50mm Fun @ Garden Lifestyle Store and Cafe

Hope that everyone had a great break over the long weekend.

I still have loads of photos to process as I took a short trip up to Bukit Tinggi...

I had some 50mm fun some weeks back when I met up with EV to discuss about the Raya holiday break. I brought my camera and laptop to do our research.

My 50mm which is a prime lens has a very lovely "bokeh" despite having a f-stop of only f/1.8 but it was a steal at RM350 from Canon!

I've been to this cafe previously but never had the chance to try out the desserts. So, this time round, EV and I decided to have a late lunch together with some cakes...

I believe this is the cappuccino mousse cake which was a tad bit dry but quite good. I may be wrong as I can't recall if we ordered tiramisu or the mousse cake.. Hmmm...

The green tea cake was quite good. It came with the red bean paste or azuki bean paste which is slightly sweet to complement the slight bitterness of the green tea flavour.

Before our desserts, we had a small lunch, where I ordered the Black Pepper Chicken Chop which was pretty good. The portion is a bit small for guys but for gals, it is just nice. ;-)

I had some potato craving... (aii.. carbs.. my nemesis) and so, had to order the side-order of potato salad.

I didn't quite like it as it had too much mayonnaise and not enough chives. The various garden greens is a great complement as it took up most of the mayonnaise. EV liked it though.

All of these photos were taken with my 50mm lens. This means that in order to take these photos, I had to maneuver the items as well as my position in order to take the photo. This certainly is teaching me how best to compose my photos.

Anyway, practice makes perfect... My previous post was done with my 50mm lens as well... ;-)

I would recommend those who are starting out with photography to have in your "arsenal" a good prime lens, and the 50mm is a good buy.

I'm still targeting either the 60mm or 100mm macro lens but both lens require significant amount of investment...

Selamat Hari Raya AidilFitri

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri...

To everyone who is traveling these Hari Raya Holidays, have a safe "balik kampung" with your friends and family.

12 Days Old...

The twins have been home for the past 10 days.

They both seem to have settled into the regular routine of eat, sleep, poo, pee, and eat again.

Yep, both parents are having some sleepness nights. ;-)

Anyway, they are not too difficult to care for at this stage as they are not very mobile but just very delicate. So, we have to be a bit more careful when we pick them up as their necks are still a wee bit fragile.

My sister is breastfeeding them and I learned that they will poo more when they take breast milk. However, mother's milk is still the best!

Snoopy and Rusty have gotten used to them, however Rusty is more excited than usual because he thinks both of the small humans can play with him now. I think he will be their best friend in the next few years when they are old enough to run and play with him. Snoopy, on the other hand, is more docile and very protective. She sits near by to watch over them like a security guard.

Charlotte is still feeding on demand as she is the smaller of the two. She, being the big sister is often more calm and collected. She seems pensive but quite cheerful and has the sweetest smiles.

Olivia is just precious. She loves to sleep alot and is somewhat of a joker... We noticed that she makes a lot of "cat-mewing" type noises when she sleeps. Kind of reminds me of my Mom when she sleeps because my Mom tends to "talk" in her sleep. No doubt, Olivia might be the more talkative of the two...

Both are a joy to photograph with my 50mm lens. I'm glad I bought it, though I was targeting the 60mm Macro lens in the 1st place.

No flash photography yet as both are still delicate. Later on, I'll experiment with my flash as I might setup a mini studio to take photos of them when they are older.

Torturous Days Ahead

My blog has been very quiet lately as I've been busy with a couple of things...

• Work
• More Work

The best part is... There has been talk about moving the project up by a three months last week but as of today, what has been just "talk" will become reality, making the project delivery to be completed by January 2010.

What does that mean?

More work...

More stress...

More teamwork... (yeah, right..)

Less appreciation... (for the person who does the most work..)

Thank you...

The Last Day @ Meng Kee, Jalan Tengkat Tongshin

Talk about "The Last Supper"...

Just last week, I went with a group of friends to have brunch at one of KL's old eateries.. Meng Kee @ Jalan Tengkat Tongshin.

This place has been an institution of food in the Bukit Bintang area for a great many years.

It just so happens that the day we all decided to meet up at Meng Kee was to be the last day the shop would be opened at its current location at Jalan Tengkat Tongshin. When the shop finishes its business at around 3pm, it would be closed for good.

However, it won't be closed for long as the stall would relocate to Jalan Alor, which is just behind its current location. The shop would reopen in about 1-2 weeks time.

We chatted with one of the aunties and she mentioned that the stall did not want to pay the exorbitant rentals which has kept increasing year upon year. It seems that the rental of the shop was RM20,000 per month!

Being in a nice location with some pretty interesting decorative architecture, this shoplot would soon be converted into something trendy like some of the restaurants down the road, i.e. Changkat Bukit Bintang.

Now, time for the food... :-)

Yes, we had to have some vegetables... Although it was supposed to be a day of celebration for some of us carnivores but the balanced omnivores wanted some greens/fibre...

The steamed chicken was yummy. I think it was kampung chicken or free-range, as the fat was quite yellow and the meat especially sweet. The farm-reared chicken tends to taste a bit bland, which means that when steamed, the meat is not as sweet.

Meng Kee has some really delicious char siew or honey BBQ pork which just melts in your mouth. The pork is BBQ to perfection where the dark bits are sticky and sweet, without leaving the meat hard and dry. In short, each mouthful tastes succulent and moist!

As usual, there are no photos of my friends pigging out as they are shy to be in front of the camera.

I think I will pay Meng Kee a visit at their new location (near Nova Hotel at Jalan Alor) when they reopen in about a week's time.

Introducing Charlotte & Olivia

Finally... Both of them are here!

My sis safely delivered both Charlotte and Olivia just past 10:30am with both twins a minute apart. She underwent a C-section as her pelvis was too small to deliver both babies.

In my last post, I mentioned that they were identical but turns out that I had the wrong info from my Dad.

They both have their own amniotic sacs, hence making them both fraternal twins. However, time will tell if both of them would look similar or not.

Well.. Here they are...

Charlotte Wong - COW I


Olivia Wong - COW II

They are barely one day old and their father has already given them nicknames...

Anyway, Charlotte looks more like her father, while Olivia looks more like her mom. Seems only fair... Kekeke... I just hope that the kids won't be as bratty as her Mom... Kekeke

Congrats Melina and Dallas!!!!

Update: Countdown to The Arrival of the COWs

Latest Update...

Thank God that both the twins were delivered safely this morning.

Seems that Olivia is bigger than her sister, Charlotte by 0.4kg... I'm not sure about the weight of both girls.

Yes, the twins are identical. I wonder which one will be right-handed, and the other left-handed... As the mirroring of the dexterity happens in identical twins...

Both twins and mother are doing fine.

Countdown to The Arrival of the COWs...

In about 10-12 hours time, we will be expecting the new arrivals of the twins Charlotte and Olivia Wong.

My sister has checked into the hospital at around 10pm last night and my bro-in-law has opted to spend the night there with her. The cesarean operation will take place late in the morning...

STAY TUNED!!

Musical Nights...

I know... I know... I've neglected my blog some what.

Well, between work and recovering from my bouts with the cough, cold, flu (errr... no H1N1...), I've had enough material to blog about for the next 5 posts!! Hehehe...

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending a couple of musical performances with friends and family.

The first one was with my family, to attend the famous Lisbon Chamber Choir concert held in my church in Subang Jaya. The performance was to raise funds for the church building fund. We've already attended the special screening of the movie "Man for All Seasons" previously and this time, with a famous international choir in town, we could not pass up the chance to miss it!

We were entertained by the KL Children's Choir and they sang beautifully for their young age. I especially loved their rendition of "Chan Mali Chan", a traditional song.

There was also some cultural performances by youth from a nearby church too. They danced to the song "We Are One Body", which was pretty good.

Finally, we had the Lisbon Chamber Choir perform some music for us. It is just amazing how the human voice can convey such angelic tunes without any accompaniment of a musical instrument. I was blown away by the range of sounds from the deep baritones to the high pitch sopranos.

We also had a church member to perform that night as well. She came back from the US to sing for us. I can't recall her name, unfortunately, but felt that her voice was suited to classical music. She sang two songs, 1 classical and the other a more contemporary song.

The choir was so fantastic that the crowd held out for encores and the choir performed a few more songs which included a song in Chinese. I definitely enjoyed myself that night.



Then, a couple of weeks later, I joined a group of friends to attend a Jazz performance at the Dewan Philharmonik Petronas KLCC. My friends had always suggested that we attend a concert together and after looking at the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra season, we found out that Jazz band from New Orleans would be in town.

Being a lover of Jazz, especially being a great fan of Louis Armstrong, we could not miss this performance from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band or PHJB.



Although we sat right at the back of the hall, the acoustics was so fantastic that we could hear every single note clearly. The music was so lively, you could not help but to dance in your seat. We tapped our feet, clapped our hands, whistled and howled when the music got going.



The best part of it all, my friends and I joined in the Second Line for the last song of the night, the evergreen classic, "When The Saints Come Marching In". We ended up being on the stage of the hall, dancing away until the band left the hall to end the performance for the night.

It was AWESOME!!!

It certainly has fueled my determination to visit New Orleans in the future. To visit the historic French Quarter, Bourbon Street and yes... Even to go down to see PHJB again.

P/S: The videos posted of PHJB showcased some of the songs I heard that night.