Pre-natal Class 3

We learnt how to bath, swaddle and put on cloth diapers for babies. Before the class, we thought we would not have a chance to practise cos the class is so big. To our pleasant surprise, each couple get to have a "baby" to "play" with. It was fun! Some tips for bathing:

1. Bath water temperature should be 37 degree Celsius.
2. A drop of non-bubbly baby body wash in the bath water is sufficient for new born.
3. No need to use additional shampoo for babies until they are 3 months old.
4. Sing to the baby while bathing. Teach her to count her toes!
5. Mittens only need to be wore till 6 months old.
6. Mums to be delivering at TMC can sign up for the free breastfeeding and bathing lesson during the hospital stay. For a meagre $10, you get to try out the different breast pumps at Thomson ParentCraft before deciding which pump is the most suitable one for you.

Tung Lok Classics @ Chinese Swimming Club

Johnson just bought a new Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX lens last Friday and was honing his photography skills when we went to Tung Lok Classics for late dim sum lunch on Sunday with Johnson's family. The restaurant is located in the newly rebuilt Chinese Swimming Club 2 blocks away from Johnson's cousin, Michael's place. Here are some snapshots of what he had taken with the new lens:

Egg tarts were nice and fluffy.

Can you believe this is tofu?

Complimentary special fruit juice concoction served as a good end to the meal.

Pre-natal Class 2

We got a shock when we stepped into the class yesterday. On the screen was a stream of videos on women giving birth in their Sunday suits using different techniques eg. water birth, c-section etc. Chloe's daddy thought we'd gone to a porn show hahahah.... Well, guess that is one of the added incentives for going to childbirth course :)

Vesak Day

It was a busy weekend for us. Last Saturday was Vesak Day. As a yearly regime, Johnson will go to Buddhist Union to chant on Friday night till midnight. On Vesak Day itself, we went to the temple together to pray and have vegetarian food. Johnson also helped with the distribution of the vegetarian food to the visitors just like previous years. Ah boy, Boo's younger brother, was nice enough to watch over our house while the part time house cleaner finished up her weekly chores. We packed him a huge packet of vegetarian food and let him play PS3 & the newly upgraded Wii as a token of appreciation.

Sunday was Mother's Day. So we bought Boo's mum and family to dim sum @ Red Star Restuarant. Johnson feels the standard of the food has dropped but it could have been attributed to the fact that we were there @ 8am and not all the staff were working yet. Dinner was @ Long Beach Main Seafood Restaurant with Johnson's large extended family and cost a whopping SGD500. Mama Boo thought the food was not that fantastic for the price esp since she could not have any of those crabs which everyone else was raving about :P.

We also installed a Biometric digital lock at half the usual price on Sunday afternoon. It was such a good bargain. No more worries about forgetting to lock the door and no need to bring keys out from now on. Just need to swipe with our fingers and we can get into our house! Those who are interested can get the contact from us.

Monday was the replacement holiday for Vesak Day. We went for the 6th checkup and baby Chloe has grown to 768g while Mama Boo has ballooned by almost 10kg since pregnancy. We had healthy yong tau foo @ Chinatown for lunch. It was already long queue when we reached there @ 11am.


After lunch we went to Julia Gabriel to find out how many months in advance do we need to enroll Chloe in their enrichment classes as Mike told us that his friend had to wait a year on the waiting list. Their classes are popular as they teach the kids to build up confidence to speak up (which is much lacking in Asian kids) through drama and play. We got their schedule and fees before heading back home for a much needed afternoon swim.

Mama Boo went clad in the Billabong bikini hubby gave as birthday present last year since she can no longer fit in her usual tankini. Swimming was Boo's favourite sport but it has been a long time since we last swam (during early pregnancy) as it was not advisable to engage in strenous physical activities after the amnio. It was very relaxing despite panting due to "additional weight load". We should swim again more often :)

Yesterday's dinner was Ichiban Sushi @ Bt Panjang Plaza (BPP for short). The reason why we went there was so that Papa Bear could get the Guitar Hero from the game shop there. The entire set includes a drum set, an electric guitar and a mic. We spent the entire night jamming music till wee hours in the morning. It was an enjoyable weekend and how Mama Boo wished she didn't have to go to work :P

Pre-natal Class 1

Yesterday was the first time we attended the Childbirth Education Course organized by Thomson ParentCraft Centre. Papa Bear was very anxious to sign up for the course as he is a clueless first time dad. The above pic shows the anxious daddy-to-be taking a leak at the Little Skool House where our class was conducted :P

It was a pretty enjoyable session with the instructor, Mrs Wong Boh Boi, cracking jokes and mummies trying out the breathing and pelvic floor exercises while daddies learnt massage techniques to ease mummies pain during childbirth.

The class was too overcrowded though. Apparently her class is very popular due to the many positive comments in the forum. There were even couples from Mt E and Gleaneagles joining the class. It took a while for us to get used to Mrs Wong's accent. But it was a very informative session nonetheless. Looking forward to the next lesson...

Maternity Yoga

Mama Boo went for maternity yoga @ Wasabi Yoga on Saturday. It has been many months since I last do yoga. Feels weird when doing the stretches. Some of the stances which used to be so easy before pregnancy now gives me sweat. But I was still able to complete the Cat pose, Child pose, Tree pose etc despite my bulging tummy. Overall it was very relaxing and I even fell asleep towards the end of the meditation :P

Chloe is joining the Tan family!

We are happy to announce that we are expecting a third member in the Tan family this coming August - Chloe Tan!

She absolutely loves kick-boxing and performing somersaults in Mama Boo's womb. When we had a peek into her little world yesterday at the detailed scan, she was having hiccups after kicking and boxing too much! Chloe has given Papa Bear the perfect excuse to get the SLR he had been raving about in the last few blogs :P

It has not been an entirely smooth sailing journey. Although Mama Boo did not have any morning sickness and special food cravings, Chloe had created huge anxieties the past few months when we went through the OSCAR (combined Nuchal Translucency (NT) and blood test) and Amniocentesis. We are so glad that the detailed ultrasound scan yesterday showed that she is developing normally. From now on, it is all systems go!

Now is also time for Mama Boo to start getting those lovely baby dresses that she'd been eyeing while Papa Bear shop for more expensive lens :P

Project: My Annual Personal Photography Challenge

I could be suffering from the 1st-time-owner-of-a-DSLR syndrome. Coming across stuffs like Project: A Photo A Day really inspires me to embark on a similar projects to post 1 photo a day and give it a title.

However, the more pragmatic me will say, why not set myself some goals for the remaining year and aim to complete each one. That way, I get to shoot at a comfortable pace.

Here's my list for 2009:

i) My Girls
ii) 1 x Firework Displays (NDP2009/Firework Festivals)
iii) 10 x Food Recommendations
iv) 4 x Places in Singapore
v) 1 x Event Coverage (Sports/Fashion/Celebrities/Product Launches)
vi) 1 x Lightning

There you have it. 6 goals, more than 9 months to go, the most difficult being to shoot a lightning. (Actually not difficult because Singapore is a country most prone to lightning strikes, just ask our poor Merlion)

The above list should be sufficient for my "DSLR-apprentice" years. All the best to me.

The Spirit of the Bears

Getting a bag for DSLR is such a major decision. Just when you thought the hardest decision has been made, i.e. which brand? (Nikon vs Canon vs Sony vs other brands), which model? (D90, D300, EOS50D, EOS40D, EOS450D, Sony A700), which kit lens or just the body? Something difficult comes into play. For many people, it may be where to keep the camera, i.e. dry-box, dry-cabinet but these come in standard designs and you only need to decide on its capacity. For me, the most difficult part is the camera bag. After all, when the camera is out from its storage, the next thing it goes is into a camera bag.

At this time, I should mention the major factors I had to consider when getting a bag:
1) Backpack/Sling/Shoulder/Waistpouch/etc
2) Brand: Lowepro/Crumpler/Kata/National Geographic/etc
3) Dedicated camera bag/multi-purpose bag?
4) Tripod holder?
5) Additional compartments for camera accessories?
6) Weather-proofing?
7) Style/Colour
8) Security
9) Price
10) Usage

*Note: the above factors are listed in random and not in any particular order.

As you can see, I have already 10 factors to consider. Adding another brand for consideration and I will probably throw in another 5 or 10 bags from that brand. It does not help that these bag companies throw up similar models for a particular range, e.g. Lowepro has Fastpack 100, 200, 250 and 350; Kata has 3N1-10 and 3N1-20; and other brands have their same product ranges as well. Over the last 3 days, my list has grown to an astronomical list that made me ponder if I should ever had gotten a DSLR in the first place.

Anyway, I promised to blog about my decision and here they are:

1) Backpack. I know right from the start that I will need a backpack. I keeps my 2 hands more freely than if I could have with other types of bags.

2) Brand. I initially wanted to get a bag that's not synonymous with cameras or laptops, one that does not scream "Steal from me, I have a camera in this bag because this is a camera bag!" I was hesitant about Lowepro. Everytime I ask an experienced DSLR user for advise about bags, their first answer was... "Lowepro".

3) As with my decision about brand, I do not want a bag that looks like a camera bag. Hence, slings and shoulder bags that holds only camera and camera accessories are out. They scream "Camera Bag, Please Steal Me!" If the hold personal stuffs in other compartments, taking personal belongings out from the bag in public places will not reveal the expensive equipment easily.

4) Tripod holder. I am a big fan of tripods. When I travelled with my wife, we hardly asked strangers to help us take photos. Why? Well, firstly, if the stranger should run away with the camera, it's your fault for trusting the stranger with your expensive gear in the first place. Secondly, on a couple of occasions when friendly strangers appear and offer to help us take our photographs, they tend to just "point-and-shoot". We were at Dongdaemun in Korea in January this year and it was night and the lights on this prominent landmark could only be captured with the nightmode/without flash on my Sony DSC-T200. (A good photographer knows the limits of his equipment, and thus, he works within or work-around the limits) My wife and me, through various try-and-errors, have come to understand our T200. Can you imagine us trying to tell the nice stranger to keep the camera still for a few seconds after pressing the shutter button? Can you imagine us trying to tell the nice stranger to take when there are no traffic (big buses and trucks and lorries) between us and Dongdaemun (we were on the other side of the road)? Can you imagine the nice man was Korean and we could not communicate in Korean?

5) Additional compartment for camera accessories. Now wait a minute, I'm a DSLR beginner, right? What do I have? Let me recount:

1 x Nikon DSLR with Kit lens 18-105mm
1 x Sony DSC-T200
2 x Sony DVcams
1 x Manfrotto 190XProB Tripod
1 x Takara TS-2040 Tripod

If I exclude the DV Cams, I only have a DSLR body + attached lens and a really small digital camera, batteries, cleaning kits, chargers and the smallest of items, the SDHC cards. Will I ever indulge myself in owning many lens for different scene and effect? Nope. I have no plans at the moment to own more than my current kit lens until I absolutely cannot work with/work-around the limitation of this 18-105mm.

6) Weather-proofing my camera bag is a must. The weather in Singapore is unpredictable. Enough said. During my bag research, I also came across the fully water-proof Lowepro Dryzone series which they claimed that the bag can float on water and stay totally 100% dry inside.

7) Style/Colour. Colour is relatively an easier choice to make. I will choose black as it is easier to match. Style, I leave it to my wife, my life-long style consultant.

8) Security. As I had mentioned above, the bag must have some degree of difficulty for would-be-criminals to attempt to steal a camera inside it.

9) Price. My most toughest choice would be, how much can I possibly not spend?

10) Usage. How will I use this camera? This will probably be in the order of most frequent to least frequent:
i) My girls @ home
ii) My girls outside the home
iii) Family events
iv) Close up of food, especially good and delicious food to blog about
v) Travelling
vi) Events such as friend's weddings,
vii) Outings with friends

At home, I do not need a bag. For the rest of the time, I will like a camera bag to provide some useful compartments for a possible change of clothes, ipods, chargers, space for water bottles, etc.

Finally, at the end of this very long post, and after a very long list of bags, I choose to buy one that did not appear in my original list. The Lowepro Primus AW. My reason, also reason number 11, is a bear. Polar bears are my favourite bears and Lowepro promises to use the funds that are raised from the sale of the backpack to support the Polar Bears International (PBI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the worldwide conservation of the polar bears.

Reason 12 is because the bagpack is made from 100% post-consumer recycled fabric and it saved 22 or so plastic bottles from going to the landfill. 1 bag = 22 plastic bottles, 1M bags made and sold this way = 22M plastic bottles less at our landfills. Now that's a thought for the "future".

Newest Family Edition: Nikon D90 and its NIKKOR 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens

Finally, after many many long years of suffering from poor image output and performance from 0.3 MP camera phones to 1.3MP cameras and even an 8MP point-and-shoot camera, my first SLR arrived in the form of a DSLR from Nikon.

Guys out there, if you ever need a reason to convince your wife to get you a DSLR, ask me and I'll share it with you.

Back to the camera, this post is about the D90. I bought it at the IT Show 2009 for $1988 + $119 + $99 = $2206 consisting of the following:

Nikon D90
AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR
2 x 8GB Kingston SDHC Class 4 memory card (they threw in a free SDHC card after much negotiating)
Manfrotto 190XProB Tripod and Manfrotto 486RC2 Compact Ball Head @ S$119
Digi-Cabi DB-036 30L Electronic Dry Cabinet @ S$99
Additional EN-EL3e Battery (thrown in by the exhibitor after negotiating)
Additional Wireless Remote Control ML-L3 (thrown in by the exhibitor after negotiating)
Lowepro Rezo 190 AW camera/video bag - 21 Mar 09: Sold for S$40 and replaced with the Lowepro Primus AW (Black) backpack at S$218. I had many reasons for buying it and I will blog about it soon.

Other forgetable and free items include:
UV lens filter (Lexus branded) - The reason why I place an important item such as a lens filter here is because it is not Nikon or Hoya branded. Well, its free, so I can't really complain.
Cleaning Kit
A cute little cleaning pad made from Nikon's logo (and I really mean little)

The decision wasn't easy. Being a newcomer into DSLR, I could choose between a Canon or a Nikon. Sony was originally amongst my choices as well, however, I had to strike it off because of a technicality.

If all goes well, I hope to use this camera as much as I could get out of it. Notwithstanding that it is not one of those magnesium-alloy, environmentally sealed camera, I hope to pass it on for generations to come.