Siwilai Sound Club

Siwilai Sound Club on Charoenkrung Road. Although it shares a space with multi-use creative space Central: the Original Store, the sound club's entrance is at the atmospheric back alley. I love it that it's got that jazz club vibe on the ground floor and a vinyl listening bar thing going on on the second floor. 

Reviews informed me that it's got a great audio system with a balanced frequency spectrum that audiophiles would love and appreciate this bar's great sound reproduction for live music. Six Ojas 12” Coaxial speakers ensure that both musicians and audiences would be suitably cocooned. On the upper floor, a pair of Ojas 816 speakers and an original Urei 1620 mixer, and a set of Technics 1210's complete with Goldring E3 cartridges, are all deftly powered by a 2007 Mcintosh MC252 solid-state amplifier. They will blow you away at listening parties. This sound club's DJs on the upper floor would be definitely way better than say... Lennon's. Heh! 

If you prefer another type of... how should I put it, members' club vibe (think British Club/SRC/Tanglin Club), Siwilai City Club at the top floor of Central Embassy would offer many options too. There's so much space in Bangkok to do all these and realize everyone's music dreams. How very nice. It's so tough to have a space like this in Singapore. 

The drinks list is decent, and of course they do cocktails. I didn't bother with cocktails. I simply stuck to a lovely gentleman's dram of Lagavulin 16 y.o and enjoyed the vibes of the bar, the music and the conversation with friends. It was such a splendid evening! My only gripe — it's really dark! It's dim to begin with, but come 8.30pm, they dim the lights even more! Dohhh. That works only if I'm seated and watching the musicians who would be lit by 'stage lighting' or ambient lighting/moonlight through the glass roof above the piano. 

The Smart Weighing Scale

I love how technology evolved and improved. The smart weighing scale wasn't something that many people used. Now, the usage of BIA (bioelectrical impedance analysis) is the standard. The weak electrical current sent through your body picks up everything you hold within. Arguably, accuracy depends on how well the current passes through your body. It's the algorithm that is important, and how wide the variances are.

The man bought a Renpho scale, synced up the app and stepped onto it to measure his health metrics. He wanted to track his weight loss and whatever progress to match his Lumen stats. I watched him with amusement. I never bother much about weighing myself. If I look into the mirror and I'm satisfied, and I feel good overall, then we're okay. 

The man is weighing himself daily. Okaaayy. He created a profile for me and made me step onto the weighing scale too. He said he was curious about my metrics. Dohhhhh. Seriously. I'm not as obsessed as he is. I won't be weighing myself every day. 

I looked at the stats. BMI isn't a big concern riiiight. Okay, this basic breakdown looks decent. Nothing is troubling on the superficial side. My protein intake is adequate. Renpho sets standard protein intake between 14.5% to 16%. Mine is at 17.7%. 

My weight fluctuates between 46kg to 49kg. That's fine. I can't hold it at 50kg because I'm not building enough muscle to do so. I shouldn't be eating till I hit 50kg. If 50kg is achieved through eating, my love handles would pop out. The flab would be pretty obvious. So the scales agreed, and apparently I need to increase my muscle mass by a huge margin. 

My subcutaneous fat is low too. Nice. That's more of a concern at my age isn't it? My metabolic age is 40. Hmmm. Basal metabolic rate (BMR) doesn't factor in physical activities. It simply measures the number of calories my body requires to function while at rest. Well, I always know that I have a very slow heart rate at rest, and IBS ensures that I take food that my body can digest easily. So I suppose that all helps with my metabolism. If it slows, I feel sluggish.

The man is upset because his metabolic age is 50. Ermmmm. That is older than his 47 years. He does need to watch his food and exercise. He's doing that even more now. He couldn't even breathe into the Lumen last week. This week, he's breathing better, but not quite ready for HIIT at the gym. He's making a conscious effort to eat cleaner, and exercise smarter. I have told him that doing HIIT and weights won't help him with metabolic rate; he needs to be stretching a lot more.

Stir-Fried Watercress & Pork Liver with Chilli

Don't ask me why or how, but apparently congee is low-carbs. I don't count macros or calories for myself that way; I dunno which gets categorized into what. So the man was very happy to have congee for dinner. Stopped by at Ah Chiang's for food that pleased both our stomachs. His bowl of chicken congee with pork balls and century eggs were apparently about 280 calories. Okaaaay. 

Congee for me too. I like a standard bowl of century egg with sliced pork. I don't bother counting calories. I eat what my stomach wants, and what keeps it quiet. For me, congee is the perfect low FODMAP meal option. Hello, I do have IBS (there's no definitive test, but a blood test for markers with an endoscopy and colonoscopy suggested that it exists), so if I want to control flares, I should have congee and low FODMAP options for half the week. 

I also felt like having pork liver stir-fried with the usual portion of watercress that we always have with the congee at Ah Chiang's. The man welcomed the dish too. He likes his stir-fried greens done this way. This kitchen does watercress well and it fulfills all antioxidant and Vitamin K needs. But if pork liver is included in this dish, I must chilli with it — the sweeter big red chillies would be ideal. It goes with congee too! I could just crunch them. Mmmmmm.

This was what the man keyed in on the Lumen app. 

Lumen the Metabolism Tracker

As we age, metabolism is a big thing. It decides how much weight you put on versus what you eat. In our mid-forties, we're all very conscious of that now, and we ease up on both carbs and fats. Metabolism is measured by the respiratory exchange ratio (RER), which is the ratio between the amount of carbon dioxide produced in metabolism and the oxygen used. This measurement estimates if your body is using carbs or fat for energy. 

The man got into this Lumen metabolism tracker thing. You inhale and exhale through the tracker, which is linked to an app on your phone. It's supposed to measure the carbon dioxide in the breath and uses the RER to determine if you're burning carbs or fats. The app is optimized for all sorts of personalization for foods, allergies, whether you're vegetarian or vegan and such. It decides when you can do a high-carb meal, or when you should go big on the proteins. (Reviews of the Lumen's effectiveness here, here, here and here.)

In theory this should work. It's certainly not harmful. It does help to streamline your diet if you're clueless about it. But I have no idea how accurate this is. I'm not into it. I'm not into it the same way I don't track steps, heart rate, and all the fancy stuff of which fitness trackers do. To be honest, the moment I drastically cut down on alcohol, sugar and carbs, and up the exercise levels, I lost all excess weight and I can easily keep the weight off. I love my carbs and won't avoid them. After all these years, coupled with aerobic and anaerobic exercise, I'd like to think that my body efficiently swops between carbs and fats as a fuel source. 

The man has to do this inhale-exhale thing into the Lumen before meals, after meals, when he wakes up and before bedtime. Okaaaayy. That's too much commitment for me. Two weeks into using this and meticulously logging every meal, weight and all macros, he announced that he's finally 'burning fats'. He isn't starving, and he isn't feeling like he's missing out on any food flavors or cravings. I had thought that he was eating too much even as of June 2022, and he felt it keenly in the recent weeks. He's by no means obese. Neither is he pudgy. In fact, he still looks fairly well-built. But the scales tell a different story. After the annual health checkup, he decided to do something about getting his weight to the ideal range. Okaaaay, I'll cheer him on then, and provide suggestions on food types and restaurants!

Lunch for the man. This was a permitted high-carb meal — that piece of sourdough.
Plus some fries taken from my plate.

Emergency Alerts

Last month, Hong Kong friends were stunned by their shrill shrieking phones when an emergency alert was broadcast. Then there was a collective eye roll when they learnt that the Hong Kong government and its leader thought it apt to announce it to the nation in this manner, to utilize a HKD150-million emergency alert system to inform the public about a general hospital being redesigned as a Covid-patients only hospital. 

Then I read John Hendrickson's essay in The Atlantic published on April 14, 2022 about how the police sent out a state-wide alert for 62-year-old Frank James wanted as a suspect in the Brooklyn shooting. It's titled 'Today Your Phone Became a Police Radio: Roughly four hours after an unusual push-alert dragnet, Frank James was captured. Did policing just change?' 

Four hours later, the suspect was apprehended some nine miles from the scene of the shooting. Nobody knows if this was a direct result of the alert pushed out; at least this information isn't made public. 

Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary for homeland security under President Barack Obama, described the digital feature to me as a “reverse 911” mechanism, an emergency-management tool that lets authorities contact citizens.

The New York Alert website says that the system’s goal is “providing critical updates to protect lives,” and that it pushes notifications for events including severe weather, public-health warnings, and missing children. The site makes no mention of manhunts. Using the tool for this alert rises “to the level of a first-in-kind,” Kayyem said. “If you sort of cross this bridge, as New York has done—and done this for a non-child case, a non-Amber case—what are their standards going to be? And that’s worth asking. Because you couldn’t do it every time there was a shooting.”

While the government alerts are turned on by default on Apple phones in US, mine doesn’t even offer a function to turn on and off these government alerts. Like at the bottom of Settings, there isn’t that option. We're locked to the telcos geographically, and government regulations. To be honest, I rather alerts come in through subscribed apps and such. I don't want my phone blaring out of the blue. 

Singapore is so small, and not difficult to set up alerts or tracing infrastructure. For now, we're thankfully geographically sheltered from many natural disasters. But we do need a national alert system.......... for everything else. We do have a public warning system by way of sirens, and an old-school system of FM radio and TV channels, and SMS texts as public alerts. Of course we also have whichever official government live feeds on YouTube or whichever video-streaming platform for announcements, and Telegram and WhatsApp channels to disseminate news to subscribers. I don’t think our government wants to provide the option (yet) for our phones to shriek at us for 10 seconds by way of sending out an emergency alert. 

Turning Off 5G-Auto and Siri

My iPhone 13 Pro Max started protesting almost the very day I updated to iOS 15.1.1. My battery inexplicably depleted quickly, and it ran burning hot to touch. I could charge it fully before bedtime, leave it by the bedside; by the time I wake, the battery would be at 20%, and it would be super hot. That was bollocks. I had to resolve this quickly. This could completely kill the still-new battery if I'm not careful. 

I ran through the gamut of help pages to sort out what could be the issues, as well as criticisms of the latest iOS updates and the various bugs flagged by users. I turned off everything that could be turned off. Apple Support could only suggest this page for my reference. WALAOEH. I had Apple Support remotely run diagnostics with me to ascertain if it's a hardware issue. Nope. It's clearly a software issue. Apple Support suggested that I send in the phone to the Genius Bar to resolve the issues. I decided not to do it and try to sort it out on my own first. My last resort is to restore this phone to factory settings. If all else fails, AppleCare will replace my phone, especially if other users' phones don't throw up similar issues. 

It was highly frustrating because I didn't know what else to turn off. It isn't any singular app that's causing the issue. The fact that the phone heated up in standby mode both on cellular data and wifi didn't make sense. It violently heated up every day. I couldn't be using this phone set in airplane mode half the time! A few days later, I realized what happened. 

• I rarely call up Contacts on the phone. When I did, it couldn't stay on any one name. The page kept flickering. It couldn't remain still for me to even read the address.
• Running a check on Battery didn't flag any abnormalities last week. But over the weekend, when the phone burnt down from 70% to 30% in less than an hour, it revealed that Siri had used up 40% of the battery operating power. WHAT. I don't even use Siri! And I didn’t recall enabling it to even wake at ‘Hey Siri’.

To have the battery burn down this fast, the phone must be searching for something, which explains why it ran in the background while on standby mode despite me disabling Background App Refresh and Wifi Assist. I checked under Cellular Data, and made sure the phone latched onto 4G and not 5G-auto since I'm not subscribed to 5G. 

Then I went to turn off all of Siri's search functions, especially for Contacts. I didn't enable Siri, but somehow, the search functions were enabled. I disabled everything. The phone stayed cool and calm for the next three days. The phone had been most obedient all week. Please stay this way, FFS. I had no issues with iOS 15.1. This iOS 15.1.1 is giving me a ton of bugs. Can they patch it soon? Otherwise we'll all roll eyes when the next major iOS 15.2 update rolls around. 

Choya Wears An AirTag

It was tough to find a real-time GPS tracker. I wasn't confident that Tractive or Whistle will work in Singapore. The pricey monthly/annual subscription plan is a major put-off. I was willing to pay it, but their range doesn't seem to cover Singapore. There’s Tack, a homegrown brand offers a recently Kickstarter-funded similar product with an annual subscription at an affordable S$56.  

Choya's recall is dicey at best. I'll have to watch her mood to let her off-leash. But I generally don't; I use a long line. As small as Singapore is, dogs can still get loose and lost. If that ever happens to mine, I want to give her the best chances of surviving till I find her. Two years into having her, I finally seriously considered a tracker on a collar. I almost put an old Apple Watch on Choya, but it was too heavy. 

I was seriously considering a Tack, but hesitated about its 30-gram weight. The next best option- Apple's 11-gram AirTag. Well, I'm on this dark side and mired in the Apple ecosystem. Got the AirTags immediately on product launch day. I didn't need a pack of four. Two sufficed. Had one engraved, and left the other one blank. I wanted to stick stuff on it. Hahaha. The engraving only allowed for four letters or four limited emojis. So I made sure to include a poop emoji on that one. I have plenty of Shiba Inu stickers, so randomly stuck one on the other AirTag. 

Needed a sleeve + holder for the AirTags. Bought cheap silicone holders from Lazada. Those don't just protect the AirTag, they're fit it securely to the dog's collar. At S$2.50 each, I bought like 10 of them in two designs to try out. Hahaha. I didn't bother with leather. I don't particular fancy leather on an active dog. The key-ring types are fine, except that the dangling might irritate the dog. These cheap holders turned out to be practical and effective. 

The other silicone ones that flip open with the 'button' aren't that secure, but they have held up so far when the dog gets zoomies or when she rolls around in grass, sand and water. The most secure ones are those that simply slip in and out of the collar. Those won't come open easily and that would be used for school. The school doesn't need an additional headache to check on missing AirTags. It's the owners' responsibility to ensure that the gadgets are securely attached to the collars to begin with. 

I sent Choya to school with one AirTag. Kinda fun stalking her at school or when she heads out on pack walks. In the morning, I could see her bus route to pick up the other furries and when all of them get to school. In the afternoon, I could see her when she was on the move home. To be clear, it's not real-time tracking though; there's a lag of eight to ten minutes and it wouldn't work without iPhones (with Bluetooth turned on) nearby. 

I'm quite impressed that AirTag's bluetooth and ultrawideband (UWB) capabilities allow for some sort of real-time tracking, maybe to a distance of 10km if there're plenty of iPhones with bluetooth turned on and in range. We have sufficient iPhone users to make this useful in the event that Choya gets lost. When used in this manner, the AirTag is more useful than a standard lousy bluetooth tracker, but not as accurate as a GPS tracker. Apple has stressed that the AirTag is meant for locating items, not people or pets. But who cares. Something is better than nothing, till Apple releases an actual pet tracker.  

Hanging Out on HangOuts

Over the years, my work projects already make me get onto plenty of online videoconferencing platforms, as well as text channels. Whatever that facilitates communications, I'll use it. Sometimes, a ten-minute face-to-face beats typing long emails, and a long email beats a one-hour video call. Slack, Zoom, Twitch, Skype, Teams, etc, you name it, I'm on it. All these channels help me stay connected to work associates and friends whom I care about.

Choya and I were supposed to have a play date with Zelda the Biewer Terrier and her pawrents, as well as S and her daughters. The little girls wanted to check out the dogs that known friendly Aunties own and have trained. Hurhurhur. However, with many of us possibly exposed (briefly) to confirmed COVID-19 cases from returning humans at the office and such (as travel rules and quarantine kicked in), we decided to be prudent and stay at home.

However, we made a date and decided we should keep to it somehow. We met online via Google Hangouts. The dogs obviously don't know what the heck was happening. Beyond voices and moving faces on a screen, they couldn't detect smells or get rubs. They were clearly not impressed. The little girls would so love to play with the dogs IRL. Ah well, that would have to wait for bit.

Hello Nord Piano 4!!!

I've missed playing the piano. The MIL doesn't mind sharing her Steinway Grand. But. NO. I keep going to the BFF's to play on her piano. Her solid thirty-year-old Yamaha is easy to maintain if it's played often; she gets a tuner in twice a year. But it's kinda dumb to let myself into her home to do so. She said I could, but naaah... a bit rude lah.

I'm an adequate player, not an accomplished player; a piano will never take centerstage in my home. I avoid classical pieces and jazz. They're not the kind of music that flows out of my fingertips and neither do I want to sit through long concerts of those genres. They represent pain and meaningless examinations to me, not fulfilment, joy and creativity. That ABRSM Grade 8 Distinction certification meant loads to my parents, but it means nothing to me.

I don't want to shift either one of the standard upright pianos (in storage) into this flat. They're too bulky. To be honest, unless the pianos stay in a temperature controlled room, the maintenance will be hell because they're so vintage that they require more than simple tuning. I didn't intend for any pianos to sit in the living areas. I kept spaces for a piano within the rooms. But the more I looked at the space and the more I mulled over it, I decided that a standard upright isn't quite the right fit in this home at this point of my life

So I went out to buy myself a Nord Piano 4. Hehehe. It didn't take long for me to set it up in the music room. The keyboard sits tight on a metal frame, with its two monitors upright and not distorting the sound at all. The Nord Piano 4 comes with the triple pedals, which means that they factored in the cost and I needn't do an additional purchase. Yay! I've never had a digital piano, so this is fun. Nord's weighted keys are beautiful. The one worry was whether I'd hate playing on it. I don't. I love it. I wouldn't be utilizing all the synth functions, and what little bit of transitions and models in this model are sufficient for my needs.

The first song I played on the Nord off-the-cuff, was Jenny Lewis's 'Wasted Youth' (from On the Line, 2019). Next, I'm going to do 'Heads Gonna Roll'. I'm going to work my way through this album. I can easily sing her songs. I have no idea where to find legit piano chords. I suppose I can pay for downloads, but if I want to play and make music this way, it will have to come from my head and my heart. I took a glance at the guitar chords. That helped. I have a good ear for pitch and melodies. This is a song I know well. Closed my eyes and allowed the fingers to lead. Transcribed it rather easily onto the keys. Took me four hours to work out a satisfactory cover version. I'm glad that I still got it.

The Dyson v11

With a dog that sheds like crazy despite being brushed daily, the flat has to be vacuumed daily. I often do it twice a day- once with the iRobot and a thorough cleaning with a regular powerful corded Bosch. I'm not looking forward to her next coat blowout some time in September and October. With daily walks and lugging around the corded Bosch, my arms and core get a great workout. Ha! But on busy mornings, it's crazy lah. We considered getting a cordless vacuum, but didn't act on immediately.

After a week of sweating it out by pulling the corded vacuum around the flat, we finally caved and bought the Dyson v11 cordless vacuum. I was hesitant, but the man insisted. We bought it at Tangs during the week when the mall offered extra discounts, and a free car-kit. Yay. Now, I have THREE VACUUM CLEANERS at home. All of which I use. And after two runs, all the bins have to be emptied, because they'd be full of fur and dust. My weekly helper is like, 'wtf, this woman is a neat freak.' 

Over next week, I grinned. This 'investment' in the Dyson v11 has completely paid off. It's in use every day. For spot cleaning as well zapping stuff in the car after Choya rides in it. If I catch the dog in the right mood after her morning meal, she doesn't seem to mind being vacuumed either. Hahahaha. It's honestly easy to use (the v11 is its best iteration so far) and eases the tedium. I simply have to adjust the movement so as not to trigger my elbow extensors in that particular angle (which hurts) while holding it and moving it around. The highest ROI has to be the man voluntarily picking it up to use it, actually liking the chore, and happily take over a set of vacuum duties. 🤣

Getting Used To The Leica Q2

So I lost my Leica Q in Hong Kong, but now I have a Q2. 🙃 Admittedly, the Q2 is much better than the predecessor because of its slightly better weather-proofing (not weather-sealed ah). A few cosmetic tweaks, app and software upgrades and such, but otherwise the lens remain identical.

I'm sooo glad that I had 3.5 years of thoroughly putting the Q through its paces. It didn't sit in a dark cabinet. It came out with me all the time. On most trips it braved mild winter, crazy heat, rains and water. It was in danger of being dropped all the time, and I almost did that, from a galloping horse. Luckily the strap held. The Q2 will do the same. That said, I'm not ignoring my other Leica cameras. They each have a purpose to fulfill, and that depends on what I'm shooting for the day. If you want ONE light and easy brainless all-rounder, I'd tell you to buy a Sony RX100-VI. Any Leica will just be heavy and often disappointing when used as a point-and-shoot. Unless you insist on a Leica, then I suppose the D-Lux can do.

Over the years, I find that it's such a pleasure to tot a camera along with me. Sure, the phone camera works, but it's just barely functional. I prefer an actual camera that I can toggle its settings and such. I will allocate space and weight to cameras, but not other things. Hahaha. Often, I'll prioritize the camera, the rest of the items in the bag will be just a credit card and some cash, and a lip balm.

It was fun to sit down for a Leica Akademie Q2 workshop led by Francisco Marin. He's an architectural photographer by trade, and obviously has a great eye for lines. While I wouldn't be shooting those buildings, rooms and interiors, it's always good to hear some tips, and understand what he uses the Q2 for. By the time I attended this four-hour workshop, I've more or less understood the Q2; I've had almost two months with it. I bought it on launch day. It didn't take much to convince me! Hahahaha. *shrug

The BFF to the Rescue!

When I lost my tote bag in Hong Kong, there was a brand new pack of Very Important Pills within. That was no good. It meant that I now lack a two-month supply and I don't know when the next trip to Bangkok would be. I can't go without these Very Important Pills for even a month. It's not as if I can't buy them in Singapore. But big pharma monopoly and price control and all that—these pills go for thrice the price in Singapore. (Like everything else, basically.) I wasn't going to pay S$24 for a box of pills when I know the retail price in Bangkok is S$8 per box.

Luckily for me, the BFF was still in Bangkok for the week. She could help me out with buying two boxes of pills if she happened to pass by a Boots pharmacy. Regardless, I didn't want her to go out of the way to do it. Bangkok is honestly not far from Singapore. I texted her in a hurry, and she was all like, "No worries I'll get you the pills! There's a huge Boots next to my hotel." Yayyyy!!!! Thank God for friends who just so happened to be in convenient places. When the BFF passed me the Very Important Pills, there were not two but three packets. Very precious. Expiring mid 2021. Perfect. Hurrah. I was very grateful.

Along with the Pills, the woman also gave me a new set of wireless headphones. I lost my travel set too, right. But those were wired and almost 10 years old, but hey, they still work. Obviously BFF doesn't think much of wired headphones. Tsk. She insisted that these wireless Powerbeats3 are tough, and can resist a little sweat and they've got quite a long battery life.

You know what, she's bloody right. On a day when I was cutting it really close to gym class, those Powerbeats 3 stayed on my head and ears while I sprinted for the bus and the train. Woot. I doubt they're that sweat-resistant, but I don't drip buckets. The fit is fine for my ears. The fidelity isn’t great and the bass is too heavy, but I’m okay with it because these are meant to be hard-wearing and I’m not looking for audio clarity in a pair like this. I don't need the battery life to last 12 hours. 10 hours would be decent. Even on a long flight, I'm not awake for that long. Hurhurhur. I don't need to sleep with music. I have ear plugs.

Lost A Bag Upon Arrival In Hong Kong

It finally happened. Between the cab stand at the airport and arrival at the hotel, I turned into a 大頭蝦 and lost a tote bag. It didn’t sit with me in the backseat. It’s likely to be in the corner of the boot of the cab, but since I didn’t have eyeballs on it, I couldn’t be sure.

I was super flustered. The hotel concierge were absolutely helpful. They expedited check-in, took the cab receipts and sorted out a police report for me. I disliked that aunty Longchamp bag (it was a gift), but the contents were items which I hated to lose. The pouches and such were gifts from dear friends and I liked them. I have no illusions about seeing the contents of the bag again. That tote bag contained the electronics (cables, adaptors, earphones, chargers, etc), my cosmetics (also skin cream from the dermatologist, pills, moisturizer, etc), keycards (dammit, but I can still go home fine, no issues) and... my darling Leica Q.

I’m really sad. The keycards are a little bothersome to replace, but not too bad. Although there is a name tagged to my skin cream, there isn’t an address in the bag, so the security risks are minimal. My heart aches for my four-year-old point-and-shoot Leica Q. It’s the easiest grab-and-go camera (fixed lens) among my Leicas, so I’m rather fond of it. I am sentimental over cameras. I hope whoever has it now takes care of it and uses it well. May it bring the new owner joy the same way it brought me. 😖😢 N helpfully sent me a link to the rumored new Leica Q 2.0 that would likely be weatherproofed (my main gripe about the first model) and launching in March. Damn, not really helping, girl!

Before this, I’ve never lost anything major on trips and even thwarted many pickpocketing and swiping attempts. Haizzz. That a bag is lost through my own absentmindedness is hard to stomach. I could think of worse ways to begin a trip. It could have been the precious Leica M10 (my favorite) lost since I almost brought that instead. While the heart is a little heavy, and I miss my camera, I’ll still enjoy the week in Hong Kong. I’m thankful to have the essentials intact—my phone, macbook, iPad, credit cards and passport. Losing those in one fell swoop would be an epic administrative nightmare.

Foggy Victoria Harbor.

Leica Women In Photography :: Silvia S. Hagge

Organized by Leica Singapore under their year-long series titled ‘Leica Women in Photography’, tonight’s mini-lecture celebrated Argentine photographer Silvia S. Hagge. She has been based in Singapore for two decades, and still views photography with such passion. She took a break in between to dabble in multi-media and ceramics, eventually returning to photography.

Silvia Hagge spoke about her journey in photography through the decades, and her penchant for black and white street photography, sharing with us her photos and her unique eye in capturing street scenes focusing on humans, and often finding angles from ground up. While she might have had used a point and shoot to begin with, as most of us did, she now enjoys using a Leica M (Typ 240). She shoots exclusively with a 35mm.

I grinned when she said that in a day of which she might have done 100 shots, she would only probably be pleased with one, or two. In a trip, she might only be really pleased with five or six shots, at the most. I totally get that. The 'money shot', is only that one or two shots out of hundreds of them. I enjoyed her travel tales and how she gets her inspiration, and how she decides what her strengths are, and how she sees photography as a practice. It's a matter of getting out there to shoot, just practicing till one gets better at it. Walking the streets to find a shot, no matter in which city or which country, is also a matter of focusing and not let everything else distract you.

I love my Leicas—the M, T and Q are all meant for different purposes. Often, the M is taken out when I'm on my own in whichever city, wandering the streets to frame shots. I rarely take the M out to socials... Hahahaha. Socials are done by the T or the Q. Photography is still a hobby for me. I'm kinda serious about it, but it's also something very private. I certainly do not share many shots with friends and not even with my partner. Tonight's talk was nice. Lovely to hear Silvia Hagge's voice and listen to her inspirations and what drives her to shoot the way she does. I don't attend all of Leica's events, but when time permits, I try to attend talks and masterclasses by photographers whose works I admire.

WiFi On The Go

The hotel provided an Android device for our use. It’s data-enabled, but it doesn’t allow porting out to other devices. That's at least useful for maps and navigating around Tokyo, making local calls and and all. But there's no way I'm signing in to my usual apps on it although it says that 'Your data is SAFE'. Riiiight. I couldn't be bothered to take it out. It's not heavy, but with so many gadgets weighing down my bag, I really don't need this.

We didn't bother to ask for a pocket wifi thing from the office, so the BFF took out this Android phone from the hotel for her use. She has a thousand things to do on it. She's responsible for some of our jaunts around town. Tokyo is not unfamiliar to us, and we're comfortable with the language; but we don't live here, and will need help with some of the little alleys, bus routes and such.

I'm carrying around the pocket wifi device rented from Changi Recommends. It works great, and allows up to eight devices to latch onto it. Of course the more devices latched, the faster the battery drains. It isn't too heavy and when we have just two devices, it lasts for a good eight hours with fairly extensive usage. Reserving and collecting the device were a breeze; payment is only collected when I get back to Singapore and return the device; rental date is extendable. Importantly, it's stable and fast without data limits or throttled speeds (for some countries; check before you rent one), and is steady even when I travel out to the countryside, along the Tama River, across Tokyo Bay and up the hills.

Apple Music and Bluetooth Earbuds

My phone used to hold no music at all. I kept the music separate in an iPod. But I’ve finally conceded defeat, and merged the songs and the entire iPod library into iCloud and iMusic. It’s impossible to ignore the possible production halt of new iPods, the rumored impending demise of iTunes for music, and the convenience of the cloud.

Also succumbed to an Apple Music subscription. Doing this changes the way I consume and listen to music. The iPod Touch (5th Gen 2012) is considered ancient, but I’m not retiring it yet. All sync-ed to the cloud, it still has its purposes. I don’t need a paid Spotify account at the moment. While those Spotify playlists are great, it’s not a must-have. Apple Music suits my needs for now. I want to continue buying music from Bandcamp too.

I’ve also held out really long against bluetooth earbuds simply because I haven’t found one with the coherence and quality I like. I definitely do not want those Gen 1 AirPods. The Bose SoundSport Free provide great quality and stay on through burpees, but they’re just too bulky. The man’s choice is the Jaybird Run because he literally drips sweat all over them at the gym. I’m less keen on them since I don’t work out on the floor on my own to music. At home, there’re plenty of speakers to choose from if I want music to accompany a stretch.

Now, I’ve found a decent pair in B & O’s Beoplay E8. They sit well in the ears and seal fine. Good! These earbuds are purely to pair with the phone that has no headphone jack. 🤨 However, it doesn’t mean that the trusty Final Heaven earphones will be thrown out. Bluetooth earbuds are convenient, but they can’t beat the fidelity of wired earphones. Sometimes, I just want to hear all the different layers in a song. My wired earphones do that super well. I want to hear all the magic of recording and mastering those songs. The music that old-school bands make. 

Replaced The 6S Battery

We thought that with each new release of an iPhone, there’s a sinister plot to slow down older models in order to frustrate the hell out of us, so that we’ll give in and buy new phones. And iOS 11 is really full of bugs, chomps battery life and speed of older models (iPhone 6S and older), and takes the cake. Many reddit threads and forums held swirling rumors that rumbled louder through the years. Apple finally admitted to it, and apologized. Wow.

My out-of-warranty iPhone 6S is in excellent working condition except for the battery. I’m not a heavy user. The 6S doesn’t stream music, or contain SmartHome apps, and it died in three hours with normal usage. What is this nonsense. A $1000 (full-price retail) phone with AppleCare can’t even last two years. I’ll take that $29 battery replacement, Apple. Ran a check on my 6S which was released and bought in September 2015, and found out that it was eligible for FREE battery replacement. It automatically linked to an appointment at QCD Service Center to do so.

Popped down to the service center at Wheelock Place, waved my appointment slip at the reception, took a queue number, waited 20 minutes for my turn and another 10 minutes for the staff to run diagnostics on the 6S. They primly informed me that the phone held a few scratches but it was otherwise fine and the poor battery still held 483 cycles. Since it was eligible for the replacement program, they would replace the battery, at no charge. Yes, please. I was told to return in two hours to pick it up.

The only thing- back up all your data thoroughly before you step into the service center. They don’t just ask you to turn off ‘Find my iPhone’. The entire phone is erased, wiped out and reset. I don’t have an issue since this 6S has been mirrored over to the iPhone 8 two months ago, and the 8 is my current phone. I just want to keep the 6S in good condition as a back-up. With this new battery in the 6S, its processing power seems to have returned to the original speeds. No complaints about the phone's performance. Battery life is great, as it should be.

Now, I look at my iPhone 8 with slight amusement. Yes, I chose it over iPhone X. (Face ID isn’t a big sell.) Why did I do that? I should have just held out and continued using my 6S, especially now that it works beautifully. Arrrrrgh. Perils of being stuck in the Apple ecosystem. 

An Egg-Boiler!

There are many mornings when I crash the BFF's welcoming living space and set up the MacBook there to work. One morning, I was completely distracted by her pink egg boiler that was happily bubbling away. I didn't even know she has one! She was all like, "Eh this came back with me from Shanghai. Didn't you notice it?" Clearly I didn't.

I want one too! There's a Cuisinart boiler that's quite cool, and so is the one from Gourmia. But it's those that look like plastic toys which are fun! Apparently there're many cute ones on Taobao (淘宝网的小熊鸡蛋器挺可爱的). I don't need an egg boiler, to be honest. I boil eggs fine in a pot. Or a kettle. Muahahaha. Do excuse my silly enthusiasm. Eggs are my staple food. Bring on the yolks!

Singapore doesn't quite allow 'organic eggs' on sale in the strictest sense. When those labels appear, it probably means that the chickens are on a diet of organic feed or eat a special feed of nutrients, which doesn't translate into 'organic eggs'. Cage-free eggs don't mean anything here either since it's impossible to verify unless you appear at the farm. And I don't own a yard big enough for hens to run about. Neither are we allowed to rear hens and roosters in residential estates. The point is, buy local eggs, that’s the only assurance to freshness since that is measurable in the Haugh unit, and it’s what our regulatory board (AVA) looks out for next to hygiene at local egg farms.

Meanwhile, the BFF raved about eggs in the boiler. She just bought them from the wet market. She said that the market stall Aunty told her these were 'first-born eggs'. Well, first-born eggs are laid by new hens in the first month. I really can't tell. What I do care about, is newly-laid eggs. There is a marked difference in the taste of newly-laid eggs versus those that have been sitting out for some time. If you could get to the wet market that just received new stocks from their suppliers, then those would taste pretty good. It's quite hard to judge when a supermarket brings in stock. Try to catch those new stocks!

Bookstores Come and Go

I didn't keep up with the news and merrily hopped out to one of my favorite utilitarian (and slightly academic) bookstores in Bellevue- University Book Store. To my horror, the store was shuttered. After 30 years in operation at this location! 😱 It closed two and half months ago, and is currently seeking a smaller space Eastside.

There's a Barnes and Noble that's a five-minute walk away. Better than nothing I suppose. I should be one to talk. I don't even buy many books in hard copies anymore. I'm buying a whole lot more digital books, like in the ratio of 95% to 5% hard copies. There's no better storage solution than the cloud. Borrowing books from the library is always in vogue. However, my dilemma arises when I want to own the book to read at will. And I want loads of books. Haizzzz. Now I buy e-books exclusively on Amazon's Kindle platform.

The irony. Or maybe not, since this is where Amazon is founded and headquartered. Just a few blocks down at the swanky Bellevue Square, Amazon Books is opening a physical store this fall. Had to stop and take a photo. The shop's hoarding is up while renovations go on inside, and they're hiring. At least they put easy information on the boards for fun reading.

Stared at the list of 'frequently looked up words in Kindle Books set in Seattle and Eastside'. Ha! It's the books I'm interested in. Well, I've only read two! I shall go find out about the rest. There is one book on this list of which I gave up a quarter way through because I really disliked the plot, the narrative style and the entire concept of it—that will be E.L. James' 'Fifty Shades of Grey'. Riiiight.

Then something occurred to me. People actually turn on the wifi while reading? While internet access on a Kindle is convenient, its processor is so darned slow that I never bother to link and surf. It also saps the battery. I mostly read with the wifi turned off. Wifi is enabled when I need to buy books and sync stuff across devices. With wifi mostly disabled, and in sleep mode half the time, my Kindle battery lasts almost eight days on one charge with say, two hours of reading a day. 

New ISOLATE Ear Plugs

The one accessory I always carry, is a pair of earplugs, even as an awkward teen trying to be cool while getting plastered at Zouk with strange music (mainly house and EDM) that I really can't appreciate.

I've got hypersensitive hearing which is very mild hyperacusis, diagnosed. Not tinnitus, thank goodness. If I want to continue to hang out with the cool kids at music festivals, rock and metal gigs, then earplugs are a must. Needless to say, earplugs in-flight during descent is absolutely imperative. Otherwise the pain in the ears is excruciating and I feel like my head and ears are going to explode.

Earplugs lower dB for sure, but I need them to also maintain sound quality. Over the years, I've been using Etymotic Research, DUBS, Eargasm, and various brands of custom-molded versions. They all work fine. But I'm always on-the-lookout for new stuff. Heh. Kickstarter is a great shopping platform. Hurhurhur. Well, hits and misses, but mainly fun. Flare Audio's ISOLATE earplugs looked great. They're definitely better than the traditional foam earplugs.

Didn't bother with the titanium PRO or platinum-plated. A bit heavy lah. Ordered two pairs of anodized solid aluminium in black and natural in September when the project was already fully-funded. It arrived in super-quick time! Great. Sometimes delivery of items can be way delayed. It's just earplugs. Packaging was snug and compact. The ear-foam come in sizes of small, medium and large. Just nice. The small is my fit, and I passed the extra packs of medium and large to the man, and took his unused small. There's a small impractical pouch to hold those earplugs. Ugh. Why didn't they just use a nifty case or a tube that would better complement these stylish earplugs? Grrr. That would have made it so easy and pretty to carry around.