Zaid's Blog

Cherating, Pahang

2009-08-13T14:48:00.005+08:00

My masterpiece: The Funky Lizard

I went to Cherating, Pahang recently to attend a 4 day course. It was a refreshing change compared to my daily 8-5 job. The course consists of motivational and team building element and it had some pretty interesting outdoor activities which I enjoyed very much. Firefly watching, mangrove river tour and batik painting were the main outdoor activities. The batik that I painted were drawn earlier by using a technique called canting where a wooden handheld tool with a tiny metal cup containing melted wax attached to tiny spout were used to draw an outline of an image on a white cloth. The drawing can then be painted using watercolor-like paint without worrying the color spilling over to the other sections of the drawing.

The mangrove tour was fun too as I can see the mangrove forest up close. I encountered monitor lizards and snakes relaxing at some of the branches. Luckily I didn't came across any Predators moving on top of trees with their active camouflage :) Anyways, the mangrove trees are important part of coastal areas as they protect it from erosion as the mangrove roots are very efficient at absorbing wave energy.

The fireflies living at the mangrove areas flew to us as the tourguide mimic their light transmission pattern using only a flashlight in the darkness of night. I managed to get some of them to land on my palms and watched it flickering.

Sofea Zahra

2009-07-22T08:47:00.003+08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. My wife & I were busy preparing for the arrival of our new member of the family; Sofea Zahra. She was born on July 8th, 2009 and she weighs a healthy 2.96kg. She was delivered normally. My wife entered Labour Ward at about 2pm and Zahra was born at 3:12pm. Zahra & mom are now at Opah's place in Perak for a period of 2 months nursing and recuperating before coming back to KL

She sleeps during the day and wakes up at night :)

Cool time-lapse tilt-shift photography

2009-05-26T12:56:00.003+08:00

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Look at what I found from the web; Tilt-shift lens. Pretty cool stuff as it will cause people and objects in the picture look like miniature! Tilt-Shift as explained from Wikipedia :

" Tilt-shift photography refers to the use of camera movements on small- and medium format cameras; it usually requires the use of special lenses.

"Tilt-shift" actually encompasses two different types of movements: rotation of the lens relative to the image plane, called tilt, and movement of the lens parallel to the image plane, called shift. Tilt is used to control the orientation of the plane of focus (PoF), and hence the part of an image that appears sharp; it makes use of the Scheimpflug principle. Shift is used to change the line of sight while avoiding the convergence of parallel lines, as when photographing tall buildings.

In many cases, "tilt-shift photography" refers to the use of tilt and a large aperture to achieve a very shallow depth of field. "

Tridax Procumbens

2009-05-21T08:05:00.005+08:00

As I was closing my front gate, I saw this little flower from a weed beside my front gate. I decided to take a macro shot of it. It is the same flower as my post "View with a different prespective" about a year ago. Some info from Wikipedia :

"Tridax procumbens is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family. Its common names include coat buttons and tridax daisy in English, cadillo chisaca in Spanish, herbe caille in French, Jayanti veda in Sanskrit, ghamra in Hindi, Dagadi pala in Marathi, Thata poodu in Tamil, and kotobukigiku in Japanese. It is best known as a widespread weed and pest plant. It is native to the tropical Americas but it has been introduced to tropical, subtropical, and mild temperate regions worldwide. The plant bears daisylike yellow-centered white or yellow flowers with three-toothed ray florets. The leaves are toothed and generally arrowhead-shaped. Its fruit is a hard achene covered with stiff hairs and having a feathery, plumelike white pappus at one end. The plant is invasive in part because it produces so many of these achenes, up to 1500 per plant, and each achene can catch the wind in its pappus and be carried some distance. This weed can be found in fields, meadows, croplands, disturbed areas, lawns, and roadsides in areas with tropical or semi-tropical climates."

Things you'd probably haven't seen in detail

2009-05-03T18:46:00.006+08:00

I got myself a "Macro Extension Tube" last Thursday so I can snap pictures close up using my existing lens. It was very hard taking pictures as the depth-of-field was very shallow. One technique I learned from a book to help me take the pictures were to snap in bursts so that at least some of the pictures turns out OK.

Water droplets on a leaf after an afternoon shower. My lens and the clouds can be seen on the droplet's relection

Water droplet on the edge of a leaf

An insect emerging after the shower

Hibiscus pistil and stamens

Rosemary leaf closeup

The flower is 1cm across and the ants are about 1mm in length

Another magnificent view of the Hibiscus

Jamiroquai F1 concert + Malaysian F1 Grand Prix

2009-04-06T15:20:00.013+08:00

I went to Sepang yesterday to see the Formula One Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix. The race was cut short (only 32 laps) due to a heavy downpour. The podium finishers were:

Jenson Button (Britain) Brawn - Mercedes 1h 10m 59.092s
Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber +00:22.700
Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 00:23.500

Felipe Massa's Ferrari only managed 9th place. Sigh :( Anyways, I snapped some pics of a fan there to cheer me up :) Have a look-

I'm OK!

Safety car's out

Malique @ the essentials

Naturally 7

Jay Kay's gig was supported by 2 bands.

I've been a HUGE fan of Jamiroquai since I watched Godzilla and heard the song "Deeper Underground" and when I heard that he's coming to Malaysia, I knew I can't miss this chance to see him live! The rain was still falling but it stopped when Jay Kay started to perform. Cool. I was snapping pictures like mad (at least 500 shots) and the 'Live View' function really helped me to 'rise' above the rest. The shots were taken by me using Canon EOS 450D with EF-S 55-250mm IS glass. ISO was set at 1600.

The man

The songs that he performed on stage were :

Use The Force
Canned Heat
Little L
Love Foolosophy
Cosmic Girl
Traveling Without moving
High Times
Alright
Black Capricorn Day
Space Cowboy
Seven Days In Sunny June

The Kids

Deeper Underground

P/S: I'm pleasantly surprised that my post has been linked from Jamiroquai's official site here: http://www.jamiroquai.com Cool :)

More of Jay Kay's concert pictures at my flickr page!

My Photoshoot

2009-03-30T14:45:00.007+08:00

Finally, a picture of my car. Its a Proton Satria GTi.

Proton Satria, (also called Proton Compact in the UK) is a sporty 3-door hatchback based on the Mitsubishi Colt. Proton gained a lot of valuable engineering knowledge from its takeover of Lotus which ultimately led to a special Lotus badged version of the Satria being produced; the Proton Satria GTi . This was Proton's attempt at the sporty, performance hatchback market. Very popular in Malaysia and has a large following in Australia and the UK.

Here are some of the performance mods:

Mitsubishi Evolution III engine swap
HKS F-CON V ECU
HKS 272 deg camshafts
HKS Slide campulley
HKS titanium valve springs
HKS Super Fire Racing iridium plugs
HKS SSQV sequential BOV
HKS 1.5bar boost meter
HKS full auto turbo timer
Sard fuel regulator
Sard thermostat
Sard magnetic oil sump nut
Tomei 1.5mm metal head gasket
TiAL 38mm wastegate
Brian Crower titanium retainers
Brian Crower +1mm valves (16)
Apexi Power Intake air filter
Bored valve seats
Evo 3 oil cooler
NGK ignition cables
Power Enterprise kevlar timing belt
Blitz Nur Spec 3inch muffler
Custom 3inch exhaust system
Samco intercooler connectors
Thermo Tec thermal wrap
Custom turbo manifold
Custom intercooler
Custom intercooler pipes
HKS Kansai aluminium strut bar
HWL Shocks
Project Mu brake pads
HWL Springs
Mitsubishi Evo III slotted brakes
Mitsubishi Evo III gearbox

More of my Satria GTi HERE

Sunday photoshoot

2009-03-16T12:32:00.005+08:00

I had a chance to snap some photos yesterday. I almost nearly canceled it because it was raining heavily. Luckily the sky cleared up somewhat around 6+pm to reveal beautiful orange rays during sunset. For this photoshoot I invited my friend as the model (the car, that is). Shots were taken on a Canon EOS 450D using Canon's EF 50mm f/1.8 lens. Here are the pictures in HDR glory.

Aqiqah at Bidor, Perak

2009-02-10T10:03:00.004+08:00

My sister in-law held an aqiqah for her baby recently at her hometown in Bidor, Perak. The ceremony was attended by the local village people. It was a pretty hot day but it all ran fine without a hitch.

One of the family members start cooking the old-school way the night before the ceremony.

Mmmmm... Donuts!

2009-01-21T20:58:00.004+08:00

When I was buying groceries after work, I saw this donut place that my office mate told me about. Went into the place and wanted to order 3 donuts but I ended up with 6 donuts instead. In case you're counting the donuts in the picture, there's only 5 there. The 6th donut (Snow White) has been devoured by me :) It's a nice and cosy environment to relax and enjoy the donuts and boy, the donuts tastes real good! Good stuff...

Azlin & Hakim Happily Married on the 17th of January 2009

2009-01-20T01:29:00.003+08:00

Went to Muar Town (also referred as Bandar Maharani) in Johor with 3 of my friends to attend a 'Kenduri Kahwin' of my long time friend, Azlin whom I have known since 1992. The ceremony was very lively with traditional Malay dancers entertaining the event. Azlin and her husband looked very elegant in their traditional Malay dress.

The Malay dancers with their colorful clothes and elaborate jewelries.

After attending our friend's wedding, we went to Tanjung Emas where we took some pictures.

The Sultan Ismail Mosque at Tanjung Agas.

We had some light snacks before heading for our early dinner.

Amy (left) and Miss J (right) posing for a glamour shot at Muar estuary :p

After the photoshoot, we went for 'Murtabak Singapura' located on the other side of Sungai Muar (Muar River), Tanjung Agas.

Amy (left), Miss J (center) and Naz (right) in front of Murtabak Singapura restaurant.

Moments before digging in... Murtabak originated in India or possibly the Middle East. The one we're having was made of minced beef, onion, garlic, lotsa eggs and some other spices.

The cook preparing the Murtabak. Note the ketchup dippings in front of the pan.

New Shoes For My Baby

2009-01-14T09:27:00.006+08:00

It's been long overdue but finally I got to change all my baby's tires last week. I was glad I did so as I found out during the installation, one of the tires was so badly worn out that steel wires were showing!

My previous tires were Dunlop Direzza DZ101s which performed ok. This time around I went for Yokohama S.Drives 205/40/R17. The performance was even better! The ride comfort was better and felt my car attack corners like it was on rails. I haven't tried it in the rain though. So far I've clocked close to 1000km and I'm very satisfied with the performance.

A1GP Sepang, Malaysia

2008-11-24T22:59:00.008+08:00

Malaysia's Fauzy at the sharp last turn of the lap

I got free tickets to watch A1GP last Sunday at Sepang F1 circuit courtesy of my friend, Wan. The weather was surprisingly sunny as it was raining almost daily in the Klang Valley. It was very tricky taking pictures of the cars moving at a very high speed. Some turned out pretty cool with the blurred backgrounds and all.

My home team lost a very easy podium place due to some communication problem. Malaysia's Fauzy dropped from 3rd to 10th place as a result of this. The sad thing is that Fauzy was leading the championship points going to the event. The organizers are investigating the incident. More info here.

Race fans waiting for the support race to start

Brazil on the racing line at the apex of the last corner of the track; China on the outside

A Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano Safety Car controlling the race

Race girls doing nothing of importance ;)

A Viper doing flat out on the start/finish straights. Unfortunately it was a DNF (Did Not Finish)

Cupcakes

2008-11-22T22:39:00.002+08:00

Went out with my sister yesterday and she wanted to try out some cupcakes from a place she found on the internet when she was surfing at her home in Swiss! I typed the address in on my GPS navigation device and it guided us straight to it.

This is from my sister's selection. Looks very yummy indeed!

'Clown-ish' cupcake

For that lovely feeling

Pina Colada. The most unattractive of all but the most delicious

The box

Faridah is back!

2008-11-18T16:36:00.004+08:00

Faridah is back, yay! Her flight safely touched down on the 3rd of November 2008 via Emirates at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Must be very tiring to travel with a toddler :) Her husband will be back soon to join the family for the holidays.

Firdaus shortly after reaching the arrival hall.

On the 16th November, we had a BBQ dinner at our aunt's place in Kelana Jaya. We had hot dogs, lamb, beef, whole potatos, some fish, squids, salad etc. It was an excellent dinner!

BBQ-ing. Brand new BBQ set there.

Danga Bay, Johore Bahru

2008-10-31T17:00:00.000+08:00

As I didn't get the chance to go back to my hometown in Johor during the Raya celebrations (I celebrated in Kuching), I took this long weekend break during Diwali to drive to Johor Bahru. I had the chance to visit a lot of my relatives here. Of course, the stars from the sky guided me in this not so unfamiliar place.... GPS :)

Other than visiting my relatives and do a bit of shopping, I went to Danga Bay to hangout with my friend and do some night photography.

I went to Restoran Singgah Selalu which is located near Istana Bukit Serene with my friend, Hafiz for some supper and drinks.

Some of the rides at Danga Bay. Taken using long exposure on a tripod.

On the return trip back to KL, we stopped by Ayer Hitam to buy some pisang salai (smoked banana slices) and a vase. Ayer Hitam used to be a major route intersection before the opening of North-South Expressway. You could find alot of pottery products, snacks, fruits & vegetables being sold by the locals. It is normally packed with travellers during beginning & end of a holiday.

Various snacks being sold at Ayer Hitam.

Fruits, anyone?

We bought some pineapples with the 'crown' still intact. I'm planning to plant some in my front yard. I'll update later if plant grows.

Lamb Steak Marinade

2008-10-09T11:05:00.006+08:00

On the way to home yesterday, we dropped by Tesco to buy some stuff. As we were shopping, I came across some fresh herbs and thought "Hey, I think I wanna do some BBQ with some home made marinade". I whipped out my Nokia N95, opened Opera Mini and searched for some marinate recipes. The website stated dried herbs but I chose to use fresh ones instead.

Marinade sauce (good for 6 portions):

1/2 cup apple vinegar
1 cup olive oil
1/2 handful fresh oregano
1 handful fresh mint
3 cloves of fresh garlic
1/2 handful fresh thyme
1/2 handful fresh rosemary

Place all of the above into a blender and process it until it emulsifies. Prick and marinate the lamb and store it covered in the refrigerator for 24 hours, turning occasionally. After 24 hours, bring back the meat to room temperature and grill it. Easy.

Fresh mint

Fresh rosemary

Fresh oregano

Fresh thyme

Fresh garlic

End product :)

Pictures were taken by me on my Canon EOS 450D with 50mm prime lens. Aperture was set at f/1.8.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) images

2008-10-08T07:50:00.005+08:00

I mucked around with HDR for yesterday's post. Well, here's the before and after shots of a HDR I did previously of my car. It may look a little comicbook-ish but I love it! The picture was taken when our car club was waiting at a rendezvous point before proceeding to have a late seafood supper quite a distance away. There were about 15 Satria GTis at the rendezvous point.

Surreal. The car at the center looks like it's very thirsty for some 'petroleum based drink'. Loved how the cracks on the white wall at the far end looks. 3 exposures (-2EV, 0EV & +2EV) were used in a software for this HDR image. Don't forget to use a tripod when taking the shots!

Plain shot at normal exposure (0EV).

Reached home on the 2nd October 08

2008-10-07T16:14:00.007+08:00

Been back from Sarawak for a few days now and I had some time to select some good looking pictures and do some HDR shots to post in my blog. I'm still new in this HDR imaging and these are some of the first pictures. Basically HDR imaging is photographing the same scene many times with a wide range of exposure settings (e.g -2EV, 0EV & +2EV) and combining those separate exposures into one HDR image. This will make the dark shadows all the way up to bright lights or reflected highlights properly exposed. If you want to read more, click HERE.

No HDR here. Was going to cross the river heading towards Kuching from Sibu. Stopped at the roadside and took pictures of my GPS navigation device and the bridge itself.

View from our hotel in Sibu. HDR image.

Sibu town. HDR image.

HDR image of a building from Waterfront, Kuching.

Calm before the storm. HDR image.

Waterfront, Kuching. HDR image.

Waiting for the rain perhaps? HDR image.

HDR image.

This picture and the following pictures are shots of 'Sarawak Layered Cake' or Kuih Lapis Sarawak. Looks wonderfully yummy ain't it?

A long drive

2008-09-27T22:03:00.009+08:00

To Sibu. We went to Sibu from Kuching today to visit my father's elder brother, Pak Long. The drive took about 6 hours of 460km non-stop driving with the help of my GPS navigation system. Strangely the drive didn't tire me very much. I guess my mind was absorbed in memories of me when I was a 10 year old kid with my 4 family members travelling in my father's Mitsu Pajero on mostly gravel road from Brunei's Kuala Belait border to Kuching. That was year 1988. Now, the road condition has very much improved (tarmac), travelling in a much refined late model Toyota Prado with me(!) as the driver and with only 1 familiar face from the 1988 trip. It has been 20 years...

One of the low cost hotels in Kuching

View of Sibu town during the day

Sibu town at night

Grilled fish being cooked at one of the Ramadhan bazaar around Sibu

And some grilled calamari

Honey roasted whole chickens mmmm

Some of the grilled foods being sold

I ordered 20 beef & 20 chicken satays

My Pak Long with my father at the background

Some of the food that we bought to break the fast with Pak Long. Chicken with tomato paste, satay, grilled fish & cuttlefish, Briyani rice and some appetizers. We had a wonderful dinner with Pak Long :)

Significant other checking out graduation pictures on the wall after breaking fast. I'm in one of the pictures

Satok

2008-09-26T23:59:00.004+08:00

My father had a meeting today at about 4 and unfortunately ended close to break fast time. We went to a few restaurants to try our luck but all of them are full. I suggested Secret Recipe in Satok. Luckily there is a table for 4 pax and its the only one left.Wheww... We then had carrot cheese cakes and some drinks before having our proper dinner at Saddat's located nearby.

I prefer blueberry cheesecake or apple pie cheesecake but this one is ok

Some of the festive cookies being sold by street vendors of Satok

Also the famous Sarawak Layered Cake or locally known as Kek Lapis Sarawak are available here in Satok

We've arrived Kuching on the 25th!

2008-09-25T23:59:00.006+08:00

Reached Kuching close to midday after an hour plus flight from KL by MAS. Met my father at the airport and later sent me and other half to his home to relax before before picking us up and his wife later to break fast. Went to Grand Continental at Kuching for a 38++ buffet dinner (which is considerably very cheap compared to KL).

Surprisingly the hall is still noticibly empty 30 mins before breaking fast.

Hotel staff standing by a tray Nasi Arab on a grill and what looks like really nice portions of roasted lamb. mmmm

The Nasi Arab and grilled leg of lamb closeup.

Pre-Merdeka Celebrations

2008-08-30T16:37:00.005+08:00

Our club, Satria GTi Club was invited to join the Merdeka countdown on the 30th August 2008. We were also invited to open up a booth to display our convoy equipments and achievements.

Our R&R Head entertaining a visitor to our booth

My car got a special parking in front of the showroom

A Lotus Elise S on display being sold by Proton. Proton owns 63.75% share in Lotus Group International Limited

Fins to smooth out the airflow coming from the very flat undercarriage

A Sikorsky S-61A-4 (Nuri) doing a flyby rehearsal

And followed by other helis from other braches of the armed forces

A closeup of one of the helis

The flight home

2008-08-26T23:59:00.005+08:00

The short break for Faridah and her son is over. She got the flight departed at 10:25am to Singapore for a 1 hour transit before continuing her journey to Zürich flughafen. Zul, Faridah's husband must be delighted to see Faridah and especially Firdaus again as he can now walk on his own!

Getting ready to board the car.

That's a sheep alright hehe

Sadly we have to say Selamat Tinggal or Auf Wiedersehen to her. Hopefully to see her whole family again in Christmas

Had dinner later that night with my wife at Uptown Damansara. I had Kuey Tiow and my wife had some roasted cockels with some sauce and some roasted tofu.

Back to my page

Firdaus having fun

2008-08-21T23:59:00.004+08:00

My sister, Faridah and her son, Firdaus came to Malaysia for a short break last week. I had a chance to bring Firdaus who has started to walk on his own to a playground near my house. Firdaus had a lot of fun today!

The playground is there, Firdaus :)

That looks like fun

Now somebody get me up there, now!

Peek-a-boo!

Its more stable walking like this

Relaxing in front of the TV with Mak Long at the background

Went to Abg Lan's house at about 8pm for some dinner. Hannah being comforted by her father

Teluk Intan, Perak, Malaysia

2008-08-19T10:24:00.004+08:00

Went to Teluk Intan last weekend and took a picture of the Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan. According to Wikipedia, the Leaning Tower was built in 1885 and it started to tilt 4 years later due to an underground stream running under it. The tower was used to store water and supplies it to the surrounding areas. There is also a clock which rings every 15 minutes and ships used the tower as a beacon into Teluk Intan Port. Currently, the tower no longer holds water and it serves as a tourist attraction and reports time to the townfolk of Teluk Intan.

Lake Chini & Teluk Chempedak Trip

2008-08-15T16:07:00.005+08:00

On the 2nd August 2008, my wife and I went to Pahang to attend my brother in-law's engagement ceremony. After the ceremony, we went to Lake Chini and Teluk Chempedak for some sightseeing. The weather was a bit hot but it didn't dampen my urge for some snaps.

An elderly man pondering about something near Lake Chini's jetty.

Some of the toys that were on sale at Teluk Chempedak beach. It's kind of a windmill toy.

Really fiery red flower. It looks like it is going to catch on fire at any moment.

A baby monkey eating a green apple. It's mom is nowhere to be found. Poor little thing.

Office Family Day

2008-07-28T11:46:00.011+08:00

My office organized a wonderful family day on the 26th and 27th July 2008 recently. Held at Port Dickson. Time to hone my skills in picture taking art:)

Office mate pointing to a cargo vessel in the distance

A kid playing poke-a-hole-in-the-sand before he got bored and joined his sister later for a dip.

Da Playa. My mate doing his thing

A vacant hut on a vacant beach

Contrasting flower surrounded by its leaves

Merchant vessels moving off in the distance

The entrance to our apartments. It was nearly dark when I took this picture.

An old trishaw displayed prominently in front of the main stairs

View of the pool at night. Peace & quiet. Quite a different story during the day.

My favorite pic in this series. Taken from the 9th floor using EF-S 55-250mm IS glass. The table could also be seen in the picture below.

View from the 9th floor using EF-S 18-55mm IS glass

Trying out the shutter settings to get the motion blur. Shutter speed at 1/20, EF-S 18-55 IS glass from 9th floor

Great contrasting colors! Chlorine helps here :)

Nice looking flower near the pool

My office mate attempting a backflip before landing in a pool

A girl offering a smile to me

View from a different perspective

2008-07-16T19:37:00.004+08:00

This flower is from a type of weed that grows in our front yard. I normally won't give a second look at this flower and just cut it away. It's weed anyway. I can't find any interesting object to snap today and I just took a snap and it looked beautiful. A view from a different perspective.

Tridax Procumbens

Long and slender stem. How can it support itself? One flower? No leaves? :)

The flower from top view. It's about 1cm across.

Random Pics

2008-07-14T19:51:00.001+08:00

Water droplets on a leaf from a parasite type plant

Cat relaxing on top of my car's roof

Some wild flowers growing from the front yard

An ant looking for sweet nectar on one of the petals

Yummy

2008-07-13T17:01:00.005+08:00

Went out with some of my friends to Taman Tun on Saturday and had lunch with them. I ate Nasi Daging Merah and as I was ordering my drink, I saw this strange looking picture of a drink in the menu. I ordered it and wow, it looked much better than it was in the menu. On top were ice shavings, on the middle was orange fizzy drink mixed together with ice cream soda (i think)and at the bottom were some red jellies/jello. It was thirst quenching in the midday :)

Had these fresh water prawns for lunch today. I experimented with some ingredients; rosemary, Sarawak black pepper cooked in a pan with a little bit of olive oil. It was good :)

To wash down my lunch today, I made myself and my wife ice-blended chocolate drink I learned from my sister when I visited her in Switzerland back in May. Ice blended swiss chocolate drink with a hint of premium coffee and a hint of vanilla, topped off with generous amount of whipped light cream and sprinkled with swiss chocolate powder. Mmmmmmmm...

New Hobby

2008-07-11T16:19:00.005+08:00

Photography.... it is kind of hard to understand at first with the f-numbers, apertures, shutter speed, etc and how they relate to each other. Day by day as I explore my new hobby, I found out that if you want to take great shots you will need 2 essential skills; technical skills to play around with the settings and creativity skills (you can get sharp images technically but if you don't have any creativity the shots will become oh so plain). Well, here's some shots of my roses, close up.

The picture I like the most. I will update as the rose blooms.

Taken in haste. Focus point a bit too near to the camera. Wanted to focus at the center of the rose.

Miniature Roses

2008-06-17T09:08:00.003+08:00

Went to Ikea about two days back. As we were proceeding to the checkout Lyn's eyes caught a glimpse of this particularly quite beautiful miniature red roses. Needless to say, it is now soaking up sun rays from in front of our house.

Waldshut, Germany

2008-05-16T17:49:00.014+08:00

15th May, we went to Waldshut to do some sightseeing and some shopping. Waldshut is a district in the south of Germany. It dates back in the beginning of the 19th century. Aargau kanton of the Schweiz borders it in the south. The main industry of Waldshut is the hydroelectrics which is one of the symbols of its coat of arms. For more info of Waldshut, click here.

Entering the German border, River Rhine below. If you click the picture, you clould clearly see the German flag and the EU flag beside it.

Entering Kaiserstraße.

Kids playing in the pool. A fun thing to do during the Spring.

We ate pizza kebab at Birtat's, a Turkish restaurant at Kaiserstraße.

Restaurant, apotheke (pharmacy), ice-cream parlor, mobile phone shop, electronics store, boutiques, general store and more others can be found in this one street alone!

Faridah looking at aktionspreis (sale price) handbags.

Baby Firdaus looking back at his mom :)

Spring flowers out with a vengeance.

Waiting for a train at Waldshut, the train does not go direct to Brugg, we have to change trains at Turgi. If we miss this one, we have to get the Waldshut-Koblenz-Turgi-Brugg which is a bit of a hassle as we need to change trains twice.

Swissminiatur, Melide

2008-05-13T06:23:00.013+08:00

View of Lugano

Today (12/05/08) we went to the Swissminiatur located at Melide. Melide is a municipality in Lugano district in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is located at the south of Switzerland, very close to the Swiss-Italy border. Down south, they don't speak German anymore, it's Italiano. Italiano is one of the four official language in Switzerland besides deutsch, français and romansh. The buildings and the people are different. It feels like i'm in Italy :)

The train ride from Brugg to Lugano took about 3+ hours. We need to change trains in Zürich, by the way. The train ride was very scenic as we pass the snow capped mountains to left and right of us. The train ascended to about 1200m at one point of the journey and descends to about 300+m before reaching Lugano. From Lugano, we took a 30min ride by boat to Melide where we watch city of Lugano from the lake.

It is so life like.

Even miniatures have flat tires.

All of these are miniatures, really!

In Bern I guess.

Mount Titlis

2008-05-12T04:42:00.009+08:00

On the 10th May 2008, Faridah, Zul, Baby Firdaus, Lyn and myself went to Mount Titlis. It is located in the canton of Obwalden which is about 2 hours journey by train. We took a train from Brugg to Zürich where we switched train to Luzern (or Lucerne in English). We again changed train to Engelberg which is the last stop at 1,015m before proceeding to snow capped top of Mount Titlis using the cable car system. All of us got the Tageskarte which is a day pass to use all of the transportation system under the SBB. It is considerably a lot cheaper than getting a return ticket to Engelberg. The railway system is really efficient here. Rarely we need to wait at the gleis (platform) to switch trains. It is operated by Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (Swiss Federal Railways). By the way, the SBB CFF FFS you see in the picture means German: SBB, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen; French: CFF, Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses; Italian: FFS, Ferrovie federali svizzere (they speak German on the east side of Switzerland, French to the west and Italian to the south).

In Luzern, before getting to another train to Engelberg.

Baby Firdaus, Zul and Faridah posing for a photo :)

The route from Luzern. There are 2 routes, to Engelberg and Interlaken.

Moments before getting our tickets to the cable cars.

Engelberg, at 1015 meters.

The first stop at Trübsee, before continuing to Jochpass and to the peak, Titlis.

The Rotair, the revolving cable car to Titlis. You can get 360° view!

Lyn and Faridah relaxing after throwing snowballs at each other.

View from Titlis

Me at Titlis, 3020 meters above sea level, overlooking Engelberg behind me. The temperature was about -3°C.

Tasty Dinner

2008-05-08T04:34:00.003+08:00

My wife and sister made a wonderful dinner today. It was a bit chilly as the sun was on the other side of the apartment. Once we started having out dinner though, we soon forget the lowering temperature.

Moments before digging in.

I'm salivating just to blog about this picture!

Tastes just like back home.

Sliced potatoes, dried chilies, dried anchovies and the secret weapon, belacan.

Hey!! Where's my baby food?

Trip to Zürich

2008-05-07T00:20:00.004+08:00

We took a train from Brugg to Zürich. The train arrived precisely 11am as expected. It took 24 minutes one way.

Pretty expensive for a train journey that lasts 24 minutes.

Having a lunch break at Bahnhof strasse.

Bahnhof strasse. Heading to the lake

Catching some sun near the lake.

Nokia N95, makro shot. Impressive.

Baby Firdaus feeling a bit shy.

Baby Firdaus with his Pak Long & Maklong. Zürich old buildings at the background.

I can't read German. You'd have to guess what it says.

We found this fountain hidden in between the buildings in Bahnhof strasse.

Views of one of the side streets in Zürich.

Grocery shopping

2008-05-06T00:24:00.004+08:00

around Windisch. It's a sunny day today and according to the weather forecast and my Casio barometer, it will be sunny with 19 degrees Celsius maximum with low possibility of rain. It's a good time to go out to do some grocery shopping and bring baby Firdaus out for some fresh air. First stop, we went to an asian grocery shop to get some tom yam ingredients before heading to Migros to get some vegetables, chocolates for friends and family back home, yoghurts, and other stuff. I was surprised to see durian in the asian shop! Didn't ask the price though. Must've cost an arm an a leg.

The Vindonissa, a roman relic near my sister's house. "Vindonissa was a Roman legion camp at modern Windisch, Switzerland. It was probably established in AD 15. In an expansion around 30, thermal baths were added. The Legio XIII Gemina was stationed at Vindonissa until 44 or 45. With the arrival of the 21st legion (XXI Rapax) the camp was rebuilt with stone fortifications. After the 21st legion had looted the countryside in 69, it was replaced by the 11th legion (XI Claudia) which remained stationed until 101. After this date, Vindonissa was a civilian settlement, with a castle built in the 4th century. The remains of the camp are listed as a heritage site of national significance." - Taken from Wikipedia

My wife and sister bought some clothes in Brugg which is a short walk from Windisch. The clothes were on aktion (sale).

City of Brugg. A quiet city as you can see.

On a bridge overlooking a hill in Brugg.

Flowers start to blossom in spring.

Baby Firdaus, Lyn and Faridah doing some grocery shopping in Migros.

Spring and Winter views in front of Faridah's house.

Time out

2008-05-05T04:32:00.008+08:00

We've been traveling everyday since 1st May and I just want to relax a bit for a day before exploring around in Windisch. The weather was a bit chilly today so we decided to hang out in the sun before having our lunch.

Hanging out at the back of Faridah's house

Had lunch together with Faridah's family. We had homemade lasagna for lunch. It was delicious!

We've arrived London on the 1st May!

2008-05-04T17:08:00.024+08:00

With me having one hell of a jet lag. My wife was ok but I felt like hell. A box of aspirin bought at Ealing Broadway fixed me up... phewww.... We stayed at Hilton Kensington in Holland Park for a total of 2 nights before our flight to Zurich. For dinner we ate nasi goreng bought from MARA place at Paddington. Zul (my brother in-law) and I went there walking thinking it was a short walk. Well, it wasn't. We walked 40 minutes straight. Any faster we'll have to run :) We decided to take a bus on the way back, fortunately.

Anyways, here's some pics

Flying in the airspace over Saudi Arabia, bordering Iraq in a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 747-400. The emptiness of space above and the emptiness of the desert below created this stunning picture.

My sister and wife at Hilton Kensington lobby

Baby Firdaus checking out his present from his Pak Long & Mak Long

Picture of us in front of Buckingham Palace.

We were fortunate enough to witness a first ever change of guards by the 1st Battalion, Royal Malay Regiment (Rejimen Askar Melayu Di Raja). First ever for them and us :)

We took a ride on the open top double decker tour bus around London. It was worth the £20 we paid for online. It includes a free cruise on the River Thames.

Having a coffee break in a restaurant in the all new Terminal 5, Heathrow before continuing our trip to Zürich. From left Zul, Faridah, Firdaus, Lyn and the blogger.

Nothing Beats

2008-04-30T08:36:00.003+08:00

...A freshly brewed coffee in the morning. Last day to pack, hopefully I don't forget the essentials such as my passport, foreign cash etc :) I always hated packing & unpacking. Normally what I do when I reach back home is just to leave my bags on the floor and get the clothes/stuff I need on a day to day basis, much like a closet, only portable heheheh.

Busy Packing

2008-04-28T08:11:00.003+08:00

1st May is fast approaching and we're busy packing. We're having a little bit of problem with the checked baggage. No problem for Malaysia Airlines (Kuala Lumpur-London) as they allow 32kgs for checked baggage. The flight to London-Zurich using British Airways will be a bit of a problem as they only allow up to 23kgs of checked baggage. Our bags are only half full and we're already approaching 20kgs! I think we'll save few kgs left for souvenirs...

An offer I can't refuse

2008-04-21T17:03:00.007+08:00

Casio Pro Trek. Got it for a steal at RM680 last Saturday. I guess the saleswoman was desperate for a sale. Normally this watch retails for more than RM1000. I've been looking around for this watch since December last year but the price keeps me away from buying it. Anyways the some of the 'cool' function for this device are the digital compass, barometer, temperature, altimeter, solar-powered rechargeable battery, etc. For technical details, click here.

The photo were snapped using my Nokia N95, 5 megapixels with Carl Zeiss Optics, macro shot with LED flash. I was a bit too close with the subject so its a bit blurry close to the lens. Maybe I'll blog about N95 after this :) Click the picture to view larger image and observe the picture's sharp details.

Baby Firdaus Laughing

2008-04-18T08:32:00.003+08:00

My sister's baby that I blogged about yesterday. At first he didn't notice I was taking video of him. Watch his face in the end when he finally noticed :) hahaha. Captured using my Nokia N95 in poor lighting. Sorry about the pixellation, I guess VOX downgraded the quality to make the video size smaller.

My first post!

2008-04-17T15:59:00.002+08:00

Well, after constant begging from my wife and sister, I've finally registered and now typing my new 1st post :) My sister has her own blog, "A Journey To Remember". I was very impressed by the content and design considering she's not really an IT savvy person. Bravo to her! Also checkout her baby's blog, "Firdaus und der Schweiz". Such a cute fella.

On 1st May, my wife & I will be visiting her in Switzerland. Quite a distance from my tropical home here in Malaysia. We'll be meeting up with her & her family in London as Malaysia Airlines do not have any more direct flights to Zurich this year. At first I wanted to buy tickets to Frankfurt but my sister advised me to get tickets to Heathrow-London instead. We'll be doing some sightseeing in the city for a few days before continuing our trip to her place in Windisch, Switzerland. Gonna get me & my wife tickets of "The Original London Sightseeing Tour"; 2 quids cheaper to buy online :)