Smells Like Xmas

It was still 40 days away from Xmas, but Malaysian loved their festivities and mall decorations. I had an unexpected free afternoon yesterday, and after the morning rounds, set out towards Bukit Bintang camera in hand.

Pavilion had this tradition of elaborate decorations, especially for Xmas. This year was a bit more toned down, but extravagant none the less. I wasn't clear about the theme yet. It wasn't very obvious. There was a huge carriage in then middle of the main foyer. For the kids, there was also a small train on rails which went around in circle. The children would love it. My boys mn right be a bit to on big for that.

I walked further towards Fahrenheit. The were celebrating Doraemon's 100 birthday. Nothing fancy there as yet.

Come December, most of the other malls would catch up and start erecting their displays. I would be taking my cameras doing the rounds of course ....

Awal Muharram Outing

After the series of public holidays and weekends spoilt by having to be on call, Awal Muharram couldn't come early enough for me. As soon as I finished my morning rounds, I had an early lunch and took an afternoon nap until around three. Form the last four days, I hardly had any uninterrupted sleep due ton phone calls and emergency.

As soon as I woke up, I got the boys packed up, and we headed out to Tasik Perdana for a walk in the park. Boy, how much I needed that!

First stop was the Lake Garden itself. Got then car parked, and we strolled ton the playground, running on the grass before again, it got dark! Afternoon rain again in KL. The heaven held for another 20 minutes or so, enough for the boys to burn some sugar.

When it finally rained, we were already inside then car, headed to Hornbill Restaurant - at Bird Park - where both Idlan and Irfan had their birthday parties before. We had some tea there while waiting for the rain to pass by. It was just around 5.30 when we left the restaurant and bought the ticket to enter the park.

We didn't venture far, but spent most of the time feeding the birds and fishes. A couple of years ago, part of the park was closed for renovation. They were building a pavilion with a koi pond in the middle of it. I was there before but, minus the boys, so they were excited when they had the chance to feed the fishes. It helped that it was late on the afternoon and there were hardly that many people inside the park at the time. No need to jostle to buy the animal feed and to stroll around.

By the time we were done, it was almost closing time. The animal food were sold on vending machines but that day, none of the machine were in order. This was mainly due to the coin slot getting stuck with small change. Luckily, there were kiosk selling the food instead, but certainly for a premier park, they should look into the maintenance side a bit more closely. Not to mention that bit cost a bomb to get in, especially for foreigners. Luckily, we did not bring our maid along. Her entrance fee might be more than the four of us combined!

Great day out I thought. By then time we left Task Perdana, we were starving and had to look around for food. Luckily we were staying at the apartment, and there were plenty of eatery around Bangsar. 

That was a Full Day

For the first time in weeks both Idlan and Irfan went to bed early without much prompting. It wasn't a surprise as they had really had such a busy day. It started out with an early rise. They had a small parry at one of their classmate's house in Setapak. A pool party it was. And they played all morning.

The party did not end there. Straight after lunch - well, I think they skipped lunch, they went straight to Great Eastern Mall to play at the indoor playground there. Spent more than a couple of hours there, until I showed up after work.

That didn't stop them from running around further. Next, we went to my parents house for tea. They then played with their cousin. Idlan had started grumbling by then.

We finally reached home by Maghrib. After shower, then they hit the Xbox. Finally, they gave up soon after asking for bed. I felt tired just describing what they were up to ......

And both of them were snoring away while I wait for the United game later tonight. Well, good luck to me to stay awake ......

Intuos5

My Wacom tablet from seven years back was still going strong, but the tip was a problem. The rubberised grip had melted - from grime and what have you - and I was struggling to get it replaced. I was walking around Mid Valley last weekend and came across a store doing sales for the Wacom tablets.

I browsed around to sample some of the low-end versions. They were good, and did the trick week, but I noticed that the ones which responded to stylus and touch were still expensive. A few extra hundred would get me one of the higher-end ones, which were bundled with softwares such as Adobe Photoshop Elements that were going at the App Store at around USD80. I might as well get the more expensive one then.

It came with a stand for the stylusThere were programmable buttons on the left side of the tablet, and a multifunctional touch-sensitive scroll-wheel for navigating.The tip of the nib is touch sensitive to 2048 levels, whatever that meant!There is an option to use Bluetooth connection using an optional accessory. But I wondered where the tablet would draw its power from.I went for the Intous5 Touch, the smallest size. The price was very reasonable with the discounts, and add to that the softwares - including the budged version Nik Color Efex Pro - I was really pleased. Setting them up on the Mac was easy, and I was really enjoying it now. It would keep the smudges of the glass-paned touch pad on my MacBook Pro.

Some of the custom gestures took a while to get used to, but once you mastered them, it was a doodle to use.

Birthday at Songket

It was my brother-in-law's birthday today, and last night, we joined him and my in-laws for dinner. Anita picked the place and she came across a Malay restaurant along Jalan Yap Kwan Seng called Restoran Songket. It had a snazzy website, and Anita was quickly drawn to it. Made our reservation and got there early just in case the heaven's opened and traffic became mad. And it was a revelation.

Nestled quietly behind a bigger mall - can't recall the name of it, but where Tomy Roma's restaurant was located - one had to pay attention to the turn. If you were to miss it, then one might get stuck in the traffic on turning back. Any how, it was well sign-posted and we got there the first time. Parking was ample, although the lighting around the car park was rather dim. I did not see any security guard posted there, but I assumed that there were.

There were couple of parts to the restaurant. The open area and a more conventional in-door dining near the bar. There was also a private room, but you would miss one of the main attraction to the restaurant - the dance show.

We were seated at the terrace, a nice airy covered area, right along the dance show area. The waiters there were very personable and attentive. The menu were straight forward, and they gave us clue as to the portion. The waiters seemed to know the menu items intimately as they described them pretty well. I was impressed. Our orders were complicated but all the items arrived even though we did not see the waiter taking any note to the order.

Then, there was a cultural show. We were not talking about a 5 minutes do by some amateurs here. These were proper dancers, and their set lasted 45 minutes - going through the routine of Malay, Indian and Chinese dances - complete with interactions with the audience, ending with photo op should you wished to join. If you have a foreign visitors coming to visit and you were looking for some authentic local food, with a bona fide cultural show in a great ambiance, you could not be wrong.

Let's talk bout the food. The starters were disappointing. I had some tauhu sumbat and otak-otak. Pretty average. But the same cannot be said about the main dishes and soup. They were very good. Not the best - but it won't embarrass your foreign guest if you brought them there. The best dish I had that night was adam pedas. The oxtail soup was rather too mild - but I was sure you could ask for a spicy one should you wished for as the staffs there were so attentive.

The staff found out that it was my brother-in-law's birthday, but we couldn't find the time to get him a cake. The staff soon sorted that out with a complimentary slice. Well played the manager!

We were greeted by the manager and the chef on the way out after the meal. I must say that I was impressed with the service, and would definitely bring a foreign visitor should I need to show one around. I was sure that it would be a memorable evening for them. A word of caution for the Moslem readers, as although eh food served there was Halal, the restaurant also ran a bar, and served wine. They assured me that the dishes were separated though, and I have no doubt that they do.

The price was also very reasonable - I was the one paying the bill. The bottom line was, I would definitely be coming back to the restaurant.