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Wishing my friends and colleagues a Happy New Year. May it be filled with success and blessings. It was certainly glorious weather this morning, going on until late after afternoon when it started to drizzle.

I spent the afternoon with my parents at one of our relatives wedding in Sunway, happy to enjoy such great weather. We were worried that it would be stormy like yesterday afternoon. But not today.

This long weekend allowed for time to recharge. I would at least be having some time out tomorrow after a busy few days. We would also be returning to Gombak. That would be end for the boys' mini break. Back to the books for the boys for their end of year exams.

Back for long commute for me ...

Weekend at the Apartment

This week had been one of those dragging ones. We had a couple of public holidays, on Wednesday and Saturday. Added to that, my colleagues were away in Thailand, leaving me to hold the fort. It didn't feel like much of a holiday in the end.

This morning ward round was a monster one since it was the first time I get to know the patients. Luckily, I cancelled my Thursday clinic. So, I had the whole day for the patients and rounds. Plus the odd procedures of course.

Anita and the boys were with me at the apartment until Sunday. That way, I was able to go back and forth to the hospital quickly, not having to drive all the way to Gombak. We could also go for the odd outing or two when things were quiet. The boys preferred to stay in though. They like the apartment so much ...

Filling up the Cabinet

Last week, I purchased a dry cabinet to store my camera gear. It was only today that I managed to get all my camera gears sorted out to fill the case up. It turned out to be too small. I should have gone for a bigger unit!

I dusted off my old DSLR, all the lens - minus a couple which I couldn't remember where I placed them - and all my compact cameras from the past.

I got them all cleaned and the batteries charged up. All except the LX3 were working OK. Not sure what happened to the Lumix. Hopefully it was all down to battery cell issues rather than anything more major. An old, but still capable camera. But as with all the early Lumix, it had this rather weird tinge on the jpg especially in low light. In needed plenty of work in post, but most of the time I just shoot in black and white.

I fired up the giant 7D, and shot a few frame. That was when I realised how inferior the white balance algorithm on the Canon compared to my staple, the Fuji. The X100 would more likely get the colours right, or just with minor tweaking. The 7D then went back into the cabinet ....

Now, everything were in order, inside the cabinet. While I was cleaning the bodies and lens, I decided to photograph them. The GR certainly did a great job here ....

Quite a Day

Anita and I decided to pack up early and send the boys back to Gimbak before going out for the day. The mission, some furniture for the bedroom. We were still to buy a proper bed for the apartment bedroom.

So, we went to shop.

We managed to tick all the boxes except for a small side desk for my study. Delivery will be later in the week. Anita would have to take care of that part of the operation. I must say that I was quite happy with the bargain we got. All in the name of Merdeka apparently. Everything was on sale. Whether the savings were real or not, that would be anybody's guess.

Next was a quick hop to Wangsa Walk Mall for a movie. More on that later. ‎

New Collection

I have always been interested in books. No, I was not a bookworm, and I am used to the idea of having books around me. When I was a student, I had always wished that the books I had with me to read would be on subjects they won't be asking in exams.

Now that the demand on the kind of material I had to consume by reading had lessened - I tended to take in new journals on my iPad - I thought I would rekindle that interest.

I plan to start collecting books - of the coffee-table kind for the new apartment. I would also have a shelf housing all the books. These would be the kinds full of pictures and covers my passion and interest.

New York, San Francisco, Paris, skyscrapers and old Malay houses in kampungs had always fascinated me. And on top of this all would be the history of Kuala Lumpur, the city I have called my home and where I would be raising my children.

A lot of people always had this idea that Kuala Lumpur was just a concrete jungle. Well, that was true because the people living there let it to. There were plenty to discover about Kuala Lumpur, its rich history and how it had flourished over the years. Unfortunately, these rich history would be eroded with the foreign migrant coming into Malaysia, from which the large majority reside in this beautiful city.

To start off the collection, I bought a nice skyscraper book from KLCC yesterday, to add on a collection of New York photo essay I picked up last week. It's gonna get exciting!!!