Road to recovery...

Its been 5 weeks after my operation... Review last wed showed that the bone is growing well and more importantly in place! But it takes a minimum 6 weeks - 3 months for the fracture to heal...

Post Op pics... Doc told me, i was one of the first few "guinea pigs" who benefited from this new method of operation which requires only to open up a small incision... Tada! i only got 3 stitches on my palm rather than a L-shaped cut wound (old method) which requires at least 10 - 20 stitches...

5 weeks later the scar, not very visible liaoz...

2nd therapy todae... Left hand placed into a air blown sand box to loosen up the muscles so that the therapy will be more effective...

My left hand in the machine, not very visible...

The therapist was telling me that my hand should be able to flex at least 40 degrees, currently, i managed 52 degrees with my fingers pointing in the upward direction but the downward direction i only managed 8 degrees, which is very bad... I might need another op if this contines :(

Will be going back to the office on the 17th, hope my mail box will not burst...

Left hand of a "Gero"...

Sigh... my left hand been fractured on 19th jun during a soccer game... Sigh went for a 50-50 ball against a colleague, having ran too fast and i spun... using my left hand to support my body during the fall, it took all the impact of the fall resulting in a fracture...

Intially tot it was just a sprain, so i was just hoping tat the pain will go away while i go into dreamland... but i was too naive... the pain was too persistent; kept me awake and i had no choice but to go to SGH A&E @ 2am... X-rays show that there is a fracuture, doc was saying i might need a op to fix it... So he just gave me a temporary cast to restrict my left wrist from moving, till i go for my appt to meet the hand specialist...

Tada! Left fractured hand of a "Gero" casted!

Mummified....

Anyway... went for my appt to see the hand specialist, he suggests that i shud go for the op to fix the fracture... meaning i will have a permanent screw in my left wrist bone... which recovery will take me 4-6 weeks... Another alternative is to put on cast for 3 more months and the fracture might not even heal at all... I have chosen to go for the op on next tues...

Pics my left hand finally free from cast! The fractured spot!

See the brusing at the wrist region....

Closer look at the brusing... It seems that the force/impact that acted on my wrist was quite "formidable"... Even if there is no fracture, i think it will be a very bad sprain which will take weeks to heal... PS: this looks like Stephen Chow in "鹿鼎记" who was poisoned by "化骨棉掌"... ^^

Another cast, a plastic one... this one is so much more comfortable... More ventilated than the previous one... Gotta wear this even after my op... sigh...

I think my left hand is quite "suay"... got dislocation on my left elbow and a slight fracture too when i was in primary 4... it recovered but still u can feel some difference in the sense that the functionality was not as good....

Well doc told me for this injury, i will regain 50-90% of the functionality after the op.... Well, just hoped that every thing will go well....

"Mickey Mouse" Amp....

Haiz! Simply can't helpz it... But to have another post on this expensive system, the speakers are to be delivered soon, not much chance to listen to it liaoz... Anyway, this week the Wavac 833 Tube Amps (Mickey Mouse Amp...) are finally turned on after hibernating / collecting dust for such a long time!! Pics of them shining brightly....

Being 2 pieces, they cost twice as much as the Burmester MK3 Power Amps.... Sound wise? Of course u have higher expectations since u are paying so much more... The characteristics of Wavac Amps, they throw a deep sound stage beyond the wall. With such depth, it sounded really realistic as though u are listening to a live performance, with the drums thrashing deep behind... The instruments played sounded very too "full" (dun know how to define.... hehe...)

Burmester on the other hand brings the sounds stage closer to you and the instruments sounds larger but personally for some reasons i feel they sounded faster... Well its about personal preference seriously, no right or wrong if u prefer either one, most importantly both sounded good and "shiok" hehe....

Last but not least the beautiful Wavac 833 Power Amp, take a look at it and u will know why i called it "Mickey Mouse"... PS: Operating cost of these amps aren't cheap as they need air conditioners to cool them...

200k system still there!!!

Spend my sat (ok again!) in Adephi... Managed to take some pictures of the show room this time of the dream set up i was talking about before it is being delivered to its rightful owner...

Tada! First pic of the 200k (all german product) system, the Burmester Pre and Power + CD Player @ the centre, with Tidal Contriva Speakers @ the sides... Wavacs 833 (Gold in colour) monoblocks (another great sounding, expensive stuff!), I called it the "Mickey mouse" waiting to be auditioned... The audition rooms looks so spacious, how i wished i could have such a big room for my system... I wanna put some spot lights in my room too....

A closer look @@.... droolz....

Looking at the Burms! Top CD Player, CD Player Power, New Pre Amp followed by 911MK3 Power Amp on the finite element rack...

The beautiful Tidal Contriva polished till perfection, with Diamond Tweeters (heard it cost 5000 dollars a piece....) and white Ceramic Drivers...

One word... Poisonous.... Hehehehehe...

"Abusing" a 200k System...

Sat i am at my usual hang out place again... Adephi! Where all the treasures lie... Was lucky that i was able to audition a 200k system.... @@

Burmester 077 Pre Amp, Burmester 911MK3 Power Amp, Burmester Top of the range CD Player (a really good cd player, making cd sound analogue... but very ex...) and Tidal Contriva Speakers... Felt so good listening to Bad Company... Staging and everything was great...

Went out of the audio room and listened to Tidal Pianos Speakers with Burmester 032 with the Bad Company CD and everything sounded so dull due to insufficient power to drive the speakers...

Went back to the 200k system audition room and listened to one of the mostly played audiophile songs: "Jazz Variants" where there are lotsa drums, xylophone and triangles... Started this song with very low volume and was encouraged by CF to on it louder (Thanks!!! I have always wanna abused such an expensive system, :p hehehe....)...

I cranked up the volume... and this song really reveals the true potential of this system... Great lightning slams coming from the drums and the speed was very very fast (great dynamics) as though u were listening to a live band...

Aw, i am badly poisoned :(.... this is indeed a dream setup... A very expensive dream.... :'(

Professor Eddie Leonardi

Professor Leonardi... thats how i used to call this wonder lecturer of mine while i was doing my undergraduate studies in UNSW... Today, I have just got to know that he had passed away for 4 months on the 14th Dec 2008 (http://www.mech.unsw.edu.au/content/about_us/2008.cfm?ss=1).

Professor Leonardi was my Refrigerant & Air Conditioning lecturer in my first 2005 January session in my third year of my undergraduate studies (my second year in UNSW). From the R&AC lectures i have attended, i felt that he was the best lecturer who have taught me in UNSW because of his ability to explain concepts in such simple manner which makes u pick things up really fast. I enjoyed his R&AC classes and never skips them.

In May 2005, almost towards the end of session one, i was required to choose a topic for my thesis, i approached him and asked him if he could take me as his student instantly after knowing that he required students for his research topics. Despite my fair results, he took me in as his research student with a condition that i need to take up Computational Fluid Dynamics in the 2nd session as a private candidate even though it was not being offered . I took on the challenge as i know that i could learn alot from him and it will benefit me in the long run.

Professor Leonardi was very approachable, i remembered he will spend about 2-3 hours in his room with me, discussing about vectors calculus and CFD problems almost every week despite his busy schedule. He also arranged a private tutor for me on this subject as it was a very tough subject to do alone. Thanks to his effort, i fare quite well in CFD and FYP and finally got my degree which finds me a decent job back in Singapore.

Professor Leonardi, thank you for your guidance... May you will rest in peace.

Sports Day...~

Friday was sports day, 4 of my colleagues and i formed a team called SKP United to compete in the street competition... I had bad experiences with that tennis pitch with small goal post, the last 2 competitions (both Ascendas Cup) i played i scored nothing and got knock out without even going into 2nd round....

Friday was different, there were 7 teams and the teams were divided into 2 groups A & B. SKP were in group A and sheessshhh we had to play 4 matches, 1 more than group B. Group B have got 2 very good teams, thankfully we need not play them in the first round. Anyway started the first match with a nil nil draw with another GS team, 2nd Match we thrashed Egrets 3-0 and the last we won 2-1 giving us a total pts of 7 to go into the 2nd round...

2nd Round we met group B leaders and we drew nil-nil, follow by group B 2nd placer, our dso soccer team manager's team where we lost 1-nil because of play act? :p Which made us concede a penalty... 3rd Game was with the other GS team from the first round where this time we won 1 - nil. The four teams were all tied on equal 4 pts... But Group B teams got first and 2nd because they scored one more goals then the rest of the 2... Anyway we split the moni among the 2 GS teams, 100 bucks! Each of us pocketing 10 bucks after 4- 5 hours under the hot sun!

Anyway, the purpose of this thread is also to pay tribute to my white F30 street soccer shoe which have served me well for these 2 years... Some shots of the badly wounded shoe with its "coffin"....

So sad.... :(

Update!...

Been away for a while... Finally got sometime to update my bloggy... A bit tired to update on my taiwan trip just too lazy to edit the photos...

Aniway shud start by introducing a new member to my hifi setup... SKALA! A needle which i bought on tuesday, a "little" reward to myself, as i can finally hit the roads by myself (well if u know what it means hahaha!)

SKALA...!

Its white! Wording is red! Cool yea!

Picking up Signals....

For the first hour after the cartridge had been mounted... Listening it to it... I was thinking hmmm why did i pay for no improvement?! As the cartridge runs in and the sound begins to open up, i was impressed... Sound stage was better, More details from the drum cymbals and guitars... I had never enjoyed listening to Take 5 from Dave Brubeck, Rodrigo y gabriela's guitar album as well as Eric Clapton's unplug that much... Details and most importantly it sounded sweet... :) I had just run it in for about 10 hours and i need about 40 hours more for this cartridge to reach its true potential~...

Yesterday, sat was a eventful day... Trap at home as it was raining outside as i run in my cartridge for 4 hours enjoying music... Went to Adephi and got some new rock records...!~

Bad Company (Excellent Recording and of course nice music!) Pink Floyd, the wall a classic record and Megadeth (something similar to Metallica)

I am a "Bad Company"! ( Been Wanting to get this record for a while)

Anyway got to know a new friend by the name of Loke who has changed to a burmester system to match his genesis speakers (costly stuffs!). He offered to bring me to his friend, steven's place to check out out the top end genesis speaker 1.1 powered by cello pre and power amps, source roksan TT and esoteric transport, clock and dac... It was an offer that is too good to refuse... Hence after the wedding dinner @ abt 11.30, i took a train down to bishan to meet him...

Once i stepped into the basement, i saw 4 pieces of speakers, the 2 outermost speakers for the bass while the center 2 are for the high frequencies... I am about 1.78m tall and the speakers are about 2.2m tall in height... I have not seen such big speakers before and the finishing was amazing, (argh i shud have took a photo of it with me standing beside)! It will cost about 250k USD just to have one built now!...

First impression of the system, i love the huge and wide sound stage.... Fast and dynamic music, i was thinking well i think my system is about the same but i was wrong... I tried playing the Bad Company record on my system this afternoon, i was totally "devastated" haha! It sounded so slow compared to Steven's... :( Dynamics totally losing out... Everything sounds so unnatural.... grrr....! I think i need a few days of from my system and forget about how Steven's system sound before i start playing again... sigh....

Anyway was happy i was able to know new people through this hobby and got to know how their system rocks!~~

Taiwan Day 2

Day 2... We forced ourselves up very early in the morning at about 5.00 a.m. to catch a train to Hua Lien then to a small town within Taroko Gorge... The train took about 2 hours to reach Hua Lien before we took a bus to Tian Siang which was another 2 hours trip...

We reached Tian Siang Youth Activity Centre at about 1 plus in the afternoon... This was what we saw from our room... A friend who stayed in Grand Formosa before mentioned "whao! the view from this activity centre was much better than Formosa"...

Views from Tian Siang Youth Activity Centre Room

We soon head for lunch... This was another shot some where near the activity centre...

Scenic views near the activity centre

It was about 2 plus before we headed for the Baiyang waterfall... Gotta get there early as the sun sets earlier during winter period and in the mountainous region... Here are some of the scenic shots i took on the way to Baiyang trail...

Scenic Shot 1

Scenic Shot 2

Scenic Shot 3

At about 4 plus... We finally reached what we wanted to see... Baiyang Waterfall.... My take using a neutral density filter which slows down light going into the lense, thus creating water in motion as shown below...

Baiyang Waterfall

There was another path leading to Shui Lian Dong, but this wasn't the one monkey god stayed at... The sign showed walked about 115m and u will reach the cave...

Path leading to the Water Curtain Cave

Its a pity that i could not bring my cam into the the cave... it was liked raining within the caves... Within the caves was beautiful... Water flowing from the top of the caves forming a curtain thus the name...

This was the only shot i took at the caves entrance/exit as my cam is safe from water there....

Water flow from the Cave of Water Curtain

We gotta head back to the activity centre as it was getting really late as the sun was about to set... We rested early that nite to prepare for the next day trip...

Taiwan Day 1....

20th Dec 2008, 1300HRS, I took a flight to Taiwan with 5 friends of mine... After 5 hours of flight, we arrived in Taiwan. From the airport, the 6 of us took a cab to our hotel which is located in Xi Men Ding, Taipei...

This is one of the more crowded areas in Taipei where food and shopping is available almost everywhere...

The streets of Xi Men Ding in Taipei...

Everyone of us are tired and of course hungry after the 5 hours flight... Our first meal was to have steamboat at one of the restaurants...

Where we settled our first meal...

Steamboat right in the middle of the table...

Tired and hungry, we sat at our table and feast for at least 2-3 hours before walking around Xi Men Ding...

Soon we found a well known shop famous for selling noodles.... Though we were quite full, we ordered 3 bowls and shared among ourselves...

Signage of the shop...

From the people crowding outside the shop, you can tell how famous their noodles are...

The Shop...

From the almost finished bowl and the thumbs up tells you how good were the noodles...

Ah Zong noodles...

Preview to Sun Moon Lake's Photos...

A preview of paranomic shot of SML (made up of 3 photos) in the morning...

Everyone stay tuned @ facebook and my bloggy for updates on my Taiwan trip (20th - 29th Dec)....

:)