Bubbles...

It has been nearly a month since I've started my journey into photography with my DSLR.

Well, I've just done a bit of comparison between my Nikon 5900 and the DSLR. Now, it's an unfair comparison since the DSLR can do a little bit more than a little point-n-shoot. However, my little 'old PnS was one level below the pro-sumer range of Nikon cameras some years back. ;-)

Macro shot of some bubbles...

Another shot of the bubbles...

Both pictures have been taken at a slightly different angle and from the colours, I've adjusted the white-balance of the photo before I took the shot.

Can you guess which one was taken with the DSLR and which one with the Nikon 5900? (^___^)

You can try to enquire the EXIF data but I believe that has been wiped off when I edited the photo to put in my usual "trademarks".

Anyway, another question; which one do you like more? :-P

Fish Food... Comfort Food...

The Raya break is coming to an end... *sigh*

wished that I could have taken a longer break to recuperate back home. I'm wondering if I should take advantage of the next holiday towards the end of this month to take a long break.

Anyway, it has been 3 months since I last fed the fishes and this time, EV decided that she was brave enough to go try the Fish Spa treatment... Provided, I would be there to help distribute the "feed".

EV found a nice fish spa called Garrafura Fish Spa in Bangsar @ Jalan Telawi, just next to the Al-Radjh Bank. She read about it in the papers and told me that the fish there were slightly different from the ones at Kenko Fish Spa. Hmmmm...

Well, since we had the time and wanted to try something different than hang out at the shopping mall; we went to Bangsar. Besides, I DID promise her that I would go try out the fish spa some moons back. I happened to break my promise when I joined a group of colleagues after a farewell gathering at Pavillion.

I brought my camera along to document the expression on EV's face the moment when she feels the first bite... **MUAHAHAHAHAA**

Our feet after EV has gotten used to the ticklish nibbling of the fish

To my surprise, EV felt right at home here!! She did not squirm or tried to kill me when more fish started to nibble at her feet. Then... I remembered, EV is quite immune to tickles... *sigh*

The fish here are a bit more gentle since it was the smaller variety and although a lot of fish were at my feet, it felt pretty relaxing. It kind of reminds me of having a foot massage with tiny massagers all around my feet. The difference is that fish are eating your dead skin cells.

There are two ponds at this place and I suspected that the smaller pond had a different species or larger fish.

Lovely deco..

Wash your feet before and after the spa treatment!

The deco here is soothing and the spa played some relaxing oldies from The Carpenters. I found myself humming or singing to the song "Top of the World" to keep myself from giggling too much.

My last blog entry didn't have a good shot of the fish as I went to the spa at night. This time round, I managed to get a good close-up of the tiny workers who were so busy at my feet!

Whoa, now that is a big fish!

The fishes are getting very personal with me...

After a while, EV was curious with the fishes at the other pond. I suggested to her that if she wants to have a more intense sensation, she should try the other pond.

EV videos the fishes in action

She was quite scared at first because the fishes at the other pond were bigger!! The nibbling sensation was stronger as bigger fish had bigger teeth after all.

I couldn't see the fish very well as the pool used darker stones but I noticed that the fish were dark brown/green - indicating a different variety? For my second time, this experience was certainly a tame one. I think I might want to try Kenko again just so that I can try the bigger fish there! :-)

We used up our 30 minutes and I asked EV how she felt. She said, "It's normal-la!". I asked her if she felt that her feet was lighter or smoother or whiter... She said she felt it was normal. Later that night, I got an SMS from her that she felt that the skin on her feet was really smooth and soft! Wow, so our RM38 was really worth it after all!

We walked back to Bangsar Village to see if there was any place to have some tid bits when EV noticed signs about the newly opened Theobroma Chocolate Lounge. Being a confirmed chocoholic, she said she must try the chocs there.

I ordered an ice-blended drink - Snow White Frappe while EV had some tea. Since she was hungry, she had a quiche first.

The frappe had a very strong milk taste and was not all too creamy. It did have a hint of white chocolate which I love and the dark chocolate shavings balanced out the sweetness of the drink.

For dessert, EV ordered the Ice Cream Crepe with Caramel and it looked amazing!

Reminds me of a Paper Thosai

Oozing Milk chocolate sauce... Slurp!!

I was glad that we didn't order the fondue or Mud Pie as the crepe was quite large. Within the crepe, there were chopped nuts and sultanas. Quite a nice treat but when you're at the Chocolate lounge, shouldn't we go for dessert with more chocolate?

I think I will be returning to the Lounge soon with some other chocoholics.

Sigh.. When is the next long weekend again?

What I Did During Raya - KL Butterfly Park

It has been a long time since we had some holidays and so, I took the opportunity to go to some of the sights around KL. Actually, I was cajoled by EV as she complained that she was bored with the usual activities of going to shopping malls or just jalan-jalan to cari makan.

I decided to bring her to the sights around the National Mosque or Bukit Aman to visit the Butterfly and Bird Parks. She didn't know the area and so, I asked her to drive. Hehehe...

Anyway, going to the parks would give me an opportunity to practice my photography skills. I wished I got the DSLR first but then, skills are more important. Without the skills, any photos taken even with the best camera can turn out to be crap.

EV needed to be fed and so, on such a rare occassion where she didn't needed to feast on blood, we went to the local Mackers (McDonald's) for some brekky...

I like to sprinkle lots of pepper on my eggs. No salt, it is salty enough.

Mackers didn't have any strawberry jam but they had grape jelly; which tasted sweet with a hint of artificial grape flavouring... Might as well have used sugar on those muffins.

We made our way to KL and EV realized that the park was quite near her office! When we got down, I decided to test my camera settings first since the sky is a bit overcast with enough sunlight that morning.

The view of the city from Bukit Aman. You can see two landmarks - KL Tower and KLCC. Hidden behind the tree is the large flagpole at Merdeka Square.

As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, 4 other cars loaded with passengers went to visit the park as well. It was the school holidays and so, many families brought their kids to visit these places.

I started snapping away as soon as I got there. I've decided to post the following photos which I deemed were the best of the lot.

Paku Pakis Unfurls

Hanging orchids - I had to wait until the wind died down so that I can take this shot of the orchids hanging from an arch.

This was my second dragonfly shot for the day. The first one was quite blurry. EV was trying to hurry me to take a look at some yellow-coloured butterfly. I'm glad I ignored her.

I also managed to take a few good butterfly shots too. Of course, it would have been better if I had a DSLR with zoom lens but my little compact camera did well too.

We spent a long time at the park as I wanted to take some photos with varying degrees of light. I converted this photo using some photo-editing software. It's quite hard to find a good black and white shot while at the park.

The park costs RM8 per entry for Malaysians with an additional RM1 for your camera. I found it weird that the park should charge people for bringing their camera. Hmmmm.. Probably a policy they had since it first opened.

Needless to say, it was a good learning experience. I didn't manage to learn a single butterfly name but I learned to take some good shots. :-)

Weekend Makan-Makan

I spent last Saturday going around town trying to find some stuff to eat. I've not participated in such an activity for a very long time now. (^__^)

After trying to look for the Little Dim Sum Place around Sri Hartamas (apparently it has closed down or moved out), I ended up at Jarrod and Rawlins for a very late lunch, i.e. 3pm.

I fooled around with EV's mobile phone camera since it was one of those Cybershot ones. She didn't quite understand how to take macro shots and so, I decided to give her a few pointers.

I like this photo because of the sugar packets had that unique design. Kind of reminds me of the Wonder Bread plastic bag design... All retro-like.

I was captivated with the different kinds of wine served at the restaurant. It kind of reminded me to also check my home's stockpile. Hmmmm... Well, Christmas is about 2 months away...

Due to my diet, I've basically sworn off coffee and because I was still quite sleepy, and so decided to order a latte. This cuppa really had the balance of milk and coffee - just the way I like it. :-)

When it came to food, I couldn't decide if I wanted bangers (sausages) or a sandwich. In the end, I opted for the Black Pepper Steak pie which came with some mash (mashed potatoes) and some condiments - Brown Gravy with Onion and Yellow Mustard.

Not to worry, EV balanced out the meal by ordering an Avocado Mango Salad. The picture was too blurry to post since I was using my PDA phone camera.

Now, after all that food, we just had to walk it off. We walked a bit around Sri Hartamas and noticed that quite a lot of Korean restaurants have moved in the neighbourhood. Well, it has been nearly 4 years since I last worked there. Anyway, I'm curious about some of the Korean restaurants there and would certainly return there to try it out next time.

EV said that she needed to get some stuff from IKEA and off we went to The Curve/Ikano. I was a bit apprehensive as it was the weekend before Raya and so, we'll definitely meet a lot of shoppers there. We did our shopping - me, buying stuff for the dogs and she, buying stuff for her Dad's condos.

I even managed to sneak a peek at my prospective camera - Canon 450D... I drooled all over it. (So much so that when I returned to the shop yesterday, the salesman remembered me....)

After all that walking around; we decided to give the new US franchise Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Since it was still Ramadhan, we had to wait - for about 1 hour!!! We were both not hungry and decided to hang out at The Curve while waiting for the call from the restaurant. In case you can't recall, this restaurant is setup after the movie Forrest Gump which won some Academy Awards way back in the mid 90's...

This restaurant has a unique way to get the attention of the waiters. Here is how it goes...

There are two "license" plates placed on the table where, one is Blue with the words "Run Forrest Run"...

This license plates indicates that you still require service from the waiters, who will pop by to ask if you require anything - food, drink, napkin... Forrest Gump related trivia...

And, the second plate, is Red in colour with the words "Stop Forrest Stop"...

This license plate indicates to the waiter that you wish to stop eating/drinking and would like to get the bill.

Certainly quite unique and we both tried it. It was a busy night and the room was dark; hence the waiter didn't quite notice when we put up the "Stop" sign...

What did we order? Since we were both full, we decided to go for an appetizer and salad... (Yes, I'm trying to eat healthy... sheesh!!)

Tossed Chicken Cobb - RM 24.90

The salad was pretty ok, though both EV and I would have loved to eat more avocado... The vinaigrette dressing was quite sharp and tangy - perfect with the creamy avocado.

Cajun Shrimp - RM20.90

The cajun shrimp came in a dish with cajun spices in melted butter. This tended to be a quite salty dish because of the butter and spices. The lemon does cut the salt and it went well with the garlic bread. Though, I thought the garlic bread should have had more garlic on it.

The portions served at Bubba Gump is quite large and can be shared with a few folks. There are quite a number of good deals to be shared such as Shrimpers Heaven, where the shrimp served are cooked in a variety of ways - deep fried, deep fried in tempura batter or coconut...

For those who love shrimp or prawns as we call it here in Malaysia, go ahead and try out Bubba Gump; no matter how "franchisy" this restaurant is.

*Whew*!!!! After all that eating, I certainly feel guilty and would be hitting the gym after I've rested my sore knee. I'd guess the key to all this is to eat in moderation and certainly, quantity sometimes does not equal quality. ;-)

Morning Views

I took these photos some time back but never found the time to do my post-processing and of course, putting up in the blog. ;-)

Anyway, it's scenes from the early morning when the sun was just rising from it's rest.

Snoopy can barely keep her eyes open.

She spent half the night up barking at some noise that some creatures made on the roof... Possibly rats, squirrels or cats??

I love the way the leaves of the tree in the garden cast a shadow on the wall.

Rusty taking the time to smell the grass. "Did something pass by here?"

Finally, miss Snoopy was able to drag her butt off the couch to go sit in the porch, waiting for the sun to rise fully so that she can do her "sun-worshiping", i.e. morning sun bathe

Morning dew...

Found that there was a small ladybird perched in the lily.

Fly meets ladybird

I got as close as possible to the stamen of the lily to take a shot of the ladybird...

The pictures aren't so great but I was learning to take some shots in a slightly low-light condition. Just have to take a deep breath, keep very still and then, take the picture - hope for the best!

Note that these pictures were taken with a digital camera and I've not gotten to the DSLR level yet! :-)

So much to learn....

Artery Clogging Dinner... Yeah!! It's REALLY That Good!!

OK OK.. For the last couple of posts, I've been putting up pictures of sinful food. I can't help myself.. LOL...

I just can't help myself...

Anyway, my Nikon 5900 is starting to act "funky". I've been messing a lot with the focus mechanism so much so that it doesn't focus the shot properly now.. :-(

I came back home from another grueling day at work. It is grueling when your boss sends you mixed signals about work. It's soooo frustrating but I'll rant about that another day... Or maybe, not at all!!

My aunt, i.e. my mom's brother's wife from Perth who recently came down from Perth bearing meaty gifts. The lovely pork bacon and now, the seriously delicious scotch fillet beef (a.k.a. rib eye) were from here. My mom had a reminder SMS from her to cook the beef and so, she decided to grill it for us.

Grilling is so much easier now that we got ourselves the grill pan from my mom's last trip to Thailand. We grill fish and meat on it and it has that nice BBQ grill marks without the hassle of the messy BBQ.

I'm a carnivore... It's in my birth signs.. i.e. DRAGON + LION = Ultimate Carnivore. (^____^)

So, I told my mom that I would like my meat... ahem... MEDIUM WELL. Yes, that means... a bit of blood still left in the meat. This means that my meat will be really tender when it's cooked.

Me: Is it done yet? I like my meat medium well.. *slurp*
Mom: No.. not done yet, I just put it on the grill. It'll need about 5-10 minutes to cook.

Me: Wahhh.. So long. I don't want well done-le. It'll be like eating stone. Besides, well done meat is hard for me to digest.
Mom: Don't want to eat blood-le... Eeeee...

Me: Hehehe... 5 minutes on each side enough or not?
Mom: Nooo.... LONGER!!!

Chinese food is rarely eaten raw or semi-raw. We just have this aversion to seeing a lot of blood in our dishes... I may be wrong but this is the impression I get from the older generation.

For some of us who are lucky enough to explore the many types of food out there, we may like raw food like sashimi or the Italian style carpaccio (raw beef), we would certainly relish the freshness of the meat eating raw or semi-raw.

My bro-in-law commented that in places like Canada, they prefer to eat their beef either Rare or Medium-Well as they find that if the meat is well-done, the beef is just too difficult to digest and cause you to feel very bloated after a meal. I do agree with him after seeing a friend struggle with a Porterhouse steak which was 21ounces in weight!!!

After learning to eat my meat cooked at Medium Well, I find that I don't get that bloated feeling after a good steak meal. Of course, eating meat cooked at Medium Well means that you're running the risk of getting worms or food poisoning.. ewww.. However, if the outside of the meat is cooked well, you shouldn't have such issues. :-)

Anyway, here's a parting shot of the meat after I cut it with a semi-blunt knife.. Notice that I've used the word "semi" several times here? LOL!!!!!

OK.. Aside from the red meat, I had my portion of vegetables, i.e. double the portion of the meat serving. So, it's a healthy meal after all.. I'd guess?? (^____^)

Artery Clogging Breakfast... It's Just That Good!!!

There are days when I just throw caution to the wind and fix myself a real yummy breakfast.


Did I wallow in guilt after that? Well...... Slightly.

We have one short life to live and so, it's not too bad if we just treat ourselves to a little guilty pleasure....

So, what accompanied my yummy crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, grilled tomatoes and toast? A nice big cup of coffee. (^________^)

Here's a tip about fixing up the perfect scrambled eggs. Cook your eggs under a low fire and keep stirring the eggs with a wooden spoon. If you like your eggs runny, you don't have to cook it for long.

Yes, it's all bad for ya, but when you've got some Aussie bacon (it's made of pork, not beef), you just can't resist it!! It brings back alot of fond memories when I was studying in Melbourne, fixing breakfast with my mates after staying up half the night studying or hanging out.

LOL!! OK OK.. I'll promise I'll hit the gym.... Sheeeshhh....

Photos from My New Toy

I just managed to upload some photos from my "new" toy (I've had it for nearly 3 weeks now) but I've yet to reveal what my "new" toy is... (^____^)

So, to whet your appetite, I've put up some photos taken by my new toy. The quality isn't great as it's just a 3MP and I'm basically relying on software rather than equipment for my shots. I'm not used to it yet and so, most of my shots are still very jerky and unclear.

Anyway, I heard that there's a seminar or something to encourage more female photographers to pick up photography as a hobby? Can someone care to enlighten me on this?

Will be looking forward to National Geographic's series on The Genius Of Photography airing every Saturday for 6 weeks (yea!). Anyone interested in this hobby should watch it.

Have a great weekend folks!!