Loctor Mayat’s Autopsy

This weekend I took an impromptu trip down south to KL to visit some friends and to pick up something from Abang Spider. Around 10am++ on Saturday I started my journey alone from home. Mrs Mayat didn’t followed me because she has nothing to do there and her parents were also not around.

After passing the Juru toll plaza it started to rain quite heavily and that kind of made me worries as my car tyres are not really that ‘flower-ful’ anymore. Nevertheless, I drove on at 90km/h and soon before reaching Perak, the sun went up again. Woot~!

Around noon I reached Ipoh and quickly made my way into the town and visited a photographer friend of mine, Enchik Ong from Jetfynn Studio. I had trouble looking for his shop because I stupidly keyed in the wrong address in my GPS. Woahahahha….

Nevertheless, somehow or another I reached Mr Ong’s shop and he quickly took me out in his car to pick up his son and also for lunch!

I forgot the name of the restaurant that  he brought me to but the food was really good. We had Satay buffet, yin-yong poh piah, curry chee cheong fun, etc etc etc…. I even gulped down two cups of Kopi… LOL

After lunch we hanged out in his studio for a while and some customers walked in and I had to excuse myself lah. Don’t wanna kacau people do business. LOL~!

Around 5pm++ I finally reached my ‘hotel’ in Bangsar and quickly go pangsai. Ei… it doesn’t mean the food in Ipoh got something wrong la… it’s just that I can pangsai anywhere and anytime. LOL…

After that I rested myself to recharge my bodily fluids until 7pm or so then quickly drove to Shah Alam for the night’s meet up location in none other than Plaza Masalam. Ha ha ha… if you don’t know where/what is the place, it’s actually the MACC HQ where Mr Teoh Beng Hock….. well…. you know.

ANYHOW……

I am the first to arrive and quickly made my way to Setabak…

Soon after that, the other friends arrived one by one… Daniel…. and not long after that… the man of the night.. my favourite Abang Spider…. LOLOLOL~!

See ? So handsome…. sorry guys he’s taken….. LOL

Not long after that my Abang Will Phua also arrived and we managed to catch up a little bit before I had to leave Shah Alam already as I didn’t want my host to wait up for me too late.

I chatted with my host for a while and shared interesting stories from Penang and around 1am…. too tired liao then just go straight to bed.

But hor… wah lau…. halfway sleeping suddenly got thunderstorm and the wind was blowing so strong from the windows my pants flew off while sleeping. Damn kaw lat… but since I was too tired I continued sleeping till the next morning la.. hahaha

My host asked me to try his special kopi which he bought from Indonesia. At first I thought of nothing until he brought out the kopi…

WOAHHHHH…. Civet cat pangsai coffee~!!!

Unfortunately, we were in a rush to leave the home for our own plans so we cincai cincai brew it only… ha ha… I must say that it’s rather something refreshing. It’s not a bold blend so for those ‘kuat caffeine’ kaki.. you can forget about drinking pangsai coffee laa… if got chance I’d like to try again and this round I will brew it nicely..

Around 9am I reached my last TT place of the trip which is Setabaks Centrepoint Bandar Utama.. (Yeah I like to meet in such places.. LOL)

The first person to arrive on time... was none other my very best friend from the net Mr Engineer. This fella brings his camera everywhere he goes. LOL~! I asked him to bring it out so I can inject a huge doze of poison into his brain. As I expected, he was severely poisoned…. hahahhahah

Heh heh heh…

Soon after that Weezy and her husband arrived and immediately, me and Mr Weezy was like the most contrasting couple in the cafe this morning…

Check it out….

HAHAHHAHAHHAAH

1. Same netbook, different colors

2. Same T-shirt design, mine’s digital, he’s filem

3. Armitage Shanks White netbook… Black netbook

4. I use black mouse… he use white mouse

5. WOAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA

Damn farnee lah I tell you.

Around 10:30am-ish… I bade farewell to my KL friends and started my journey back home. I stopped by Ipoh again to buy some Yee Hup biscuits and Pamelos and finally reached home-sweet-home around 3pm.

So… till the next time I go KL again… see ya~!

Well what I’ve been up to lately ever since the Heritage Trail outing?

It’s work as usual and things in the company are picking up soon and I’ll be going into the busy cycle again. In these times of uncertainty, being busy is considered a privilege as work means job security. Ha ha ha.. anyhow, that one don’t talk so much.

Last Friday me and 5 of my colleagues took a day off so that we could travel in two cars down to KL again for another colleague’s wedding. This round, I am still the OP (Orang Photo) and I have 3 others as my assistants/backups. It was one of the most comprehensive Chinese wedding I’ve ever documented as the couple need to pray to all sorts of sky God/Emperors and then with all the rituals and what nots that I have no idea what are they for.

My setup for documenting weddings are actually very simple. Camera with 20mm and 50mm, one SB-800 on camera with 5th battery slot. Auto-ISO all the time and WB set to Auto as well. All I need to do is to play around with the different aperture settings and once a while, control the power output of the flash.

Since it was a 2 days event, I managed to bring home about 700++ photos. I very seldom do post processing as I will delete any shots that I don’t see fit. It was funny that some guests of the wedding were asking me how much I charge and all that. I do not shoot weddings to put bread and butter on my table and I do not intend to spoil market for the real professionals like Steven Leong (KL) or Jetfynn (Ipoh). So, I only shoot for friends who I know and colleagues who I don’t mind to shoot for peanuts (but all the time they covered my expenses laa… woahahah).

Shooting weddings is no joke man. It’s a very energy sapping job and you can pengsan if you are not fit enough for the job. Woahahhahah…Nevertheless, I wish all the best to the new couple laa… quick quick make baby ye?

Tomorrow onwards Mrs Mayat will be gone to Langkawi for 4 days for some Kursus Buku Text thingy organized by the Education Ministry. I tell you, work as teacher is damn shiok laa….

She’s reluctant to go alone as she doesn’t know anybody there but I assured her that she’ll fit in in no time at all.

Oh.. btw.. who’s joining me for Transformers 2 this Wednesday?

Yesterday was the Sultan’s birthday so it was a public holiday and it’s also a very ‘hot’ day for people to get married. I was approached by my colleague to go all the way down to Kuala Selangor to cover the bride’s side wedding dinner since there’s not a single good wedding photographer in Selangor.. *COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH*…… I pun agree laa…. after all he’s my colleague who I see everyday

So in the morning after breakfast I bid Mrs Mayat goodbye (she can’t travel because her parents don’t want anything happened to her contents Woahahaha) and drove off heading south, packing along my equipments and what not.

I was put up in Crystal Crown Kepong hotel. Now… that hotel… is a love and hate thing…. I love it.. but I hate it…why?

When I reached around 1pm, I couldn’t find a single car park anywhere near the hotel. I have to make several rounds going under the basement and coming up again… and finally gave up and parked at the multi-storey car park next to Brem Mall. Then I have to take the lift down…. take a looong walk back to the hotel where my friend was waiting. I mean, how screw up is that?

Nevertheless, I got my room keys and that’s where the pissed-off-ness starts to wear off. The rooms are quite impressive for a 3-star hotel.

( 1 SB-600 @ 85mm zoom covered with white t-shirt pointing at my balls

1 SB-800 on side table pointing at the wall @ 24mm zoom

Aperture Priority, ISO200, Rear Curtain Sync. BOOM!! )

So it was off to lunch at Kepong Kopitiam in Brem Mall which is another one of those Old Town spin-offs but the food was quite okay la..

Then, I went back to get my car and my friend led me on a 1-hour journey all the way to Kuala Selangor. Man.. it’s FAAAAAAAAAAARRRRR~!!!

Met up with the bride’s parents and family members, got myself refreshed and changed and in a blink of an eye, it’s time to leave the house and head to the restaurant which happens to be a very big place called ‘Yun He Swallow City‘..

F/8… ISO200.. just compose and shoot….

It’s like a big factory/museum/cafe for anything related to bird’s nest. Wah lau… very impressive place. One day I might wanna come back here again to buy bird nest. Ha ha ha…

Since the dinner starts at 5:00pm.. (which IMHO is very unconventional but very good, start early, end early, go back enjoy getting married waoakakakkaka)… the guests also start strolling in one by one.. family by family… by 6pm almost everybody arrived and the dinner officially started.

Well… I just did my own thing..

1 feet focus, F/2.8, SB-800 pointed up

So it goes on and on like a normal Chinese wedding dinner… by 9pm it was all over and I called it a day. The groom was worried I couldn’t find my way back in the dark but I told him not to worry as I have Mr Nuvi 200 to help me out. Ha ha ha…

Yeah.. if I didn’t make it, you’re reading an entry posted by the Mayat of Loctor Mayat now. WOAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA

This morning, after waking up and having breakfast at the hotel cafe… I met up with Abang Beyond who is the guy who helped me to collect my PhotoMalaysia exhibition photos way back in 2008. (or was it 2007 ?)

Then I’m off to IKEA to meet up with KVCT and also a Mr Alex from Bangsar who is passing me his Sony A700, FL-42 flash and Sony 75-300mm lens because he don’t want liao. Now I also don’t know what to do with them. WOAHHAHAHAHAHAH

Okay laa.. that’s all. Don’t want to be so long winded like famous Shanghai chef pulling flour noodles. LOL

Hello Boys and Girls…

Do you know that today is a special day for the Chinese community?

If you noticed, these few days the Chinese will be celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival. Of course, most of us are familiar with the various Dragon Boat races organized throughout the world, as well as the special Chinese Rice Dumplings that is being cooked and sold only around this time of the year.

However, I’m sure many of you especially my precious non-Chinese friends do not know the origins of this festival right?

Well… please take your rice dumpling, sit down on the Dragon Boat and listen to LoctorMayat’s “Story of the Dragon Boat Festival”

A long time ago… in ancient China around 278 BC, the Kingdom of China was broken into several states who were at war with each other. One of them was the State of Chu. In this state, there lived a descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu Yuan.

Qu Yuan served in the high offices of the Chu state under the Chu King. Well, something like a Cabinet Minister like that laa..

One day, the King of the rival and extremely powerful state of Qin visited Chu King, with the proposal to join forces to go against the other warring states. The Chu King was very impressed by the might and power of the Qin King and agreed to join forces with him.

Qu Yuan knew that the Qin King was not sincere and would one day attack the Chu state after the other enemies are down. He tried to advice the Chu King against this alliance but the Chu King would not listen to him at all.

Feeling very sad, Qu Yuan decided to pack his bags and leave his beloved state of Chu and its stubborn king. He travelled far and wide, and finally arrived at some island..

He stayed in that island and began to write lots of poetry which the people loved so much until today.

Meanwhile, back at China, the Qin and Chu states alliance won the war, but to the horror of the Chu King, the Qin King suddenly attacked the Chu State… totally taking it by surprised and destroyed everything… including the Chu King himself..

Soon, news of this evil attack by the Qin King reached Qu Yuan’s island. When he knew about it, he was so sad and extremely heart broken, for even though he exiled himself from the Chu State, his heart is still pining for the day he will return there again.. but now, all hope and dreams are lost. Chu State is nothing but mere dust, rubble and dead bodies.

Overcame with too much grief, Qu Yuan could not take it anymore and went into depression. Many tried to help him but his heart is already too broken to be healed.

One day during rush hour, Qu Yuan jumped into the sea to end his own life…

The people of the island was shocked. Many of them got into their long boats and rowed as hard as they could to the spot where Qu Yuan jumped to try to rescue him but they couldn’t find him anywhere…

To avoid the fishes from eating Qu Yuan’s body, the men and women made rice drumplings and threw them into the sea, hoping that the fishes would eat them instead of Qu Yuan… but alas…. it was just all too late.. Qu Yuan’s body could not be found ever again…

To remember the noble Qu Yuan and his deeds, the Chinese community made rice dumplings once every year, and held dragon boat races. This practice, goes on for generations after generations… until today

So that’s all! I hope all of you now know the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival so next time you can pass on this story to your future generations.

WOAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA…..