A Sunday That Stayed Local

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoMiddle Sunday of the long weekend, and the decision got made early and firmly: town could wait. There's a particular wisdom to sitting out the crowds on the day everyone else has the same idea, and Publika made a perfectly good alternative — close enough to feel like barely any effort, removed enough to avoid whatever congestion Sunday had planned for everywhere else.

Before lunch, a bit of a wander turned up the iCour V23, which turned out to be genuinely worth the look — neat is the word that stuck, the sort of understated impressive that doesn't need much dressing up to make its case. Not the day's main event, but a nice bit of unplanned interest all the same, the kind of thing a long weekend has room for precisely because nothing else is competing for the slot.

Lunch followed at Nippori, which did what a good lunch is meant to do — filled the gap, didn't overstay its welcome, left enough of the afternoon intact to actually enjoy rather than merely survive.

The shape of the day changed after that, though. Anita had a wedding to get to that evening, which meant heading home in good time for a proper rest beforehand — the sort of event that asks for a bit of preparation rather than a rush out the door, and reasonably so. Weddings have a way of demanding their guests arrive as something closer to their best selves, which takes a bit of runway.

With the house emptying out for the evening, the remaining hours found their own quiet purpose — a proper dent finally made in the backlog of videos that had been patiently queuing up, the kind of catching-up that feels almost virtuous even though it's really just sitting still with good company on screen. Dinner got ordered in rather than made, sensible given the solo evening, and there's a particular ease to a meal that arrives at the door requiring nothing more than opening it.

The day rounded itself off properly with United against Ipswich, and for once the football cooperated — a comfortable win, no late scares, no need to watch the closing minutes through fingers. After a season that hasn't always been generous with its comforts, one arriving on schedule felt almost suspicious, in the nicest possible way.

So: a Sunday that opted out of town and lost nothing for it, a neat little discovery over lunch, an evening handed over to a wedding and, in its absence, to some very overdue video-watching, and a football result that actually matched the mood rather than fighting it. Middle Sundays of a long weekend don't always pull their weight — this one rather did.

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.

Pasar Seloka Raya

Anita read somewhere that there was a bazaar going on at Publika. She wanted to buy some items there and asked if I can drive her there.

Being a public holiday, getting a parking spot could be tricky. But it turned out that there were plenty of pace at the lower levels. Once there, you just needed to climb on the escalator to get to the shopping floors. Quite convenient.

And the bazaar was great. After half an hour, Anita could not make up her mind about what to buy. There were too many optins and since the place was packed, it was difficilt to get any service. Maybe she should come back during work days when there were not too many people.

The bazaar mainly sell clothes. It was a great place to get Raya clothes for children, The dresses were damn cute, so were the baju melayu. There were also ornaments and cosmetics. The one stall which attracted my attention actually belonged to the singer, Amy Search.

I ended up buying some lights for the balcony for Raya decorations. All battery operated and portable. Definitely a great place to spend an afternoon shopping with plenty of cafe and restaurants - alas, it was Ramadhan. Great place to hang around ...

The KLPF 2017

*The event was held in November 2017*

It was in Pudu last year. And this year the venue changed again, to Publika near Hartamas. I managed to get there on the final day and from what I could see, it was near the end. Some of the exhibitors had started packing up.

On the whole, the setup was a strange one. They had a stage by the Publika entrance and the organiser utilised both White and Black Box as well as the corridors in between. Certainly it wasn't purpose-built. The stalls were peppered around the spaces while certain corners were turned into lecture rooms. Not ideal with the light and sound pollution. It was tricky to listen to talks at times.

Started out at the courtyard The list of contributors Inside the Black BoxBut I was very impressed by the quality of work on display. The printing were mostly excellent and the organiser really put the effort on getting plenty of photographs for exhibition. You could see photos on display everywhere from the walls in the hall as well as at the annexes outside.

I only spent an hour there and I was surprised that Alice Smith having their photography club present at one of the booths. I spent some time chatting with one of the teachers as well as an old boy who was now pursuing a degree in Photography in Hong Kong.

One of the many talks ...Exhibits everywhere ...Even my boy's school took part ...Not as big as the ones when it was hosted in Mid Valley. Back then, you could find all sorts of things to try. I remembered having a go at the Ricoh GR for the first time there. I was hoping to be able to hold the GF50s. Unfortunately none was available although I could see plenty of Fuji products at the exhibition. Maybe sponsorship these days were limited.

That's brighterPeering inMore talks ...If you were exploring around for a gear, don't think that the KLPF is the spot. If the organiser was clearer on their objective and vision, I think the festival can really move further ahead. Hopefully they remain at the same spot next year ...

Monday at Publika

Even though it was located only 10 minutes away from our apartment, Public was not a common place for us to visit. And it mainly to do with parking. We were stuck in huge queues to get in and out and in the end, we never bordered going there again.

We were banking that the place would be deserted during this long weekend and we were right. There were not too many people there. The CNY decorations were being dismantled as well and quite a few of the ships were still closed for the holidays.

Anita wanted to buy some tidbits for the apartment for decorations and there were a few stores there selling cute items. One thing about the place was the food. There were tons of restaurants there, both in Public and the streets surrounding it. We ended up having Thai Boat Needles and the restaurant was located right in the end of the mall.

There were too many things that caught our eyes that in the end we ended up not buying much. We may head out there again in the future once we decided what we wanted to buy.