Windows 10 will get 5 years of additional support because of 0patch

At least now i have a reason not to migrate to Windows 11 so quickly. As I have many PC and laptops, my main Desktop PC is still on Windows 10 Professional and I do not want to disrupt all my legacy applications and hardware. Rest of my Desktop PC, laptops and gaming laptop are already on Windows 11 Professional. With 0patch, i have the option to extend my Windows 10 until stability and the good stuff comes to Windows 11 or either jumped straight to Windows 12. However with this said, I think most companies might not go through this route or had already migrated to Windows 11. At least, I still have the option to enjoy Windows 10 while it lasts.

Almost half of Singapore employees felt underpaid

It finally took an author to publish the right information about this. Most people especially locals were underpaid. Maybe for me, if i am being paid more, i would had contributed a lot more to the company. Being a guy who takes 0 MC and work while sick, is no longer important now while most of the people just clearing off their MC like their Annual Leave are paid on par or even more. I felt like a sucker and still getting lower than the National Average. So no choice, got to be calculative in whatever i do moving forward.

Max Level Builder's Apprentice [Clash of Clan]

Damn i got sold out by spending my hard earned in-game gems of around 6000+ gems to max level my Builder's Apprentice. This will allow me to speed up critical upgrades 8 times faster for 1 hour duration every 24 hours. I guess in the long run, its going to be useful. Let's hope COC don't U Turn this or my precious gems will be gone for good !

Steam Deck is now cheaper than Nintendo Switch

With Steam deck getting cheaper than Nintendo Switch, it is going to be massive. The only problem is most people does not know the power of Steam Deck. Till date, it can do so much more than Nintendo Switch. As certain things cannot share so openly, but i am truly enjoy so many titles at a very minimum cost. Go figure it out. 😆

Red Apple Vegetarian | Chicken Rice

I really like chicken rice and also vegetarian Chicken Rice. So this particular store at Fortune Centre is good, but waiting time can be very long. It is this type of meat with the chilli sauce created the taste of chicken rice. Felt good being vegan sometimes. 🤣

[Michelin] Hai Nan Zai Carrot Cake

With all the best carrot cake owners in Singapore either retired or passed on, apparently there were none of the carrot cake is good. The next best close one is Hai Nan Zai who also attained Michelin 2021, 2022 and 2023 for their dishes. White one still normal, but finally i can accept their black carrot cake which i will give 7/10. I had this at Yishun industrial area.

Had to redeem vouchers to get free milk

Had been surviving on vouchers to redeem free milk and discounts off all the while to reduce cost. One whole box costs around $20 to $30 and $40 to $50 a tin is no joke as one tin can only last for 1 week or 2 weeks if i mixed in other formula milks. Till date, had been using more than 100+ tins where i am keeping them and will post once she finish taking formula milk. Of course those in boxes, we threw away the packaging. Stats have to come from someone who really spending these money rather than someone who do the stats without going through such journey.

Finally upgraded to 5G Mobile Network

I had finally upgraded to 5G Sims Card from 4G Sims Card. In the beginning, i still find it bad, but it seem that i will need to select an option from the setting to use 5G Standalone Network. After which, most of the areas under the sun or in the city, the 5G network really had improvement. Area that requires improvement is still within the MRT train especially the underground area. Let's hope that it can "really" cover 99% coverage all around Singapore regardless of inside or outside the building to achieve a better network connectivity.

[Clash Of Clan] Builder Base Fully Completed !

As of this point of writing, i had finally completed all upgrades for Builder base and its currently max level. Just pending for Supercell to release more content for builder base for me to chase the ladder further. Now waiting the rest of my guildmates to finish up theirs. All i can do is to pump resources here for clan resources.

[Clash of Clan] My very first purchased COC Scenery

Finally after so many years of playing Clash of Clan, i paid for the first skin not for beating the game, but rather to make it look nicer for my Home Village. They include the theme music and Wild West scenery, train station is also operational ! So of course, i don't buy at full price as well. Google Play had provided me $1 off any app or in-game purchase. I used it to get this at $8.98 for this permanent scenery. I find it worthwhile 😆

[Clash Of Clan] Commercing upgrade to Town Hall 15 !

Finally i am on track that i previously forecast to upgrade all Town Hall 14 upgrades fully before upgrading to Town Hall 15. As a F2P player, i am glad that despite so many years of COC gaming, i'm able to reach Town Hall 15 finally and newer challenges will arise. But i am prepared for all the newer stuffs. At this point of writing, the max Town Hall is 16. So estimate that it will take me probably 2 years to upgrade to Town Hall 16. Meanwhile, i shall explore and stay strong at Town Hall 15 with a new design and layout.

Warcraft Rumble [Permanently Quit]

Another game where i will retired. Not easy to maintain as a F2P player. For guild rewards, really need a team of active players to grind together. Solo will not bring us far. But it is still a good game. Its fun, but really need the time and determination to advance. So i do not have the time now. So need to focus the resource on 2 remaining game now.

Welcome to Samsung S24 Ultra 512GB and Goodbye to iPhone 15 Pro 256GB

After returning back to Singapore from Melbourne, i was relying mostly on my Samsung S23 Ultra 256GB about 98% and iPhone 15 Pro for only 2%. With all the workload on my Samsung S23 Ultra, i faced space constraint with GoPro and Insta360 apps both on my S23 Ultra. While my iPhone 15 Pro is not very good in terms of photo taking and battery life, somemore the monthly iCloud subscription is a white elephant sucking up some of my resources. I had to stop the iCloud service and quickly sold away the iPhone 15 Pro. With high value and now cheaper flagship from Samsung. I decided to get S24 Ultra 512GB as their Z Fold 5 256GB had sold out. After trading in, I just need to fork out about $100 more for the S24 Ultra with 512GB. A few weeks of usage now, I find that overall my S24 Ultra had helped to offload most of my tasks from S23 Ultra to S24 Ultra, However, all were good and better, except for the camera system. I noticed that my S23 Ultra camera system performed better than S24 Ultra. So currently i am using both S23 Ultra + S24 Ultra to complement my everyday task extremely well !

End of Langrisser [Permanently Quit]

Back to my original content. Will have pretty much administrative changes. For a start, i will be quitting Langrisser as it is not that interesting anymore and find no reason to continue maintaining this account. So far, didn't spend any money for this, just time and sweat 😅 Good Bye !

Last Episode of this trip [Melbourne 2024]

Scoot is considered as a budget airline and my daughter got a free seat on the way back to Singapore. Next year onwards, have to buy three tickets instead of two since she is over the age of 2 by the end of this year. To be honest, Scoot is considered one of my best budget airline. I had taken even much worst budget airline, but will not name who. Also taking this time to comment that SIA is one of the best airlines to travel despite the recent incident which was caused by nature. Taking this incident as one of the case study, i personally felt guilty as myself, i didn't really buckle myself throughout the flight and i am now awakened that we should always be buckled up while we are in every aeroplane. Really need to take responsible in our own action. Well about Melbourne, perhaps i might not be back here as i still have many other places to go. You will always be part of our memories.

Learnt an important lesson that my two pieces of luggage had both exceeded the requirement of 20KG each. Honestly we did not expect to exceed the weight limit while on the way back to Singapore. So no choice have to pay AUD$140 extra to load up to the checked in baggage. It is only based on two tickets as my daughter still had free ride. As a result, we really got three seats offered to us. Wow !

Overall Summary [Melbourne 2024]

As one of my last post on my personal Facebook account last 12 May 2024. I wrapped off as there were the good things and the bad things i experience in Melbourne. It is indeed a fruitful trip where I realised some "better" things in my own country after experiencing life in Melbourne, Australia. So to uncover the point number 2 from my Facebook post, I encountered 3 unlawful vilification incidents, 1 attempted theft incident as well as 1 protest in the CBD area.

3 Unlawful Vilification incident

1) Shout in front of me telling me that I am a yellow cunt carrying a baby while I'm just standing and waiting in one corner.

2) Knock against us as they were not looking in front while walking and still pass racist remarks on others.

3) Whisper racist remarks near my ear while playing along the streets.

1 Protest in CBD incident

1) While inside uber to go back to my Airbnb, a few street were blocked by lots of protesters in CBD. When i opened the windows, can hear that it is related to some women's rights. 😟Wasted most of the time and got to detour at a longer route back. 

1 Attempted Theft incident

While at Crown Casino Food Court outside, i placed my bagpack on the seat. There were many empty seats and table. I just walk across the store to order my bubble tea. Suddenly I saw one guy in a hoodie, walk to my bag at the seat and sit beside the bag. Seeing this situation, i quickly ran across back and took my belonging back and leave the place. He just sit there acting innocent. Just wow. 👀| If i wasn't there, he could had taken the bag away or place something inside my bag. 😖

From Transit to Lounge | One Thing in Common [Melbourne 2024]

From the start at Changi Airport SATS Transit Lounge, food there isn't really fantastic as i thought. But beverage is ok since most are standard can, alcohol and coffee and tea. All quite standard. At least proper seat and washroom is sufficient. Since it is a 2.30am flight, Lounge is still a good place to rest. Then on Scoot, we had meals served in the morning which we ordered while buying the ticket last year. Food isn't fantastic as usual. Just needed the mineral water after a sleepless night :/ Fast forward to the last day of flying back to Singapore, we tried their food in Melbourne Transit area, sigh, the food were equally bad. Didn't really got a choice as we want to have our late dinner before entering the plane as well as spending all of my remaining Australia Dollars. So i think i will not try the food at the lounge or transit as much as possible, depending on the location.

Australia Immigration Experience [Melbourne 2024]

Being a Singaporean and living in Singapore as well as experienced our own immigration system, it surprised me that Australia really did a very good job at managing their immigration borders. I have deep respect for that. I know it can be very stressful to avoid getting fines, but i think they do things logically and they really look at you and decide whether to check us further. It is considered a breeze to get clear through the customs. I declared all items like my baby's medication and milk powder. They let me through, because they know that I have nothing to hide. So what i want to say is, just declare and don't hide any food or medical items even if it is legit to do so. 

Free Tram Zone Ride [Melbourne 2024]

Somehow my daughter like the sound of these tram on the road. Each time they passed by, she will wave and smile. We tried taking just one time, not that we need to ride it. In the hearts of Melbourne, some areas is free Tram Zone. It will be indiciated at the various stops. But better to study it to make good use of it. Because I didn't get any myki transport card for their public transport. We mainly used Rental Car, Uber and walking throughout Melbourne. Within walking distance, you can explore many popular sites in the heart of Melbourne CBD. When checked with a local, in fact, there are many people who evade transport costs, though there are inspectors occasionally to check. Better not do that. 😓But i like the tram if one stay and work within CBD. Save lots of money as Car Parking is extremely expensive !
 

Isshin Ramen Bar [Melbourne 2024]

Tried this as recommended to be good. We ordered many different types of Ramen they offered. Price is still quite ok so we ordered some Asahi Beer to go along as well. Discovered some bugs around the wall and my daughter get cranky, not sure due to cold weather or noise. So we got to take back the beer out. But the staff told us not to drink the beer out of the bar. But i'm bringing back to the Airbnb. She then told us that it is against the law to drink alcohol outside in the public area. Ok lah, fair enough, at least we were informed 😅

Twin Power Supply [Melbourne 2024]

There are ways too many things and information to cramp into this series and this will be the last week to end the Melbourne Trip 2024 series. Today I want to talk about how the power supply is in Melbourne. Typically they are using the same 230 voltage as Singapore. However, Australia power plug is using Type I which is the two pin while Singapore uses Type G which is using 3 pin plug. The good thing is we don't need voltage converter, but pin conventer is still necessary. But one thing i don't understand is why must they build two power plug so close to each other? It is like I am unable to plug in two different plug for my devices. Fortunately with GaN charger nowadays, I can just rely on one charger to multiple ports to charge my devices. So technically, i think travel GaN charger today is very useful while travelling to different countries with the same set of devices.

Crystal Jade Dining [Melbourne 2024]

Based on my first day of observation, I noticed that it is costly to have chinese cuisine in Australia. However, we come as a group and have to respect others who really wants to have chinese cuisine there anyways. So yeah, it is still a good experience. At least i now ascertain that it is indeed costly and really not worth it to eat here. First and foremost, there is a minimum order rule per pax and the cover charge is quite high. From the menu and quantity, it is really expensive and little. The worst is the fried bee hoon. Small portion, expensive and not that nice. But apart from that, the rest of the dishes were delicious and on par with what I usually ate in Singapore, if not better. While I was there, 100% of the people there were Chinese dining in. Service were ok. The overall cost were around close to AUD$200 for 6 adults. But as you can see, we are only ordering majority dim sum only. So... skip this while you are there. 

Location: 154 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

+39 Pizzeria | Top 50 Pizza in Asia-Pacific 2024 [Melbourne 2024]

Went to have dinner at this +39 Pizzeria restaurant in Melbourne CBD. Ordered 1 Patate & Salsiccia Pizza, 1 Tagliatelle Pasta and 1 Stracciatella dipping sauce. Overall damage is AUD$67.00. For a famous restaurant, i think its worth it as both the Pizza and Pasta were quite delicious at 7.5/10 rating. I finished up the entire dipping sauce as well. Reservation is required, but walk-in during peak hour takes us around 20 minutes to get a seat. Recommend to come down if you in Melbourne.

Location: 362 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

AmateurCraft Rating: 

[0 to 2 - Cannot Make It (CMI)]

[3 to 4 - Edible, but not great at all]

[5 to 6 - Normal Day Food, decent "everyday" food]

[7 to 8 - It is delicious, but still have room for improvement to perfection]

[9 to 10 - Perfect ! One of the godly quality that can be eaten everyday without thinking.]

Disclaimer: All information, details and reviews are true at this point of posting. Under no circumstances will AmateurCraft be held responsible or liable in any way for any claims, damages, losses, expenses, costs or liabilities.

Woolworths Qv [Melbourne 2024]

Woolworths Qv is typically one of the Supermarket in Melbourne. Need to come down to stock up all my groceries and supplies' needs. In a way, I tabao most of the goodies back to Singapore and most of their products were made in Australia. Many things that are affordable here and many locals actually buy groceries and food till the shelves went empty quite fast. One thing i noticed is many bought water except the carbonated ones. Majority of the products that were self-produced by Australia were affordable especially fruits and milk products. So chocolates are cheap and of high quality. Bought some wraps, peanut butter and many different sauces back to enjoy !

Koko Black [Melbourne 2024]

The very first Koko Black store is at Melbourne’s Royal Arcade which I had said in my previous post. However, they had moved and relocated to Melbourne Central which is located opposite where I stay. Decided to get them on my last day of stay in Melbourne. They were quite expensive, but they are famous in Melbourne. You can even test it in their stores. They are more than happy to let you try. Most of the chocolate i tried were impressive and top notch in terms of quality. So I will gladly recommend anyone who visited Australia to try their chocolate ! I even saw other passengers at the airport holding many bags of Koko Black chocolates making their way home.

Brighton Beach And Brighton Bathing Boxes [Melbourne 2024]

Going to Brighton Beach and seeing the Brighton Bathing Boxes. The locals said that these Brighton Bathing Boxes are very expensive and its privatized. How expensive? Last sold was Australia $337,000. Typically these bathing boxes existed during the 1800s, so yeah its part of a long history. Currently there are a total of 82 bathing boxes there. As it is not a house to stay, it is only for storing equipment as there is no running electric or water supply. Sleeping overnight is not allowed.

In Summary, it is a clean beach with excellent views ! Although it is sunny, but the weather is still cooling and I barely sweat. One of the best place to come and experience the good views and colourful backdrop.

Address: Esplanade, Brighton VIC 3186, Australia. It takes about 45 minutes drive from my AirBnb Penthouse.

McDonald Experience [Melbourne 2024]

The Mcdonald in Melbourne is just not great as compared in Singapore. Typically the Mcdonald in Australia is not under the same boss as the ones in Singapore or Malaysia. They uses Beef for their Sausage Mcmuffin. I love how they provide certain customization on their coffees. But the burgers will simply not fantastic, since i felt very hyped up while ordering their macdonalds. Price wasn't cheap at all. Quality wasn't there. Service wasn't there as i noticed all staffs were managed by Vietnamese. Probably might be branch issue and not the same as other outlet. Hash Brown was average. So overall, my expectation of this is 3/10. Definitely reserved your stomach for other better food in Melbourne.

Address: 284/310 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia | It is just opposite my AirBnb Penthouse, so I have to try it. 😁

Operating Hours: Weekdays: 6.30AM to 9PM | Weekend: 7.30AM to 9PM

AmateurCraft Rating: 

[0 to 2 - Cannot Make It (CMI)]

[3 to 4 - Edible, but not great at all]

[5 to 6 - Normal Day Food, decent "everyday" food]

[7 to 8 - It is delicious, but still have room for improvement to perfection]

[9 to 10 - Perfect ! One of the godly quality that can be eaten everyday without thinking.]

Disclaimer: All information, details and reviews are true at this point of posting. Under no circumstances will AmateurCraft be held responsible or liable in any way for any claims, damages, losses, expenses, costs or liabilities.

Melbourne Chinatown 澳洲墨爾本唐人街 [Melbourne 2024]

Well, it is uniquely Chinatown and we can noticed that there are more chinese than locals in Melbourne. Typically you can find most of the chinese or asian products and restaurants here. However things are generally more expensive here. Probably because in a foreign land, chinese or asian products are pretty rare here. As a Singaporean Chinese, it is always delightful to visit every chinatown in different countries to experience how unique is the chinese living there or locals enjoying the chinese stuffs there.

Address: Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia | Its takes about 9 minutes drive or 12 minutes walk from my AirBnb penthouse.

Werribee Open Range Zoo [Melbourne 2024]

It costs AUD$46 per adult for the tickets. In Melbourne, there were many zoos. We selected Werribee Open Range Zoo because they had a Safari vehicle to drive us along the large zoo to see the cage-less animals there. Hence why it is called Open Range Zoo. The animals don't felt that they were confined into a lockup area and had much to roam around. Besides that, they have also many variety of animals living together in the same area instead of allocating each animal in their respective area. Can see that they were much happier there. So the key thing of visiting Australia zoo is to visit the Kangaroo and Koala bear. So I visited and see the animal, happy already. Don't need to come back anymore. 😄😄😄| In summary, nice zoo and family friendly with quality washrooms and baby care facilities. The souvenir shop is good and nice stuffs ranging from budget to expensive ones, so its good for all to visit and enjoy.

Address: K Rd, Werribee South VIC 3030, Australia

Superdry Shopping [Melbourne 2024]

Although I often rant about how expensive Melbourne is overall, not all hope is lost ! Located just opposite my Airbnb Penthouse, Melbourne Central shopping center still have many good discounts in the shops within. One such shop is Superdry although it is an overseas chain, the discount and currency purchase is very much worth it. My family bought a couple of jackets and stuffs, while I got my T-Shirts and cap. The staff there were helpful and attentive. There was some hiccup of applying the discounts, but it eventually resolve the problem. Of course, no matter how expensive or cheap it is, when I think it is worth buying, I will still buy it no matter what.