3 weeks to go

Yes, and that was 20 days to go, if you count it that way. After the photowalk with Kam Raslan today, we congregated in KLCC to have some more discussion about the upcoming KLickrs in Urbanscapes, and today we mainly concentrating on the shape of our booth.

The original plan was to have a separate show area for slides as well as have the main exhibition area for photographic activities and other stuffs. We originally wanted to host the photo show in a bus. We would also be on the day, highly dependent on mobile Internet. We just hoped that the weather would be kind, as should it be raining, most of our major plans, or the Urbanscapes itself would be doomed.

The area given to us was actually quite big, measuring 12 by 12 meters. We had to get some help in optimizing the space, a designer of sort. Shafina had some friends of her on board to help out. There was also the matter of budget. Apart from the space and some basic facilities, the organizer was not able to provide much.

My task for the day was to engineer a way of integrating user experience in terms of photo uploads into Facebook. We would be having a mini competitions where uploaded photos would be judged on the number of likes from the public. I would still have to study the idea out as I was still unclear on a few things. Luckily, I have already had a few days off booked up around the time of the show.

Working Saturday

I left some documents at the office which I needed for the weekend. So I ended up heading back to the office, which brought back the memories of working on a Saturday.

I remember at the beginning of working in Malaysia of working on every Saturday. A fee months Ayer reporting to work, the then Prime Minister, Pak Lah announced that Government Servants only needed to work on every alternate Saturdays, followed by a year also later, the ruling that Saturday ws now off.

Working on Saturdays were actually useful for my Unit as the headache of organizing the weekend rounds were a lot less, the Saturday Day Care gave us opportunity to see sick patients, and scans and other tests could be organize a lot faster.

I also remembered the dress code. It was batik, but I prefer short sleeves and no tie myself. Usually we had sessions with the Medical Students and usually it was full I banter. The only problem was the traffic to get home after that, that I ended up usually leaving after 2 pm as we tended to get stuck along Federal Highways.

To be honest, I do not really mind working on Saturdays as long as other people does the same as well. I could still get a lie in on Sundays.

I-City, U-turn

Well, as with all things in life, it would never 100% perfect. One hope that these inadequacy when pointed out were taken in stride. But I doubt if any of the people running the i-City attraction do read this blog. But I sure hope those planning to give it visit does, so as to better inform them on what to expect.

First of all, be prepare for a hike. Unless you were super early, or you were actually a VIP, during a crowded night, there would be some walking and climbing involved. Unfortunately at some of area, there were no railings or even proper steps. Some of the climb can be stee and should it rained, could be slippery. Maybe proper set of steps were needed towards the open car park area during peak times. So, if you were with children, or the elderly, take extra caution. Also imagine the muck you would be stepping into should there be heavy downpour ...... most of the area you would be stepping into were still barren.

The lack of signage was also typical of any of these local attraction. So far, only those around the Tasik Perdana and Sunway Lagoon have maps. Could actually follow. There wer no leaflets, nor clear signage pointing towards any of the attraction. If there rare some, they did a real nice job of hiding them away from us.

The above point were made worst with the lack of staff member to give any meaningful assistance to the visitors. The parking arrangement was best described as haphazard. After paying the RM10 parking fee, there were no instructions to follow, except "Jalan Terus", which ended up in a queue, and worse still, people cutting queue. A set of big sign posts - preferable in bright neon colours to blend in with the attraction - would be welcomed. Failing that, some attendants who knew how to direct traffic would be nice. I ended up confused in the end, finally finding a spot in the middle of a big open space. Luckily I parked near thee trace as those deeper were triple, if not quadruple-parked, plus some clown blocking the entrance. When we exited, we had cars driving from the opposite direction on our lane! And it was a double carriageway.

Talking about attendant, instead of sign posts warning us which area we can enter and what we should not touch, we had rude security guards, whistle in mouth blaring away to keep off list and to stay away from certain area. A sign would be great.

One thing peculiar about 1Malaysia, was the ongoing development. We do not like to maintain stuffs, but love to maintain - after all, most of the lucrative projects were for building not maintaining stuffs. Those were left for non-cronies. Same goes here. As I mentioned earlier, the venue was expending, and they were in the middle of building a monorail system to transport visitors around the park - which I was sure would not have any signposts lat as to where to alight from. They were practically welding the place while the public we're lingering around, complete with cranes and other heavy machinery. God forbid would there be mishap, then we would be entertained with finger-pointing, botch inquiry or two, followed by invitation for MACC to step in to investigate before a Minister or two announce on TV3 that work should be suspended - for a defined period of time of course. the had all day when the place was empty to carry out these works. Why when it was crowded?

I was sure these complaints would have been familiar to the management. I hope steps we're taken to remedy these as trust me, they had an attraction worth harping on about. A bit more management savvy, and they would have a sure win. If they organize the parking and the routing were better thought of, I wouldn't mind paying an extra RM5 of the entrance fee.

Birthday Came Early

My birthday would be a couple of weeks away but I have been going on about what I wanted as a present for quite some time. So, I got it early this time. It was not something fancy but enough to make a few people turn with glee.

It was a head phone. But not just any other head phones. It was the one I sampled when I was the Apple Store on London. It was one of those made by Monster, called Beats. It appeared to be the in thing at the moment. While on the Tube the other day, everyone was listening to an iPhone, and apart from the usual Apple earphone that came with the phone, there were a fair few using either Beats or Bose. Bose were basically for too expensive. Beats would do nicely.

There were a few models to choose from when I went to the main dealer at Low Yat. Somebody recommended him on the forums, and the gentleman appeared to know his stuff. I settled for the Studio model, black in colour. It was iPhone compatible with the built-in microphone as part of The noise cancellation technology used as the microphone when you make phone calls. Quite clever really.

I would definitely write more after a couple of weeks with the earphone. For the time being, let's enjoy the sound, and think about the permanent hearing damage later .....

I-City, I-like

My flickr friends have been advocating a visit to I-City for quite some time. A couple of years ago, a group of them went, but unfortunately, I had a prior engagement at the time and had to give it a miss. A couple of days ago, I came across a photo of the place and showed it to Anita, and she and the boys went all excited. So, came the weekend, we asked if my sister, Julia, wanted to take here family along, and she agreed. So, off we went last Saturday evening, all packed into my minivan.

As it was right in the middle of the school holidays, the place was really packed. We decided to go there early, got our parking ticket, but was told by the attendant that food inside the area was rather expensive. W then decided to turn back and went for dinner at Sekinchan Ikan Bakar. What. Should have done was got ourselves the best parking spot, visit one of the many restaurants in the compound, waiting for the sunset.

But once we arrived late and got settled in, we were mesmerised by the symphony of light on offer. The children were in awe of what on offer, Irfan of course had my LX-3 on the ready and started snapping away as well as posing for photos. The venue was huge, and with the children on tow, it was not possible to visit the whole park that evening. By the time we orientat ourselves, the place was already jam packed with visitors. We decided to just stay at one general area and enjoy the lights. In the end, we spend more than an hour, until the children were tired. Irfan was excited with the camera and did not want go home.

The photos I had on this blog did not do justice however with what on show. The were also welding going on all around as a monorail system was being installeed around the park. That would be a nice way to travel around the venue, while enjoying the lights at a different vantage points. There was also a giant screen - it was showing Star Sports that evening for people to congregate at. Parking was situated all around the park, with the attraction being smack in the middle. The central area was also lined up with shops and restaurant - there was a KFC joint there as well as 7-Eleven. we did not have the chance to venture to a small staging area as well as a cold tent - apparently with snow. Maybe we give that a go on another day.

The evening we went out was one of those perfect storm for crowds. The weather have been hot and sunny all day, but was breezy at the same time, so the muggy evening was very bearable. Then, there was the two-weeks school holidays, and that evening sat right in the middle of that - a Saturday at that as well. We were expecting a big crowd to be quite honest.

All in all, it was a great night out for the family. Parking was aplenty, although rather disorganised - more on that later. There were plenty of area to venture into, and I suggest that rather than try to get through everywhere, you should just concentrate on one area - the big field in the middle of park would be a good bet. And the most important advice would be, do not come without a camera!