I’ve been trying to find a small compact little bag. Something that I can use as an alternative to a waist pouch. Particularly if I wanted to carry a bit more things than will fit in a waist pouch. Or a little heavier than can be comfortably held in a waist pouch. I finally found something. It’s this nice looking sling bag from Wenger, cost about S$42 from OG.

Have you heard of the Wenger brand? I’m not very familiar with it myself, apart from their Swiss army knives. It’s a Swiss brand that makes a variety of products, including watches, footwear, outdoor gear, cutlery, drinking bottles and other accessories.

After taking the photo (above), I realized the chair on which the bag is set on makes the latter look larger than it actually is. This is a kid-sized chair. The sling bag’s height is no more than from my elbow to my palm.

There are three compartments to this bag. There is an organizer pocket in the front, a main compartment, and a rear storage compartment. The organizer pocket compartment is not very big, but there are some pockets to hold small items in place.

The main compartment is behind this organizer pocket compartment, and it is somewhat larger. You could easily hold 2 1-litre bottles in there, or perhaps a DSLR. The base is wide, and tapers off towards the top.

Finally, the rear compartment is, well, at the back. I actually didn’t realize it was there until I read the product tag which pointed out the bag had three compartments. The rear compartment is “flat”, so you probably can only use it to store flat-type of things, such as a notebook.

Other features of this sling bag includes an earphone outlet and a handphone pocket in the strap, though the typical smartphones nowadays with their large screen sizes won’t fit in this pocket. The material looks quite hardy, and will probably stand up to a bit of rough use. The product tag says the “M2 fabric” resists tearing and scuffing.

In case you’re wondering… will an iPad fit in it? Yes, but barely. I.e. the zip will close, but the corner will poke at the tapered top of the sling bag. It would have been nice if the bag was just a little big bigger. Or, the iPad was perhaps a little smaller.

If you intend to carry an iPad regularly, this is probably not the most ideal choice. But otherwise, it is a pretty good looking and robust sling bag.

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For my next wallet, I ended up using what is really meant to be a cardholder. It’s genuine leather and reasonably compact too. It’s not thin because it was designed to be thin, but reasonably so simply because, well, cardholders are simple. How thick can it be even if it was made out of the usual wallet materials? The problem was that this wallet wasn’t quite big enough. Bigger currency notes like the S$50 denomination had to be folded because they could not fit into the money compartment, while the smaller denominations barely fit. I lived with the wallet for a while. I kept thinking there had to be a better solution.

Then, I chanced upon the Tyvek Mighty Wallets at a shop. Nice, paper thin. It’s made of paper. Well, actually, it’s High Density Polyethylene, the sort of material that express mail envelopes are made from. It’s promised to be lasting. But it still looks filmsy, and I didn’t like the designs. Then, a colleague bought the wallet, and after seeing its condition after a week or two, I decided that’s not what I want.

But the Tyvek wallets got me started again on my search for the perfect wallet. So to cut a long story short, I eventually zoomed in on Big Skinny. Big Skinny lays claim to the world’s thinnest wallets. At least that’s what I think they are saying, although they stop short of very explicitly declaring so. Perhaps for legal reasons. They are, after all, in the land where everyone can sue anyone for the most inane reasons.

The point is, however, Big Skinny’s wallets are really thin. Check out their website for the videos showing you how ultra-thin their wallets are. They are saying that, empty the contents of your current normally-fat wallet, put them all into the Big Skinny wallet, and see how it probably still isn’t thicker than your now empty original wallet. Wow!

Hey, I actually gotta to do a comparison of my own too! I took everything out of my existing wallet, 8 cards (or you could count as 9, because one of them is extra thick), plus some currency notes, and put them all into the new Big Skinny wallet. I know, that’s not plenty of things, but remember, I didn’t want my wallet to be thick. Look below, the new versus old wallet.

Is that impressive or what? Remember my old wallet isn’t very thick to begin with, since it is really meant to be a cardholder. I don’t know for sure if this is the thinnest wallet in the world, but it definitely the thinnest wallet I’ve ever owned!

The Big Skinny wallet you see above is the Tri-Fold wallet. A tri-fold, to begin with, is already disadvantaged in terms of thickness when compared with a bi-fold. But it still does a pretty good job keeping slim.

I had originally ordered the Compact Sports Wallet. The item arrived with a small pin-sized hole on the inside pocket. I also realized that Singapore currency notes do not fit very well inside the Compact Sports Wallet. The $50 denomination protrudes out the top. So when I returned the wallet for an exchange, I took the opportunity to upgrade to the Tri-Fold Wallet. No trouble at all with the exchange/upgrade.

I chose the black colour, not just because black was an “okay” colour, but more importantly because the black colour version does not have the Big Skinny rubber logo stitched on the front. Sorry, Big Skinny, I’m not a fan of your logo. I saw the logo stitched on the Compact Sports Wallet and I really didn’t like it. In this version of the Tri-Fold Wallet, the Big Skinny label is tucked away inconspicuously in the currency compartment.

As you can also see in the above photo, the S$50 denomination notes fit with ample room to spare. The currency compartment also has a divider so you can separate out the notes and/or receipts. It’s convenient, and the divider is so thin it doesn’t add any thickness to the wallet.

This wallet is made from nylon micro-fibre fabric. It is almost just like what I had on my old Project Shop wallet. It’s thin, soft, smooth, and nice to touch. It looks and feels different from the typical leather or synthetic leather wallets. This is nice if you’re looking for a wallet that is unique and different.

I do have a little issue with the stitching of the seams, particularly on the parts of the pockets that fold over the top edges. They don’t seem very neat and tidy (see bottom left pic in the grid of 9 photos above). Fortunately they are inside-facing and won’t be noticeable. Most importantly, of course, I hope they won’t tear. Only time will tell.

I’m really happy with this Tri-Fold Wallet. If you are looking for an ultra-thin wallet, you really must take a look at Big Skinny’s wallets (www.bigskinny.net)! They have quite a number of “form factors”, designs for both men and women, so you should be able to find something that works for you.

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I dress quite casually to work. My work environment permits it. Casual for me means T-shirt and jeans. But occasionally it would be appropriate to dress not so casually for a particular meeting or something. In those instances, donning a casual jacket like this seems to work quite nicely. It goes well with jeans or khaki pants, so it’s easy for me to mix-and-match items to go from casual look to “smart” look.

The other item for my new year’s wardrobe is this destroyed jeans from Fox Men. It has a nice soft denim material that’s very comfortable. The “tears” in the denim look quite real and natural, and overall an excellent seasoned look. It’s my first jeans from Fox, and I think I can consider more of it for my wardrobe in future. Yes, I bought it during a sale again of course. Yeah, you might have noticed I usually don’t buy anything unless there is some sale or promotion. Many “nice” clothing are too expensive when you’ve got to pay the full retail price.

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I went shopping with baby Vanessa. We went to Bugis Junction. I was thinking nowadays Bugis is probably the not-so-happening shopping place anymore. I was quite wrong. It was still overflowing with crowds. I peeked in Top Shop for a few moments before heading out again, because I saw that the queue to pay was too long. No point to start browsing, want to buy something, and then get stuck in line for eons.

The signs for recession and economic gloom is definitely not evident in the pre-Lunar New Year shopping. Or perhaps that is the sign: everyone’s shopping for the bargains during this festive sales promotions. At Samuel and Kevin, everyone (including me) was crowding around jackets that were going for just $20. They were just casual jackets, not an expensive suit of blazer, but certainly worth well more than $20.

I think, after the Lunar New Year, there’s going to be even more bargains with shops trying to clear their unsold stock. No need to buy everything before the new year. Do some of the shopping after the new year!

A funny thing about Vanessa. She doesn’t like Samuel and Kevin. She cried in the shop. She’s okay elsewhere… even in IPZone (which is the same chain eh). The first time round, she was comforted when I picked her up and headed out. I came back later, and she cried again.

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I like laptop bags that don’t look like laptop bags. (Yes, it’s an irony that while the STM Phantom bag was not meant to look like a typical laptop bag, the brand label carries the tagline “Protecting your digital cargo”.) It’s not just the issue of security (the logic is that laptop bags invite theft), but that I just don’t want to be seen lugging a notebook around.

In the past, I sometimes make do with bags that were truly not designed to be laptop bags at all. For example, at one time I was carrying around my IBM Thinkpad X21 in a green sling bag used by army people. (I still use that bag to tactically bring things like books, newspapers, and other paraphernalia into the field.)

The STM Phantom is designed to be a laptop bag and, at least in my opinion, it is comfortable, stylish and functional. You can read about the “specifications” from STM’s webpage, but just to share the main attractions to me are:

• Lightweight
• Sleek exterior
• 360 degrees swivel shoulder strap
• Nice colour

I would have preferred a fabric exterior, though that would be a problem with waterproofing. Also, while the bag fits the 13″ MacBook perfectly, it is a little too perfect fitting. It might have been better slightly larger so that putting in and taking out the MacBook would be easier.

Here are some photos to share, in case you want to see some close-ups of the bag.

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Not in Singapore of course. Levi’s jeans are just too overpriced in SIngapore. It is so much cheaper in the US. I don’t know about other countries. In the US, it is not even like you have to travel hour to go to some factory outlet in the middle of nowhere. Yes, while I was in Orlando last week, I headed down to Florida Mall, and at Macy’s, I found this 514 jeans selling for US$28.96 after tax, which comes up to about S$39.76.

An awful discount, so much that I bought two pairs. (I would have wanted to buy more, but I already had too many things to cart back to Singapore.)

Some of the retail clothing in Singapore are just way too overpriced. It’s not just Levi’s, but many other brands as well. I bought a GAP jeans for under US$30 in a previous trip. It was something I bought from a downtown SF store.

Many many years ago, I had the idea that the good discounts were only at the factory outlets located in the middle of nowhere. They are no doubt cheaper, but I had found out that it only costs like a few dollars more in a downtown shop. There was really no point to go through the inconvenience of having to get out of town.

There are other things apart from clothing that are also overpriced in Singapore. For example, a battery for my MacBook 13.3″ costs S$232 in Singapore, but the equivalent of S$188 when purchased in the US. Exactly the same product.

With a globalized economy, online shopping, and declining international shipping rates… I certainly hope prices in Singapore start to make sense.

With a Levi’s jeans costing under $40, who wants to buy Giordano anymore?

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