Saturday, November 25, 2006

A Friend's 40th Birthday

It was a wonderful 40th birthday of a friend held at a newly opened restaurant at Northpoint in Mid Valley.

The host, as always, put the top most priority on the food served.

Asian cuisine with Asian fusion. Delicious servings of oyster, tiger prawn, lamb, beef and kerabu mangga (mango salad).

Presentation was superb with a lot of details.

The tastes were very flirtatious with your taste buds.

The ambience was great. The structure is high ceiling hence and the owner was smart enough to capitalise on it by creating “mezzanine” level made of old timber sourced out of an army camp near Ipoh.

A lot of warn colour lighting, dark orange to red.

Dinner was fabulous, drinks were free flow which made the party even more happening. Only selected 43 people were invited and I was very honoured to be in the top 43.

Retro songs were played after 4 cake cutting ceremony (1 cake for each decade!) and we just drank and danced the night away. some of the retro song (if not all) really brought back my teenager memories.

Yes, I was the photographer for the nite and I take quite a number of cool pix.....

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Batik Terengganu

We visited a little batik factory after breakfast near Ladang which is also famous for its Pulut Lepa (pulut panggang).





PURA revisited

After photography sessions and exploring Kuala Terengganu town shopping etc, I returned to my nice Nesan Empat Suite and have a nice long nap.



I can’t remember when was the last time I had a more than 2 hours of nap in recent years but I was just in the slumber land napping at Pura with my shirt off, all windows opened and the softly breeze caressed my body.



I slept like a baby. It was raining and the temperature was easily in the low 20's.



Like I said, I can never have enough of Pura…. Very romantic!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Nice, but you are not supposed to feed them or...



they will Shit On You!

Freemantle, Western Australia..

I cought the rainbow



The weather was wet, early in the morning. I was so tired, almost couldn't get myself off the bed. I peeked through the window and saw this.



I rushed down with my camera (it was drizzling and quite chilly too!) crossed the road like a mad person. I was lucky enough to catch the rainbow. It disappeared a moment later when the rain got heavier and the sun shied away.



I was lucky, in Perth.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

KLPAC @ Sentul West

I went to KLPAC over the weekend to watch Odd Couple with a bunch of friends. What a pleasant surprise to find out one of my friends actually acted in the play.


Luckily I brought my camera with me… I was so stupid for not using the tripod to shoot low light images though. I actually have a tripod in the car but too lazy to set it up.. sheeesh!







It stopped raining after the show. I caught some images of the old colonial building reflections on the puddles at the parking lot.




Ulu Langat

This is one of my favorite weekend routes.



You’d be surprise to find out the beauty of Malaysia countryside within 30 minutes drive from Kuala Lumpur city centre.



The area around Pekan Batu 18 where we normally park our cars, unload and setup our bikes and start riding. You can drink the best air tebu in the world which taste better than any drinks you’ve ever had especially after a long ride under the sun. It is just delicious.




Located about 8km from Batu 18, Pangsun is where hikers go for climbing up to the peak, Gunung Nuang. It is not as “severe” as Kinabalu but challenging enough to drain your energy from a whole day hiking up and down. I have been up, not quite to the top but high enough. The trail is covered with beautiful rain forest with beautiful stream, rapids and waterfalls along the route. The environment is cooling and very refreshing. I will bring my camera and post some nice pics on the future.



Today, I insisted to ride deep into kampong Kuala Pangsun where they plant sayur manis for commercial production but in a very traditional way. Of course there are durian orchards around it. This 8km ride is a nice warm up before cruising along the kampong road toward Genting Peres, the peak of the road to Kuala Kelawang, which also divides Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. This kampong route, especially during weekends are not quite unlike French countryside where you can see scores of cyclists zoom past through the smells of Malay cooking and rows of kampong coffee shops with pakciks who seem like permanent feature by the roadside seeping their coffee or the tarik. Perhaps they also bitch about current leadership and how much they hope Tun M to leave IJN soon.

Simply breathtaking…


The whole ride is about 60km and you can be done by noon if you start pedaling at 8am.



The best way to cool down after a long ride is to clean the nook and cronies of the bike before soaking ourselves into the Sungai Langat. The finale (perhaps the objective too) is to have late breakfast nasi lemak daun pisang at a particular stall in Sungai Chongkak picnic area.



It would be quite nice to have a little piece of land by the river and build, or relocate a nice old Terengganu house as a weekend home.


climbing up to Genting Peres

Adorable little kitten. she was there before and after the ride. I almost took her home....
aaww!!

Monday, November 06, 2006

Anak buah




















Don’t be deceived. They can scream from the top of their lungs and their voice can break glasses.















When they are 17 they will have rings on many parts of their body, navels and tongues.




















Your cat will be treated like stuffed Garfields.














They will try to catch kois in the fish pond even though you tell them not to.














They play with the trolleys as if they are toy cars that they can ride on.














They insist to have the sunroof open all the time regardless the temperature outside the car.














Have to call them more than 3 times to get their attention.














But, they have the purest smiles and hearts.
















Apples of my eye!















It amazing how closely they resemble their parents, the way they look and behave....

Puasa 6

Do you know that if you complete fasting the whole month of Ramadhan and continue another 6 days during the month of Syawal is equivalent to fasting for the whole year?

Here is why…

"Pada bulan syawal ini kita digalakkan berpuasa sunat 6 hari (tak perlu berturutan asalkan genap 6 hari dalam syawal). Dengan tambahan 6 hari ini kita dikatakan seolah-olah berpuasa setahun. setiap hari puasa bersamaan 10 hari pahala. ramadhan 30 (=300) syawal 6(=60). Jika ingin lebih lagi kepada yg berminat puasa, bolehlah juga dilakukan pada bulan2 lain 3 hari dalam
sebulan"


(forwarded by a cycling friend)

SMSs from the Vet




"Surgery has been done, cat is fine, will inform you when the cat can go home, thank u. Animal medical centre"

"Shemeq is doing ok, can go home anytime frm 2moro, animal medical centre"

(received these when i was in Jakarta last year)

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Sempah to (almost) Bentong




view from the top of my hadlebar at 37.5km/h




day job: corporate vice president


photographer wanna be