Maison at Pavilion

Since my father in law been discharged, getting some time away from the house with Anita had not been straight forward. We managed a couple of hours last weekend since Anita wanted to do some shopping at Pavilion. We ended up having a late lunch at one of the new café there called Maison.

Located on the second floor of the complex - where there used to be an Italian café - the place was only recently opened. They served mainly desserts and sandwiches with a distinct French flavour. The set menu they had there was reasonably priced and since Anita was starving, she went for the lunch set while I just ordered one from the standard selection set.

A nice ambiance

For that, we got starters, mains and dessert - and a generous portions at that. Plus coffee or tea at the end.

Anita went for roasted Angus beef and it was enough for the two of us to share. I had some chicken terragon which actually wasn't as great as the beef. The dessert was a delight. We had bread and butter pudding with some gorgeous vanilla custard to top it.

My chicken tarragon Definitely worth a visit. Nice ambiance, friendly waiter and waitresses - all local. Good took some time to be prepared but it was worth the wait ... Definitely with come back and try another item from the menu.

You Handsome Devil

I attended a product launch the other night. It was for the brand new Leica camera, the CL. A mirrorless interchangeable lens APS-C camera which was compatible with the Leica TL lenses.

Typical Leica, they didn't come cheap.

There used to be a couple of Leica Stores in town, but the one at Starhill had closed a couple of years back. The one left was located at Avenue K, right next to KLCC. That was where the launch was done.

Don't press that!!!!An Executive from Leica Asia Pacific was next giving some corporate spiel Some real-life samples from a local photographer Wong Mun KeatA simple affair mainly to introduce the new camera. The event started off with speeches from the Leica Excutives, both local and regional, followed by a brief talk by a local photographer, Wong Mun Keat telling us his experience of having the new camera along for a week. He shared some sample images as well and gave us a bit of flab our of how it was like with the new kit.

The camera could be bought with a brand new pancake lens kit - and f 2.8 Elmarit - or alternatively with a standard zoom lens. I noticed that most of the better images were taken using a higher-end Summilux. That would mean investing in an extra lens to get the best out of us camera. That combination, plus the trimmings could easily set me back RM 25000, which frankly still be inferior to the setup I have at the moment.

The bottom line is the quality would not be as good as the M system and its lenses. Yes, you do get autofocus but the camera just felt front heavy with the wide lenses. Plus, there was no stabilization on the basic system. And since I preferred a 28mm look anyway, using my Leica Q made more sense if autofocus was needed.

That doesn't mean that the CL system was bad. Far from it. If I didn't have the Q, I would've bought the new kit and gave it a good go. With the pancake lens, it just felt great on the hand. Plus you still get glimpses of famous Leica colour. So far, there are no addition to my camera cabinet ....

Reading Material

I have always been fascinated by biography. I have read quite a few. But they were the obvious ones. Even Gary Neville's. A couple of months back, Robert Kuok's biography came into the market. But getting my hands on a copy was almost impossible.

Luckily one of my patients got one with him and after some coaxing agreed to loan it out for me to read. Looks like I would be getting my teeth into it in the coming weeks.

Truth be told, I am more of a digital guy. I listen to books rather than read them from paper. If I have a Kindle copy, I would rather have that as well. Easier to carry around and I always had a copy of them in the cloud somewhere. But once in a while, I wouldn't mind having a paper version. Let's see ...

It had been a While

The last time I went to the gym must've been before Ramadan last year. I had been slacking even though the gym was just a lift ride away.

I was early to get back home this afternoon and decided rather than go out, I hit the gym instead. I only lasted half an hour - which what I planned twice a week from now on. And now I was suffering.

My whole body ached. Especially my thighs. Now I had to do this more often and then build my stamina for a bit of a run in the future. Knees seemed to be holding which was great. Twice a week. Promise.

Dull Outing

Since I had a few hours to spear - while taking Anita out at the mall - I decided to have a walk around Bukit Bintang to see how cool the weather would be.

It was cold alright. And it was also rather dull. The light quality wasn't great and the outdoor photos just didn't have that usual pop when it came to colours.

Looking down the Bukit Bintang Entrance to PavilionThe main foyer was still being prepared ...More flowers outside ...The entrance was full of people ...

While walking, I realised that Sungai Plaza had been complete torn down. And it was not really to make way for the new MRT line. The project there was to supplement the new transport network and from what I heard, there would be a new luxury apartment cum hotel taking over the space.

A cutie ...Street performerCan't seem to catch a decent light ...Time to scuttle back ...The place was still flat with no sign of piling being done yet. Looked like the place would be a construction for a few more years ...