Clothes. Check.
Toiletries. Check.
Camera. Check.

Here I was, getting ready to head back to Ipoh, Malaysia. Started the car and heard a rattling sound when I turned on the air conditioning in the car. Since the Toyota Service Centre was just 10 minutes away, I decided to drive my car there to have it checked. It was the holidays, half the engineers were on vacation but that also means that lots of Toyota car owners were free to send their cars for servicing. I did not have an appointment, so I had to wait for my queue number to be called.

Approximately 45 minutes later, my queue number came up on the screen. I had a quick chat with the service engineer and told her about my problem. She got a foreman to do a quick check on my car and the initial response was pretty promising. He said that it had to do with a loose screw. A little tightening should do the trick. Minutes later, the foreman was whispering to the service engineer and they called me to the service desk again. To my horror, she said that they had tightened the screw but the rattling sound was still there and it could be due to the compressor unit and they had to do a thorough check. To add salt to injury, she said that they were fully booked for the day and for the rest of the year. If the problem required a replacement, I would have to wait till after the New Year holidays. Unfortunately for them, I did not have the luxury to wait 3 days to get my car fixed. So I told her that I needed the car urgently and I had my luggage all packed in the trunk of the car. I asked her if there was anything that she could do to help me (something that I learned regarding negotiations). She punched a few buttons on her keyboard, looked at her monitor and made a call. After a exchanging a few whispers on the phone, she hung up and looked at me. She said that she was sorry but all the service centres in Singapore were fully booked and there was nothing that she could do. Being a skilled negotiator (heh!), I told her that I needed to speak with her superior and that I needed this to be sorted out by today. She was a little hesitant at the beginning but ended up walking to her manager’s office and had a brief chat with him.

The manager stepped out of his comfy room and made his way to where I was sitting. Without introducing himself, he said that it was best we discussed this outside where my car was parked. Most likely to not cause a stir. He basically repeated what the service engineer told me but he said that he would try to get it settled by tomorrow. I told him that it was best he checked the problem first before committing anything to me. I would rather wait at the service centre until the engineers can determine what the problem was. I thought that by being there, it would pressure them to find out the problem and getting it fixed as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, it isn’t my day today. The manager came and told me an hour later that the problem was indeed due to the compressor and they had to have it replaced. It would most likely take another day before this could be repaired. The reason, the parts required needed to be ordered. I’m out of luck. Looks like I’m not such a great negotiator after all. With all the negotiation skills that I could muster, I could not stop the fact that the service center did not have the parts that they need to get my car fixed in time. Looks like I’ll have to wait another day before I could taste Ipoh Chicken Tauge again… *sniff* *sniff*

P/S: On another note, my apartment’s compressor gave up on me two weeks ago. I had to sleep without air conditioning for over a week until the landlord got it fixed. I wonder what’s wrong with all the compressors in my life.

Alright, alright, maybe they aren’t “really” mine… BUT… I had the chance to try these babies out this weekend. Rented them through a local camera rental shop in Singapore at 50% off. All for a total of SGD90 for the weekend. They have these special offers every weekend when some of their equipments aren’t rented out. I would highly recommend their services. Professional and great customer service. As for these babies, all I can say is…. WOW! I can feel the poison all over me now.

First up was the Canon EF 85mm 1.2 lens. A huge piece of glass and it feels really firm in your hands. A super duper fast lens which has no problems performing under low light. Just looking at its sexy curvaceous body, silky smooth bokeh and fast aperture makes me go ga-ga. This lens is definitely in my what-I-wanna-get list.

Next up is the tried and true Canon 1D Mark III. First thing I noticed was the weight. I was thoroughly surprised that it didn’t way any much heavier than my Canon 50D with the battery grip attached. I’ve always thought that 1-series were supposed to be heavy. I’m alreay lovin’ it from the moment I held it up with my hands.

Firing up to 10fps. All I can say is the shutter sound is AMAZINGGGGGGG!!! It really makes the Canon 5D Mark II’s shutter sound like a baby’s toy. Absolutely love the shutter sound. At 10fps, it sounds like a machine gun. It is really true what they say, the Canon 1-series are a class of their own. Although it has a 1.3x crop factor, I wasn’t really too bothered about it. You can’t really complain when your current line of gear is at 1.6x crop. The viewfinder is probably one of the many things that I needed to get used to. The exposure gauge was not at the usual place but it’s a welcome sight when everything is viewed at 100%.

I thoroughly enjoyed the focusing system in the 1D. With 19 selectable points, it was definitely much better than the 9-points I get on my current camera. I find that I can focus much faster with more points than I can with less. The other thing about the 1-series is that you won’t find any mode dials at the top of the camera. The camera is just filled with buttons, buttons and more buttons. And most importantly, the buttons are completely customizable. What I didn’t understand is why Canon could not include the file naming feature on their lower range of cameras like the 50D, etc. It’s such a simple feature to add but Canon still hasn’t done anything about it. I’m tired of having to check if I’m about to overwrite some files on my computer with the same filename (IMGxxxx.JPG).

Overall, it’s truly a piece of work. I’m so impressed with the performance of both the lens and the camera body. I hope that I would be a proud owner of one of these great equipment that Canon produces one day…

P/S: Dear darling, if you are reading this, I love you. *Hint* *Hint* Hehehehe…..

Welcome to my new blog! I was challenged by a friend recently to start blogging. I thought that was a great idea because it would keep my mind sharp and have my creative juices flowing at all times. Do check back regularly as I’m determined to have this updated as frequently as possible. Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!