Tickets for the Smurfs

Bloated from yesterday, I missed breakfast. We spent the morning in front of the television and cleaning the room. Most of our friends and relatives were still in their kampung, so we decided just to have lunch outside while having a look at how deserted KL had been.

We were quite surprised that when we approached Mid Valley, all the carpark indicated red, meaning full. We were lucky that the parking tickets were still issued as I desperately needed to get to Gardens today. The reason, tickets for tomorrow's show of the Smurf! We settled for a parking bay on level B4, right at the bottom.

There were still plenty of tickets available for the afternoon show tomorrow. After the tickets were sorted out, there was a small matter of lunch. As usual, the boys wanted pizza, and we landed at Alexis.

Settling down for lunchMy cod. Looked dry, but was actually rather nice.The salad and pizzaThe place was full, but we managed to get the sofa seats still. A pleasant lunch as the boys were treated to a nice pizza - we had to order two since they finished both. I had some cod for a change, and it was not that bad. My rocket salad was a bit dry today, the leafs were rather too bitter and hard.

Irfan's chamomile teaEmpty-looking Mid Valley GardensWe sat down for tea - Irfan had his dose of chamomile, hence he was pretty chilled after that. Headed over at Isetan, where Anita bought a dress, before heading back home in an almost empty Federal Highway.

Looking forward for the Smurfs tomorrow ….

Mid Valley Gardens Decor

Gardens at Mid Valley has always portrayed itself as an upmarket outlet. When it comes to decorations for festivities, they were always classy and understated. For this year's Raya, they concentrated more on details, and left the more elaborate decor to its sister mall next door, the Mid Valley Megamall.

The central gallery, where the main boutique outlets were located, were filled with small decorations and there were also some lightings hanging down, with more Aidilfitri motifs. One thing I have noticed, they have taken away some of the seatings at the main walkways, which make stopping for a breather especially while fasting a bit of a nag.

I was glad that the walkways and foyers were left empty rather than filled up by tacky stalls selling clothes and cookies. They obviously remained consistent in concentrating on the small things.

Mid Valley Raya Decor

I was actually expecting more from Mid Valley. I remembered their spectacular Raya decors of yesteryears. Their amazing Chinese New Year effort, as well as Christmas. I went to Mid Valley this morning, armed with my camera with high hopes.

I parked at Gardens, and made my way across via the Lower Ground Floor walkway. At the middle area, where the corridors met, were filled with stalls selling mooncakes. It was nice and colourful, and so I ventured forth to the main foyer. And what did I see?

A lame effort to turn the central gallery into some sort of an Arab Market. It was basically a collection of stalls - around a dozen of them - selling cookies and clothes. The kind of things that you can easily pick up at bazaars. And the collection the sold there was not really that exclusive either. At least not as exclusive as Bangsar Village. Right at the centre is a small island with date trees - supposedly. Err .... That was about it.

Told you that the mooncake stalls were much more interestingThere was a small stage - it being morning I wasn't expecting a show or anything - tucked on one side. I can't see much attraction there at all. They ought to put more effort I guess. I actually enjoyed the spectacles at the mooncake stalls more than the Raya decor. Thumbs down, most definitely.

Lumix GF3

While I was at Mid Valley the other day, I stopped over at Key Color, the place where I got my LX3 and 7D previously. I was actually inquiring about the Fuji X100, but they did not have any in stock.

Looking around for what was hot in the market, my eyes landed on the rather slimmed down Lumix GF3. That thing was tiny. Seriously tiny. Coupled with the stock zoom lens it came with, it really felt awkward and front heavy. But the small body complimented the 14mm pancake lens very well. The zoom had a built-in image stabiliser, but the pancake lens did not.

The body plus the pancake lens was RM1999, and with the EOS 1100D kit selling at around RM200 less, it would be a serious investment.

I got a few images saved onto my memory card. The ISO went up to 6400. So, here are the sample. Unfortunately I was not let loose with the unit.

1/80 f3.5 ISO4001/60 f3.5 ISO160 flash on1/60 f5.6 ISO800 at full zoom 42mm1/160 f4.0 ISO 3200So what were my first impressions? The unit is tiny, and being metallic, rather slippery as there were no rubberised grip surface. The autofocus were damn fast, either by using the shutter button, or tapping on the LCD screen. Grip is awkward with the zoom lens attached. Nice red colour - Puan Anita would definite loved that. The high ISO captures showed unbelievable lack of noice - definitely better than my old EOS 400D.

With an M-mount four-thirds lens converter, I can see potential in putting of those Leica M lens on these baby! LOL! 5 minutes was not enough to just the the product I was afraid, but I can see it as a potential street photography device with the pancake lens attached on it. Let's wait for the X100 first before I can make a judgement on what I should get to replace my trusty old LX3.