It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Xmas

Bangsar Shopping Centre in Kuala Lumpur, one of my favorite haunts, has made a great job this year of their Xmas decorations as you can see. Shot with my i-phone using the 360 app which stitches a number of individual images together to create a large panorama.

Pacific Place Panorama

The i-phone is now a very powerful mobile device for photography. .... yes it's i-Phone Friday again! Alongside the camera there are now many many apps that can assist you to edit and post-process the picture. This photograph was taken using an app called 360 which obviously allows you to take panoramas and stitch these in phone .... something that would have taken a very powerful computer and an expensive software application to execute a few years ago.

This image (or group of individual images) was taken at Pacific Place Shopping Centre in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Diamond Plaza

Diamond Plaza is a new office block complex and department store in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. The complex includes a shopping center, 6 cinema lounges, restaurants, café, and hospital. The complex was completed and open for business in 1999. There is a helicopter pad on the roof of the building.

ION Orchard

ION Orchard is the latest shopping centre in Singapore built over the Orchard MRT station with 335 food and retail outlets and a unique futuristic and organic-like design. An integral part of the development is the Orchard Residences, a high-rise residential condominium, which is still under construction and will have 175 units from the 9th floor to the 54th floor. Layered across the walls of ION Orchard, the Media Facade is a multi-sensory canvas media wall made with cutting-edge technology. 

ION Orchard will also have the largest sheltered public square along Orchard Road, ION². It will span over 33,000 sq ft (3,100 m²) wide and are able to set-up any large-scale events. Everyday, over 220,000 pedestrians will be within its vicinity.

Bangsar Shopping Centre Makeover

Bangsar Shopping Centre's makeover is complete and I've got to say they have done a great job on this. Not only does the new facelift look wonderful, but there are now a wide variety of new shops and restaurants. WIP and The Press Room front up the west wing of BSC as can be seen in these photos.

Lat at Bangsar Shopping Centre

Visiting Bangsar Shopping Centre in Kuala Lumpur today I noticed an exhibition displaying cartoons by the famous cartoonist Mohammad Nor Khalid or Datuk Mohd Nor Khalid - more commonly know as Lat. Lat is a very well known cartoonist in Malaysia with many of his cartoons appearing in the editorial pages of the Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times.

Lat was born 5th March 1951 in Kota Baru, Perak, not to be confused with Kota Bharu the capital of Kelantan. He had a wonderful talent for drawing as a child and drew excellent comics. At the age of 9, his gifted talent began to yield his family income. His first real book was Tiga Sekawan, a story about three friends who banded together to catch robbers. The book was published in his sixth year at Jalan Pasir Puteh Primary School in Ipoh. His publisher paid him 25 Ringgit for his service. By 1968, Lat was earning 100 Ringgit a month from his work.

He later moved to Kuala Lumpur to become a cartoonist. Lat was offered a position to join the New Straits Times as a crime reporter but later on became a cartoonist. He started with an editorial comic strip called 'Scenes of Malaysia', then was known for the comic strip published weekly called 'Keluarga SiMamat".His first book Kampung Boy, an autobiography of his life was published in 1979 and sold thousands of copies within three months. Kampung Boy was published in France by a French publisher. An American edition of Kampung Boy was published by First Second Books in August 2006. This was the first of his books to be published in the United States. His second American release, Town Boy, is scheduled for release in October 2007. His cartoons reflect his view about Malaysian life and the world. Another famous Lat comic book is 'Mat Som', a story of a young teenager's discovery of the new world of capitalism. It shows illustrations of insight view in Kuala Lumpur city.

His cartoons have been published in several cartoon books in Malaysia and he is famous throughout the country. Lat's latest book is Dr Who?!, dedicated to Mahathir bin Mohamad, former prime minister of Malaysia and his wife Dr Siti Hasmah.