Month: December 2025

The First Day in Switzerland

I arrived in Zurich with my family after a long flight over 12 hours, and it was a little after 6am local time. The airport skytrain was chaotic and the customs line was packed, but besides that, everything is fine, even the local cuisine.

We hailed an Uber at the airport to head to the rental car pickup station, and it was exceptionally smooth. We got to the pickup point with the help of a kind airport staff member, but the floor signage in the lift was confusing, where the first floor was labeled as 0. What’s more, I found this was a very common practice in Zurich, I got confused again later in the hotel.

We chose an Audi A5 Avant at the rental car pickup station, since we would cross three countries on this trip and we had lots of luggage. It was a good car, my daughter fell asleep in 15 minutes after I started driving. We drove from Zurich to Bern, the capital of Switzerland, and our hotel was there.

We will stay here for 2 days, exploring this ancient city mainly on foot, after that, we will head to the next destination – Interlaken.

Swissôtel Kursaal Bern

The Rainy Season in Singapore

It’s the rainy season in Singapore, which starts in November and lasts until January the following year.

Frequent pouring rain defines this period, and even sheltering under an umbrella offers little protection from getting wet. Despite this, I regularly forget to take an umbrella with me when heading outside; therefore, I usually have to wait for the rain to stop for over 30 minutes.

The good news for me is that the temperature drops significantly during this period, and sometimes you can even feel a little cold.

The Mint, SG

Finally, Finished Move-Out Today

After struggling to check off a litany of tiresome tasks, I received my deposit of $8400 from the agency tonight. Finally, my move-out process that lasted over 2 weeks was officially finished.

The main task is to polish the floors for three rooms, the living room, the bedroom, and a small room off the bedroom.

We spent over $1000 on this project. For the bedroom, we reached out to the worker directly and negotiated a better deal, otherwise the total cost would be even higher.

The second main project was the dry-cleaning of curtain and room cleaning. We involved an individual worker to finish it at the beginning, and it cost us $260.

Unluckily, we were informed that the cleaning should be delivered by a professional cleaning service provider that can issue us with an official invoice according to the rental contract, despite the fact that the original cleaning was perfect. We spent another $460 to engage a professional cleaning provider just for a compliant invoice, and we didn’t even ask them to clean again.

Another crucial part of the move-out process was repainting the walls. It totally cost us $600 to have all the walls in this house repainted.

Actually, when comparing to other painting providers’ quotes, this was really a better deal for us although $600 was still quite a high price.

As for the rest tiresome repairs and cleaning, we spent around $500 to get them done, including fixing the cabinet, replacing lock on the wardrobe, etc.

Overall, the move-out in Singapore is a complex project for everyone living in a rental house, and thankfully, we’ve finished all of it.

ORQ, SG

My First Experience with Large Format Photography

I swore I would never touch the large format photography, yet before long I got my first large format camera, which was made of wood, specifically teak: the Chamonix-F2 4×5. It’s really a lightweight camera, just around 2kg, which gives it a great advantage for field shooting.

I took it to Thomson Natural Park twice for practicing, but unfortunately, I only managed to fail even after making lengthy preparations, including framing, light metering, focusing and other steps. The major mistake I made the first time was using an unsuitable loupe, which has a 15x magnification that made the focusing process so difficult, resulting in me hardly being able to guarantee the focusing accuracy.

I hesitated to press the shutter that time, and didn’t do so until the sun went down. I had to leave the park before the light faded completely.

As for the second time, I made another mistake that lacked common sense. I used a Rodenstock Grandagon-N 90mm f/4.5 lens, with which the bulb shutter can be fired without being cocked. I struggled to cock and fire the bulb shutter, but I couldn’t get it to work properly no matter how many times I tried. However, I got perfect framing and accurate metering during this time, and I believe it’s a valuable takeaway for me to gain experience with large format photography.

Eventually, I took my first 4×5 film last weekend at the Armenian Church, the small and peaceful place I loved so much. I shot the main body of the church on white&black film, and what’s worth noting, I also practiced technical maneuvers like rise/fall during this shoot, which are specialized features provided by large format cameras.

The Mint, SG

No Photography for a Long Time

I can hardly remember the last time I went out for photography: where I went and what pictures I took.

In these two weeks, I am spending almost all my time on my work and moving out of the last residence, which is making me feel tired and anxious.

Luckily, good news, I really found some great spots for photography around my current residence recently, during my commute to and from work. I cannot wait to take photos with my cameras after wrapping up this tiring period.

The Mint, SG

Busy Checking out These Days

I’ve been busy checking out of the apartment in Sophia Hills these days. Unluckily, I was also on duty, and piles of tickets need to be processed.

When it comes to checking out, it’s just another pile of tiresome stuff, including repainting, floor polishing, cleaning, etc. It’s so complicated and sometimes ridiculous, and I will share a detailed introduction in another post.

The Mint, SG