giving the sense of comfort and space.

After a good rest, it was time for deserts.

The choices were alarming. There is a fruits section, a chocolate section and a cake/deserts section. Oh well, we totally skipped the fruits corner and head straight for the cake and deserts. Joline took a piece of their Black Forest Cake together with another one (which I believed to be their Tiramisu Cake). I took a portion of their Tiramisu (not the cake one) to give it a go. There are a lot more others to choose from but from here on, I guess I could only take what I really wanted to eat... 'cos I am just too full.

I also stopped by the chocolate section and took a pair of every chocolate they had (except white and milk chocolates).

The best desert among the cakes we took would surely go to the Black Forest Cake. It tasted great. It has been a long time since I could taste the fresh liqueur filled berry or grape within the chocolate layer (which was just right and not being so thick) and the top layer sponge being so soft and fragrant. The Tiramisu cake was ok...

But I do not like the Tiramisu... (I will explain..)... To me, Tiramisu is suppose to be special. Served in a small cup or small bowl proportioned to one. But what was served at the buffet was a gigantic bowl (those glass bowls where you use to beat egg whites) of Tiramisu with a heavily soaked bottom where the sponge/coffee/rum mixed and with a top layer than isn't really supposed to be tiramisu (seems to be like they mixed some soft sponge cake with their recipe)... So if you wan to eat good Tiramisu (hmm.. maybe you ppl out there can enlighten me on this one), you all can try Hill Crest's Grill @ Bukit Timah??

Ok. Now an overall summary.

Greenhouse is a superb place to dine and enjoy a good time. Its setting is comfortable and conducive for a good meal. And the food itself (for a buffet standard), its up in a class way above average. Even though you would be able to find better places for each individual dish, but you won't be able to find many (if any) places where a buffet spread serves quality in every dish.

So make a booking when u are free. Do give it a try and tell me what you think. :)

Have a nice time dining!

*Next up will be a review on Hill Crest's Grill if I hv the time....:P

Liquid dreams @ e Liquid Cafe (Upper Thomson Road near Mandai Road)

2006-05-25T13:28:00.000+08:00

Some gems are rarely noticed when they are right in front you at time. It applies to loved ones and for this case, it applies to food as well...

The Liquid Cafe @ Upper Thomson Road is such a rare gem.

Well hidden and tucked away in a corner, it provides a nice escape from a hard day's work. (Jus when you get on the Upper Thomson Road from Mandai Road, u will see a SPC petrol station. Make a left turn into the shophouses as u pass the petrol station) I have been there for a number of times (actually, I am there every wednesday evening without fail..) and I truly feel relax when I am there, away from the hustle n bustle of traffic and noise through my day.

Ok, let go down to the food they offer. If u are expecting it provide u with ultra-unique food or some 'out of the world' dishes, u will be dissappointed. It does, however, provides a decent menu with enough choices to leave u spoilt for choice. I would give the sandwiches they offer a thumbs-up. It may look pathetic with only a small offering of 5 different choices but trust me, it is enough to keep u happy. In particular, the Ham and Cheese sandwich would be my reccommendation. The type of bread they serve looks like a panini but it is so soft and nicely warmed with a light crusty feeling when u sink ur teeth into the melted cheese. You could also add sides to your sandwich if you feel a desire to eat more.

If sandwiches are not of your fancy, you can try their ceaser salad with Chicken. It is GOOD, especially when the chicken is freshly fried. The pasta ain't bad either.

On the drinks side, the have a long list of different fruit freezes that sure will wonder (can I hv them all!?!?!). But dun bother with the coffee (not saying its bad), stay healthy and drink the juices or help urself to the free flow of water they serve.

Overall, it is a nice quiet place to hang out for a lazy evening...

Place which serves memories.... TCC@Shenton

2006-05-01T12:57:00.000+08:00

TCC @ Shenton Way

Recently visited TCC (The Coffee Connoisseur) @ Shenton. For those who have not heard of TCC b4, its an upmarket coffee house which serves several blends of roasted coffee to soothe the taste buds of the avid 'caffeine addict'... This branch in particular prides itself with a nice ambience and setting for a romantic evening (afternoon too!) or a casual chillout spot for the type who likes to sit around relaxing doing nothing...

Much could be said about the variety of drinks they serve here... but the quality is rather varied... I think it much depends on ur luck on who prepares it.. But not much could be said about the quality of food there.. I am not saying its bad... For the average crowd, its way better than a lot of places.... Noteworthy dishes include their Wedges with cheese dip, the club sandwish (remember to ask to hv the bread toasted nicely)... several main dishes are good as well... But this is more of a place to chillout than to enjoy a proper (good food) meal.... *I will be doing more reviews on places for food soon*

Here are some photos for u to enjoy... together with those I took on my daytrip along Chinatown...

Have a break

2006-03-06T22:24:00.000+08:00

A recent photo I took which I like

2006-01-06T16:31:00.000+08:00

Self Searching in Shanghai

2005-12-12T11:42:00.000+08:00

It has been a while since I last updated my blog... This is because I was in Shanghai for the past month spending time with my gf who is working there...

I must say that living together with your loved one over a period of time will make you understand each other much better... Each other's habits will slowly show and both will have work hard to make the relationship work... Love will prevail through time if it works...

It was an enriching time for me to understand myself and really know what I wan to do... There are a lot of things that are hard to explain in life and I must live through it to know what it really means... So I guess I take it one step a time ba....

I am jus grumbling.... but anyways.. enjoy some photos I took in Shanghai.. you will see how advanced China has become..

A night after my final exams (UK)

2005-10-30T23:11:00.000+08:00

I was digging through my past UK photos when I came across a little 'adventure' my friends and I had.

It was a night out to do something stupid out of boredom in our school.

While other people are out clubbing their hearts out to celebrate the end of exams, we choose another method of expressing ourselves. hehe...

Enjoy...

The few words in my mind

2005-10-24T23:16:00.000+08:00

It has been nearly 4 months since I came back from UK. And life in Singapore is always full of unexpected surprises. Well, there are also unexpected surprises in the UK as well. :)

In Singapore, it seems to me that everyone is rushing abt from place to place. Everyone seems to be busy and seems to have an agenda to pursue. Sometimes, I wonder to what end... Maybe there are jus so many things to be done in life's everyday, every hour, every minute and second...

Hmm.. its jus a tot aloud....

Am I also one of them? I dun know... Are you one of them too? Maybe you could ask yourself.. :)

Cheers,
Ken

Trip up Silk Road (China)

2005-10-23T14:27:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

After a short break back in Singapore after my Europe tour, I was up on my feet again and ready to travel. This time I am going to the Silk Road in China. Many peers who went on this journey told me that it would be very rewarding as I will find another side of the world which I, an urban man, have not seen my entire life.

And true enough, it was an eye-opener. It made me realise that Singapore is so tiny when compard to the vastness of China. Combine with untouched natural landscape and views of towns at the dawn of industrialization, you can see that China is a growing country like Singapore some 40 years ago.

Hmm.. From writing my blogs, I realised that my memory isn't that good as I cannot remember the names of the places I have been. But I hope you like the photos I have chosen to for this entry of mine.

Enjoy...

Best Regards,
Ken

Past photos for your viewing pleasure

2005-10-17T22:59:00.000+08:00

Hmm, my interest for photography started without my knownledge when I was studying in UK. I took a lot of photos and started to like feeling I get from my pictures.

Here are some of my previous photos. Hope you like them as much as I do.

Enjoy.

Ken

World War II Memorial at Kranji

2005-10-17T22:40:00.000+08:00

One fine morning, my friend asked me to join him for a photography session at the War World II memorial service at Kranji. At first, the thought of waking up 5am in the morning really put me off but I went anyway.

It was a really rewarding experience. From the solelm expressions on their faces, you could feel the pain and hardship our parents and ansestors went through during the war and post-war times. It made me realise that there was a prize to pay for peace and treasure what we have now as well as learn to do better for our future.

Below are 2 photos which I preferred from all those I have taken. Enjoy...

Regards,
Ken

My Europe Trip to Rome and various parts of Greece

2005-10-06T22:06:00.000+08:00

Travel adventure begins...

2005-10-06T21:58:00.000+08:00

This blog will be dedicated to my travel adventures of my ilfe...

Actually, I (really) started travelling on my first trip to Australia (alone). It was a 18 day trip without planning, which means I just got a plane ticket and flew to Melbourne. A friend of mine arrange my first stay in Melbourne city and the rest just sort of went along without me knowing. Hmm, now I think of it, it seems really reckless and quite a waste... though I went to all the famous tourist spots.... hmm.. abt the photos of the place.. It has been kept in my CDs collection and I am too lazy to dig them out.. Maybe if you all are lucky, I will bring them out in later blogs...

Start of a personal diary to share

2004-01-17T22:55:00.000+08:00

I saw tons of friends signing up for this online diary thingy... so I tot might as well join in the nonsense... :)

Well, comments are always welcomed.. if you are able to post comments..

but dun expect a reply too soon.. 'cos I am hving my exams right now...

Take carez ppl..
Ken