Kuantan and its monsoon

Tasik Beris

Tasik Beris or Beris Lake is located in Sik-Kedah, some 90km South-East from Alor Star. However, the journey seems a thousand miles away to actually reach the destination. It actually took us almost 2 hours to actually reach Tasik Beris, particularly Lake Beris Vineyard.  

(It's going to take a minimum of 5 hours drive of *450km journey from Kuala Lumpur to Alor Star via North-Klang Valley Expressway (depending on numbers of pit-stops you going to make along the way, that is) (*approximate distance taken from Subang Airport as closest landmark to us)

The trip to Lake Beris was actually to planned for a particular tour to Lake Beris Vineyard. It is very rare for Malaysian climate to actually have a grape-bearing vines plantation due to its tropical climate but this particular vineyard proves that Malaysian climate can as well accommodate to the growth.

Paddy Museum Alor Star - non handicap friendly

The noble intention is highly commendable - to exhibit and showcase, what, how, where, when, which, who and etc relating to paddy the crops. 

The exterior design of the Museum is an interesting piece of architecture without doubt.

However, it is very unfortunate that such building designed for PUBLIC were not equipped and DOES NOT cater for handicap, or not even older folks. For instance;

1. The main entrance staircase is some 20 steps up. No handicap ramp is available within  immediate view, let alone a handicap automatic stair-lift

2. It's main attraction was the 360 mural painting, which is some 2-storey up (59 steps altogether) via  centrally located spiral staircase. Again, there aren't any handicap facility were seen. I did noticed a lift outside the spiral staircase area but none were seen on the observation deck for the mural.

3. The staircase(s), all of it were not designed with children's handrail and of course there aren't any handicap stairs-lift available

4. the Washroom facilities is some 200 meter away, when I say away, it is actually away from the main building where you have to actually exit the building and again there aren't any handicap facilities available.

So, it seems that the museum were only meant for 'young and healthy'.  :(

The Museum (credit to Kedah State Museum Archive)

the amazing 360 mural inside the Museum

example of very bad access for handicap

Alor Star - Long Due Tour

I was born in Alor Star, and it is still my mom's hometown but we hardly ever had 'a tour around Alor Star' other than the infamous Pekan Rabu everytime we went back for a visit. So, to wrap-up my 'complete coverage of Peninsular Malaysia', together with my parents and brother, we decided to have dedicated tour around Alor Star's most interesting places that we could cover in 2 days. We basically covered these interesting places: 

1. Balai Besar & Muzium Diraja ( The Great Hall & The Royale Museum)

2. We did not make it to State Gallery as it was closed at 330pm on Thursday, and closed on Friday and Saturday

3. Alor Star Tower

4. Former Residence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, our 4th Prime Minister

5. Paddy Museum

6. Lake Beris Vineyard (okay, this particular location is 90km away from Alor Star city centre)

The Royale Museum

The Great Hall (Balai Besar)

Former Residence of Tun Dr Mahathir

Alor Star Tower

The Mural inside Paddy Museum

On the Air

Finally, after so much thinking and and comparing notes on specs and what-not, the Mini-Air is mine  :)

Inspirational sketches

I think I'm in LOVE!! ❤️Awesome sketches (just the sort 'hey, Medzz you should be able to do this!! but suddenly I felt so tiny that my sketches skill is nowhere close this talented @syukrishairi ) #Repost @syukrishairi with #repostapps 

VERY INSPIRATIONAL

(see full image)

Medzz

Roadrunner is doing cross-country again

500km of East-coast back-and-fro yesterday and another 500km of West-coast, today of back-and-fro trips as well!

Pathethic? Feel free to slip into my shoes and get the feel of it ;p

Seek the lights

Sometimes, hiding away at a corner of secluded room creates such excitement rather than resentment. Sometimes, choosing to remain in a dark corner of a cave would be a way of not sharing yours truly with the world.

Perhaps, there may be days that we need to 'seek the lights'?

Paleo Lunch

This is my LUNCH. It may fit the #paleo lunch description ;p
Not following any trend nor that I'm on strict diet, but I need to 'clear off' existing stock of all these wonderful vege(s)

Inspirational

Found a particular 'syukrishairi' via Instagram, and suddenly it revokes such inspiration to dully sketch again.. He must have an architecture background of some sort. Love such sketches!!

New set of pens

Was inspired. So I went and got myself a whole new set of pens. Need those 'breeze' again. Feeling too suffocated nowadays.

Received a 'feature'

Although instagramming is just as part of getting my creativity to flow continuously and just so I could be close with photography without having those 'unaffordable dslr gadgets', but having one of my shots being featured is kind of exciting! ;)

Owh, I only uses 'forced-to-own' iPhone for all my #instagram shots. Feel free to browse my gallery, i_am_medzz

Perhaps..

Perhaps ..it's hard to get the real feel of other people's shoe even you're wearing the same size,Perhaps..it's tough for other people to get done with certain task that you always think as a piece-of-cake, because your cheesecake ain't using the same cheese they're using..Perhaps..

Mazlina (via iPhone)

#flyinghigh WAYS to improve for MAS

My two cents opinion of my recent #flyinghigh moment with MAS for KUL-MEL, which I really looking forward for improvement.

FOOD

1.When we talk about "visual appeal of the meal", it's not so much on the presentation of the meal because we know the limitation of 'serving food on air' however, it ACTUALLY refers to how exactly the ingredients appeared-as, for example, broccoli should look 'fresh green' instead off 'overcooked green' or the carrot should remain crunchy even though it is broiled. I used to remember that meals were served with 'clear segmentation' of ingredients, for example if you have rice, fish and vege, the visual arrangement should always side by side of each other and NOT on-top-of-each-other. 

2.Timing of meal served.

I would appreciate if MAS could priorities children among their first to be serve. They're simply too excited waiting to be served and the wait is like FOREVER. 

3.Portion/Quantity

Also, please provide more 'snacks' for the children, I mean 'A SMALL packet of biscuits for entire 8hrs of flight is way to 'stingy'. Pamper these children, because they could be one of the factor that their parents keep coming back for MAS.

ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM

There is a lot of travel program nowadays and it never run outdated, MAS should permanently have those program on board. If it is too huge of a file perhaps, you could always have 'travel program' about Malaysia and just the destination the flight flying to each time.

ATTENTIVE

Personal attentiveness would be good, for example when we were queuing up to use the lavatory, the flight attendant could try to have small-friendly-talk, like asking 'how are you? where are you from? how's the flight goes so far? instead of just brushing-us-off to get through to their pantry and immediately SHUT us off with the curtain. A polite 'pardon me, I need to pull the curtain to carry on with work' is deem acceptable.

B l e a k

The sky was shrouded by #haze that day and not much #clouds could be seen :( but that tree is standing strong with some delicate leaves trying to behold ✌️

Medzz

Check out this pin on Pinterest!

Hey, check out this pin on Pinterest: 7-Day Belly Workout

http://pinterest.com/pin/137641332337194754/


Medzz

Part and parcel of being an architect

I begin to wonder, am I really an architect? I thought, reports and paperworks and essays are ONLY part of being architecture-students however, it was far less while I was a student than of current profession.
My desk is being inhibit by stacks of these, and lots more underneath it. It's SUFFOCATING.

So, you really wanna be an architect now?!

Why do architects wear black?

Found this while scrolling a fellow instagrammer 'soysergioguerra' ;)

http://instagram.com/p/gokJzCNWD1/

Medzz

10 days of OZ in September

We finally set foot on  Land Down Under in Sept 2014 for 10 days excursion which going to include multiple cities of Oz. Australia is always being associated with the Sydney Opera House, and the opportunity to be there, right next to the icon itself, for someone who used to be architecture student, is so thrilling that you can't shut your lid without imagining it through your sleep.


Our Itineraries herewith , which seems very compressed, but we planned it on our own without any direct-physical help of a travel agent but through our own online-research and tips that we gathered from friends that have been to some of the places.

Melbourne – Sydney Itinerary
Day 1	Arrival in Melbourne. Immediate fly-off to Sydney to catch Firework by Harbourside. Check in at Pensione Hotel by George Street. Grab quick bites at Paddy’s Market and shop for basic groceries for breakfast  (bread, lettuce, eggs, butter and fruits). A quick souvenir shopping at Hard Rock Café Sydney by Harborside while waiting for the Fireworks Show.
Day 2	Breakfast of our own egg sandwich. Head for a tour around Paddy’s Market and followed by a walk along George Street towards North direction (The Rocks) , passing by Sydney Town Hall with stop over at Queen Victoria Building (800meter of walk). Grab a quick lunch. We grab Opal tickets at one of the 7-11 that we found along the route, it’s a combo tickets for various transportation in Sydney. Head for Darling Harbour for Madame Tussaud. Bought combo ticket for 5 attractions. Catch a ferry at Kings Street Wharf to Circular Quay. Head for The Rocks Sunday Market and back to Circular Quay for an evening at Sydney Harbour Bridge. Grab our dinner at Circular Quay and take the train back to George Street via Wynyard Station.
Day 3	Breakfast of our own Nuttela  sandwich. Take the the Light Rail Train at Market City Station to Pyrmount Station. A short walk from the station to Australia Maritime Museum with lots of attraction within its compound, navy ship, submarine, lighthouse, tail ship and the museum itself which currently showcasing the whale exhibit. Grab our late lunch at café by the museum. Walk across Cockle Bay via Pyrmont Bridge to Sydney Aquarium. Walk back across Pyrmont Bridge to Harbourside to grab our dinner-it has bigger selections of eateries.
Day 4	Breakfast of our own egg sandwich and apples. Stroll along Sydney’s Chinatown, passing through Harbour Street and Pier’s Street flyover towards Sydney’s Chinese Friendship Garden direction with a stop-over at Tumbalong Park (750meter walk). Walk along Cockle Bay Wharf Waterfront to Wildlife Zoo (800 meter away). Walk along Darling Harbour Water front to catch ferry (500meter). Initial itinerary to Luna Park was cancel as the park is close on Tuesday. Head to Circular Quay. Take a bus to Hyde Park and walk to Sydney Tower (200meter walk). Walk through Hyde Park to Pullman’s Hotel to collect our rental car (Eurocar at Pullman’s) 800 meter.  Drive to our Hotel. Walk to grab dinner at Harbourside.
Day 5	Breakfast with cheese sandwich and hardboiled egg. Souvenir’s shopping at Paddy’s Market (250meter walk). Check out. Drive to Circular Quay to grab Royal Copenhagen followed by a drive through Sydney’s Harbour bridge before exiting Sydney to Wolongong. Drive along Princess Highway, passing through Kogarah and chosing the steep Exit B65 at Bulli Pass after Southern Gateway Center. Passing through Bulli town, then the beautiful Wolongong. Further drive towards Port Kembla then along Grand Pacific Drive with Lake Illawara on the right, towards Warilla and then into Illawarra Highway (A48). Passing through Albion Park, Tongarra and deep into Macquarie Pass National Park. Further drive along Illawarra Highway, passing through Robertson, Moss Vale, Sutton Forest before tapping to Hume Hiway M31. Exiting Hume Highway into Federal Highway (M23) lead us straight to Canberra. A total of 5 hours drive of 350km. Check-in at Manuka Circle.
Day 6	Breakfast of Nutella sandwich. Check out. A quick drive around quiet Canberra. Stroll along Queen Elizabeth Terrace. Missing Floriade from the itinerary. Drive towards Melbourne. Drive out from Canberra via Barton Highway (A25) before tapping into Hume Highway (M31). Bookham, Jugiong, Gundagai, Holbrook before reaching Albury some 4hrs later of 350km away. A quicker drive, due to less stopover. Check-in at Albury Manor Motel.  Dinner at Albury North and quick shopping at ALDI.
Day 7	Breakfast of cheese sandwich. Check out and straight into Hume Highway. 5 hrs drive of 450 meter straight to the beginning of Great Ocean Road, Angelsea. Weather is not good, Great Ocean Road were aborted. Drive into Melbourne. Drop-off luggage at rented apartment. Drive to return car. Grab lunch. Take a horse-carriage ride along Swanston-St Kilda Street. Walk back to apartment in Flinders Street
Day 8	Catch train to Queen Victoria Market and have our breakfast there. Shopping. Grab lunch and catch train to Dockside. More walk. Melbourne Star ride. Grab dinner.
Day 9	Breakfast. Walk to Flinder’s street Station. Take train to St.Kilda. Luna Park Melbourne in St Klida and then strolling along St Kilda’s Esplanade Market. Return to FSS to catch intercity train towards Cragieburn with a stop at Assendon. Lunch and dinner at Assendon
Day 10	Breakfast from left over dinner from Assendon. A quick shopping at Swanston Street. Check out. Check-in at Melbourne International Airport.

Summary to the excursion, here would be our tips for your travel:

1. Booking a combo tickets via Madame Tussaud Sydney is relatively much cheaper than any other vendor(s). We booked the maximum 5 combo as it cost the same even you chose only the 2 combos (of course we didn't have much time to go to all of it, though, but still we feel it worth it).
2. We chose to make full use of our Opal Tickets and ride the ferries instead the cruise at a fraction of cost. It still get you to places you wanna go, at your own time (following the ferry's schedule, of course) and you got to choose the open-deck seat if it's not many people around. Plus, it's 50% off on Sunday.
3. We believe, our timing of arrival is just right, as the weather is at its best, just around 13 to 17 degrees, of course it gotten cooler at night and early morning.

Aura on Flinders

We book Aura ( through Booking.com that is) because we were tempted with its Flinders Street address, but it is a bit let down that we have to walk 3 to 4 blocks away to at least reach Elizabeth Street and walk further couple of blocks to reach Federation Square. If you have ample time to explore Melbourne , perhaps it would a good choice but if you have young children with you, it would a task trying to convince them, 'owh, it's just a block more to go!' Plus, there's not much of choice for places to eat nearby which means you have to AGAIN walk a few blocks to find more choices. City Circle is not much of help here in the sense that it'll only start at 10am and mostly it is pack with people. The best thing to do in Melbourne is always by foot, therefore THAT would be the main reason am not recommending Aura to others especially family with young children, but it sure works if you don't mind so much all the walking eventhough I would rather do my walk more into Melbourne CBD.

Also, we were not 'impressed AT ALL' with the fact that the cleaners messed-up with our stuff (the apartment were not ready when we arrived, so instead of keeping it at another place, we thought that it'll be good to have all of our bags and stuff kept at one corner of the apartment). Our groceries bag went missing along with a carton of eggs,lettuce, a bottle of pepper and a water tumbler!! It bewildered us more that the fact that a loaf of bread and cheese pack from same bag were taken out and placed on the counter, which means 'somebody has rummaged our stuff''. The management did compensate us a little amount to the value of those missing items but the 'hurt' is there and the thing is WHY the cleaner need to 'clear JUST SELECTIVE some of it away'?

Don't expect any reception/registration counter, because there ain't any to begin with, so you have to get connected with the numbers that were link to your booking. Finding the place would be a tricky one for somebody who aren't familiar with Melbourne as it is located at the tip-end of Melbourne CBD and it's entrance is not directly fronting Flinders Street.

Aura the Apartment

We made the bookings 3 months ahead and we got ourselves a 2 room apartment at AUD950 for the whole 3 nights stay. The apartment is just a good size and the layout is very comfortably spacious for a family of 5, with view overlooking the Federation Square direction. Kitchenette facilities are great, complete with all the basic utensils, stove, microwave, washing machine etc all as advertise. The bathroom however is way too small, clean but really small, with no space to place your toiletries, and very tight space for the shower. 

Albury

During our recent Oz-Excursion, we decided to drive from Sydney to Melbourne. Allowing several pit-stop at various interesting places along the journey, we also decided to call it a night in Canberra on the first day and has chosen Albury  as the second 'sleep-over'.

Albury is about 350km away from Canberra and a mere 120km away from Melbourne. It's a twin city with Wodonga, which being separated by Murray River, but unfortunately we don't have that much time to venture to Wodonga, therefore it was only Albury. We spotted a really beautiful motel along the main road Young Street known as Albury Manor. It has beautiful architecture with gorgeous, classic interiors.

Awesome mammatus spotted

It was a lovely day, with cool breeze spurring towards your face, that kind of day. I was on my second ferry ride, therefore I was 'recording' all the scene that I missed out during my first ride. Sydney Harbour Bridge is no longer the one and only attraction that I need to capture. However it was such amazing vista when I looked-up just after coming through underside of the bridge towards Circular Quay. There was, this glorious mammatus clouds at its best formation sagging from the sky!! AWESOME! Being such cloud-lover-nerd, this is simply the best of my life!! And it got me rewarded with a new Cloudspotter badge! LOVE

Staircase series #1

Staircase has always been one part among completed architecture or structure that has my immediate attention to it. I adore this particular staircase simply being I think they are properly designed and constructed with such passion that it is ergonomically and practical to use😍

Mazlina (via iPhone)

Pensione Sydney

We love Pensione-Sydney ! We love the fact that it is just 5 minutes away from Paddy's Market and a few minutes away as well from Darling Harbour or the Harbourside or Cockle Bay Wharf.

We love the intricate architecture that it has and the fact that it is well maintain. Maintaining an old building and furthermore to have it as a hotel is not an easy task but Pensione did it well. Of course nothing fancy about this building or this hotel, but since we are touring around Sydney during the day, just having a good decent place to unwind after a long day out is definitely to die-for. But hey, their lift car comes in odd-trapezoid shape, which we believe as an attempt to suit the existing spaces of an old building, but it works well and children loves the shape of it.

Our family room is decent in size and comfortably fit all 5 of us. And even though our room is facing George Street, we hardly heard any traffic noise nor that any noise from the club downstairs. The hotel is basically so comfortably quite. The bathroom is comfortably good in size with a modern twist to it. 

Pensione also has the basic facilities like Guest Lounge where you could sit and relax while having your meal. It also has a centralised kitchenette facilities where you can cook or heat up your meal. There'is also the coin-operated washing machine and dryer. But mind you, it is not anywhere near their reception and you got to be able to read the signages to be able to reach this particular nooks, which actually gives such excitement for us 'track-it down'. Of course you can always, get attentive direction from their front office.

Our initial booking was for 4 nights before we head of to Canberra-Melbourne, but we decided to add-on for another day to enable us to explore Sydney more. Great family vacation. Great place to hang-out. Would love to come back to Pensione Sydney.

Owh, on top of that, our compliment for a smooth online booking via Venere.com  

Trailing 'belt of orion'

It's the gorgeous hints of light of 13th September's dawn, creeping through, leaving behind the ever gorgeous 'belt of orion'. The only spectacular phenomenon that I anticipated for this journey was to be 'at the same level of the full moon' but that was not the case, but I got this instead. LOVE it!
(see full image)

Medzz

Life of an architect, really?!

Been having series of outrageously hectic schedule..meetings almost everyday for the past 3 weeks..outstation here and there, u name it!! In fact tonite is one of those hatric of getting home way pass 12

Medzz

#medzztoinspire - sketch away!

http://www.archdaily.com/542589/video-sheppard-robson-underlines-importance-of-hand-sketching/

Medzz

Heartbreaking return of #MH17

(see full image)

Medzz

Can you spot something peculiar?!

I wonder why it is construct as so?

Winding down

When your itinerary for entire week was filled with travelling due to work-related-tasks and datelines, all you wanted to do was, get yourself under the blanket and sleep through the day. It is such a blessing that the day is engulf in light thunderstorm from wee morning till now, the eve.

You guys could enjoy your Raya-open house, rendang and whatever awesome dishes there are, but I'll stick with my choice of pillows and blankets and occassionally my Ipad, just when I feels like updating my blog.

8oz

Experiencing a new label for a cuppa of macchiato. Not bad!

Lodging Mak Minah

If you are a fan of P.Ramlee's movie, you may have come across with 'Mak Minah Lodging'. It is a real surprise to find exactly one, in Ipoh.

Penang in a day

Beautiful dusk setting-in at the end of my brief visit to Penang. However, I think it is a waste of effort for the whole delegation to rush-in to Penang.
(see full image)

Medzz

Experiencing the 'Malindo'

Malindo Air is one of the-new-kid-on-the-block for low-cost section of aviation. Trying it out for the first time for my day trip to Penang. The fare was cheapest for a last-minute-24hrs-before booking, so that is the actual reason for choosing Malindo.

Check-in was on time, on-air experience was smooth for SZB-PEN-SZB flight. Interior of the cabin is a little tad boring; just rows of dark blue chairs with grey of everything and white-wash side panel, a little flimsy I noticed

Asperatus: making waves

Spotted what I believe is the rare asperatus clouds and it has been verify by CloudsAppreciation Society via its Iphone App. So ever delighted!

Wild-looking sky

Morning journey to the office today with hovering wild-looking-cloudscape. Could it be #asperatus or just #nimbostratus ?

'Free-lunch-job'

Itinerary of the day is something that we may term it as 'free-lunch job'!! A briefing-presentation is due at 5pm all the way in Penang. Nothing to do with the actual location of the project and is basically not so much weightage on us. However, we were requested by client to be there as a support team.
So here we are, arriving a liitle too early in Penang, just so we could have time to locate the venue of event. In meanwhile we got to treat ourselves for a great lunch-boss's treat! ;)

Nice place, yummilicious 'fish-head-curry'!! Droool bebehh..

Storm building up

When you are driving towards hovering storm

Roadrunner on the move again

It's another long-distance day-trip journey for me. To some people, I'm such a 'super-woman', something that I never thought I was or are!! It just so happened that KL-Kuantan is one of those destinations that I have to frequent to, not that Kuantan has so much to offer but my job gets me there. It seems that we are getting more proposals to be execute rather than in Klang Valley. And so be it!

Am actually doing KL-Pekan today. This time I chose to use the Kuantan-Pekan link rather than tapping into Gambang-Pekan upon exiting the Gambang exit of East Coast hiway. It's a dual-carriageway for both ways, which gives more comfort to the driving rather than the stressfull single carriageway of Gambang-Pekan state road.

Pleasant morning

140730: Grandma-less we all are now

It's the 3rd Syawal. At the least unexpected moment, our Grandma leave us all. My parents were there besides her during her last seconds, and we just seconds too late, but we were there till the very end bits.

Suffocatingly humid

The awakening of 18th July 2014: MH17, Gaza & Sabah

Wakes up to such news! 3 major news in a day is too overwhelming to swallow. Prayers to all!!

Just another today

Weather report

Iftar as a traveller

I hate the idea of having to travel during Ramadhan, long-distance travel especially. Moreover when I'm the one who had to do the driving-a total 600km through and forth. And it's much worse when I had to do a meeting and follow with a site-inspection!! You do the maths. I simply HATE it!! With a huge exclaimation mark that is.

Heat waves

Been monitoring the temperature of the day for the past few days..eventhough not on daily-regimented-basis, but it's something to worried about.