The event was held at Fukuya, a Japanese restaurant on Jalan Delima in KL. Yup, I’m back in KL and this was my first shoot back on the job. It’s nice getting to shoot again BUT the weather was so totally HOT!! Need to get used to it again…hahaha…..and to think that I have only been gone for 6 months!!! So spoilt.

Anyways, back to the event. It was to showcase their new design which has been updated to draw interest of the younger generation. The decor was quite cool, nice, clean & white.

Why do I always cover events of watches that I can’t afford?? Maybe it’s a sign that I may one day own one of my own?? Till then, I can keep on dreaming…….

Dressed in a flared Sequinsed cocktail dress, a glamorous young lady called out to me and greeted me with a smile as we entered the door. Who is this lady who knows me? I wondered for a split second and suddenly took a double take and realized it was Joyce! Of course, to give me the benefit of the doubt, I haven’t seen them for at least more than 6 months!

Joyce’s house party was a cocktail party at their beautiful home in bangsa. They had a string quartet and food was catered by the Westin. It was a party for close friends and relatives and towards the end of the night.. After a lot of wine, were extremely ahem, friendly! The night ended with cake cutting and a champagne pouring ceremony by the pool..

Two nights later, we found ourselves at Scott’s house party in Valencia. He comes from a big and close-knit family – his late dad has 6 Sister’s!

Scott’s grandmother and all her daughters! Pretty amazing!

It is always nice for us to photograph pre-wedding parties prior to the wedding day. We get to know their close friends and family who usually warm up to us by then!

Joyce’s mom hung out with us early in the morning while Joyce got her makeup done… And before we knew it.. all her friends had arrived as well to prepare the games for the guys… It was a well-thought of plan with precise coordination from the bridal party! Ingenius, if you ask me! You will see what I mean soon!

Scott was NOT going to get away without trying out the Wii! Here, the girls are testing out the “stages” of the games…

This was “Balance on a tight rope” …

The first thing that came to mind when I saw this webcam – oh… for their overseas friends to watch the games!

Later I found out that the webcam was for Joyce to watch the commotion from the room! What a great idea!

The games involved many different stages… playing pool, was one…

…it also included retrieving a key from the pool (the real pool this time!) to unlock the door to Joyce’s room!

The dinner was held at the KL Hilton, one of my favorite hotels to shoot in!

Joyce decided to keep it simple… red roses…. very sleek!

Love this shoe shot by Jason!

Serena & Gloria were the two hot MCs for the night!

Congrats to Joyce & Scott, one of the cutest and sweetest two couples I’ve ever met!

I don’t usually post things like this up on my blog but I believe that this is on-going and that most of us have been or ARE being conned.

This year, I transferred my phone line from a company line to my personal line and ever since Jan, 2009, I’ve been receiving the billing statements. I’ve noticed that every month, I get these “MacroK SMS” charges which I wasn’t sure what they were for. When I asked Maxis, they mentioned that it was an external provider that I had subscribed to and they couldn’t check it for me. Every month, my charges from MacroK Sms would amount to RM27.50. I wasn’t sure how to find out who this “external” provider was until this month’s bill – I noticed that there was a land-line number. So I called.

They said that I’ve been subscribing to Ringtones… RINGTONES? I don’t even use them? I clarified to see if they were Caller Ringtones (I subscribe to those via Maxis and I pay for them every month) and they verified that they were not caller ringtones. They were just ringtones. Very quickly, the lady asked if I wanted to terminate the service. I said, yes, but I would also like to know where these charges came about, what were the “subscribed” ringtones . I wanted a list of the ringtones I “had ordered”. She responded very quickly and said, “Oh, we can give you a refund… just fax us your billing statements and we will send you a check”. I will fax my bills over to them tomorrow but I’m furious that these charges were slipped in there and we’ve been paying for them for these past few years, unknowingly!

I did a search online and found out that I wasn’t the only one who they had conned. Apparently there have been quite a number of cases out there already. So pls.. I urge you to check your phone bill today! Look out for MacroSMS or any charges under “External Content Provider”.

Pls click on this link to Jeff Ooi’s post on this scam as well (dating back to 2007!.. He has included a lot more detail on this white collar crime.

http://www.jeffooi.com/2007/05/post_53.php

Please forward this to your friends and let’s try and stop this from happening in future!

Here’s a screen shot of my billing statement where the charges appeared….. If you DO have these charges, call 03-2164-3273 (the MacroSMS company who has been scheming from you. Of course, only IF you hadn’t subscribed to it. DEMAND for a refund). I’m still uncertain if I’m going to manage to get my money back but I will try! I will keep you posted on the progress.

June 2009. A tiny headliner reads: The limited edition Tiger Beer pays tribute to those who stand out.

It is always a pleasant surprise to find out that you’ve been recognized for your hard work and effort. So of course, when Brian called to inform me that I would be one of six individuals Tiger would like to highlight in their winners campaign, I was stoked! What’s more… it’s Tiger! one of my beers of choice!

Two days ago, I picked up the new issue of Juice, scanned through the pages, looking for the photo of me and Bam-Bam! I was disappointed to find that she was cropped out of the photo but nonetheless, feel privileged to be part of Tiger’s Winners campaign!

It is truly an honor to share the limelight with 5 other accomplished individuals in the local art scene – Joe Tribe, graffiti writer and owner of Tribe, Eric Wong, bassist for Indie-rock band OAG, Stooner Wong, edgy choreographer and renown personality in the Malaysian fashion runways, Stephen Lau, graphic designer and creator of Minor Player Studio and Phang Kuan Hoong, head copyrighter and musician.

I think what we all have in common is PASSION. Passion in doing what we love…

And at the risk of sounding too philosophical (well since I’m in DISSERTATION mode, I think I have a right to be!), I’d like to end this post with something I truly believe in…. that PASSION is the driving force of success…. Ok I think I better stop here, I’m starting to sound like a motivational speaker!

Back to my date with Mr-D!