Mixed Bag

Day started with a game of congkakAll together it has been a mixed bag of a day today. It started off badly, with Irfan sniffling all morning and I hardly got any sleep. Thank god today is the last day of the long weekend, so I still get to chill all morning. By lunchtime, we decided to get out for some fresh air. We decided to head over to 1Utama which sounded initially as not that bad an idea.

When we reached there, it took me 30 mints to find a parking spot, which at the end we decided to park illegally. As far as I am concerned, as long as I pay to get into the carpark, it was legal! The place was crowded and Irfan got restless. We decided to have lunch and oh boy, did we pick the wrong place. Idlan wanted to sit on a sofa, so we ended up at Theobroma Chocolate Lounge on the first floor of the new wing. 

Idlan munching away at his chocolateThe show from our vantage pointI will describe the experience there in my later entry. I was still traumatised by the whole experience! While we were having the drinks, we heard sound of drums from the foyer. The boys quickly rushed over. It was a show by a group of Shaolin monks from China. They were quite good and from the upper floor, we got a decent vantage point. They went through their repertoire of jumps, skips and tricks. They also got member of the audience to join them for some fun and games. Not bad. Before long, my two boys started jumping and kicking, imitating the monks!

Passing by Pavilion on the way to Low Yat later onSince Irfan was still under the weather, we decided to head home. On the way, the boys wanted to stop at their Gramma's over at Bukit Antarabangsa. We hang around there all afternoon. Enough time for me to head over again into town to get something from Low Yat. My LiveScribe pen ran out of papers and ink. Unfortunately there were not many shops that do them. Some of them were closed for the New Year. Fortunately today, I got my stock and was happy. So the day ended up very well indeed.

To cap it off, one of my Uncle - Mamu - turned up at my Mum's with his family. Their son will be married o the 23rd May, which happens to be Idlan's birthday. That will be busy weekend, since we can't cancel our birthday party scheduled on the 22nd since everything was booked up. It sounded that we have to drive on the morning. If the boys were not coming, it will likely be a day trip for me.

A day to Recuperate

Got to kill some insects tonight .....Irfan has been unwell all day although he was much better by the afternoon. When he woke this morning, he vomited a couple of times, and again after given his medicine. He did develop temperature after lunch. I took him for a nap and he was much better when he woke up. We ended up spending the day in the house.

However, we had to some groceries in the evening and as he was keen to go out, we took him to Jaya Jusco. Had some fish and chips for dinner and he was running around by then. He was just yelling around when we told him it was time for his medicine again. After some prodding, he agreed.

We did notice when we were at JJ that the air conditioning was switched off. It was hot and balmy. When we asked the cashier, she said, "biasalah, Boss Cina. Sekarang Raya Cina. Cina tak ada datang. Bangsa lain saja. Tak payah la bukak air cond." Maybe it was tongue-in-cheek but I wonder if there is some truth in that exchange. Time to get the boys to bed again now …..

Low Yat on Chinese New Year Day

Can this count as Valentine's Day gift?Yes, I was kinda free this afternoon and since I have some stuff I needed to get for my LiveScribe pen, I thought why not take a walk around Bukit Bintang and Pavilion and see what's cooking there. I got there late afternoon and started off with some sushi at Yo! Sushi. Then I was off!

Just about 50% of the shops were open at Sg Wang Bukit Bintang. The camera shops were open when I started making inquiries  about the EOS 7D. After about 20 minutes, I moved along to Low Yat. It was even worst there. Less than 30% of the shops were opened. The foyer was almost deserted. Even the Apple shop was closed. Unfortunately, the shop where I got my LiveScribe stuffs were also closed and I had to leave empty-handed.

On the way back, I noticed a lot of young Malay couple mingling along. I realized then it was Valentines Day. There was even a ma cir in tudung selling roses. This definitely went against the preaching on TV about Valentines being too Christian for 1Malaysia. Najib will have to turun padding to set this one straight I reckon, instead of all the eye sang he was tossing on TV. Well, my Valentine days were over. I got some perfume for Puan Anita yesterday with the kids with a card handwritten by Idlan. That put a smile on her face all day ….. 

Starting the Search for the 7D

The original post can be found in my tech blog here.

Yes. I have decided that this will be the camera I will be working towards. I estimate that I will be able to afford it by June. In the meantime, I have to start saving and do the appropriate research for it. There have been numerous reviews both in print and on the internet that I have gone through and the more I learn about it, the more I think that this is the camera for me.

I am sure readers would be asking a few questions up front. 1) Why Canon? 2) Why cropped-frame rather than full a la 5D mark II? 3) Why upgrade at all? I will try my best to answer.

Why Canon? The long and short of it are the lenses. I have 7 lenses already in the range, a couple of them of the L variety, with another couple being EF-S, which can only be exclusively used with the APS-C (Canon cropped-frame body). I love those lenses. I have also developed presents and assembled camera profiles on Adobe for the Canon body. And this makes a lot of difference in my post-processing workflow. Although there are similar profiles for Nikon, I am not that familiar with them. Certainly I can't afford new set of lenses. And as far as how my system was built, 80% of the investments have gone towards the lenses. Another thing is familiarity. I have been a Canon user since 89, from the days of T-70.

Why cropped-frame? I have realized all along that landscape was not my forte. Yes, I have got some of my landscape pictures published, but landscape for me takes too much commitment. Gone were the days when I was climbing the Yorkshire Dales and the Peak District. I still have the gears for them if I have to, but I prefer portrait, candids and macro nowadays. For this, the 1.6x crop factor in the APS-C body present an advantage. My 70-200 L now extends to 112-320 instead. Should I get the 300mm prime in the future, that will extend my reach to 480. Yes, although that means cutting short on the wide-angle side, I think I will accept that.

Why upgrade? Or specifically what's so special with the 7D? It was not the megapixel count. It was not the HD movie. It was not the 8 frame-per-second capability. For me, it is the integrated wireless flash trigger system and the newly improved autofocus tracking system. It's a personal thing. The high ISO performance and the higher megapixel were certainly the bonus. I have never been a fan of live-view but the bright 100% viewfinder certainly got me hooked. In et meantime, I shall keep on dreaming!

Irfan's Birthday Party

Suraiya enjoying her foodIt was a bit of a drama last night with taking Irfan to the Casualty and all. He was much better when he woke up this morning but with a slight temperature. But energy level was good. He was eager to attend his party. However the first order of business was a quick follow-up at the Gleneagles to see how he is.

Nice cutleryThe party was planned to start at 11, but we only managed to get to the Casualty at 9.45. Luckily we were able to finish everything by 10.30 and arrived at Bangsar Village 5 minutes before the party. Thanks God, the staffs at Fit For 2, where we had the party was efficient and everything was ready to go.

The cake was waitingWe did not invite many guests. Just the grandparents, aunties, uncles and first cousins. All 25 of us all together, enough to bring the place down. We arranged for the food and cakes to be at Fit For 2, followed by a trip across to the indoor playground and Kiz Sports. Unfortunately, a couple of the cousins were not well and can't join in at the playground. The ones that did however were ecstatic.

Running around with his light saberHowever, Irfan's mood was not very good through out. He still got the temperature and he was not keen to cut the cake. We therefore took the cake back home later and had that at home. The food for the kids at the arty was excellent and I ended nibbling most of them. The mini-pizza and macaroni was excellent. The hit however was root gala. I had chili corn carne, but since I had to buzz around, I ended up having them cold. Was not nice. The rest of the food was OK.

After hanging around at the gym, we finally left by 1.30. Irfan and Idlan enjoyed the light saber they had courtesy of Mami Julia. They were running around with it outside the gym, hitting each other! The slideshow of the event was uploaded here.