.....to a Canon Power Shot SX1 IS!



After long moments of frugality and trying to stay loyal to my old digicam, I finally gave in. With lots of cash to spare, though not so many time to kill to take beautiful shots, I decided to purchase a semipro camera over an SLR.

I love taking photos but having to study elaborate photography techniques and editing are probably not my best passion, having lots of other things to do. Armed with 20x digital zoom is probably its best features. I prefer to "snipe" at instantaneous moments rather than putting an extra effort for a good close-up view.

Would you believe that this camera was of the same price as an amateur SLR? I could have woken up one morning, thinking that what a loss now that I have brought a semipro, when I could have bought a striking SLR! It was bought at around RM 2000 (GBP 350) , almost the same price as a Nikon SLR I couldn't remember which model it was.

It was bought just a day before my scheduled flight back to UK. I was adamant - I want the exchange to be in RM, not GBP - I wouldn't wanna be buying it in the UK. Firstly, can anyone tell me which is a decent enough physical shop which sells cameras in Sheffield? (Don't tell me Currys - it is not a camera shop).

Secondly, the only time it is considered appropriate to bargain is during Sunday carboot sales. Third, buying camera, and that is all you get - no peripheral items, nada. And lastly, the only decent place you can buy cameras are online - Amazon and the rest.

My Nikon and I went to Paris,France..

My old Nikon Coolpix 4600 digicam was bought back in the era when virtually nobody in my college would be able to lug on their camera without having to buy a Kodak film. I loved the Coolpix and I have enjoyed the beautiful photos it produced. It is now in safe custody of my mum, who might find it of benefit to use =)

...and Fort William in Scotland..

And as for the mobile...While many of my classmates were still owning a monotone phone with small black-and-white screen nonetheless, I was out there with a polyphone, coloured screen. Thinking about it, I laughed endlessly because I remembered owning an external camera, which could be attached and detached to my old Nokia 3100 port to take photos out of your mobile. Gosh. In this day and age, it is obscene to have been seen using that kinda gadget!

Those days, it was cool to own a polyphone mobile. As it was cool to own a digital camera. I could almost be one of those early people jumping into the technology bandwagon. But typical me, further new technology doesn't outgrow me. I will keep my possessions as long as they are in good use. Had it not been that my Nokia 3100 got stolen, I would probably still be using it until now.

..and to other places,such wonderful time we both had..

My new baby is still left quite untouched. It will probably take me long loooong time before I could master all the features. Heck if I were to buy SLR, the features would probably overkill me in an instant.

Oh and.. a mention to a friend (or rival), Pisang: I have now bought a semipro, so go far far away and stop teasing my camera!!

10th November 2009

Related posts:
Buying Laptops In The UK and Something About Freebies and Haggling

Lately my weekly routine includes watching the latest Season 6 of Desperate Housewives every Monday just after the America transmission (Britain does not air it until December/January), followed by The Amazing Race of the latest season.

Dispersed in between my week would be occasional hop onto Channel 4.com for some documentaries. Lately they have got a few awesome documentary shows, those that pertaining to matters about race and racism , human psychology and explorations.

But just about early October I discovered Dawn Porter:Extreme Wife and I ended up watching all her three episodes (Episode 2-4) on the 4 on Demand freeview.

"I'm Dawn Porter. And for the last four years I've been single. It's not that I don't want a relationship. I do. But, before I take the plunge, I plan to experience some of the most extreme ways women find love and live with men" is the cue to the Extreme Wife.

The episode that ticks me the most was The Polygamist's Wife, where she travelled to the deserts of Arizona, USA to meet with families who have been practicing polygamy, secluded from the outside America world of which polygamy is outlawed, and one could be charged for committing felony for doing so.

They are Christians and Americans in every sense, living in a community having a population of 1200. And holds a different view of polygamy from possibly the rest of the American population and Dawn Porter herself.

(Which was really annoying because she has been exhibiting her personal view and injecting it into the viewers with the thought that polygamy is a twisted way of life and that the word 'polygamy' itself seems obscene, possibly thinking that every viewer shares the same view as hers).

Her first encounter in Arizona was meeting a group of women practicing polygamy. They expressed their views that people "out there" have been seeing them as though they are "the victim and a hopeless,stupid creature who have been brainwashed into any of these practices".
"How dare you judge us!" a woman in the group exclaimed.

One woman made a point about the wholesomeness of a big family, more people to love and it gives a better environment for the children. But what was important was that, in the American community where adultery is rampant and divorces almost always occur as a by-product of discovered adulterous acts, they claimed that the people "out there" failed to see polygamy as a way out to solve the problem.

"There are so many ways to grasp on a sexual desire than to take a family or children" said the younger woman of the group. So if the men are seen to take on two or three wives at the same time, loved them dearly, and stay committed to it are looked down upon, why is it that serial monogamy (i.e the marry -> divorce -> marry somebody else because-I'm-sick-of-you pattern) which happens terribly rampant nowadays is not looked down upon? Or equally worse, the same-sex marriage is already accepted in some parts of the world, including America?

When she questioned a man who practiced polygamy, if he is going to be unfaithful to his wife, should he practice monogamy, it came with a "i probably would". Therefore the polygamy, on their views, was a way to solve the problem, and any problems that come with it (eg jealousy, demands on the husband) is only minute.

Despite those reasons, those polygamous community viewed their culture and practice in a divine way, as being closer to God and it promises the women a Goddess title in heaven.

In Malaysia, the connotation of polygamy is such that it will always come with Malay women brazenly jumping up to defend their so-called rights. In the Malay newspaper it is frequently mentioned. (Muslim laws allow men to marry up to four women at a time). Polygamy is always being subjected to negative views in Malaysia, no different than America or the rest of the world.

Go and watch it yourself! Not sure whether it can only be viewed in Britain or worldwide, though... As for now it's free on 4 on Demand on Channel 4's website. Feel free to leave comments here if you've watched it. Below is just a short clip from the show.

Well, don't get me wrong. I wish not to be in a polygamous marriage myself (I know that it's not happening because my other half loved me so dearly hee hee :D ) , but I do not ever object it.

What do you think of the polygamous community in the show? In the Western world particularly, do you think that you also hold the view that polyamory, serial monogamy, or serial relationship is also more acceptable than polygamy? If you are a Malaysian (or Muslims particularly), what makes you think many women are worked up about polygamy almost to the point that sometimes they fervently deny that this is the right granted by Allah? Is it due to personal experience or the negative images portrayed of polygamous men?

30th October 2009

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nurinkhairi: I was riding a taxi of whom the taxi driver was a Chinese. He was telling me of his search for a religion best for him. In the end he said, "Plus point of converting to Islam is that, because I want to get married to more than one woman". LoL!
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The end of October marks a festival in the Western world particularly - it's the Halloween. Just last Saturday I was in a hypermarket shopping for groceries, and people have already beginning to stock on pumpkins and Halloween costumes.

I never actually had that thought
to jump in the bandwagon and make a beeline to Sheffield's annual Fright Night, not until last night that is. It was held annually on Sunday prior to Halloween, and was said to include some fancy rides, ghost tours etc.

That was what the promo will tell you. And also, not to mention the ubiquitous promotional poster - they never bother to change the graphic and content :P

It was a rather enjoyable evening, after all when will you be able to see an avalanche of people parading in Sheffield city centre (or Britain, rather) in evening time, if not just for the pubgoers and drunken louts? It was very much a family event enjoying themselves in the cool evening air.

Two cooks from hell with their captive

However the queue for the rides were awfully long and I would use the spare times rather than staring into the people on the thrill ride, with shopping. Sadly, the shops are all closed, understandably. Considering it was already 7 pm, and all shops close at 5! And oh, did I not walk past ghost rides? Because I couldn't find it??

Do you see what I saw?

Family all geared up in ghouly costumes, some just painted their faces, some were 'mummified' with bandages all over, a couple in ninja costumes, a family took the effort to become the Addams family while some others were dressed as witches and trolls.

However it was one rare experience that I was glad I had the chance to participate in the merriment.

May the fright be with you

Have you been to any Halloween events? How was the experience?

26th October 2009

image source

The British people really has a thing with being polite, however, err.. a little bit too polite... The degree of their politeness could probably outwit the typical Japanese elderly, bowing incessantly.

Firstly, they are over-indulging the usage of this one simple word: SORRY. My day is almost always filled with these simple little 'sorries' , which sometimes wasn't really necessary.

They muttered sorry while I was tripping on my wedges shoe, myself almost bumping into them.

Taking a ride on a busy tram, bumping into each other would instantly be followed by a sorry by both of us. Bump into her twice and we would still be incessantly saying sorry to each other that it tires me to having to keep up saying sorry.

If I were in the library and was getting on other people's way of access, I would still instantly say 'sorry' and let them pass through. But I wouldn't expect a double 'sorry' to have come out from that person as well. Instead, wouldn't common sense posits that she/he should be saying 'thank you' instead?

Well, however being apologetic that I naturally am, I should always be saying 'thank you' or other courtesies whenever it is appropriate to do so, and not a bunch of sorries.

These days however, I have been saying sorry just a little too much. It just flows naturally nowadays, for things which are not really my fault and never is necessary at the first place.

Maybe I need to get my head round this..


Related Posts:

My Week of Queue Felony
Less of A Manic Monday..'Coz It's Bank Holiday Today

22nd October 2009

A friend of mine *requested* an entry about my internship experiences. I was certain that she is eyeing for a career opportunity as part of the company ;)

Just to serve as an information, nonetheless does not cross any proprietary boundary set by the company (I know 'coz I have checked), a summary of my assignments that I undertook for the whole 10 weeks while I was there.

I was part of the Facilities Surveillance Group (FSG), one of four Groups working under Surface Technical Department.

My observation tells me that FSG involves in conducting surveillance and troubleshooting as necessary on all offshore facilities. They are also closely involved with procurement aspects as well as machinery aspects of the facilities.



Moisture Analyzer Project

I was involved in a project to install a new moisture analyzer in my assigned offshore field. My predecessor intern was involved in purchasing the 6-digit figure of the analyzer, and I continued with what he left off.

A workable moisture analyzer is crucial, because it enables moisture analysis (i.e. quantity of particles of water in gas) of the gas sales coming from the reservoir all the way to onshore processing facility. Too wet a gas is a signal of mishaps, therefore a proactive monitoring is important.

My tasks include surveying location of installation offshore (how would a location be advantageous compared to another) and discussing with the vendor of whom we purchased the facility, especially about the technical side of the analyzer.

To add to that, I was responsible in raising a contract engaging the vendor to perform their commissioning service for the company, coming up with a project plan as well as detailing work scope for the construction team to perform installation and wiring job.

PI Project

The PI (Plant Information) project aims to bring the offshore information to the office just by a click of a mouse, for a more efficient monitoring and engineering analysis. There is like a huuuge lot of information in the offshore control room (pressure, temperature, valve opening etc), therefore I salute them all in this team for their dedicated commitment.

I was involved in the implementation stage, whereby my tasks required me to be in contact with engineers (whilst exercising my negotiation ability, oops!) , to understand the processes of the oil and gas.

I was required to study drawings and to compare between technical drawings and screen drawings and to do technical jobs which suited the work of an intern ;)


Offshore Manual

I would probably describe this as my peripheral task, as this does not consume a lot of my time.. While I was in the offshore location, I was required to perform surveillance work and visiting the site to gather various information and update them in this manual.

It's just a way towards better surveillance and to exercise proactive measures rather than reactive measures e.g. to enact measures to prevent a bursting valve by analyzing its history and performance in the manual, rather than taking action after the valve bursts. The latter would cost more money, aite?

Morning Meeting

Coordinating daily morning meeting (tele-conference) between offshore supervisors and engineers in the Office. It taught me a lot, just by listening on the updates and progress of the production.

Most of the time I was just listening, except when I wanted to chip in to enquire about the progress of my own assigned project.

So well, Adil my friend, here's to you :)

image source

Yikes, my heart skipped a beat one too many times!

I was en route to Edinburgh, Scotland last Friday with a Crosscountry service train when they were stopping at a station called Darlington (somewhere between York and Newcastle) way too long. We made a stop for more than 30 minutes or so, unsure what was happening.

It was close to 9pm on a Friday night and I was tired from the 5-hour stint lectures I had during the day, so I tried to catch some nap, when I was suddenly being awoken by a coarse-sounding voice.

Not more than 5 policemen (and one policewoman) was in the coach where I was. Two of them blocking the doorway on one side of the coach and another one or two were blocking the other side of the coach. As I fumbled to get my glasses (yes, I am short-sighted), we saw a man of Caucasian origin, being handcuffed and taken away from the coach. That man was seated just about 5 rows in front of me.

No commotion, nothing. The train service was being alerted to stop by Darlington station and they just took that man away in a jiff.

"Sorry folks. But we are more than happy for the train to resume the journey now", came the crisp-sounding policeman.

But what stunned us the most was that: they were not ordinary UK policeman, but those of the Armed Forces with submachine guns, cool-looking caps and bowlers , and bullet-proof vests.

While I was reaching Edinburgh and related the story to my Edinburgh host (of whom I was visiting) of how and why there was a tremendous delay in my arrival, she had this concerned look on her face and told me that this was no ordinary police squad since ordinary police is not armed - it could be from the anti-terrorism squad. Yikes!

Upon reaching my Sheffield home the following Sunday, among the first few things I did was to Google this incident. 'Arrest at Darlington Station' , 'Man arrested Darlington Station', 'Armed forces arrest Darlington Station' were some of the keywords I tried using, but to no avail. No related findings suggesting any information as to what crime this man has done.

I was travelling by myself that evening. Funny because once the policemen left, and the service was ready to resume, all of us in that coach laughed. "I thought we were watching a TV show!" , came a woman passenger's voice.

"Crosscountry service apologizes for the delay in the service. We would like to note that a passenger has been removed from this service and we would be resuming our journey. Please advise, should there be any passenger continuing their journey any further from Edinburgh, we would be checking on your train times to ensure you get to your final destination."

Phew! Another day, another story!

8th October 2009

6 am: Alarm sounded. Gaaahh, please gimme extra 5 minutes time to get up from this slumber. By 5.30 am really, my household would already be rocking and my mum would almost always be knocking my door. Erm,mama, I shall wait for my alarm :D

6.44 am: I'm already outta the house now, good. Dad is driving me to Bandar Tasik Selatan LRT station everyday. If I get outta house anytime after 6.45, that's rather a bad news, so I'm staying put on the 6.44 am deadline.

7 am: It's the morning news on the radio and I'm halfway through my journey to the Station. Which will take 20-25 mins, considering the amount of traffic in this peak hours.

7.11 am: Will almost always get either a 7.11 am or 7.15 am arriving train. Anytime after that, I would probably be a *little* late.

7.30 am: Great. 19 minutes journey, and I'm in Masjid Jamek LRT station, for the train interchange right on time. 7.40 am would be too late to be wandering round Masjid Jamek for me. 0730 hours, ample time for me to be stopping buy at my favorite 'makcik' stall selling breakfast. Just by looking at her son with that groggy face, scruffy hair and stained shirt, never missing his thank-yous to customers just brings me warmth every day.

7.35 am-7.40 am: Journey is only roughly 5 minutes, but it's amazing that sometimes I could only manage to get the third train coming, given the long queue. Amazing that I could put up with the amount of people jam-packed in one train coach. By the time it reaches KLCC, amazing because almost almost *everyone* will alight, leaving the train almost empty.



7.45 am: A minimum of 10 more minutes to reach the office. Walking through the park to get there was my first option. Too late to reach office with foot? Wait for the Traders Hotel shuttle buggy as we shamelessly swarming over the buggy as it arrives, to get a hitch ride to the office.

I once asked my colleague whether it is morally right to be hitching for a ride in that buggy, seeing that it is actually a service for the hotel guests rather.... The justification she gave was: the company brings in business for them too, because we would almost always hold events at their premises. So why not for just a little ride for the needy office workers? :D

8 am: Already in the conference room for morning meeting. Set up the projector, open the morning report, dialled in for morning meeting.. Larut-A (one of the offshore fields that I was under) will almost always be on the line early. Catch up with some Larut-KL office chitchats: weather, crew change, production.. Ah, our Operations Superitendant is always late for the meeting..

9.30 am: There goes the lengthy online discussion between the engineers in the office and supervisors offshore. Every morning. I am now on to my breakfast and another gruelling day!

Beyond that, nothing is routine..Every day presents a new task cropping up and catching up with the following day's work.

Ahh..how I enjoy..

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nurinkhairi: Sometimes what you write can be helpful to others and yup,very Google-friendly. ;)

nurinkhairi #2: I tried to resist not to put up the word 'ExxonMobil' in my blog title (felt it wasn't really necessary), but I couldn't resist the temptation of getting more hits. I looove Google hits! (who doesn't? :D )
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