Last Piece of the Puzzle

11th January 2006, Wednesday

Despite the skies are overcasted and gloomy for like days now, I am feeling all good for today's work...and no better way than to be welcomed to work with the absence of JxMMy who is down with the illness...
Got to work much earlier than the last couple of months but the former usual time to report to work...and was greeted by the fact that Wigan beat Arsenal in the Carling Cup semi-finals 1st leg which always is a good thing...
Once again I found spring in my foot, on hiatus for such a long while in my work and had a fabulous sweatout during teh jog in gym ..seriously I was afraid by the fact that the gallon of perspirations I am dispensing on the threadmill, it might actually run down due to short circuit caused by the seeping of sweat into the core...
The day would be even more wonderful if I was to welcomed home by the highly-anticipated arrival of my Football Manager 2006 in the mai box...
And I had finally finished downloading the remaining episodes of Yoshitsune available in English sub which is a undescirablle achievement on its own as I had only picked up the series almost a year since it debut back in late 2004, definitely a good companion to have on rainy days when you wanna laze at home with...

So traced back the last couple of days which was very much resembling the weekends..SOGGY...

On Monday evening, all my plans of the game arriving or heading for the La Tendo karaoke celebration did not materialized...
My hair-stylist cousin was caught up at work which was expected as this is the season for people to do some last-minute grooming before the Chinese New Year...
She arrived by 9 and to add salt to my already badly opened wound, she had left out her cutting tools, so no hair-cut for me and just left with the dyeing... which took a good hour or so but it turned out as expected to be of professional level while I had to stay with the long locks look for the festive season then...
To end of the misery on Monday evening, my favorite programs on CTi was having very bad transmission due to some satellite problems which even persisted till last evening...

Tuesday.... Hari Raya Haji... Muslims celebrating by having the haj traditions of slaughtering the korban sheeps and more showers for us to contempt with...
There was a major overhaul over at my place as my parents began preparing the house for the New Year as well as began phase 1 of the reshuffling which will include me moving into the master bedroom after I got married as my sis will take over my room and my parents off to the other room.
There would be new coating of paint as well as a renovation of the 2 lavatories...
Therefore my morning was spent listening to Dong Fang Billy talking about ovarian cancer with some Taiwanese expert on the radio over brunch and also tolerating with all the drillings as my parents swapped the curtain holders at my sister's room while enjoying my latest anime infatuations such as "Noein ~Mou Hitori no Kimi e~" and the much-awaited pilot episode of "Fate Stay Night".
I also spent some time doodling a design for my display cabinet for my collections which would stretched the wall in adjacent to the dining table.
It was uninspiring at first but once I got the groove of it I managed to put the rough design down on paper...
My lass came around mid noon when showers kinda subsided into a drizzle and she intended to have the carpentary contractors to settle for all over furnishing needs in the room which include the wardrobe, the platform bed, the bookshelf/cabinet, the TV console and the PC and workstation table.
Of course that would be a utopist point of view considering if the contractors would find it profitable for them to do even a simple piece like the TV console.
Later in the afternoon, my parents ended their hard day at work with the installation of a brand-new stylish (think Bernini...nah...I've been reading too much Dan Brown's stuff) ceiling lamp in the TV area.
Anyway this was the initian towards a long, complicated journey in renovating the entire lace..nothing too fancy but resonably cozy enough and most importantly not requiring an exorbitant amount of money...

The dusk arrived and we proceeded to South Bridge Road as scheduled for our meeting with the team from Jon Keng who we would be entrusting for the photography job for the actual day itself.
It took us a while figure out where the exact location is and I have no comprehensive knowledge of Boat Quay and the surrounding area despite hanging around Clarke Quay for a year or so for the Sunday flea market.
We were welcomed by the main guy, Jon Keng himself who was a young chap in his early 20s and awaiting enlistment to the National Service in coming September.
Therefore unlike my lass' recently wedded friend, Faith who we got this lobang from, Jon wouldn't be the photographer for our event despite the possibilities of him dropping in if he was booked out from BMT that day...
So enter the fray is his partner in crime..Jon...a quiet lad who after showing us his portfolio, we were convinced he did shared the same photography talent as his namesake.
Their style is a mixture of monotone as well as toning of colors which is rather hard to describe, but something non-conventional but pleaisng to the eyes.
The package we would be taking up is the "classic" plan which cost a cool 1.1K for a day of photography without time constraint.
Despite of our banquet is held in the afternoon, we could make the photographer stay with us as we might want some night shots later in the evening as my lass had planned to.
The package generally includes around 300-400 photographs taken depend on the number of events and come in soft, digital copies as well..
There would be a video montage from the pictures taken as well...
But the main thing that caught my lass' attentions much to the pleasure of the 2 Jons is the "collage album" which is a nicely printed sketchbook of the event with some commentaries to accompany the pictures assembled in an artistic style...
I'm sure many brides would be smitten by the look at it and bugged their hubbys to spend another $400 to get that which ultimately would be serve either as a door-wedge, a table stabilizer or a coaster....
Despite umpteen coercing from my other half, I was adamant that with the special software, enough creativity, time and effort, I could replicate it at a fraction of the price (around 35% of our package price)
It didn't take us long to close the deal as before coming we had very much made up our minds after gracing their works, and despite $100 outside my destiniated budget, I felt it would be worth it (excluding the collage of course)

So we left after the transient meet-up and left home, glad to had very much slot in the final piece of the puzzle for our wedding procession (except the final fussy details like the cakes and the dowry) and now I can concentrate more on the renovation part.

Oh yah, there would be a need for videographer as well but to me I felt the photographs would be a much important aspect than a video that would generally be way mushy and enough to cause goose pimples to fall off your body upon watching for like 2 minutes.
Then again I had experience in editing, so perhaps I could get anyone with a pair of stable hands to shoot for me.

Back at home, my lass helped me to do my first facial session in life (except the painful electricuting of my pimples during my "break-out" days across the Causeway) which very much took a good hour and a half but in the end I really doubt was there a stark improvement in my old skin which is really beyond help....

Japanese word of the day: 写真撮影(Photography) It boils really not to how old your are or how experience you are, photography is like an art which can be in-born, and if you have the talent, there's no doubts about it.