ferris, the dearly beloved husband

Lost my job as a professional bummer

2009-12-18T15:54:20Z

I was offered a job this morning and I accepted it. Going to start work next Monday which means I have to give James wedding a miss. The new job is what I have always wanted to do and I am really happy that I am able to do so with this job offer even though I do not have prior experience. It's like a change in career for me. Will update more after I start working.

New photography equipments

2009-12-01T17:43:27Z

Well, Christmas was early for me this year. Dar generously bought me a spanking new Panasonic GF1 with dual lenses kit and I upgraded my dry cabinet from the only analog 40L to a new fully digital 80L. I have always wanted to buy a better camera that is capable of taking acceptable low light pictures. A compact with interchangeable lenses. I was considering the Olympus EP-1 or the Panny GF1. I guess the slow focusing and make in China EP-1 made me go for the Panny GF1 instead. Thanks dar for the wonderful gift. I will probably post a review sometime later.

Cepheus swimming solo

2009-11-29T13:38:31Z

Brought Cepheus to Safra for a swim again.

Jobless for 2 months and counting

2009-11-24T17:24:22Z

It's been 2 months since I have been retrenched. Things start to get boring without a job. I spend most night playing an old MMORPG called Dark Age of Camelot and spend most of the day and afternoon sleeping away. By sleeping thru lunch, I lost a considerable amount of weight, more than 6KG. Ladies who wanna loose weight can try skipping lunch. I have applied for a few job, mostly non technical IT jobs. Hope I will be called up for interview soon.

Cepheus' 1st swimming lesson

2009-11-15T13:20:45Z

Mummy was the swimming instructor for the day. The children pool @SafraMountFaber happened to be quite empty. Took a while before Cepheus got comfortable in the water. Not a bad trip at all

Jobless for a month and counting

2009-10-25T12:15:32Z

it's been a months since I'm out of job. I have yet to start actively looking as I was tied with activities like bumming, slacking and taking a break away from 3 years plus of hard work. Still thinking what is the next step I should take, which career path should I move. I think i will enjoy bumming around for a while more.

I'm 33 today!

2009-10-08T15:08:45Z

I turn 33 today and boy i feel old but luckily, i still look really young for my age. Hahahaha. Dar brought us to 海天楼 for dim sum high tea! Thanks darling!

Cepheus talking to his mummy during our high tea.

Ivan's back for a visit

2009-10-05T15:02:56Z

Ivan is back in SG for a short 2 weeks visit. We had our 20th years anniversary dinner at Merchant Court Hotel on Perry.

Picture taken after dinner. Left -> Right: Ivan, Edmund, Me and Perry

Retrenched!

2009-09-28T10:07:25Z

Received the pink slip from the company last friday. I have see this coming my way the moment the foreign entity became the biggest shareholder and took over the control of the board and company. Some people are happy, some people are not. For me, I'm neutral as this is not the 1st time I got axed. The 1st time being in HP during the HP-Compaq merger. I have been trying to get out of my current line of work and this may be a sign for me to get out of IT/technical field and move on other things. Good luck and all the best to those colleagues who survived this round of chopping. I guess things in the company from now on will not be the same again. Come to think of it, I may actually feel sad if I didn't get axed.

I guess I just have to find and do any job, be it temp/contract/part time to earn some money till I have decided on my next career path. Please bear with me dar, I will try to get a proper job as soon as I can.

R.i.P Yoshito Usui

2009-09-20T16:45:18Z

Thanks for Crayon Shin-Chan "蜡笔小新". I totally dig the manga and anime. Spend many hours laughing myself silly while watching/reading them with Dar when I was much younger. I have this urge to buy up whatever series I can find and keep the VCD/DVD for Cepheus to watch when he grows older.

Goodbye & RIP Yoshito Usui. You will be missed by millions across the world.

Rough and dry skin

2009-09-20T16:23:00Z

During Cepheus' "swimming" session, the person in charge mentioned that Cepheus' skin is very dry and rough. I guess it's time for us to switch bathing lotion for him. We have been using Johnson & Johnson all this while and we are going to switch to Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser. I have been using this as facial wash for a long time and I personally find that it's really good as it's really gentle and does not irritate nor dry out the skin like other facial foam/gel. Price wise it's slightly on the expensive side as it cost SGD16 bucks for 473ml while 1000ml of Johnson & Johnson probably cost half of Cetaphil. So it's 2 times the price but 1/2 the amount. Hopefully it helps to soften, smoothen and keep Cepheus' skin moisturised and supple.

Blur like sotong!

2009-09-20T15:16:16Z

We brought Cepheus to Harbourfront for his "first swim" this afternoon. I think he doesn't really like it and cried after a while. Maybe it's due to the small swimming tub or he is uncomfortable with a float around his neck. Anyway, after Cepheus "swim" I try to let him have a short nap and requested Dar to bring me his pacifier. Guess what? Dar brought the pacifier and while looking at Cepheus, she was putting the pacifier very near my mouth as if she was trying to let me suckle on it. She was holding on to that position till I asked her what does she thinks she is doing. My mom saw the whole scene and she burst out laughing at Dar. Yup! That's my wife, blur like sotong! Hahaha..

Motorola Cliq aka Dext

2009-09-12T08:36:05Z

Finally, after a long hiatus, Motorola released a smart phone that is droolworthy yesterday, the Motorola Cliq aka Dext. Motorola's mobile phone popularity has been dropping over the past few years due to crappy release after their hot model Razor. Things was so bad that Motorola was even trying to sell away their mobile phone business. Google came to their rescue with Android and ta-da! A phone with the software innovation from google and the hardware reliability of Motorola.

The phone really makes me re-think about upgrading from iPhone 3G to iPhone 3Gs. Maybe I should just hold my horses and wait for this Cliq to come to Singapore and give Motorola and Android a chance. Below is a picture of the phone for you to drool over.

Flip flip!

2009-08-28T03:23:20Z

I am very happy to witness another development milestone for Cepheus. He managed to flip from his back to his tummy all by himself. As per what Dar has blogged here, he successfully flipped by himself earlier this week but with much difficulty. He was screaming, crying and grunting for a few minutes before he managed to flip. Over the past few days of "self training and practices" I am happy to report that Cepheus has became proficient in flipping. He managed to flip over quickly with ease as of yesterday evening. However, this means that changing nappy for him will be a challenge as he will flip everytime we place him on the bed/mattress/cot.

I can't wait to witness the next development milestone, which is crawling and sitting up by himself. Go Cepheus!

3 months flew by so quickly

2009-08-05T14:22:46Z

Cepheus turns 3 months old in a twinkle of an eye. Still abit hard accept and believe the fact that I'm already a father. I have grown attached to my son, often missing him during work and always looking forward to play with him when I wake up or return home from work. Cepheus has grown attached to me too, always smiling and cooing at me when I'm "talking" to him and always wanting me to carry him to sleep. Seems like I have become his bed. I'm also very happy and delighted to watch Cepheus develop into a always smiling and happy baby although he still fusses at times. Looking forward to see and witness more of his growing up developments.

MacBook Pro and the holy grilles

2009-08-04T03:49:33Z

I have recently recontracted my SingNet 10Mbps ADSL BroadBand and it comes with a 13" MacBook. I received the redemption letter yesterday via registered mail and I can collect the MacBook from 6th Aug onwards. We decided to upgrade it to a 13" MacBook Pro at the cost of $499. Dar has always wanted to buy MacBook Pro for her personal use at home as the Lenovo Laptop with Windoze Vista really sucks big time so this promotion came at the right time as my current contract is about to end.

Dar has finally agree to install window grilles, something which she was against as she thinks that they are hard to clean. I guess having Cepheus make her rethink her decisions. The grilles was installed yesterday and we have to do alot of cleaning up. It was messy and dirty as we have to shift things about to make way for the contractor. I'm still trying to get use to the grilles. Sure makes me feels like I'm in jail albeit the bars are not vertical but horizontal.

Dar and iPhone 3GS

2009-07-24T16:35:27Z

After visiting Rhys, me and dar went to Vivocity for a walkabout and dinner. There was a newly set up Singtel shop and we decided to go take a look. Dar managed to fondled with a iPhone 3GS she and is very impressed with the quality of it's camera, both still pictures and video and it's overall performance boost over iPhone 3G. When I asked her if she wanna upgrade, she say "yes" and nods her head in excitement without thinking. Sad to say, the iPhone 3GS is still currently out of stock in Singapore. We are now patiently waiting for Singtel to restock before both of us can bring a set home.

Visiting baby Rhys

2009-07-24T15:25:37Z

Was on off today and went to Lilian's place together with April and dar. My nephew Rhys is so adorable making cute sounds and cute facial expressions. Kinda reminds me of Cepheus when he was just a few weeks old.

A picture of me carrying Rhys

20 years and still counting

2009-07-20T15:54:03Z

They say a good friend is hard to find, well, I must be darn lucky as I have 3 good buddies, Ivan, Edmund and Perry for the past 20 years. Met the 3 of them during 1989 when I was studying in Henderson Secondary School. These 3 guys have been my closest friends since then. Although we have now all grown up, have our own family, careers, way of life and we don't get to meet up as often as before, I'm very happy to say that we still have a strong bond between us.

Above is a picture of us taken 10 years ago during our 10th Anniversary dinner. We are now waiting for Ivan to come back from Australia to take our 20th Anniversary picture.

These 3 are not only the close friends that I have. In our circle of close buddies, we have another 20 years friend, Anthony and more than 15 years friends, Bryan and Cedric. I must have done something right in my previous life to have so many close buddies and friends to grow old with. Thank you guys for being my friends.

A walk down memory lane.

2009-07-15T14:38:14Z

My mother handed over some old photos of me recently.

Me at 2 months old.

Me and my 2 sisters.

My childhood playmates, siblings and cousins

Me at about 5 years old taken at Pearl's Hill Primary School

I think I'm cuter than my son.

2009-07-12T17:42:56Z

Me at 2 months old vs my son at 2 months old. I think I'm cuter. What do you think?

iPhone 3GS available this Friday

2009-07-08T06:12:51Z

Singtel had announced that the iPhone 3GS will be on sale from 6pm 10th July. My current mobile contract will end in a month time in August. If I were to trade in my current iPhone 3G to a 16GB iPhone 3GS and a sign up a 2 years contract, I need not pay a single cent or I can pay SGD$108 for the 32GB version. Should I or should I not...

New member to my extended family

2009-07-08T05:57:18Z

My cousin Lilian gave birth to a baby boy 2 days ago on the 6th July. Welcome to the family Rhys! I believe both your cousins, Cepheus and Kaeus, who are of same age as you, will be please to have you as their playmate.

Can't wait to line up the 3 cowboys (this is how April calls them as they are all born in the year of the Ox) to take pictures.

I'm the human sarong!

2009-07-06T15:33:05Z

My dar gave me the nickname of 人肉摇篮 a.k.a the human sarong as I have been rocking Cepheus to sleep whenever I was carrying him. It seems like our dear son is addicted to my gentle rocking and will go to sleep easily everytime I rock him but will wake up after I put him down on his cot. Dar is sort of blaming me for cultivating this bad habit. Dar also mentioned that our son likes to look at me. I think Cepheus recognise me as he will follow me with his eyes and cry when I'm out of his sight.

My arms, back and legs are aching with all that rocking and carrying. I think we better buy Cepheus a sarong to sleep in so that he can sleep much longer, have a round head and hopefully help to prevent him from constantly sleeping on the right side of his head.

Who needs gym when you have a baby

2009-06-22T13:04:39Z

Cepheus probably thinks that my arms are too small and was cranky over the weekends, he simply refused to sleep on his own and want to be carried. The moment you put him down on his cot, he will fuss after 5 mins. He started all this on Saturday afternoon when dar left for her dim sum lunch with her colleagues. During the 3 hrs plus while she was away, I was carrying him for more than 2 hours. To make things worse he woke up at about 4am on Sunday for milk and refused to sleep after that and want to be carry. I ask dar to rest at about 5am plus and I finally managed to put him to bed at about 7am. This I-don't-wanna-sleep-please-carry-me-or-I-will-cry lasted till Sunday night. What a nice father's day present for me from my dear Cepheus.

Cepheus also starts to "merlion" a lot of milk on Sunday. We were out having a dim sum lunch with my dad and April's family. Dar was feeding him at the restaurant and our dear son decided to vomit out almost half of his feed. We had planned to walk about and bring him for a hair cut that afternoon but had to call it off as his vomits landed all over dar. He vomited again twice today, once over our sofa, the other time all over the floor. At the rate he is going, our entire flat is gonna smell like dar's breast milk.

Throughout the last weekends, I think I have carried Cepheus for more than 6 hours in total so who needs to go to the gym when you can "carry weight" at home.

iPhone 3.0 and Olympus Pen Digital E-P1

2009-06-18T12:20:16Z

iPhone 3.0 software was release early this morning by Apple at about 1.15am. I updated dar's iPhone to version 3.0 within 30 mins on our Lenovo laptop. Updating my iPhone was a different story. My PC is getting cranky, I cannot upgrade the software properly at all. I need to set the iPhone to recovery mode and have to do a recover and update inorder to upgrade to iPhone 3.0. After almost 2 long hours of waiting for the recover and backup process, I gave up. Went to office today with a app-less iPhone. I need a Mac Pro dar!!!!

Olympus has just announce their Micro four third camera and it is call the Olympus Pen Digital E-P1. It is sporting a retro range finder style which I like alot. The release of this camera is really timely as I need a new camera and I was thinking about the Panasonic G1. I guess I'm leaning more towards this camera now. Waiting for detailed reviews and pricing before I make my purchase. Here's how it looks like

Hadoken! Horyuken!

2009-06-12T17:05:18Z

Bought a 8 button fight stick that works on PS2/PS3 and PC at the PC show. I have tried using it on my PC with nebula and it works great. I won't say that this fight stick is great but at the price of 50 dollars, I cannot expect too much. Now I can relive my teenage years whereby I go to the arcade with Bryan, Edmund and Ivan almost every weekend. Street fighter, the king of fighters, warrior of fate, Dungeon and Dragons etc etc... HERE I COME! w00t!

Finally, watch is ready.

2009-06-09T14:59:40Z

Received a call from Swatch Group earlier today and they informed me that my Longines watch is ready for collection. Hopefully they did not do a rush job to fix/tune/adjust my watch as it is already out of warranty. I hope they will extend the warranty perhaps by a month or more so that I can test and make sure that my watch is really fixed. We received our combi stroller and potty today too. I guess my mum and dar can now bring my dear son out for a walk.

Tiring Saturday...

2009-06-06T15:52:51Z

As dar's cesarean wound has an infection, she is taking a good rest today. Hence Cepheus primary caregiver today is me and my mother. He started going cranky again, refuse to sleep and wakes up 30 mins or so and cried really loud. Can't seem to pacify him with patting, carrying or cuddling till we feed him. Seem like Cepheus is going through a "growth spurt" whereby he need to feed more often than usual. He is fussier too. Hopefully the "growth spurt" is a short one. Having to feed him every 2 hours is no fun, especially late at night.

I better go to bed now. I have been patting, carrying and feeding Cepheus for the whole day.

Lunar full month

2009-06-03T12:54:32Z

Today is the Lunar calendar full month for Cepheus. 2 weeks has passed since he was discharge from NUH. It has been a tiring 2 weeks for both me and dar. Dar spent most of her time expressing breast milk and taking care of our son. I think she barely have enough sleep. For me, I can only help out during the nights till about 2am during work days. All I did was warm up the milk and pass it to either my mother or dar to feed. I managed to learn how to feed him all by myself a few days ago, so I guess I'm of abit of more help now. ;) Cepheus went to see the PD today for a routine checkup. He now weighs about 3.78kg as compared to 3.1kg when he was discharged. I hope the growth rate of 300grams per week is normal.

We brought Cepheus down to our neighbourhood for a little walk and bought 2 packets of sweet last night. According to Cantonese traditions, when a baby reaches his full month, we have to distribute sweets to others. This is to symbolised the forming of friendship between him and those who received his sweets. Sweets anybody??

4 months to fix a simple watch?

2009-06-01T12:46:12Z

I sent in my Longines Olympic edition watch more than 3 months ago for servicing at the Swatch Group repair center. The power reserve of the watch seems to be much shorter than what it was suppose to be. For the first 2 months, Swatch group still calls me to update on the status, after that no news no call no nothing at all till I called them last friday. The girl on the phone told me that the status of the job is still "not ready" and she will check with the technicians and will call me back to update. My watch is juz a simple L651 movement watch base on ETA 2894/2 and not some "out-of-this-world" high end tourbillion movement. I don't understand how and why should they take such a long time to service or repair it.

I received a call from them this afternoon and same girl(who took my call last friday) informed me that my watch should be ready some time this week. I have this feeling that they chucked my watch aside and forgets all about it till I called up on friday. I guess if I didn't call and asked, I probably have to wait eons before I get to see my watch again. The after sales service really sucks.

I'm the man!

2009-05-30T07:14:13Z

Finally managed to feed him all by myself this afternoon. Dar was busy expressing milk and my mother went to the market. Cepheus started his fussing and no amount of cooing or carrying can calm him down. There was some left over milk so i decided to feed him. It was actually pretty easy, the moment I put the teat in his mouth, he started to suckle. He drank up all the left over milk and cry for more. Luckily dar is in the midst of expressing milk and I requested her for some fresh milk to give it to our son. Cepheus must be hungry as he drank up every single drop or maybe freshly express breast milk taste better. I managed to burp him too. It was a loud one. . After all the feeding and burping, I managed to put him to bed after cooing and carrying him for a while. I feel so good about myself already.

Cepheus is doing well

2009-05-28T07:05:00Z

Cepheus had a appointment with Prof Prabha at NUH this morning. They removed the dressing and did a quick check on him. The doctor say Cepheus is doing very well, the surgery cut is healing good and they didn't hear any whizzing sound from his trachea. There are still a fair bit of excess skins on the neck but Prof Prabha told us not to worry about that now, that can be corrected later. During this little "outing", Cepheus was very well behave. He didn't cry or fuss at all except when he was hungry.

Lunch at Aston Prime

2009-05-27T14:37:34Z

One of my colleague, Daphne, from Quality department is leaving the company. I guess she is going back to Malaysia to be a full time mum to her 2 kids. Jansen plan for a lunch together at Aston Prime located at Joo Chiat. I must say that the price is not cheap but the food is not bad, much better than Aston Specialities which I had tried many months ago.

Daphne, wherever you go, whatever you are going to undertake, I wish you success! Please take care and do remember us.

Parenting ain't easy

2009-05-26T18:22:42Z

It's been a week since Cepheus was discharge from NUH. Most of the time he was behaving himself well, sleeping quietly after drinking his milk. However, he does get cranky at times and kept crying. Last weekend, my mother was busy and we have to take care of him ourself on both Saturday and Sunday nights. We let him sleep inbetween us on our king size bed. He behave very well on Saturday night and slept quietly. However, he was cranky on Sunday night. He refuse to sleep and keep wanting attention from us. I have to keep patting him every now and then till about 6am in the morning. As a result, I had to take half day leave as I was simply exhausted.

As a father, I guess I still have a fair bit of stuff to learn. Till now, I have yet learn how to feed, change and bath him. I guess I better learn as soon as I can. Dar on the other hand, was surprisingly good with Cepheus for someone who have not handle any small kids before. I must say that I am very impressed by her. It was a tough week for her too, expressing milk every 3 hours and taking turns with my mother to take care of Cepheus.

OMG! I want this!!!

2009-05-22T07:17:06Z

This transformer thumb drive is so cool! I love it! I WANT IT!!!

Features:

OS: Windows98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/Mac
Interface: USB 1.1 & USB 2.0
Capacity: 2 gigabytes

Buy one for me over here!

It has began...

2009-05-19T17:03:08Z

Sleepless night is what I meant. Cepheus woke up about 15 mins ago and cried for milk. I have to rush to warm up the milk and pass to my mom for feeding. Dar is sleeping soundly, I bet she didn't hear him cry at all. Thank goodness I'm a light sleeper and I usually stay up late. I think this is gonna be a tough 2 months for me, dar and my mom. I think i better go get some rest. Need to wake up at about 3.30am to warm up milk for my dear son again.

Congratulations to Cedric and Sara

2009-05-16T14:16:24Z

They got hitched this evening. I am being arrowed to be the photog for this event. I'm so happy for Cedric, he has always being single till he met Sara in Kazakh, maintained long distant relationship, brought Sara over and finally marrying her. Edmund and his wife, PeiQing attended his ROM ceremony too and as usual he is being arrowed to be the driver.

Welcome to married life Cedric! Hahaha... The fun has just began!

It's official!

2009-05-13T15:08:21Z

My son's name is Cepheus Chia 谢宇恒。This is exactly how it looks like on his birth cert. We registered his birth at NUH and have obtain his birth certificate. We have decided to omit hanyu pinyin or dialect name so as to avoid mispronunciation. Furthermore, shorter name means that it will be easier for him to write/shade his name during exams and tests.

As mentioned on my wife's blog, Cepheus' operation went really well. The entire cyst was remove together with the wall and linings. Thus the chances of reoccurance is low. Coincidently, Cepheus was wheel into Pat's Operating Theatre and she actually popped by the visitor lounge and say hi to me and informed me that things went really well. Her husband called me later at night to give his well wishes too.

Cepheus is currently still staying in the ICU under observation. I hope that he can be discharge really soon. I want to carry and cradle him in my arms.

宇恒？Yu(3) Heng(2)

2009-05-06T15:21:45Z

Went to Toa Payoh to "get" chinese name from a nice old lady recommended by April. The old lady said that our boy does not lack any of the elements. She gave us a few chinese characters to consider to use as chinese name for our boy. None caught dar's eyes except for 宇恒 Yu(3) Heng(2) which happens to be the very set of chinese character the nice old lady gave. I like this name pretty much too, gonna seek my grandma's and my dad's opinion. By the way, all April's kids have the word 宇 in their chinese name. If were we to pick this name, then all our kids will have a common middle chinese character, which may not be a bad thing.

Dar is feeling much better today. Guess the pain is not as bad as it was yesterday. She managed to get off the bed to visit the loo. Didn't managed to take any nice pictures of Cepheus today as he was sleeping most of the time. Hopefully I can catch him when he is awake and take some more pictures.

It was a long day for me too

2009-05-05T15:24:28Z

The below is a recap of today's happening

Reach NUH at about 7.15am
Wait
Dar went into Operating Theatre at about 9.15am
Wait somemore
Nurse informed C-sec was done and dar is resting at about 11am
Went to NeoNatal ICU to look for my son after receiving cord blood at about 11.15am
Went to Patient Care Center to do admission paper work for my son at about 11.30am
Nurse informed they are sending dar to her ward at about 12pm
Dar reached ward at about 12.30pm
Accompany dar till 2pm
Went back to NeoNatal ICU to hand over admission paper
Reach home about 2.20pm
Backup dar's blog from ferris.per.sg
Restore dar's blog to dear.ly
Set up Cepheus' photo journal
Called April and talk
Went to buy lunch.
Had lunch at about 3.30pm
dear.ly is completed
Went back to NUH with longan red dates drink at about 4.30pm
Bought flowers and visit dar at about 5pm
Accompany dar till 7.45pm
Went to granny place to show her the picture of her greatgrandson
Reach home about 10.45pm
Upload Cepheus' pictures to facebook
Posting this entry

Long day huh? I'm dead beat!

It was a long night for us

2009-05-04T22:29:51Z

Not because we are too excited over the fact that dar is giving birth soon but because she is having regular contractions and pain. She couldn't sleep and I dare not sleep. Waking up every now and then in pain for her and in anxiety for me. Worried that our son is too anxious to come to our world and worried that I will fumble and do not know what to do should dar go into labour before her scheduled C-sec operation. Just a few more hours son, just a few more hours...

2 more days

2009-05-03T11:04:07Z

We bought the combi pram that we have been eyeing for a long time this afternoon at BHG. As there is a sale going on, there's a 15% discount for the pram which is by far the most that we come across at all the different sales. Bought a combi potty at 30% discount as well. We couldn't help but bought some baby clothings too. The pram and the potty will be delivered mid May as it is not in stock today. Two more days and my life will not be the same again.

7 more days

2009-04-28T09:03:27Z

Exactly a week more and I will be able to cuddle my son in my arms. Should be meeting up with my mother tomorrow evening, after our gynae visit in the morning and cot mattress shopping in the afternoon, to settle the confinement food and to come out with a to-buy list for chinese herbs. Have to meet up with dar's friend, Patsy, later on after work to pick up some stuff from her. Dar went out with her for lunch yesterday and came back home with 3 more toys for our boy! Patsy gave birth to a baby boy not too long ago so I guess she have some spare baby stuff to pass on to us.

Oh boy! 7 more days. I'm soooo excited!!

8 more days

2009-04-27T03:27:56Z

After waiting for more than 8 months, it's finally 8 more days to the birth of our son. There is still some stuff we need to buy e.g. cot mattress, pillows for my mom and etc. I have tons of work to clear too before I take 1 week away from work. This week is going to be a really busy week for both of us. Dar has started her maternity leaves. She must be busy enjoying herself now, waking up late and relaxing at home. Well, she deserve the rest now as things is going to be tough for her once our son is back home.

dear.ly updates and Wii party

2009-04-26T15:02:55Z

[dear.ly updates]

I spent about 2 nights and I have completed almost all the installation and customization needed except for migrating dar's blog from the old site. She is still blogging on that site. I can say that most of the work are done. I have done up 3 banners, index page and the about page for our site. Once I have migrated dar's blog, I will redirect all traffice going to ferris.per.sg to here.

I suspect dar caught glimpses of our new site as she asked me "what is this dear.ly thing you are looking at on your PC for the past 2 days". I hope the cat stays in the bag as it is suppose to be a surprise. It's not easy to do stuff behind her back, not when she's walking in and out of our study room.

[/dear.ly updates]

Edmund, Perry, Cedric and his wife to be, Sara popped by my place this afternoon to play with my Wii-Wii . The reason Perry gave was that this is suppose to be the last time they are able to come to my place to play games as our son is due in less than 10 days. I think dar's colleagues share the same thoughts too as they came over last friday for a overnight mahjong session citing that they will not be able to do so after our son is born.

Well I must say that it's partially true. We are converting our spare room into our baby's room which means there isn't any space/room left for a mahjong table. Actually I think the mahjong table can fit inside my study room, so it's still possible for mahjong sessions at my place. I guess my buddies can still come over for Wii games as long as they don't make too much noise.

Let's see how things goes. Hopefully our friends and families can still come over for gatherings, mahjong and gaming sessions.

For whom the wedding bells toll

2009-04-24T12:26:41Z

Well, it's for Cedric and Sara this time round. Received a call from Cedric this afternoon and he informed me that he will be tying the knot with his Kazak girlfriend, Sara on 16th May 2009! Congrats!! However I will be attending his ROM alone as by then, dar would have given birth and will be on her confinement.

Cedric also requested me to help him out with photographing of his ROM ceremony. That have to depends on the condition of his DSLR as I no longer own any.

Shifting of blog domain.

2009-04-23T12:54:46Z

Today is the day dear.ly comes to life. I have always wanted to use a more generic and meaningful domain name to host my family blog. Happened to hear about .ly domain and decided to register for one. I will, for the next few days, do up dear.ly behind dar's back as this is suppose to be a surprise. This site will host the photo journal of our son too.

.ly domains are Libya ccTLD and everybody can register for one. It's a really cool extension as there are over 8000 English words that end with "ly". Time to grab a interesting domain name for those who are keen.

Slight changes to our blog layout

2009-04-10T05:45:53Z

In case you haven't notice, I've made some changes to our blog's layout after upgrading to MovableType 4.25. This new layout is base on the mid-century theme. From now onwards, please Sign In with your facebook account to leave a comment. I have disable anon comment to prevent comment spam.

Anyway, if you are using multiblog and you are thinking of using the mid-century theme, please don't. It seems like this 2 doesn't work well together. Went thru alot of trouble to make it work properly. Too much hassle if you ask me. I spent quite alot time on this minor change of layout.

If you interested on how I did my "2 blogs in 1" layout on MovableType please feel free to ask.

The Crisis of Credit

2009-03-11T16:32:34Z

For those who are not sure how this crisis comes about, watch the below video for a clearer picture.

Part 1

Part 2

Revival of my Grado SR-60

2009-03-01T08:44:45Z

My Grado SR-60 was "dead" for about a year when the ear pad was disintegrated to powder due to prolong wear and tear. Went to Jaben last week to buy a pair of ear pads and upgraded the air chamber to a wooden cup. The sound now is even better than before. Norah Jones sounds sooo good on it. Presenting my new old Grado

Lovely isn't it?

2nd Year Wedding Anniversary

2009-02-05T15:45:18Z

Today marks the 2nd Year anniversary of our marriage. Met dar dar at vivo city for a simple dinner. This year we didn't really exchange gift to save money as the little one is popping out in a couple of months time.

Come to think of it, I think I must have done something right in my previous life to marry a wife like dar dar.

For the past 2 years she

Take good care of me
Keep the house clean
Cook for me
Wash /Iron clothes for me
Contribute to household expenditure
Tolerate my late night gaming / tea sessions with my friends
Bearing me a son and a whole lot more...

without much complaining.

I LOVE YOU DAR DAR!!!

Thank you for loving me

I'm not maintaining silence

2008-12-19T05:50:35Z

it's just that you cannot hear my heart breaking, see my tears dripping nor feel my pain...

It's a boy!!!

2008-11-22T06:56:32Z

After a detail scan by the A/Prof at NUH, the big rock on my chest has lightened by a fair bit. A/Prof said that the cyst is most probably harmless and we should not worry too much about it.

Ah boy, you better be filial to your mother especially after all that she had to go thru for you. I will not hesitate to spank your little ass if you are naughty. I may even poke you with that the needle A/Prof used on your mother for the amniocentesis test. The thought of that long needle send shivers down my spine. Must be quite painful for dar dar as she held on to my hands really tight when the A/Prof was carrying out the procedure.

Yes! We are expecting.

2008-11-01T06:01:50Z

Test taken on 21 Sept 08

1st test kit tested positive however since we are not sure of the results, we did a second test

Positive again. We went to see a gynae on 22 Sept and confirm that we are expecting!

It's all red!

2008-10-10T18:15:45Z

I really wonder when these blood shedding will stop. A picture speaks a thousand words, here's 3 thousands for you (taken from Bloomberg application running on iPhone)

Our couple watches

2008-10-04T15:24:11Z

Ball Engineer Hydrocarbon Mid Size (mid cow) for her (Top)
Ball Engineer Hydrocarbon Titanium (mad cow) for me (Bottom)

Oris Diver Date Mid Size for her (Top)
Oris Diver Date for me (Bottom)

Birthday gift from my wife is a

2008-10-04T12:44:13Z

Oris Diver date!

Thank you 老婆 for your lovely gift! Love it!

iPhone!!

2008-09-11T15:18:10Z

Yes!!!!! It's finally in my hands! Thanks dar!

Signed up for CISA exam

2008-08-12T09:45:16Z

on 13th Dec 2008 after much considerations. I have always been interested in IT security and I guess having this certification could help me to pursue a career in this line. I'm not stopping at CISA though. I plan to get CISSP and PMP as well. All this exam doesn't come cheap. Please give me your best wishes so that I can pass them all with just 1 attempt. The cost of CISA in USD:

The Longines Master Collection Retrograde 4X

2008-08-02T16:51:44Z

(Front view of The Longines Master Collection Retrograde)

(Back view of The Longines Master Collection Retrograde)

In order to honour its 175th anniversary, Longines has launched The Longines Master Collection Retrograde watch. Enclosing an ETA calibre specially developed and made exclusively for Longines, The Longines Master Collection Retrograde's functions include a display of the day, set at 12 o'clock, a calendar on the right of the dial, a second time zone on a 24-hour scale to the left and a subsidiary seconds hand at 6 o'clock. These four functions are retrograde: that is, the hands indicating the information instantly fly back to regain their starting position once they have reached the end of their travel.

Specifications

Calibers: Self-winding mechanical movement, caliber L698 (ETA A07.L21); 16½ lines, 25 jewels, 28,800 vibrations per hour; Power reserve of 46 hours

Functions Hours and minutes; 4 retrograde functions: Day, date, seconds and second time zone on a 24-hour scale
Cases Round, stainless steel, diameter 41 mm and 44 mm; Transparent sapphire crystal case back
Dials Silver-finished stamped "barleycorn", 11 Arabic numerals and black painted minute track
Hands 6 blued steel hands
Water-resistance To 30 meters (~ 100 feet)
Scratch-resistant sapphire
MSRP: $4995 CHF or $6500 SGD

On my wish list?

YES! Definately. With 4X retrograde on the dial, this would make a very lovely dress watch. I need a watch with GMT function and the 2nd time zone on this baby will fit nicely. At the list price of 6.5K, I surely need to save up for a long time before this beauty lands in my watch case.

I like watches, hightech toys and geeky stuffs.

2008-08-02T09:26:51Z

As a watches, hightech toys and geeky stuffs aficionado, it is inevitable that many of my posts will about them. From time to time, I may put up pictures, specs and maybe links to reviews about. If you were to be "poisoned" while reading my blog, please don't blame me.

Finally, it's back online again!!

2008-07-27T13:44:06Z

Our blog was down for a since June after the server host upgraded their machine. Can't login to MT 3.17 at all to retrieve and export previous entries. This means that all our past entries are gone. Anyway, the problem was that MT3.17 was not compartible with the newer LAMP(Linux, Apache, Mysql & Php) running on the server. Having no choice, I upgraded the blog to MT 4.12 which is the latest version available.

I guess it's a good opportunity for me to change our blog layout from vertical to horizontal as my wife was complaining that the previous layout has too little width for her to post pictures. After spending about 5 days of hard work on the templates and CSS files, I present to you our new blog. Like our previous blog, I am using "2-blogs-in-1-page" format. If any of you are interested on how I did it, please feel free to ask me.

Cheers!