A new winning bid...

A weekend that started out not so good is ending well & fine. Do read on.

Me here to relate one of my recent "voyages" into the virtual world of "Lelong"...in simple English, the virtual Auction World in the Net!

I've been wanting to get a pair of binoculars...functioning & not a toy but reasonably small & portable. I've bought those "plasticky" ones for kids. Even supposedly good ones eg from Tesco. Ok. Can see... but not for serious uses. I had the opera type in my younger days.

Now, spotting one model on auction was a temptation indeed. Well, to cut a long night short, me won the bid but at a much higher price than hoped for. However from my search in Google, it was still a bargain. A FRP (Folding Roof Prism) bino. Good specs, too. A Tasco Essentials series bino.

Here's a pic of it on arrival, c/w carrying case & strap (not clearly seen):

Well, what do you think?

And why did I say the weekend "...started out not so good..."? Well, for 1 thing I had a great disappointment when the bino didn't arrive as scheduled. Being sent via a courier service, it should have been a "next day delivery". But somehow it wasn't.

The good part is...it arrived 1 day earlier than the delayed period as informed by the courier service staff! Yup. That particular staff is either that "green" in her job or really know "NUTs"!

Back to the bino itself...

On testing, it's so much better than all those "kiddy" stuff I had bought before. With fully-coated 30mm objective lenses, adjustable right eyepiece and a great 12X magnification, it even has a rubber-armoured housing. All that for only RM32 incl delivery & handling charges! Googling for it revealed the same item going for USD16.99 or a lower S$23.00.

So far so good...in quick tests. Will be trying it out in different situations in good time. Wish me luck!

Btw Cinema Night this weekend was great! Watched Die Hard 4. Yup. Same ole Bruce Willis. But in lots of action from start to end. Not a dull moment. Watch it!

Finally did a little shopping for some needed items. My regular vits. Eyecare solution. And a few others. Got them all at special offer prices at Guardian.

Tonight? Maybe another movie...hehe...Enjoy yr Sunday night, ok?

A new view

The wait is over! My back-up wireless cctv system is here! Finally...

So, me oledi installed the new wireless camera in a new location. Above our main door. Below the spotlight.Now it gives a wider perspective view of the porch altho a more distant view of our auto-gate & the road in front of the house. As ppl always say...one just cannot have everything, right? The new scenario...What's left now is to confirm that the night vision of the new camera is just as good as the old one.

UPDATE : @9pm - Msian time. Night Vision mode of CCTV image from new location... The camera has also been slightly re-aligned to give a more horizontal image. Well, that was the main "course" of the day.

The other "mini" project is to provide a better plot with better soil composition for new chilli plants...the "hot" stuff! "Cabai Burung". The new seedlings that have germinated do not appear to be thriving well on soil that was purchased from Pacific/The Store. So, 6 new packets of soil that we used to use & found to be good, were bought. A new polystyrene container is going to be used as the "plot of land" for the new chilli seedlings. Hopefully they will thrive better. Only time will tell.

Guess me better end here b4 you ppl get bored to d.... . Tks 4being so patient. Bye!

Weekend now over...

It's Monday today...yup, weekend is over!
Visitors are gone...

Yup...KL & fmly are back in their own home. Was bz & fun playing with the little (actually not that small...in size...only in age...hehe) but energetic girl then. Btw she's now 18 mths old.

Here she is - on 22 July :

KL looks real pretty with her smile on, right? Frankly, anyone with a smile looks definitely nice...hehe...I remember a saying : Smile & the whole world smiles with you!

Oh...btw, feel all pensioners know it's true cos they've got $$ in their banks by now! Yup, the announced re-adjustment of the pensions of all govt retirees is already implemented. And it's truly a blessing in disguise in the wake of increasing prices of goods & daily living expenses. It augurs well for a caring govt. To the Govt: On behalf of all pensioners, I thank you.

Guess that's abt it for now...Hv a good week ahead!

Bringing forth new life...

As previously mentioned in 1 of my entries, our Guava tree is kinda old. In fact it's 28 yrs old now! And branch by branch, it's been "dying". Luckily new branches have taken over but the number is dwindling...sad but true.

A new recently marcotted branch was replanted some time back. It's thriving well. (Pls. see pic of it posted in the June 28th entry.)

It is now felt a new generation of the Guava tree should be encouraged to grow in its immediate neighbourhood. In that small square plot of land we call our "garden". So, with that in mind, me just made 2 marcots of 2 quite recent branches of our ole Guava tree. It'll be at least a month or so b4 we'll know & get to see the "fruits" of our labour. Wish us luck.....

At the moment, I am still awaiting delivery of my "spare" set of cctv cam & receiver units. Expected this Saturday.

"Visitors" are also expected this Saturday. So we are gonna be kinda bz...

Btw our copy of the Astro mag for August just came. Appears that long-lasting Hokkien series on AEC channel 19 is truly a never-ending serial! Yup, it's stil ongoing after August 31st. After 526 episodes. Phew!

IMHO, the author of that story engages in a forever twisting plot...twists beyond one's imagination! Frankly, reactions of players in the serial go way beyond the realms of normality and belief. The storyline should be classified as pure Science Fiction. Its characters are a special breed of humans and portrayed as people with patterns of behaviour that are practically out of this world!!

On the political front, feel a tiny storm is brewing. Comments & opinions have come forth in response to our DPM's statement the other day abt Malaysia being an Islamic State and not a Secular one, as generally believed to be. This issue & its development is worth watching because of its far-reaching effects. More importantly is how it will end since the outcome is gonna affect the very future & status of many Malaysians...

On that note, it's time to end this entry. Peace & TC.

The Saga continues...

Yup. The "Saga" of the CCTV kind continues...hehe...

Me decided on a permanent location for the monitor for my new wireless CCTV system. On top of our shoe-rack cupboard. In the hall. Convenient to view, too.

And what better use than to bring back to life my ole reliable Commodore 64 PC colour monitor. It was lying idle in our "storeroom" for years now.

Now it's serving a very important purpose...Note : The wireless cctv AV receiver is now sitting right on top of the monitor.

Update : Me now securing a "BackUp" set of the same cctv system. Transaction is going smoothly at this point. Being a presumably "Made in China" product, its reliability is kinda in questionable zones. As such, a "spare" would be ideal for a probably rainy day?

Well, roughly 2 more days to go b4 the announced adjustment of Pensions for govt retirees is seen & felt. If the quantum of increase is true, the increase would be a great boost for all pensioners. Life is hard for them, considering the inflation rate in the country as well as the on-going regular increases in goods esp of daily necessities! And, frankly, for once the rate of increase is beneficial in such bad times...

One more thing. Our neighbour's house alarm went off twice last night! Once at 12midnight & again at 2am!! Wonder why? Attempted break-in? House was broken in once b4. Reason for installation of alarm.

Now? Another but failed attempt? Or is it due2 simply a plain faulty system? Sounded for more than 10 mins b4 cut-off. Disturbed my nice dreams. Hope it doesn't happen again tonight or other nights, for that matter.

This weekend might be an interesting & enjoyable one, considering the possibility of a visit from our grandaughter, KL. It's a period of pride & fun at the same time to see & follow a lovely child thru her journey in life. From birth till ....

Until next time, thanks for the read.

Keeping a promise...of sorts...

Well...to be exact, me didn't actually promise....sort of said I would do so...in a later entry...hehe...
Promise or not, me do so now. What is it? Oh! Just to complete my home CCTV installation results...

Yea, the Night Vision thingy...

And night did finally come last night. Both were also keen to see how the CCTV Night Vision output was like. Well, you be the judge...pics of images on TV below :


Pic on left taken @abt 8:30pm. A car just passed, moving to the left.

Lighting : Two 15W Chinese lanterns were on in the porch area.

Pic (above) shows my other half testing out what she looks like in Night Vision mode...

So what is your verdict like? Good? Ok? Me? Ok, too...considering what was only paid for the complete set & ease of installation. At least we are now not totally "in the dark" of what's happening outside our house. That's a huge plus point!

Well, that's home security at its simplest...

Now...do you know the leaves used as an ingredient to make the local dish called "Otak Otak" or "Hu Pau"?

Pic on left show a few of those leaves harvested from a pot-grown plant. Compare them to marker pen placed next to them. And below, one of the leaves compared to the size of a 50sen coin.

A real good harvest...from just a plant in a pot!

Finally the morning started wet. Cool...which is good. Yes. It rained & is still raining while me put in finishing touches to this Blog entry.

Take care always & have a good week ahead.

The BIG Day...

Are you asking, "What's the BIG day?"
Ok...let me tell you. It's the day me was waiting for! The day my specially ordered item was delivered to my door by our friendly Poslaju guy...

And yup, it's the CCTV Wireless Camera with night vision.

As in the advert & it's supplied instruction leaflet, installation was a breeze. Didn't time myself actually but more time was used drilling a hole in the concrete beam to attach the wireless camera unit than anything else. Other efforts were merely cosmetic...hehe...

Enjoy the following pics :

Can you see the round object up there a bit to the right of the Chinese lantern? Yup, that's the wireless CCTV camera.

Left : Close Up. The camera mounted on a concrete beam.

And... on the right is the Radio AV Receiver (placed on top of our TV) which is connected to the TV to receive the images transmitted by the above wireless camera mounted facing our front gate & the road.

This is what the camera "sees" :

Left : View of our front gate and road...

Note : Since TV images are actually scrolling images, there is a moving black band as seen in lower part of captured TV image.Above : A better captured daytime image.

Now what is needed is to confirm that there is indeed night vision.

What's the quality of the night image? From what I've seen of another unit demo-ed to me earlier, it's reasonably good enough...will confirm in a later entry abt this particular unit.

Well, that's my "adventure" for the day...probably the weekend, too! A new toilet to try out, so to say? Ha ha!

Have a great weekend! Cheers!

ps. Sincere thanks to NCL for sharing, great intro & all help in making my this particular "dream" come true.

Intro to a Novelty but useful product...

Hi...

Thought I would intro you all to a novelty product which me stumbled upon during one recent walk-walk session in one of our local supers...

Yup, it's another of those Made in China items but this one caught my eye cos it was stated to be "battery independent" AND capable of using a "costfree" & ever present energy source! Useful esp in times of our frequent power failures these days. And only priced at RM9.90!

Here it is...an LED Lamp. 8 bright white LEDs c/w connecting cable & telephone plugs. Also a dual-socket telephone adaptor so that one can still have one's fixed line telephone connected for use w/o interruption.

Here's the lamp:

It's claimed to be waterproof & comes with an anti-shock switch, with a safety cell & useful in the car, home & outdoors cos 3 AAA batteries can also be used.

And the dual-socket telephone Adaptor supplied with the Lamp. How it is connected is shown in the pic :

Ok...ok...yu got it! The ever present & costfree energy source is none other than your very own residential telephone line! When one suffers from an electrical power failure, one's telephone line is still working, right? So this LED lamp which can draw its power source from yr telephone line can light up yr room then. No batteries needed.

These are the 8 white LEDs in the lamp-head...lighted up...

Believe me...it's brighter than you think! There is also a "claimed" 100,000 HRS for the LED bulb life...

Well, if only our fellow Malaysians can come up with such "bright" ideas...

So, go ahead & ensure future power failure days are still "lighted up" days...to be exact, no more dark nights! Ha ha...

A very special day... 070707

070707...what a sequence! That is a date one does not easily forget. Many chose that day to get married. Kinda too late for me tho...hehe...

So for me, it turned out to be also kinda special, too.

For one, me & my other half went for a special day out. Shopping at Tesco, Sungei Petani. Well, that was how it started off. However, a special item caught my eye. A kid's study set...a very attractive & colourful kiddie's work table c/w chair! At a special offer price too...RM20 below normal selling price. Actually saw a similar set at Giant, Alor Star, for that "normal" selling price. I grabbed one! Ha ha! For our grandaughter, KL, in Taiping. She is already outgrowing her FP's musical chair.

Then we were supposed to proceed to Giant, Sungei Petani, on the other side of town for our next stop. As it happened, me being me..., I forwarded the proposal..."How abt making a personal delivery of the Study Set?" So that it would be useful immediately rather than still in its box, lying idle with us at home.

Well, there was instant support! So that settled everything. No Giant, SP. Off we continued to Taiping...

Here is "little" KL enjoying her new Study Table & Chair :

Event #2. When I was in Taiping, KL's dad intro an affordable & workable solution to an aspect of home security. A wireless CCTV unit. I was really impressed by the simplicity of it all. We placed a bid for 1 unit at local "Lelong" website and b4 the night was over, it turned out to be a successful bid. We are now awaiting delivery of the unit. Hopefully soon...hehe...

Above: Pic of 1 set of the Wireless Camera with Night Vision ( 30 Led ).

Event #3: Back home in Alor Star, me got to watch the British F1 GP @ Silverstone on TV2 since me no longer subscribed to Astro's Sports channel. However, the event was a delayed recorded broadcast. Well, better than none, I suppose. Moreover, beggars can't be choosers, right?

Well, another weekend has gone by. Quite an eventful one, tho.

Have a great week ahead, my friends!

Updates...

Update #1 : Orchids in our little garden plot are now in full bloom! Here is a close-up view of one stalk...taken earlier today :

They're just beautiful, aren't they?

Update #2 : Since I bought a new std/vanilla Nokia N73 handphone early in January this year, Nokia appears to be correcting & improving its Firmware ie the Software that runs all the processes in the phone.

It came with V3.0638.0.0.1 dated 30-10-2006...then it was updated to V3.0704.1.0.1 of 19-01-2007. Further modified to V3.0713.1.0.2 dated 05-04-2007 and V4.0723.2.0.1 of 06-06-2007.

This V4 firmware was hailed by many as a great improvement being filled with goodies eg the same Music Player as in the N73ME model, not forgetting specials like AD2P (stereo BT) support and FOTA for software updates over the air!

However, that joy was shortlived. The update was suddenly removed from Nokia's Online Updating facility just a few days after its release! Many wondered why...cos no clarification was forthcoming from Nokia. A true mystery.

Now a new version... V4.0726.2.0.1 dated 26-06-2007 is available! It's with the same features as the elusive earlier V4 but, probably, with detected bugs eliminated...hopefully.

It is felt there is also improvement to picture-taking at night or in poorly lit areas. Here is a comparison of images taken...both in areas where the scene is not visible via the HP camera viewfinder:

Image #1 : Taken with fully Auto setting.

Image #2 : Taken with Night Mode setting & Flash ON :
Can you see the difference?

BTW the topmost pic of the Orchids was taken using the same N73 with latest FW using the Close-Up Mode. Colours are now so much more natural...Keep up the great work, Nokia!

Update #3 : Went for my usual monthly medical check-up at my doc's. What can I say? Results came out as well & fine as one can hope for. At this point in my life, nothing is nor can be what we truly want but have to accept that we have a seemingly "younger" soul in an aging body...

As my doc said...Be happy...

A short note...

At the moment, my days have been uneventful. Luckily what has been happening in our world is definitely the opposite!

What can be more eventful than the recent attempted tho botched-up car bombing in Britain ie in London and that at Glasgow Airport? Besides, the floods here & there...fires...and to say the least, the senseless killings in Iraq, Palestine & Israel...

With CNN, one is never out of touch of happenings around the world! I never failed to enjoy its "Breaking News" sessions.

Thank God for our peaceful Malaysia...without peace, there can never be happiness.

And it is only in such a peaceful environment that we can enjoy little pleasures. For me, even a picture update of little KL, my youngest grandaughter, is enough to bring pride & joy to these 2 old folks at Lot 10.

Here is little KL in her new shoes... pic was taken on 29th June :

Well, since I changed my subscribed Astro package after its price hike, I no longer have access to Live telecasts of Sport events esp Formula 1 GP races. And it is now total dependence on telecasts by our local TV stations. TV2 only had a delayed/recorded broadcast of the French F1 GP last night or rather this morning... @ 1am!

I tried to watch but ended up Zzz with 28 more laps to go! Woke up in time to see Raikkonen crossing the Finish line...haha!

Guess it's time for me to sign off b4 I bore you more than I should...hehe... :P

Have a great week ahead!