Big Build-up

Compared to the years gone by, the build-up for this year's chapter of Champion's League Final was among the most boring, even though it promised a mouth-watering tie. The two teams which were known for their attacking prowess, ManYoo certainly having the edge in defense but would they be able to withstand the tsunami of Messi and Villa with Iniesta and Xavi pulling the strings behind them.

The question about United coping seemed to be the biggest debate. There were simply no other story, apart from Ryan Giggs' - of all people - off the field conquest apart, which was worth writing about. The two managers seemed to be warning up to each other. There were simply too much respect between the two teams. Listening to the interviews certainly put mr to sleep. How Xavi relishes to play with Rooney, how much respect Iniesta has for for Scholes. How Pique reminisced about his four years at Old Trafford. There was simply not enough needle! There was even the opinion of how much better United is now since Ronaldo left for Madrid. The togetherness of the squad and all that crap!

This does not mean that the event would not be a grand one. The end of the road for such legends such as van der Sar and Scholes. The emerging talent of Chicharito. How Rooney would rise to the occasion.

As for me, the match being played on a weekend was a blessing. No more late Wednesday evenings waiting for the matches and struggling to go to work the next day. I was at NZ when I wrote this entry, true to the ritual of getting myself the Tandoori and new ladna for the big match. The matches this season can never get any bigger than this one though. With my Veron shirt, United will prevail! Shame that I would not be joing the Prime Minister in Putrajaya tonight. We might be in danger of having the team rebranded 1ManYoo by one of their pseudo-fan!

Searching for tickets

I have promised my boys to take them to watch Kung Fu Panda II this weekend with their exams done and all. One thing I forgotten to do was to book them the tickets. Big mistake!

It turned out that this was the first day of school holidays - my boys do not share the same holidays as the public schools unfortunately. Therefore, everyone it seems were going to the cinemas. Our usual cinema at Pavilion we're sold out all day even though they we're opening a couple of screens showing Kung Fu Panda with a third showing it in 3D. The Gold Class were showing Prates of the Caribbean - maybe they were still too young for Jack Sparrow yet. 1Utama, sold out until 4pm. Mid Valley, tough luck. Even Wangsa Walk Mall turned out a disappointment. The only place available for the moment Wasserstein Capsquare. And they have plenty of seats left. Online booking done, and we got the early birds discount to go with it.

The initial plan was to ask if Idlan's classmates were keen to tag along. 11.30 am turned out to be too early for everybody unfortunately. Looking at the available tickets, I didn't think we had much of a choice. Remember guys, if you were desperate for tickets, TGV at Capsquare might be the best bet!

We were just waiting for Idlan to hit the shower after his breakfast. We should be good to go at around 11 am. Kung Fu Panda FTW! I just needed to make sure that I resisted clicking on Nur Kasih The Movie though!

Increased Output

Recently, I bumped into an ex-colleague who was now plying his trade in a Private Medical Center across town. He came over for his weekly session at UMMC - and his wife still works there. Upon greeting, he remarked upon the number of blog envies I had up lately and how I managed to find the time to do it. He also mentioned the numb of links I had up on my Facebook updates.

I must say that since I have the iPad, things had been really straight forward. Let's start with the blogposts. I take all the photos on the blog on my iPhone 4. Despite one of my cousins dissing it - as now he sports a Nokia with a 12 MP camera - I still think that the iPhone 4 camera remains the most versatile. Great quality of captures with a great selection of apps utilising its capability. Those snaps were usually taken using the Camera+ App, which does amazing point-to-focus and point-to-meter implementations. Once captured, manipulation and editing of the snaps were done in app, as well ass uploading to Flickr and other social network. The photos were also uploaded straight into my blog if necessary as part of an entry, without needing to be transferred to a computer.

Next, the actual blogpost. Previously, I tended to do multiple entries at a time and then upload them in turns. The entries were usually done on a program called Scrivener which is then saved in the cloud using DropBox, to allow me to have access to the entries from any of my Macs. I would then cut and paste them onto the blog as an entry. This has now changed with iPad as I tended to type the entries straight onto the SquareSpace iPad app and upload them as draft directly. I can also put up the photos as necessary, although I order uploaded the edited iPhone snaps onto the Mac, edit them and uploaded them integrated into entries. This way, the alignments and the quality of the photos would be better.

If necessary, or if I was on the road, I could just type the blog post straight onto my iPhone SquareSpace app. It integrates well, and has so far been reliable. I can also keep track on the number of hits, as well as do some corrections on the fly if needed. If you notice, my blog used Disqus for comments. As soon as a comment was generated on my post, I would straight away receive an email informing me so, and I could just email back a reply. Alternatively, there was always the Disqus Pro app, which collate all the comments, which I would then answer directly through the app.

All in all, maintenance of the blog could be done away from a computer. As long as there was an internet connection, I would be good to go! Long may I stay productive.

Quick stop at Alexis

It has been a long day. Not about the work, but the errand I had to run after coming home from work. First thing, I had to drive Anita to Bangsar to pick up the cake for tomorrow. That done, picked Idlan up from Quran School, and off we went to Great Eastern Mall for some more shopping at Toys'r'Us there, mainly for the tidbits in the goodie bags to be handed tomorrow at Idlan's class party.

By the time we got that sorted out, it was already time for dinner. As usual, it would be pizza for my boys and their favourite pizza joint there was at Alexis on the Ground Floor. Why you may ask? The pizza there was prepared in a wood fire oven. Well, allegedly. They were thin-crusted and nice.. The portion were also reasonable. Not too big, and not too filling either. And between the two of them, they would finish the pizza easily.

I had my usual salad and pasta for dinner there. The rocket and pine nut salad there was highly recommended, although the pasta could be hit and miss. Tonight, my carbonara was good, but Anita seafood pasta - I've forgotten what it was - was not so great. Another favourite of ours were the seafood pasta in parcel. Usually nicely cookers and delicious.

If you were out for a drink, or dinner, around Great Eastern Mall I'd definitely recommend giving Alexis a try. Yes, the price was a bit on the high side. Certainly more expensive than say, Delicious, but with good company, it could be great night out. The musical line-ups during weekends were not too shabby either. Usually jazz-infused and classy. Personally, I have never attended one. Maybe, with the kids on tow, those time where we can visit a jazz bar and chill, may have gone into a hiatus.

Stargate it was

I have never been a big fan of Stargate, but something about Stargate Universe (SGU) series which drew me to it. I was pretty sure it was its parallel with Star Trek Voyager, which I follow during my years in medical school. Both were about a bunch of military type, thrusted into unknown space in a secluded ship to fend for themselves on a long journey back to Earth, something that Battlestar Galactica did very well - another one of my favourite series.

I managed to get the final installment of the series from my usual "dealer". All three DVDs of them, and so far I have finished a couple of them. I was saving the last disc for the weekend. It should be a finale and as expected, they would found Earth. Both in Galactica and Voyager, after going through all the adversities, the endings were rather anticlimactic. Let's hope that this one won't disappoint. The sad thing about SGU was, it just recently got cancelled after a couple of seasons. I must confess that the first few episodes of this second season were rather disappointing and predictable. The character arches were not fully developed, and it was such a drag propelling the whole story forward. It was clear that once the series got canceled, the writers were somewhat liberated. All the characters appeared more matured and complete. It was as if the constraints for character development were fully lifted. Everything went. I would blog after seeing the grand finale and see how everything fell into place ..... So watch this space!