Return to Harrods

WelcomeI have a confession to make. In the last couple of months, I returned to Harrods at KLCC three times - four in Puan Anita’s case. We celebrated our parents anniversary there the other night, and recently, we went there to have afternoon tea and ended up having dinner instead - it was nearly 5.30 pm then. I feel I was in a better position to comment about the venue by now.

Yes, it kept up to its billing. The great service we had when I went there for the first time was not a one-off. We were treated very well and some of the waitresses even remembered Idlan and Irfan when we returned, which was nice. They knew which was our favourite table, and what we ordered when we were last there. And the great thing was, all the staffs there were local. Communication was never an issue, and so far, we have yet to get our order being messed up. The standard that they kept there was exemplary and I am sure it will be a challenge to keep it up.

Harrods at KLCC was located on the first floor of Suria, right by the middle escalators, on the same level as Godiva, which was the shop right next door to it. The entrance looked innocuous enough, mainly what appeared to be more of a souvenir shop at the front end. But if you walk further in, there was a minibar and then the door into the restaurant. There were I think only around 10 tables, and the seclusion added to its exclusivity. There are also balconies for the cigar smokers to hang around at, overlooking the KLCC Park and fountain - nicer in the evening. The table setting were proper English, complete with silverware and napkins. The toilets were also very clean, with hand towels provided for patrons.

My fruit cooler, mainly berry ....Irfan was clearly bored..... until the drinks arrivedThe much talked-about roast beef and Yorkshire puddingHow about the menu? Yes, it was pretty limited, maybe about 8 items for starters and only a couple of soup selection. There were not that many more for the mains. But what it lacked in quantity more than was made up quality-wise. Not just the first-rate waiter service, the food were cooked to your specification and were very nicely presented. The buns served before the starters were heavenly, coupled with the homemade butter. By now, my favourite entree was asparagus and cheese, while the mains was the seared cod. Puan Anita still preferred the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. I tried it once. Was not that excited. The boys obviously loved their English Breakfast Tea. We tend to order them fish and chis, which came in large portion. Idlan especially liked the tartar sauce which came with it. I was yet to discover my favourite drink here, a good excuse to come there again. As for the dessert, well, I have yet to sample them as either I was already too full, or the boys were already too hyper that I had to take them out for a walk. Usually it was the combination of the two.

Pictures of the main Harrods branch at Knightsbridge adorning the wallsPopping out at the balcony for some fresh airThe main drawback for the place - as you could imagine would be the cost. It is rather on the expansive side, but not too excessively so. Put it this way, the Chinese meal at Hotel Nikko or Mandarin Oriental were way more expansive than this place. Would I come here again? Of course. Who will I bring? Only Puan Anita and my boys - for now. I can’t afford to bring anybody else! Would I recommend it to anyone else? Definitely! If you have been to the real Harrods in London, you will definitely enjoy Harrods in KL.

Quick Tryout

Usually I only go out for a shoot on Saturday afternoons. Mainly either at the bird, butterfly or orchid park - all very near each other. I was not able to go out yesterday afternoon, so I went today - Sunday - instead, right after the aqiqah event.

I decided to head to the butterfly park to test out the shutter speed and how rapid the focusing respond was. I don’t think my 70-200mm was really cut out for butterfly work. To get a reasonable depth of field, I needed the close the aperture somewhat to f8.0. Therefore, I had to increase the ISO and even then, with the rather dimmed lighting inside the park, the shutter speed was shorter than I expected, leaving some of the pics rather blurred. The one that I was able to use were amazingly clear and sharp.

The high ISO performance was better than I expected. Yes, there were grains, but I was sure it was manageable with a bit of Photoshop ninja work. The 8 fps shutter speed worked as expected. I was snapping away, in RAW quite happily. The balance with the long lens was perfect. The focusing was how ever found wanting at times. The autofocus searched for more than a few moments, sometimes causing me to miss my shot. On a few occasion, it settled on a point which was out of focus. Maybe this were due to wrong point selection or, a wrong mode was used - I used single shot focus rather than servo.

Looking back, I may need to change my strategy somewhat for butterfly work. I may need a flash to allow me to use smaller aperture and lower ISO. That may be in a couple of weeks time then, after some research work of course!

The slideshow for the outing can be seen here.

Aqiqah

Aqiqah is an Islamic sunnah event to celebrate a new member to the family, hosted by the parents. No, there were still only Idlan and Irfan for us. We were talking out neighbour here. The neighbour right next door, celebrating the arrival of their baby daughter a couple of months back. It was a really happy day for them, since they lost their first child last year - a stillbirth. Syukur, everything was well this time around.

We got there by 11 am, starting with doa and selawat, followed by the event of cutting a small amount of hair from the baby’s crown. The baby was well-behaved, no drama. I remember when we did Idlan’s back in July 2004, we gave Idlan some cough mixture. We actually separated the haircutting - cukur jambul - and aqiqah. The aqiqah was held in Kota Bharu instead. As for Irfan, it was done only with the lady’s present. It was also done during working day, and I was not even present. My mum-in-law wanted it that way you see.

After all the readings were done, we finally settled for lunch, which was initially for the people from the mosque - a simple rice affair. The initial party then adjourned before another one for relatives and close neighbour. The main attraction for the afternoon was the roast lamb, prepared the Malaysian way. Great stuff! They were also freshly fried koay teow, prepared on the spot and curry laksa, which I must say, turned out to be better then the lamb and koay toew. I missed the cendol unfortunately from the earlier event. Puan Anita said that it was really good. Shame!

The roasting was done right behind our kitchenUnfortunately, since it was a rather personal event, I did not bring my camera over. I don’t think my neighbour would appreciate me snapping away at their event. We initially wanted to take the boys out to the park in the afternoon, but they were already too tired by then. I decided to take the 7D out on my own for a proper spin. I’ll post those pictures in a later entry.

Balloon Time

We headed out to Pavilion tonight for dinner. Idlan wanted to have fried rice at Yo Sushi!, and I needed to go to a bookstore. Took us a bit longer than expected due to the heavy traffic of people leaving KL for the school holidays. We finally reached Pavilion after one and a half hour.

The poster mentionedLife sizedAnxiously waiting for his turn - all strapped-up of courseUp he wentWith everybody looking onWebsite on the organiser's shortWhen we reached there, we noticed that there were plenty of balloon around. Then we read a notice, apparently there is a balloon art festival going on at the main foyer. Apart from the balloon sculpture, the main attraction was an indoor balloon ride. There is a big floating balloon - tethered of course with can lift a child. For a small fee - apparently you have to spend RM200 to be eligible for the ride, you can have your child harnessed on a chair strapped underneath the balloon, and being lifted up in the air. It can actually go quite high - around 10 meters. The child will obviously be strapped tight, complete with helmets in order to take the ride. A pretty nifty thing if the child can stomach it. As for Idlan - no way! There was also the usual clowns and balloon artists walking around entertaining the children. From the signs, the event started today and will go on until the 15th of this month - June.

Stay away from my handroll!Idlan amused with the way his dinner being preparedThen came time for dinner. Off we went to Yo Sushi. Learned the other day that it will be closed later this month. So, no more Yo for the boys then. No more fried rice there. After a nice dinner, we then had a stroll outside the center. There was a live jazz band playing by the fountain at the main entrance. Played sweet jazz rendition of popular songs. Awesome stuffs. After 10 minutes or so, the boys wanted some drinks, and as usual, Irfan wanted some ice latte from Starbucks. We went in, ordered some and the barista was surprised that Irfan did the ordering, “one ice latte please!”. The guy behind the counter asked, “are you sure?”. Yes, the boy’s a coffee-drinker, while Idlan loved English Breakfast tea. Spoilt!

Proper live music - Yeah!Coffee in hand, we left for the car park. Irfan took a good hour to calm down from the caffein, but did so and has already been fast asleep. Going through the snaps I took with the 7D, I can’t get the punch and snaps I usually have from the SLR since I realised I turned off the RAW capture - silly boy! Off to bed soon. Ward round beckons tomorrow morning.

Weekend Coming

You guys probably have guessed how much I dread the Friday morning clinic with tons of patients to see, and then the rush in the afternoon to prepare the ward for the weekend. It will be my turn as well doing the weekend round tomorrow, so a bit of catching up needed with the patients in the ward.

For the weekend, I seriously need to take the 7D for a spin! It was due. Maybe a quick trip to the butterfly or orchid garden tomorrow, weather permitting of course. Failing that, maybe an evening stroll at KLCC park.