Macintoshed

It's official. Tomorrow marks the day we really move on to the "other" side.

Tomorrow, we pick up our 20-inch 2GHz Intel Core Duo iMac. We could've, today. But we didn't have time to wait for the guy to fix it up.

With YellowSub's Powerbook, my iBook and our two iPods, the newest addition makes 5. Heck, even my parents jumped onto the Mac bandwagon a couple years back when my dad carted home an eMac from the PC fair. YellowSub's sis has one too, and my sis might just make her Macbook purchase in a few days time since her IBM's konked out.

Now brings us to the next question -- what should we do with our desktop PC?

Happy National Day

9 August is here again. And this year, we have tickets to the Parade - the last time it's ever going to be in the National Stadium before it's finally torn down.

Finally.

2 years ago, "they" said that it would be the last parade in the stadium then. Now "they" are really saying it's the last one.

:p

Sunday Itinerary

0730 Mat mops floor / Yellow Sub goes cycling
0945 Breakfast @ Ghim Moh
1130 Mass
1245 Crumpler boutique @ Wheelock Place
1315 Borders
1430 Cathay Photo @ Marina Square
1700 Istana
1900 Dinner @ YS mom & dad's
2100 Badminton
2200 Home

Rise & Shine
Housework and exercise.

No chwee kueh today (sung to the tune of Herman's Hermits' No Milk Today)
Despite living so nearby for over 20 years, I don't think I'd ever been to Ghim Moh on a Sunday morning. So this weekend was an eyeopener for me. It kinda felt like a mini Chinatown with shopkeepers setting up tables and selling their wares along the passageway and across the hawker centre for more visibility, with loudhailers and music blasting for attention. The chwee kueh stall was closed, so we had mee pok, nasi lemak and dim sum. Never knew Ghim Moh could be so alive with activity.

Mass
We actually reached Church pretty early at 11.10am! Usually, we'd be rushing in after parking our vehicle before the opening hymn starts. heh heh.

Bags, bags and more bags
We simply love Crumpler. Between the two of us, we have 3 Crumplers - a camera sling bag, a laptop haversack and a little camera case. Alas, the camera haversack YellowSub was looking for was not too suitable, so we don't have a 4th.

Books
YellowSub had been hunting for this particular CD he had read about in Life! It's a Sergey Prokofiev box set that had been reviewed and he wanted to take a listen. But HMV had sold its last copy and That CD Shop in Tanglin Mall didn't have it either. Well, neither did Borders.

Incidentally, call me suaku but Borders has now this very cool music testing system where you just pick almost any CD, scan in the barcode, and voila! Sample tracks come on. So you no longer have to depend on what CDs they display for testing. The only problem arises when they don't stick the barcode low enough so that you can have it scanned.

Photography
YellowSub bought a new D200 last week (yippee for me, because i've inherited his D70) and needed a camera backpack because the current slingbag puts a strain on the shoulders when more lenses are added. So we went to trusty old Cathay Photo. The Peninsula outlet is closed on Sundays so we had to head to the Marina Square outlet, which is manned by Peninsula staff on Sundays (??!??!). Anyhoos, we spent 2 hours there. In the first hour, we met YellowSub's friends E & CS who came in to shop. In the second hour, we met another friend, D. Who, too, came in to shop. It's weird that of all places, you meet 3 friends in one little shop.

At the end of our 2 hours, we walked out of the shop with a Lowepro haversack, a tripod and a tripod head. It's amazing how tripods can cost so much. And the head -- just as much!


The Gardens
We had meant to go to the Botanic Gardens to play around with our cameras when it occurred to me while heading towards Dhoby Ghaut that the Istana had an open house. So we decided to stop there instead. I was last there more than 20 years ago when I was just a kid. YellowSub was just there this year for a work-related function. We walked through the gate, and there was I thinking -- hey, this is simple enough. What I didn't expect was when I turned round the corner, I saw a whole marquee with x-rays and many, many armed guards.

Ok, keep cool. I don't have any guns.

Into the gardens, well, golf course... very nice grass. There was an art exhibition of painted Bata shoes. It was a really pretty sight, and somewhat touching to see the artworks of our kids displayed for National Day. We started taking photos of the colourful shoes when I saw a few buggies come by.

"Hey, Istana buggies!" I said

Then YellowSub replied, "The President is in it."

*tada*

True enough, the buggy stopped and out came President SR Nathan and his wife, along with their entourage to view the artwork. And like bees swarming to honey, citizens started going towards them. It's tough being a public figure, difficult walking around without any obstacles and not getting upset. heheh. We were pretty lucky because they viewed the exhibit right across us, unblocked. So I think I managed to get a good shot. He smiled at the visitors and shook some of their hands, hopped on to the buggy and to their next stop.

What do you think the president's reaction would be if you called him "Your majesty"? Would he be stunned for a while? lol.

We continued on our tour of the Istana with impeccably well-kept greens, and it was an amazingly long walk. I shoulda worn my Papillios' but I was afraid I'd be turned away at the gate for being inappropriately dressed, so I wore my work shoes instead. Turned out to be a big mistake. :p