There’s an other public holiday coming up tomorrow and I am sure again a lot of people will travel. For the last minute travellers like me, here’s a helpful website to make sure you don’t forget to pack anything. It’s called Packwhiz and is currently in beta. Think it’s a great idea!

On the last day of our trip to South Africa, I unfortunately dropped my favourite lens on the floor of our hotel suite. For some unknown reason, I had put the lens on top of the backpack on a high shelve on the closet and when I pulled out the bag to start packing, the lens dropped from roughly eye-height on the floor. Now, it was a decent quality Canon lens  (EF-S17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM), but I think no lens in the world would have survived a 1.5 meter drop on the floor.

So, I waited a while and 2 weeks ago decided to go to the Canon Customer Service centre in Singapore and inform about a repair. They said I would need to approve a budget of around S$500 and that it would take a few weeks for the elements to come in. That sounded like a good deal to me, as the retail price of the lens was about twice that amount. Yesterday, not even 2 weeks after dropping of the lens, I received notification that I cna pick up the repaired lens and that the work has remained within budget. Just in time for the public holiday. Will give it a thorough test on Friday and will try not to drop it again.

Great service, realistic cost prediction and repair duration, making my unfortunate visit to Canon less dramatic as expected. I would give Canon Singapore 10 stars for service:

Well, if you look at the picture and description of the development they’re building across the road from us, a lot greener then in reality. The Trizon @ Mount Sinai Rise has it’s first pictures on the web. Remember the demolition of Himiko Towers I blogged about a while ago? Well, the site has now become a bussy construction with cranes and a sales office and 3 towers will be build there. They look a lot like our Marbella, although the picture doesn’t show our condominium is right across the street.

Crazy! Just confirmed a trip to Bali over Easter Weekend…

***UPDATE***

Can’t believe the scam that is called expedia.com. They take your money for hotelbookings that have not been confirmed by the hotel itself and then tell you it’s going to take 7 workingdays for a refund. With the amounts of money we spend on holidays, this means we have reached so much of our limits on the creditcard, that paying for a second booking at a different hotel (and NOT through Expedia) is impossible. On top of that the cancellation fees we are charged because Expedia is not in a position to provide us comparable accommodation for the same time period. In summary, I am several thousand dollars poorer and no hotel to stay over Easter. Therefore have to cancel my flight and will miss out on my one and only opportunity to spend holiday with Olivia & Sam in 2009.

Thanks EXPEDIA, but you might have noticed that I have taken your adds of my website immidiately!

So, after ColdPlay we were looking for the next concert in Singapore and as we already played with the idea, I booked tickets to Oasis. We’ve got similar class seats and this time we’ll be joining a few friends who coincidently booked tickets right next to us. We might also have found a solution to the taxi problem, as these friends live relatively close to the Indoor Stadium. Looking forward to an other great night rocking Singapore.

*** UPDATE ***

So, we went and saw Oasis last night and I can out a little disappointed. I really felt like they were rushing through their repertoir and wanted to get out as soon as possible. Quick likely that we were out 45 minutes earlier than we did come out of the ColdPlay concert. The first half of the concert were obviously new songs from their latest CD and only the “new” fans were singing along. Only in the second half the “old” fans expectations were met with hits from the 90’s. There was no support band and no encore. I wouldn’t be surprised if the band left Singapore before we even got home. Seats were great though and other than with ColdPlay, the arena was standing only. Concert was 80% sold-out, not full till the last seat. Never the less, I left the Singapore Indoor Stadium a little disappointed and I expected more. Needless to say, we will be looking forward to a next venue and we’ll make sure we invite Marc and Lerzan again, because driving from the stadium is A LOT easier than trying to get a taxi! Thanks guys, for a nice evening with a little disappointing performance of the band.