Wedding Anniversary Lunch and Dinner

(Above)Gayle enjoying her meal at Serenity We celebrated our Wedding Anniversary with a nice French lunch at Bistro Au Petit Salut at Holland Road and a flavourful Spanish dinner at Serenity at Vivocity. Bistro Au Petit Salut offers value for money authetic French set lunch with starter, main course and dessert with free coffee/tea at about $33 per pax after taxes.

(Above)Half dozen baked Burgundy snails with tomato fondue and garlic butter as starters, soft tender wth no after taste.

(Above) Main course of “Minute” of onglet beef with French mustard jus and mashed potatoes if you ould like a meaty meal.

(Above)“Gateau Au Fromage Blanc” or Homemade cheesecake with Madagascar vanilla beans

(Above) Choux buns with vanilla ice cream,warm chocolate sauce and sliced almonds Sereity is more expensive at about $50 to $70 per pax but you get to taste wonderful Spanish food which just sits very well with your taste buds. For starters, we had a rich and really invirogating soup known as Sopa Catalunya or Spanish clear soup with pork, beef, chicken and butter beans. The meat boiled for long periods to give the soup it's rich and addictive taste just falls apart in your mouth.

(Above)Sopa Catalunya

(Above) Closeup of the ingredients in Sopa Catalunya After this hearty soup which we never fail to miss when we dine at Serenity,we continued with crispy but yet soft and moist inside deep fried Spanish prawn cakes called Bunuelos de Gambas

(Above)Bunuelos de Gambas

(Above) Soft and moist sweet insides of the Bunuelos de Gambas Next on our order was sinfully rich Paté Con Cebolla Caramelizada or Foie Gras with caramel onion which melts in your mouth wth the sweetness of the caramelized onion.

(Above)Paté Con Cebolla Caramelizada This was followed by the main course of Paella de Marisco (Seafood Paella)with hearty servings of herb infused fragrant Bomaba rice cooked slowly over the stove for 45 minutes with servings of tiger prawns, squid, half shell mussels, dory fish, capsium.

(Above) Paella de Marisco (Seafood Paella)

Reverse Camera retrofitted to BMW116i

(Above) Reverse camera module and camera unit and audio, video wiring. For greater safety awareness when reversing and to watch for any obstruction that are at the blind corners of the 4 rear sensor fan shaped proximity range, we decided to install a reverse camera tha is retrofitted to display on the OEM i-drive display in the F20 BMW 116i. We went to Soundwerkz, a car audio workshop located at Sin Ming that is familiar with BMWs. This was very important as the rewiring works for the reverse camera requires a seasoned installer who is experienced with BMW electronics to ensure less possibility of electrical faults.

(Above) Not for the faint hearted. Diassembly of console to do rewiring and installation of the video module for the reverse camera. An experienced BMW installer is a must as it is important to take out everything carefully and install back everything to original condition.Kelvin, the boss of Soundwerkz, came down to explain to me personally the type of reverse cameras available and the featues. We decided to go with the latest model recommendedby Kelvin which displays both the camera image view and the oem park distance control optical display simultaneously on the i-drive display. This camera and video controller unit are made in Taiwan and feature high definition image, especially important for night parking or where the carpark is very dimmed. The new camera unit also features reverse guide lines and trajectory guide lines that move in relation with your steering inputs.

(Above) Reverse camera operational with parking guide lines in broken red, yellow and green lines and the trajectory steering lines in yellow and red lines moving in tandem with steering inputs. To the right of the camera image is the parking distance control icon with proximity imaging. The installation started at 9.30am and ended at about 2.30pm after completion of wiring, instalation and testing. As the reverse camera is a new product, there were some inherent hang issues with the camera and on a second trip to the workshop which Kelvin and his guys diagnosed as a faulty camera unit and replaced with another new camera and so far, the reverse camera has been working smoothly. Good service from the guys at Soundwerkz. The Soundwerkz team takes care during installation and recovery phase to protect your car from unneccessary blemishes or scratches by wrapping your car interior extensively as protection against accidental scratches and knocks.

(Above) Foil wrapped interior of our car prior to installation. Kelvin although he was busy also took time to activate source code at my request to enable the digital speedometer to be displayed on the multifunction driver's display. This is usually done at a price but it was compliementary, courtesy of Soundwerkz.

(Above) Digital Speedo display

(Above)Soundwerkz guys testing reverse camera after installation of camera unit and video module. The camera unit cost $1100 without GST which Kelvin said was a launch price since mine was supposedly the first local BMW 116i to be retrofitted with it. This is a fraction of the OEM BMW reverse camera which costs $4800.00 and pops out of the rear hatch handle whereas our Taiwan made cheaper alternative is mounted above the license plate but no less effective and much cheaper.

(Above)Camera lens unit mounted just above the rear license plate.