Productive Monday

Monday. I was expecting really bad traffic, but it turned out to be not too bad. Maybe some of the city dwellers had decided to extend their leaves to Wednesday since it would be Hari Wilayah. I would not be surprised if some would be extending it further to next week as both Monday and Tuesday would again be public holidays.

As for me, I turned up for work extra early and finished my rounds just after 9. Did some paperwork and letters right after. Finally I decided to head home to fire off some lecture notes and had a quick lunch with Puan Anita. We then did some grocery shopping before picking up Irfan from school.

I got home in time to do some reading and preparation for my next set of lectures. Put it this way. It had been a productive morning …..

Return to Alexis

Alexis at The Gardens, Mid Valley used to be a popular place for us to have lunch. Unfortunately, since a change of menu and the predictable drop in quality, we only went there often. After about 7 months, we were there again for lunch on the Chinese New Year Eve.

The place was empty, as you would expect when we sat at the sofa seats by the entrance. We then realised that they had extended the restaurant. It now occupied the whole wing, more or less twice the size it was before. The food remained the same although I was disappointed with my rocket salad. The main was all together a different story.

The rocket salad looked better than it tasted. It wasn't as fresh as I would have wished, and they put too much pepper in it.Next came the really nice, oven-cooked pizzaThe wagyu was definitely the highlight. Heavenly!The wagyu beef steak was exquisite. It did not come cheap however and I ended up sharing with Anita. The boys had one whole pizza each and try finished them. And Irfan enjoyed his chamomile tea.

A dash of honey in his chamomile of course ....Taken from the floor above, the restaurant had expanded to occupy the whole end of the wing.The wagyu was definitely very nice indeed and the side mashed potato and sauce was also hard to beat. A definite recommendation.

Chubby Boy

Chilling out while watching Ben 10 was Idlan's idea of relaxing. And on this Sunday afternoon, that was exactly what he did. And I'm sure he put on weight in the last week that he had been at home. All he did was eat, play and sleep.

Chubby boy!

Sunday Afternoon

A spare couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon. The children were doing their homework as tomorrow would be a school day after a week away for the Chinese New Year break. There won't be much school in the next couple of weeks however.

Next Wednesday would be a day off for Hari Wilayah. Then there would be another long weekend, with Thaipusam and Maulud Rasul. The boys would be absent the an extra day as well since we would be traveling to Singapore for the long weekend. Our first real holiday traveling abroad, and the first time their passports would be stamped!

Puan Anita as usual had been sorting out the packing all weekend. As for me, I am trying to sort out a quick way to blog on the fly and I was really impressed with the new version of Posterous. I had been using them since 2008, and it had been kinda lame for a while. The new revamp at the end of 2011 really did wonder for the product, and better still, they were still free of charge and now the API is much more durable.

I will write more about Posterous after the field trip …..

After a Month

It had been exactly a month since I started using the new iteration I the iPhone, the 4S. So is there any difference from the 4?

There is definitely improvement in terms of the Internet speed - since I often use it for tethering - and of course the excellent camera that came with the 4S. Not just the bump up in resolutions. The aperture, optics and the sensors were actually much better and for the first time, I won't miss a camera if I left them at home. During a few I my outings, I just relied on the iPhone. The video capture was no bad either. But I tended to use the camera more for the still than video. The videos I captured so far had been excellent, but at 1080p, the size was huge. I tended to do the editing on the phone using iMovie. It was more than usable.

How good is Siri? I must say, living in Malaysia, we would not be getting our money's worth. It was a luxury, not a necessity. In terms of processor speed, I did no notice much. This may be due to the fact that no many of the app utilise all the power.

Was it a worthwhile upgrade? Since I am an avid photographer, the 4S definitely got my vote. And I would upgrade just for the camera alone. It was that much of an improvement.