Iphone Photography

For the past couple of weeks I have been obsessing about Iphone photography. I think Iphone can take pretty awesome photos if only the user (in this case it is me) is able to make full use of its camera function. So I have been doing a lot of online research on how to capture great Iphone photos.  I stumbled upon this website http://iphonephotographyschool.com which gives a lot of tips and tricks on how to take great photos with Iphones. I followed a dozen of Instagramers who post very nice photos and those photos are taken with an Iphone. One of my favorite is @irinahp who is a Spanish teacher based in Austria. I also watched a lot of youtubes videos and try to remember the tips and tricks that they give.

So yesterday while doing the dishes, I saw this red areca nuts lying around on the green grass. I remember Emil (the guy from Iphone Photography School) saying that we don't necessaryly have to travel to nice places to take good photos) So I thought this would make a pretty photo. So I grabbed my Iphone and went outside. I am using Iphone 6s by the way. Took several photos while keeping in mind the tips and tricks that I have learned.

The 1st tip that I remember is the rule of third. Always put the subject of a photo at the 1/3 -2/3 point rather than in the middle of the frame. I get this 1/3 thing by using a grid on my Iphone camera apps. I went to the setting and turned on the grid function. 

In this photo, my subject is the most front areca nut. So you see that it is lying at the 1/3 right of the photo. 

The second tip that I remember them saying is to tap the screen to focus at an object or the subject of our photo. So I tapped on the areca nut closest to my phone hence as you can see, the focus on that particular nut is very clear and the background is blurry. 

Here is another one. In this photo my focus is on the nut which is in the middle. So the background becomes a bit blur and the particular nut is bright and you can see the light (or the sun, I have no idea)  reflection on it.

This is my favorite shot. Here I tried to apply another tip that I could remember, adjusting the exposure. I remember someone on youtube or maybe Emil again, saying that we should underexposed slightly because the exposure can be corrected later during editing but an overexposed shot is pretty difficult to be corrected. 

Here's the same photo I have edited in Snapseed. All the other photos above are not edited. 

I added brightness, saturation and a bit of warmth because I always fancy bright and warm photos. 

I am a newbie to Iphone photography. I enjoy this very much and I hope one day I can take beautiful pictures that people will adore. 

Surviving Long Distance Relationship

Have you ever been in a long distance relationship? 

I am in such relationship just now so I thought I'd share my experience and maybe you can share yours with me too. 

I'd summarise it in 1 word. Beautiful. 

It is definitely not easy but with a lot of effort, it is possible. My long distance relationship with my boyfriend @Butang is only a year long but I guess I can share a thing or two on how we keep our love story going strong. 

The first tip : Trust

Being so far from each other, there will be days that I doubt him and he doubts me too. Sometimes I wonder what does he do behind my back, is he seeing someone else there or doesn't he miss me as much as I miss him? The questions, or I should say the doubts drive me crazy. I know that if I keep dwelling on this, I won't be happy and this will be the cause for unreasonable fights between us. Hence one good day I decided that I am going to trust him and his words. This is a decision that I vowed I will never go against anymore. So every time the evil thought begins to creep in, I brush it off immediately. With practice, it gets easier to keep the good thought. 

The second tip : Effort

Another downfall of being so far is we can't meet as often as we like and there is a limit to what we can do to please each other. To overcome this and to keep the love sparkling, we contact each other a lot. Thank you to technologies, we are able to text, talk and video chat almost every day. It does not have to be a lengthy conversation, sometimes just a few words but it reminds us that we are on each other's mind. When we have time and flight ticket is cheap, we pay a visit to one another. The few days spend together are priceless and the memories we made are worth to treasure. 

The third tip : Little surprises

I like to send him parcels of the things that he loves from time to time. I didn't tell him earlier so that he would be surprise and excited when he receives them. It is like getting presents for no reason. 

Recently, @Butang made a sweet treat for me, it was his mother's recipe. He sent  it to me, along with a love note. Oh how I smiled from ear to ear when I received that. Both giving and receiving presents  do wonders for the heart, make us happy. 

The 4th tip : Communication

We talk a lot on how we feel, especially when we are not happy with something. This is something that we have agreed upon at the beginning of our relationship. When we have doubt, when we feel not at ease, we talk it out. Of course it always starts with one of us pulling that long face, but we always settle it there and then. So far things never drag more than a day, mainly because @Butang is the kind that cannot accept unsettle issues. I must thank him for this. I read a lot on how couples split due to misunderstanding. @Butang and I, we both do not want to add on to that statistic. 

This is how I am surviving a long distance relationship. To all couples who are rocking the same boat as mine, lets make this work!

Makan-makan raya at Hidayah's

I have been so excited about this since last week. Hidayah and I planned a small Eid gathering at her house. We have been planning about it for a week. We had the gathering yesterday and had so much fun.

The invite

I made this invite and send to those in our invitation list. I used the Typorama apps in my phone to do it. Since I discovered Typorama about 2 weeks ago, I have been obsessed with it. It is so much fun to put words on photo. The app offers a lot of layout for the words. 

All of us yesterday with Cotton the cat

We could only invite so few as Hidayah's house is not equipped to host for a lot more than this and since this is our first time of hosting a gathering, we were pretty clueless on how to handle things. So we figured we should start small and maybe next year we can invite more people. 

For the menu, we had keropok for appetizer and fettucini in cream mushroom sauce as the main course. Dessert was strawberry cheese cake and we had rootbeer float for drinks. Of course there were some kuih raya as well. 

I am so proud to say that we did most of the cooking ourselves, except for the kuih raya and rootbeer. 

I am most proud of the strawberry cheese cake. It looks so pretty. It tasted great too. Our friend Thiru is vegetarian every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Since we had our gathering on a Thursday, we made sure our menu were all vegetarian. The cheesecake were supposed to have gelatine in it but since we could not find a vegetarian gelatine, we omitted that and prayed hard that the cake would form well. And it did! Look at how pretty it is. 

I love our table setup. The colours bring a lot of fun to the atmosphere. But then, it look more like a 13th of July celebration rather than Eid. Lol. We didn't realise that until we set up the table before the gathering. 

Our kuih raya..combination of mine and Hidayah's. We didn't have a fancy container to serve them hence the plain container in where they are kept. Tan HJ brought some chips to add on to our kuih raya too.

We had a lot of fun yesterday. Before the day ended, we were already making plans for our next gathering. A movie night and sleep over or a picnic at nearby park. Both ideas seem so exciting. 

Till more exciting days to come..daaaaa~

McDonald

I just got home after working for 30 hours. I am tired and hungry. I could barely open my eyes. I had managed to sleep for only 2 hours last night. It was a busy on-call. 

I am a doctor who works in one of the busiest government hospital. As most doctors, I can't escape going on call (I clock in at 8am today and finish work about 24-30 hours later). On lucky days, I get to have a few hours of decent sleep. On the bad days, I just work through the hours, non stop. Work is tough, but I have to work to get money to pay the bills right.

Back to the current moment, I am writing this blog entry while having my lunch. 

Why McDonald? Because it is so convenient to get a fast and fulfilling meal from McDonald. They are everywhere. In Ipoh itself, there are about 5 McDonald outlets. And when I am tired, sleepy and hungry, I want a meal that can be ready in an instant, with an affordable price without compromising on the quality or taste. I am coffee person and I am constantly hunting for good coffee with a reasonable price. I found that Mc Cafe offers such coffee to my liking. Hence McDonald has became my go-to food place every time I feel like I don't want to make much effort to find food to eat. 

Once I have a patient who said "kenapa makan McDonald tu..haram". I wish I could explain to him my reasoning. I should have told him how lucky he is to have a wife who cooks for him daily and he should be thankful for always having food on the table at home.

I am going to get some sleep now.  Hidayah, Thiru and I are planning to bake a cheese cake later this evening. I am so excited about it. Yeay!

Cordoba, Andalusia

Just now as I was flipping through the TV channel I stumbled upon this drama, 99 Cahaya di Langit Eropa. It is an Indonesia drama series starring Acha Septriasa and was released in Indonesia in 2013. The drama is about an Indonesian journalist, Hanum Salsabiela who follows her husband to study in Vienna, Austria.

In that episode that I was watching, they went to Cordoba and visited Mezquita of Cordoba (the great mosque-cathedral of Cordoba). The history and architecture of Mezquita intrigues me to google on Cordoba straight away.

a photo of Mezquita of Cordoba that I found in Google

Cordoba, Andalusia is a city located in the southern of Spain. UNESCO has listed Cordoba as one of the world heritage site. Most of the city attraction lies on the architecture of the ancient buildings and the history behind it.  There is also the famous arabic bath and beautiful gardens.

I think it would be sweet and romantic to tour the city with @Butang. So as most people planning a trip, I straight away google "how to go to Cordoba".

It seems like there is no direct flight from Malaysia to Cordoba. I searched for flight through Trip Advisor, my trusted source for planning a trip.

From Pinterest, I found out that the best time to book a flight is 6 weeks before departure date. So I searched for a flight on my birthday in September. It cost about RM3400 per person for a return flight with 2 transits each way.

Next, hotel booking. I always booked with either Booking.com or Agoda.com. These 2 websites are my favorite and the reviews of the hotels can be trusted.

The cheapest accommodation of course would be a hostel, rather than a hotel. I found Hostel La Corredera which has good review and offers one of the affordable price. The twin/double room cost RM147/night on Booking.com and RM135/night on Agoda.com.

The rooms look comfortable and most importantly, reviews say they are clean.

As for now, for flight tickets and accomodation : RM3400x2 + RM810 = RM7610.

I also need to allocate money for food, tips, admission fees to all the attraction, bus/taxi/train fares, travel insurance and some money for emergency. How much should I allocate for all those?

Currency exchange rate as of today

In google I found this website www.youngadventuress.com which has listed the estimated budget for meals and transport in Cordoba.

Rough calculation reveals around 600 euro for 2 person for 1 week. This is for food, transport and admission fees. To be safe, I would allocate about 1000 euro which comes to RM4400. 

So total budget will be around : RM7610 + RM4400 = RM12 010

RM12k is a lot of money. But hey, a dream is a dream right. 

@Butang, lets start saving money and make this dream a reality.

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Post Raya

I am back in Ipoh and tomorrow I am on call in ICU. Oh how depressing. Back from raya holiday and straight to on call.

I am looking at my raya photos. I am swept by mixed emotions; happy because i got to spend time with my family, sad when i think that this might be my last raya with them, overjoy looking at the photos of AKJ gathering together and having fun.

Here are a few of my favourite shots.

On the way to atuk's grave on 2nd syawal

Atuk's grave

Reciting  surah yassin for atuk

4th syawal OOTD

Love Ati's raya outfit and it feels so good to see her smile brightly like that

di 'puncak' with Ana

Overly excited in this photo :-)

Mom who never smile in photos, lol

Youngest and the most manja 

Raya at Cijan's house

Raya at Anjang's house

I wish I can spend more time visiting my relatives. But too bad I have to return to Ipoh already today. 

Praying hard for a good call tomorrow. 

Ipoh people, any open house invitation? Ngeeee :-D

simple cocoa cupcake - resipi turun temurun AKJ

This doesn't look fancy at all but they taste surprisingly good. Not too rich like the normal chocolate cupcake I usually get from the bakery, not too sweet either. I can grab a cupcake after every meal and not feel too guilty about it.

This is cocoa cupcakes that I baked the other day as requested by my overly manja sister Ira. Oh yesterday was her birthday by the way. She turned 21 (made me feel so old *sigh*)

The recipe for this cocoa cupcake originates from the AKJ family cake recipe but with a bit of alteration (in which i add cocoa powder, only) to it. I have always love my family's cake recipe, different from most recipe i found over the net. The texture of the cake is also different, a bit crumbly but it holds well and it is so soft and it gets  moist over time. 

Here's the recipe :

Ingredients:

1 cup of Planta (or butter) - my family always use Planta, since before I was born

1 cup of powdered sugar

5 large eggs, the yolks are separated from the whites

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

1/2 teaspoon of rose essence

1 1/4 cup of self raising flour, sifted

4 tablespoon of cocoa powder

Steps :

1. Cream Planta and sugar together in a cake mixer for about 20 mins

2. When the batter is light and pale in colour, add in the egg yolks one by one.

3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they are airy (until it does not fall when the bowl is turned upside down)

4. Then add in the beaten egg whites to the cake batter and mix them well

5. Add in the vanilla and rose essence

6. Add the self raising flour slowly while mixing the batter by making the figure 8 (this is to trap air into the batter so that the cake will raise well later)

7. Add in the cocoa powder and mixed well (if the colour is not right, you can add in a bit more of the cocoa powder but be weary as we don't want our cake to be bitter)

8. Spoon into papercups, about half full.

9. Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degree celsius for 20-25 mins

10. Cool on a rake before keeping in an airtight container

Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think. 

Happy baking!

Selamat Hari Raya!

Happy Eid Mubarak everyone!

I would like to take this opportunity to ask for forgiveness for every wrong doings.
Wishing everyone a happy hari raya and please stay safe on the road during your journey to everywhere. Traffic is crazy during this festive season.

Family Photo

Our theme color this year is blue. Mom didn't exactly said what kind of blue. Mine turned up to be totally off the theme color. Lol.

Started off the day with going for sembahyang sunat aidil fitri at the nearby mosque. The mosque was crowded. Glad to see a lot of people there all in their baju raya with songkok and telekung. Listening to the takbir raya brought up the melancholy thought that Ramadhan has passed.

Selfies with my sisters in our telekung before heading off for sembahyang raya

After sembahyang raya, we dolled up nice and pretty. 5 ladies getting ready took a lot of time and involved a lot of laugh and shouts as well. 

Then it was time for salam-salam and asking for forgiveness followed by giving the duit raya (angpau). 

                    

Part of the 1st Syawal routine is going to Batu 1 to visit my uncle. Wo (my grandmother) used to live there before moving to Kuala Lumpur. When she was still there, raya was much more fun. All my relatives will go balik kampung to Batu 1. We have a very large extended family. So when everyone came back for raya, I used to think the house could topple down. Nevertheless, it was so much fun. We would play firecrackers, fireworks, baked cakes, fought for pillows, roamed around the big house at way passed midnight looking for a spot to squeeze ourself and get a few hours of sleep. But now, only papa (my uncle) lives there. His children and grandchildren came back for raya. We ate some raya delights then began our photoshoot session. It is a kampung house hence we get a nice pretty background for our photos. 

Imran and Hana

My cousin, more to a sister, Kak CM

My cousin, Erna

Papa and my family together 

After visiting Batu 1, next routine is for lunch at Secret Recipe. This tradition started a few years back when 1st Syawal fell in early August, around Ana's birthday. We went to Secret Recipe to celebrate her birthday and since then, it has became a tradition in my family. 

This year's raya is no different from any other before this. But the time spent with my family is priceless.

I hope everyone has a great raya celebration. 

Happy eid mubarak!