National Sea Life, Birmingham

These pictures were taken during the weekend just past. The weather had been dull the week and a half prior, and it was such a nice change to see blue skies and the sun again - a premium, in this country it seems.

Puan Mama Sarah and YT* have always planned to bring the kids to the National Sea Life Centre again, as the first time they went they were probably to little to appreciate the experience.

The great thing about driving in this country is - the roads are so well sign-posted that even without printing out the maps to our destination and without using GPS we still ended up spot-on.

The National Sea Life Centre was great, if not a tad expensive (money well paid and nominal in perspective I suppose, if to pay for the upkeep of the place). My other complaint is that the only restaurant available did not serve anything remarkable, unless if you consider chips remarkable. (No fish and chips at an aquarium??? come on! I'm sure they have cod in one of the tanks).

Food aside, it was a great experience for Amar and Sarah - especially when they "found" Nemo. Sarah was crying part of the time though - scared of the gigantic crabs and sinuous eels.

The other great thing about the National Sea Life Centre is its location along Birmingham's Canal. The Canal is beautiful - lined with Pubs, Restaurants and water taxi stops. I wished our children were behaved enough that we had the opportunity to taxi around the canal and stop by one of the strategically placed restaurants. Alas, our two small ones were very cranky from missing bed times, wet nappies and brain-over-stimulation.

























*YT = yours truly

One last thing:
As some of you guys probably know, Alynn calls her D50 "Yume" which is a Japanese word meaning "dream". Since purchasing my 400D I have always wanted to give it a Japanese name too and seriously, I've been thinking about that name all this while (it's been many2 months since I purchased the 400D - around 6 months now?). I've finally found a for it:

Arashi

... which is Japanese for "storm". I like the name for many reasons: I like the sound of Arashi. A storm could be both beautiful and devastatingly deadly at the same time. Storms make beautiful photography subjects. It also symbolises the turbulently steep learning curve of mastering the beast that is the 400D - even now I still feel incapable of full control of my Arashi. I also like the the kanji for Arashi, shown above. It has the kanji for Kaze (wind) which is another Japanese word I like.

The full name of the 400D is probably Taka Arashi, and for those in the know, Taka Arashi is a character in VF3 and VF is one of my favourite previous past-times (intentionally cryptic).

Weekend in Solihull, Birmingham

This weekend, Arep & Dina invited us to explore Solihull, in Birmingham. The town is around 30 minutes from where we live and we were all nicely surprised at how pleasant the town was - the layout is tidy, with great shops and also a shopping centre; Touchwood. In fact, the town reminds me a lot of Chester near where Auntie and Uncle De used to live.

Touchwood shopping centre.



Touchwood is great - it all the famous and necessary shops on the ground floor and restaurants on the top floor. It has nice architecture - especially the interiors where each wing would feature a unique theme and design.



We convened with Arep and Dina for lunch at Wagamama. I had the chance to try out Arep's camera and vice versa.

... oh yes, and the food was delicious too.

Amar was pampered Arep & Dina.

Trying out Arep's Canon 350D and new Sigma 10-20mm lens.

Even Puan Mama Sarah had a go (see Dith? She looks like a pro already doesn't she?)

Puan Mama Sarah managed to do some shopping, I offered her a new handbag for as something for herself as I had bought the lens but she didn't take up on the offer (???)



Even Sarah enjoyed herself on the various rides around the city centre.

It's enjoyable to explore other towns nearby - some look remarkably different from Coventry, it's quite refreshing really. Easter is coming up soon and there's a 4 day holiday. Looking forward to going somewhere if the weather looks okay.

I've updated my fotopages as well with some pictures from yesterday. Have a good weekend everyone.

PS
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our Weekend: From Birmingham to Nottingham

I have been extremely busy the past week and weekend, so just a quick update again today - unfortunately pictures & quick captions only this time, readers. Um, sorry for not replying to comments on the previous post guys but I promise I will - but maybe tomorrow or the day after. OK, on with the show:

We woke up from the weekend full of plans.

Sarah was extremely happy at the prospect of meeting her friends again.


Selfridges, The Bullring , Birmingham at Sunset.
This weekend, we had the utmost pleasure of planning a meeting in Birmingham. It was supposed to be a get together between our family, Uncle and Auntie De's family, Rosli & Mama Daniel's family as well as Arep & Dina. The children would have enjoyed chasing each other around the city centre, the women would have enjoyed drinking coffee together and the guys would have enjoyed another photography meet up. Alas, Rosli & family had to cancel and Arep & Dina was stuck in a massive traffic jam (one of the main junctions was closed).

The Bullring, Inside.
The last picture I managed to take inside before I was asked to stop by the security guards. In the UK it seems that in most shopping complexes, pictures are not allowed. Actually, even taking pictures of some buildings are restricted (for example, we were stopped by security guards while taking pictures of the Wales Millennium Centre too). Did you know that you could get into trouble if you photograph things like security cameras, bridges and power grids?

Anyway back to the story, Birmingham was jam packed with people. It was too crowded for our enjoyment to be honest. Especially with push-chairs and many little children to take along.

Beautiful Day.
Despite the gloomy weather forecast (huh!), the day was bright and sunny with blue skies. Don't let the clear day fool you though, it was freezing cold. Winter is coming!


Another lovely weekend travelling and photo-taking.


For lunch we made a stop at one of our favourite restaurants: Wagamama.

Sarah was showing off her mad chopstick skillsz.

Uncle De enjoying his Amai udon with gusto...

...and me enjoying mine.


Puan Mama Sarah ordered fried rice (which tasted almost exactly like Malaysian fried rice)


Heh heh do I have lurvely pictures of Auntie De enjoying her food, but I decided to post this sensible one, right Auntie De? *wink*

Our weekend was far from over after the Birmingham visit on Saturday. After Birmingham we entertained Arep & Dina at home (I finally got to try Arep's 70-200 L lens - wow!) and much later that night we travelled to Nottingham. But that's another story. I'm happiest with this picture from our Nottingham visit:

Radcliff(?) Power plant - these are the (?) cooling towers. Apparently the white clouds emanating from those cone-like grand structures are steam i.e. not pollution, according to our resident engineer; Uncle De. It was fun taking pictures with Rosli again, and thanks Uncle De for driving us here.

Over and Out. See you guys soon.

PS: More high-res pictures on my Picasa Web Albums. Best viewed with Firefox (because of the added functions e.g. slideshow & full screen view).