The rocks, getting their daily dose of dry air as the tide recedes. The thin layer of sand left behind by the sea reminds me of snow capped rocks. It’s about time, I make plans to spend more time outdoors.

Took a little trip down to Changi Beach. This is the first time I’m there where the tide went really low. While high tide usually shows the nicer side of the beach, low tides exposes what lie beneath those murky waters. We all know this story.

17th November 2007, another popular date for weddings. I met Maggie and Bob months ago and I found Bob a little too quiet. I remembered he didn’t speak a single word throughout the whole meeting, while Mag and me was going on and on about the wedding and stuff. But my oh my… on the wedding day, I thought I saw someone else, Bob’s so darn funny!! not to mention damn sporting too. The dinner was nice too, a small and intimate affair. The MC, a friend of the couple, was so funny. One of the most unique and certainly one of the best I’ve heard so far. With a mixture of hokkien, mandarin and english, the delivery was really entertaining (albeit a little crude at times). Someone asked, “Does your friend moonlight for getai?”

During the dinner, I saw Jonaven and Yingying, and also Damon, the videographer (Yes, I’m going to see him in Dec!) at the foyer, both attending the wedding next door. I say, it’s a beautiful day:)

 

[tags]Photography, Wedding[/tags]

Some photos from Maggie and Bob’s wedding over the weekend. Have been looking at it for hours and hours till I saw stars when I looked away.

Aren’t they lovely? Ironically, the flower girl with her face covered is the one that loves getting into the camera, all the time:)

 

I thought she looks like a famous local singer:) Oh yes, I told her that.

 

 

[tags]Photography, Wedding[/tags]

The best thing about working on your own is, you don’t have to explain to anyone why you are working so hard. Especially when you LOVE what you are doing. I get into this mode whenever I encounter nice clients

Been having some problems whenever I exercise, be it running, soccer, wakeboarding or even sometimes, standing for extended periods. Then the recent strain behind my knees put a stop to all exercises. A friend recommended me to a bone setter (ok, I only found out what it meant after I came back today).

Before visiting, my friend warned that the pain would literally blind one. What to do, for what good I heard it does, I think it’s worth the risk. When I was there, the guy just told me, lie down and started pressing from my feet up. Ok, it wasn’t blindingly painful, but it’s painful enough to give me thoughts of asking him to stop, especially every single joint was twisted and pulled in the ways I’ve never imagined possible. They responded with cracks, ok, it sounds horrible. As with anybody else, my body started resisting, opposing his force. He stopped a couple of times and told me, “are you afraid of pain?”, “if you resist, how am I suppose to work?”, “this is not a massage…”. After that, I felt a little embarassed and tried to relax… everytime I had the opportunity to turn my face away, I’ll curse and swear silently, thinking when will this end?!

After about 30mins of twisting and turning, he finally stopped. And he explained what he just did. First he said, my entire leg’s alignment is screwed, yes, from top to bottom and it’s affecting every other part of my body, which is the cause of the muscle aches I’ve been getting. And the amazing thing is he started to pinpoint all the areas that I’ve been having problems, without me even telling him. Then he started to correct my posture, sitting position, etc.

So he said, now I have to rest to get my muscles adapt to the new alignment. The daily itinarary is, according to him, light work, no exercise, eat and sleep. Man… only if he could issue MCs

During the next visit 2 weeks later, the whole experience was alot better as they weren’t as painful as the last time, 25mins and I’m done. He noted improvement, so did I. On his advise, I rested a few more days before trying out running. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out as I felt an unbearable strain on my LCL a few kilometers into the run. The positive side is that the pain only appear whenever I run. Perhaps it still needs time to recover. I’m going to rest for awhile longer, perhaps just give my knees a break.

Since the first visit, I’ve been recommending friends to him, haven’t asked them about their progress though. I guess most of them won’t dare to try after they heard it’s going to be painful. Although I think he’s really worth a visit. Having a corrected posture really does a great deal of difference to my daily life. It just feels good.

Ok, for those interested, can drop me a mail, I’ll send you the contact. But please, this is all at your own risk, I’m just relating my experience:) 

[tags]Bonesetter[/tags] 

It’s one of the hottest date this year, 11th Nov 2007. At Gelaine and Ian’s wedding, the atmosphere was relaxed, no fuss, no rush. Something different from the usual fast and furious weddings that are packed with events. Gave me time to sit back and think a little more. There I found out that Ian’s sister is Sam’s faculty mate. Small world ain’t it. As usual, here’s the slideshow:)

 

[tags]Photography, Wedding[/tags]

 

Excerpt from Todayonline. 13th Nov 2007

THE MOST CRIPPLING OF THEM ALL
——————————
It looks like a laid back sport, until the lower back gives out

Not long after an underwhelming showing by the British contingent at the
Wimbledon tennis championships in July, the British Journal of Sports
Medicine published the results of a study that suggested to beleaguered
English tennis fans that things are only going to get worse.

In the study, researchers from the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital
scanned the spines of 33 elite adolescent tennis players. None of them had
reported back pain. But their backs, it turned out, were a mess – they had
backs 60 years older than they were.

But as many of us know from debilitating first-hand experience, back
problems don’t afflict just teenage tennis players. According to various
studies, at least a third of all competitive football players will hurt
their lower backs during play, as will a third of gymnasts and 25 per cent
of serious rowers. About 40 per cent of divers will develop a spinal
stress fracture, and many cyclists will experience constant, grinding back
pain while riding. The harshest sport, however, seems to be golf.

Ninety per cent of injuries to professional golfers involve the lower back
and the neck, and almost 80 per cent of professionals will miss at least
one tournament because of back pain.

If you’re a runner, do a backbend of thanksgiving: Runners statistically
have a lower risk than most athletes of developing back problems. But for
everyone else, the news is … painful.

Many lower back problems are caused by the very athleticism that modern
sports demand. Consider the forces applied to the lower back during
certain activities: The torque created by a proper golf swing can produce
almost 770kg of pressure on the lower spine. Rowers can put about 590kg of
pressure on their backs at the catch of their stroke. And the “peak
compressive load” created by a football lineman slamming into his opponent
can be close to 900kg.

Having a strong back, you will be happy to hear, means not doing sit-ups.
Ever.  “Sit-ups are not healthy for the back,” said Mr Michael Higgins,
the director of athletic-training education at Towson University in
Maryland and the author of several academic articles about back injuries
in athletes.”They can severely compress the lumbar spine.”

Abdominal crunches, on the other hand, in which you raise your head and
trunk slightly from the ground without pulling yourself upright, improve
back health significantly. “Crunches build core endurance and strength
without stressing the spine,” he added.

If your back aches for more than a few weeks, or if the pain is acute or
radiating, visit a doctor. “Most back injuries will clear up on their own
within six to eight weeks, if you rest adequately,” Mr Vijay Vad, a sports
medicine specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City
said. “Surgery is very rarely necessary, maybe in 3 to 5 per cent of
cases.” – nyT

Is SAF ever going to listen to the experts? Although it’s my pet event, but I wouldn’t mind doing one less.

I just like the way the colors all come in together for this picture. Speaking of flowers, I really like the ones I see at Blooms Boutique (damn, they are pretty). Too bad they are based in NY. Come to Singapore lah!:P

 

[tags]Photography, Wedding, Flowers[/tags] 

From last week’s event. Shea Lee and Isaac gave some of the vendors a shock with some last minute arrangements, but everything worked out fine and we had a good laugh over that. One of them was that a Buddhist ceremony was included a day before. I was really excited to see what it was like. The highlight I’d say is the “放生” ceremony where birds were freed on the rooftop. Pretty cool to see birds darting out of the cages right in front of you, I was just praying they don’t come crashing right into my lens.

The dinner event was pretty happening as well, didn’t see that part of Isaac till alcohol was served. Standing on top of the chair, he claimed, “我是酒王!!”. To many, that’s suicidal, but man… he’s one of the few grooms I’ve seen left standing by the end of the night after so many drinks, just a little shaky. Considering the amount of alcohol he consumed, that’s pretty understandable. While speaking to Isaac and Shea Lee some weeks back, I found that they had a special affinity with Germany, like me, Isaac was posted there for some period of time. I bet he must’ve built up his reputation as “酒王” in Germany (but no no, I can’t drink), the land of erm… booze (and fast cars).

Congrats guys and here’s the slideshow to share.

 

[tags]Photography, Wedding, Buddhist[/tags]

 

I’m sorry if I’ve been slow with my replies and requests. Down with fever. Haven’t felt this terrible for a long time I hope I’ll recover in time tomorrow…

Was just reading the news on Today online and found this article rather interesting.

Excerpts from Today Online (5th Nov 2007)

NEARLY 3,500 CHINESE CHILDREN NAMED ‘OLYMPICS’
———————————————-
BEIJING – The Beijing Olympics is more than just a point of pride for
China – it’s such an important part of the national consciousness that
nearly 3,500 children have been named for the event, a newspaper reported
yesterday.

Most of the 3,491 people with the name “Aoyun”, meaning Olympics, were
born around the year 2000, as Beijing was bidding to host the 2008 Summer
Games, said the Beijing Daily, citing information from China’s national
identity card database.

Names related to the Olympics don’t just stop with “Olympics”. More than
4,000 Chinese share their names with the Beijing Games mascots – the “Five
Friendlies”.

The names are Bei Bei (880 people), Jing Jing (1,240), Huan Huan (1,063),
Ying Ying (624) and Ni Ni (642). When put together, it translates to
“Beijing welcomes you”.

Chinese have increasingly turned to unique names as a way to express a
child’s individuality.

In a country with a population of 1.3 billion, 87 per cent share the same
129 family names.

That’s why 5,598 people have the same name as basketball player Yao Ming
and 18,462 share a moniker with star hurdler Liu Xiang, according to the
Beijing Daily report.

Parents have turned to unusual combinations of letters, numbers and
symbols when choosing their child’s name, Mr Li Yuming, deputy director of
the National Language Commission, had told the Xinhua news agency. – AP

“Ni Ni” sounds crude man. Reminds about one of the youtube videos that I saw a while ago.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvtWAXoZjTc[/youtube]

[tags]youtube, random articles, Olympics[/tags]

Just hours after rolling out the new website, I got some friends to look at it and got some comments. One of the things that bugged me was that the images may be a little too big for some of you who may be using smaller monitors or on laptops (yeah… isn’t it nice to view wedding sites at work?:P). I may be doing some tweaking in the next few days to make site navigation a little easier.

Any comments or feedback will be very much appreciate. Thank you!:) You can drop me an email as well.

updates: Ran some checks after receiving feedback and realized the site isn’t optimized as I overlooked the issues on screen resolution as well as the image sizes. Spent the entire night, flushing caches, resizing and thinking how to put up a new design asap (while the world sleeps). Finally got it fixed this morning and now it’s good to go:) Also reduced the number of clicks to get to the images. *sweats*

[tags]Photography, Wedding, Website, feedback[/tags]