Sunday, November 12, 2006

Another solid weekend


I hope everyone's weekend was restful and productive, ours was quite so. The usual for our family is that the morning after I finish an oncall I would bring the whole family for breakfast at a "non-specific" family restaurant. I know it's unhealthy to eat fast food, but my excuse is that we only indulge ourselves once a week or so.

I come to like breakfast in this "non specific" family restaurant since I met Orang-Kilang and Kenakelayan for breakfast at the restaurant in London many years ago. I ordered the "egg muffin" and coffee at that time, and I have liked the egg muffins ever since. Do you guys still remember that breakfast O-K and KKL?

Also, since our family's visit to Paris recently, I have come to like coffee again after not having the craving for around 4 years or more now! Apart from the egg muffins, my favourite for breakfast is the pancakes and maple syrup.
Yum.

After our pleasant and filling breakfast, we parted ways. The ladies PMS and Sarah, went shopping for groceries at a "non specific store" while the boys; Amar and yours truly, ventured to the Coventry Canal again in the hopes of more photographic opportunities.

As usual, Amar fell asleep in his push-chair before long while I busily and happily snapped away.

(ps. That night at around 12 am, Amar shrieked and wailed in his sleep like he's never ever done before. He cried to such an extent that he was sobbing inconsolably afterwards. It certainly freaked out PMS and yours truly to say the least. PMS asked me, "You bawak balik hantu air ke bie?"

Alas, before reaching my destination (the Canal Basin this time) the day started turning dark and it started to drizzle. To make matters worse, Amar woke up and didn't want to stay in his chair. In the end, I had to carry Amar, all the photography gear as well as Amar's push-chair all the way back home.

By the end of the journey, my shirt was wet with sweat despite the cold Autumn day.

It's also a special weekend because we have a visitor - my brother who has just arrived from Malaysia. He's stopping over for several days before he flies to Ireland. Sarah and Amar have both found a brand new source of attention and follow Uncle Azim everywhere he goes.

We brought Azim to the town centre today, specifically; the cathedrals.

(Time for you to skip this paragraph DITH and Anne) This weekend I have discovered several new things about digital photography that have changed my style somewhat. One - I have discovered how to use the histogram (thanks Rosli! and this article). Two - I've discovered what it means by post-production using Photoshop. It's a long story and will likely bore you Dith and Anne (and many others!). So if you're photographically inclined, the article is here. The gist of it is, I have somewhat learned to use the histogram to not blow highlights and then use Photoshop to expose the shadows (told you it's boring and technical).


The results though, are the slightly surreal and strange-looking pictures you could see above, almost HDR-like in quality. Err, I think I'll change the subject to something else less boring ...

Darn it, thanks to the Fotopages meet last week, our family has become slightly addicted to producing these "jump" pictures! Arep and Alynn, I blame you guys for this!!!! No denying though, it is fun to make AND funny to see.



We also learned something about the Whittle Arch today; it turns out that the arches represent the wings of a plane, as a tribute to the creator of the jet engine. Pretty cool.

I have been quite inactive on the blog lately and if I'm honest it's because I have been absolutely glued to the TV watching the US drama series "Heroes". To those of you who have yet to discover this brilliant series (I like it as much as I like Lost and Desperate Housewives), imagine X-Men but in the real world. Anyway, it's a must see - my highest recommendation for this series - watch it!

OK my friends, now that the weekend is over, do have a good week ahead. Later!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yum yum egg muffin. I risau tgk pushchair Amar tu dekat je ngan air hehe

Anonymous said...

great pics especially the buildings. good article on histogram. a bit bz lately. a lot of subjects over there for photographers.

Anonymous said...

hahahaha dh berjangkit dh aksi melompat hahahaha :D told u its super duper fun! best best hehe.
send my regards to nisak, sarah and amar :)
busy sket lately, xsempat nk jenguk ym n tnya khaba.

p.s. managed to get those photos from arep?

pycnogenol said...

I always wonder how people can eat burger ke, egg-muffin ke yang jenis membukit tu??

dith said...

Pycno, they provide these people with a 'jaw jack' to widen their jaw each time similar to a speculum, hehe

Btw Mynn, Nisak looks as tho she's towering over Azim. Is she really that tall?

Anonymous said...

Naja
you know what, i pun risau tengok push chair amar tu. i took the picture quite far from him, and the push chair wasn't braked - so a strong gust of wind possibly could have knocked him into the water.

egg muffin - delicious no?

ikelah
still learning ... and still lots to learn. would love to get longer zoom lenses ..... you are right in a way - even though coventry is not very interesting - there are lots of places in the UK for photography. definitely :)

alynn
haha, the jumping fever is darn infectious! we really embarrassed ourselves. and .. not i haven't gotten the pictures of arep yet - he was working last weekend and was occupied. maybe sometime this week.

pycno & dith
hehehehehehehehe. how i eat them is i either (i) compress the edges so that it would fit or (ii) take the burger apart and eat it layer by layer ...

but to be honest i hate burgers - the taste, the messiness, the lack of nutrients...

dith
you're obsessed with our heights! and yes - she is that tall.

Anonymous said...

lupa nak ingatkan lagi.... go RAW, the PC/notebook processor is far superior than your Al processor. process the 32 bit data from your Al with your PC/notebook to jpeg(8 bit) to get better results. you tak ada adobe pun tak apa, dengan supplied program from canon(nikon gives nikon editor), and kalau you nak free, friendly and genuine simple program, try picasa(tapi tak ada levels).

ok... off to work again. good luck.(FYI i d/l your building and B&W them, nanti I postkan).

Anonymous said...

Nice pics.. hehe funny picture of Sarah in the air.

As for Heroes, been watching every week. Sometimes the story is ok, at times too slow.. of course there are time when there is just too much info that is given to the viewers.

I also highly recommend How I Met Your Mother, a comedy series, though after finding out that one of the favourite character in the show is err bengkok, I feel a little let down and well, disappointed. It makes the story become more of a lie than it usually is.

Jamil said...

Setinggi-tinggi Puan Mama Sarah, tinggi lagi cathedral di belakangnya.

Mama Sarah said...

DITH Hagrid is my bau-bau bacang.

Anonymous said...

abis dahh..lekat dahh lompat style pics ni kat min hihihi

Anonymous said...

ikelah
i came to that realisation too regarding raw, especially that with shooting raw you could get 1 or 2 stops of exposure without loss of detail. have to try experimenting with RAW some more.

OK
dah keluar episode 8 of heroes today. dah tengok? wow man, im digging this more and more! i have how i met your mother, tapi tak tengok lagi.

arep
korang lah ni punya pasal, habis buat gambar lompat jugak! hahaha. kelakar tapi.

hiyoshi & mama sarah
belum tau saiz kasut puan mama sarah lagi tu... hahaha

Mama Sarah said...

ooo kutuk i eh?

Orangkilang said...

I remember the morning we had breakfast at the then being renovated marble arch McD. Hehehe.. that was the morning after me and Hanis went shopping during the sale... I remember it being blooody freaking cold.. brrr... but being macho I only used a sweater going out in that weather. btw blg updt.

Jamil said...

mynn and mama sarah

So this is how normal husband-wife banter looks like :)

(Is it normal to make jokes about the latter's shoe size?)

Yara said...

Shoe size is nothing when compared to blouuse/pants size. That would be a no-no :)

maklang said...

assalamualaikum...


I have been to Coventry b4. sure kenal Dr. Jamal dan Maya. Dengar2 they all dah nak balik Malaysia for good betul ke?

Salam kat Sara...

mynn said...

ok
i remember you wearing just the grey sweater and a scarf tu. haha, rupa2nya rasa pun sejuk.

hiyoshi
you dont want to hear what kind of obscenities real husband and wife banter is like *breaks into laughter*

yara
blouse/pants size is nothing compared to *deleted as PG18* size.

maklang
pernah jumpa tapi tak lah betul2 kenal dr Jamal & kak maya ni. entah2 arep or puan mama sarah kenal. takde apa2 kan kat coventry mak lang?

salam <- sarah jawab.