First, Happy Valentine’s Day!

I was about to start burning out my 7.86GB of pictures taken over the last two years when I realized that my photos are getting better and better since I bought my own digital camera - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30, compare to those days when I was still using the Sony Cybershot U-20 2.0MP and my dad’s Canon Ixus-i 4.0MP digital cameras.

Nothing spectacular or something to shout about compare to photos taken by photographers like Jason a.k.a smashpOp, let it be. I am satisfied with my progress / improvement.

I didn’t notice the reflection / flare until I loaded the photos.

Everyone wants a dSLR nowadays for their own reasons. A good camera will definitely help in your photography. However, if you don’t know how to maximize the potential of the camera, it is just another digital camera in your hands. Get to know your camera, practice, practice and practice, that’s the advice the professional photographers gave me when I joined their photo shootout.

I will get myself a dSLR sometime down the road, but not now, as I don’t see the point yet. Maybe it will come in handy when I turn my part time reporting job to a full time one.

Picture was taken before I sold the phone away to my friend for RM270. The phone was in black and silver colour. Hence, I decided to try to take the picture in black and white, and the result turned out to be rather satisfying.

Last Sunday, I joined a group of photographers from KL for a photo shoot. I was there for work, but decided to join them. 30 odds people, all armed with Nikon dSLR and even Leica M6 and M8. It was a tiring but fun day. I even got freebies from them.

Wong Chun Kit, better known as Ah Kit, is one of my best friends brothers that I got to know for 16 years or since standard 1. Over the years, our friendships are built with trust, respect, fun, mutual understanding and even more fun. It’s not easy to maintain a friendship, what more for a 16 years of friendship that hasn’t fade away despite the time and distance.

Among Ah Yong (Chee Yong), Ah Kit and myself, Ah Kit is the most sensible and rational person. Everything he does, there must be a strong and valid reason to support his action. Think twice and deeply is what he does before coming to any decision or conclusion; making him the least craziest person among us.

“你们冷静一点!　不要酱冲动！”
“Please calm down! Don’t be so impulsive!”

Apart from that, he knows where and how to get the best deal for himself, his family and us. He is always the one that is responsible for accommodations whenever his family or us want to go for a holiday. I remembered he booked the room at Strawberry Park, Cameron Highlands during our Cameron Highlands - Penang trip for 50% off from the actual price. When we were at Penang and didn’t know where to stay, he got us the Crown Jewel Hotel at Batu Ferringgi for RM113 per night. He’s not stingy, just that he wants to get something that is worth the money and at the best deal. There are times when we see him spending too! -wink-

He’s one that finds interest with economy, socio-economy and stock markets. God knows how long he spent reading the economy section of the papers everyday. Every afternoon, he will be sitting in front of the computer monitoring the latest stock price. If not mistaken, he does own a few shares.

Having the faith and trust in him, we tend to let him handle our money whenever we go for outings. After all, he’s the most responsible and sensible among us. If the money is given to me, I don’t think I can trace back where the money went and all are spent on food instead. In fact, if we are to start our own business, he is definitely going to be the treasure and financial consultant. -lol-

He’s not a leader, more like a follower most of the time. If he ever comes up with a suggestion, it will be a good one. Other than that, most likely he will be following the group or Ah Yong. He’s a homely person too. If there’s nothing important going on, he prefers to stay and bunk in at home compare to anything else. Even when he’s studying at UKM, it’s the same. If nothing important, he will just bunk in at the student house. He spends most of his weekend with his family, going Malacca or Seremban.

He’s the kindest guy among us too. Caring and observant, he’s almost too nice to say ‘no’ to you. You hardly hear him rant about his friends, college mates or group mates even though I heard it few times. -lol- He’s a quiet and shy person as well. He had missed a few chances to get to know girls because of this and Ah Yong and me had to give him the extra ’scolding’ or ‘teasing’ to give him the courage. Hence, he’s still single until now!

Oh, I nearly forgot, he loves Winnie the Pooh. What’s so cute about that bear?

Really, he’s a damn nice guy. If you are interested or just want to wish him happy birthday, drop a SMS at 012-2761230. Betrayal. He’s still single. -wink-

Happy birthday, Ah Kit!

Happy birthday to Autumnmusic as well!

It’s all the little things that brightened up my day.

First, it was a parcel from Jesslyn. It arrived on Monday afternoon, all the way from Tangkak.

There were one t-shirt and one polo shirt. I can’t wear the red t-shirt and the polo shirt fits nicely. Maybe I shall pass the polo shirt to my dad and the red t-shirt to my mum.

Thanks a lot, Jesslyn.

Before that, a snail mail from Pelf Nyok, wishing me Happy Chinese New Year. No wonder she emailed us and asked us to give her our contact information so that she could update her address book. Cheeky sis!

Thanks, Kak Pelf!

By the way, I haven’t have the chance to meet them yet. Our friendship is still solely cyber friendship but it doesn’t differ much. One day, we will meet up and I hope the day will arrive soon.

Thanks again, Jesslyn and Kak Pelf!

It could be a SMS.
It could be a call.
It could be a smile.
It could be a small gift.

All you need is the thought to put a smile on one’s face.

What have you done today to brighten up one’s day? -wink-

It was late Saturday afternoon when hunger stroked (It happens all the time anyway.) as I filed my claims for the month of January in the office. Coincidently, it was Allison’s birthday and she, being nice, decided to give me a treat. A huge mistake, I would say. -lol-

We headed for the newly opened Little Kingdom Heritage, which is situated at the far end of Jonker Street. It is right opposite the A Famosa chicken rice shop (Totally sucks! Avoid at all cost!) and you need to walk along a small alley before you can see the restaurant inside.

From what I heard, the restaurant is managed by Malay chefs and the thing is that, I always have second thoughts for Malay chefs. No, I am not racist. Heh! Allison was telling me who the chef is and his backgrounds, since she is very close to the chefs, waiters and waitresses there. I shall leave that for my story later.

We ordered a glass of carrot milk, iced water, tenderloin steak, prawn salad, pan fried jenak with pasta, marinara spaghetti and tiramisu.

A glass of carrot milk. Carrot juice without milk sure taste weird, for me. It came without milk in the first place.

Then, it was the prawn salad. Thank God the prawns were fresh and juicy, else, it’s going to taste horrible. There were only four prawns inside, kinda sad since it’s supposed to be prawn salad. It came with some greens (Duh!) and topped with thousand island sauce.

Pan fried jenak with pasta was Allison’s choice. The fish had a taste, which I didn’t like it anyway. I didn’t try much either.

My tenderloin steak was not medium well as I requested. Apart from that, I think its really good. I opted for black pepper sauce which has a pinch of mint taste in it. Served with a portion of fruit salad, which had more pineapples than any other fruits and also some curry powder coated potato wedges. The wedges tasted awesome but there were only three sticks. -sighs- They could have give me extra black pepper sauce, but I was just plain lazy to ask for it as well. It’s really good.

Since my steak gave me the confidence on the chef and also seeing the couples at the next table ordering the marinara spaghetti, we ordered a plate of seafood marinara spaghetti to share. Two mussels, four prawns, a spoonful of mini squids and some oh-so-yucky white / green cauliflower. Freshly cooked and served in light tomato sauce, you can’t go wrong with it. Satisfying, it was. You can ask the chef to do special request like in cream sauce or in olive oil only.

There were off-menu items as well, such as tiramisu, racks of lamb, beef medallion, prawns and mussels in cream sauce and etc., which you can only see and choose from the special menu board.

Hence, tiramisu, I had. It was fairly good as there was no alcohol in it as the restaurant was halal. The outer part tasted sweet (coco powder / chocolate) but the center part tasted bitter (coffee). It was a little soft too, most probably it wasn’t chilled long enough. It was printed as Heineken in the receipt for RM5. Told you, these weren’t in the menu and obviously, the cashier machine.

The bill came up to RM67 and the boss gave Allison a whopping 30% discount since she’s a regular there. The discount made the whole meal totally worth every single cent and of course, cheap! Lucky you, Allison. I knew I should have ordered that racks of lambs (RM38). Damn!

According to Allison, the main chef is even better. Depending on your luck, the chef might or might not be at the restaurant and that’s when the apprentice / assistant chef will take over the cooking. I forgot what’s the chef’s name but most probably he will be there after 7PM. Try visiting the place after 7PM for better and more consistent food quality.

Shall visit the restaurant in near future for the beef medallion and racks of lambs. Heh!

Happy belated birthday and thanks again, Allison!