If nothing goes wrong, I shld be in Beijing at this time next Sun. Anyway to prepare myself for the trip, my mum and I went for a winterwear shopping trip this afternoon.

Firstly, we went to Causeway Point as there is this shop which specialise in selling winterwear there. I set my eyes on a $189 coat. I thought there is a 15% discount but realise there was not. Anyway, under the recommendation of the helpful sales lady, I got myself a coat or jacket which has a 70% discount. Original price is $99 but I got it at ard $30 hwhahahahaa. It is pretty thick and has a nicer color. Much better than the $189 coat I saw initially. I also got myself a hat, a pair of gloves and long john. This long john costed $59!. Total $114 gone.

Later we went down to AMK to get my digicam, Panasonic Lumix FX9. So idled there for awhile trying to get more discount but got none. Settled for the e-quoted price of $596.40 (sales guy told me walk-in quote and e-quote different, what rubbish, walk in is $620.) It comes with a free 512MB SD card and a orginal leather case. Oke not bad la. I wanted the black one which is sold out, so I opted for the grey one. Upon scrutinizing the quality of the paint job of the grey one, I took the original silver instead. FX9 is quite light and compact. I did my research before buying it.

To me now, branded compact digicams produce pics of more or less the same quality, at least to an amateur like me. I dun need to do all those fancy photo digital manipulation, so I dun need to show in TIFF or RAW format. These 2 options are for higher end prosumer level cams which is abit above my budget. I just need a compact digicam which takes reasonably good pictures. My old Ixus has the same fate as my cousin's Ixus. The lcd shows nothing when it is turned on, it cannot take any pictures but in the 'playback' mode, pictures can be viewed still. So this means there is nothing wrong with the lcd but with the sensor. I swear off Ixus or any consumer level Canon cams from now on.

Sony's ones are not bad. But memory sticks are not that cheap compared to other media like SD, CF. I hope the -0 degree C temperature in Beijing now wun cause any damage to it.

Headed for home. My mum asked me if I wanna get a new suitcase, since I dun own one. I had a bag which I bought for my Tekong 'vacation' in 2000. But the jacket is so big and 'pong' that I dun think I can throw in any more clothes and daily toiletries even I compress it. So went down to Sun Plaza, got myself a Polo City orangey suitecase whic I think is not bad. I wanted a more exp one but the only stock there is abit tattered. I also got a lip balm ($3.20) and some moisturising cream from Loreal ($15.90) and some containers ($2.00) for my shampoo.

Never realise one trip to Beijing need soooo many things. The only thing I need now is a laptop. I cannot do without internet!!!!