iPhone Disaster :(

Beginning this year I listed iPhone in my wish list and that wish came true in January when I bought a 32Gb iPhone from Singapore. I was so happy with it until yesterday >.<

I went home for lunch and stupidly brought the iPhone with me into the toilet. I placed it on the glass shelves near to the sink. The sink still has some water in it as it was draining out when I grabbed my iPhone from the shelves. But the casing got wet and it somehow got suctioned onto the glass shelves. Applied a bit pressure to pull it and that’s when I lose my grip of my iPhone and in it go into the sink! I think there was few seconds gap before I realize my iPhone was swimming in the whirlpool! I quickly grabbed it and try to remove the water as fast as possible. It was still working for a few secs before the lights went out but still manage to see the screen and quickly send the message that I typed halfway before entering the toilet. I switched it off, quickly dry off the excess water and placed in a container and filled it in with rice grains. That was the solution I got from the Internet. Rice grains acts like a desiccant, which absorbs moisture.

Felt really sad and depress after the incident. It took me months to save up for it and I only bought it last January! Well accident and carelessness happens and I’ve to blame myself for the stupidity. sighhh…

Anyways, I left it in the rice container overnight and switched it on this morning. Good news it still works! Bad news there are some problem with it :( there’s no sound, when I press the volume button it shows the headset is connected, probably a rice grain is stuck in there. Last I checked there wasn’t anything in there, the speaker works fine (using the recorder application and playing it on speaker mode) and the sound will only play when I plug in the headphone. Secondly, there is still some moisture on the camera lens. And lastly, some part of the screen has shadows. Sighhhhhhhhhh I plan to bring it to the Apple store for servicing, hope they will be able to help.

At the meantime, I’m using back my 1-year and 1-month-old Nokia E63 phone. Ohhh iPhone :'(

2010 Trip No.1 (Purpose: Gadget shopping)

My first trip for 2010 was to Singapore with my fighting partner, Stephio. We planned it sometime late last year & the objective of the trip was gadget shopping.
Initially, she wanted to get a iTouch but later changes her mind when she finds out that her favorite phone, LG Lollipop, is available in the local market. I, on the other hand, was eying on the iPhone 3Gs.
After weeks of waiting & countless numbers of text messages & price checking, the day has finally arrived. We were both very excited! I took the afternoon off from work to catch the 1.20pm flight on RBA. We laughed & talked a lot in the plane & was hungry too!
We arrived in S'pore 1hr 45mins later & was so happy to see the sun! (it was raining in Brunei the whole week!). Took the taxi to our hotel in Clarke Quay. We stayed at the newly build Park Hotel. The weekend offers was good but the hotel is quite far from Clark Quay MRT & the room is small, just enough for 2 person with small luggage. Anyways, we didn't spend the whole time in the room. After checking in, we went to Good Shepherd Cathedral to look for our Bishop, who was also in S'pore after attending a meeting in JB. Went into the Archbishop's residence to look for him but he was no where to be found. We texted him a couple of time but there was no reply. We decided to go to the nearby Raffles City. Sometime later we received a text from him saying that he was in Funan IT mall, sitting in McDonald trying to get the wi-fi and that is where we found him. We spend the next 2hrs shopping for gadgets...it was super fun! hahaha
Next we headed back to Raffles city for dinner at coffee club and afterwards, we had coffee in Starbucks...to have coffee and the free wi-fi. hehehe
Second day of our gadget shopping, we went to Sim Lim sq. Roamed around the ground floor to look for the phones. Stephio was literally screaming when she found her LG Lollipop. I bought my iPhone after a longggggg conversation with the seller and Steph bought hers too. One of the happiest day of our lives! hahaha After all the shopping, we pop by the nearest fastfood...Burger King. Funnily, we had a quiet lunch and the previous night we had a quiet dinner hahaha we must have been really hungry! No one was talking to each other!
After lunch, we plan to watch a movie and the nearest cinema is at Bugis Junction. We have to passed by Bugis street where the open market is located. The smell of durians on sale attracts our attention hahaha we almost didn't make it to the cinema! We had a long wait before the movie started so we waited in kinokuniya bookstore. Oh yah...the movie is The Spy Next Door (Jackie Chan). We laughed so much and was really enjoying ourselves!
After the movie, we walk all the way to Queen st. and have coffee at DOME which is nearby the cathedral. Bishop was going back that night and he suggested we go to the sunset mass so that we'll have a free sunday :) We were sitting down quietly (again) when I realised something about the iPhone that I've bought. I wanted a white one but due to excitement and blinded by it, I bought a black one! ptttfff -___-'
In the evening, we went to Orchard rd and had dinner at Tambuah Mas, an Indonesian restaurant in Paragon and headed to Shaw House to watch another movie, Avatar in 3D! Meet up with Pinqey at Starbucks on Scotts rd. and she join us for the movie. Too bad Steph had to leave after 15mins into the movie because she was getting dizzy from the 3D effects. But the 3D effects was awesome! Good for action type of movies...if it was a horror movie...I think everyone will faint! hahaha
On the last day of trip, we went to Vivo city. Did a bit of shopping and took some pictures of Sentosa Island from the rooftop. The Sentosa World Resorts was still in construction at that time and is due to open in March this year.
That morning in the hotel, I couldn't find the simcard ejector tool for the iPhone. I tried calling the shop but the guy was not there. After we went to Vivo city, we decided to go back to Sim Lim sq. and Pinqey meet up with us there. Went to the shop and the guy showed me where the tool was in the box... *felt so stupid at this time* hahaha stupid excitement! Did one last minute shopping; bought a wide angle lens for my SLR camera for less than $300!
Head back to the hotel to pack and check out ard 1.30pm and off to the airport for our 4pm flight back. I really enjoyed my trip and especially with a friend who is as crazy as me hehehe Hope for more trips to come!

Things to do this year

Here are my list of (MUST) things to do this year and some of my opinions in ()...

• Get an iPhone (woohooo)
  
  
• Get flu-shot or the H1N1 vaccine (a MUST!)
  
  
  
• Settle all my bills (booooo...)
  
  
  
• Travel less (errr.... will try)
  
  
  
• Save my annual leave for WYD2011 (it's a MUST!)
  
  
• Save some $$$ (woo...well...yeah it's MUST too!)
  
  
  
• Take leave during Christmas and enjoy the holidays (woot woot)
  
  
  
• Look for my Nintendo Wii which is packed somewhere in a box by my mom! :(
  
  
• Play badminton regularly (gulp! ok will try!)
  
  
  
• Get my left foot check again after the 'great fall' in East Timor last Sept (boooo...)
  
  
  
• Avoid seafood (prawn and crab especially!) due to eczema allergies (so so sad) :(
  
  
  
• Try to get less 'sick/fever' this year (last year was a record of 4 fever! boooo....)
  
  

Wish Me LUCK!

Happy New Year 2010

Ok my bad for not updating this blog for quite a while. But firstly, I would like to wish everyone

A Happy and Prosperous New Year.
May the new year brings you happiness, joy and good health.

2009 has been a very hectic year for me. Some good and bad things had happened last year but a friend told me to look at it (the bad things) in a positive way. Thinking back of the things that had happened, I must admit that I was very occupied with everything from traveling, family, office work and church activities.

I lost both my grandparents last year; just two months apart (Feb and Apr). I miss them so much and often think about them.

And then on church activities, wow...where do I begin? Maybe with the latest one that I can remember is the Christmas preparation. It was truly a nightmare before Christmas. We were to have an open house on Christmas day but with a new twist... we're going to serve Christmas theme food. I managed to get 3 turkeys and send it to the restaurant to cook it. And then for the rest of the food, we didn't have a choice but to cook it ourselves because it was too expensive to be catered. After the Christmas eve mass, few of us stayed behind to cook and prepare the food. It took me 2 hours to cook 9 packets of Macaroni! We also prepared the green peas and carrots, spaghetti, mashed potatoes and macaroni salad. We were worried that the food will not be enough to cater for about 150 people! We are not expert or have any prior catering experience. We just try our very best to do what we can. Anyways, we went home at 4.30AM on Christmas morning. I only had 2 hours of sleep and then I was up again to pick up the turkeys, prepare the rest of the food and to go to mass at 9am. We were still working on the food until the very last minute and thankfully, the food was enough to feed the crowd. Everyone was happily fed and the turkey was a hit! hahaha
In the evening we had the migrant nite and we were back in the kitchen again to do some more cooking. I managed to cook baked cheese broccoli and cauliflower even though I don't eat them. We had another 2 turkeys and had a lot of leftover. By the end of the day, we were all exhausted but nevertheless satisfied and happy. It was a good experience and we really enjoyed it. Hopefully this year we will do catering! j.k.

On the traveling side, I've been to two new countries last year: Bali and East Timor. I hope I will have the chance to visit East Timor again this year. My other plans are to visit one of the orient countries (Hong Kong, China, Korea or Japan). I'm already booked to go to UK (again!) this coming March.
I've been traveling every month since June 2009 until November 2009. But as for December, I only went to Miri because my passport ran out of pages (I've renewed it already) and I ran out of my leave. Anyways, I'm sure there'll be more traveling this year. Oh yah I'm off to Singapore in two weeks time with my fighting partner. There'll be no peace in Singapore when we'll be there! hahaha Purpose of visit: Gadget shopping! iLike!

I guess that's all I can update for now. Once again, Happy New Year. Till then....Adeus! Atelogu! XOXO

Weekend in Sporapora

Yipeee..its the weekend again and I'm off to 'Sporapora' hahaha a new word created by my fighting partner, Stephyhoo.

I was looking back at my last year blog entries and was surprise to know that I went to 'Sporapora' last year and almost on the same date!! I went on the 7th to 9th of November and this year, I'm going on the 6th to 8th.

Sometimes this blog entries can be very useful to remind us of the events in the past especially for a forgetful person like me.

I'm looking forward to the trip. Gonna have my chili crab and IT gadgets shopping hehehe wuhooo....

over and out....

A year older

I have something typed out for my blog already in MS Word but somehow it got corrupted and the words are in alien language so I'm just gonna type out a new one now.

So what have been happening lately and what's gonna happen in the next few weeks....
Latest happening: I turn a year older early this week. Did not had a celebration or anything like that. But my thoughtful friends celebrated it 5 days early. Thanks peeps! Really appreciate it. And then my 'fighting partner' greeted me every single day via text messages (she eventually give up on the eve of my birthday because she was tired hahaha).
Anyways, it was a quiet one for me this year. I also went to the cemetery for a prayer service for the dearly departed (All Soul's day) after work and was teasing my friends and family that I was celebrating my birthday there hehehe. My parents bought me a birthday cake (sorry no pics!) and for pressie, my dad paid for my airfare to UK next year... YIPEE!

Gonna happen: I'm going to S'pore for the weekend and maybe go on a crazy shopping spree (but I've not figure out what I'm going to buy yet though an iPhone sound really tempting at the moment!). And in 2 weeks time, I'm going to the Philippines (pray that the weather will be good by then). hmmm... wat else? My passport is running out of pages after only 3 years from the date of issued and extended pages last year =(

I had plans to go somewhere in Dec but most of the flights are full and expensive so I'm not bothered now. I guess its a sign from God that I need to take a break from traveling hahaha and to be continued next year.

Anyways, here are some of my IT gadgets targets for Christmas or next year:

The new iMac

MacBook Pro

iPhone 3Gs


iLike ;)
and yes I'm turning into a MAC person

Bali, Indonesia - Two stops in a week

I was supposed to go to Bali last July with a friend but due to some reason I was unable to. But instead the opportunity to visit this island came during the trip en route to East Timor.

We arrived in Bali at 8.30pm from KL on AirAsia. It was about 3 hours journey. We only stayed for one night at a hotel by the beach in Seminyak as we were only in transit before our next flight to East Timor the next morning.

Approaching the island of Bali

There was an earthquake in the morning at the north part of Bali in the Nusa Dua area. According to a taxi driver, it caused panic among the tourists and locals who ran out into the streets (some with no clothes on) but no injuries or death were reported.

With little time to explore the place, we decided to go to Kuta for dinner. The place is packed with tourist and traffic jams. I can’t help feeling the fear for my safety when I was there especially when we pass by the Bali Monument where 202 tourists and locals were killed when a bomb exploded in a pack nightclub in 2002. The places are surrounded with bars and nightclubs blasting loud music and few blocks away from it and in between some shops there’s a temple, which is sacred to the Hindu believers.

A temple at the hotel

No... I didn't drink this.

The traffic in Bali is as crazy as the one in Bangkok. The drivers drive in the middle of the road and will only slow down or swerve when there’s an incoming car or motorbike. Some of the roads are narrow and could hardly accommodate two vehicles.

On our return trip from East Timor, we stayed another 2 nights in Bali and this time we stayed at a hotel in Kuta. Apparently, it was a peak season in Bali so most of the hotels are fully booked. We hired a van and driver to drive us around for sightseeing.

We went to Tanah Lot, which is a ‘must-see/visit’ place to go in Bali. It’s a sacred Hindu temple and only their Hindu priests are allowed to be there. We can only see the place from the rocky beachside. A lot of tourists flock to this place at sunset. Apart from it being a sacred place, it has also become commercialized. There are rows of open market along the way to the beach selling various handicraft and souvenirs and bargaining is a must!

At Tanah Lot

From Tanah Lot, we went to the Nusa Dua Beach hotel for dinner, which is owned by BIA. The Nusa Dua area is a popular place because most of the luxurious hotels are there like Sheraton and Novotel.

At Nusa Dua Beach Hotel

The view of the beach is very serene. We arrived just before sunset and there were few people on the beach. We went down to the beach to dip our tired feet. My injured foot was now purplish red and still swollen (I slipped and fell on some stairs on our last night in East Timor) I thought I might have a broken foot or toe but I didn’t think much about it because I was in BALI! hahaha The sand on the beach is quite different from what we have here. It’s rough and it sticks to the leg. There were a lot of broken shells and the sand was quite thick and deep, we could hardly walk 'normally' on our way back to our table for dinner.

My purplish/red/swollen foot
At Nusa Dua beach

Walking back

We spend the evening having dinner before going back to the hotel to freshen up and hit the town again for last minute shopping. One shop that I couldn’t resist going (apart from Starbucks) is Billabong. I couldn’t decide on two Roxy wallets so I end up buying both and I also bought a Billabong bag because my luggage was full. Too bad they don’t carry big sizes for the clothing unlike in Australia. We walk back to our hotel, which are about 20 or 30mins away. By the time we arrived at our hotel it was already midnight and after showering and packing, we only had about 2 or 3 hours of sleep. We left the hotel at 3am because our flight was at 6am to KL. Strangely even in the wee hours there is still traffic jam! The driver told us that people are going home from the nightclubs because it closes at 5am O.o We arrive at the airport around 4am and two tourist told us that they are not open yet *yawn* so we end up waiting outside the door. I was so freaking sleepy!!! And there were no luggage trolley available. We saw a family sleeping on the floor outside the airport; I guess they decided to stay overnight at the airport. It was a full flight to KL and it was a quiet one too because almost everyone fell asleep throughout the journey. I woke up an hour before we landed in KL.

Anyways, I really enjoy my first and second trip to Bali. I do hope I can visit there again; explore more places and go for a Balinese massage!