02 FEB 2006. THURSDAY. 08:39PM.

It was a sign, wasn't it? So the story goes ... my trusty Cannon fell apart on tuesday when the dreaded "E18" error bomb exploded and it failed to be resuscitated. Right now, it's in the hands of a (hopefully) good cam doctor. I feel abnormally lightweight without its heaviness in my bag. At first it felt weird ... but its not end of the world. I still have my mild-mannered phone cam with all its grainy glory. Last night as we sat together for a work yu-sheng dinner, i felt totally relaxed (it could also be the few glasses of wine in me), no awkward moments of thinking if this is an inappropriate time to whip out the camera, or having people instinctively stop eating when they spot the camera in my hand, no holding up people's food so i can take a glorious shot before it gets messed it up. It was just plain old N.I.C.E.. And what a feast we had, crab noodles, peking duck, fried chicken, steamed fish, a variety of veggies, mango pudding. It was hard explaining the act of tossing to our non-chinese friends ... as i learnt the unfortunate alter-meaning of what 'tossing the salad' meant. Hilarious, who knew it was such a dirty word. So bare with me while i dig deep for old photos in my ever expanding image library and help me keep some lil fingers crossed for the poor sick cam and hope it will be back in tip top shape in a week or two!