Closure

just got home from my sec sch fren's wedding dinner. this marks the end of all wedding dinners for 2007.

i guess most people would reflect on what they've done and achieved for 2007. honestly, i dun wanna think abt it coz i dun think i've done anything Really Significant. instead, i'll just list down some milestones along my journey thru 2007 (unfortunately i cannot seem to remember anything exciting in the first half of the yr except my birthday....haha!)

mar / apr 07, i bought myself a seiko criteria watch which i've been eyeing for some time. to me, a $400+ watch is expensive but i took it that the company "gave" it to me as i paid for it using the bonus.

somewhere around end Jun 07, i bought the canon s3 proconsumer camera. my old sony cybershot was giving way and most of the parts such as memory stick and li-ion batt were no longer in production. decided to move onto a camera with more manual functions so that i could learn photography and experience with the various modes. that kinda started my dive into photography and since then i've been reading up on photography magazines and books. i've started another url for my photos shot with my canon.
many people whom i've chatted with in the photography forum often asked why i didn't jump straight into DSLR. well,i guess i'm not ready yet. i dunno if this interest is going to be a 3min impulse or a long term plan. moreover, i hv not experimented with manual functions and the cost of a DSLR with lens can easily kill me.

Jul 07 was the major launch for the new Lancer EX. we did a mystery car campaign (the new EX was plastered with black leather and the mystery car url was pasted on the sides) and it became the talk of the town. late nights in the office were common.


Aug 07 was the launch of the new EX where we had a showroom built from scratch at the civic plaza, outside takashimaya. i was kinda the project lead so this whole launch thing really took up most of my time this year.

Bought my archos 604 portable media player (pmp) during the IT fair in sep 07. it's also a gadget which i've been eyeing for the longest time. decided to get it in case i get bored during the ultra long flight to US in nov. hiak hiak...what a great excuse rite?

Nov 07 was kinda the highlight of the year as it was my 2 week holiday to US. cost me a bomb but at least it's good to have a break and get out of spore.

Early Dec 07, i had the opportunity to go for an advanced driving course at kallang carpark. the most fun part was the 180degree turn! it was kinda dangerous but really really exciting!!

that kinda wraps up 2007. now to look forward to 2008 and hope it's gonna be an even better year!

post US trip write up

been a really really long time since i last blogged. main reason: laziness. hahaha..what else? i went for a 13 day US west coast trip from 17-29nov earlier on. my trip took me from San Franciso to Las Vegas and finally Los Angeles. we flew from SIN - ICN - SFO (around 18hrs+) and back from LAX - NRT - SIN (20hrs+) on SQ.

the trip was generally ok but i was a bit disappointed. y? coz US was not as great or grand as i had expected. hollywood does a great job in creating a good image of US. also, chan bros (the tour agency) didn't cater for alot of meals, hence we had to spend quite a fair bit of our cash on meals.

shopping at US was really GREAT! a pity i didn't dare to spend soo much and i'm not familiar with the branded stuff. regretted not buying enough when i was there. local brands such as coach, levis, kiehls were much cheaper than in sg. i'm not a person who buys super branded stuff like coach but everyone in my tour group was saying that i would regret if i don't buy. i bought a sling bag from their retail store for USD$128 (exchange rate is around 1.48) and sg is selling the same thing for SGD$305!!! OMG!!!

besides shopping, the cool weather was fantastic. the disappointment was that i didn't feel that i was in US. prob coz i stayed in perth for sometime before, hence i felt that i was in OZ. of coz there were a number of homeless people and blacks on the streets. had to make an effort to avoid them while walking along the streets. as it's near winter, the sky turned dark around 4.30pm and u can literally see the whole bunch of them coming out and roaming the streets.

las vegas was fun but too bad we only stayed 1 night there. i made USD $40 on the first night playing a 1cent slot machine. my cost price? USD $5. i was amazed...! wanted to kill time as the night was young but ended up sitting at the same machine for a good 1.5hrs.

grand canyon was well....grand? anyway, no special feeling of awe while i was there. just huge rocks and mountain formation. i didn't dare to stand near the ledge as it was very low and one push would result in a 7sec fatal fall to the bottom of the canyon. some of the photos were taken by my fren as i was shaking too badly to be able to hold my camera steady.

took a whole bunch of rides at disneyland and universal studios. i'm not a rides person but the tour guide just pushed the whole group onto various rides while he took us around the parks. screaming and closed my eyes most of the time on roller coasters and whatever scary places. didn't have the chance to take photos with the characters as the Q was super long.

i had a 2 day extension in hollywood. my fren and i joined a local day tour which brought us to the celebrities' homes in mulholland drive. whoa!! their houses are damn bloody HUGE! i think huge is an understatement. gigantic? enormous? they are really filthy rich lo...... the tour took us to the famous rodeo drive where all the stores have their individual bouncers, opps, i mean security guards standing at the door. apparently, there're no price tags on the items. if you have to ask for the price, you prob cant afford it.

throughout the whole trip, i only had 1 ice cream from baskin robbins at USD $1.89. i tot ben & jerrys would be dirt cheap since it's their local brand but i was wrong! it was around USD$3.50 (if i didn't rem wrongly)....around SGD$5++. i might as well eat in sg. no diff...

overall it was a good break for me, having been away for 13 days. made some friends on the tour. would i go to US again? probably not. the flight is torturous (even tho it was on SQ direct). where would i wanna go next? prob hokkaido...seems like a nice place to visit. good chance to take photos too. meanwhile, time to start saving again.