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| Thursday, 6-Jul-2006 09:23 |
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A Dedication to Alliya
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3-7 July 2006
Glory Beach Resort, Port Dickson
(Digital Photography Course)
This entry is a special dedication to my loving and lovely daughter, Alliya whom I missed very much at this moment.  For the past 4 days, Alliya’s ibu (me… Of course!!) is away for a course in basic photography. The images here are some of the assignments that have to be fulfilled by me. The topic is “Flowers”. I do hope my Alliya would be able to recognize the flower images here since rather than taking the usual angle, I try to experiment with more artistic angle and a little bit of macro (sort of). Maybe these images can be used by Alliya’s ayah as a guessing game just to fulfill the time while waiting for her ibu’s homecoming!!
NOTE:
these images were captured in a windy condition and without a tripod.
This is Alliya's reply after looking at this FP:
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ibu tamkap gambar cantik lah  ibu tak sabar nanti ibu jumpa alliya lagi ke ? ok ibu nak tidurdah ke ? alliya nak cakab lagi . |
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| Wednesday, 22-Mar-2006 10:54 |
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Under Construction.. be'coz d Updater is Under d Weather
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Alhamdulillah finally we arrived safely in Malaysia yesterday (21 March 2006) at around noon time. For those who are wondering where we were for the past week... We were in the United States for almost 10 days... about 6 days there and 4 days on plane or at the airport. The changes in weather has finally caught up with Alliya and her ibu.. so now both of us are coughing and sneezing.
Will be updating this FP soon with pictures of Alliya in Las Vegas and Los Angeles (probably next week). Have a nice day!! 
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| Saturday, 18-Mar-2006 08:00 |
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USA Trip-2006 VIII
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18th March 2006 (Saturday)
San Pedro & Museum of Natural History, USA
USA trip again? naah.. this is just the continuation of our USA Trip that we took last year.. remember Vegas-San Diego-San Pedro-Los Angeles??Anyway.. on this day we decided to rent a car to go around.. but first we went around the small town of San Pedro on feet since it was a nice sunny day. San Pedro is quite a small town.. so we finished our tour in an hour and headed to the e-enterprise to rent a car. We rented a Chevrolet.. the rate was quite reasonable.
Then..Hollywood..here we come!! But before Hollywood Blvd, we decided to make a detour to USC (Univ of Southern California..the Trojans).. just want to pay a visit to one of Alliya's choices of future campus. We stopped by at the Natural History Museum.. it was very educational and definitely interesting.. Just like the movie "Night at The Museum".. they look so alive. We were allowed to take pictures inside so Alliya was posing here and there in the museum.
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| Friday, 17-Mar-2006 10:43 |
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USA Trip 2006 - VII
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17th March 2006
Downtown Los Angeles (Experience LA)
The day started quite slow on this day.. it was the 7th day of our journey. Tiredness has finally caught up with Alliya and especially her ibu. After a long cold day spent in Disneyland, both of us decided to take a long rest the next morning. The cloudy weather with ocassional rain somehow made us want to stay under the comforter a little bit longer.
The weather started to improve later in the afternoon and Alliya was ready to start her trip. At first we taught of joining the Big Boss and his family at the Universal Studio but it seemed that the tour company only makes 1 trip/day from the hotel that we were staying. So we decided to explore the city of Los Angeles (LA) on our own like the local people... using the public transportation.
We decided to take the Metro Bus@Rapid since we saw bus stops 2 blocks away from our hotel. The journey to Downtown LA took about 2 hours since our hotel is situated in the Southern LA - San Pedro to be exact. We were on the 447 route passing through Pacific Highway- Carson City- Artesia Transit Center. After the Transit Center.. the route took us on the Harbor Freeway.. we thought it's going to be a fast and smooth journey after that since we were on the freeway already.. we were wrong!! the bus made a few more stops on the freeway itself. It seems that on the Harbor Freeway itself they have another Transit Centre plus some smaller stops a long the way. Finally we were on our way to the Union Station, Downtown LA.
Since we didn't want to stand out as tourists, we decided to leave our Oly in the hotel room and took Alliya's Kodak Easyshare along. As predicted it was cold and windy.. but what we didn't expect.. all the shops@stores close just as soon as the offices close 
We did try their Metro Rail. Amazingly.. there's no counters to purchase tickets.. tickets must be bought through ticket machines.. and what's more amazing... there's no one nor bulky machines to collect or to check whether you have purchased a ticket. Only a yellow line and a sign saying "after this yellow line, everyone is required to have a valid ticket. Anyone caught without a ticket will be prosecuted". Imagine imposing that same rules in Malaysia??
After having our late tuna sandwich lunch at the 'almost' closed deli, we decided to head back to the hotel. We wanted to be there to send off the Big Boss and his family since they've to shorten their trip for some unavoidable reasons. We waited at the nearest bus stand for hours.. LAPD car was in view since the bus stop is located near the LAPD Headquaters, people were passing by and some even asked us for directions... since Alliya's ayah was paying attention to the routes, landmarks etc and did his homework studying the Metro system.. he confidently showed them directions.
The waiting seemed ages and finally the 447 came and we were on our way back to the hotel.. but we were not soon enough though since The Big Boss and his family had already left for the airport. We were quite upset especially Alliya because she really wanted to meet Amir before he left.. just to have one last fight before they can meet again.!! 
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| Thursday, 16-Mar-2006 11:17 |
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USA Trip 2006 - VI
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16th March 2006
Los Angeles Disneyland@Park- (Meet up with the Characters)
It has been awhile since I last updated this FP. Been quite busy with work lately.. still have a lot of things to attend to even during the 2 weeks school holiday especially with the mid-year exam, Teacher's Day Celebration etc. (NOTE: School holidays are meant for children and NOT the teachers) 
This is a continuation of Alliya's USA trip. For a kid, a trip to USA will not be complete until they've put their feet down in Disneyland. This is the place where Alliya was longing and dreaming of going ever since she knew she will be flying off to America.
Finally we were there at the Disneyland@Park. A lot has changed since her ibu's last visits to this place.. which was  ages ago. Now the place has their own town centre and has added another theme park for those adventurous people with faster and challenging roller coaster rides. Considering the time constraint and the number of visitors, we anticipated there would be a long line of waiting. So we decided to spend a whole day at the Disneyland@Park only.
Alliya was glowing and smiling through out when the sights of all her disney characters coming to live right before her... even being scolded by the Evil Queen was an experience she said she'll never forget. Alliya was busy chasing and waiting in line to get their autographs and of course pictures with them. Eventhough she managed to collect a few autographs in between rides and a bad stomach ache (right before she entered Minnie Mouse's house and met Minnie).. she couldn't get the signature of the Host himself- Mickey (Where's Mickey??)
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| Wednesday, 15-Mar-2006 12:00 |
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USA Trip 2006 - V
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15th March 2006
San Diego Sea World (The Animals)
These are some of the animals that we saw @ watch on that day at the San Diego Sea World. Among the shows that we managed to watch were :
- Pet's Rule! @ Pet's Stadium
- Clyde & Seamore in Deep, Deep trouble @ Sea Lion Stadium
- Shamu Experience @ Shamu Close Up
We also had a chance to feed the sea lions and the dolphins for USD2.00 per a small tray of fish
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| Wednesday, 15-Mar-2006 11:00 |
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USA Trip 2006 - IV
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15th March 2006
San Diego Sea World (The People)
On this day we've planned to rent a 'van' for our trip to San Diego Sea World. Alliya was looking forward to watch Shamu, the whale since there's no Shamu at the Gold Coast Sea World.
But the journey had to be delayed since we're having a very difficult time communicating with the airline's staffs (not MAS) due to 'accent' barrier and poor telecommunication line. Can't put all the blame on them because things were kinda of complicated and confusing.. just like 'Keluarga 69' There were seven of us and all seven are changing our date of departure. We thought of going to the airline's office but decided not to since we might be lost in finding the office.
Finally a tourist agent nearby our hotel was very kind hearted. She offered to help us for free. With her patience and professionalism she managed to make the changes and confirm our departure dates. At noon we started our 40 minutes or was it 1 hour or 2 hours?? (I was sleeping half way through the journey and still confused about the time since my watch was still showing KL time)
For all I know we arrived there around 2~2.30 pm. We were having second thoughts since we only have about 3 hours to spend in the park and the fees.. well.. if we kept converting it to RM.. definitely we would not be going anywhere
Looking at the excitement in the children's faces (Alliya and Amir), we decided to go in but since we were on tight schedule, we sat down and planned our itinerary so that we would not missed any of the shows. We did manage to explore the park and watched some shows within the time limit.
At the end of the day we agreed that there's NO amount of RM or USD can top Alliya's BIG satisfaction smiles.
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| Tuesday, 14-Mar-2006 09:48 |
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USA Trip 2006 - III
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13th - 14th March 2006
Las Vegas (Daytime)
While we were in Las Vegas during the daytime, we took a cab@taxi to these two famous Factory Outlets in Las Vegas. There are :
The Las Vegas Premium Outlets & The Las Vegas Outlet Center
According to the brochure here we can shop more than 120 designer and name-brand outlet stores offering savings of 25 to 65 percent every day. Stores include Adidas, Ann Taylor, A|X Armani Exchange, Banana Republic, Bose, Brooks Brothers, Chico's, Coach, Dolce & Gabbana, Eddie Bauer, Elie Tahari, Guess, Kenneth Cole, Lacoste, Nike Factory Store, Perry Ellis, Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Store, St. John Company Store, Theory, Timberland, Tommy Hilfiger and many more. The two centers include large food courts and a wide range of customer services.
We didn't buy a lot of things there since shopping was not our ultimate motive. We did buy a few things ie. perfumes, jeans, tshirts for our family and friends back home. As for Alliya, she didn't really enjoy the shopping but she always find a creative way to make herself amused.. well that's Alliya!!
After our trip to the Las Vegas Outlet Center, we were in a limousine to the McCarran International airport. We were on our way to the warm Los Angeles (that's what we thought it's going to be)
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| Monday, 13-Mar-2006 12:00 |
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USA Trip 2006 - II
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13th March 2006
Las Vegas - at night
Some people says Las Vegas is a city that never sleeps especially at night. Our Hotel the Excalibur Hotel & Casino is situated at the Las Vegas South Strip, at the corner of Tropicana and Las Vegas Blvd. The place might be the epicenter of Las Vegas fun. New York/New York, MGM Grand, The Tropicana, Excalibur, Luxor and the Mandalay Bay are all steps from this corner. Therefore eventhough the weather was quite chill at that time, we decided to take a stroll along the South Strip that night.
There are so many interesting buildings, signages, glittering lights to be captured. We walked along the Las Vegas Blvd towards the North Strip. We stopped to watch the famous Dancing Water in front of the Bellagio.. it was dancing to the tune "Singing in the Rain" when we arrived .. Alliya was whistling and singing along while watching the fountains dancing.
Next to the Bellagio is the Caesar's Palace. We saw the signage for Celine Dion's Concert and couldn't help thinking about Ct Nurhaliza. We went inside the lobby of the Caesar's Palace just to warm our body and later crossed over to the other side to the Barbary Coast, The Flamingo Las Vegas and the Imperial Hotel and Casino. By this time, it was getting close to midnight and Alliya was getting sleepy already. So we decided to turned back to our hotel.
Along the way back we took pictures of the Bally's, the Paris Las Vegas, the Harrah's and the Aladdin. We saw Planet Hollywood signage. Took pictures of the Harley Davidson Cafe and the Gameworks arcade which is located near the corner of Tropicana and Las Vegas Blvd. Home to the world's tallest indoor climbing wall as well as countless arcade games... but we didn't go in since it was getting late already especially for Alliya.
Later we crossed back to the other side of the Las Vegas Blvd to New York/New York and used the walkway back to our hotel- The Excalibur... exhausted but happy and contented.
 The Paris Las Vegas
 The Excalibur
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| Sunday, 12-Mar-2006 13:17 |
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USA Trip 2006 - I
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12 March 2006
KUL - LAX - LV
Our journey started on the Sunday 12th March 2006. We were at the KLIA quite early.. just to be safe. Time passed by very quickly.. later we were joined by IDIS Big Boss and his family. We had a quick bite at the KLIA McD and rushed to the International Terminal to board our plane. In about 4 hours later, we were in a 2 hours transit at the Taipei's Airport. We were directed to the terminal and later boarded the same plane for another 13 hours journey to Los Angeles (LAX). Eventhough the journey crossing the Pacific Ocean was a bumpy one.. Alliya was sleeping so soundly... with the seat belt wrapping her...of course!!
When we arrived in Los Angeles, it was around noon time and it's still the 12th March 2006. We didn't have a lot of problem with the US Customs.. things went smoothly and later went to Terminal 3 to catch our Domestic flight to Las Vegas with the American West. It was getting quite chilled.. Alliya has started to add on another layer of clothing. By now she has getting more comfortable with her new friend; Amir.
We managed to catch an earlier flight to Las Vegas and reached in the City of Lights a few hours later. Two limousines were arranged to pick us up and took us to the Excalibur Hotel. While inside the limo, Alliya couldn't help herself feeling like "Donald Trump".. how did she come to know about Donald Trump?... of course through watching 'The Apprentice'.... one of her favourite show
 A Castle within A Castle
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