Recent SIngapore Trip Slideshow

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Last week and the weekend especially, I was occupied with the photographs I took during the last ASEAN Federation of Haematology. The meeting took place at the KL Shangri-La, starting on the Thursday until the Saturday. To top it off, we had a public education session for patients and caregivers living with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML), hosted by the MaxFamily, a patient support group which I was privileged to be involved in. More about that in another entry.

A couple of weeks back, the then Society President, Dr Ng Soo Chin, a Consultant Haematologist in SJMC - now called SDMC of course - asked me if I can bring my camera along, just as I did a couple of years ago. He wanted me to take pictures of the events and later post them on the society website. I thought why not. It will also give me the time to use all the faculties I own, the camera of course, Lightroom to manage my workflow, then uploading them onto the SmugMug website and utilising the excellent flash slideshow system, posted them as web snippets on my hematologyPPUM.com site.

It went without a hitch, apart from a downtime on the part of SmugMug on the first day. Once the photos were up, a direct click on the photos will take them onto the SmugMug site and from there, it was possible to download the photographs for free. The resolution was good. The lighting inside the hall proved to be a challenge as there were purple tinge on the lighting system they used. Getting the right white balance proved to be tricky. The first morning was occupied with accompanying the VIP’s visit to the Pharmaceutical booths. Once that was done, it was back to the lecture halls. I caught some of the morning lectures and they were excellent, although can be rather overwhelming and technical to the non-Haematology inclined.

It was similar routine on the second and third days. I had to do the ward round on the Friday morning, plus the Friday afternoon, we had our Society AGM followed by an evening lecture and dinner. As I mentioned, the on the Saturday afternoon, I was one of the panelist for the MaxFamily session, more about that later. Off to UIA this morning to meet with a Masters Student there who I supervise. Luckily, the campus was only a 10 minute drive from my home. 

Gearing up

Since I was still technically on MC, I decided to stay at home this morning. After full day at the office yesterday, I was really drained. I decided to do some paperwork at home, but will need to get to UMMC this afternoon to see some trial patients. I spent some time modifying the website to accommodate photos to be uploaded for the upcoming Malaysian Society of Haematology (MSH) meeting. I will be the conference photographer and was just tweaking my workflow so that post-processing and uploading will be simple later. I was not really sure which website should be the platform, but after much deliberation, I decided to use the hematologiPPUM.com site. It will help to promote that site as well as increase traffic. The main host would still be my SmugMug account, via harisphotography.com.

I thought it might be a good idea to upload the pictures I took from the previous meeting into the site and open it to public. Therefore, it will be bandwidth galore this morning uploading all those photos. The photos from the last meeting can be seen here.

Update on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 9:58PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

Story of my life - now SmugMug was down! Hopefully that doesn't happen on the day of the conference. If so, then I will need to use either MobileMe or Squarespace to host my pics!

Slideshow and video from Bird Park stroll

The last time I visited the Bird Park was in January 09, exactly a year ago. I remember coming here with my two boys with Idlan freaking out after being chased by a couple of peacocks. The owl was a big hit for them. For fear of an asthma attack, Puan Anita wouldn't let me take them near the lover's bird cage.

For the past year, there have been a few improvements. The giftshop ladies were more friendly for a start. There was also a new koi pond and a fountain being built with benches which I can imagine being nice to sit on while reading a book. The weather was pretty nice when I got there. I paid my RM15 entrance fee and started shooting away. A nice walk, listening to my iPod and sitting by the koi pond, I managed to get through some letters and emails on my phone. I guess work just wouldn't leave me behind.

For those keen to visit the place, yes, the entrance prize was rather steep at RM15. Apparently they charged more for foreigners. If you think that was expensive, they charged RM4 for a bottle of mineral water! Since it was a workday, there were hardly anyone else. The park is opened from the morning until 7pm. By the time I left just after 6, there were insects and mosquitoes. If you don't like insects, repellents may be a good idea. Another thing I noted was, the number of lover's birds, the small colourful ones featured on the slideshow was smaller than last year. I remembered heaps of them circling around looking for feeds. There weren't that many anymore. The usual attractions, owls, hornbills  and hawks were still plentiful. I am sure there will be more people during weekends, so if you are planning on snapping, maybe a weekday is better.

Irfan's First Day at School

It was a big day for the household. It was Irfan's first day at school. We were apprehensive as he clearly said that he still preferred to go to his Pingu school rather than joining his brother. He was clearly was not keen to put on the uniform after his bath.

We went to bed very early last night. Everyone except for Puan Anita was asleep by 9.30. So, waking them up this morning was not a problem. After breakfast and shower, it was time to go. There were many new faces. New students joining Idlan's class mainly. We got Irfan settled into his new classroom. His teacher, Teacher Julie was expecting him to join, so she quickly came over to take Irfan away. He only have five classmates as his was the youngest class. Next came the assembly. Poor Irfan had to stand at the very front and you can see him slowly getting worked up. Fortunately, he did not create a scene. Back to the classroom then.

After some sing-a-long and colouring, we can see him much more settled. We then quickly sneaked out for a quick breakfast. By the time we came over to pick him up, he was running around excited. He really enjoyed his first day at school and can't stop telling his Granddad afterwards. We then took them out for lunch at Great Eastern Mall. Idlan dozed off to sleep on the way back as he was rather tired, but not Irfan. It's now just after 9pm and he was now past asleep. Looking forward for another day I suppose!