虎虎生威

happy new year!

may the auspicious year of the metal tiger brings you great wealth and health.

恭喜, 恭喜!

团圆

the requisite reunion dinner or 团圆饭 is possibly the only meal in the whole year that all 6 of us will sit down and eat together at home.

and we always have 鱼生 and steamboat without fail. the traditional steamboat has progressed to one which comes with a grill, so that we can barbeque the meats and seafood and stink up our clothes. :P haha...

this year, dad went to buy salmon belly 鱼生. as usual, he couldn't restrain himself and bought over $40 of salmon sashimi so there's always fish in every bite. yummy!

then i made my own version of 杨枝甘露 with mango yogurt and added strawberries. not too bad. :)

whole again

after slightly more than 2 years, my trusty nec versa e6310 finally decided to give me a weird look. yeah, i cannot see the display properly for the windows log in. did the lcd burn out or what? i had no idea...

fortunately the necare centre was nearby at haw par technocentre and that was where i found myself last thursday's afternoon. i had decided that if the repairs cost too much, i should seriously consider getting a new netbook.

edward, the counter staff asked for a battery or power adaptor which i didn't bring so he scurried into his office to get one. he proceeded to switch on my laptop and pronounced that the motherboard and not the lcd is the problem. gosh... that sounds like an expensive component to replace. :(

thankfully, after checking his database, he announced that my laptop is still under warranty. yay! bless the extended warranty. :)

now, my trusty nec is back in action after just 3 working days at the centre.

lesson learnt: 3 years' extended warranty is a very good idea. and don't forget your backups too. ;)