Tuesday, March 20, 2018

iPhone iCloud Keychain not syncing

So recently my iPhone stopped syncing my keychain information from my Macbook.

I've tried updating my iOS on my iPhone to the latest & OS on my Macbook to the latest, but that didn't help.

Nothing from apple support pages (https://support.apple.com/en-sg/HT203783) helped too.

I was almost going to use another password manager to store my passwords that could sync. I was starting to use google to save my new passwords.

Then I chanced upon this thread (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8187366). Specifically this post:
"I did have some luck removing one device from my iCloud. In this case, I removed my MacBook Pro because I didn't want to re-do all my Apple Pay cards on my iPhone. But, when I did this, it triggered some kind of re-authorization of all my existing devices. So I basically had to re-enter my password on all my devices, and once that was done my iCloud passwords started synchronizing again. I don't know if it will stay that way, but we'll see."

I didn't have any spare device that I could remove from my iCloud, so I added a spare iPhone I had at home to my existing iCloud by signing into my iCloud using that spare iPhone.

And that did the trick! I can ditch my plans to use another password manager.

Hope that helps.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Safari 8.0.7 Don't show more alerts from this webpage


In this version of Safari 8.0.7, it allows you to mute alerts from a webpage that is repeatedly showing JavaScript alerts. The JavaScript alert dialog has 2 new visible changes
  1. The title now shows "From [webpage_name]"
  2. A checkbox with the text “Don’t show more alerts from this webpage”


To be more precise, the checkbox with the text “Don’t show more alerts from this webpage” will only appear when a confirm or alert box is triggered multiple times. Checking the box will mute future alerts from the page. This allows you to mute alerts from pages that either accidentally show the same alert over and over, or use alerts as an attempt to prevent you from leaving the page.

When it first occurred, I got curious and decided to test out this new feature. Unfortunately there isn't a setting in the preferences of Safari to enable back the alert boxes.

After some trial and error, I found out you could enable them back by:

  1. Closing all browsers on that page and loading them again
  2. Clear the related website data found in the Privacy section (See screenshot below)



Sunday, May 24, 2015

Mac Photos Flickr upload problem


Recently I upgraded my iPhotos to Photos. As most humans, we tend to be resistant to change. I was quite hesitant about it, but it was a matter of time before iPhotos get phased out and it's about time iPhotos got some upgrade.

I feel more comfortable with the side bar (I also show the side bar for iTunes), but I'm not organising them into albums anymore since they don't have the option for me to sort them. So I'll just stick to the  Moments/Location/Year views.

I also realised the thumbnails (when zoomed out) of my photos look corrupted and they are not reflecting the correct photos. I haven't managed to solve that yet.

But the problem I want to talk about in this post is about uploading to Flickr. I realised that when I right click on the photos to upload them, sometimes they would show the Flickr option and sometimes it wouldn't. After lots of trial and errors, here are what I found out.

Scenarios when the Flickr option wouldn't show:

1. 100 or more photos are selected


100 photos selected

When selecting 99, it has the Flickr option

2. Videos are selected



I also realised that when trying to upload more than 50 photos at 1 go, it causes the upload to hang and no photos get uploaded at all. The sweet spot is any number below 50.

Conclusion

Select less than 50 photos with no videos, and your upload to Flickr should work fine. Hopefully. ;)

Here's my Photos version and I'm running on OS X Yosemite.


Friday, May 22, 2015

Speed up Mouse Tracking on Mac OS X

One of my gripes when using a mac was that I could never get my mouse to track fast enough. Even the highest option available in the System Preferences wasn't fast enough for me. Especially when you're using an external monitor, and if it's quite large, your mouse pad would not be big enough for your mouse to roam in order to get from one corner of your screen to the other.  Generally, I just want to keep my hand movement to minimal. ;) Here is a solution that worked for me.

1. Open a Terminal Window. 


You can Spotlight for "terminal"

2. Check your mouse speed.


Enter the following command to see what your current setting is:

defaults read -g com.apple.mouse.scaling

This will return a numeric value, the speed of your mouse.

3. Set your mouse speed


To speed up (or slow down) your mouse tracking, you can simply change this number accordingly by typing the following command, replacing the “your_mouse_speed” with a new number such as 5.0. Notice that read has been changed to write:

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling your_mouse_speed

The maximum mouse speed on mac desktops is 3.0 (when maxed out in system preferences). I use 5.0 and it works well for me.

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling  5.0

You may need to restart your mac to see the changes take effect.

Hope that helps.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Dreamweaver CS5 doesn't load on Mac

Problem

When trying to start dreamweaver, the application hangs before the splash screen appears. Here is what I mean by the splash screen.

There is an indicator on the dock that shows the application is open and the menu only displays the Dreamweaver text and nothing else.


And the application just remains in this state for eternity.

Possible Solutions

I found a few possible solution online from https://forums.adobe.com/thread/628554.

- Disable File Vault (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4790)
- Repair Disk Permissions using Disk Utility (Spotlight for Disk Utility or go navigate using Finder and go to Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility

Unfortunately those solutions didn't work for my situation.

Solution that worked for me

I managed to find a solution from https://wordimpress.com/nothing-happens-when-launching-dreamweaver-cs5-on-mac/

1. First quit Dreamweaver CS5 if you have it launched (or kinda launched)
2. Open Finder and navigation to: Macintosh hd/users/your_user_folder/library/application support/adobe/dreamweaver cs5/en-US/
3. Here you will find the folder "configuration". Rename this folder to ‘configurationOld’ and restart Dreamweaver

What this will do is to force Dreamweaver to create that configuration folder again.

Hopefully one of these solutions will work for you. :)

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

11.11.11 - A celebration of love

11.11.11 Kenneth Stephanie Wedding

On 11 Nov 2013, we celebrate our holy matrimony of 2 years. It has been an amazing 2 years, making it a total of 9 years of a wonderful friendship together. In the 9 years, we have studied together, did cheerleading, backpacked around Europe, snowboarded, wake boarded, skydived, rode horses, rode elephants, did road trips and of course, got married. It has been an exciting adventure together and we believe greater adventure lies ahead of us!

More than just a celebration of our love, this day is also the celebration of the love of our family and friends who made our wedding so special for us. We are really blessed to have our family and friends, especially those who traveled from overseas, to celebrate this beautiful occasion with us. We are also eternally grateful to our talented and dedicated friends who helped made everything happened for us! A special shout-out to them...

Our entourage:
- Lips, Jeff, Aaron, Clement, Yuantai, Eugene
- Jessica, Cassandra, Glenda, Jaclyn, Michelle, Joanne
You guys were the ones who made the wedding run like clockwork and gave us our dream wedding. Our dream team. We can't say thank you enough for all the time, effort and expenses you've put in. We love you guys!

Band:
- Eric, Careen, Jeff, Ryan, Janice, Michelle, Jag, Andre. 
Thanx for amazing years of rocking friendship and helping us to rock the night out! \m/

Photographers:
- Kenneth, Bob, Alvin, Johan. 
Thanx for capturing the magical moments so beautifully guys. Thanx Alvin for the amazing overseas shoot and the great adventure while we were at it. ;)

Wedding coordinators:
- Yilun, Zhenying
Thank you for all the tips and awesome coordination skills that have really helped make our wedding a smooth and beautiful one. We couldn't have been in better hands than you!

Videos:

Pre-Wedding Europe Photos [by Alvin Lim]
Pre-Wedding Studio Photos [by Golden Horse Bridal Studio]
Wedding Day (Gate-Crash) [by FreshFromKenneth]
Wedding Day (Holy Matrimony) [by FreshFromKenneth]
Wedding Day (Chinese Banquet) [by FreshFromKenneth]
Wedding Photos [by Johan Mathson]
Wedding Day [by FlashBob]

Photo Booth Photos

With lots of love and hugs and kisses,
Kenneth and Stephanie

Monday, April 22, 2013

Planning the biggest day of your life. (d'Love Affair)

The greatest thing that can happen is when two individuals come together to live life as one. And we want to make that special day as memorable as possible. But it's not just about that wedding day itself, it's about the days, weeks and months leading up to it. Like they say, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail".

Planning for your big day is as important as your big day itself. That's why it's essential to have someone with experience and creativity to help you plan and execute that magical moment of your life. d'Love Affair will do just that for you. They are a wedding planning company based in Singapore who will assist couples in planning and executing everything related to your wedding. From brainstorming for ideas/themes, to booking of venues and planning your overseas photoshoot or honeymoon. We were really glad that we started planning for our wedding really early, more than a year in advance. That gave us time to think, plan and book all the various aspect of our wedding. This really helped make our preparations a wonderful journey as a couple as we planned for the next phase of our lives.

For more help and details about wedding planning and d'Love Affair, you can find them at the following sites:
facebook.com/dloveaffair
dloveaffair.com

Here's an inspiration for your wedding, our wedding MTV. :)


Two is Better Than One

Friday, September 17, 2010

11 rules your kids did not and will not learn in school

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Learn chinese in 5 minutes

Are you trying to pick up mandarin? Here's some simple phrases you can learn to help you get rolling. :P

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

I survived NUS!! (hopefully...)

I just ended my last and final exam in NUS on Star Wars day, May the 4th (be with you). geddit? :P

It was an awesome feeling, to finally finish my time in NUS. If all goes well, that is if i don't fail any module. You'll never know what the bell curve might do to you!

Spending 4 years in NUS, especially taking a Computer Science honors degree, is seriously no joke man. Ok... 3 years, i spent a year in Stockholm, Sweden. ;) In Computer Science, the modules are heavy, theoretical and the most taxing of the lot are the programming assignments. Programming assignments are a killer because they are extremely time consuming, where you have to first take time to understand the requirements, design the system, split it into different parts, (program and debug) x 100. I've never ever ever ever fully completed a major programming project, there's always something left to fix or improve. But somehow, I kinda enjoy doing that. The want to code up a working application from scratch and see it working gives me the adrenaline to program. I guess that's why I'm in Computer Science (CS). ;)

This last semester has been the most taxing of the lot where I had to clear all my CS major modules, 4 level 4000s, & 1 level 3000. And when you have 5 CS modules to take, means you have 5 major programming assignments plus the other mini assignments along the way! And every week I was just rushing to clear 1 assignment after another, late nights after late nights in school. And that's why the Computing Building is open 24hr for students, and it's definitely fully utilized every day.

And on top of school work, I'm also working part-time with my Swedish company 3S-Comaea for the last 1.5 years since I came back. More programming work, I just can't get enough of it. ;)

So now that my exams are over, I'm going to start doing some things that I've been putting off.
- Travel (going Phuket next week, yay!)
- Blog about my trips (Beijing, Santorini, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Spain... etc)
- Jamming & Songwriting (with my band Dreamfactory!)
- Train for IPPT in June
- Catch up with friends
- Go to the beach
- Some wakeboarding
- Go for scuba diving course
- Plan & discuss future business ideas

Despite everything, it has been a great journey in NUS. Though it was really tough & depressing at times, but God and my friends around saw me through it all. If not for NUS, i wouldn't have made such great friends that I have today. If not for NUS, I wouldn't have been able to spend a year working in Sweden & enjoying a time of my life traveling around in Europe. And if not for NUS, I wouldn't have gotten to know this wonderful lady called Peiyun. I guess it all works out in the end.

So, to all my friends still in NUS, NTU, SMU, SIM and whatever university you may be in, press on and keep walking the journey. Discover your purpose, reason and passion while you're there, and it'll all work out in the end. ;)

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Solution to Time Machine that's constantly in "preparing" state

Does your Time Machine application take forever to prepare? Like more than 7 hrs...? And while it's preparing, it's starts to hang your other applications? And somehow you can't seem to get it to stop despite pressing the 'Stop backing up' option. Well then you might be in a situation that I was once in.

Here's a solution which worked for me. What I did was to reduce the number of items to back up. And then slowly increase it back to my intended items I wanted to back up. And here's how you do it:

Step 1: Go to your Time Machine settings in your System Preferences



Step 2: Click the Option button and include your larger size files/folders to be excluded from the backing up process. (eg. Photos, Movies, Music... etc).



Step 3: Run your back up.

Right now as your Time Machine starts to back up, the preparing time should be shorter as there would be lesser files needed to back up. One possible reason why the previous preparing time took so long could be because "Time Machine keeps hourly backup for the past 24 hours, daily backup for the past month and weekly backup until your disk is full." (as mentioned in your Time Machine settings page). So if you haven't backed up your huge hard disk for a long time, imagine how long the preparing stage would take.

And once your backup is successful, you could remove the files to exclude and backup your remaining data. By now, the preparing phase should be significantly shorter.

Hope that helps, happy backing up!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

60 Signs You're a Singaporean

(an article from talkingcock.com)

1. Thanks to SMS, you have an extra large thumb.

2. Tks 2 SMS, u oso dun no how 2 spel n e mor.

3. You pat MRT and bus seats to cool them before you sit down.

4. At lunch, you start discussing what to eat for dinner.

5. Your wedding photos include shots of you dressed up like Louis XIV, Michael Jackson, or Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic.

6. When speaking to foreigners, you somehow feel a need to adopt an accent. (If you’re a DJ, this happens even when you’re not speaking to foreigners.)

7. You won’t raise your voice to protest policies, but you’ll raise your fists to whack someone over Hello Kitty.

8. You’re forever talking about businesses you want to set up but will probably never get around to starting.

9. You don’t know ¾ of the people attending your wedding.

10. You separate food into 2 basic groups: ‘heaty’ and ‘cooling’.

11. You’re never completely sure how many times you’ve sung the second verse of the National Anthem.

12. You think that what makes you ‘married’ is not the legal registration but whether you’ve thrown a 12 course dinner.

13. You marry for the real estate breaks.

14. You have kids for the tax advantages.

15. You move to where you want your child to go to school.

16. You feel you can’t walk around naked in your own flat.

17. You force your children to take Speech & Drama classes, but pray they won’t wind up in Arts later on.

18. You suddenly realize you’re very interested in biotech - just like you suddenly realized three years ago that you were very interested in e-commerce, and before that, engineering, and before that, medicine and law.

19. You think being an entrepreneur is setting up a bubble tea/Portuguese egg tart/gao luck/porridge shop right next to an existing bubble tea/Portuguese egg tart/gao luck/porridge shop.

20. You think people are inconsiderate when they don’t leave their table immediately after eating at the food court but think you have every right to take 25 bites to finish the last red bean in your ice kachang.

21. You find it impossible to make suggestions without drawing a fishbone chart first.

22. If you’re a guy, whenever you get together with your guy friends, you invariably trade army stories.

23. If you’re a girl, whenever you get together with your girl friends, you invariably trade stories about how your stupid guy friends are forever trading army stories.

24. You think the most important sporting event in Singapore this year was David Beckham switching from Manchester United to Real Madrid.

25. You somehow feel that food tastes better when eaten by a longkang.

26. It actually makes a difference to you being called an ‘NSMan’ rather than a ‘Reservist’.

27. You’ve eaten more times at the Esplanade than you’ve actually seen shows there.

28. You need campaigns to tell you how to be courteous, to flush toilets, have sex, etc.

29. When you visit the Zoo, you wonder what the animals taste like.

30. You feel the urge to add the suffix ‘-polis’ to everything, viz. Biopolis, Airtropolis, Fusionopolis, Entrepolis, etc.

31. You always feel oddly hungry at 11 pm, and are willing to drive to far away places for supper.

32. You meet in hotels a lot.

33. Your children have a rudimentary knowledge of Tagalog or Bahasa Indonesia.

34. You work at McDonald’s when you’re old rather than young.

35. You’ll gladly spend $50,000 on a car, but will go to great lengths to save a few bucks on ERP charges or even a few cents on a parking coupon.

36. Pork floss and mayonnaise on bread is a completely natural combination to you.

37. If you’re pregnant, you have the strange ability to make people on the MRT fall asleep instantly.

38. You ask for the bill by miming a signing movement.

39. You’ve started referring to foreign employees as ‘talent’ instead of ‘expatriates’.

40. At the dinner table, you’re always discussing which other food places serve better versions of what you’re eating.

41. You copy down licence plate numbers of cars involved in accidents.

42. You think your boyfriend doesn’t really love you unless he gives you part of his liver.

43. During sales, you book hotel rooms near malls to enable you to shop more efficiently.

44. You pronounce the letter ‘R’ as ‘ah-rer’ and the letter ‘H’ as ‘haytch’.

45. No matter how old you are, you keep associating people with their secondary schools. (alternative: No matter how old you are, you secretly need to know what other people got for their PSLE, O levels and A levels.)

46. You’re always on a quest for the definitive version of your favourite local dish.

47. When you explain things to people, you keep (a) using alphabets, and (b) speaking in point form.

48. You believe that you can generate ‘creativity’ through rules and committees.

49. You ‘chope’ a seat by placing a packet of tissues on the chair.

50. You’re very forthright with your criticisms of the Gahmen, unless there’s a chance they might actually hear you.

51. You diligently track the whereabouts of your favourite hawkers, i.e..you know that the famous Tiong Bahru Bao is now in Jurong, the famous Outram Char Kuay Teow is now in Hong Lim Centre and the famous Lau Hock Kien Hokkien mee from the old Lau Pa Sat is now at Beach Road.

52. Your mother probably can’t speak your ‘mother tongue’.

53. You’d rather drink your own pee than pay someone more for water.

54. You secretly find that the best part of the Speak Good English Movement is hearing the Singlish bits in their ads.

55. You have an automatic sensor in your head which categorizes people you meet into stayer/ quitter, cosmopolitan/heartlander, normal/ express/ gifted, etc.

56. You think we’re living in a modern, sophisticated country even when our leaders still insist on wearing their school uniforms.

57. You wish your constituency is in a walkover, because otherwise it’s damn ‘leceh’.

58. During elections, you decide that there is no credible opposition even though you don’t know the name of the opposition candidate in your constituency.

59. You think having a constitution is like the condition you get when you don’t eat enough fibre.

60. You can never quite remember what “the core values” of Singaporeans are.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Summer in Europe 09

Ok i'm back to Singapore, again. :P i guess many of you would have realized by now, but i'm just putting it down for the record. for good? yes. i'm always back for good, it's just that i was over to Stockholm over the spring for a short work trip. ;)

i've always enjoyed being in Stockholm. the weather is amazing, cool and dry unlike in Singapore where you sweat like you're dispensing water. the people there are amazing, beautiful and extremely friendly. and of course, the fact that it's in Europe!

this time, it was a short 7 week trip back to Europe during my school holidays. it's not exactly a holiday trip for me, but a work trip for my company. they decided to fly me back to work with them during my school holidays, and of course while i'm there, i take the opportunity to travel! ;) so for my 1st 6 weeks, i was working in Stockholm and the next 1 week, i was in Prague and Budapest. during my 1 year in Stockholm in 2008, i travelled mainly to central and western Europe, so this time i went to visit eastern Europe. the eastern side is much more cheaper with an old charm to it. time was short while i was there, spending only 3.5 days in Prague and 3 days in Budapest. But it was great while it lasted and i made some cool new friends too. i hope to go back there and also to the other countries like Poland and Croatia as well. i'll save that for my next trip. ;)

i have a few people and friends requesting for some of my trips itinerary and info. so i'm wondering if i should blog about my individual trips to the various cities i've been to. i think that would be rather useful for those wanting to go Europe. sigh. i would love to do that, if i can find the time for it... :P meanwhile, you can look @ my photos/videos and see which are the places that interest you and i can share with you more about it.

you can view the photos of the places i visited in a map view here.


Summer chillout with colleagues

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

shallow english football fans

sometimes the media are right. all you read about english football fans being hooligans are not that far from the truth. i am just so amused that i can even get slammed by man u fans when i, a fellow man u fan, actually go to old trafford to support man u and watching them trash stoke city. fans slamming another fan of the same team! how absurd, shallow and pathetic can they get? if those uneducated english fans haven't realized, it is the global (& asian) fans who are supporting the team to help make the team successful. and that's maybe why man u's doing an asia tour this year to reach out to their fans and to build up their fan base? but with english fans like those, man u will have a tough time keeping the fans happy together...

here's the video which i uploaded while i was @ old trafford..






and here are some of the comments..


you can check out more of the comments @ the youtube page.

one of the more hilarious comment was the one by the stoke city fan, "We Outclassed You On That Day So Shut The F**k Up". errr... stoke got trashed 5-0...?

Monday, June 01, 2009

Don't copy if you can't paste

A popular motivational speaker was entertaining his audience. He said: "The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who wasn't my wife!"

The audience was in silence and shock. The speaker added: "And that woman was my mother!"

Laughter and applause.

A week later, a top manager trained by the motivational speaker tried
to crack this very effective joke at home. He was a bit foggy after a drink.

He said loudly to his wife who was preparing dinner,"The greatest years of my life were
spent in the arms of a woman who was not my wife!"

The wife went; "Aaaaaggh!" with shock and rage !!

Standing there for 20 seconds trying to recall the second half of the joke, the manager finally blurted out
"...and I can't remember who she was!"

By the time the manager regained his consciousness, he was on a hospital bed nursing burns from boiling water.

Moral of the story: Don't copy if you can't paste!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Ikea to take over General Motors

Business Update:
Just Announced - IKEA to take over GM

IKEA HAS ANNOUNCED IT'S INTENTION TO TAKE OVER GM and TO SELL CARS.

In that case, WE WILL BE IN DEEP TROUBLE...

ALL THEY GIVE YOU IS THIS ...


AND THIS...

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Mambo stats

Here's some mid-week breather, something i got from my friend. If you're not into mambo songs, then you'll probably not get it. But if you love mambo and stats, then you'll love this! xP


Monday, April 20, 2009

Bleeding for a cause

If i saw and heard correctly, this should be my 5th time or would have already donated 5 times previously. As much as i can, i try to donated my blood at least once every year. It's for a good cause.

For those who haven't donated before, i would strongly recommend you to if your health permits. It's not really that painful or scary and your blood will definitely replenish, so don't worry about not having enough blood. Think of the thousands of times you fell or injured yourself and bled profusely, including those times you can't recall when you're a child, your body would then generate more blood. I guess it's the needles, or the fear of it that stops people. But just don't look at it won't be so bad. Although you could feel some pricking in your arm, but pain is not any stronger than an ant's bite. So go donate at the next drive! And for those 1st timers, you'll get a "Please be nice to me, this is my first time." sticker to get a 5-star loving treatment from all staff. ;) You can always find out more info from Redcross or HSA.


This photo is taken with my iPhone. And yes, for the uninitiated, I've finally gotten my iPhone. ;) And I must say, this is the best phone I've ever used. For a techie like me, it has all the features, customization and community support that an IT geek would need. But if you're looking for a simple phone and you don't intend to get a data plan with it, then I would recommend you not to get it as it defeats the objective of it being an internet phone. Ok, I'll probably talk more about the iPhone another time. Meanwhile you can check out the iPhone page for all the cool features it has, and not forgetting all the applications you can download!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Back for good?

Hi guys! I'm back. back in Singapore to be more specific. ;) Yes back to $3 SGD (17 SEK) meals as compared to $15 SGD (80 SEK) meals in Stockholm, back to local yummy food like char kway teow, chwee kway, won ton mee, prata and not just pasta, pizza or kebab, back to my church, family, friends and my darling! But definitely not glad to be back to 30℃ temperatures with 70% humidity! Nonetheless, it's great to be back home after being away for the whole of 2008. I've been back for about a month plus already and have been doing quite a lot of catch up and meet up with friends. And one of the most common question i get is,"So, are you back for good?". I guess i've been away for too long that people think i've decided to migrate over. :P But yes, i'm back for good. ;) It was really sad when i had to leave Stockholm. My church and my company there was like my family during my 1 year stay. for the record, i was doing an internship and exchange programme there rather than going there for my full-time studies.

so what's been going on now? well, i'm back to school in NUS. and no i have not graduated yet as most people would think so. unfortunately, or fortunately, i will be in school till june 10 before i graduate. and while i'm at it, i'm still working part-time with my swedish company, adding on to my usual hectic singaporean-chc lifestyle. ;) but i love my company, and they love me too! so i'm glad to be onboard their team.

actually i have alot to blog about regarding my recent winter trip around europe, but haven't really found the time (or set aside the time as some people would insist to phrase it) to go about doing it. so just make do with looking at my photos while i trying to set aside some time (if i have) for it soon. which might be... never? :P

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Julbord - My Swedish Christmas Dinner

on friday, i had a company Christmas julbord at a restaurant along surbrunnsgatan. i can't really remember the name the place but it had very tasty traditional swedish food! as per all smörgåsbord, we started with the cold dishes like herring, ham, salmon, moose sausages and smoked reindeer's heart! yes i ate rudolf's heart! :P i thought it would be soft and taste like the "spare parts" (pig's intestines, liver.. etc) we would eat in singapore, but apparently not. it was tough like meat and tasted really good, like smoked ham. and my colleague was telling me it is hard because the heart is a muscle. so desu ne... there were raw herrings in different flavours and i tried about 5 different kinds. this wasn't my 1st time eating herring in sweden but it still takes a while to get used to it. i find it ok but it's really an acquired taste, especially if you're not swedish. ;) after that, we moved on to the hot dishes like meatballs, omelette, sausages, ribs and some other fancy traditional swedish stuffs which i can't really remember. and then finally we finished off with deserts!

there was a wide spread of really good swedish food, but more than that, the atmosphere was AMAZING! every once in a while when we were eating, 1 of my colleagues would call for everyone's attention by making the triangle-like sound using the fork and the wine glass. and then he would start singing a swedish song and every one will continue along with him. and this happened like about 7 times throughout, initiated by different people, but mainly by the more rah-rah ones. ;) there were moments of singing, talking, sharing, laughing and of course appreciation. it was a rowdy but yet heart-warming and joyful night. everyone was so spontaneous and high-spirited and it really felt like a nice family gathering. but in every sense of the word, these people really form my swedish family. although i started out as an intern in the company, but i ended up being part of a swedish family. never once did it felt like work when i enter my office everyday. there is always so much fun, joy and laughter being around all my colleagues. i was really touched by all the gifts, love and kind words from all my colleagues and bosses that night. i'm really really really going to miss them alot! this has really been one of the best years of my life.

3S & Comaea, God Jul och Gott Nytt År!










Here's my NCST graduation video which i did for our batch to thank everyone in stockholm for their love and making our stay here a wonderful and memorable one!! (facebook photos and videos link)


NCST Batch 6 Graduation Video


NCST Batch 6 Graduation Flickr