Before all is lost in my foggy mind, here goes:
It all began when some time last year with an old friend from college announcing that she was getting married. In New Zealand! She mooted the idea of vacationing to New Zealand and while we were there, find time to attend her wedding.
When fellow traveler, Ma Hen, took up the suggestion seriously, my heart jumped. Unlike friends who dream of going to US or UK, I’ve always wanted to step foot on NZ. It must have been the image from childhood of a certain brand of milk that has picture of cows grazing on an open land on its container.
And so, we began to make arrangements. This time, blissfully married Ah Gang wasn’t part of “we”. Another avid travel companion joining us shall be known as AD. The three of us had traveled together previously. We were college mates. And we know each other long enough to know and tolerate each others’ quirks.
We contemplated on when and where to buy the flight ticket. Ma Hen was against the adventurous idea of taking a certain low budget flight to Australia and then a connecting flight to New Zealand. Thus it would be one of those national airlines. After taking into consideration of transit flight, and airfare, MAS got our vote.
Next was when to buy the air ticket. It was either during the MAS fair or the MATTA fair. Based on past experiences – MAS fair have cheaper tickets. We had to wait for the wedding date to be confirmed. If the MAS fair was still on, we would buy tickets during the MAS fair.
Thanks to cyberspace, we got the wedding date as immediate as she fixed it. The race is on. We were on the lookout for adverts in newspaper almost every day. Just to make sure we didn’t miss the short window of MAS fair.
Then on 10th February 2009, instead of meeting and going together to the ticketing counter, we went online and met in a private chat room. We logged on to MAS website, searched for suitable date and booked the flight tickets simultaneously. Thanks to a rectangle plastic card, we successfully purchased our flight tickets online.
Only thing left in the travel checklist was the ground arrangements. Ma Han had already established contacts with family members residing in NZ. Not wanting to trouble them much, we knew we should arrange for tours and sightseeing ourselves. The plan was to hunt for best deals during the MATTA fair together.
However, it was not meant to be. The Sunday that we were suppose to meet, I was diagnosed with chicken pox! Needless to say, Ma Hen and AD went hunting without me.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Nur Kasih
"Nur Kasih" roughly translated as "Glow of Love". For those who are not in Malaysia, it is the drama series that had successfully garnered 3 million viewers (so reported by local newspaper). There are a lot of rave reviews about the drama.
I first caught a glimpse of the drama while attending a function at a cousin’s house. They had the television on but the volume down. I was too far to hear any thing. The cinematography (is it the right term for television drama?) caught my attention. The bits and pieces I saw on that night, made me curious. I wanted to see more.
I think first episode that I watched on television was episode 4. I realized why it caught my eyes. The director made full use of basics photography principles. Rule of third, leading lines, natural framing, and contrasting colours – just to name a few. The location, the background, the lightings, every thing was beautifully composed. At first I only watch the drama because of the beautiful cinematography.
A couple episodes later, I realized that the story line was interesting too. Fully aware I couldn’t commit myself every week, I began to search for the episodes online. At first I could watch them in Youtube via my mobile phone. I was dismayed to find that a certain party had requested the ‘poster’ (is there such word?) to bring down the content from Youtube. I was forced to watch it from the official television website which couldn’t load properly in the mobile phone.
Already hooked on the drama series, I searched high and low for alternatives. I landed on a website. Though the website allows downloading of low resolution copy of the drama, initially I couldn’t download it or view it on my mobile phone. After further online search, I finally found a nifty browser “Skyfire” that enables streaming of the drama. And so, thanks to technology, I was able to watch it when I want, where I want!
Anyway, since there are already a lot of rave reviews about the drama series, there are a few things that need to be improved. In the first episode, the village location was written as Kuala Kangsar, Perak. However, throughout all the episodes, you will see indications that the village is in Selangor (spot “Selangor” behind Adam while he use the public phone in front of his school in episode 4). In other episodes spot the Selangor State flag flying at the village mosque.
The most disturbing and confusing scenes would be the railway station scenes. Most Malaysians would know that they were saying goodbyes at Old KL railway station. A cousin who watch the drama only occasionally, asked, where are they going, they are already in KL!
I understand the director intention to capitalize ‘characteristic’ of the Old KL railway station, but he could have used other station. Ipoh railway station is a good candidate, though I think after the recent upgrading, it lost some of its ‘rustic’ character. Alternatively, he could use one of the small railway stations that still have the ‘small-rural-station’ feel to it. Taiping railway station is one example.
There are other less noticeable and less disturbing ‘bloopers’. Except for the railway station scenes, I could overlook everything else to say this a well crafted drama series!
I first caught a glimpse of the drama while attending a function at a cousin’s house. They had the television on but the volume down. I was too far to hear any thing. The cinematography (is it the right term for television drama?) caught my attention. The bits and pieces I saw on that night, made me curious. I wanted to see more.
I think first episode that I watched on television was episode 4. I realized why it caught my eyes. The director made full use of basics photography principles. Rule of third, leading lines, natural framing, and contrasting colours – just to name a few. The location, the background, the lightings, every thing was beautifully composed. At first I only watch the drama because of the beautiful cinematography.
A couple episodes later, I realized that the story line was interesting too. Fully aware I couldn’t commit myself every week, I began to search for the episodes online. At first I could watch them in Youtube via my mobile phone. I was dismayed to find that a certain party had requested the ‘poster’ (is there such word?) to bring down the content from Youtube. I was forced to watch it from the official television website which couldn’t load properly in the mobile phone.
Already hooked on the drama series, I searched high and low for alternatives. I landed on a website. Though the website allows downloading of low resolution copy of the drama, initially I couldn’t download it or view it on my mobile phone. After further online search, I finally found a nifty browser “Skyfire” that enables streaming of the drama. And so, thanks to technology, I was able to watch it when I want, where I want!
Anyway, since there are already a lot of rave reviews about the drama series, there are a few things that need to be improved. In the first episode, the village location was written as Kuala Kangsar, Perak. However, throughout all the episodes, you will see indications that the village is in Selangor (spot “Selangor” behind Adam while he use the public phone in front of his school in episode 4). In other episodes spot the Selangor State flag flying at the village mosque.
The most disturbing and confusing scenes would be the railway station scenes. Most Malaysians would know that they were saying goodbyes at Old KL railway station. A cousin who watch the drama only occasionally, asked, where are they going, they are already in KL!
I understand the director intention to capitalize ‘characteristic’ of the Old KL railway station, but he could have used other station. Ipoh railway station is a good candidate, though I think after the recent upgrading, it lost some of its ‘rustic’ character. Alternatively, he could use one of the small railway stations that still have the ‘small-rural-station’ feel to it. Taiping railway station is one example.
There are other less noticeable and less disturbing ‘bloopers’. Except for the railway station scenes, I could overlook everything else to say this a well crafted drama series!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Dwindling
Of late, my entries have dwindled down to one entry per month. To make sure that the number do not drop to zero, here's my entry. Not that I don't have things to blog about (I still owe that NZ entry).
I've been busy avoiding snakes in this game of Corporate (snake-and-)Ladder. Along the game, so far, I don't see much ladder to climb. But I've seen lots and lots of snakes. The ones that slither and grip. The ones that spit venom. And the ones that swallow. Just to name a few. So currently, it is my primary mission to avoid the snakes that could bring me down. I really hope I don't back-stabbed anyone (including the snakes), intentionally or not, in playing this game.
Wish me luck!
I've been busy avoiding snakes in this game of Corporate (snake-and-)Ladder. Along the game, so far, I don't see much ladder to climb. But I've seen lots and lots of snakes. The ones that slither and grip. The ones that spit venom. And the ones that swallow. Just to name a few. So currently, it is my primary mission to avoid the snakes that could bring me down. I really hope I don't back-stabbed anyone (including the snakes), intentionally or not, in playing this game.
Wish me luck!
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