New glasses

The whole gang is at Mid-Valley today and there is a very specific reason why. Someone is going to get a new pair of glasses. When I was young, I needed to change mine every year as I keep complaining that everything gets blurry very fast. Nowadays, I do not have to worry about this because now, everything is so far away.

I am not sure why we always ended up at this
shop but here we are. As usual, Kristine is up to
her tricks and starts to play with the things there

And also, with that special mirror on the counter,
you can start to read her mind...

In the end, it was Mommy who needs a new pair of glasses since her current one is giving her problems. There were more things in store for the girls when the Sales Staff needed to test Mommy's eyes...

But before that, there was a bit of a bad news
as when Kristine's eyes were tested, the staff
discovered that she'll be needing glasses soon

Now, its Mommy's turn

The sales staff was very patient as she explained
each step to the girls.

After a few minutes, it is really Mommy's turn

Tracking the eyeball...

And bingo! Almost like a video arcade game... *ahem*

After that, it was time for dinner, which we went to 'The Chicken Rice' shop, which is slowly becoming Kristine's favourite right after MacDonalds. But for us, we're not too keen on this place as its very very expensive. Bu then again, if you were to total this up outside an actual Chicken rice shop, the price would be more or less, cheaper. But I am not too sure about the prices if you were to eat there alone.

I forgot why I ordered this but well, it was so-so

The funny thing was they will give your a point
card which you can stamp whenever you eat there.
The funny part was, we keep forgetting to bring
the card and so, we had to walk past the place all
the time, much to Kristine's dismay. Ha ha ha ha!

Kristine's Writing 'Board'

This is a new one for me. Apparently, Kristine's class practices their Chinese writing on this piece of flexible white board. However, after some time, the flexible white board became, um... to flexible and is increasingly creasing. This not only made the whole board dirty but just the notion of using it is very unwelcoming.

And so, we, as parents were given the task to find a replacement board. "You can find it in any bookstore." was the only helpful hint we got from her teacher. So, for the next few days and over the weekend, we went to any bookshop to look for the elusive board. However, as fate would have it, we could not find any bookshop that carries this product. So, in the end, even after looking at some bookshops, we had to give up since Popular does not even have it at all.

This is Krsitine's flexible writing whiteboard.
Yes, it is in a very bad condition. Then again,
it is understandable because it was sandwiched
between books in her school bag.

Even the other side was just as bad.

Feeling a little bit desperate, I hit on a backup
plan, which is to scan the original white board,
clean it up a little, then reprint it and had it
laminated.

And so, more or less, it worked but because of
the laminating film's non glossy properties, its
not that easy to wipe the whiteboard marker's
ink off.

Kristine accepted it but I am not sure if she is
using it as it looked very different compared to
the original thing.

26062011 Bangsar Pasar Malam

When I was younger, without fail, I would go to Pasar Malam as often as I can. This was because at that time, there were no big shopping complexes such as 1-Utama, The Curve, Mid-Valley, etc. All we had was Sungei Wang, Kimisawa (yes, you're guessing my age now) and they're all too far away for me. Heck, at that time, taking the bus was not even an option.

And so, my only salvation was the weekly Night Markets or Pasar Malam, as it is more commonly known. Think of it as the equivalent of modern traveling nomads coming to your urban village bringing new wares and toys from their travels. And with it, I get the latest songs, toys and even videotapes (yes, that is how old I am). As I got older, and as I get the opportunity to travel outstation to other states, I would always try my luck to spot and enter into a Pasar Malam before I return back home.

However, with the changing times, the Pasar Malam is no longer what it was. The Bangsar one, that it. sure, I still see some of the same vendors, albeit a little bit older. But the wares nowadays are nothing to shout at. I won't blame it entirely on the new shopping malls but in an era where Information can be gotten at the click of the mouse, the Pasar Malam is fast losing its attraction or, charm in my terms.

You want the freshest fruits? Go to Hypermarkets.
Food? Hypermarkets.
Clothes? Shopping Malls.
Toys? eBay, Amcorp Mall and yes, other shopping malls.

So, where does this leave the Pasar Malam? What role can it still achieve? Apart from haggling housewives, sweating families, and newly married brides, who else still go there?

Anyway, here are some night shots I tried with the Nokia n8.

25062011 going to Amcorp Mall

I went down to Amcorp Mall to have a look at how the Hotz Toy shop is getting along. They were set up by SFTPMS member Silver and his friend, Loke. Hotz Toy deals not only the current toys but also, if you're lucky, toys from the past or, toys which you have 'missed' when they came to Malaysia.

OK, so that sounds more like second hand toys to you, right? But trust me, second hand or no, when then chance to relive or complete part of your lost childhood is in your hands, you will never say no. (Try not to imagine holding a Barbie doll if you're a guy, OK?). Also, once you get to know these guys better, do not be surprised to see grown ups buying vintage toys for thousands of dollars.

At the moment, the shop is not ready yet. They
have just taken over this permanent lot and the
best thing is, you do not have to wait for the AMC
weekend bazaar to have a look at the toys.

Alas, the trip was marred by those annoying
people with spray cans which I have encountered
before in the open carpark near Sogo years ago.

So, I got pissed off and pretended to call the
'Police' on my mobile phone. Once they
'heard' my conversation, they
really legged it. Dumbass.

26062011 Bored at The School

As usual, while Kristine is attending her Martial Arts class, the three of us were left with to our own devices. Unfortunately, the devices at that time were nothing else than your normal everyday writing utensils and sheets of pulped and bleached fibre. Wife on the other hand, had a Toshiba Notebook instead.

Sometimes, it is a wonderful experience to look at
a child's drawing as their minds are still 'fresh' and
uncluttered.

But at the end of the day, the only thing
everyone ends up doing is asking, "What
is that?"

25062011 Trip to The Curve

Nothing much to do today, except to bring the girls to a bookshop as they needed some new stationeries. And so, the best place to go was Popular Bookstore. Since its a Sunday, we decided to try the one at The Curve...

One of the things I liked was these new range of
Diaries. The size is quite nice, almost like those
of Moleskin's.

But what really made the book worth it was the cover
material. Its so unique. But for the price, its expensive.

Oho... a smaller book and this
one looks very familiar....

Different bins for different things.
But to all Malaysians; "Thank
Goodness there are two other
bins. Which stupid idiot designed
such small bins?"

Since we're already 'out', the next logical place for lunch would be within the vicinity of The Curve. And so, we, once again, settled at Madam Kwan's, which is not only the most convenient spot but also, starting to be our more common restaurant of choice.

Alas, Madam Kwan's has deteriorated.
Just look at the quality of the seats.

Still, we made great effort to just concentrate
on what we came for. Food.

This is a first sign. A sign of what, I am not sure
because my mind was still on the seats.

Still, the food came and everyone was more or
less, enjoying their food. Then again, everyone
was hungry after traipsing about in the bookstore

Man, this Fried Rice looks delicious

Which is more that what Kaelynn can eat since
both girls have violent allergic reactions to hot
stuff (read: chilies). But my mind is still on those
damn seats, which is convincing me to try the
restaurant across Madam Kwan's in the future...

Afterwards, it was off to Tesco which, by amazing
coincidence, was located above Madam Kwan's.
Here, you can see how Spongebob has turned
violent, starting with Nerf Knock-offs.

I really hate it when my mind is stuck on something
which has no relevance. Such as what would happen
if I jumped onto those worn seats at Madam Kwan's.
Yep, stuff like these (left) might jump out of
the broken seat covers...

The Little Girl and the Kittens

This little girl came back one day with a lot of kittens. How she managed to wrangle this from the owner, was classic. Needless to say, the owner did not have a choice but to relent unless she wants to be seen as the bad person.

Yes, although she is happy, but for us parents,
this is not a very good thing as we have a lot of
explaining to do...

This is Shameful...

Man, this is so funny...

Hello, can you read me?

I am so used to typing on keyboards that when I need to write something on paper, there is always the problem of its readability. I am a little bit concerned when it affects other people because this means I cannot get my message across. But lately, I am even more alarmed when I myself could not even read my own handwriting. That's how bad the situation has become.

I am so used to just typing everything, when it comes to writing even the simplest of sentences, it is quite a chore. And yes, it also turns me into lazy mode in just a few words. When I was young, I loved to write, not because of anything but the idea of writing words as small as possible using a ballpoint pen with the finest tip was very appealing to me.

The funny side of all this, although most people still cannot read my own writing, I can, most of the time, read those that cannot be read.

As a test, I decided to get the scanner's OCR to

scan and process my handwriting. The result is
so sad....

The Range Rover Evoque

I was on the way to visiting a customer when I passed by the Kenanga International Building. What caught my eye was this display of the new Land Rover Evoque. Its a very imaginative way of displaying a new model without having to show the whole thing.

The outline of the model would create a sense of curiosity for those who really wants to see the model when it really comes out. Either that or they do not have the car yet.

Anyway, which brings me to another topic: Movie Trailers.

When there is a new movie coming out, you would soon know about it because of the trailers popping up all over the media. However, in Malaysia. its irritating because the same trailer pops up every commercial break. Its as if they think that by doing this, people would flock to the cinemas and trampling the Pirates at the same time. Right, yeah.

I have not been watching TV for years now, and if there is a new movie, I try not to watch the trailers since they would make or break the movie, in my case. There is an unofficial rule of thumb here, which, to me is an indication when a movie would suck when the trailer has 'too much' exploding or fighting scenes. And if there are multiple trailers but with one or two repeating scene, deep in your heart, you'd know it. For all you know, these could be the best scenes in the movie. Gone were the time where trailers were specially made to keep you interested for weeks at a time. Nowadays, everyone expects the trailers to lift scenes from the movie instead.

Yep, sucks doesn't. And sometimes, a trailer is so 'revealing' you'd know how the whole movie ends without ever having to go to the cinema. Notice how I did not talk much about the car but moved on to another topic? Yep, because apart from the display, there were no other source of information on hand. And if I were to use my memory, like any other passerby, by the time I reached to a place where there is Internet, I would have already forgotten what it was all about in the first place.

This is the new Land Rover Evoque on display. For
those who are not familiar with this concept, this is
the wireframe version for people who wants to be
noticed.

And this is how the wireframes were highlighted.
Blue LEDs from the ground.

I don't know about you but I don't think this
skeleton version is going to sell well...

MAKNA

What's a few sens, you ask? To some, its just spare change from recent purchases. To others, its just coins. But to a select few, especially MAKNA, it could mean a difference. True or not, with so much news about charities, its up to you to decide. I was given this by one of my customers. Its a paper coin box which you fold it yourself. Once it is full, you can hand over it to one of the Maybank counters.

I usually give it 20 sens from the change I get
for every toll that I pay. At the end of the two
months, it was full. Wow.

What I was not amused was when I handed in my first MAKNA box to a Maybank counter in Menara Genting, the staff looked lost as if he does not know what to do with it, even after I told him what it was for. Does this mean Maybank is just doing lip-service when it comes to charities? The staff showed he knows a lot about the banks procedures. Except this just one; the MAKNA paper coin box. I was not even given another one but had to make the trip to see my customer just to ask if she had anymore MAKNA boxes.