Happy Father's Day

The boys with their cardsIt’s the third Sunday of June again, and Dads everywhere - rejoice for this is your day! Idlan and Irfan brought me a surprise on Friday. They made lovely cards for me, and when I got home from work, they drag me into the room and parade them for me. A nice touch. Puan Anita was away then, to pick up our new maid from Klang. So, I have to make some plans for the weekend. Will needed to take my Dad out for lunch on Sunday. It happened to be his birthday as well! He actually asked me to get him a new desktop PC as his current one was going kaput! Hmmmm! Maybe next month.

From Idlan... and IrfanHappy Father’s Day everyone!

Old Victoria Station

In the years gone by, we had always regarded that Victoria Station serve the best steak in town. However, we started to spot some worrying trend in the last couple of years. The steak had become less succulent. The seasoning was not as nice and even the quality of the vegetables had deteriorated. Basically , the management lost focus and stopped realising what the had developed over the years and taken it for granted. I used to go there very couple of months for the spare ribs, but lately I was not even bothered.

Right after the concert, my Mum-in-law wanted to swing by to have lunch. She wanted some lobster for some reason and the boys, still excited form the concert wanted some fish and chips. The new place has recently had a facelift and what possibly was a change in management - if not in terms of member, at least in style. The menu was slightly different with a few new items added on, but the price has also gone up. None of the steak were less than RM50 now. My spare ribs was RM57 plus tax. 

But for the price, the old taste were back. The spare ribs was very well prepared, with the gravy just nice, and was at just the right potion. The vegetables were fresh like it used to be. The mango and shrimp cocktail were very nice, and the juice were freshly prepared, although I suspected that they put in too much syrup as it was way too sweet despite the ice cubes. And the boys enjoyed their chips with mushroom sauce.

It seems that the place had returned to its roots, based on the quality of the meals. The service, as usual was decent, although I missed the Pilipino waiters who used to take care of us very well. I remember having had the same waiter attending to us for a few visits. Both him and his wife have since left for the Philippines. The waiters were now from the sound of it, local. I don’t really mind that. What I don’t like was foreign waiters who can’t even talk in English or Malay properly. That really got me going!

Station Ampang - 243, Jalan Ampang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur - Tel: 03-4257-3388. For more information, please click here.

Scouting report

Since I spelt halfway during the Eng-guur-land game last night, I woke up extra early today. Got my gear ready and went about scouting for the route for the upcoming Scott Kelby Photowalk coming up next month. I ended up with blisters on my foot, but one had to suffer for art I suppose. I snapped the photos using the phone with the GPS on to track my position and will be discussing the route with my co-organising colleague later on this afternoon.

The route I scouted this morning was from the car park at Jalan Alor, walking towards Bukit Bintang. I then walked towards Pavilion. We will probably spend some time around here doing cityscape photography and candid snaps. The next stop will be KLCC via the Convention Centre which should be within 15 minutes on from Pavilion. This was when things get a bit complicated. Maybe w will spend more time by the park, taking more snaps.

The next challenge will be the route back. I walked through Jalan P Ramlee past the then deserted sports bar. My idea would be to start the walk possibly late afternoon and by the time we arrive at KLCC, it should be just before sunset. Therefore, it will be early evening when we pass by the sports bar again. My only worry would be afternoon rain if we start late. Alternatively, we can start late morning, maybe around 10, spend the afternoon at KLCC, before doubling back towards the PapaRich at Bukit Bintang near where we park for a spot of tea and maybe a slideshow as suggested with one of the organiser colleague. We will thrash the plan out later in the afternoon and possibly get somewhere!

For a more complete look at the route, please visit my flickr link here, where the photographs will be geotagged. The slideshow for the walk can be seen here. All the photos from this page and the slideshow wee taken using a mobile phone! You can sign up for the walk on this link.

Boys' Concert Part II - The Show

The opening gong with pyrotechnics. Pew! Pew!11 o’clock sharp when the VIP arrived. They were taken through a procession upon entering the hall, all the way to his seat. After a couple of short speeches, he sounded the gong, and the show was on, with an accompanying firework. My Dad noted that there were no doa, something that I thought they overlooked.

The choir with its ultra-energetic conductorFirst up were the school choir. They sang a rendition of a local folk song which I couldn’t recall, followed by Lady Ga Ga’s “Bad Romance”. The Ga Ga number was quite fun I thought. This was followed by the kindy shows.

Kindy 2 showWatching Irfan strutting his stuffThank God there was no stage fight!First up were the children from Kindy 2 - 5 year-olds. This was followed by Irfan’s class - Kindy 1. Irfan was the star of the show. They did a Chinese dance with fans, and Irfan was a complete ace. I was worried that he will have a stage fright, but how wrong was I? He was so cool, remembered all the steps and was fantastic. His steps were much more difficult than Idlan’s actually, and since there were just six of them on stage, he was remarkably brave.

Idlan in his MJ-esque costumeHave you made a wrong turn?Next was Idlan’s Kindy 3. They did an Indian number, a la Bollywood, complete with a breakdance routine in the middle - which Idlan did not do thankfully. It was a crowded stage of around twenty plus, so the choreography needed to be simple to follow. No problems there either, but compared to Irfan, even his costumes were pretty simple, although he was ten times more excited with the whole thing. I managed to squeeze myself right in front of the stage to take some videos and pictures.

Yay! It was over!Starving in the endSince the children were released straight after, we had to fetch them and after a short meal - they were starving - we left, straight for lunch with their grandparents. The school concert for this year were themed on a musical. Reading between the lines and from the line-up of characters they had, I think it was based on American Idol with the contestant being school bands from around the world, a la Glee. It was a shame that we had to leave, as I thought that could be pretty exciting. I couldn’t expect my parents to be able to hang around for the next 3 hours for the whole concert.

So what did we do next? Lunch at Victoria Station. It has been a while since I went there to be honest. More about that one later!

Part I of the concert was blogged here, and the slideshow can be seen here.

Original Copy

Nagen doing some DIY on his photosCertainly it had been a cracker of a weekend for my 7D. Yesterday with the boys’ concert and today - Sunday - the scouting for the upcoming photowalk and then the trip over to the Curve to meet up with my fellow KLickers at the Laundry Bar. A couple of the KLickers were invited to talk about environmental photography as a theme for n event organised by Aesthetics online magazine and the Malaysian Nature Society.

The two speakers, Javad and Prakash - the boys from BombayOne of the six exhibitors was my cousin, AdiI wonder what Ripi was up to?More discussionsGetting the remote to work - it was all high tech stuff!We also had six of the photographers exhibiting their work at the venue. This was followed by a talk by Prakash Daniel, a fellow KLickr. He talked mainly about the effect of nature to our surrounding urban environment, and the pictures he exhibited were simply amazing. Unfortunately this was let down by the AV equipment they had at the venue. It was out of focus and just simply cannot cope with the contrast of the photographs being projected. This was made worst by the fact that the second speaker - Jaavad, the original Prince of Persia - he was from Iraq - had most of his photos in black and white.

Prakash - "It's showtime!"Javad - the original Prince of PersiaMinus his slippersJaav talked about his recent trip to Sri Lanka and how the interaction between the people and environment were a lot more direct there compared to here in Malaysia. He noted that since there were no refrigerators, food were cooked fresh and produce were bought and consumed on the same day. He also pointed out that since the country was in the process of rebuilding themselves after the bloody civil war, they were very happy to have tourists and photographers going around taking photographs of their country and the people. They were very willing to pose, and then will thank the photographer. For them, it was an opportunity to make the beauty of their country known to the whole world. I don’t think you can have any of that here! Look at Pavilion for a start. The moment they see a group of photographers lurking around, the security - who were mostly foreigners - will usher them away! Confusing wasn’t it?

The photographers about to introduce their workAfter the talk, the photographers who had their work on display had the opportunity to introduce the photos and ask for critique. We also introduced our group, KLickrs and our upcoming activities - to include the 1000 portraits of Kuala Lumpur for the upcoming Urbanscapes. Unfortunately I will be giving a lecture in Lumut that very day! We also had representatives both from Aesthetics and Nature Society making their appearances as well.

We then adjourned to .....This was how the photos would have looked like without the projector making a mess of themThe talk adjourned by half past 5 and the KLickrs then headed for ‘Waroeng Penyet’ for a quick tea and further chat. I also had the chance to get some take about the upcoming photowalk I was trying to organise. I had to leave early after some drinks as it was already getting late.

Slideshow for the event can be seen here. More info on KLickrs here.