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.

Evening Out

This was where they shot the DiGi commercial on TVPuan Anita wanted to order her ‘baju Raya’ for the year, even though Aidilfitri is about 3 months away. She had it all planned and after work, we went over to The Curve for her to have a look at one of the shops there. There were a few baju kurung which caught her eye during previous visit. Since Irfan is now much better from his fever, we decided to have some dinner outside and some fresh air.

Idlan waiting for his pizzaPuan Anita's kerang rebusThe Curve in the eveningThis was a chance to take the 7D out. Decided to take the zoom instead of my customary 50mm f1.4, and try out the higher ISO setting. The output was actually just as expected although I would still prefer the f1.4. All the photos were taken at ISO 3200. Not bad!

7D First Spin

I can finally afford the EOS 7D and have been trying it out for the last week. Unfortunately I was not able to take it out for a really good spin yet but tryout in the house has been great so far. I am still familiarising myself with the settings and have not got my head around the remote flash triggering system as yet.

I was also rather occupied with booting up my system as well, so I have yet to really manipulate the output on the Photoshop so far. Maybe during the weekend I will be able to go out for a photoshoot, but it will all depend on the weather - so watch this space.

All the photos from this were taken in my back garden using the Canon EF-S 60mm Macro lens. I will only attempt to review the camera after at least taken it for a proper walk about.