A Quick Escape

After the call last night, I felt like having a quick escape from the hospital during lunch. Although it did not last long - I was called back in - it was always good to leave the hospital. And Anita joined me for an early lunch in Bangsar.

Back and forthThe traffic was not very bad and now during lunch hours, I managed to discharge a couple of patients and just waiting for the afternoon rounds while doing letters and paperwork in clinic. Hopefully I would have a quiet hour there.

Tanjung Rhu Fish Farm

It's a fish farm. It's a floating restaurant. It was our next stop after feeding the fishes at Pulau Dangli. It was small and the restaurant was only in full swing in during lunch and dinner. We were there around tea time. And there were hardly anybody there.

And as such, we were given a nice tour of all the fish. The boys loved it.

Docking ....Feeding the leopard shark. Best to leave it to the professionals.Here comes the menace .....Anita holding tight to make sure Irfan doesn't fell down. We didn't bring a spare shirt!The stingray needed some loving too ....But my personal favourite was the baby leopard shark. Tiny and cute. It looks like a shark definitely but the mouth was small minus the menacing teeth. The pattern on its torso though was unmistakeable.

Anita loved the stingrays and she was able to feed and pat it.

Our guide who spoke surprisingly good EnglishThere is a shark in there somewhere ...Such a hot day ....Irfan asking what was in that pond. I told him it was dinner ....Something caught Idlan's attentionTime to head back out .....We then had some iced tea there before leaving. Apparently the seafood dinner there was rather good according to my friends. I saw some crabs there in the pond and we can order them fresh. Nice.

My Boron was Gone

I bought this Boron 200 back in 1992, when I was selected to play for the University. I needed a racquet with lighter tension but heavy on the head to generate more speed. And it had served me well. After a few years, I mainly played on the front court which required more placement rather than power. This racquet was perfect.

But, it has a limited use since it can't generate power for backcourt smashes. So, I tend to rotate between it and another Yonex, the Carbonex 21. That cracked a few years back.

The real McCoyThe crack was a subtle one but the symmetry and balance were all goneThe grip was real woodLast months, I decided to start playing badminton again with my schoolmates from MRSM. There was no excuse since the court was only about a 5 minutes drive from my apartment. And it was good fun actually. And for that, I needed to get my gears sorted out. I sent the couple of racquets that I had for restringing, but the Boron cracked under tension.

I don't think I would be able to get a replacement for the Boron since they had stopped making it a while back. And frankly, I don't even know which racquet was good anymore nowadays. Time to look around I think ...

Tugu Drum Circle at #Urbanscapes

Usually, as the name suggested, the Tugu Drum Circle do their jamming every Sunday at Tugu Negara. This weekend, the plan changed. They were at Urbanscapes, right in the open at Medan Pasar entertaining the crowd and getting them to join as well.

It worked out great. They got all their equipments laid up on seats arranged in a big circle with the director right in the middle conducting the whole thing. Even those we couldn't drum just followed the interactions and the rest was history.

Getting the place readyEvery instrument was pre-arrangedG-Pro readyTime for a quick briefingIt went on a touch too long I thought with some of the participant already getting tired after around 15 minutes. They did jazz it up though, by playing alternate instruments and just having fun.

The most important guy was the one with the bass drum. He controls the tempo.And they get some of the sections to do a bit of a soloIt attracted a sizeable crowd and yes, there was somebody who started to dance - in a rather suggestive fashion - before being told off by security. On the whole, it was a spectacle. I wonder if my boys - Idlan especially - may be interested.

#Urbanscapes Closing Day

I returned to Urbanscapes House for the final day. They had a long list of events on the ready. Being at an open site and right smack in the middle of the city, there was no issues about access. In fact, I went there twice on the day, first alone in the afternoon to catch some music and later with Anita after dinner managing to catch the last leg of the "Open Mic Stand", a stand-up show hosted by a friend.

It was threatening to rain at late afternoon, hence the start of the festivities was delayed. The first stand-up session was done indoors instead rather than at the intended "nasi lemak" shaped stage - complete with free nasi lemak. The band started playing half an hour late but soon the schedule caught up. The weather also cleared, but the sun was shaded - which was just as well so that it was not too hot.

FluffyThe day's programThe crowd filling up the balcony at Urbanscapes House while the rigging for the concert stage was erectedPrakash was the MC for the "One Mic Stand" showsI took shelter at Central Market while things were starting, taking some tea.

There were all together 3 stand-up chows for the day - I caught the first and the last - featuring different comedians. And they were bold enough to have stand-up in Malays. The first few did not catch on, but the one - the headliner - in the final show was excellent. In fact, the last session was a riot - in the open at night - it was simply excellent. And yes, they tried giving away all the nasi lemak but there were no takers. Me and Anita was already done with our dinner.

The crowd started mingling while the stage was setThe balloons protecting us from the elementsHive of activitiesI also enjoyed the Tugu Drum Circle - where they got the public to participate - but I didn't join because of my tendinitis. More about the drums later. Security was pretty OK, and since Medan Pasar was popular with the foreign workers during weekend, the main job of the security was to make sure that there were no unwanted incident rather than true security. On the while, the whole place was safe, and I hope in the years to come, similar event was done here.