Moving to a New Interface

After 9 plus years at this old page, I have decided to make a bit of a departure. I will be keeping things clean and plain and the new Squarespace 7 site I have got would provide me with all that. This site will remain open and maintained as the legacy stuff I have here are far too precious. It chronicled my children growing up and through the 1000+ entries, I have built up my own diaries. Please click here or on the photo above to go to my new dedicated blog page harisrahman.blog.

It's Friday

The week seem to have breezed through really fast. And it had been one of those productive week where I really got plenty done.

And this had also been the longest stint I had without beeping on call for a long time.

From last month, I have reduced my General Medical commitment at work and contrasting more on Haematology. Alhamdulillah, I had been busier but more focused. The majority of my inpatient now were with Haematology diseases and I got plenty of satisfaction in getting them sorted out.

I am still in the rota and will be on call this Sunday. But now, my calls were pretty spaced out and should I do a couple of duties close together, I had plenty of breathing after that.

This wedding also marked my wedding anniversary and Anita planned a nice dinner tomorrow. Looking forward to that.

At the meantime, I planned to get more stuff done tonight, plenty of reading, plus an early night ...

Kopi Susu

The name invoked a lazy Sunday afternoon enjoying a warm drink while watching the time pass by. That was also the title of an exhibition at White Box Publika of the work by the artist Soraya Yusof Talismail.

I thought that the subject matter would be happy faces and jovial scenes. Far from that. It was more of Kampung scenes, devoid of people. Just you and nature. And no coffee in sight.

I just missed the forum when I entered. The artist was still in the hall speaking to the visitors.All the photos were monochromic, hence the reference to Kopi Susu or Latte. It was more of the technical process of printing in the end I think. And that may explain the size of the prints. They were too small for the subject matter for my liking. This point was brought home by the impact from a few of the prints which were bigger. Those carried more impact!

There were around 20 artworks on display but no narrative. 

I was there on a Sunday but due to work, I missed the couple of forums organised for the day to supplement the exhibition. Maybe if I were to attend those, I would have appreciated the program a bit more.

Now, this how big the prints should be ....Some background reading and information would have helped a great deal to those casual art and photography lovers like myself. As it was, it was not worth the effort for me going out of my way to see it.

Another Blue Hour

It was a post-call afternoon. Irfan had just returned from his week away in Gopeng for school trip. Anita insisted on getting him his favourite. That would mean a drive to Pavilion in Friday afternoon traffic ...

The famous fountain in front of Pavilion, captured at f8.0

I decided to have my own dinner as soon as I arrived. Rather than rush back home - Irfan had already had something else to eat then - I decided to take my camera gear out and enjoy the blue hour ....

The sky was clear and Bukit Bintang was buzzing. A perfect time to mingle about.

I took a walk towards Lot 10 and crossed the famous intersection there, walking further towards Low Yat. The place was full with a band playing in the background. From afar, I could see Arab Street being filled with people having dinner and enjoying sisha. A lot of tourist in KL this time of the year. With nice afternoon weather, I might as well join them and enjoy. Rainy season was coming .... enjoy it while it lasts ....

KL International AV Show 2018

This is a yearly event which I was always keen to attend. Not much of an audiophile nowadays but I like good recording. The current hifi setup I had was bought after attending one of this event a couple of years back and it was a good event to see new gears and just have a good look.

This year's venue was a departure from the last one. It was held at Sunway Putra Hotel, right next door to the old The Mall opposite PWTC.

I'm legit!The venue was smaller than before - JW Marriott at Bukit Bintang. But the concept were the same. Using hotel rooms emulate our living room to a certain extand, which gave better acoustics rather than open spaces. But walking through hotel corridors did pose some unique problem. The traffic flow around the venue as well as queue for the lifts proved testing.

So, did I hear any good stuffs? I sure did.

This must have been the most expensive kit on display Some of the gears were deduct loudly expensive and relatively unknown. The rigs were too big and difficult to maintain. I wanted a streaming system which is more practical and would fit both my budget and space.

The one which caught my eyes were the system from Linn. Not an all in one like my Naim set, but sounded excellent. The units were not yet available in Malaysia though. The unit on show were from Singapore although I was welcome to order.

There were some good clearance deals as well as it was the last few hours of exhibition. And I was guilty of picking up a Bluetooth amplifier. I have yet to get a speaker for it at the minute but the deal was just too good to ignore.

Now to the poor man's area ...Headphones were also seemed to be making a comeback ...There were units going in excess of RM100k with great sound. But it would depend on the source. Just a plain CD would not be enough to explore the real quality of the system. Most of the units either use a specialized streaming unit or turntable. Not practical really for casual users like myself.

I may have a closer look at the Linn system once a local unit is available. The sound were good enough for me ...