10.25.2010

My First DSLR Camera

Monday, 25 Oct 10, 2.17pm at home

Hello diary..
I just bought a new camera few days ago. It's my first DSLR camera! My old pocket Sony camera was broken last year so it's a good chance to upgrade my camera to a better one. I love my new camera so much now! However, I had an unpleasant experience when buying this camera.

I bought it in a shop where I used to buy electronics stuff. I know one person there very well and he always gave me very good price. On Saturday, me and my hubby went there to buy other things and suddenly we wanted to buy a camera. The person whom I know was not there, the other salesman who said that he knows me serving us. This salesman talked so much till we fell in love with this camera. He also kept pushing us to buy accessories for camera. Me and my hubby were like hypnotized by this salesman. We just bought all that he recommended. We swiped the card, signed on the receipt, and we did not check on the stuffs we bought at all! We said thank you and left the shop.

Soon after we left the shop, I had a bad feeling. I told my hubby that I wanted to ask other shops about the price of the product we bought. Some of the shops gave us cheaper price. We already felt cheated but we were still fine. On the way home, we kept saying that this was our first time buying expensive camera so we deserved to enjoy some luxurious, to console our guilt. It worked, we were happily carrying our new camera home.

At home, I quickly checked on Canon website to learn more about the real price and I was happy since I bought it around US$100 cheaper than the suggested retail price. I opened the box and saw the camera, this was when I felt there was something wrong. The box and the camera show different product series. I quickly googled it and found out that actually both are the same product, one is the international product name and the other one is the Japan's one. Mine is the Japan version. I felt relieved. Then I inserted the battery into the camera and saw the language was all Japanese! The manual book and the warranty card were all in Japanese too! The worst part is, the warranty card says 'This warranty is only valid in Japan'. The shop indeed said that it has 1 year warranty with the shop, but not with Canon! We just suddenly remembered it after we were home. This is really not funny at all! I know some Japanese words but it literally means that I only know SOME words. We are very stupid in operating camera so we desperately need the Manual book. We also bought the camera bag for US$50, the bag with no brand name, the bag with awful appearance, and the bag that we did not even look at before buying!

At that night, we were so pissed off and we decided to come to the shop again for a product exchange. We wanted the international version with English language and with authorized warranty from Canon. However, we slowly changed our mind. My hubby ate one bowl of kuaci (Sun flower seeds) to gain his patience. I carefully checked on websites on how to get the English instruction book. I got the English manual book when my hubby finished half bowl of the kuaci, one problem was solved! On the manual book, I also found how to change the language in camera to English, and I managed to change it! Two problems were solved, my hubby just finished his whole bowl of kuaci. The kuaci-method worked well. He was really in a much more patient mood. About the warranty issue, we decided not to bother, we just pray and hope that my camera will be fine. We knew that we can't argue with that salesman, we already agreed and signed the receipt which actually showed the product name of the camera that we bought. The shop also told us about the shop warranty and we unconsciously agreed with that (The salesman said 'For any problem with the camera, come back to this shop, we will solve the problem for you, 1 year warranty, no need to worry'). Perhaps we paid US$100 cheaper for this reason. We take our lesson, this is HK, we should be more careful about everything, don't trust people easily.

Yesterday I spent half day to learn how to use the camera. I followed the step-by-step instruction on the manual book but I could not move forward from section 'Take picture with Auto Mode' which is the very very most basic step! You know why? Even with auto-mode, the pictures that I took were always blurred!! I kept changing the setting but I still couldn't fix this blurry problem for 4 hours. I fixed and cleaned my short-sighted glasses many times to check if my eye-vision was already worsen now. I was wondering if my new camera had short-sighted vision like me because the pictures turned out good when I used it to take picture of an object which was nearby. Does my camera also need my thick glasses? Soon after thinking about this, I tried to fixed the lens of the camera and suddenly I heard a sound *click!* when fixing the lens. Yes! I can take clear pictures now! :D I am happy enough to take pictures without blur, the next step is learning how and when to use the other modes. Phew! Long way to go..

Bye, diary..

-Abbie-

10.20.2010

20 Weeks on 20.10.2010

Wednesday, 20 Oct 10, 11.38am at home

Hi little diary!
Today is a special day since it's October 20th. People write it 20.10.2010, cute isn't it? Yea, it is also a special day for me since today is exactly 20 weeks of my pregnancy. I am half way through, everything is doing fine so far. I was just back from my 10-day Indo trip. I got to eat the Indonesian food that I craved but the feeling is different. As soon as I reached Indo, I did not feel like eating anything. It is also weird that I couldn't sleep more than 5 hours in a day in Indo, I woke up very early every morning. I feel so exhausted easily although I practically did nothing in Indo. After I came back to HK, I slept a lot for days like having a serious jetlag. Is it because of my age? Or because of my pregnancy? Or because of the development of my laziness? Or my baby likes HK more than Indo?

My belly started to show, my weight started to increase, my body started to grow. When I was younger, I was always wondering how the pregnant women wear pants. Do they wear pants below their big tummy? Do they wear pants at big size so they can put the pants up on their super big tummy? Now I have started experiencing this feeling and I still can't make up my mind on wearing my pants below my tummy or on my big tummy so I keep pushing it up and down whenever I feel like it.

My pregnancy is so far so good, I can feel the baby's movements now! This is the highlight of today. This is an amazing experience to know that there is something alive inside me! I have become crazy since then, I keep talking to my baby whenever I want to eat, shower, or go somewhere. I feel like having an invisible secret friend that only me can see! I love this feeling so much, I think I am gonna miss this feeling after my baby is out of my womb. What the book says is right, second trimester is the time when a woman feels the best. I am enjoying the moments now. I have actually created a new blog to write letters to my baby since his world began. I don't want to miss one of the precious moments of my life.

During the pregnancy, I am quite a strong woman beside the fact that I fainted several times due to no reason. I still can do normal activities like usual. And, for now, I have decided to look for a job after the delivery later, I really want to work and earn money! *What???* I wanna write it here so that I won't pretend to forget in the future. Well, this plin-plan-me is acting up again.

Diary, next month me and hubby will have our last 'honeymoon' to Bali, Solo (my home town), Singapore, and Thailand. Yea, only these kind of countries will accept pregnant lady. I have been rejected when I applied for a visa to a certain country. It has been my dream to go to a country with initial 'NZ'. Too bad, this chance was missed. Sad? Yes. Disappointed? Very! But I am sure there must be a good purpose for me why I was rejected, right? Anyway, there will be 7 flights all together during this 15-day trip, please pray for me and especially my baby that we will be fine. Yea yea, 7 is my lucky number. But I am really scared of getting on the plane now. I like living with my feet standing on the ground. Since this will be our last 'honeymoon' before the baby time, I wanna go to this trip and make the fullest out of it. Every moment in life is precious!

-Abbie-