Rachel (Isuzu D-Max), Oct’04 ~ Feb’07

Although it was my dad’s, he sort of gave it to me since he had another pickup truck. As a young adult who just got out of the Army, and have a personal transport to go to school, it was awesome (even though it wasn’t a Mitsubishi EVO or anything close). But why a truck? Well with the truck, I could help him out with his business, delivering goods and stuff. I named it Rachel because I’ve always liked this name, and for the record, I did not know anyone who went by that name during that period. So it wasn’t because of a girl, lol. And one of the most memorable times with Rachel was this one time at Sentosa, I had like 13 friends at the back of my truck. Name me any car that can do that.

Scarlett (1991 Toyota Starlet), Feb’07 ~ Mar’09

Had to surrender Rachel (Isuzu D-Max) to my dad when his other truck was to be scrapped. Hence, he took over Rachel and I got myself a 1991 Toyota Starlet from a used car dealer. Despite being a 16 year-old car back then, this pocket rocket still looked good and had a certain racing pedigree to it, with its lively engine, sports steering, etc. And yes, this time it was because of a girl. I named it after Hollywood actress, Scarlett Johansson. She was beautiful, and so was this car (of course, it kind of rhymed with “Starlet” too). I sold it off in ’09 as I wanted to upgrade, even so, it was still in pristine condition. That showed how much care each of the past owners, including myself had given to this wonderful piece of engineering. Tracking at Johor Circuit, Pasir Gudang with Scarlett was horrifically fun.

Ophelia (Mitsubishi Lancer EX), Mar’09 ~ Jan’12

COE dipped to $1,000 and I knew it was the best time (at least, in Singapore) to get a new car before Scarlett had to be scrapped in 3 years’ time. I have always been fascinated by the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution series of cars, and in terms of styling, the Lancer EX was the next best thing at a much more affordable price. Me and my girlfriend (now wife) both greed that it shall be called “Ophelia”. It just sounded right for a white vehicle, don’t ask why. Anyway I didn’t do what most people had done to their Lancers, which is to make it look like an EVO with replica body kits and such. Instead, I spent quite a fair amount of money on performance mods including a big and shiny exhaust that turned heads. While it still isn’t EVO-fast, the souped-up Ophelia became a car I very much enjoyed driving.

And here’s arrived at my desk today – A Christmas Tie by DOCKERS! I know, it’s well over Christmas but it made sense as I ordered this last December. It came late but hey, it is a pleasant surprise. Thank you SomethingStore.

Yay! Gonna get the keys in less than 2 weeks. This is so exciting. I’m so gonna visit Mustafa Centre (24hrs) right now for electronics and home appliances.

After a long hiatus from blogging, I’m back! I haven’t decided if this will be a photography blog per se.. wait a minute, am I even using “per se” correctly in a phrase? Never mind. What I meant was, this could well be my personal blog too. We’ll see how it goes. I mean, I enjoy blogging and I finally got a domain in my name (so long melvinmah.blogspot.com), paid for a hosting service, got WordPress installed (it was a breeze), bought a premium theme blah blah blah. It’s kinda fun really, messing around with PHP/CSS coding and stuff. Melvin the geek.

Anyway, a very Happy 2012 to everybody reading this (and I’m pretty sure the World’s not gonna end as depicted in that movie, John Cusack had starred in). This will be a fantastic year. Plus, there’s “The Dark Knight Rises” in July.