Lou Sang 2008 with 8GCC

Last Sunday, our small group of us 8GCC members went to the Dragon Deluxe Restaurant for dinner / Lou Sang, since it was still Chinese New Year. What exactly is Lou Sang? You can get more information over at : http://forum.fooxion.com/index.php?showtopic=290

We booked the restaurant really early, like 2 weeks in advance. Who knows that it was only 25% occupied that night. Well, better to be safe than sorry. Anyway, there were 11 of us at the table that night:-

The 3 beauties from L to R : Benny's GF, Wai Yee (Kenjiez) and Hanne's Wife


Next up, the quartet made up of [L-R] : Hanne, NAPIIOO, Zurin (Namio) and "Cikgu" Fendi


Finally, we have L-R : Me (mcwk), Ah Wei (Driver of Type R), Ah Kit and Benny (Takashi24)

I did not have my usual camera with me today, as I sort of foresaw that it would be a little crowded at the table. Hence the photos here are taken on my trusty Coolpix 5400, which explains the difference in photo quality. Still, it's a good camera, so it's always with me wherever I go.

After the dinner, it was still early. Originally, we planned a drive to "tour the city by night". However, given the number of traffic lights and the number of cars we had, it would probably have been a disaster to keep the group together. Thus, we proceeded to the MPMBB next to Jaya Jusco, opposite the Melaka Mall (formerly known as Kotamas), for a photo session (taken with Hanne's Canon DSLR). Also, we checked out each other's rides, especially the new mods since the last time we met, like Hanne's ICE and Type-R starter button (which was exactly like Ah Wei's real Type-R button).

Our next stop was to teh clearing next to the Melaka Zoo (if memory serves me correctly, it's call the dataran bersejarah or something). We hung out there for some time, as Benny handed out more club decals. We also looked as "Cikgu" Fendi's license plate, which had authentic looking frame with the "Eight Generation Civic Club" wordings on it. I sense a group buy coming soon....

By then, it was getting late, so everyone went back as we all had to go to work the following day.

Missing from the event were Johnny, plus two new forumers Phyruz and Nickken, who were out of town. I guess we'll catch them during the next TT session then!

Chinese New Year Reunion 2008

Well, it's that time of the year again, when everyone tries to get back together in one place to have dinner. This year, not everyone is around, but at least we have a sizeable group. As usual, we gathered at my grandmother's house. My grandmother is a very good cook, able to put together a Nyonya feast with the help of capable members of the family.

Now, ordinarily, most of us are all within 10 minutes' drive of each other, so, it's no big deal (we see each other quite often). However, there are some special members of my family who are seldom around (who probably have to make booking and appointment two months in advance for their presence). My sister, Angelene, is one of them. It was probably two or three months since the last time she set foot in Melaka. Though she's around, she went out almost every day, catching up with old friends and such. My cousin, Mark, is another one who's gone missing. Actually, he's now studying in Singapore, having been the lucky recipient of the Asean scholarship. My two aunties and their families in Australia are too far away (and it's not cheap to fly back here so often). The last time the two came back was during Melissa's wedding. Speaking of Melissa, I understand that she was accompanying her husband, Donald, so the two should be coming a little late.

My sister and wife

Not all the cooking was done by my grandmother. My father was also a contributor to the food chain, cooking up a tasty abalone dish and some other Hakka cuisine. Had even made a butter cake the previous night to bring over. So, that night, it was a mix of dishes from two prominent cultures. Both also nice to eat, so both also found their way onto my plate and into my stomach...!

Pyrotechnic at work, lighting candles up.

All candles let and ready for blowing

"How much longer should we wait-eh?"

Family Group Photo

Take 2 : for insurance

It was a special day, as it also happened to be my grandmother's birthday! So, after dinner, we quickly cleared the table for the cake cutting ceremony.

Some of the perils of eating a large piece of chocolate cake....

As we were leaving, my cousin, Melissa and her husband Donald finally showed up!

Well, better late than never! It was good that most of us managed to come back for dinner, as some of us were missing from the scene during Christmas / New Year. Hopefully, there will be a time soon when the entire family will come together again.

Making Pineapple Tarts for Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is here again, and this year's preparation involved making some pineapple tarts. Nowadays, you can order these and many other types of cookies. However, the whole things has become quite commercial. Over the years, cookies have become increasingly more expensive (latest price is ~RM0.50 per piece!). If you know how, factoring in the cost of the raw materials, it actually isn't so bad to make your own cookies.

In this sitting, we set about making some pineapple tarts. The preparation actually began much earlier, as we had to make the pineapple jam that goes into the center of the tarts. It was a lot of hard work, and was worked on exclusively by my mother-in-law. Some 20 pineapples were processed in the kitchen (that's quite a lot, for normal standards).

Pineapple jam that makes up the filling

Now, in the good old days, you had to mash all the ingredients together to make the dough with your bare hands (which was probably easier back then when people practiced kung fu for exercise). Thankfully, science has made our lives easier with the introduction of a breadmaker, which did more than just bake bread. There's actually a setting to prepare pizza dough, which was perfect for beating the butter, flour, etc.. which make up the ingredients for the pineapple tart dough.

The trusty Kenwood breadmaker

End result - you still need to mash it properly with hands though....

Once ready, we use some form of tool to form the dough into strips that have patterns on one side. It's actually a plastic tube, open on one end and with an aperture on the other, which serves to shape the dough when it is pushed out using a plunger, which is inserted into the other end.

Finally, the dough is ready for injection into strips using plastic tool (white plunger at the top)

After carefully laying down a strip of dough, we insert a ball of pineapple jam filling on the strip, and roll it up, cutting off the dough just as it completes one round. I found that instead of rolling the pineapple jam filling into a ball, it's better to shape it into a cylinder using my fingers (all that time spent playing with clay in my younger years seems to have paid off finally). That way, the jam fits the dough perfectly when rolled up.

One by one, the rolled up tarts are placed into a metal tray. Once full, the top of the tarts are glazed with egg yolk, before placing into a preheated oven. Temperature setting and time are based on estimation and gut feeling - I was too preoccupied with rolling up the tarts to perform accurate measurement of time (and I also did not have a thermocouple to measure the actual temperature of the oven).

Tarts ready for glazing with egg yolk and then into the oven they go...!

Well, while my brother-in-law, kids, and I rolled up the tarts, my sister-in-law and wife glazed and baked them, taking them out and packing them before passing us the empty metal trays to start all over.

I was at it for half a day, but the rest of them continued through to late evening where they managed to complete the entire batch!

A simple oven does the job - no fancy electronic displays or timers....

Well, delicious cookies are ready to eat! Another successful adventure in the kitchen...!

Ohhh, yeeessss!!!

New Year Dinner at Ikan Bakar Anjung Muara, Sungai Duyong

Finally - time for us to have our yearly departmental New Year Dinner, even though it's already February. Our location of choice was the Ikan Bakar Anjung Muara Sungai Duyong (GPS co-ordinated : N2 10.473 E102 17.396) The venue was suggested by Zool, and received no objections, so assume that everyone agreed! :)

The place was slightly further inside from where we had our dinner roughly 5-6 years ago. Everyone was around, except Yan, who was not feeling well (8 month pregnant, I don't blame her). Since the last time we came, there have been many changes to the core team. Gone are the great veterans like Sean, Lim Fong and Muneela. We have also the newcomers Jefry and Zulfadhli (not to be confused with Zoolfadli), who we hope will be with us for many years to come....

Anyway, the food here is quite "competitively priced" and the place was not crowded. Regret that I didn't take more photos....

Everyone's "busy" at the dinner table....

Back row (L-R) : Zulfadhli, Iskandar, Jefry
Front row (L-R) : Zoolfadli, Ee

( Take II )
Back row (L-R) : Zulfadhli, Iskandar, Jefry
Front row (L-R) : Zoolfadli, Ee

(L-R) : Nurbayah, Mohd Firdaus, Asri, Suhairin

Juliyana (solo)

(L-R) : Ee, Kek, Zulfadhli, Zoolfadli (standing)

Vios Key Stuck in Ignition!!! [FIXED]

 My wife's Vios is nearly 1 year old, and already it's giving me some minor problems from time to time. The latest one happened last Friday. Tried to get the key out of the ignition, but try as I might, it just wouldn't turn all the way anti-clockwise for the key to come out. Now this is a pretty funny situation. This basically meant that I can't go anywhere and park my car in public. Sure, I can lock the car with the spare key, but this is just an open invitation for someone to break my window, open the door and drive off.

Representative image (but you get the idea....)

The Toyota service center was not open on Saturday, so for two days, I had to park the Vios right inside the porch, and block it with my Myvi and Civic (better to be safe than sorry).

Well, managed to send the car to Toyota to check today. Guess what, they weren't really surprised, because they've encountered a similar case before. After hearing the Toyota people talk this way, you can't help but wonder how many more common problems they know about, but aren't telling anyone....

Anyway, they estimated a repair time of ~2 hours, not counting the waiting time. Since it was just 9.00am, and I'd have to wait until nearly 10am for someone to send me to my office, I took the option of walking instead. My office wasn't really far, just ~1km away, which took me around 15 minutes of brisk walking to cover the distance.

Unfortunately, my old tennis shoes had just reached their end of life halfway through my hike. The sole of my right shoe was literally dangling off! Not so good when this happens in the middle of the journey. Luckily, I managed to find a piece of string on the road, and jury-rigged a temporary fix by tying my shoe back together so I could walk the rest of the journey. At the office, I looked around for some industrial strength glue. Unfortunately, the product that used the Loctite glue had already been obsoleted, so I managed to get my hands on some UHU glue equivalent. Now, this wasn't the ordinary UHU glue that you buy from the stationery store. Being the industrial type, you actually need to mix it with a hardener so that the entire mixture can actually dry. I found out the hard way as ~2 hours later, my shoe was being loosely held together with a wet gel!

My colleague Juliyana managed to loan me a pair of her slippers (which were 2 sizes too small, but I had to make do with whatever I could get my hands, uh, feet on).

The sole never really stuck onto the shoe, and came off after taking a few steps. So, I walked with my "sole-less" right shoe to the car park, where I got a ride from my cousin, Melissa, back to Toyota. It seems that they were right. A wire from a sensor that detected the gear was in the "P" position had come loose, and this prevented the lockout mechanism on the ignition socket from releasing the key. They had to disassemble the entire center column to fix this. Fortunately I wasn't the first, so they knew exactly where to look. While I was at it, I did ask the SA if there was anything that could be done with the sound coming from the rear suspension (there is a krak-krak sound every time someone gets in or out of the rear seat, but no sound when the car was moving). He just told me that all Vios seems to have this problem, and even affects Altis too. It's because of the separate drum mechanism of the handbrake that slips when passengers get in or out of the car. Looks like we have to live with this one. Sigh.... :(

So I managed to get my car back at 12pm, just before lunch. First destination from there? Back home, of course, to get my usual working shoes!

New Product Annoucements from Sigma

It's now Sigma's turn to announce some new products. I'll focus on those applicable to my Nikon DSLR's.

- APO 150-500mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM

This is the new super zoom on the block, most likely a replacement for the APO 50-500mm F4-6.3 EX DG /HSM (aka Bigma). It loses the 50mm at the wide end (though at 75mm on a 1.5X crop factor DSLR, it's not really that wide to begin with). Here's how the new lens stacks up against the Bigma:

*Lens Construction : 15Groups 21Elements vs 20 Elements in 16 Groups
*Angle of View :16.4°-5° vs 46.8 - 5 degrees
*Number of blades : 9pcs vs 9pcs
*Minimum Aperture(W) : F22 vs F22
*Minimum Focusing Distance : 220cm / 86.6in. vs 100-300cm
*Maximum Magnification : 1:5.2 vs 1:5.2
*Filter Size : Ø86mm vs Ø86mm
*Lens Hood : Bayonet type vs Bayonet type
*Dimensions : Ø94.7mm×252mm/ 3.7in. × 9.9in. vs Ø95mm×218.5mm
*Weight : 1,910g / 67.4oz. vs 1840g

So, there's an extra piece of glass in the new lens, which now has a constant minimum focus distance of 2.2 meters! It's longer than the Bigma (possibly due to the 150mm wide end) and weighs just a tad bit more (getting closer to 2kg).

The really big difference here is the addition of OS, Sigma's own stabilizer technology. This alone will put is ahead of the Bigma (if it works). With a shorter zoom range, the optics should be improved. All in all, just waiting for the price and deliver date from Sigma! (Now what am I supposed to do with two monster zooms anyway...?) :)

Next up:

- APO 120-400mm F4.5-5.6 DG OS HSM

This is slated to replace the APO 80-400mm F4.5-5.6 EX DG OS, once again, Sigma has sacrificed a little off the wide end and this time, they've added HSM (their version of screwless autofocusing). Looks like Sigma is now making their lens D40/D40X/D60 compatible! The line up against the old lens:-

*Lens Construction : 15Groups 21Elements vs 20 Elements in 14 Groups
*Angle of View :20.4°-6.2° vs 30.3 - 6.2 degrees
*Number of blades : 9pcs vs 9cs
*Minimum Aperture(W) : F22 vs F22
*Minimum Focusing Distance : 150cm / 59.1in. vs F180
*Maximum Magnification : 1:4.2 vs 1:5
*Filter Size : Ø77mm vs Ø77mm
*Lens Hood : Bayonet type vs Bayonet type
*Dimensions : Ø92.5mm×203.5mm/ 3.6in. ×8in. vs 95mm x 192mm
*Weight : 1,750g / 61.7oz.vs 1750g

Again, there's a new piece of glass and an additional element, with reduced wide end. Minimum focus distance is improved to 1.5m, but still that would make it pretty hard to use as a portrait lens. Length is just slightly increased, but overall weight remains unchanged. With the zoom range now wider than the new 150-500 and basically identical features, these two lens are now converging. Possibly Sigma would want to consolidate them in the future (just my own personal opinion - don't quote me on this).

Now, on the lower end:-

- 18-125mm F3.8-5.6 DC OS HSM

Sigma doesn't have anything in this range yet. It's a shorter version of the 18-125mm F3.8-5.6 DC OS HSM from their stable. Expect this to be lighter and more manageable for those who can live without the extra telephoto range.


Lastly:

- APO 200-500mm F2.8/400-1000mm F5.6 EX DG (what the hell???!!!)

Now this is something you probably won't see in a lifetime. Check out the specs:-

*Lens Construction : 13 groups 17 elements
*Angle of view : 12.3°-5°
*Number of blades : 9pcs
*Minimum aperture : F22
*Minimum Focusing Distance : 200-500cm/78.7-196.9in.
*Maximum Magnification : 1:7.7
*Filter Size : Ø72mm (Rear)
*Dimensions : Ø236.5mm×726mm / 9.3in.×28.6in(Hood included).
*Weight : 15,700g / 553.7oz.

This is why you don't see F2.8 super-telephotos - for that you would need something the diameter of a python. At 15.7kg, you would probably break a normal tripod. If you point that thing at an airplane, the anti-terrorist group will probably shoot you first before asking questions later!

Well, there are other announcements from Sigma for other camera systems, which you can check out [ HERE ]

I'm actually disappointed that they've not upgrade their 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC /HSM. I was expecting maybe a constant F4 aperture or maybe the addition of OS, but that's just wishful thinking on my part! :)