A Change of Driver

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoSunday, and it started the way Sundays around here usually do — with rounds, because the weekend has never quite managed to negotiate its way out of that one. Mercifully light this time. Not many patients, nothing lingering, and finished early enough that the rest of the day still felt properly owned rather than grudgingly handed back.

Which meant lunch could be early, and it could be somewhere worth the drive. Bandar Tasek Selatan, to a Yemeni stall called Nasi Arab Chef Abdullah — the kind of place you'd walk past if nobody had told you about it, and would regret walking past if they had. It was excellent. Rice that had clearly been treated with respect, meat that fell apart with the faintest encouragement, and that particular fragrance of Arab cooking that settles over a table and makes conversation briefly unnecessary. Some meals are pleasant; this was one of those that recalibrates what you'll expect from the next one.

Then on to Pavilion for a bit of shopping, with a specific mission: books from Muji. There's something very Muji about buying a notebook there — the quiet aisles, the unbleached paper, the faint suggestion that owning the right notebook might make you a more organised person. It never quite does, but the optimism is part of the purchase.

A stop at Bangsar Village after that, timed, as it turned out, just ahead of the weather. The sky had been building towards something all afternoon, and there's a certain satisfaction in getting in and out of somewhere before the heavens make their feelings known.

And then the moment of the day, arriving without much fanfare. Anita took the wheel from Bangsar Village to home — her first time driving in almost four years. It was handled with calm and no small amount of competence, and I did my level best to be the ideal passenger, which mostly consists of saying nothing, gripping nothing, and resisting any urge to point out things she can perfectly well see for herself. Four years is a long gap, but it's remarkable how quickly the hands remember what the head has half forgotten. The timing, too, couldn't be much better — with the new car on its way, it seems only fair that she gets properly reacquainted with the business of driving before it arrives. A car with two confident drivers is a considerably more useful thing than a car with one.

Home in good order, and the day settled in from there. The weather did eventually turn, as promised, and there's no better soundtrack to staying indoors than rain arriving just after you've stopped needing to be anywhere.

The evening went to Reacher, catching up on episodes — the show continuing to operate on the principle that most problems can be resolved by a very large man walking calmly towards them. It doesn't ask much of its audience, which on a Sunday evening is exactly the right amount.

A light round, an excellent lunch, new notebooks full of good intentions, and a driver back behind the wheel after four years. A tidy Sunday, all told — and one with a quiet milestone tucked into the drive home.

Pavilion Decorations

It looks like it was raining rose petals. It wasn't just me, but many others felt the same. Chinese New Year was around the corner and as usual, Pavilion KL had always put in their shift in making sure that their decorations stayed classy. I must say that they did it again.

Since it would be the year of the dogs, there were not many statues around. There was one outside Starhill Gallery which I saw. But to make sure the Moslems don't get upset, they put up statues of the deities instead. Understandable.

The Centre stage had the usual elevations for shows and what not. The decorations started in earnest from the fountain by the Bukit Bintang entrance. There flowers aplenty leading into the mall, with plenty of Instagram opportunities.

I didn't see any events when I was there since it was actually a weekday. Might as well as it wasn't too crowded when I visited.

With the expanse, I had the chance to test out the wide angle lens on the GoPro. The photos turned out really well. The videos were nice as well. The next couple of weekends would be peak shopping before the New Year. Expect the place to be packed from now on.

Xmas is Near

For the last few years, the Xmas decorations at Pavilion had been the benchmark for all the other shopping malls in KL. So, when I was there a couple of weekends ago, it wasn't a surprise that the main foyer had been cleared away for the Xmas treats to be reacted.

The area was still restricted when I was there. Maybe by this week, we could go in. Let's see what is in store this year ...

It Has Closed

So, the Patchi outlet at Pavilion has closed. I found that out yesterday when I was strolling around the mall. Wanted to restock but was surprised to see that the entrance had been closed off. Looks like a mattress retail shop would be here instead in the future.

After the 30% price hike at the turn of the year, I could see the place losing customers. After all, it was just chocolate. Although a gorgeous one at that. So, we were back to the outlet at BSC. Hopefully that one would still be opened.

A New Tune

I had been contemplating going up onto medium format for quite some time. There were plenty of contenders, and the couple main ones at the moment were the Pentax 645Z and the Hasselblad X1D. They were not cheap certainly. But the one I was anticipating would be the Fuji GFX 50S. All 3 uses almost similar sensors, about 1.7 times bigger than my current full-frame gears.

But they were going to be big and heavy. And I mainly like street work. And I have fast glasses to cover 28, 35, 50 and 85mm, not to mention standard and wide-angle zooms.

In the last few months, I had been mainly doing wide-angle walks. I decided to use a 85mm 1.4 rig yesterday. The overcast weather made the decision easy. And I was able to snap both indoors and evening outdoors without much hassle.

After looking at the results, it made me think about whether it would be worth the effort, cost and hassle of upgrading and abandoning the system I built over the years to accommodate this new endeavour. Bearing in mind, I was not planning of getting any monetary return from all this.

So, as it stood at the moment I might venture into medium format in the future. The question was not if, but onto which system. Apart from the Hasselblad, I don’t think the other medium format setup had the upper hand to my current kit. When I do go medium format, I would expect the results to blow me away, similar to when I was first able to use a Leica properly and appreciate what a sharp lens really meant.

I remember the advise from one of my mentor, that when you go into the field I am in - a Haemato-Oncologist, you would need an escape. For me it had always been photography since my student years. Guess, I would need to up my game now ….