NEW PHONE

My phone was pickpocketed two weeks ago and I'd been using HB's Dopod for most of that time, but felt it was inadequate. Like living on borrowed time. So I bit the bullet and shopped for a new phone. Countless online reviews and a few physical store visits later, I settled on SonyE's K810i Cyber-shot phone.

Why? Because I was getting a tad annoyed with my iXus i - it has problems focusing lately, its macro function is nothing to shout about - but i still need a pocket camera on days I don't lug my EOS around. So, now I have a 2-in-1 gadget.


This is an unretouched self-portrait (not of self, who was driving!).

Night shots didn't come out quite as good. Too much glare from spotlights.

But the phone's camera works well with close-ups, like the food pix above.


I find the k810i's pix too blue for my liking and I tweaked the pictures of the card and the xiaolong bao to give them warmer tones. I also had to "warmify" the night/indoor shots in the second group of photos.

Pictures are of a size good enough to print in A4.

Here's the bonus: The additional mini-memory stick I bought comes with an adapter that I can slot into my Vaio's Magic Gate for direct downloading - no cables, no bluetoothing!

The eatery? It was recommended by a colleague for it's guo tie - but that has seafood and it's fried. So went for the XLB, which we found under-generous with the filling, although the skin was delicate but still managed to not break if handled carefully.

Our favourite dish? The tau sar pancake. The roasted sesame seeds complemented the crispy skin (yes, yes deep-fried). And I don't even like tau sar!!!

There was a Japanese family sitting near us. Later, another family trooped in. I thought it was strange for a small, traditionally Chinese eatery.