For a Different View

A few years back, I was in awe of a series on Discovery called "The World from Above". I was guilty of recording the episodes and watching them again and again. It was basically aerial footage on famous landmarks with narratives in the background for colour. It was both eye-catching and educational. Especially when it features the UK, on landmarks which I knew but taken for granted. The particular episode featuring New York was my favourite. And don't get me started about San Francisco!

And then I read about the availability of drones for aerial footage. I always thought them as cumbersome, difficult to fly while getting decent footage would take some training. I was wrong!

The more I read into it, and looking at the videos on YouTube, I realised that it was quite simple. All you need is a bit of time and passion.

My interest peaked when I read about the Phantom 4. It was a drone which was easy to fly and had a decent camera attached to it, for both video and snaps. Did some homework and find out a bit more about the pricing. So, last weekend, I bought one.

Getting the blades in orderTrying to understand the parts ...The remote was still in the plastic coveringIt was not exactly cheap, but to be honest, it was cheaper than a decent dSLR. And I started flying them the next day. All you needed extra was a smartphone, or in my case an iPad which would act at the display. The flying was done via a remote plus touchscreen. And to take photos and video, you just press the screen. The camera was a 12MP affair, of a decent point-and-click quality - with an f2.8 aperture - and it was capable of capturing 4K footage straight into it's memory card.

Flight time was also rather decent with a battery unit lasting about 25 minutes - my set came with 3 batteries for an hour of flight. It came in a slick portable case, which meant carrying the drone around a piece of cake. The whole package weighed less than a couple of kilo trams.

Going through the instructionsReady to fly!I should have bought one earlier as the footage from Langkawi would have been amazing! But never mind. I would still have to get proficient with it and with every flight I was learning something new. Definitely a keeper! Now, I would have to get some free time to fly the damn thing!

Great Light

After many afternoons of going out for photography and putting, we decided to stay in this Sunday afternoon. I was actually having a map after lunch. And today, the weather turned out to be gorgeous!

But since we had planned to stay indoors, Idlan just finished his homework and generally had a quiet night in. How I wished I was outside instead...

EdpressSushi is Moving

I knew that I will be craving it during the upcoming Ramadhan, so I decided to indulge for lunch today at the usual spot at Great Eastern Mall.

The place was full today, being a Sunday lunch time, and we were also informed that our beloved EdpressSushi will be moving to another spot - which happened to be where one of our friend was living - after Raya later. They had been at the spot since 2009. Not sure if we could go there as frequently as we were doing now since the current shop was directly in front of the supermarket where we sometimes do our groceries. Kinda tied in with our routine.

I think he's trying to break the tip jar!Anyhow, they had to move on. Maybe once in a while we would drop by to catch up. The boys were still babies when they started going there.

Another Concert

Another year, and it was time for another concert. This time around, both Idlan and Irfan participated in the same dance routine and it was one of the earlier ones. Which meant we could make a quick escape soon afterwards.

This time around, the organisation was much better than yesteryears. We didn't have to wait long for the concert to start, and the speeches were pretty simple. In fact, it was only one speech I thought.

Entering the hallIdlanIrfanAfter the concertTechnical issues were also not a factor this time around and the flow of the participants were Lai straight forward.

The venue was the same as before, at the HGH Convention Centre in Sentul. The place was recently upgraded and the facilities were lunch better than before. Parking however was still a hassle, but luckily we got our driver to sort that one out.

We were ready to go by about 11.30 and was back to the apartment before hoing out again for an early lunch. I had to go early since I had a meeting later in the afternoon as well as a dinner talk - which I decided to skip as to spend some time at home as well as taking my drone out for a weekend spin.

The Sunset Pool

This was a winner. Apart from the gorgeous beach - which were unfortunately hot most of the time, we found shelter at the cooling pool. It was big and shallow enough to be enjoyed by the whole family and there was also a cafe for pizza and drinks. And of course ice cream.

The shades - either from trees or roof - were a welcome, and it was open enough for the breeze to enter.

The view of the sunset here was gorgeous, hence the name. After the swim, we would just sit on the deckchairs admiring the vista. We ended up spending both late afternoons there in the pool and later walking by the beach to enjoy the setting sun ....