Dear1 Dear2

We just booked our actual day photography package last weekend. Another hole in the pocket. :(

The photographer was introduced by our make up artist. During our first meet up with the photographer, we were surprised that 2 of them came to meet us. After some chit chat, we realized that they were a couple and were both in this line. They showed us their portfolio and tried to sell us this item of wedding journalism. Hmm… At first it sounded cheem to us, but the jest of it is that by hiring 2 photographers, 1 can concentrate on the main event such as on stage and table to table photos, while the other can go around capture news worthy scenes around the entire event ground. The result of this is that the guest looked natural and more expressive. Looking at their portfolio, that is indeed the feeling we derive from the photos. So call candid shots but manage to capture a lot of emotions. Furthermore, considering that they are a couple, there will be a certain level of chemistry between them such that they do not get into each other’s way during the actual photography session and that they will be able to cover each other’s blind spots, something that can only be found in teammates that have worked together for some time, 默契. With all these considerations in mind, we signed a package with them. Again, this time we chop chop curry pok, signing up with the first service provider we met, unlike last time where we found 10 quotations for our renovation before deciding on one. So long as we’re satisfied, no need to get the cheapest rate in town. So here is the package:

• All photos will be returned. Expected: 600 shots and above.
• 300 selected photos, digital touched up, developed and returned with slot in album.
• 2 photographers.
• 10 hours service per photographer.
• Photo montage of day event to be really for dinner screening.
• Total cost: $1588.

After asking about their overtime rates and such, I managed to work backwards to derive the individual cost of each item. Photography service is charged at $50 per hr, so 2 photographers for 10 hours is 50 x 10 x 2 = $1000. Reasonable enough. The montage costs $200 for the afternoon work of selecting compiling editing and producing. Also reasonable. So that leaves $388 for developing 300 photos, album and the right to all the photos taken on our wedding day from morning make up session right down to the end of the wedding dinner. Sounds good. Communications with the photographers are also well enough and they seemed experienced from the way they explained their work.

Right, so that’s one more wedding item off the list. Still a page full of items to go. Ganbarimasu!

58 days to wedding.

-Dear1

Here is the bean sprout my dear! Very cute hor…

Let’s see, today is Wednesday evening and it’s the first time I noticed the bean sprout. But it looks quite too long to have suddenly developed over the course of 1 day at work. So the conclusion is, it had been growing for 3 days, just that I hadn’t noticed it until today. Let’s recap.

Dear2 cooked green bean soup for us last Sunday (3 days ago) becos the weather was hot and we need to ‘cool down’. After finishing the tasty green bean soup, Dear2 washed the pot and I did noticed some green beans being stucked at the outlet. At that time, I didn’t give it any thought becos I assume it would be washed down the drain very soon. Never would I have imagined that it would sprout. Come to think of it, cooked green beans should be denatured and it couldn’t possibly sprout. That meant, the seeds of green I saw on Sunday night was probably fresh seeds that had fallen out during the earlier food preparation phase.

When I discovered the bean sprouts this evening, it was even standing upright and reaching for the sun. Upon lifting the sink filter, I noticed that the roots of the bean sprout was very long, about twice the length of the bean sprout itself and somewhat entangled with the lower sink outlet structure. Nevertheless, it came off quite easily and after inspection, there was no more bean sprout within the outlet.

This episode taught us a few things:

1. Bean sprouts grow very quickly, 1 more day and I think it can be eaten. Makes sense for people who enjoy eating bean sprouts to plant their own.
2. Bean sprouts are strong, they can grow in unfavourable conditions with only moisture as their nutrients. There was no cotton wool and the sun was so far away. This is really something we can learn.
3. Never ignore an innocent looking green bean seed in the kitchen sink and so always clean up the sink and filter properly after every washing.

Haha… This really reminded me about our primary school experiments where our teachers will ask us to grow some bean sprouts at home. It’s really quite interesting dear, dun faint lah. Gee… We are building up so many memories in our home, bit by bit. Muck!

-Dear1

Wash clothes. Tidy the coffee table.  Sweep the floor.  Bring out laundry to sun. Cook lunch. Bake cookies. What a relaxing Saturday.

Last week, as Dear1 and Dear2 were casually chatting over dinner (Dear1 and Dear2 like to talk, talk about many things - current affairs, little happenings which Dear1 read from the internet, about life, about what we’ve done and what we like to do, about fashion, politics, food, the latest movie we’ve watched - everything under the sun), Dear1 opinioned that household chores should be done leisurely.  But in this fast paced society of ours, ‘the working mum does not have time to slowly cook the dinner’. Dear2 has too fallen prey to the trap - household chores are routine and just have to be done, so what talk about enjoying the task!?

But hey, what Dear1 said made sense.  You too can enjoy the chore.  During the hanging out of laundry to dry, Dear1 applies Optimization Theory to determine the best permutation of sequencing which piece of clothe goes out on this tecko and that tecko.  Oh boy. Dear1 is full of such This Theory and That Transform!

But seriously, if one can choose to handle the task with better enjoyment, the ‘chore’ can become a ‘core’ pleasure. Of course, when there is a deadline to meet, it’s about efficiency and time management.  Other than that, why not take on these mundane tasks with ease and flair, and you too can have a relaxing Saturday.

Have a great weekend.  Cheers.

- Dear2

Dear dear… The orange that we bought 3 days ago from NTUC, spoil already. I wanted to eat 1 orange for breakfast this morning, so I took it out from the fridge and prepare to peel it by hand, then I saw this green and white patch. Faint! Why I always encounter spoilt things? That day also I ate the mouldy pandan cake. Huhuhu… Actually wanted to send an MMS to u, but I think you can also read it here, and I can type more things too. I really wanted to eat the orange one…

-Dear1

Without further-a-do, here is Dear2’s wedding shoes!

Hunting for wedding shoes is not an easy task. Sometime I wonder, why is there such a big fuss over wedding shoes? Why is it that in every video montage about wedding, one of the scene will be dedicated to the wedding shoes? And why is it that wedding packages doesn’t come with shoes? -_-

After some time, I realized that one of the possible reasons may be, that wedding shoes just isn’t customizable, or alterable. Wedding dresses are always design with some leeway or at least some ingenious hidden secret that allows the designer to alter the dress to suit a variety of bride shapes. Shoes on the other hand, are more or less fixed to their design so nothing can be changed, so that’s why it has fallen upon the bride to seek her own pair of perfect shoes.

Then, why must it be silver? After asking our wedding make up artist/stylist, he replied that silver is the easier colour to match a gown, be it wedding gown or night gown. Quite true. And according to him, the added advantage of silver shoes is that it can be reused easily to match other types of clothes on a day to day basis so that it would be a one-time-use waste of money. Icic.

The last point that I can think of is something that I realized myself while shopping for wedding shoes with Dear2. That is, everybody’s feet shape is different, and that calls for different shoe shape design. Very interesting fact that I noticed is that ‘pointed toes’ shoes is more suitable for Dear2’s feet rather than the ’square toes’ shoes. Nvm if u dun understand, the important thing is that I understand.

With that, we went hopping from shopping centre to shopping centre along Orchard Rd looking for that perfect pair of wedding shoes. But as always, things are not smooth sailing. First, we can’t find silver shoes at all! Hmm… Then somehow, the silver shoes started appearing, but Dear2 didn’t like them, one of our criteria was that the shoe must have back straps, Dear2 liked back strap shoes. As we walked along, we finally walked into OG at Orchard Point where there was suddenly a whole rack of silver shoes. Yeah!

But lady luck wasn’t on our side. The first few pairs of shoes that Dear2 had her eyes on doesn’t have her size in stock. Grr… After the 3rd or 4th pair that had no size, we were both visibly irritated. We even got the salesgirl to help us make a call to their other branches, namely Chinatown and Bugis, to check if they have stock there, but there wasn’t. Where didn’t all the shoes go to? Was so many people getting married at the same time?!

Just before leaving, Dear2 manage to spot a pair that looked alright. After asking for the size, we had a long anxious wait while the salesgirl went to check for the stock. They have it, Yes! Finally. This pair was not bad, not the first choice though, but still quite elegant. And so we decided to buy it. The price was $30 something, I can’t really remember, Dear2 u remember? *Update: The receipt shows $39.90.

Now, the more I look at this pair of shoes, the more I liked it, especially how it looked on Dear2’s slender feet. This may be my favourite pair of shoes out of Dear2’s entire shoe collection yet. Gee…

-Dear1

At 3.54pm this afternoon, a LEGO criminal escaped on a hijacked police motorcycle. A pedestrain manage to capture this photograph at the very moment of the escape.

According to eye witnesses, the police transport van and the accompanying escort patrol stopped by a local kopitiam for an afternoon coffee break.

On pretense of asking for a toilet break, the criminal managed to trick the vehicle driver into opening the rear door. An unofficial report says that the criminal had already loosen his handcuffs earlier while under detention and was able to escape once the doors were opened.

One LEGO police officer was injured during this incident. As seen in the picture above, LEGO officer Helm Etra Dio was knocked off his patrol bike by the runaway.

“Suddenly… [I] felt a hard *thump* on my back… and [my body] fly through the air and [my] face hit the ground.” said officer Helm during an interview.

The LEGO police is taking this escape very seriously, describing it as “outrageous”. A four member committee will be appointment to lead the investigation of this incident.

-Dear1

p.s. We got this 2-in-1 promotional LEGO set at the Takashimaya toy fair, that’s $17.90 (U.P.$27.90) for box 7235 and 7245 which comes with a total of 3 LEGO figures. :D

Do you know that there is a website that hosts all the marathon photos from around the world that you can think of? The website is http://www.marathon-photos.com/index.html. And of course, the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon is no exception.

Last year, Dear1 and Dear2 participated in their first ever full marathon. When we were approaching the finishing line, we already knew that there will be sport photographers taking pictures of runners and will be hosting them at the marathon photos website. So in an effort to make a picture perfect finish, Dear1 and Dear2 decided to run the final part of the race holding hands and crossing the finishing line together. This way, the photographers will know that we are an item and will hence take us together as the focus in a single picture. This way, we get to buy 1 photo with 2 people inside, more worthwhile. :P

The photos aren’t cheap, and we realized this only when we were viewing our photos online. It’s $38.95 for a 20×30cm photo and $9.50 for postage, that’s nearly $50 for a photo, kinda expensive by our books. Even though running the marathon is a milestone for us, the price really made us reluctant to buy those photos.

After lots of consideration, we eventually forgotten about it, until very recently. So one weekend, I was like ‘heck, let’s just get it! it’s memorable.’ And so I went ahead and order 1 photo of us from the website and paid a total of $48.45 for a photo of Dear1 and Dear2 holding hands and crossing the finish line red carpet. About a week later, the picture came, flown in from New Zealand. It was well worth it, Dear1 and Dear2 conquering the marathon for the first time.

But there was another problem which we realized after receiving the photo, what about the framing? OMG. Custom made frames are easily going to cost another $50 or so. -_- Sigh… So we decided to do a little shopping to see if there are any suitable photo frames in bookshops or gift shops that have a suitable size. And we found one, in Puzzle World @ IMM. The white colour frame that we bought was meant to be used for the zig saw puzzles from the shop, but the size was just right, about a few centimetres larger in both height and width. So we bought it, and also some nice printed paper from Popular Bookshop to make an inner frame for the space between the photo and the frame.

Our marathon photo is now sitting on the window grills in our study room, reminding us that we can do anything together.

-Dear1

Catching up with friends can be such a routine and lifeless activity, especially if the same activity is done over and over again, like what I’ve talked about earlier. The thing that needs to be fundamentally reconsidered is the purpose of meeting up and hence shape the activity around that purpose.

Going for dinner is a great way of catching up. We can chit chat about the latest craze in town, find out what one another are doing and so on. But the routine part of it is the dinnering. Every likes to see one another every once in a while, which is why we bother to organise outings in the first place. But over dinner yet again?! So I propose a new activity that is more suited for friends’ gathering, staying at home.

A group of friends can arrange to visit one person of the group at his/her home. This way, everyone can dress comfortably and be in a more relaxed mood. For food, there’s always delivery services from pizza stalls, fast foods and the like. Or how about going downstairs to one of the kopitiams and have some local hawker food, the non aircon environment and haphazard arrangement of tables and chairs will surely help with bonding.

At home, there can be many activities as well. Steamboat, pot luck or even baking for those cooking-type people. Or how about renting a movie to enjoy together in the living room, sitting on the sofa, on the floor, against the wall. Playing a board game can be fun, good old Monopoly, Risk or pool together some money and buy an exotic board game such as Scotland Yard or Ticket To Ride. And Mahjong is definitely one of those games u simply cannot find anywhere other than a residential unit. While the four probabilistic experts are busy guessing one another’s bamboo and wind suits, the rest of the people can play some interactive video console games such as PS3, XBox360 or Wii. PC games are also fine but make sure there are enough controllers to go around. Handheld consoles can be great too if there are enuff PSP and DS among the group of friends. The not so game savvy people can probably take a corner of the house and just sit down, relax, get a cold drink and start chatting away.

The things I’m suggesting here aren’t as expensive as going downtown for a meal at some fancy restaurant, but I’m sure it adds much more value to building the bonds of friendship.

-Dear1

Recently, there’s an increased in the number of lizards wondering into our house. And how do we know this? From the trail of lizard shit and lizard urine they leave around the house, on the wall, on the floor… -_-*

As a precaution, we started throwing away all the rubbish bins every night even though they are not full. Personally, I feel very environmentally guilty after throwing out so many quarter-to-half used plastic rubbish bags on a daily basis, but anything to keep lizards away. Furthermore, we made sure that there are no exposed food on the table or anywhere else in the the house. Loaf of bread will be tightly bundled and packed into yet another plastic bag to make life difficult for those pesky lizards.

Not everyone dislikes lizards though. I suddenly remember Dear2 mentioning that one of her colleagues actually appreciates lizards roaming the house, “keeps the mosquito population in check” she says. Well, I respect her judgment but I won’t tolerate lizards in my house. Surely there are other methods for keep mosquitoes away, just heed all those dengue prevention ads.

So back to the story, despite the lack of leftovers or any form of exposed food, we still continue observing disgusting lizards trails. Taking a look around the house, we realized that it’s impossible to seal the house to keep the lizards out. For one, the toilet ventilation windows are fixed in place and there’s no way to seal them off, so lizards can always climb in through the windows. So now it’s time for plan C.

Every few days, we’ll spray insecticide all around the house, especially around windows and doors and sewer areas where they may possibly enter the house from. Things seems to be improving slightly, but the trail still continues. Maybe lizard aren’t that afraid of insecticides as cockroaches. After all, lizards aren’t classified as insects.

Whenever a lizard is spotted in the house, it is always hunted down. Dear1, armed with a bottle of insecticide and an opened tupperware will convert the devilish four legged beast. Although I just mentioned that they aren’t really afraid of insecticide doesn’t mean that they are immune to it, just like humans will also die from insecticide overdoes. Adopting the same theory, Dear1 will chase the lizard to the mountains and down the sea, waiting for the lizard to let its guard down. Seizing the opportunity, Dear1 sprays an overdose of insecticide on the unsuspecting lizard, covering it in a sea of toxic moist. While it struggles to get away from the scene, the poisonous fumes start to affect its movements, slowing it down to a crawl and Dear1 entraps it under the inverted plastic prison in one swift motion. Dear1 then places a shoe atop the tupperware to ensure the lizard doesn’t get away. Normally, everything will be left as it is overnight. The next day, Dear1 will quickly pick it up using paper towels and throw it away.

Some may think that this is quite an exaggerated method of catching a lizard but both Dear1 and Dear2 are not very comfortable with catching pest with our bare hands. Furthermore, it runs too fast to catch and hence the need to slow it down with insecticide.

The one thing I still don’t understand is, these simple minded animals, surely they only visit places where food is to be found. So if there’s no readily available food in my house, where are they still coming in? Grr… Sometimes I do notice lizards along the corridors and in the void decks, perhaps there are quite a lot of lizards in the neighbourhood? If so, should I call up the town council and get them to put a stop to such problems?

Temporary solution: Buy a lizard trap from NTUC and place it near potential entry points and keep all food out of reach.

-Dear1

I have never been much of a shirt person up till now so I don’t really keep track of the prices of men’s shirt. Let’s think back, when did I ever wear men’s shirt…

The first time I could think of is for a secondary school alumni dinner. At that time, I have zero shirts and zero pants and I ended up having to borrow them. I remember borrowing a shirt from my dad, but not the pants because I was quite thin back then and my dad’s pants wasn’t. I borrowed the pants from another friend, I think.

The next was my JC prom dinner which I attended with Dear2! Yes, we were already an item then. :D Muck! Naturally, I was quite excited about my first ever (and probably last ever prom), and I remembered asking for $100 costume allowance from my mum since I was still a poor school kid. Eventually, I bought a deep blue shirt from a shop called V.I.P from Westmall, and a pair of black pants from Bossini.

Since then, my parents start noticing my so-called growing up and my need for men’s shirts, so they start buying some for me when they went shopping. I’m fine with it I guess, partly becos I dun have to spend any money on them. Anyway, I was going to spend 2 yrs and 4 mths in the army next and there wasn’t really any occasions. Maybe there was… The BMT passing out dinner. Why do they call it passing out? Sounded like I fainted or something. The other thing that started happening was wedding dinners. Apparently, all my cousins and about the wedding age and there was an onslaught of wedding dinners to attend and I got to try out all the new shirts that my parents bought. And there’s Chinese New Year visitings too.

I guess the next time I needed shirts was when I did my vacation internship program during my 2nd year of uni. So it’s my first office desk bound working experience and I had to wear shirt and pants to work everyday. It was then that I realized I have no short sleeve shirts, but I like folding up my long sleeves anyway, I liked the folded sleeves look. Of course, during my uni days, there were lots of opportunities to wear shirts, lots of presentations to do. And I also joined the student’s engineering club which gave me yet more opportunities to wear my shirts. And then there was my second vacation internship program with a different company.

Oh, a significant development was the fact that I not only needed shirts, but a coat as well. That was during my engineering club’s year end dinner. So as I was to purchase my first coat, my dad accompanied me to get a cheap off the shelf shirt from OG at Specialists Centre (now demolished) at Orchard Rd. Again, I didn’t have to pay for it. :P I got to wear my coat twice because I was in engineering club for 2 years. Other than that, it’s sitting quietly in my cupboard. My dad used it a few times too, for holiday trips to cold places, functions and so on.

My uni days was also the time I starting getting casual shirts, and I bought 3, I think. A grey beach printed one from Tom & Stephanie at Westmall, a dark blue checkered on from some shopping centre in Orchard and a light coloured one with a few strips from Malacca. Dear2 bought one for me too, during my army days, a grey Fubu shirt. It was young and trendy during that time, but I didn’t have a chance to wear it much, and it went out of fashion quite quickly too so I didn’t wear it after. And my friend gave me a pink Milk shirt for one of my birthdays, but it was a size too big so it’s still sitting in my cupboard. Maybe I can wear it now that I’m a little fatter. Huhuhu…

Next was our ROM of course. Dear2 and I went shopping for the right ROM attire for the both of us. We decided that our theme will be white and pink, so I was to get a white shirt and maybe dark pants. All my shirts so far were plain and I first started to look at textured shirts for my ROM. Wow, I just didn’t know there were so many types of textured materials. After much searching, I had my eyes on a vertical striped textured shirt and a matching dark pants from G2000. This shirt came with cuff links, my first. It was during a sale period so I got both pieces for around $80 if I remembered correctly.

Every now and then, my parents would still buy me some shirts when they go shopping, many of which I rejected becos of their fashion sense. Some of the shirts they choose look like those construction works will wear out in the yard! But there are some nice ones. One of which being a maroon vertical striped, quite trendy looking, slim cut shirt which I wore for Chinese New Year this year. It made me too slim and stylish, I like~ Gee…

In my line of work now, I dun need to wear shirts and that’s why I haven’t had any new additions, until last week that is.

Our wedding photo shoot is coming up and bridal packages *do not* include men’s shirts, so we have to get it ourselves. After the gown fitting session, the fashion stylist told us the shirts we need to get. Apparently, I needed 4 shirts, a cream one, a peach one, a blue one and a pink one. So last week, Dear2 and I went shopping for shirts for our photo shoot. It isn’t very easy to find becos first, we wanted something nice and with designs, which ruled out plain shirts. Second, we need 4, instead of just 1 for our ROM. We finally ended up at Robinsons at City Hall where there’s a sale going on. Luckily, we managed to spot 3 shirts to our liking, incidently, all textured vertical stripes! It was a cream Montagut shirt with mandarin collar @ $39.90 (UP$89.90), a pink normal collar one @ $49.90 (UP$109) and a blue also normal collar one also @ $49.90 (UP$109) both from Feraud. OMG! Luckily I bought them during sale time! I absolutely cannot believe the original price of men’s shirt can be hovering around the $100 mark. Maybe it’s just that I’ve never been attentive enough or I just didn’t have any need to buy them. Actually, I do know that men’s shirt can be expensive from the few times that I wandered into Zara. I actually tried on some of the Zara shirts and man do they look good. But their price looks bad, very very bad. But becos I didn’t actually buy them, so I guess the notion of expensive shirts never stayed in my mind. Until now that I’ve just paid $149.70 for my 3 shirts do I finally realize this feeling the pinch. Haha… but the shirts are really good, material is good, design is good, I liked them, and I’m going to look good in them for my wedding photos. Wuahaha… Oh no, am I going to develop a shirts fetish, I hope not. :P

That’s it for my shirt wearing history. Dress well and feel good, I guess that’s true.

-Dear1