Thoughts About the Concert

The apprehension was clear during breakfastI have been to the School Concert for the last four years now. out of the four, as I mentioned, I enjoyed the last one best. Because this time around, it did not attempt to take itself too seriously, like the previous affair. This year, it was more straight forward, smoother in general, and the participants seemed to have had more fun. It ended on time as well, and I was able to take in more of the show than I did before.

Anita doing Irfan's make-upClearly someone was getting boredThe opening ceremony went with a bang. Quite literally.The show started with the choir, singing a Batak numberFrom what I gathered, the concert this year only took three weeks to prepare. I remembered from before, it once took about six weeks. In the scheme of things, that was rather too much. Maybe the three weeks preparation period made the show mo focused and less convoluted.

Idlan taking his spot on stageAll was done with IrfanNot sure what they were discussing in the endThe relieve was clear right after the show.

Lunch after the Walk

It started to rain right after the teh tarik session with Kam Raslan, and the planned meeting at KLCC was a couple of hours yet. Some of the troupe members were yet to have lunch, so even though I have already had some noodles, I decided to go on for some nasi daun pisang.

We walked for about 10 minutes in the rain and by the time we settled in, it started raining heavily outside.

We had lunch at Restoran Kader. Been here a couple of times. It was not bad, but most o the food had already run out, this being Sunday and all. But what I enjoyed more was the company. A great lunch in the end, especially with the heavy rain outside.

The highlight - Magnus ordering iced lemon juice - singo beng, tok seh butir. You do the translation.

A Walk with Kam Raslan

It was only a short walk, but was a fascinating one. More of a history lesson, but it was not the political-laced, race-biased kind that was thought in schools nowadays. It was about our heritage. The legacy which made Kuala Lumpur what it is today. And it was all thanks to our guide for the morning, Kam Raslan.

Right, I wouldn't want to say much about the gentleman. The last time I made praises for a certain somebody, I ended up with a surat layang - at least I knew then that I had hit the big time when you receive an anonymous letter about somebody you mentioned in your blog. But I digressed. Just check his website here or google him to find more about him.

The walk started behind Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad opposite Dataran Merdeka, which was teaming with people this morning. No, they were not there to join the walk, but it was the crowd from the KL Marathon that morning. Kam started talking about Masjid Jamek, the Dataran and Bukit Aman, and we later moved on towards Lebuh Ampang.

We then doubled back towards Central Market, stopping at a Chinese temple along the way, to meet one of the main character who built Kuala Lumpur, Yap Ah Loi. Kam did not do this walk regularly, but it was very clear that he enjoyed doing it, and certainly he had the passion for it. His knowledge of KL certainly would put the locals to shame.

For those interested, he would be doing another session next Sunday. Please take a look here for more details. The best way to find out about KLickr's activities or to join us, please visit our Facebook page here.

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.