Boys' Concert Part I - The Preparation

“I’m excited”, that was the first words that came out from Idlan’s mouth that morning as soon as he woke up. It was his school concert day, and he knew he had to be up early to be at the concert hall by 10. It was just past 7.30, and he was getting anxious that we might be late. I remember from last year that the concert used to start after lunch. It would start at 11 this time around, and it was at a new venue as well, about 15 minutes drive from here in Sentul. A newly renovated Chinese school event hall. A nice little place but less spacious than the previous hall the concert was held in Cheras.

Idlan's hair full of gel and glitterFirst order of business was to get the boys ready. Puan Anita had to dress them and sort the make-up and hair. No complains from her as she seemed to have enjoyed that a lot. Foundations, lipstick, eye shadow, the whole nine yards. It was bordering on child abuse to be honest! I am sure some of the photographs wiil haunt them for the rest of their lives should their future girlfriends got hold of them!

Last minute practice

We finally got everything ready by 9.30. Tok Abah and Tok Mak went along, and we finally got to the venue by 10.15. We were hardly late. After sending the boys off to the teachers, we went on to take our seat in the main hall. The hall itself could easily have accommodated 3000 people. It was three-quarters filled up by the time the show started. The hall was very well sign-posted from Jalan Genting Kelang. In fact, we scouted the hall earlier in the week. Unfortunately the parking space was rather limited, and we had to park our car at a nearby parking lot and walk across. It was a bit of a hassle for the grandparents. The entrance was only a floor up by stairs, although the stairs were rather steep. 

Tok Abah and Tok Mak at their seats. Tok Abah looked like Simon Cowell with the stare.On taking our seats, we noticed that there were a couple of big screens on the sides of the stage. There were video cameras recording the whole show and the feeds were projected straight onto those screen. Therefore, we did not have to rush to get a good seats in front. My Dad preferred to sit near the toilet due to his medications. Anita sat with her parents, but I sat nearer to the aisle to be able to sneak onto the front during the performance to take some photos.

Irfan ready to take the stageBoy! Does he look excited?These must be for the welcoming parade

The boys seemed pretty settled when we left them with the teachers. The had their final costume adjustments and final make-up applied. We were worried that Irfan would throw a scene, but he was completely cool with things instead. Idlan never had a problem mingling around with his classmates. He was certainly having fun with them, joking around and pointing out at their costumes.

We finally got ourselves settled in and the call were made when the VIP arrived for the opening ceremony at 11. I will write about he show on the next entry.

The slideshow can be seen through this link. Here is part II of this entry.

Irfan ........

I had a long Friday and was looking forward to sit it out in front of the television for the opening event of the World Cup. But guess what? I had to take Puan Anita to KLCC instead. For what you might ask? For make-ups!

Idlan uninterested as usual

It was not for her however. Saturday will be Idlan and Irfan’s school concert and Anita was asked to ‘prepare’ them, complete with foundations and glitters. Idlan’s hair needed to be spruced up with gels and stuffs. Well, a Dad got to do what a Dad got to do. He has to get some make-up for his boys …. And the rest was history!

And sagu gula Melaka for dessertWe stopped over for dinner at Madam Kwan before going home though. Irfan had 4 bowls of rice, but he vomited them all out shortly after since he was too excited and was running around too much. Luckily, the staff at Madam Kwan was really great and got everything cleaned up without a fuss, in under 3 minutes! That was service if you asked me. Irfan did make a proper mess mind you.

Anniversary Dinner

It was not actually our anniversary - yet! We celebrated my in-law’s 50th anniversary the other night, but unfortunately none of their other children were able to make it. We took them out for dinner, just the four of us and them. We initially wanted to bring them to Seri Negara - the other, some might say the better, half of Carcosa Seri Negara. We got in the act rather late, hence the place was already fully booked with a corporate event.

The next choice was Shangri-La. Again, the places were already fully taken up. We had to settled with our usual Chinese eatery at Corus Hotel - used to be called Ming Court - the Ming Palace. Anita did the booking, but we let the happy couple do the ordering. The dinner was delayed by the unexpected heavier traffic than normal leading out of Jalan Ampang. The boys were already grumpy by the time we reached there.

The condimentsIdlan just about managing it with the chop sticksMing Palace serves mainly Szechuan cooking, but the thing we likes about the place is the fact that we can modify the orders if we like to and even order off menu. This is important so that the boys can get what they wanted to eat. Corus has a few other eateries, such as the Japanese and Thai downstairs. Therefore, if Puan Anita decided to sneak in some tom yam if she liked to, she can just order. No issue. The service was also very prompt and most of the waiters already knew my Dad-in-law from his various visits there entertaining his business clients. The lady who served us also remembered Idlan from his birthday dinner we had here last year. 

The food for the boys arrived first, and after the finished up, there started to go hyper. I ended up having to chase them around the rest of the evening! Spoilt brats.

For starters, we had four season salad and crabmeat soup - I’m not a fan of shark fin. The best order for me that evening was the steamed cod. It was lightly marinated by soy sauce and some ginger, but otherwise left untouched. I ended up finishing it off and sipping the sauce. For dessert, we had longan and sea coconut. The ambiance was what you would expect from a decent, established Chinese restaurant, and so was the price. It was on the expensive side I must say. The service was prompt and the waiters certainly knew their menu and helped in making up our order.

The sea coconut and longanIt will not be fair to ask me whether we will come here again, since it is one of my in-law’s favourite joints. They have private rooms to accommodate business dinners, and family occasions. My children liked the privacy of the rooms. They can run around the table without the worry of knocking anything. As mentioned, the price was a bit on the steep side, but they do great seasonal discounts and good deals with credit cards payments - you get discounts of up to 20% with certain credit providers. But, no, I will not be taking friends here - it was far too expensive!

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.