Mooncakes and Lanterns

I didn't have much chance to explore. But at the same time, I must say there had not been much hype about the lantern festival this season. Maybe it was the refllection of the state of the economy, and it may also be that with the Bersih and the “Red Shirt” rally, there is a bit of tension running around.

So, I only managed to catch one at Pavilion last weekend. Pretty straight forward, with mainly stalls selling novelty mooncakes from a host of local hotels and restaurants. We didn't catch any events at the time I was visiting, but there were plenty of people around browsing.

A group of my friends may be planning to hit Petaling Street this coming weekend - haze permitting. We night catch more fancy lanterns there then ….

The Martian

The last time I felt excited about a movie was while anticipating "Interstellar". It was an interesting enough movie as a concept but it ended up being rather heavy and technical, similar to the previous Anthony Nolan movies. It had many layers and I couldn't help leaving the theatre in a state of wonderment. Certainly it was not what I expected in terms of narrative.

A couple of the actors from that movie, Jessica Chastain and Matt Damon teamed up again in The Martian, and with Ridley Scott behind the cameras, I was worried that this will again be another "Prometheus".

Luckily it wasn't this time around. What we got here was a future classic although I must admit the science behind the movie was rather suspect. Certainly Interstellar was more compelling. More or less, it was certainly a ride, and the fact that Anita was not the kind of person who enjoyed sci-fi, she was carried away at times.

Certainly the nerd in me connected with the movie and I do not have any hesitation in recommending this movie. It was certainly much lighter than both Prometheus and Interstellar.

El Capitan!

Apple makes major update to their main Operating System every year, and for the past few years, it came as a free update. It didn't use to be so before.

When Leopard was introduced, I remembered having a meet-up at an Apple shop in Great Eastern Mall when it was released. Since it was released at midnight an San Francisco, the shop were only able to hand the disc - yes, disc - to us at around 3 pm Malaysia time. And there was a group of about 20 of us turned up, having a quick drink and snack which the shop provided.

It used to be a big thing since Apple and Mac was not mainstream back then. That didn't stop me from staying up to watch the Apple keynote, something that Anita was wondering about until years later she learned who Steve Jobs was.

Time have moved on. Even the shop at Great Eastern Mall has since closed - although a new dealer came in recently. Nowadays, the OS is free and one just downloaded it through broadband.

6Gb was the size of the file and since today was the first day of the release of El Capitan, the server had been really slow. I left the download on when I left for work this morning and when I reached home, only 1.2 Gb was on my disc. It would probably be tomorrow morning before I would be ready for the install. Hopefully it would be worth the wait!

And we are good!

Welcomed Rain

The recent haze was predicted to get worse and any patch of rain would certainly be welcomed as came with it would be a some fresh air and sunshine.

Wee, it did so on Monday when the sky was getting grey and the air had that smell of burnt soot. I was on call and managed to skip to the bank during lunch with Anita. School was closed, so the boys were at home, enjoying an extra few hours in bed.

While we were tucking in, suddenly we heard thunder and soon after the heaven opened. It poured heavily for a good half an hour and soon after, the air was noticeably cleaner.

But that did not last long. By the time I returned home for dinner before my evening round, visibly deteriorated again although not as bad as the first thing in the morning. But, those few hours of fresh air was a respite. Long it may stay that way ...

Qurban 2015

This year, it was with my parents at Bukit Antarabangsa. The local surau had 11 cows and the ceremony had to start early for fear of dragging on till late. two of the cows were huge - one donated by the local singer who happened to live my Mum's area. That took some doing!
The weather was nice, and the haze were almost completely gone with no rain in sight. A perfect weather for Qurban.

It started at around 10, and when I left at around noon with Irfan especially making noise, our Qurban was due next. There were plenty of helpers around and it was a big occasion for the folks in the area, with my Dad being one of the organiser.

They took the security arrangements seriously with the area for the Qurban cordoned off, and the children were put on one side. The event went on orderly although there was a slight delay. Once the Qurban was downed, the meat were taken to designated area for futher cutting and later distribution. Some of the meat were also cooked at the Surau for a feast later in the day while some were distributed to the needy!

Judging from the size of the cows, this years Qurban was a lot better compared to few years back where the meat were too lean and skinny. This year, each portion of Qurban - 7 per cow - weighed in at 5kg.

I just wished that I could hang around a bit more, but the combination of the hot weather, the delay and the crowd put my boys off! They should toughen up for next year ….