Here is part 2 of the 320d modification guide. You can refer to part 1 here. As much as I can, I am trying to incorporate both the E90 and F30 models of the 320d into this modification guide. Well frankly, it isn't really much of a guide but more of an awareness of the kind of modifications you can attempt on your car.
Exhaust Modifications: Changing your exhaust can also improve your car's performance. Modify at your own risk, unless you decide to use the original BMW M performance parts.
BMW Performance exhaust - I have seen a number of the E90 320d cars sporting this exhaust. Frankly you won't get much of a difference in terms of exhaust note mainly because, its still a diesel. One of the more expensive option but it comes with warranty and a peace of mind. There was a case where someone compared dyno results between a 320d using this exhaust and one without. There were some differences in terms of power, close to about 10bhp. I haven't seen one available yet for the F30 320d.
Aftermarket exhaust - So far the only one I have seen available here in Malaysia is made by Jetex. This is only the catback portion with a 3" diameter. The exhaust note sounds a little lower, love the growl from this exhaust and it does sound nicer compared to the BMW performance exhaust.
Custom exhaust - This is one of the options you can take, to fully customize your exhaust system from the downpipe all the way to the catback. For the E90 320d, most stage 2 modifications include a downpipe change to around 3" in diameter. A fully customized exhaust system sporting a 3" diameter all the way can be pretty costly and the price will depend on the material used. With a larger diameter, you should be able to achieve higher horsepower at the higher RPM range but will sacrifice a bit of torque.
Handling V2.0 Apart from the usual tower bars, ARB and suspension, to further improve on the car's handling in a more hardcore manner, there are options for the real hardcore.
Urethane bushings - Powerflex makes a wide variety of bushings to fit many BMW's and they do have models for the 3 series. Using this to replace your stock bushings, it definitely makes you feel that everything is tightened but the downside to this is that you feel everything. By that I literally mean everything. Because the bushings are harder, you feel more vibration coming from the road but you can consider that a good and bad thing.
Foaming - Can you put in a special type of foam inside your car's chassis filling up the gaps. Once the foam dries up, you get a stiffer chassis with less flex. There are several vendors who offer this service, AutoFoam KL comes to mind. One of the key benefits of this treatment is that you also make your car feel solid and quieter as well.
Roll cage - This is the ultimate way to stiffen up and protect your car especially during motorsports. So far the only BMW to come out straight with a roll cage from the factory would be the BMW E92 M3 GTS. I happen to know there is one available at Naza World going for around RM800,000.
Exterior Modifications There are plenty of people who like only exterior modifications. Whether it may come in the form of body kits or rims.
Bodykits - For the F30, the M-Sport bodykit and trims are available and the full kit ranges from RM15,000 to RM20,000. But I heard that the M-Sport versions of the F30 320d will be coming soon to Malaysian shores. Brands such as M-Tech, Wald, ACS and Hamann have their own set of bodykits. In Malaysia, we also have the replica M3 bodykits which will fit the E90 320d because the original M3 bodykits such as the bumper will not fit the E90 cars.
BMW Performance Parts - BMW also makes and sell the carbon fibre bits which add on to your existing car's bodykit. Because they are made of carbon fibre (CF), they cost an arm and a leg. For the BMW 3-series E90, you have the front CF splitters which sticks to the bottom part of your front bumper, the rear CF boot lip, the rear CF diffuser and the CF wing mirror covers. They also have the matte black kidney grill available as well. Aside from getting the original BMW parts, known eBay OEM knock offs have surfaced for a tenth of the price.
I will stop here as part 2 of the modification guide. Will proceed with the next posts focusing on the interior bits. Will try to get more photos in here to allow readers to visualize the parts and modifications.
Just last week when Maxis announced that they would be releasing the new iPhone 5 (new by so-called Malaysian standards), I was ecstatic and I quickly signed up my interest on their website. What I didn't expect that the sign-up rate was so great (30,000 sign ups) that Maxis closed it down the following day.
When I was confirmed that I would be eligible to get the iPhone 5, I was quite happy to state that I would line up for the first time in my life to get the iPhone 5 on the launch night. This meant that I would need to start queuing up at night and await for the official launch at 12 midnight 15th December. I guess another excuse I wanted was to get interviewed by my friend Melissa who was a TV presenter at NTV7. Talk about ulterior motives.
The night arrived and I was extremely excited. I was definitely lacking sleep as I had to wake up early for an 8am teleconference call, run around KL for meetings and then finally back to PJ to collect my car from the service center. After taking a short nap from 8pm-9pm, I headed to CAPSQUARE and started queuing at 10pm. That was a bad idea because I was already greeted by hundreds of other people.
It was a good thing that Maxis gave out free donuts and apples as well as hot milo, white coffee and water to the folks queuing up. After queueing for about 2 hours, I managed to get my few seconds of fame on NTV7. After watching it, I think I sounded like a crazed geek (prior to my interview, they also interviewed the guy who was first in queue who had started lining up since 10am that day and it was also his birthday).
So to cut the long story short, it took me over 4 hours to queue up and get my phone and finally back at home into bed.
Now after having lived with the iPhone 5 for the past couple of days, here are some of the things I loved about it as well as the things that I hate about it.
Love:
It's beautiful form factor
How light the phone is (comparing with my current iPhone 4)
How fast it is and how apps respond so quickly
The extra space on the screen (being able to see more icons on the 1st screen)
Hate:
Battery life. In short, it sucks! Sucks battery juice that is. I have to charge it at least up to twice a day. Lots of complaints about it here at the Apple forums (here, here, here and here). With the iOS 6.1 update as well as trying out several tips such as deleting general settings and network settings, the battery life has improved but I still have to charge my iPhone twice a day (pre 6.1 I used to charge around 1pm and post 6.1, I usually charge around 4pm).
Maps, still always an issue and I know Apple is in the midst of getting it fixed. Until they do, it still sucks.
Having to use the new lightning connector (the cable is RM69 whilst the adapter is >RM100). Now I have two set of cables lying around and to carry around, one for my iPad and one for the iPhone.
There were some issues regarding the phone as well but it seemed more from a carrier perspective. Here are some of the issues that has been reported.
Able to make calls but not able to receive them (Maxis issue which has now been resolved)
Showing wrong data usage and data available for each user (affecting iValue 2 users)
Losing 3G, Edge and GPRS signal and not recovering back from it again. Post iOS 6.1 patch, this issue seemed to have started up again. Several folks mentioned it was a Maxis problem but it does occur for other networks as well. A tip which I followed was to reset my iPhone's Network Settings and it did manage to resolve it.
I will definitely update this post as I go along. At the time of writing, these love hate relationship points were based on the iPhone 5 running on iOS 6.0.1. There is a new patch that was just released but I haven't tried it out yet.
If you know of any other issues, do post it here in the comments section and I shall add it up.
Updates - 13-02-2013 (iOS 6.1)
Battery life has improved a little bit (lasts around 2-3 hours longer)
Dropping of 3G signal seem to have reappeared but now it doesn't happen anymore. Some people have reported that Maxis was upgrading their network hence the cause of it but I followed a tip which was to reset the phone's network settings and it did seem to work.
Updates - 21-12-2012 (iOS 6.0.2)
Cases have been reported that the new patch does indeed drain the iPhone 5's battery life. Read in a couple of forums including the Apple Support forums and found that one of the solutions is to reset your phone settings, Settings>General>Reset> Reset All Settings
This does not wipe out your media and data
Currently testing this method now and so far, after almost 2 hours, I have only used 6% of battery. This is with service locations on for certain apps, mails set to fetch, wifi and bluetooth on.
Yes that's right! According to my colleagues and some of my friends, I have been deemed an Apple fanboy in their eyes. Little do they know that I just favour convenience over style (of course style matters a lot). Anyway, who says I am an Apple fan boy? I use an iPhone 4 on a daily basis, I have my iPad 3 with me which I absolutely adore because I watch movies on it when I travel, I connect to my PLEX server at home and I read all my Manga on it. I also have a 2008 Macbook Pro which is sort of dying and soon to become a permanent home server for me and a couple of iPods which I won last time. Who says I am an Apple fan boy?
So when I managed to convince my friend (he was currently using the Note 1) to get the new Samsung Note 2 after catching Tiger Woods at the CIMB Classics last weekend (Maxis had a booth offering the Note 2 for RM999 for Maxis One Club members), I only managed to get my hands dirty with it a couple of days ago (sorry mate, my hands wasn't exactly dirty and I know you put your phone next to your face). And boy, was I completely blown away. Mostly with the beautiful size of the screen, as much as a retina display supporter I am, the larger screen of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was just awesome.
Of course there were certain drawbacks. The phone was huge! Could barely fit into my tight work pants but definitely in my casual shorts. The phone was surprisingly light! But the OS interface seems a little messy and I feel that there are just way too many features which I think clutters up the whole screen. But that is just an initial feel, I felt the same way when I moved over to iOS.
I was quite convinced, the few apps which I use quite often are available there (mostly mainstream ones such as Facebook, WhatsApp, LINE, etc,etc,etc). Other than the cheaper price, I know the iPhone 5 would cost a lot more when it launches as well as not having a larger screen (compared to the Note 2), the pull of the dark side was really really strong! But seriously guys, why do you call yourselves the dark side anyway? Apple seems like the empire to me right now and since Disney bought over the Star Wars franchise, I can just imagine Storm troopers breaking out in song just before firing upon the rebels.
Anyway, back to my current itch. It was the 31st of October, the very last day of the offer by Maxis, I was still contemplating whether or not should I go for the Note 2. I am currently not bound on any Maxis contract and the last phone I purchased from Maxis was the iPhone 3Gs. Whilst sitting at my desk in my office located at KLCC, the Maxis store beneath Menara Maxis was but a 5 minute walk and I was comparing the current plans that I had versus the new 2 year plan I would need to sign up.
About 80% convinced, I shared this with some of my colleagues who kept on pushing me to go for it (especially those who are currently using the Android platform). Of course those who were true to Apple would still tell me to wait for the iPhone 5 which hasn't had had any indication on when it will be released in Malaysia.
Fortunately or unfortunately, it is currently my project's cutover period. Cutover is a word used to articulate how busy an IT person might be and is constantly one of the key and most stressful times of an IT project. Hopefully that gives an idea of how hectic it has been here at work where I was running from multiple meetings and discussions until I noticed my watch and it was already 9.00pm and I have missed out on the offer.
Oh well, I think my iPhone 4 (which I am officially borrowing from my mum) still rocks. Somewhat.
I feel like I am opening up a large can of worms here.
Just the other day, on a fine early morning, me and my mates decided to have a very long overdue run up through the Ulu Yam route and man, was it completely different from my previous experiences. It has taken this long because time and time again I was pretty unlucky to have clashing schedules when my other group goes up Ulu Yam. So this time I joined some of my old VW "kakis" up the slippery slope of the mountain and drove up to Goh Tong for some curry "wan ton" noodles.
Why was it different compared to my other previous drives? First of all, its my first time driving up that route using a RWD (rear wheel drive) car. With the number of extreme bends we had to take, my first mistake was that I constantly anticipated for the car to understeer but I kept making that mistake. Another mistake I mad was that because of the new feel, I was braking like mad before every corner. Even my boss was mentioning that to me (yes my boss was following closely behind me).
Another thing I noticed was the hydraulic steering rack which BMW uses, makes it heavier compared to my previous ride which uses an electric steering rack. Good thing about it is that I get a lot more feedback from the tyres to the steering whilst the downside to it is that the steering feels a little bit heavier. That feeling seems a little bit more surreal in a sense that I was so used to the electric steering rack on a VW (ZF claims that they haven't sold a single electric steering rack because it doesn't break down).
Handling aside, the benefit of having a diesel engine whilst going uphill is that it is extremely fun! *cue to google up torque*. The torque delivery at such low RPM is just awesome especially when you exit a corner which then leads uphill. The pure acceleration and thrill of it is something that an NA engine can't really deliver. And the best part of it is that I can average 800km on a full tank of diesel even whilst stuck in KL city traffic for about 2 hours on a daily basis.
After having a hearty breakfast, I then went up to the cable car station to have a quick photoshoot. Here are some of the photos I captured while I was up there.
Over the weekend I had the pleasure of celebrating an old friend's birthday at G3 Kitchen and Bar at Jalan Telawi 3 in Bangsar. Prior to this occasion, I never heard of the place and the only reason I might only venture towards Bangsar is to try out the banana leaf rice there.
When I entered the restaurant, I thought it did seem a bit casual as it was an open concept style and we were surrounded by bits and pieces of grocery items such as sauces, eggs and other food stuff. Anyhow since there were a fair bit of us in the group, we decided on sharing some of the food we ordered. I decided on trying out two pizza's there, a fishy variant (3 different types of fish with honey mustard toppings) and a spicy lamb and eggplant pizza.
The result was absolutely stunning! So stunning that I totally forgot to take pictures of the pizza as I was just too busy gobbling it all down. I even had a chance to taste a friend's Chicken Tikka Masala, the chicken was extremely tender and juicy!
Personally, I have always loved Italianies' salmon pizzas but now I guess I have found a new place to eat pizza from now onwards. Generous portions and the price isn't too bad as well.
One thing I did regret was not sampling one of their many scrumptious looking desserts which are displayed right at the entrance. I can definitely blame that on my account that I am completely overweight and I do have to watch my diet. Well, perhaps when I have lost about 10-15kg and I will definitely return there to eat some dessert. And perhaps during my next visit, I will remember to take at least some photos.
Thought the image above does show a very funny side of things especially when it relates to the Apple Store employees. This is actually referring to the context of this piece by the NY Times in regards to how Apple employees at their stores are faring against their peer groups in other retailers. I do encourage you all to read that piece as it was very well written and investigated and does bring an interesting insight to the life of an Apple employee who works at the retail stores.
In 2008, I purchased a MacBook Pro laptop to help me with my photography editing to replace to old PC which I had since I was in university which was dated back to 2004. The Macbook Pro has served me well and it still does till today. So well that I am writing this blog post using this Mac.
Why am I writing this on my Mac when I have a nice spanking PC that I bought last year to replace my old one to play games such as Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 but up until 2 hours ago, it just died on me. It refuses to start up and boot up so I am really hoping that the hard disk is ok. Its so frustrating dealing with PC's, constantly have to figure out whats wrong with it, frequently crashes (mind you I am running on Windows 7 and I don't overclock the PC at all).
Anyhow I am just venting my frustrations online now because I can't play my usual dosage of Starcraft 2 and perhaps put in a couple of Warden/Butcher runs in Diablo 3 (I kinda suck at Diablo 3 and I am now stuck in Act 1 in Inferno). Hopefully when I bring my PC into C-Zone tomorrow at Digital Mall, I should be able to get it fixed fast enough so I can also head over to Sunway for a talk by ATP Motorsports.
While I am here sitting at home being frustrated, I just wonder, since the games I play are also available on the Mac, it would have been the wiser choice to just use a fully Mac environment at home. Host my Plex server on a Mac (which is a lot more stable than my PC) and combine all my gaming and photo editing on a single platform. I was thinking an iMac but personally, I feel that the iMac can't deliver the power I might want especially on a nice and large 27" sized monitor. But hey, an iMac is pretty pricey and since I just bought my PC not too long ago, so I will have to make do with what I have left.
Ah, it reminds me of the days when I was overclocking my PC and letting the cool 5 degrees celcius air of Sheffield cool my PC down. Now it is just a real bother to take my PC out and try to figure out and trouble shoot the errors.
Maybe I am just getting too old for this shit and all I want is convenience.
Over the past couple of months I started on a new project which brought me to a location where access to certain social media sites are blocked as well as the need for me to have more of my data with me when I go for meetings. In my previous project I managed that by using my iPad 1 and logging on to the wifi network. Now I have no wifi network to connect to so I've gotten a data plan for my iPad. Maxis came into my mind first because there was a Maxis store located so nearby. After a couple of minutes of signup and inserting in the new sim card, I was good to go. It did take Maxis around 30minutes before the service is activated.
Now a lot of people asked me why not I just tether the data from my iPhone and I did try that out for a month and realized that it was extremely unreliable as well as it drained my battery way too fast hence I decided against that method. It is a heck of a lot more convenient and a lot faster to search for data on the fly instead of quickly turning on my personal hotspot, trying to detect the phone with the iPad, restarting the wifi and then cursing why personal hotspot is so unreliable.
A good feature which I also enjoyed on my new iPad is the ability to take pictures with it. Definitely so much easier to take photos with it and then straight upload it to Facebook. It's really handy being mobile and with the iPad I find that I don't need to bring my laptop around so often. Just two weeks ago when I was at training, I loaded up movies into my iPad and the hotel provided a facility where I could just plug in my iPad via a HDMI cable and I could stream movies from my iPad on the hotel room's 42-inch LCD TV. Another good feature is to be able to present presentation slides using my iPad. Now I just can't wait for Microsoft to launch their MS Office for the iPad later this year.
Since I have been using the iPad quite a fair bit now on a daily basis, I feel that I need a keyboard to complement it and to enhance my note taking skills. Saw a couple of them I liked online but it's not available here yet.
The one above is a sleek keyboard which also acts like a cover. It connects the same way the Apple smart covers do via the magnets.
The other case is a little bulkier but it doesn't use any batteries but it is solar powered. Both these keyboard cases are made by Logitech and are quite new in the market. Hence I guess the lack of it's availability in our local stores.
I was so looking forward to a near season of Top Gear but alas, there will be no more episodes of Top Gear this year (except for the Christmas special). There were rumours of it flying about but Jeremy Clarkson himself has confirmed that via his Twitter account.
[caption id="attachment_3390" align="alignnone" width="534" caption="Sunday night is full of fat people singing"][/caption]
Personally over the past 3 seasons I felt as if they are repeating their same stunts over and over again that it has become cliché. Although I loved the India special which of course drew a lot of flack, I would definitely support if they did a Malaysia version since they covered Vietnam and India already. I fear if they tried riding their bikes here in Malaysia, they might get knocked down instead.
So it looks like fans will have to wait till 2013 before the next season of Top Gear is released.
The title says it all, if someone were to ask me what have I been doing with my free time lately, my answer is being tied up with renovations. Went to HomeDec 2012 last weekend and also during lunch time as well to check out accessories and good deals on furniture.
Then over the past two weeks, I have visited various tile shops to choose tiles for the house as well. Choosing tiles hasn't been easy, there are so many varieties, colours to choose from, brands and designs. All of these choices to make and then trying to see if it fits into my budget. From floor tiles, wall tiles, table top tiles, decorative panels and even more, it was a fun process although at times I might have been a little edgy but I blame that to lack of sleep rather than the process of choosing tiles.
Some of the shops that I visited included the Niro showroom near 3-2 Square, the Guocera showroow (Wisma Kemajuan) opposite Niro near 3-2 Square, Buimaco at Taman Megah, Hoover at Section 17 located at the same row as Kanna Curry House, Super Ceramic at Jalan 222, and Sing Mee at Jalan Penchala off Jalan Tandang. Personally I would say if you were a first time tile hunter, just head straight to Sing Mee and you can probably find your tiles there. I also visited Feruni and Better Living at their HomeDec booths but didn't like some of the tiles they had on show there.
Overall, I stuck with 2x2 tiles for the living room, dining room and dry kitchen. I chose 2x1 tiles for the wet kitchen floor and 1x1.5 tiles for the kitchen wall. The toilets will be using a mixture of 2x1 tiles, 1x1.5 tiles and 1x1 tiles. Will snap pictures of them once they have been laid out.
With the house design, I have decided that I wanted a more spacious area for my living room and dining room. That was achieved by knocking the wall previously separating the kitchen and the living room.
[caption id="attachment_3371" align="alignnone" width="576" caption="Look ma, no more parquet flooring!"][/caption]
Another option I wanted was to remove the older parquet flooring and replace it with other types of flooring. From laminated flooring, vinyl flooring, hard wood and even engineered wood, I found that hard wood was my preferred choice. Hard wood is nice but it takes a long time (9 weeks) to get it all laid and cured.
[caption id="attachment_3370" align="alignnone" width="960" caption="Laying out the aircon points and piping"][/caption]
Learnt some interesting tips as well, once the wiring and cables have been laid, take a picture of them so that the next time when you want to do a bit of drilling or knock in some nails to hang a picture, you would know where the wires are located. Thanks for the tip guys!
[caption id="attachment_3369" align="alignnone" width="960" caption="Huge dumping site on my front porch"][/caption]
After experiencing fantastic water pressure at hotels, I really want to have the same pressure for my house especially since I will be using a rain shower head. Looks like I will be hunting for the water pump as well as the water heater for the house this weekend.
I really have to thank my parents for being so supportive and helpful with the house renovation as well as checking up with the contractors. Definitely wouldn't be able to progress this far at all without their help! Thanks Mum and dad!
It is almost the end of the first quarter in 2012 and this year seems to be looking fairly interesting. One of them mainly is that I will be renovating my house and I have been trying to figure out how to budget and juggle the budget so that I don't blow everything away. I have already received the 1st quotation on the heavy work that needs to be done and it really didn't leave me much to work with in terms of my initial budget.
I thank God for my mum and her slew of various contractors that I can leverage off otherwise things might just be too costly. Heck, it was an adventure driving deep into Klang just looking at a timber factory there to negotiate a good deal for some hardwood merbau flooring. Thanks to more recommendation, I have a few more leads on floor tiles and then I can start focusing on kitchen fittings and toilet fittings.
Diablo III has been slated for a launch sometime this year, although it might get a lot of people very excited about it, I kind of lost interest in the game. Heck, I even started to lose interest of Starcraft II even though I have been waiting for more than a year before their so called "expansion" would be released. If they keep on delaying all of their games, I really might just completely lose interest in it.
Also last weekend was the first time I played at the golf course for 2012. Decided to head back to the UPM golf course (University Pertanian Malaysia) since all of us haven't played golf in a long while. Thankfully there wasn't a crowd there on Sunday and we managed to play at our own pace. That game also marked my first use of my new R9 driver which I managed to "steal" last year. Definitely not an easy driver to use thanks to its super steep head angle. But if you hit a good shot with it, the ball just flies. Speaking of flying balls, I think I lost about 9 balls that day. Thanks to super long grass, huge ponds by the fairway and of course the dead dried leaves which litters the fairway (yes, fairway and not the rough!). Hope to play better in our next game.
The Volkswagen Club managed to pass 2500 members in the forum which I think was an awesome milestone. I guess with the launch of more VW models as well as the upcoming CKD Passat at lower prices, I can definitely foresee more and more Malaysians buying into the brand. Of course there were the usual rumour mills and reports that Proton was going to rebadge the VW Polo. I think it would be a good strategy for Proton as well as VW but DRB HICOM has already denied that so there goes that theory.
In terms of movies, I definitely can't wait for the Avengers. Other than that, there really isn't any other movie that I am looking forward to. Not too sure why but maybe perhaps there hasn't been any real hype for other movies.
Apple has released their new iPad, seems like a good upgrade for me since my iPad 1 is really suffering in terms of speed and I can hardly watch any HD movies on it thanks to its slow processor. This time around, I shall get the 64Gb non 3G version as I really hardly require the 3G data.
In the tech world, it's definitely tough especially if you are the CEO of HP and have to answer questions by shareholders such as, "Why HP isn't like Apple?". Definitely a high reach for even a giant like HP to achieve but it all takes is a visionary within the firm to push things through. Focus on the key business driver and be fantastic with it. Anyway I am just ranting away.
Yes, this blog is still not dead yet. Why? That's because I am alive and have been a little busy. Busy with work, busy with interviews (conducting them), busy with more work, busy with renovation plans, busy with Munz's new business (I'll talk more about that later) and have been sick lately. Perhaps I haven't been drinking enough water.
In pops an email, automated as it seems, I was just about to trash it when I skimmed through the contents and decided that hey, it was something interesting. It was the newsletter for the upcoming KL Marathon and I am really contemplating running the 10km run. That means it would definitely force me to start training up for the run due in June. This might just be the push I need to lose some much needed weight. So much so that my nickname amongst the VW club members is now "Touareg".
So what else has kept me busy? Well I started my renovation plans already and am still trying to finalize some of the layout and design ideas with my ID. The hardest thing I must say is trying to stick within budget and I haven't even included in the furnishings and fittings! Why must it be so difficult! Also the target to move in is about mid year so yeah, that's gonna be tight deadline to meet.
I mentioned Munz's new business earlier and I am proud to present "Milestones.my". Milestones is basically her entrée into the wedding planning business and last weekend was her first customer's wedding which was held in Ipoh. So practically my entire weekend was spent in Ipoh helping her out. Do check out her website ok? Especially those of you who are thinking about getting married :)
Anyway, I haven't had much time to shoot and recently Canon also released their 5D Mk3. On paper the specs show a lot of improvement. But until I try it out with my own hands and test shoot it especially with the F1.2 lenses, then only will I consider that camera. Otherwise I would be more than happy to stick with my Canon 5D Mk2. I really want to take more photos of cars but finding a free weekend would be quite tough!
A couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us from the Volkswagen Malaysia Club embarked on a weekend holiday at Cameron Highlands. We managed to book a bungalow at Tanah Rata which was located very close to the bus station. In total there were about 30 of us but not all of us squeezed into the bungalow.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, I missed the convoy heading up to Camerons on Friday afternoon so I decided to take a drive up at night. Thanks to heavy rain, the journey was not an easy one. Besides having to avoid heavy traffic coming out of the Klang Valley, I am really thankful for the Guthrie highway which provided me an easy avenue out of the NKVE and straight towards Rawang. I initially wanted to stop at the Rawang rest area to fuel up and grab a quick dinner but thanks to the hordes of people camping there waiting for the rain to subside, I decided to continue on ahead.
By the time I reached Tapah, the rain had already subsided. After a quick bite at KFC, we then departed onwards to Simpang Pulai. I decided to try out the new route up to Camerons, instead of taking the usual route through Tapah, there has been a lot of reported landslides on the old route through Ringlet.
The new route via Simpang Pulai is a much safer route especially if you are travelling at night. The roads are newer and the uphill roads have dual lanes at quite a fair bit of points. Do note that the route is very winding so if you are going on a spirited drive especially at night, make sure you use your high beam lights throughout the drive. There are a number of very misleading sharp corners. Traffic up this route wasn't that heavy, I think I only encountered like 4 trucks on the way up.
This route will bring you through Brinchang and then towards Tanah Rata.
Upon reaching at our destination at Tanah Rata, a quick shower and a quick change and I was ready to join the gang for some "games", which involved cards, and lots of yawning away. Heck it was already 3am at night!
The next day we went out for scones and tea at the Lord's Cafe. Now if anyone asks where are the best scones in Cameron Highlands, I would definitely say, "The Lord's Cafe" at Tanah Rata. The jam that came with the scones were heavenly and I can definitely say that we all enjoyed ourselves at the place and even some of us brought back a huge number of scones for loved ones.
After scones we had more food by sipping tea at the Cameronian Valley and enjoying the view. None of us wanted to drive towards the Boh Tea plantation especially since we had so many owners with lowered rides and none of us brought a Touareg!
When night came, we started it all off with a barbecue and chit-chat which went on all the way till late at night.
The one thing I never did like about Camerons is that the traffic there is really crazy, because of the one way in and one way out, whenever we did pass Brinchang, we would get stuck in insane traffic. Heck on the way back, I was stuck for 40 minutes and over that 40 minutes I probably drove about 100m. I made a quick u-turn and then used the older Tanah Rata route back home. Overall it was a fun trip up Camerons and definitely would love to do it again when I have the time!
I would like to wish everyone a very happy new year! 2011 came and gone and 2012 has a lot more to offer.
New plans and new focus is my target this year, not so much on resolutions because I know I tend to break all of them but I will try my best this year.
They include the usual, work, loosing weight, exercising, reading more, picking up new skills, shooting new things and travelling.
Chinese New Year as well is also very close by, just the other day I walked into the local supermarket only to have Christmas music playing at the entrance and Chinese New Year music playing at the check out counter.
I hardly ever blogged about my birthday but this time I decided to write a little bit about that. You see, I turn 30 (yes the big three oh) in a couple of months time, less than 3 months to be a little bit more precise. A friend of mine once told me that when he turned 29, he embarked on a journey to complete a set a tasks for him to complete by the time he hit 30. That sort of gotten the clogs in my brain working a little while and I decided that I should embark on a similar journey.
To lose 30 pounds (lbs) by the time I am 30 years old.
Well of course the whole idea of losing weight is something I have been procrastinating and the final nail hit the coffin when my insurance agent informed me that because of my current weight, I got to pay an extra loaded premium.
At this time, I weigh about 107 kg. So my target weight to reach by the time I am 30 next year in February would be 93 kg (I am just rounding up). Hopefully by then, my pants/shirts (about 70% of my clothes) would have fit me better.
What I have installed for me would be to:
Diet - cut down on fast food completely, drink more water, eat less carbs especially at night and eat more fruits instead
Exercise - swim a little bit more at the swimming pool at my apartments, reschedule my night teleconferences and go for badminton!
Lifestyle - Get more sleep in order to let my body process the sugars in me
Let's see if I can keep up with this project, Project 30!
Having bought a model ship, the Unicorn, for a pound off a market stall Tintin is initially puzzled that the sinister Mr. Sakharine should be so eager to buy it from him, resorting to murder and kidnapping Tintin - accompanied by his marvellous dog Snowy - to join him and his gang as they sail to Morocco on an old cargo ship. Sakharine has bribed the crew to revolt against the ship's master, drunken Captain Haddock, but Tintin, Snowy and Haddock escape, arriving in Morocco at the court of a sheikh, who also has a model of the Unicorn. Haddock tells Tintin that over three hundred years earlier his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock was forced to scuttle the original Unicorn when attacked by a piratical forebear of Sakharine but he managed to save his treasure and provide clues to its location in three separate scrolls, all of which were secreted in models of the Unicorn
I remember when I was young, whenever I got sick, my mum would always cheer me up by bringing me to the bookstore and getting me a Tintin comic book. Yes, back in those days, comics such as Tintin and Asterix would fill my time tremendously and I really did enjoy reading them. Of course these were the days before computers and computer games.
The moment when I heard that a movie was coming out about Tintin, I was equally excited. Especially when it was coming from the likes of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson! And to top it off, it was in 3D as well. From the moment I bought the tickets via my GSC iPhone app, queueing up for snacks at the counter and entering the cinema, I was totally on my edge, thrilled with excitement and joys.
And the movie doesn't disappoint! What actually disappointed me was that there weren't that many people who were interested in Tintin. I think there were only 8 people in total in the entire cinema.
Based upon the story of the 1st book, The Secret of the Unicorn, the movie goes through the story well and shows how Tintin meets Captain Haddock where the two of them will eventually start off on an exciting journey of adventures and thrills.
Overall the movie was done quite well and the CGI graphics were nice. I love how that the entire series is depicted in the old days and how funny the Thompson and Thomson idiotic Scotland Yard policemen were played as well.
The movie itself had a star in the form of James Bond actor, Daniel Craig who played the voice of Red Rackham/Ivanovich Sakharine. Jamie Bell did play a good job as Tintin
As clueless I was, I didn't know that iOS 5 came out with this new feature, which was the ability to update your iPhone's/iPad's iOS version via Wifi without the need to plug-in to iTunes. It's very easy to do it, just follow the following steps.
Go to your iPhone's "Settings" option
Select "General"
Then select "Software Update"
The phone will search the servers for the latest patch
Select "download and install"
Make sure that your phone is also plugged into a power source
Wait for the download to complete and voila, your iOS device is now updated.
When you advertise a movie that came from the same producers of 300, it is definitely a movie I wanted to watch but the only problem with that was it created a huge hype. Now the problem with having such a high expectation of the movie, the moment it slightly disappoints, critics will be all over it.
Storyline was straight. Absolutely straight. A tale of a hero that the Gods believe in named Theseus. Set in the time of ancient Greece, the land was at trouble and amongst a peasant village emerged a hero. So what else is new? Greece is still in trouble today with it's financial crisis that I wonder if there would be a hero that emerges to bail them out.
Anyway the whole story is about an evil king, Hyperion, who wants to unleash the Titans to challenge the Almighty Zeus who lounges about at Mt. Olympus. In order to do that, he needs a magical bow (as in bow and arrow) to help him do that. Of course this is where Theseus steps in as the hero.
The fight scenes were pretty good, I love how far Hollywood has progressed in terms of the fight scenes to match that of chinese kung-fu movies. The graphics were good but the one thing which irked me the most was our Malaysian censorship board. Everything kept skipping and certains bits were censored off which really did spoil the mood of the show.
Personally, I had a lot of expectations to the show and perhaps that it would have been better if there wasn't any censorship (I know where I would go and get one that isn't censored) and perhaps if the storyline was a little better.
