With Mother of Nature @ Kepong Botanic Garden;Forest Research Institute Malaysia

Most who live in Kepong shall be familiar with Kepong Botanic Garden which is under management of Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM). The entrance fee is RM1 per adult and there are various car parks at the external of Kepong Botanic Garden. It is differed comparing with the canopy walkway of Main Entrance of FRIM.

It was 7.30am; Sunday and there were so many people whom had finished their jogging sessions! I was somehow reluctantly to wake up in such an early morning to go for jogging. However, my mom had been nagged till woke me up.Huh...

The sudden thought of having some scenery photos had me bringing along my little baby along. Here are the abundant of photos which I captured:

 Fascinated by the yellow lantern-shaped flowers.

 Bird of Paradise Flower.

The meaning of the flower carries: Freedom, Happiness & Good luck.

 Hmm, the combination of the colours had just attracted me! Well, it lacked of blue colour!

 My mom mentioned that the flowers looked like fire crackers.

 I had no idea what flower is this...

 Different rocks like representing various kind of humans. 

 A successful shot of morning glory after avoiding the bees around them (me).

It would be great to reading under trees.

 

The blossom tree!

Additionally, the flowers are in purple colour! 

I feel like going to Japan at once!

 The most satisfied photo of the day! 

 The opposite of the lens are the wide forests.

 The right place if you're looking for solitude.

The endless laps around the laps which attracted me to drop by capturing abundant photos.

 The view is just simply breathtaking.

 The breathtaking view contributed by precious and beautiful plants with the verdant green-cloaked hills 

 Reflection of the pine hill and small pavilion in the lake.

 Going through the final stretch of the walkway.

 While walking across the small bridge, few dead fish were seen.
Also, there were many people feeding fishes with their almost expire breads. Huh...

 A small pathway heading to the center of the Botanic Garden in which most adults doing their exercise there.

 

The mist had finally gone, replacing by the bright sunshine.

 万绿丛中一点红

 After session of simple exercises with mom, we headed home for breakfast.

Before leaving, we found this plant nearby the public toilet facilities.

Any one knows the name of the plant?

The Kepong Botanic Garden is definitely worth visiting and it is a wonderful spot for photography and short getaway.I shall say it's like a showcase of scenic ponds greenery backdrop, plants and flowers.

However, I think the maintenance of Botanic Garden shall be improved as rubbish could be seen along the track. The public shall be more educated of not throwing their almost expired breads into the lake and management shall be look serious into this matter. 

My Memory Makers- Samsung NX1000 & HTC ONE S

Sometimes, I do have lucks in winning some GREAT prizes by participating online contests. However, apart from luck, I did put efforts in writing good slogan and comments to win them. There were few prizes that had spiced up my life especially the lovely memories makers which are Samsung NX1000 and HTC One S phone. The memories makers had been my loyal companions for traveling and moments-capturing.

Samsung Smart NX1000 is an interchangeable-lens camera which is available in black, white and pink colour. The contributor in memories making process had arrived my hugs in year 2012. Unpacking the box revealing my stylish white Samsung Smart NX1000 which comes along with :

♥ 20-50mm F/3.5-5.6 ED Lens (White)
♥ SEF-8A Hot Shoe Mount Flash Unit
♥ BP1030 Lithium-ion Battery
♥ BC1030 Battery Charger & AC Cable
♥ Body Cap
♥ Camera Strap
♥ Micro USB Cable

#1   Smart settings
I was very impressed with Samsung NX1000 which takes great shots whether in all-auto (SMART) or various less-auto/manual modes. Before owning this stylish baby, I wasn't confident in Samsung branded camera. The effective automatic controls and manual settings is suitable for me whom is not an expertise in photography.

One of the night scenery that I had captured using Samsung NX1000

# 2   20.3 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
The 20.3 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor made Samsung Smart NX1000 becoming the great competitor for DSLR.The high-speed capture and fast auto-focus enable the precious moments been captured unmistakably.

# 3  Smart Filters
I had lots of fun with its Smart filters which encompassed of Miniature, Soft Focus, Old Film1, Old Film2,, Halftone Dots, Sketch, Fish-Eye, De-fog and etcetera. Filters are just like bonus add-on to NX1000 as it eased us who love to share photographs with Instagram-filter effects. Hmmm, I hadn't tried to capture human using these filters, perhaps I shall try in future.

# 4  i-Function

The i-Function allows activation of menu controls to select ISO,filters by rotating the ring easily instead of clicking buttons, creating seamless experience in shooting.

# 5  Mobile link and WiFi Mode
The built-in features of mobile link and Wifi Mode are definitely attracted me who like to connect to WiFi hot spot and upload photos to social media sites like Facebook, Youtube, blog, and Photobucket. The capabilities of linking photos to offsite storage websites like dropbox makes me feel more secured as the photos are backed up safely.

Overall, I am very satisfied with my stylish camera's features and the quality of photos it had helped me to capture. The drawback would be the white colour design which needs extra care as it gets dirty easily. I have the headache of having yellowish looked camera straps and it has to be washed often.

HTC ONE S

The loyal companion which had been together with me for almost 1 year and a half. HTC One S may not be as good as its rivals like Samsung Note, iPhone, but it is definitely one of the stunning smartphones which able to take vivid and nice photos. Most of the photos in the blog ranged from 2013 onward are mostly taken by HTC One S.

Source: http://www.htc.com/au/smartphones/htc-one-s/

HTC ONE S features :

3G, 4.3″ Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 8 MP camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth.

Moments. Memory

Shanghai and Sze Chuan Cuisines @ Esquire Kitchen 大人餐厅

Esquire Kitchen is one of most visited dining places during my childhood  Being part of a traditional family, my parents are preferring Esquire Kitchen for its Shanghai and Sze Chuan cuisines compared to the latest trends of Japanese/ Korea cuisines. This year, we had visited Sungei Wang Plaza and shopped for new clothes during Chinese New Year. Esquire Kitchen had been our choice of having dinner.

Sungei Wang Plaza Chinese New Year decoration

Crowded Esquire Kitchen

We ordered Prosperity New Year set (RM68++) which allowed us to choose 4 main dishes and dessert. We had ordered the well known cuisines such as Wo Tip and Xiao Long Bao.

Fried Shanghainese Dumplings with crispy skins wrapping the flavorful meat.

Pan fried Shanghainese Dumplings had one side crispy while the topside is left slightly chewy.

Fried Shanghainese Dumplings  (Shanghai Wo Tip) is one of the specialties of Esquire Kitchen.
It tastes best by eating with ginger slices.

Double Mushroom with Seasoned Beancurd skins 竹报平安
Braised beancurd skins with mushrooms is an usual dish we had at home, however Esquire Kitchen has cooked them with many types of vegetables  

Stir-fry lotus roots with chinese sausages 莲花玉女
Each bite of this dish is fulled of crunchiness. The dish is made of lotus roots, Chinese sausages and cashew nuts, carrot slices and green beans.

Braised pork ribs with chestnuts and shittake mushrooms 儿孙满堂

The soy-braised pork spare ribs are not an easy dish to be cooked according to my mom as it takes a long time for preparing the ingredients, ensuring the shittake mushroom are marinated well before cooking and lastly stewing the marinated pork ribs with low heat till the meats are tendered.

I liked this dish particularly because of chestnuts and shittake mushroom being my favorite food.

Deep Fried Garoupa with citrus juice 年年有余
It looked like Thailand style fish to us due to the slices of carrots and cucumbers on top of the garoupa. The sweetness and sourness were well-balanced along with the crunchy skin and flaky flesh of the fish.

The delicate & translucent-skinned Xiao Long Bao ( steamed dumplings) which were filled with minced meats (prawns and pork) and essential juices.
I hoped I could have another basket of xiao long bao to enliven my taste buds :)

Family dinner

Dessert rice balls in red beans paste 甜甜蜜蜜

As the name of the dessert, a bowl of glutinous rice balls in red bean paste had perfectly ended our scrumptious dinner.

Family dinner 

It's still one of the best dining places for family dinner. Good value for its authentic cuisines and the ambiance of restaurant is pleasant for family gathering.