Another Mineraft Bowling Party

Last weekend, we were invited to another birthday party - we would have another one coming this weekend. It was one of Irfan's classmate. The theme? Minecraft and bowling. Sounded familiar?

This classmate of his couldn't make it to Irfan's party as they were traveling out of town. But, they did get the invitation card. I was sure that he was into Minecraft as well, hence the theme was understandable.

The venue was much smaller than when we had ours, and it was also less crowded. Never the less, the boys did enjoy themselves. It was held at Tropicana Golf Resort, and it was the first time I was there.

Tokyo Street 2014

I used to feel the charm of the place in the previous visits. It was after all something quite different. Nice selection of Japanese food, great café and just chic ambience.

That was a couple of years ago. Moving on, there seemed the much of the same. Same shops and the quality of the outlets had pretty much deteriorated. A couple of new restaurants but they were non-halal.

I didn't mind the non-halal issue, but I would've preceded it to be segregated clearly. Had a separate wing where one could go and enjoy such food. Building the outlets together at one area just create confusion and for me suspicion as I couldn't trust the whole area to be halal as such.

That to a certain extend had put me off having meals there. I still loved the café but the numbers were dwindling. We were down to one at the minute withbanither Japanese-themed café located at the central walkway of level 6.

Down to the bottom line, Tokyo Street should be a themed outlet and should run around on that novelty, as an attraction of all things Japanese. There were promotions going on all the time but they were located outside the main area. Something of an afterthought and it was always business as usual for the vendors inside as if they were separate from the effort of the promoters of the event going on elsewhere. Things felt detached and disorganized.

I felt that those running Tokyo Street should look into this and tow all the vendors to be in line. When there were promotions going on, everybody should be involved. That was clearly not happening yesterday when I visited the place. Without this effort, Tokyo Street would lose its charm and turn into any other themed street stalls. And you could get that in Chow Kit...

Walk in the Haze

It was time for my afternoon photo walk but shane that it had to be in the haze this time around. It wasn't as bad as earlier in the week, but it was pretty obvious nearing sun down. The smell was also there.

The children stayed in as expected playing their PC. I didn't want to bring them out in the haze anyhow. So, it was me and Puan Anita in the end, enjoying a stroll and a bit of shopping. While she shopped, I ventures on towards Low Yat just soaking in what was on show.

Nothing new. I wanted to have a look at the new Panasonic GM1, the compact camera. Smaller than the Sony RX100 but with a bigger sensor. A truly pocketable which I had been looking for. But event conspired against me.

I also dropped by Parkamaya for a quick look. My cousin launched a clothing outlet there earlier in the day, but I was late to the launch. I just dropped by to say hi and wished them good luck.

The theme at Pavilion today was World Women's Day. But there were not much in terms of organised event going on. The central foyer was filled with handbags - not sure but that may be a celebration in itself. But what ever happiness and joy today was hampered by the news of the missing #MH370. The authorities were still trying thieve together what exactly went on. And the natives, both local and abroad were vetoing restless. Speculations afloat at the minute and my thoughts were with the family members as hope were fading.

I will blog about Tokyo Street later as the place seemed shave lost its charm as far as I was concerned.

Pray for #MH370

One cannot escape the story of the day. I wasn't talking about Sodomy here, but the missing MAS plane over Vietnam en route to Beijing.

Although the safety record of MAS was exemplary, one cannot escape the risk of flying. At the moment of writing, there had been no official conformation as yet to what happened to the flight. I was glued at the lounge earlier getting update on the latest development, but duty called.

I kept asking my patients for updates and clearly, they were anxious as well.

Praying for their fate now ...

Irfan's New Mac

Since last year, the boys had been asking for their own computers. Irfan especially had been nagging me. He wanted an iMac, similar to mine. But mine was already four years-old. We had to get a brand-new one then.

Idlan would have to wait until later as we didn’t have space for two desktops. I must say that the new iMac were some slick machine. I would have to save for my Mac Pro as the shop only carry the first editions, and they were having some memory module issues with that batch. Not many shops in town had them in stock yet.

As usual, taking the computer out from the packaging was a ritual in itself. No other company paid this much attention to the packaging. Even though it looked complicated, one just had to follow the instructions, and before you knew it, walla ….

And I would have to do the dirty work ...Idlan would be using my old iMac, and they and their classmate had already planned a Minecraft party this weekend. Online of course. And Irfan already had Skype set up in his computer. Idlan had already had his for quite some time …

Looked like they would be staying in this weekend. The internet seemed to be the issue though as it was slow. I may have to bring the iMac to the apartment for updates at some stage.