G’day everyone. For some strange reasons our dearest Jason abandoned us temporarily and forced requested me to fill in this awesome place of his for the time being.

I am Robin from robinwong.blogspot.com and I will be crashing here for a bit, also probably trying to steal some of Jason’s limelight away from him right under his nose. Worry not, I am sure he would not mind anyway.

So the question that really bakes the noodles would be: what will I be doing here? Jason did not exactly give me any specific instructions, and basically he asked me to write my usual stuff, like how I would do with my own blog. What I have decided to do originally was to post up entries relating to topics and scopes that Jason has never, and will most probably never post up here. I was supposed to come up with a plan but in the end I was just too freaking lazy I figured out I should just go random and be myself.

In this particular entry, I shall dedicate it specifically on how I got to know Jason, and what horror he has done in my life so far.

We all have been reading this awesome blog for some time now, it has been around for years, and not much of a surprise, it has successfully garnered quite a distinctively respectable reputation. I too, was part of the crowd, and often find his food pictures unbearably tormenting when I was viewing his frequent food entries during lunch time at work, munching away just mere pathetic sandwiches. There were also times when I was not entirely alone, but my colleagues were standing behind me drooling, and somehow we all got hungry again though we had just finished our lunch. This was probably one of the largest sin that Jason has committed, and probably one of the most compelling reasons for many to come back to his blog for more.

One fine day, when I made a spontaneous trip down to Malacca to meet up with a few friends, I bumped into Jason for the first time. It was at the outdoor eatery near MMU, and I went over to his table to say… “Hi Jason, its Robin from robinwong.blogspot.com”. And he replied “Yes, I know.. aren’t you supposed to be in KL?” *gasp… I knew he visited my blog before but little did I know he actually kept track of it until then. And so it began, we kept in touch ever since.

One of the noteworthy traits about Jason is how he has always been persistently nudging me to get a DSLR. It is a known fact that Jason has been progressively improving his skills on camera, and somehow I believe he sees the urge to want everyone to move up the ladder too. He always commented on how I should be using a DSLR instead of a compact (point and shoot) camera, considering my immense interests in photography, and my constant complaints on the restrictions that the compact camera imposed on my pictures. Of course, there was the factor of money-never-enough-to-buy-dslr syndrome, until one day, he cursed my compact camera to die so I can move on and get a proper DSLR.

And my compact camera really died few days after that. I kid you guys not.

At that point of life I knew I could not survive without a camera. Hence the hunt for a replacement was in place, but I was leaning more towards prosumer (higher end point and shoot) cameras. I had my reasons, mainly because I was cashless, and felt inadequate in skills to handle a DSLR. That was when Jason flipped upside down and inside out and spent hours and hours on MSN trying to convince me on getting a DSLR for a few continuous nights in a row. I thought about it, really hard and thorough, but in the end, I decided to just go with a conventional compact camera. I told Jason.. and…

The next thing that happened was.. Jason called me all the way from Malacca and… I got lectured for an hour 20 minutes well it felt like an hour.

I could not get any sleep that night. What a horror !!!

As a consequence, in the end, I got my Ollie. (an Olympus DSLR)

Thanks to Jason, I have progressed much further now in photography having a DSLR in hand. I am still new, but I am learning much quicker than previously. There are many things that I have not mastered in basic photography, but I am steadily improving. There are heaps of “WOW” factor producing pictures from a DSLR, and I guess Jason just wants to share that with everyone.

There would probably be a hundred more things to say about Jason, so many stories too but I think it would be wrong to bore his readers to death. Amongst all the things I have come across with him, that particular phone call that night probably was the most memorable one. Sometimes I still shiver thinking of it.

So people, faithful readers of Jasonmumbles dot com, if you have got something to say about him bad one also can lah please speak up in the comment section. He is away from his blog now, so I believe it would be nice for him to see how he has impacted his readers, even in simple and small ways.

I will be back. Cheers !!

It was the same time last year when I took my much deserved month long break. After 11 months of updating my blog on an average of three posts per week, I have not only ran out of blogging material but also don’t have the much needed “funds” to do my self-sponsored food reviews.

I maybe taking a month long break, but there might be one or two updates by the in-house guest bloggers within this period. Also, do subscribe my RSS feed now, you wouldn’t want to miss my impromptu updates, right? *grins*

So, see you guys after my break!

Oh oh, do visit my photo blog and also, do subscribe its RSS feed.

This is my standard kit lens, EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM. A pretty versatile lens, I would say, albeit a little slow but with my Canon Speedlite 580 EXII, it’s not much of a problem.

However, just when I needed it the most for my up-coming “project”, it has to fail on me by giving me this error message. No matter how I clean the contacts, the same error message popped up.

I defintiely have to send it back to Canon Service Center and get it fixed as soon as possible. Still, I doubt they are able to fix it for me before my “project” on October 18 and the Hari Raya public holidays aren’t helping either.

Sighs.

All these crucial “events” have to happen now. F**ked.

Note : The lens fixed in less than five working days! Ha! All is good now.

Instead of bringing my outstation friends for overrated and ridiculously priced Nyonya food, I prefer to bring them to this small fishing village in Alai for kampung styled seafood.

It is not exactly in town, but rather outskirt and a good old 20 to 25 minutes drive is required. Moreover, one needs to go through small roads and easily unnoticed junctions before arriving at the restaurant.

Upon entering the restaurant, you will see a big BBQ pit and a stall filled with seafood that are mostly just caught / brought up from the fishing boats. All sorts of fishes, clams, shells, prawns and even crabs (Only flower crabs though.) for you to choose from. They are just one step below from selling live seafood or rearing them in aquariums. The tray is reloaded every three to four hours, about two rounds per night, and the second batch of seafood also comes from the returning fishing boat.

The price is clearly written on the whiteboard hanging above the seafood. However, there’s no need to look at the whiteboard as it is reasonably priced or rather cheap, seriously. Once you finish selecting the seafood, you have to then decide on the cooking style by telling the guy managing the stall.

Instead of ordering a glass for each person, I reckon it is much cheaper to order a jug of whatever beverage you want.

Also, they will serve you plates of their specially made sauce, using onions, soy sauce, lime and etc.. Not spicy at all, to me.

Together with the special sauce, a tray loaded with steaming hot nasi lemak is put on the table at your expense. Each packet is priced at RM0.50-RM0.60, if not mistaken. It is really small and I can finish the whole packet in less than five spoons. Normally, I have to eat like six to eight packets each time I have my dinner at this place. It is not those super fragrant kind of nasi lemak, just good enough to gobble down together with your seafood.

Again, the otak-otak here is no where close to the Chinese’s counterparts in Muar but definitely far better than those what you get from hypermarkets.

There are many styles for you to choose from, goreng tepung, goreng sambal, masak kunyit dan cili padi, bakar, bakar sambal, sweet and sour, steamed and etc.. You can mix and match for all the dishes, but I reckon the prawns should be grilled only. Only that way, you can taste the natural taste of a fresh prawn.

I have been patronizing this particular restaurant for almost three to four years. No matter how much I order, the price per head always come to an average of RM25 or a maximum of RM30, be it a group of three or four or even up to six or eight people. The price always linger around that figure.

Some prefer the further and slightly more expensive Serkam or the nearer to town but slightly expensive Umbai, I have tried both and I still come back to Alai’s. Considering the money I am paying and the distance just to drive there, Alai offers the best value among all three. I have brought a number of outstation friends here and so far, if not, all of them enjoyed the meal.

Blogger’s note : I have ran out of things to blog, even picture stories. I am totally dried up, like a dried raisin. Probably, I shall be announcing my break soon, as in, really really soon that kind.

I have to admit, I can be really lifeless sometimes.

Someone sent me a link to this game and I got hooked up with it then.

Orisinal : Winterbells.

The objective of the game is to jump as many bells as you can and score maximum points.

To play the game, just move your mouse to guide the rabbit to the bells and move upwards. Every now and then, you would see a bird flying across the screen, jump on it and you get to double your points instantly. Of course, the bell’s size will get smaller and smaller as you go higher.

Of course, to top it off, I am challenging anyone to break my record. The reward, a really decent meal in KL, on my treat. Its either I decide what to eat or you can make the call.

Yes, you didn’t see it wrongly. Its 13,286,757,825,232,123. Anyway, that’s for the print screen. I actually broke the score till it came to a situation which the score won’t update itself anymore.

If you think your photoshop skills can help you claim the prize, I do hope, with your maths, you should know roughly how many bells you need to step before you can achieve such high score. Deal?

Didn’t I tell you, I can be really lifeless sometimes?