TGV at Capsquare

As mentioned in my previous post, the only available ticket for Kung Fu Panda II that Saturday morning was at Capsquare. Even though we have been to the place a couple of times, this was the first time we actually fought a movie there. The cinema was nothing fancy. It was your typical TGV venture. None of those Gold Class you see at other joints.

I would write more on the movie. The cinema we watched the movie in was small and cosy. The air conditioning was not too cold and the seats were very comfortable. We settled ourselves at the back row where they offer a twin seat. The sound system was not too loud. Just nice. And even though we were right at the back, the distance to the screen was not too far at all. No complains there. The leg-space were also quite big, and getting in and out of the seats just in case you would need to answer the Nature's call mid movie was also not a problem.

We had the usual popcorns and drinks. The price we paid for the seats we actually very cheap. The twin seats were actually the most expensive and it did not offer discounts for children. However, since we watch the show before noon, we got the early bird discounts. It was only RM10 per seat. Toilets were also quite near and most importantly, you get a full bar of 3G signals from inside the theaters, just in case you were airing for the call from hospital or SMSs and emails.

Parking and traffic going in and out of the place were also not a problem. Definitely we would come here again, if we couldn't get a ticket at our usual place at Pavilion ........

Searching for tickets

I have promised my boys to take them to watch Kung Fu Panda II this weekend with their exams done and all. One thing I forgotten to do was to book them the tickets. Big mistake!

It turned out that this was the first day of school holidays - my boys do not share the same holidays as the public schools unfortunately. Therefore, everyone it seems were going to the cinemas. Our usual cinema at Pavilion we're sold out all day even though they we're opening a couple of screens showing Kung Fu Panda with a third showing it in 3D. The Gold Class were showing Prates of the Caribbean - maybe they were still too young for Jack Sparrow yet. 1Utama, sold out until 4pm. Mid Valley, tough luck. Even Wangsa Walk Mall turned out a disappointment. The only place available for the moment Wasserstein Capsquare. And they have plenty of seats left. Online booking done, and we got the early birds discount to go with it.

The initial plan was to ask if Idlan's classmates were keen to tag along. 11.30 am turned out to be too early for everybody unfortunately. Looking at the available tickets, I didn't think we had much of a choice. Remember guys, if you were desperate for tickets, TGV at Capsquare might be the best bet!

We were just waiting for Idlan to hit the shower after his breakfast. We should be good to go at around 11 am. Kung Fu Panda FTW! I just needed to make sure that I resisted clicking on Nur Kasih The Movie though!

KL Design Week

I decided to check out the KL Design Week after hearing about it by my KLickrs friends. The embarked on a project, assigning a total of 20 photographers on 10 locations, to capture ….. Photographs. It was then collated into a mini exhibit. The Design Week started proper yesterday and according to the program pamphlet, it will go on until the end of the month of May. There were six main locations, and the KLickrs got ourselves a booth at the CapSquare. Just a nice little corner exhibit. Unfortunately due to my work - sigh! - I can’t offer anything more apart from support.

Some of the exhibitsSince I was free this morning, I decided to check them out. Located on the second floor, it was right around the corner, near the Subway outlet there. Since I reached there just after noon, Shafina was busy putting up the photos as it was taken down when they left for home last night for security reasons. They also decided, rather than using LCD projectors, we used portable LCD displays instead, plastered onto the display wall. I had to leave before everything was ready unfortunately. I took the time to visit the other exhibit as well.

List of KLickrs who participatedBeing put upHard at workApart from CapSquare, the other venues involved were Pavilion, National Art Gallery, Galeri Petronas at KLCC, map/Dutamas and KL Convention Centre. Apart from exhibits, there were also series of talks and lectures, with conferences and symposia held at the KLCC venues. Please refer to the KLDW website for more details. I spend an hour or so looking at the stalls at CapSquare, mainly put up by design students from various colleges and universities. Some of them have pretty neat concept. Take one USM student, in collaboration with Zoo Negara exhibited a prototype board game. It was pretty basic but the idea shone through. Unfortunately most of the exhibits need more design development as just by looking, it was not very clear what they were trying to put across. The fact that I was there too early, and the exhibitors have not yet arrived clearly does not help. I did email a few of them though asking questions and giving my thoughts.

Another exhibit that caught my eye was done by another student. I was afraid, I can’t remember where he is currently studying but I managed to grab his card. His name is Ling Koh Yong. He developed five cartoon characters which he called ‘Teens Like Me’, with all the interactions and teenage angst. It was exhibited by a series of caricature as proof of concept. Again, the fact that Mr Ling was not there did not help me in visualising the interactions between the characters as if they were fully developed, I can imagine them being made into a cartoon series on TV, or at least on the web. I got the phone number but it was best searched via Facebook. There were other more commercial exhibits, but I was more interested in what the students had to offer. I am a University Lecturer after all ….

Up in the cloudI think, with better publicity, the Design Week may make more of an impact. As it was, it was pretty low key as far as I can tell. When I told my friends, I was checking out the KL Design Week, I got mainly blank stares. There were a few student exhibits, but none were from UniKL, Lim Kok Wing of Multimedia University as far as I can see. I was expecting more participation from these so called ‘design powerhouses’, ones which I expected to produce the designers of the future. More work here is needed I think.

MaTIC. Have you heard about it?

The Tuanku Abdul Rahman Hall - the main building for the centerAnita was really eager to fill up the boys time during this school holidays. She was determine to start early. Therefore we went out yesterday afternoon to inject some 'culture' into the boys. Idlan was not interested. He has been grumpy all morning. Therefore, we left him at home and brought Irfan along. First stop, MaTIC - the Malaysian Tourism Information Center - for the KL Sunday 1 Malaysia Family Fair ......

The colourful rows of stals greeting usEntrance to the Cocoa BoutiqueHmm! Sounded a mouthful? It was either that or having a look at the Dukethon. Unfortunately, we woke up rather late. Apparently there are hot air balloon and stuffs over there. But it was scheduled to finish by midday. That's done then.

MaTIC is a renovated colonial building built in 1975. It was converted in 1988 and the main building was renamed the Tuanku Abdul Rahman Hall. It was beautifully maintained, and the Saloma Restaurant was right next door. The building is along Jalan Ampang, opposite the Renaissance Hotel, right next door to Zouk. We heard about it from surfing the net. Thought that it was intriguing since we planned to go on holiday at some point and we prefer to spend money at home rather than abroad. We wanted to see if there were informations and good holiday packages on offer. The Fair itself was held at the Center's car park. There were ample space. There were activities for children mainly, karaoke, facepainting, bouncy castles and clowns. I counted there were about 20 families and around 40 stalls.

The stores mainly sells local wares and food. There were also sections on local holiday offers which we went to have a look at. There were mainly homestays. The offer were pretty nice and reasonable. We were eyeing for a few in Kedah, but with the flooding at the moment, maybe we will look at it for some time next year. Since it was past midday when we arrived there, there were more retailers than visitors. We found out about the place through the Net. I am not sure if there were other publicity about the Fair. Maybe it was more crowded in the morning.

We then visited a chocolate shop next to the main hall called the Cocoa Boutique. It was a shop selling locally produced chocolate. There is a small exhibition center in it with chocolate-making demonstration. There were about 4 buses with tourists from India arriving at the place when we entered. We ended up not buying anything since the queue was so long. If only there is a nice cafe around there for us to grab a quick lunch. It started to drizzle by then. So we had to split. We headed to KLCC for lunch.

Lunch at KLCCLate afternoon tea at Tapper's Cafe, CapsquareQuick stroll before heading homeThe next destination was Capital Square, or Capsquare. Been there a couple of times before but it was only the first for Anita. It was surprisingly quite for a Sunday. Most of the shops were closed while the rest were unoccupied. A sorry sight really. There were a few bars which looked to be opened at night. As for yesterday, a few restaurants were opened and we had some tea at Tapper's Cafe at the ground floor. It was a typical kopitiam but the food were reasonable. The main attraction seemed to be the cinema on the top floor.