Snaps of Jonker

An Old World Charm. The colonials meets Peranakan. The fusion of the East and the West. That was what the Straits Settlements had in common. It was a theme we could explore in all three areas. Penang, Malacca and Singapore. They have this row of house and dare I say a different ways of living their lives. Seemed that the modern era effected them in a special way, to only enrich their culture rather than change too much with the time.

From the rows of colourful cafes, the warmth of the locals - apart from the obvious fact that the local merchants were now replaced by the foreigners - the brightly painted shop facade, the laid back eateries and bed and breakfast littering the town. It all added to the potpourri of feelings you had when you visit the City. And there were gems to be found in unexpected corners if you dare to explore. Be it a specialty shop or a rustic restaurant. Just bring your camera along and pray for great weather.

I had the same feeling when I travel to Penang as well but somehow things moved at a faster pace there. Here, it was more easygoing, although weekends were nightmares. Too many people. Too many cars. Driving into Bandar Melaka can be an ordeal.

But if you were willing to spend a couple of nights - better still at the charming bed and breakfast they had around Jonker - you could absorb the charm as they come. And that was a good thing.

Traveling there for a day trip really fit not make justice to the city. After negotiating the hundreds of traffic lights from Ayer Keroh where you exit the highway and finding a parking spot in town, you could only afford a few hours walking around before it was time to go again.

We plan to spend a night here in the future. And really explore the place .....

Cendol Hawa

This was a little known gem in Damansara Damai. Anita learned about it from one of our ex-schoolmate and before long, she took me along to the place a few Saturdays ago when we happened to be driving around the area. It was a discovery!

They had a couple of main specialties. Cendol of course and Penang laksa - the proper ones!

The instructions are clearBon apetit The place was pretty simple but both the cendol and the laksa was amazing. The cendol had proper santan in them and the green cendol bits were crispy and crunchy! Not too sweet but it was definitely full of fat!

As for the laksa, it came with the shrimp paste! How can it go wrong?!

Would definitely be coming back to the place again in the future. Despite how popular it was, on that particular Saturday we didn't have any issues getting a parking spot or a table. I can't really tell where the exact location was as I was not familiar with Damansara Damai but over there there was only one bus terminal and the stall was located there! So ask around. Highly recommended!

CNY Day at Mid Valley

I had to stay in town for Chinese New Year as usual. Generally speaking it was the best time of the year to stay in KL with the light traffic and generally good hot weather.

Some of the shops were closed for the daySince for this year, the CNY happened during weekend, not many people left town. KL ended up to be more congested than usual, and the shopping malls were crowded. For the day, after my morning rounds, Anita and I went to Mid Valley - which happened to be about 5 minutes from our apartment.

Some great singing ...

Although the place was crowded, it felt festive. The main foyer was filler with decorations and traditional singing. We had a nice lunch at one of the French Cafe there before departing in the late afternoon. A lot of the visitors were in their cheongsam, maybe after visiting their friends or going to the temple. Surprisingly, the majority of the visitors there were Chinese ...

Thoughts on the Replacement

It had been a month since I own the new MacBook Pro. It was certainly more powerful than my old laptop despite the smaller footprint. It was kinda larger than my Air which I carry around but not by much. And I could see myself using this unit for many years to come.

Yes, the dongle was an issue and the keyboard needed some getting used to at the beginning, but it has since grew on me. In fact, I kinda like the new keyboard. Even this entry was done using the new machine.

Reading the review before buying the unit clearly did not inspire me. The review was downright negative. It was apparently not worthy of the Pro tag. Yes, it was underpowered in the true Pro sense. But I have the Mac Pro to do the real heavy lifting. This would be more of a laptop I carry with me to work, use for my presentation, write patient letters and take notes during meetings. Certainly it lived up to that billing and more.

The quality of the screen was much better than I expected, and then came the sound from the speakers. I never heard laptop speakers sounding this good. And those two facet added up to make this an excellent media consuming device, on par with the iPad Pro.

The machine was powerful enough to run Photoshop and Final Cut Pro without breaking a sweat. I was able to do some editing on 4K files, and it didn’t feel slower than my previous MacBook Pro.

How about the battery life? I could easily get 6 hours and since I have yet to travel with the new unit, I always charge it when I got home never running the risk of running out of juice.

And of course, the elephant in the room was the touch bar. Yes, it was a gimmick, but over time I was starting to warm to it. Safari really took advantage of the display, allowing the shortcuts to show up on the strip as well as the tabs displayed as a row, making switching between tabs that much easier.

Over time, there would be more apps taking advantage of the touch bar. Today, I just downloaded the latest version of Microsoft Office. This version has shortcuts using the bar.

Another feature of the new MacBook Pro was the Touch ID. It allowed me to both unlock the laptop and buy apps from the App Store just with my fingerprints. It worked out neatly in the end.

Would I recommend this laptop? Of course if this is not your main machine. I still do my editing both for the photographs and videos on my Mac Pro. Since I have a USB 3 card ready, I found using the desktop that much easier. No new dongles needed. I had also used the laptop to give a couple of presentations so far. No issues. Using the Apple adapter, I was able to connect to the projector without much hassle.

Idlan's First Lesson

Since joining his new school, Idlan felt that he was left behind in two aspects; swimming and music. Most of his classmates were able swimmers and almost all of them can play a musical instrument. It ended up being rather intimidating when he was having PE lessons especially around the pool.

Last week, Anita asked for names on the apartment Facebook page if anybody knew of any swimming instructors. She got a name and made a few phone calls last week. Idlan was keen, so today he had his first lesson.

5 pm on a Sunday was just about right. It would mark the end of his weekend while making him tired enough to hit the bed early for school the next day.

He hit it off very nicely with his coach and they spent the first half an hour on breathing exercises. Idlan was very happy in the end and hopefully in the coming months, swimming in school would become less intimidating.

And now we had to do something about music. We had problem arranging somebody to teach him drumming in school since he had to skip class to do so. We were still trying to figure out the best way for him and it sounded like we may to engage a teacher to come over to the apartment as well .... Unfortunately Dad can't teach him...