Saturday, August 30, 2014

Wedding Vows - My Promise of Love to You.



It's next Sunday.

Got up early today to watch AndroidsinBoots' wedding videos
 to draw inspiration from them (ahem* not copying wholesale I promise!) for my personalized wedding vows.

Time well spent; delirious at one moment (for the couples in the videos whom I don't know), and emotional at the next (when they looked into each other's eyes, broke away from their reserved Asian norms and openly spoke of their love for each other.) 




Yay to have finished penning down my vows and reciting them over 20 times, and
there was never once my eyes didn't brim with tears throughout the 20 times! 
Oh no! I hope I will be too anxious next Sunday to be choked back with tears!  



"Dear Jun Wen ...

...
..

This is my promise of love to you...

... With Love, HJ"


With that, see you at our solemnization next Sunday!
For now, I'm going for bachelorette high tea party with Michelle, Evon & Iris! :D


Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Jump Shot at Sunset


The best photo yet!
Colour-adjusted by Photographer :).


Our solemnization is 3 weeks away. I'm feeling the jitters having met the solemnizer Mr Lau today at his place, not 'cause he isn't professional and gentle (he's awesome) but 'cause when he taught us the procedures that we have to adhere to, we realized that the event is around the corner.

Vendors have been emailing us alot lately too. Scaryyy. 
(Will recommend some vendors to you if they are good!)

Still owing my friends the solemnisation schedule flowchart and guest list.
Personalised vows and thank you speech are not formulated yet too
S-T-R-E-S-S!

JIA YOU!!!!


Friday, August 15, 2014

Solemnisation Invitation Revised



Hi dears,
Revised version of my solemnisation invitation, after I remembered that I should save my photo in .tiff rather than .png. And ta-ta! Now the resolution is higher than before!


And got some advice from my colleagues on the font, font size and colour.
Part of our job scope includes reading a few chapters of a designated book every 2 weeks and review it with boss (abit stress I tell you! Boss wants us, whom he describes as "the young sweet things" and "the strapping young men", to speak up and give our personal take and experience on what's covered in the book).
 This week's book is Zen Presentation, a cool book about how to present your slides in a way that captivates your target audience. 

So after picking up a few skills from Zen, we have been endeavouring to organise our slides the Zen way. 
So today during lunch, I asked, "Is this invitation ok? Is it Zen??" LOL.
Mich and Evon said the font is too "normal" and I should have selected Roman-styled writing fonts since the wedding theme is Grecian. But not heeding their wise advice this time since Simba and I like cute fonts. Lol.
Lynn said the title colour is blended into the distracting background so I should use a shape with fill nearly 50% transparent, and so I did.
They also commented that the font size for time, date and venue could be abit bigger since these details are of paramount importance!!

---

Emailed my team that I will be away for 3 days to prep for the solemnisation, and Carl replied with the following:

The “little girl with the winsome smile” getting married made me want to scream “Cradle-snatcher!” at your husband-to-be.
Hahaha! That was supposed to be a joke.
Congratulations!

(Carl always thought that I'm his son's age, which is around 20 years old.)


Thursday, August 14, 2014

7th September 2014 - Our Solemnization



Sending invitation out soon via Whatspp
(a cost-effective and paperless method of invitation)
Eh, used Powerpoint to do this, but the resolution turned out to be mediocre.
Used the photo editor in Mac but it doesn't have fancy fonts. 
Sigh, can't have the best of both worlds, unless I use Photoshop which I don't have!

Original photo taken by Photographer & recently colour-adjusted 
(He calls this genre journalistic, I learnt something.)

The pre-wedding shoot photos really are phenomenal. I used to think that with some talent and when your same sense of beauty is something which most people can identify with, you are a photographer. 
I was so wrong, absolutely and absurdly (after receiving my pre-wedding shoot photos).
A competent photographer does his homework.
Taking good photographs requires so much more than just talent, luck or good sense of beauty; it takes experience, and mastery of both knowledge and skills.

Just look at this photo for example, 
The length of tree branch has to just adequately cover the length of Horse Poland. 
 The fence was used to accentuate his art; it created an interesting outline to the pic, as the line was straight in contrast with Horse Poland's curved structure and the winding branches of the big tree. If he were to take this photo from the other direction wherein Horse Poland faces the other way, he might not be able to capture this.
The layering makes the whole pic less complex and you know where you should focus on just when you see this photo. It's us, beautified by Horse Poland, Horse Poland not far from one main tree, and the main tree is actually not alone; there are a couple of others behind it to set the backdrop.


No good photograph is a coincidence.



Wednesday, August 06, 2014

Happy Nurses' Day!




Happy Nurses' Day!

To celebrate Nurses' Day with our nursing home partners, big boss planned to distribute cakes and thank-you cards to the nurses.


To have our picture printed on the card, we called big boss and asked if he could take a photo with us, and he exclaimed, "Wah, so complicated ah!"
LOL. What's so complicated about a photo?

The whole team made our way to his office and to our surprise he was already outside waiting for us. Shouted, "Waterfall, waterfall" the moment he spotted us from afar.
"U mean u all want to take photo in the office ah? Don't want la, stress the other doctors." 
Lol. What's so stressful about taking a photo?
Guess I can never comprehend how smart people think.

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Hence, this was how we ended up in front of the waterfall. 
Me, Firdaus, Linda, Joanne, Dr James, Dr Carl & Dr Gerlie.


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And everyone was smiling, except stressful big boss, Dr James.
Evon said this is already his smiling face lol.

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Nice card put together by Linda. :)


Dear big boss, the online training course is a requirement for Principal Investigator like you. I don't need to go through the 23 modules, but you still asked me to go through the pain with you. Even asked me to ask my manager for funds to pay for our training. Lol. 
Funny thing is, you said you might fail the modules even when a maximum of 3 attempts are allowed for the test. LOL.
Please study hard and don't fail, dear good doctor!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

We are on the news!



Hi friends, we are featured on the news!
Click here for the newclip of us and our technology on Channel 8.
I made Simba watch it 3 times already, you should watch it 5 times!

The doctor in the news is one of our tele-consulting doctors, Dr Siew, Evon's boss. My boss Dr James (his picture on the website), the project director of our project volunteered Dr Siew once the media said they want to interview him. He told us that Dr Siew has agreed, but when we asked Dr Siew, "Dr James told us you volunteered to appear in the news?" His reply was, "Huh, he volunteered me!" Lol.

Dr James is awesome! He's not just the normal funny but really the funny funny, a child at heart, but a passionate, dedicated geriatrician, and of course he's best at giving me very brilliant ideas and starting a sentence excitedly with "We can do a study on this!" Was still recovering from the shock when he asked me to present 3 posters for our conference. (I had trouble finishing 1 poster in my previous workplace.)

And his friend, Dr Philip, also one of our consulting doctors, asked me to help him with his hospital longstayers research and our abstract got selected for oral presentation! (He edited my abstract and added in his chim ang moh.) 
I was so flustered when I saw the email, forwarded it to him, begged him to reject the oral presentation and he responded with a smiley face, "Fantastic news !! That means got prize ;) !" 
Dear Dr Philip, you know I am the worst at presentation, so don't expect to win prize for you please!

I'm not sure if i will be dead by the time of the conference. 3 poster and 1 oral presentation. 

Interviewed all our doctors yesterday. Dr Philip was there, and he asked, "You know how to code qualitative data ah? Help me do next time!" And Dr James replied, "Ya, she knows! The data she coded makes sense you know!" AHHH! WHAT?! Makes sense?! You mean all other data I did didn't??

Dear Dr James, I forgive you since you helped me facilitate the interview with all our other doctors (although you kept playing with my tape recorder; I was so scared the whole session was not recorded the whole time), but don't tell Dr Philip about the skills I have learnt. You know I have enough work to do already!

Still, Dr James, you are awesome! :D 
Dr Philip, you are awesome too, but don't give me so much work pls! I merely introduced myself to you the first time I helped in the telemedicine consultation, and you introduced me to 50% more workload. Lol.




And before I end off this short post, a prelude to the next theme of the pre-wedding photoshoot.
Grecian!
HM1_7114Me and the girls, all grecian!


Monday, July 28, 2014

Pre-Wedding Photoshoot - A Photographer's Perspective part I


WHY AM I ALWAYS SICK ON LONG WEEKENDS.. I WANNA COMPLAIN!


I used to think that wedding preparations are a joy, never will be a pain in the neck like what others have said, but now I just want to tell you that I never wanna marry again! LOL. But come to think of it, I deserve all the stress since I can't blame anyone for my fastidious personality.

All the following photos from our photoshoot by Hearted Moments Photography are not photoshopped nor touched-up by the photographer yet since his lead time is one month, but how can I wait for a month when I am so eager to show some now??? I have shared a few of these untouched photos on Instagram and Facebook using the magic of Instagram filter, but sadly, the filter can't filter away my fat, untoned face and arms.
Okay, I did try to edit the photographer's photos using my Macbook's photo editor but no matter how hard I try to adjust the exposure, saturation or add filter, the original one is always better. HAHA. When can I reach this level of photography skills??? 


That very day came, I went there half exhausted half worrying if the photos would look out good as I really don't like the heavy make-up which makes me look so eunuch like LOL. (Not saying that the make-up artist's skills aren't good; it's just that my face isn't really suited for any heavy make-up I guess!)

The make-up artist was great; she came on the dot (she would stress me out if she came earlier since I was still packing up props for the shoot), I felt comfortable talking to her and love how she styled my hair. Have been contemplating whether to tie my hair up for the photos (i always like my hair tied up), but she encouraged me to try letting some of it down, since it complements the photoshoot themes. And so I did. I let some of my hair down.

The horse would be accompanied by the trainer to meet us outside the Riders' Cafe at 2.30pm that noon, but they were both late, which is fine cos it gave us some time to prepare ourselves. This was the time our friend cum photographer began pulling up large cameras from his luggage and taking candid shots. He photographed me sitting on the bench waiting for the shoot to start but it was the first time a big camera pointed at me and I looked very uncomfortable in the photos so can't show it here. :D


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So then he switched his focus to my primed friends who were outside the cafe all set to help us with the shoot! Joe was so sporting, trying to look pitiful in front of Jia He (photographer). :)

White shirts and brown pants.
When they first alighted from the cab, they looked like they were wearing some form of uniform suited for horse riding. Very cute haha!

Thanks friends for buying the outfit when they weren't sitting in your closet in the first place. :D
I created a group chat consisting of a mix of my secondary school friends and poly girlfriends solely for this photoshoot, but they were too shy to spam the group chat since they just got to know one another, so they PM me whenever they need clarification with how they're gonna dress up that day.


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While preparing for the shoot, I went leafing through catalogues and Pinterest pages to get an idea of how people posed with horses. It was funny how the ang mohs look so classy with the horses beside them but we look short next to the magnificent horse. His magnificence somehow overshadowed us, so it looks like it was his photoshoot and we were just the 2 small supporting roles! Haha!

This gown was picked by the bridal studio coordinator. It was the first gown she chose for me; she said it suits me alot and the moment I saw it, I knew it is the gown!

My colleague who saw some of our photos on Facebook said it really looked like we were overseas, since it's quite unusual for Singaporeans to have their wedding photoshoot at the saddle club, and she went on to say that Gardens by the Bay all are just too mainstream. (I didn't dare to tell her that I'm going to Gardens next year for my actual wedding photoshoot haha.)



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Jia He took a good number of candids, and I love most of them :)))



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Sorry, we were still shying away from the camera!

I think this horse's name is "Poland", if I didn't hear the trainer wrongly. What i really like about him is his poker face. He looks so sian all the time; he was like saying, "Are you done??? I need to eat my grass already!"
Jia He asked the trainer for reasons why Poland kept salivating (his saliva is white lol) and he said horses are grazing animals and since Poland was not allowed to feed on grass although he kept seeing them, he salivates.

Sorry Poland, you will eat your grass later but can you not try to eat my flowers? They are fake and not taste as good as green fresh grasses. It's not worth suffering from indigestion by eating those plastics!


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Jun Wen loves how Poland walks. The sound of his hoofs knocking on the ground and the elegance and pride he carries with him while he is walking.

Like puppets, our poses were manipulated by Jia He (mainly because we really didn't know what pose is nice). This time, we were told to pretend to walk casually and chat while we walked, but look at our stance; it's so awkward. Haha! Got "scolded" by Jia He countless times!


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A better one when we walked side by side, but as we didn't know how to lead Poland, he was walking straight into his heaven - the grass. 
Jia He gave us all the 700+ photos he took that day without additional charge, and told us to select 50 photos out of all these. We have 700+ choices and Simba chose this as 1 of the 50 photos, where Poland was looking down at his heaven. LOL.


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Uneasiness can be reflected so vividly on Jun Wen's face as he was kind of afraid of huge Poland... I can vouch for this! At the zoo, he didn't dare to go very near the horses at the stable as their long faces were as long as half of his body.

Jia He "scolded" me for my silver loafers which did not suit my gown, his suit and the horse. LOL. He gently said he will try to photoshop them away. BUT HOW COME??? It took me days before I finally decide to buy this; thought it will look fun with my gown.


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My number 1 favourite photo!
The tree, the horse, the lighting, us and everything were so in the right place!
Well ok, Poland and his expressionless face again.


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Love how the long train looks on the meadow.
It was actually very dirty, with bugs and ants running all over, and my friends had to dust them off for me sometimes.



Uploaded the zoom-in on Instagram after applying its "vintage" filter.
The make-up artist lent her own necklace, since the bridal studio coordinator didn't lend me any necklace, mainly because she felt that it might be too much if she adds some more blings.
I really like how small details can add to the overall look. I would look so plain without the choker.



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Another kind of failed shot:
I'm one-legged and he absolutely did not look like he was walking casually at all.
It looks so easy to do it right, but it was so hard!


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Thanks Mao Mao who ran to the cafe where we put our props and brought my bouquet to me.
He brought the bouquet which I prepared for my bridesmaids, but I'm glad he brought this wrong one cause a blend of purple and white flowers looks so nice in the photos!



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Manoeuvring Poland requires more than just pulling his "leash", it requires a horse whisperer to impart his skills, knowledge and experience to us! We were at a loss in whispering to Poland, to get him to turn his head slightly.
OK, I know I look like some fierce woman ready to eat a horse, but this wasn't how I felt at that time. I was very patient and kind with Poland I swear!!



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Yay when Poland turned his head!!
But he looked like "Wah lau eh. You all done already??? I really need to graze liao!"


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Jun Wen has been dying to take an individual shot with Poland!
I was pretty surprised that he didn't pick this as one of the 50 photos, he said it's a waste of money since every of these photographs should contain both of us. Anyway, glad that he think it this way.


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Me and my 2 beautiful and ONZ bridesmaids!
It was a laborious day for them, carrying my stuff and everything. Thanks so much girls!



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The pretend best men! :D
Jun Wen was so shy to engage his own guy friends in our photo shoot, so I used my guy friends. Lol.
I wasn't worried about troubling my guy friends at all. It was funny when the styling coordinator asked if we have any questions for her after her briefing and I said, "If you need any help, I can ask my friends to help."
And she was totally at loss for words, and replied after a few seconds, 
"NO! Your friends wear so nice that day, can't let them help me carry stuff!"


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Jia He was thinking on what fun poses the guys can do with the presence of a horse, and an idea came to Si Ting! 
Gangnam Style! Yay! Some of the ideas brought forth by my friends were fantastic! We would have never thought of that if we came alone!

The guys were very shy, and it was so unlike them! I wasn't sure if it was because of the presence of my 2 poly girlfriends, Jia He, Poland, the camera or all the the abovementioned, although I highly suspect it was because of the girls. LOL.

Simba had to dance Gangnam Style with Poland as we were warned to never let of go of Poland wherever we go or whatever we do.

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Failed shot again.
It was intended for me to tell Poland, "Hey, look at what this guy is doing!" 
But Poland wasn't listening! He was perpetually looking at his other horse friends in the stable; maybe they were feeding on grasses.


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Group shot time!
Love my sporting friends. I don't know if I will look as natural as them if I were to pose as a bridesmaid in someone else's photoshoot.


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 We tried getting Poland to turn to the guys' side so that it looked as though the girls were directing him to the other side but the attempts failed several times. Then when he finally turned, the guys' attention shifted from looking at the camera to him. -_-"
A picture says a thousand words - I told you Simba is afraid of huge Poland. Believe me now?


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Succeeded. Kind of.
'Cause Jun Wen was still looking scared!


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Induced the girls to hook arms together but Jia He didn't like! :D
From his perspective and experience, he said the arms look messy when we do that, which is kinda true now that I look at it.


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So... we had to put our hands on our waist while the guys dance and Simba pulled the leash.
It wasn't planned that the leash's colour matched his suit's!


Thursday, July 10, 2014

Pre-Wedding Casual Photoshoot



I must say although the process of preparing for this shoot was tedious, it was all worth the effort. 
Wanna shout out to all my friends who helped to make this shoot a spontaneous and fun one! We were pretty awkward initially, but you guys lighten up the mood and make us more natural. Lol. :D
A big thank you to my friends for being my hard labour carrying all the flowers, my bag, pumping up balloons, wearing pink ties, pulling up my shawl etc etc. Can't thank you enough!


Photos taken by Ting and some edited by iPhone camera filter:


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Ting suggested gangnam style when the photographer asked what dance moves he can get Jun Wen to incorporate in the shoot with the horse!
I was supposed to point at him and laughed at his stupidity but well... doesn't seem to turn out that way.

The pair of silver shoes which I took ages to decide before I bought them was deemed as "out of theme" by the photographer. :(
He said he would try to edit out my shoes lol.



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Abandoned house served as a fantastic backdrop.
Totally all up for the whole grecian idea, and so proud of myself for planning his wardrobe! Haha!



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Fence that we are all afraid of leaning against after the horse trainer told us we may get electric-fried. LOL



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Thumbs-up to Jia He, our uni hall friend and photographer, for touring the whole place in the morning before we came, and thereafter directed us to where he finds beautiful.



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UP, UP & AWAY.



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The UP theme was an idea from Pinterest! Love Colleague Michelle for urging me to start an account with Pinterest and source for ideas from there. I was initially hesitant, lazy to keep abreast with all these new apps all the time and was too complacent; I overestimated my creativity (lol) as it did not incur to me that afterall I'm just an Engineering student.




Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Young Workforce & Yuna!




Wanna start off this entry with a photo of me with the ever wonderful people:

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60% of the workforce in KTPH is less than 30 years old and this is very evident in my department!

Colleague Michelle is pregnant and this is so cool because she is the first friend I have who is pregnant! :D (I can't count my 2 poly friends whose wives are pregnant.)
The day after she suspected that she might be pregnant, she told us with mixed feelings, as she is planning a trip to US in October and she won't be able to execute the plan as her tummy will be ready to deliver. The baby was not part of her plan at all! Oh well... Eventually when she went to the gynae who verified her pregnancy through a scan, she felt the excitement of becoming a mum, mainly because the small piece of thing presented on the screen was so tiny and cute. Lol.
That day when I accompanied her to our in-house childcare centre to enquire about the services and price, I felt old. LOL.


Oh just a few days back, we were heading for lunch when Michelle came out of the lift and then randomly suggested, "We should all go overseas shopping together!" And after like a few minutes, they started bookmarking airlines which are currently offering great deals. Before I had the time to react, they decided on going Hong Kong in August! LOL. 


I said it's too near my wedding date and I can't be fatter, can't be scratched, can't eat anything, can't be tanned ... etc etc In the end I was still convinced by them when they said it's like my bachelorette party... No wonder there is this saying, "When 3 people come together to speak the same language, their request shall be fulfilled."

Then after lunch, the excitement continues... 
I was waiting for a very important email and my heart skipped a beat when I received a new email, only to find out that it's just another print screen of Hong Kong shopping site.

MY COLLEAGUES ARE INDEED HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE. THEY DEFINITELY PRACTISE THE 7 HABITS.
This was how I got roped in to plan for an overseas trip with Evon, Michelle and Iris without uttering any word. 

LOL.


---

Just a few mongrel photos to share:

Do you still remember Willow, the puppy I held in my hands on my profile pic?

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The volunteer who is in-charge of her sent me this! 
This is how a dog, even the most mellow dog I have ever seen, looks like after a day at the beach.




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And this is William, her brother, sleeping soundly in adopter's house!



Found my favourite puppy, Yuna! 
She's like a little goody two shoes. She listens very well, and what's irresistible about her is that she gives that Puss-in-Boots look after you penalized her for misbehaving.
But... she is gonna be adopted soon as potential adopter fell in love with her at first sight too. It's my fault cos I recommended her to him after he said he would like to adopt a more gentle dog. :(

When will I ever get my own puppy? :(
Mum and Dad don't allow, and Simba wants cats in our new apartment. :(


Monday, June 16, 2014

I'm worst wedding planner. :D



I must say, I'm gradually regaining back my old talkative and cheerful self, and never gonna miss those times of dissimulation! Life's great again, thanks to people I have known from volunteering and workplace. 

Learning's at its best when you actively learn from people who are expert in their fields. I have gotten it so wrong in my last workplace; I felt so incapacitated all the time. So, it's never about how intelligent you are and how much knowledge you have in the first place. Instead, it's about how adaptive you are to changes and how motivated you are in developing yourself and initiating changes. :)

Never had a module in statistics and was thrown into a field where statistics is most valued, but while I learn the ropes, help was pretty accessible as it was just an email away. The visiting Prof from NUS who led large clinical trials was very kind to meet me and my team a few times to give us invaluable advice on how to approach a study, developing and evaluating it, and that was on top of giving his statistical knowledge input. :)))

Work is accumulating at a pace faster than I can cope. Things are always urgent, and I'm always trying to catch up, no matter how hard I try to pace myself. The moment I complete something and I thought I can breathe for a moment, something bigger comes up again. Work-life fit... When is it gonna be me?

4 abstracts for one research conference, and this means 4 posters OMG. I have trouble making one and now I need to make 4?!! OH NO!

"7 Habits of Highly Effective People" - I'm glad that I'm gonna go for this course next week and so gonna practise mastering the ultimate quadrant thing LOL.




Planning a wedding is a chore; I finally am experiencing the woes of my friends who previously laboriously prepared their wedding! 
Planning a wedding on top of everything I have been busy with is hard work. 
I must say, I definitely don't have a knack for event planning. LOL.

Other than work and more work, I have been busy with... Dog stuff.
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Recent case I have been assigned to.
Family with a beautiful Goldie wants to adopt our strays.
Goldie's name is Butterball.. So cute!



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Here is Hamburger treading over grasses and terrorising adopter's yard with her kid. :)


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Adopter's cute kids with Hamburger.


And what's most anticipated and at the same time tensing me up is of course the solemnisation in September. We've been meeting so many vendors and coordinating so much that we sometimes are at a complete loss about what to do next!

Our vendors left us homework and we can't seem to finish them, and this is definitely, absolutely driving me crazy. LOL. Sometimes, words just can't describe what I want for my wedding, and I felt like gesticulating the message across, but I just don't know how to too. LOL.

Our casual pre-wedding shoot will be at Bukit Timah Saddle Club... And Photographer requested my friends to be present in the photos too as he feels it will be so much more fun! :D
Thanks friends who are all taking leave to be in the shoot, love you guys!



A prelude to the wedding bridal shoot. :D
Here are 3 of my gorgeous bridesmaids!
(I'm trying out the dresses for Ting and Joanne lol.)

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Really looking forward to our shoot on 8th July :D


Have to leave the rest of what I wanna share to my next entries.
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My family trip to Taiwan.



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Birthday card from colleagues (Oh that elf ear!)



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Birthday spent at River Safari.

And so many more... Please be patient with me! :D