Busy Sunday - Trip to the KL Bird Park

It has been a busy and exciting Sunday. My son and I had breakfast at Petaling Street and I brought my camera along. There was a fire at the former Rex Cinema in Jalan Sultan and the fire and rescue department came to put out the fire. Photos and the story of the incident is coming soon.

After breakfast, we went over to the KL Bird Park. It has been some time since we went there. Since I got my camera, I decided to snap some shots of the birds there. The last time I was there I have not bought my current D70s. So it was timely to test out the camera.

Here are some shots of the trip.

Darren's journey to the Optician

Last Monday, my son Darren approached me and said "Papa, are you free on Sunday?". I said yes and asked him the reason for asking me. He said that he could not see clearly the writing on the white board in his class and requested me to bring him to the Optician to have a check on his eyes.

On Saturday I brought him to an optical shop at Leisure Mall, the same shop where I did my glass to have his eyes checked. I requested the shop assistant to check Darren's sight to see whether he is short sighted. The machine came out with a reading that he was short sighted on both his eye. The level of short sightedness was minimal and he could afford not to wear corrective glasses at the moment. Darren said that he wanted to get a pair of glasses to give him the comfort when he is attending his classes. So I agreed to make him a pair of glasses.

Since the machine reading was a guide of his short sightedness, he would require to be examine by an Optician to have an accurate reading of his short sightedness. However, the refractor room was occupied, so he began to choose a frame for his glass. Wow, I was surprise by the glass frame that he has chosen. Some were way too fashionable for him to wear in school. I am sure that the teachers would disagree with those fashionable type of lens frames. In the end he found one which is simple and practical.

Off he went into the refractor room to have his eyes examine by the Optician. The readings of his short sightedness by the Optician were a bit higher than that read by the machine. So, the reading was confirmed and there was stock of the lenses in the shop. The lenses can be fitted to the frame within an hour's time.

Darren having his eyes examined by the Optician

An hour later, he was trying on his new glasses and he looks good with them. Here a photo of him with the glasses.

He is now happy wearing his glasses in school and he told me that could now see clearly what is written on the white board of his class.

Happy Birthday to Darren

Today is my son's birthday. He turn 11 today.



Anyway, the usual, cake from Secret Recipe. He choose the cake Espresso Cheese. When I took the cake from the shop I was surprise that the cake was heavy. When we cut it up, there was a bih layer of cheese. Good choice but everyone could not take a big slice since we just had our dinner.

His sister, Carrie, bought him a radio control truck as his present.

Happy Birthday to my wife and daughter

For the first time, I was unable to celebrate the birthdays of my wife and daughter which fall on 27 and 21 March respectively. Even though I am not with them on their birthdays, my heart is.

Happy Birthday to my loving wife, Adeline and Happy Birthday Carrie

Family Portrait

Since everyone was at home on the first day of Chinese New Year we took the opportunity to take a family portrait with my parents, brothers, sister, sister-in-law, children and nieces.

Wow, I did not realize that the family has grown from the four siblings to a larger family of 14.

I Dream of an iMac

My kids and I were at Mid-Valley on Sunday to catch the movie "A Night At the Museum", a very enjoyable movie for the family both young (that's me) and younger (that's my children). Then it was lunch at Madam Kwan. My son choose the restaurant because his favourite store is just outside the restaurant - Toy "R" Us.

Just before we leave for home, we hung out at MacWorld a store which sells all Apple products. I was always interested in an Apple because of it uniqueness in hardware design and operating system. What kept me away from owing an Apple is due to lack of cheap software contribution by our helping "pirates". Another factor is the cost of the hardware. The cost of an Apple is fixed where ever you buy it from, the price is controlled. The cost of the lowest end iMac with a 17" screen cost RM3,999-00. Unless Windows based PCs, I can pick and mixed the type of configuration that I want for the PC, the Apple does not allows me this flexibility.
However, after handling a iMac last Sunday, I dream of owning an Apple. Why you may ask? well, I saw the photos of the Florothon that were posted in my blog.... the picture turned out to be more vibrant, sharper and I could not believe those picture shown on the iMac were taken by me!!! A review of the price of the iMac of RM3,999-00.. ehhh the price is costly but that's the price to pay for being unique and the price is not much higher than a Windows based notebook. With everything built into a single casing, it saves a lot of space. I have also read an article written by Ken Rockwell on why professional use Mac which managed to convince me the advantages in using a Mac.

My children also love the iMac. They were having a wonderful time using the software called Photo Booth. With the use of the webcam which is installed in the iMac, they capture and create the weird photos using the software.

Here are samples of the photos that they have captured using the software.






For now, owing an iMac would just be a dream and a wish of mine.

Happy Birthday Esther

Today we celebrate the birthday of my second daughter , Esther. She's sweet 16 today. She was the baby girl of the family.

Just the usual stuff for birthday, another cake from Secret Recipe. However, I have got her everything she wanted ( hand phone, cloths and shoes) but I just feel that a birthday is not a birthday without a present. So while I was walking back to the car park after taking delivery of the cake, I saw a cute green bear at the display window at Memory Lane. Green is Esther's favorite colour and I bought the bear for her. The bear was cuddly and cute (I wish I have one too!!). She and her sister has not come back when I reached home with the cake and I decided to place the bear on her bed just to surprise her.

When she came back, I was outside her room at the PC and expecting a screen of surprise from her immediately when she enters her room. Instead, no sound came. About 10 minutes later, I heard screen with surprise running out of her room with the bear. She asked me whether I was the one who bought it and I acknowledged. She was jumping happily on the gift that I bought for her.

Here are some pictures of the bear and the birthday ceremony.

Family dinner

Well it has been a long time since the last family gathering (since Chinese New Year), my sister organised a family dinner at at Chinese restaurant called Chuen Kee at Pudu Ulu. Nothing spectacular about the food but it was a great day where my parents gets to see all their children and grandchildren together.

Here comes the food!!

My brother Kok Khan, sister-in-law Jessica and my niece Crystal and Chelsea

My parents, my brother Kok Choong and sister-in-law, Lee Yoong

My parents, old and grey

The dinner was completed less than an hour. We all then went back to our parent's house for dessert which was a Chocolate Walnut cake I bought from Secret Recipe. It seems that we are having cakes from Secret Receipe all this while.. why? because it's delicious and EXPENSIVE!!

The Chocolate Walnut Cake

My children chatting with their grandparents

A snapshot of me taken by my son

My sister, Iris

Esther fun with Cyrstal

A rare photo of my father (he's 75 years old already) taken by my son

Happy Birthday Darren!!

My son celebrated his 10th birthday today. Even though his actual birthday falls on 12 June, we decided to celebrate it earlier in view that tomorrow he will back to school again and also today's Sunday. As usual, birthdays are celebrated with a cake and present from his dad and mun. This year around, mun got him the cake and me... well I got him a Transformer. Not a electrical transformer, you dumb dumb.. Transformer the toy!!

Well actually today we went to Shah Alam where the Hasbro (distributor for Transformer and other toys) were having their warehouse sale (I would want to save some money is there's a bargain there). Too bad when we reached, there what's left are Star Wars toys, Playskool and nothing on Transformer. So we have have to settle for a trip to 1 Utama's ToyRUs for his present. I thought that my son will be merciful to me by choosing a reasonable size and priced Transformer, instead he choose the biggest of the lot which is Cybertron: Primus. It was a biggest Cybertron there.. what can I say? No?... It's his birthday so have to get it for him since also it is his 10th birthday, I would want to make it a memorable one for him.

After dinner, he was pestering his mun to cut the cake because HE LOVES CAKES! The cake was a Secret Recipe, Blueberry Cheese cake.

The Blueberry Cheese Birthday Cake with his name written on it!!

Candles where lighted on the cake.. ten candles in all, he made his wish and blew off the candles with a puff.

I huff and puff... all the candles lights are blow off!!

Beware!! The birthday present from dad... Cybertron Primus

So ends the celebration of my son's birthday party.. well he's 10 years old already but he will always remain a boy in my heart!!