Updated Panasonic Gt20 3D HDTV

Hi all,
It has been a month I not posting any news to my blog. No worries now a grand finaly of my 3D HDTV review, I have posted it on youtube. Here, just a bit summary about it, stunning TV with pack of features such as internet, full HD, deep black level, 4 HDMi and etc but most important thing is worth the money. Ok folks enjoy the video and I wil update about the 3D glasses later. See you all and have nice holiday!

Buying new Tele, Here a buying Guide from Cnet US..

Just found this useful article from Cnet US about Dan Ackerman sharing his experience bought new Samsung 3D tele. As far as I know there is a lot of debate about 3D tele at the moment...it is worth the money?. I'm not sure but I can tell you next week because I just bought myself a 42" Panny Plasma 3D tele. This purchase have make a big hole in  my bank account. I hope it worth a lot!!!! :)

Its started last weekend when I saw an advertisement from  BEST BUY about vat refund from SONY for 3D tele. I decided to have a look as their offer a lot of stuff like 2 pair 3D glass, 3D blue ray player and 3D movie. Hence, I went to John Lewis in Saint Davis 2 but I felt disappointed with  it performance even the tele is LED balacklight which is great features for today tele. Next to the SONY is Panasonic (Panny) VT25 and I decide to compare this tele to the sony .... Oh my GOD, unbelievable image quality (3D) produced by the Panny but the price is more expensive and not offer any bundle. 

After that, I decided to drop by at Curry  then an epic drama begin when the sale person told me that they have an offer for Panny GT20 which is an entry level of 3D tele and they throw a lot of accesories with the tele such as 2 pair 3D glass, 3D blue ray player, 3D movie, wall mount, 1.4 HDMI cable, screen cleaner and 5 years warranty. Straight away it turn me crazy...lol unable to control my self and decided to make a purchase after 2 hours bargain battle with the sale guy. I considered I got a good deal even my missus not happy about it. The only thing that up sad me is I need to wait a week for a delivery. Add to the frustration I just sold my old Samsung 32" tele on Ebay and now no tele in my house. My wife going to miss her X-factor this weekend...:-/. 

I will post a review on this tele soon and hope I get what I paid for because there is a mix review about 3D tele and plasma. However, I believe it down to the person it self, how much money you willing to pay for this premium. For me this is the best time to buy new tele because is festive sale season. Consider, Uk gov will increase VAT next year and I going home to Malaysia for good, ok guys do check out cnet link and happy weekend.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20023145-1.html?tag=TOCcarouselMain.0 

GT 20 model 

 

Wireless Mouse GIGABYTE GM-M7700

Hi all,

Tonight is the coldest night ever, ;( I tried to push my self to do some of my PhD work, sadly I in no mood to read any journal or reference paper. Hence, I decided to do a short review about my recent purchased.  I have bought a wireless mouse to replace my 6 years old Toshiba wired mouse. The main reason I got this mouse is to reduce my work station cluttered with wired such as power supply cable, printer cable and etc. 

I did research about wireless mouse and stumble this little one, GIGABYTE GM-M7700. Most people prefer Logictec but the price is twice much compared to this one which only cost me £16 from play.com. The mouse pack with a lot of features such as 2.4G wireless up to 10m range, 6++ months of battery life, DPI adjustable, Tile wheel and importantly is laser mean work on any surface. 

However, the only downside is the I reckon this mouse is suitable for small hand person like me :)  but I don't think this is a major issue. Here, I attached a short review video and few photos. Hope you all enjoyed and good night.

nice curve from back view

How the Bible Led Me to Islam: The Story of a Former Christian Youth Min...

Hi and Salam to all,

A wonderful video that I would like to share with everyone especially the non-muslim. The truth is here as you can see a person that tried really hard to find the truth and finally found it. However, for me born as a Muslim but forget about this and what has been tought by my mum and my religion teacher. Thanks to Allah by giving me another chance to correct my self and hope I will stay in the right path...Ameen

Folding Bike

It's been ages I have not update this blog. Lately I've been busy with my PhD work, I spent most of my time in High Voltage Laboratory. Anyhoo, I got really excited stuff to share with you all, I just bought a second hand Brompton Folding Bike a month ago from Ebay at a bargain price. Generally, the bike price is around £700 brand new but will cost more when customise and can cost up to £1500.  However I managed to get it around £500 considered the original price is around £900.

I did asked my dear friend Firdaus to collect the bike for me then two weeks later me and my beloved wife went to London. It is not bad though, carried the bike from London back to Cardiff due to it brilliant engineering design I managed to carried it from Elephant and Castle tube station to Victoria Coach station with out much problem. The bike weight is around 10Kg hence can be considered quite light.   

Here, the bike specifications:

Model: M6L

Gear Speed: 6

Color: White

Other: Carrier, rear and front lamp with dynamo.

I'm really glad bought this bike and my wife loved it too. Now my journey to school is much  faster and on the weekend my wife ride it while I jog. Overall it can be said worth the money and great investment because I still can get my money back if I sell it on Ebay. I did not make any video review on the bike yet but here few photos and video sample from youtube...Enjoy...

Nicely folded

My wife as a Brompton Unpaid Model

Her first Cardiff Car Boot Sale

My wife always went to car boot sale when she was a student in Bristol, so she missed her old day of getting cheap stuff. That the main reason she nagging me all the time to show her Cardiff car boot sale location. In contrast, I hate car boot sale for the last 6 year or so, I only went less than 10 times to car boot sale. My opinion on car boot is people want to bin junk so what I will buy is a others people junk. However, I do agree sometimes you will get good stuff but it is require a regular visit to car boot which can cause an impulse spending. 

Last 2 week her wish is granted , a friend of mine offer us to tag along to car boot. My wife really excited and we went to Splott and Bessemer car boot sale. I prefer Bessemer compared to Splott car boot sale area because it is more bigger and have a lot of seller. Unfortunately, we only bought a set of utensils...:) because every time she like something I just not agree with her, that switch off her mood a little bit..lol. 

She at Splott car boot sale

Then after car boot we went to Global warehouse store which sell food but in bulk quantity. Here, I splash my cash buying a lot of dry and packing food for a winter stock..lol just joking. The food price is cheap compare to normal shop like a bag of 5kg long grain rice is £1 cheaper compared to Masaala Bazar. After I thought we done for today, suddenly my mate told me that their going to Asda. So we just head there and bought some fish. Here, a picture of friendly fish monger with his fish collection in store..lol Overall, we have really great day  and I want to thanks to Fadzly and his wife for this half day out event. Cheers guys! By the way no more car boot for me...lol 

The fish monger

An angry Seabass

Yo Sushi

We went for lunch today at Yo Sushi in Saint Davis 2, this is our first time eat sushi there. The restaurant look cool and the sushi price is a bit expensive because it is based on colour coding. The shop look similar to Sushi King in Malaysia which  the sushi is running on the conveyor belt as shown in this video.

The good news is we got a voucher from Yo Sushi website which give us 1/3 off from the total bill. The food can  be said as good as Tenkaichi Sushi restaurant at City road but here the sushi choices is more. However, the food portion is too small and their miso soup is a bit salty but they allow you to re-fill the soup with out extra charge.

Overall, we recommend this restaurant but make sure you get a voucher because it can break your bank account  :) . Here, few pictures I have taken using my D-lux 4 which I have intention to put on the conveyor but my wife forbid me to do so...hihihi!

She want everything on the conveyor

Prawn noodle

Very hungry person in action

Eid Mubarak Everyone!

It is still not to late for me to wish everyone Eid Mubarak. This year is my 2nd Eid celebrated with my lovely wife but my countless Eid in the UK. Hopefully, I finish my study before next year Eid so I can celebrate with my family and relatives back home. 

This year Eid is a bit different from our last Eid because we managed to prepare small party for our guest. Credit to my wife cook all the traditional dish all night, alone. I suddenly pass out after break our fast for no particular reason as an excused for being lazy ass :). Sadly there is no "Raya" cookies  and I don't think it is a big deal as long as we have ketupat and rendang. 

After, a month of hard work, fasting and do other good deeds, I believe it is pay off. I lost almost 3 Kg of my weight but sadly it not last that long and now I gain back the weight... :( Anyway the fast is to teach Muslim to thanks God for providing  the mercy month of Ramadhan with a little of scarifies and rewarded us with the Syawal or Eid.  

As usual we, Malaysian in Cardiff doing our best in celebrating Eid by pray together. This will remind us to home and opportunity to ask forgiveness among ourself.  Here few pictures I have taken during the Eid celebration. Hopefully next Eid I will be with our love one :) in Malaysia.

Me and my wife

Eid small party @ our house

Rendang in the making

UPEC 2010

I've been busy lately since end of August. A lot of stuff I tried to juggle around at one time. From 31st of August to 3rd of Sept 2010, I have attended a Conference organised by Cardiff University for High Voltage Engineering. The sad part is this conference is in Ramadhan so I missed  a lot of free food however, that is not a big deal. This is my first Conference after 3 years of my PhD and hopefully I get more opportunity for next coming year.

There is nothing much during these 4 days conference, only seminar,  Museum visit , free food and paper presentation. As a part of delegate and volunteer, my tasks are present my paper, tour guide, conference assistant and etc. This sound really sad...hahaha I wish the conference somewhere else so I can get a chance to visit other places for free. :)

They are around 300 delegates from academic and industry sector. So I take advantage from this conference to expend my network and sharing knowledge. I meet few people from other University and I reckon it was good experience especially PhD student from Netherlander which have a lot of sense of humour.

Overall, I enjoyed the conference, make a few friends and most importantly I got 4 days leisure time with out stuck at my office desk.. :) Here, few pictures through out the conference.

The three musketeer 

Big lady Boss

Conference delegates

Empty cups like my empty stomach during Ramadhan

ME

My favourite Raya Song

Hi all,

Just want to share my favourite Raya Song by Sudirman. It is hard to live aboard and far away from the love one. The reality is really really hard especially when Ramadhan and Eid approaching it always remind me to Malaysia. The food is amazing especially at Ramadhan Bazar and when Eid, the atmosphere and celebration is different compared to UK. I looking forward to this year Eid and hoping this is going to be last Eid I celebrate in UK. Hopefully, next year I will be in Malaysia with my family and friend. Enjoy the song guys!

Chase Jarvis

Hi all,

Just want to share this link posted by Chase Jarvis through his blog. I think is a great knowledge to share with everyone. Give it a go folks and enjoy!

http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2010/08/scotts-guest-post-play-by-play-post-production-on-this-popular-photo/

Why?

I'm a Muslim and really proud of my religion but sick with some people that used Muslim as their political agenda. Unfortunately, it is really sad to say that Muslim or Islam have been labelled as terrorist but not all of us is bad. Same like all rapist is man but not all man is a rapist. So folks we live in this temporary world why we can't tolerate and share the world equally?. This is because some people a greedy and love to see the destruction of the world. By the way I just want to share this link and hope you all watch it, learn and think about it for a moment. Try to find an answer why we can't live in this world in peace and harmony. Have a nice day!

How to get free Manfrotto Monopod

Hi Ya!

Hope everyone doing well with daily life, a great news I just got myself free Manfrotto Monopod. Technically it is not free but by considering I break even, so I just assumed it is free :). I subscribe to PhotoPlus Magazine and as a welcome gift, I have picked a monopod. I always dream to have a monopod because it easy to carry around and also good addition to my current camera accessories collection. However, the term to get this welcome gift is I need to pay for a year subscription. By the way that is not a big deal because I used Topcashback and managed to get cash back of £6. This mean I paid less than the actual fees. So everyone this is a great opportunity to have good stuff at reasonable price plus free monopod. :) Lastly, check out my video!

What is Photography mean to me.

These days I could see a lot of people own a DSLR camera. I did owned one; a Canon 500D and were really satisfied with the images it produced. It has an 18M resolution and capable to work under a low light condition. Here one of the picture taken using the camera..

I started to involve seriously in photography a year ago and now I got hooked to it and totally addicted. I love to flip through pictures uploaded on Flickr and share ideas with other people of this similar enthusiasm. The main reason I love photography is because I could capture special moments and store them. Like the picture below, you could see an endless happiness of the boy's smile..

There are times, however, when I felt cumbersome to carry around a DSLR so I then decided to get a compact camera. I later bought a Leica Dlux-4 and I am quite impressed with the quality of pictures it produces. Although its relatively expensive price let me down a bit but that did not stop me from owning one. I know the camera model is the same as LX3 but the hefty price tag represents its distinguished brand. I believe everyone wants to have an M9 but not everyone can afford it. At the moment, I am also trying to save a sum of money as much as possible and hopefully one day I could have M9. :) Here is one of the among the earliest pictures I captured using D-lux 4. This simple image managed to attract more than 200 viewers on Flickr and counting.

Recently I also purchased a ten-weeks photography course organised by CreativeLive, the course talks about the fundamental principle of digital photography with John Greengo as the speaker. I am really pleased to join this course because it opens up my mind about photography and teaches me a lot on how to become a better photographer by means of mastering my equipment. I highly recommend this course to all the photographers, especially the beginners. Here, the website creativelive, you can purchase a lot of courses from here.

Last but not least, I also want to share about my favourite magazine called PhotoPlus. Unfortunately, this magazine is dedicated only to Canon users. The best part is when they give away some welcome gifts such as mono pod, camera bag and many more when one subscribes the mag for a year. I love this magazine because the editor manages to provide relevant topics on photography and not being bias when making comments or reviews on equipments, for instance lens, camera and others. Furthermore, the mag also provides a photoshop tutorial on how to edit or improvise digital picture by showing step-by-step editing process. Overall, I love this mag and glad to be a Canon user. Alrighty folks, I have shared my photography knowledge, hope you guys enjoy it and have a nice week ahead!

Airasia X Video Update

Here a live experience when I flying with Airasia X last month. As you can see the aeroplane shake a bit when flying through turbulence. However, nothing happen and we arrived Kuala Lumpur safe and sound. So folks enjoy the video!

My new born niece

I would like to welcome a new members to Hussin family. A baby girl was born on 5 June 2010. My sister daughter weight around 3 Kg with a dark skin and black hair. Me and my wife felt really excited when we meet her for the first time. A small baby with loud crying voice. In total now I have two niece including talkative Afrina. Her name is Nurul Armani Bt. Ibrahim and I wish her welcome to the new world and hope she will be a good daughter to her parent and success always. You bring light and happiness to our family especially my mum and dad. The best part is she always want to hold her milk bottle when we feed her, for 1 month old baby this is quite impressive. I wish I will have my own baby soon :).

My Niece Sport Day Event

Nothing much activity really when we in Malaysia, it is quite slow progress from one day to another except eating :). Luckily my beloved niece Arfina have her school sport day on 18 July 2010. It is a half day event which involved few school in Ampang area. A lot of sport taking place but she only participate in one event called "ku sarung cincin" which does sound funny to me.

However, she and her team mate did really well and bag them self gold medal. It was enjoyable day for us and most importantly Afrina having good time and not return home with an empty hand. Horayy to yellow the team!

Airasia X

Who doesn't want a cheap flight we all do ;), I would recommend Airasia if you have tight budget and pay than less £300 for both way journey. If not don't bother to fly with this Airlines the main reason is the seat space is too small and the service is a bit disappoint but don't take my word for it. Someone people find it fine but from my experience it is just average and I like MAS better. 

To endurance 13 hours flight journey with cramp sit and less choice of food sometimes no food at all is not a pleasant experience. Best example is when you purchase a ticket direct from the counter and want to fly on the same day they will charge you hell a lot of money but said that you can't book for your meal because they have catered the meal early. Then when on board the stewards say sorry  we only have sandwiches left, what a shame. 

I felt really unhappy with their service when fly from London to Malaysia.However, when a return flight I paid £20 for an extra leg room seat and book my meal and bring extra Malaysian Ringgit to buy extra food or drink later. In addition I also manage to sneak some food from home into the aeroplane.My conclusion is you get what you pay for the price however I believe Tony Fernandes can do better consider he can sponsor F1 why not invest more into his airlines business. 

Anyway me and my wife safely back in the UK and looking forward for the Ramadhan and hoping everything back to normal. Have nice weekend and enjoy the British weather everyone :D

So Sad

Hi all, 

It is been a while I haven't upload any post to this portal. I have been away for almost 20 days due to my father in-law has passed away on 8 July 2010. We received a text from my brother in-law and rushed home to Malaysia on the same day. It have been the most panic day in my life. My wife cried hysterically and I'm out of control without have any sense what to do. My only thought is to call my parents to ask a current situation back home and luckily my mom clam me down. To be honest it is the most hectic morning in my life, I did few dozens call to airlines agent try to catch as early flight as possible and the sad part is we have booked a flight ticket on the 13 July with Airasia. At the end I managed to transfer our booking however I need to pay extra cost at the desk counter later when check-in at the airport. 

My wife cried all the way from Cardiff to Malaysia, really sad to see her in that state but I know she is a strong women. We arrived next day Friday, 9 July 2010 at 5 pm Malaysia time and my parent have wait outside the LCCT airport. Then straight head to Tampin and we know we cannot catch the funeral however the most important is she need her family badly. It have been a long journey for us almost 24 hours and the most sad in our life. Nevertheless I'm glad to meet our family and their support is  precious and by looking at their faces all the difficulties we've been through is fade  away.

Here I posted a picture of my late father in-law and hope God give mercy to his soul. He is a good father, in-law and friend. The only regret is I have is I haven't got enough opportunity to know and serve him better. :(

RIP : Mazlan B. Abd Aziz

A long two week

Since last two weeks I have been work my ass off to finish up my conference paper. I would say I'm quite please with the result but still a lot of work need to be done. For the rest of these two weeks I just spent my entire time working in the High Voltage lab. Here, I attached few photo of my lab work, however I'm not going to elaborate my work due to privacy matter. Nevertheless these pictures prove how hard I've been working so far towards my entire PhD course. Hope everything going to be smooth and finish it on time.

Dr. Partha helping me setting up the HV line.

The HV test set-up.

HTC Desire Review

The weather today is a bit gloomy and chill. Hence, I decided to stay indoor and did a brief review of my latest gadget; HTC Desire. It is been a week I'm using this phone. Overall I'm really impress with the Android interface. The HTC sense is brilliant and the best bit is the phone 95% manage to guess every single word when I type my text. The screen is super bright, thanks to Amoled technology. The internet is fast when connected to wi-fi but not bad when using 3G depending on coverage network. Overall I'm really happy with Desire however, the only issue that I have is the battery life is really short. The battery hardly to sufficient for one day sometimes even half a day is struggle. This due to the application or widget drain of the battery. Nonetheless I managed to figure out how to save up the battery, so folks for more details do check out my video and hope it is useful.

Have nice week a head and hope there is going to be sun shine this weekend.

HTC Desire

It was hard to get a good deal when I tried to sign up for a new mobile phone contract. I've just finished my current one-and-a-half-year blackberry curve 8900 contract that costed me a monthly fee of £25 for 600 minutes and unlimited text and Internet. It was a fairly great deal I had from o2.  Unluckily I did not manage to get a bargain again this time when I tried to renew my o2 contract. Instead they offered a bad deal; a less cool HTC smart mobile with unlimited text and internet but only half of the minutes allowances from before for the same monthly fee. It is, in my opinion, a total rip-off cause the HTC smart mobile could be purchased from pay as you go (PAYG) plan for only £90. At the end of the day, I finally decided to close my existing contract, bought the phone from Ebay and use PAYG sims instead. 

I bought a HTC Desire, one of the latest phone from HTC that uses Android as its operating system. Lots of reviews believe this Android phone is an IPhone contender and I kind of agree with it, cause this phone is honestly quite impressive. It delivers the same intuitive features as IPhone. The only drawback with HTC so far is the less sensitivity of its touch screen, I kind of struggling a bit when typing words because of that.

Just to mention that I did quite a 'homework' before made up my mind to go for HTC Desire. In comparison, IPhone has a better design and many extensive apps to choose from. On the other hand, hardware for HTC is better with 5M camera, 1GHz processor and most importantly cheaper in price.

Below are links of details specification for HTC and 3Gs for comparisons

http://www.htc.com/www/product/desire/specification.html

http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_3gs-2826.php

I made a comparison with 3Gs cause these two phones are within the same price range when you sign up for a £35/month contract for 18 months with 300 minutes allowances, unlimited text and  internet. Nonetheless I would say it to ultimately depend on the individual itself. If you got a deep pocket, it would probably be the antenna problem's Iphone 4 :). Else, try seeking a better phone deal that would do a fairly similar job as IPhone.

I also uploaded the unboxing of HTC desire on Youtube and definitely in due time I will upload a new video about the phone performance and features. So folks stay tune and enjoy the video!

London

We went to London last weekend (19/6/10-20/6/10) to have a weekend getaway and visit a friend of mine before he going home to Malaysia. Our initial plan was to pass a HP laptop that I bought for my youngest brother to him and to do some shopping in Oxford street. Fortunately we managed to have some spare time while in London and thus decided to go to London Eye and ate a yummy waffle there. If you know the place, the waffle stall is the one located next to the London Aquarium.

After we had our waffle, we took a stroll along the river pedestrian path and on our half way through, we saw a lot of street performances starring from street magician, clown and dance group. Here I uploaded a dance group video and I would say it is a smart way to get famous cause some people do take photo with them. The area is a bit busy too with other activities like a group of teenagers playing skate board. I managed to capture a few great photos with my Leica.

The sale in Oxford Street was not bad either. Unlucky for us, most of the items we bought were non-sale stuff. Only GAP shop offered a better deal, the rest would probably be average. Overall, we had a great weekend but it costed me a big hole in my bank account ;). Anyway it is good to sometimes visit other places but I honestly do not prefer London's hectic life. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend as much as I did. 

I'm 28 this year!

Yesterday is my birthday a week after my wife birthday and it does remind me that I'm getting older. It does shows that time running really pass, unnoticeable and untraceable. This year is my 6 years in Britain and last year of my PhD. What a scary thought when I'm keep thinking of it, however I don't want to spoil my good day so I decided to write about a great birthday present ever from my beloved wife.

As a sign of getting older my body does feeling ache sometimes probably due to lack of sleep. I always bug my wife by asking her to give me back massage but she did a brilliant job by getting me, my own massager. The compact percussion massager from Home Disc is a brilliant tool to do the job. It have 3 different massage setting from soft to hard but the best bit is it does add one setting that massage with heat. The massager is easy to used and only required 24W so it won't cost your electricity bill very much however the heat massage only can be used up to 15 minutes only to avoid skin burn.

I really love this gift and hope I get it sooner. Thanks to my wife for lovely gift and cards you make my day and love you so much!

Modern Warfare 2 PS3 Controller Faceplate

Just want to share with all PS3 owner out there a cool stuff to make your PS3 controller look even cooler!. Here  Madcatz Officially Licensed Modern Warfare 2 PS3 Controller Faceplate from Play.com. The faceplate is a slot or clip type and easy to attach to the controller. I would say it is not an essential accessories but it does add some additional x-factor. The faceplate does add very little weight to the controller however I would not recommend it if you have a docking charger. The main reason is it won't fit and you need to do some modification to the dock. Overall, I'm quite please with the item and high recommended to all, anyway it just £2 and surely it won't break your bank account ;)

Unboxing HP Laptop

Just bought a new HP laptop for my little brother and honestly I'm quite shock to see the drop in current laptop price within the last 3 or 4 years since I got my Toshiba. I still remember paying more than £600 for the Toshiba with only basic specifications. Now I could use the same amount of money to get a super laptop. I, however, still manage to get a good price for this HP. At the price tag of £400, I would say it as a bargain price considering the good specs.

Size: 15.6" with LED HD Display

Processor: Intel core i3 at 2.1 GHZ.

RAM: 2G DDR3

HDD: 250 GB

It uses Window 7 Home Premium as the operating system but I'm gonna upgrade it cause I got the professional version as well. I am satisfied with the laptop and hope you guys enjoy the video!

p/s: Really sorry about some blurry occur in the video due to my camera setting.

Happy Birthday Love!

Yesterday is my wife birthday and unfortunately, we unable to celebrate it because  she really busy on her ACCA exam preparation. Therefore, I  plan to postpone it to next week. By the way I just want to say that I love her and hope she will be in good health and happy always.  Hope she like this video and God bless! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR!

creativeLIVE Site

Here I would like to share a brilliant and useful website know as creativeLIVE. This site is recommended by one of famous and genius photographer called Chase Jarvis. The site provide a useful video course regarding creative photography and movie making techniques. Some of the courses are free but some of important and special course you need to pay for it. Overall I will say the site is awesome, brilliant and amazingly will benefit us all. So give it a go and hopefully we all can improve our photography technique soon. Enjoy!

http://creativelive.com/courses/digitalphotography/

D-lux 4 Custom Grip

I bought a D-lux 4 custom grip last month, made by Richard Franie's. I came across this grip in one of my flickr-buddy's page and I just want to try it before recommending the grip to others. I do agree with a lot of people that Leica brand is expensive, not only the camera itself but also extended to its accessories. No need to mention the M series like M8 and M9 which can cost up to £5K but since I used D-lux 4, I dare to say that investing in this brand is worth every single penny. Now I am starting my new saving pot for leica M and hopefully one day I can own one.

Without the grip

Back to the grip.. I would say it as a genius way to provide D-lux owners with an alternative way to spend their money ;). This grip just cost around $35, equivalent to £24 and it is far more cheaper than the original Leica grip which could cost £80. I bought the grip from a seller in US so there is another $5 for the postage cost. The grip is made from aluminium, feels very solid and comfortable to handle. However it is not a screw mount type like Leica grip so the only way to attach it to the camera is by using a special double-sided tape which can be removed and reused again in the future. 

With the grip on

I do like the grip because it is easy to use and does add more security feature when I am holding my camera. Besides, considering the price, I would say it serves its purpose and I did not need to blow out my pocket to own  an original one. I attached here some related links and hopefully it would help other D-lux users who are looking for an affordable grip :). Lastly, I would like to thank Tetsu for sharing his knowledge and Richard for his great service and fast delivery.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tetsu_sawamura/3624392127/in/set-72157604813009805/

http://www.kleptography.com/rf/#camera_dlux4

Cokezone Rewards

A good news to all COKE LOVERS out there, you can get cool stuff from your fuzzy drink habit. A website called cokezone allows you to collect points from each of your coke bottles (500 ml and 1 L) and later redeem cool prize from the site. You can collect points by simply entering a 12 digit-codes marked on the bottle, but you need to have enough points before claim any prize. To be honest, it takes ages to get a really cool rewards like X-box 360 console which needs at least 800 points, equals to 400 drinks of 500ml coke bottles. You can still, however, get other good stuff that need less points like DVD. Ironically, I would advise not to get too attracted with the rewards because it is actually not worth your precious health. Anyhoo, just give it a go and enjoy the cool rewards later!  

My recent reward

EL Paso Restaurant

Last Friday night me and my wife went to a Mexican Restaurant called El Paso in City Road, Cardiff. The restaurant is a family business, running by a father and his son. It was actually my second time dining at El Paso and my first visit was to celebrate my mate's farewell party. We totally had an awesome night and this time even better cause I was encompanied by my wife. Even though she turned up a bit late as usual, it was worth the wait. We ordered a chicken buffalo meal and some salad for starters, and a Mexican paella dish as the main course. The paella was served in a big frying pan full with stuff like chicken, mussels, prawns and etc. We were shocked with the portion and I think it probably needs at least 3 Asian grown adults to finish it in one go.

Me and Pete

Pete farewell party

They have a great environment in the restaurant with the Mexican theme and Mexican songs playing in the background. The price of the food is not bad as well, I would say as reasonable considering the portion of dishes that they serve. They got great and friendly service too so I would really recommend this restaurant, not to mention a 15% discounts for students. At the end of the day, we had a great night out and came home with full stomach, plus unfinished take-away paella :)

Mexican hat

The starter

The paella

Me

Mexican man

GAMEware PS3 Controller Charging Dock

I bought a GAMEware PS3 controller charging dock for around £13. I redeemed my card point to get this dock so technically, I'm not really paying any single penny for this. Plus, the dock is on-sale for half the price at that time. I go for PS3 accessories this time cause I am trying to make sure I wont buy any more PS3 games that can lead me to waste my time and sit in front of my telly for few hours when I can do my PhD workloads instead. Check out the unboxing video below and some pictures of this charging dock. I am quite pleased with this additional accessory of my current PS3 collection now ;). The dock has two additional USB hubs so it provides another hub to the console and placing the controllers on the dock next to my PS3 makes them look cool. Hope you enjoy the video guys and have nice long weekend!

Street Dance 3D

    We went to watch Street Dance the Movie straightly after it was released yesterday. I actually prefer to see Prince of Persia instead but my wife was crazy about watching the 3D street dance movie she dragged me to Cineworld to see it. On our way there, we even got a chance to see Flawless performing life in Cardiff town to promote the movie. We ended up spent almost an hour in front of Queens Street's CarPhoneWareHouse where the dance group had their poster signing session inside the store before came out and performed some dance routines. I say they are one of the best street dancers in UK but I still love Diversity more.

    I found the storyline of the movie a bit lame but the dance action is quite interesting. Unfortunately, I think Step Up sequels are much better. However considering it as the first British street dance movie, I give them some credit for their pretty good attempt. I'm not going to write more details about the movie cause I don't want to ruin your experience watching it but it's probably worth to see the 3D effects. If you are lucky enough like us, you might get a chance having Flawless or even Diversity of George Sampson deliver an opening speech before the movie start! These are the videos I took during the street performance and their opening speech so enjoy!