Silence before the storm

Channel News Asia sent an SMS to my handset regarding the morning showers yesterday at 7:51am.

It read "Heavy rain with thunder and gusty winds expected over many areas between 7am and 10am. PUB warns flash floods may occur in low-lying areas".

It seemed serious. While ironing my shirt in the morning, I can see the weather changing quickly outside the balcony. The morning sun on the landed properties against the dark clouds was an interesting contrast. I ran for my camera just to capture this.

The above shot was taken using my Ricoh GX100, but the shot was actually over-exposed by the camera because of the multi-area mode. I had to lower the exposure a little to capture what I saw yesterday morning.

The heavy rain came and went quickly. By the time when I am on the way to the office, it was a slight drizzle.

The actual shot here.

Panerais and cuff size

The one big downside to owning a Panerai is that it most probably would not be able to fit into the cuff of a shirt easily. My shirts are all done to accommodate my Omega Speedmaster. With a calf strap of around 4mm thickness and one of those large PAM buckles, it is not possible to wear the PAM nicely.

I got a shirt done just for this purpose... I opted for a slightly smaller diameter, but with the cutting of the cuff more pronounced so as to show the side of the strap and watch. At least it is a different style from my other shirts.

My tailor suggested that I bring back the other shirts and they will redo the cuff if they still have stock for the material. Perhaps I will take up their offer for some of the shirts... especially my favourite Thomas Mason fabric ones.

Some wrist shots here.

Not so great carnival

We went to the UTES Carnival 2008 at Fort Canning Park on Sunday. I did not have any expectations that it will be great or even matching our local Pasar Malam standards, and yes, I was not disappointed. There will not be another trip next year. hahaha...

It was a hot day to climb up the slope to Fort Canning Park, but we made it eventually. The inflatable bouncing "castle" was supposed to be the main draw for Lucas, but it turned out that the surface was so hot due to the sun that it was not possible to climb and jump all over it.

We then took a walk round the game stalls and also to the food area. Lucas was content with eating junk food such as pop-corn and bags of chips. We then went off the The Legends to finish the remainder of the pop-corn before going off to my in-laws's place.

When we went home that night, after "Batman Begins" on tv, Lucas told us he had a fun day... I guess junk food is all a kid is after. ;)

Some pics here.

At Amelia's

Nicky is Lucas's friend at home. It's a male mixed terrier. Amelia's the owner. ;)

We always see them since they are staying at the lift level on the ground floor. Nicky will always run out to the gate when he hears Lucas's voice.

More pics here.

Strap Works

Got one Strap Works 1950 Ox Blood calf strap for the 183G. The website is quite slow, so patience is advised. Quality is good, but I seem to be between 2nd and 3rd strap holes. 2nd is too tight, and 3rd is slightly loose... sigh... 3rd hole works better for me in extended wear...

It's a real nice color. The strap is also quite thick.

Delivery and ordering process with Jonathan Kiu was a breeze. Email exchanges were at instant messaging speed.

More pics here.

Radiomir Black Seal

The Panerai Radiomir Black Seal, PAM183G. Only 1500 pieces of G series produced, with the "Black Seal" wordings just above 6 o'clock, making it a little more collectible that the other later series.

More pics here.

Broken in

Not my audio components breaking in from a new state, but my home... yes... 14 levels off the ground and the perpetrator has the guts to do so in broad daylight... What kind of Singapore are we living in today?

And you would have imagined that a condominium managed by Knight Frank would provide adequate security for the residents.

The person climbed in via the fire hose parapet outside my unit, stepped onto the aircon compressor and onto the window ledge, leaving a few foot prints on my bermudas that I left to dry on the ledge.

I wore my Speedmaster and left my Panerai at home, my Macbook was lying in plain view in my audio room, the audio equipment and my LPs are at stake, my wife's jewelery are in the drawer, a mix of USD, GBP, SA Rand and Ringgit is in another drawer, my passport was in full view... but... nothing was stolen. Perhaps we were lucky that the intruder did not see anything worth stealing.

He rummaged thru the drawers and actually closed it before leaving... And he did not use the front door, preferring to climb out to the parapet that he came in from.

The whole floor from 17 till 3 had some footprints on the parapet, indicating that he may have tried his luck at the other floors of the units that were next to the fire hose.

We only knew of this when a neighbour from the 4th floor came up to inform us of the incident.

This happened during the afternoon of 30 June 2008. I made a police report the following day. The management is indifferent about this and is not going to alert the other residents about the incident.

I learnt last night that an opposite block also suffered the same fate.