Sunday, 22 June 2008

Apple Store

The world famous computer manufacture Apple has opened its first Apple store in Australia on 19th of June 2008 at 5pm!!! It is located at the corner of George street and King street of Sydney city.
There were about 3000 people queuing outside the store on the opening day, the rain obviously couldnt stop their passion about Apple. There were limited Apple t-shirt for the first bunch of customers, and Apple umbrella for people queuing in the rain, how nice is it!! I want an Apple umbrella too!!
But Im not that crazy about Apple (yet) and I had to do OT on the day so I only went to check out this legendary Apple store on Friday.

It is a three-story store with very future looking design

First floor is MacBook section

Second floor is the iPod section

Third floor is the Apple training centre

Even the stair-way are specially designed

I have never seen so many Apple products being collected at the same place before, it is a very magnificent view =P
Apple is planning to open another two Apple stores in Australia in the near future, one in the Sydney suburb of Chatswood, another one in the Chadstone Melbourne, so stay tuned!!


Sunday, 15 June 2008

鼎泰豐 Din Tai Fung

On the 16th of May 2008, one of Taiwan's most famous steam dumpling (小籠包) restaurant "Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐" has opened its very first branch in Australia!!

It is located at level 2 of World Square, not hard to locate because there is a HUGE sign near the stairways at the centre of World Square, which is very obvious.

Even though we visited the restaurant 1 month after opening, there are still full of people queuing for the seat, now you can see how popular this restaurant is. Maybe the queue is not as bad during week nights?


The main kitchen is located next to the entrance, fitted with see-through glasses so people can look at chefs making those delicious dumplings while waiting... this is such a torture!! This is actually a beneficial design for the restaurant because they let the public to monitor the quality.


Sorry I didnt take any photos of the food because we were all starving that as soon as the foods arrive we wipe them all out ^^"

Overall, the foods are nice, pretty much the same quality as in Taiwan. Most of the dishes were freshly made upon order, especially the steam dumpling, because the restaurant is so crowded, you can almost guarantee that they only START making the dumplings that are delivered to your table, hence the dumplings are extra juicy~~

The portion of the dishes at Din Tai Fung are quite small, they are more quality oriented rather than quantity, so relatively the price is higher than average restaurants. At the end of the day we paid nearly $30 each but the amount of food were only barely enough (maybe because I am a pig?).

Finally, one thing I have to comment on is the way they manage customers who made booking beforehand. We actually reserved a table at 7:30PM 1 week prior to the date, but we end up getting a seat at close to 8:30PM!!! The way they treat bookings were like they put you on to the queue list on the time you booked, that is absolutely no difference from just show up on the spot and queue in the line... the excuse they gave us was everyone made booking so they have to arrange the table too... Maybe they don't really care if you don't want to wait since they have plenty of customers, but if they allow booking, they should have done it properly, otherwise I think it would be better for their reputation if they stop allowing customers to make bookings.

Thursday, 12 June 2008

Migraine

Yesterday I had my first migraine for this year... it happened at around 4:30pm when I was still at work (damn why didnt it happen earlier so I could have went home early...).
I start having migraine regularly about 1~2 times per year since I start working, it just feel like something is twisting my brain when it happens! And after few experiences of this disaster, I found that about 30 minutes to 1 hour prior to migraine happens, my eyes will start loosing focus partially (i.e. some portion of my vision will become extremely blurry no matter how hard I try to focus on the spot), I guess its probably caused by the increasing pressure in the brain affected the vision nerves...
But so what? Even though I can tell its coming, I still cant do anything to stop it...

p.s. I delayed my study schedule because of this damn headache!!! (unknown voice: excuses...)

Wednesday, 4 June 2008

Mazda 3 LED DIY

前一陣子在路上看到一台白色Mazda 3把後牌照燈改成白色 瞬間讓整台車的質感提升不少(晚上的時候) 不過當下覺得改造是一件麻煩的事 而且可能一個不小心就會弄壞東西

上一個禮拜天在家閒閒沒事做忽然想到不如來研究一下LED燈泡
這一研究下來不得了了 不只學到不少新知識 網路上那些閃亮的LED照片把我想幫愛車換燈泡的慾望完完全全的的勾引出來了!!

所以一個禮拜後... 這些新玩具就出現在我家了... XD

(4顆 T10底座燈泡 給後牌照燈和室內地圖燈用)

(1顆 31mm 雙尖頭燈泡 給室內中央燈泡)

拿到燈泡當然是馬上衝到車庫去囉!! 之前已經完整的預習過換燈泡的步驟 沒有想像中的困難 (所以才敢買燈泡來換啦哈哈) 手早已經養到不行囉!!
開始之前要先提醒一下: LED有正負極之分 所以插上去沒亮先不要緊張 說不定只是差反了

不多說了 先從最簡單的中央燈泡開始吧
(燈罩邊緣有一個小凹槽可以用螺絲起子把燈罩拆下來)

(燈罩拆下後的樣子)

(換上LED燈泡!!)

(這就是換好之後跟之前的比較... 照片看起來好像比較暗 不過實際上差不多亮)

第一步順利的結束了 接下來換後牌照燈!! 步驟雖然簡單但是要彎腰下去弄... 很累!!!
(從燈罩的旁邊稍微頂一下燈罩就下來了 然後把原本的燈泡拔出來 插上新的T10底座LED)

(完成!! 就是這個光!!就是這個光!!)

最後也是困難度最高的地圖燈!! 說明書上的說法是 "Due to the complexity of the structure, please contact licensed Mazda engineer for light replacement" 看完的感想是BS!根本就是找藉口多削消費者一頓嘛!! 不過如果沒在網路上找到有人示範我還真的不知道要怎麼拆這個鳥東西... 哈哈
(首先要從邊邊小心的把整個地圖燈座拆出來 需要使點力但是不能太用力不然電線會扯斷=.=)

(拆完的樣子 剛拆下來還真有點心痛....)

(接下來把燈泡的底座稍微轉一下就可以拿出來了)

(換上T10 LED燈泡就可以裝回去囉!!)

(跟舊燈泡比較)

為什麼我不把兩邊的地圖燈都換好再裝回去呢? 這樣不就要再拆一次? 沒錯...我也不想只換一半阿...但是好死不死有一顆燈泡是壞的 =.=... 所以在replacement寄到之前我只能這樣一邊黃一邊白的用囉... 不過也因為這樣才有這最後一張照片的誕生哈哈

就這樣 靠著一時的衝動 我的Mazda 3開始閃著漂亮的白燈了!! 下一個目標是 - 頭燈!! 不過頭燈不好改 而且需要比較多$ (這次總共花十幾塊而已)... 所以短時間內應該是不會換吧 =P