And the bride wore Badge, with black lace and then Red!

Mdm Ang wore a nude badge number for picture taking with her guests.

Then Red for thanking her guests for coming!

Say CHEESE!
Think my next, totally useless and can be avoided, cosmetic procedure will be teeth whitening... (guess what's the first one!)

EARLY BIRDS!!! Amos and Faith were late. For his wedding, Tze Jun is seriously considering issuing them both special invitations - with a start time one hour ahead of his regular invites!

Good Old Times!

Moving forward is hard

New department. New colleagues. New challenges.
Once I got the hang of things, I am moved.
But I will look back fondly at the good times I had!

HOT

Piping, Sizzling, Steaming, Boiling, Humid, Headache-Inducing heat. Makes me want to take an afternoon nap.

My Newest Toy

This is the Nokia E51 non-camera. All the functions of a typical 3G phone, WITHOUT THE CAMERA! Yay! Plus, it's one of the slimmest 3G phones in the market. I hate those slide or flip phones. oh... I think I have to address the mug of Asahi propping up the phone. Went to this Jap BBQ restaurant, Gyu Kaku, on Saturday. And that's where the beer was ordered.

The restaurant is known for their Wagyu beef. Curious to know what Wagyu beef was, (I've seen it pop up a few times including in an advertisement for Pan Pacific Hotel for a all-you-can-eat meat buffet) I Wiki-ed it:

Wagyu (和牛 wagyū?) refers to several breeds of cattle genetically predisposed to intense marbling and to producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat.

Then further down the article, it says that the cattle even feeds on beer and sake!! Woa! Imagine, going to a farm in Japan and seeing a herd of drunken cows grazing in the fields. Gives a whole new meaning to Mad Cow.

Anyway, my dining companions don't take beef, so I didn't order it. Oh, and Wagyu beef is pretty expensive too. Think I'll only go there when I'm feeling rich.

Everyone's Irish on St Paddy's Day

St Patrick's Day is the perfect excuse for people to go out and start drinking at 11am in the morning. Oh, and to see the parade too...

Yes, I'm quite sure they wear something underneath those kilts. Temperatures were like -7 degrees. Anything sticking out (like one's fingers) would freeze!

Street paddlers sell parade favourites.

Enjoying the parade...

I learnt it the hard way: if a policeman says no, he means no... I'm lucky I didn't spend a night in a cell

And even the pets get into the spirit!

It's a slow weekend...

This weekend I tried something new. I decided to grow a goatee! Starting from Friday morning, I didn't shave my chin before heading to work. I looked into the mirror and saw little black dots coming out from my chin, like many many blackheads...

Saturday morning: I examined my chin again, and found that the little blackheads have grown. Now it looks like hair. But it's only less than 1mm long, and so sparse!!

Sunday morning: Not much improvement, the goatee can only be seen upon close examination of my face. From afar, one can't even tell that I am attempting to grow a goatee.

Sunday evening: managed to get baby Thad to take a picture with me. See the goatee? You don't? Click on the picture to enlarge!!

Yup, it took me almost 4 days to grow it (starting from Thursday morning when I last shaved). Pathetic right? Next time, I'm applying brandy onto my chin.
Or maybe Rogaine..

Pesonal Challenge

Imelda Marcos had a collection of shoes. Joshua Lim's collection is getting quite sizeable. Must limit buying shoes. Hence from now on, I tell myself that I can only buy Italian shoes. Why? Coz they are expensive and I'll buy less coz it's expensive. Think of it as quality over quantity. So from now on, anything new anchoring Joshua will be a pair of nice Italian shoes.

Same thing I told myself some time ago for ice cream. No more cheap ice cream for Joshua. My rationale is that if I wanna eat those calories, I better make them count and really enjoy those calories I'm taking in. And it has worked! I no longer feel the urge to eat Walls, Kings or Magnolia ice cream (ewww... mass produced).

Aiyo, but when I went to the USA, I realised that Haagen Dazs is rather cheap, and the calculative Singaporean in me mentally calculated all the money I can save by eating Haagen Dazs, instead of calculating of all the calories I would be taking in.... So I ended up finishing something like 12 tubs of ice cream in 6 weeks... Oh help.

The Halo effect

I was reading an article on the web and it mentioned about the Halo effect and it stirred up interest in me.

Lesson on the Halo Effect:
It's when people attach a bias influenced based on a single trait of the person (or in business) the product.

Case in point: Apple's iPod took the world by storm. As a result of the satisfying experience the iPod has given, many people have switched to iMacs from their PCs. (although for me it's the iMac that caused me to be gian to buy the iPod and iPhone)

Another case in point: People also perceive that an attractive person also has attractive personality traits and superior skills. This explains, the culture of celebrities endorsing products and also the need for Joshua Lim to be vain. Because by appearing attractive, he hopes that his flaws (flatulence for one) can be overlooked by society - and it has worked.

1-2-3 Smile!

When you ask my Goddaughter to smile for the camera, she gives a scared look in her eyes and shows her teeth. Gotta teach her to smile prettily, like a lady.

Guests at a Wedding

and the bride wore blue....

Happy Marriage, Faith

The Strong Museum, a study of play

King Joshua and his loyal subjects...

Before he was king, Prince Joshua had to take Cinderella to the ball.

Recognise the steps to the door? It's the exact replica from Sesame Street!

Having fun with some glass effect thingy...

price of rice goes up, price of apple goes down

These days, prices of everything seem to be heading up north. Rice and petrol have hit all time highs. But Apple has dropped their prices for iMacs. TMD! It was $2048 when I bought mine on 1st December. But now, it's going for $1888! And it's an 'improved' version of the iMac, according to the Apple website. Argh.... I am so angry.

Why can't Apple decrease the price of the item I want to buy (iPod Touch, 32GB, for those of u who wanna surprise me) instead of the item which I have already bought?!?!?

I should just spend my money on Rolexes and Vuitton. At least their prices won't drop.

the Hottest show on TV

It begins with the following words:
"Gossip girl here. Your one and only source to the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite."

And what happens next is 40 minutes of outragesness. Teenagers go to school in limousines and families live in $10,000 a night hotel suites when their $15 million penthouses are being renovated. It's a show where noone bats an eyelid when a girl, with 5 Vuitton luggages no less, stands at a heli-pad with a chopper waiting for her to take her to Paris so that she can escape from the being a rich, spoiled, petty, (and at the same time, pretty) teenager.

It's The OC, SATC, and a bit of High School Musical all rolled into one. And it's the most delicious show on TV now. Oh... being sinfully rich and pleasing to the eye does take away the pain of growing up in Manhattan.

Jap & Italiano meals over the weekend!

Had 2 good meals over the weekend. The first was at Sun Restaurant in CHIJMES. My main course was the Beef Sukiyaki. It was good. Beef was fresh,

broth was delicious... But what stood out wasn't my main course.

It was the appetizers! Had the salmon belly wrapped in soy skin (if I didn't remember wrongly) and topped with fish roe. It was heavenly! The soy skin was crisp and salmon belly melted in my mouth!

The next great appetizer was the fried king prawns in avocado cream sauce. Wah! Just delightful! (pity the $600 camera's auto focus was on the basket containing the parwns instead of the main dish itself..) I think I should have made a meal out of the appetizers! The next time, I'm ordering the teriayaki foie gras. Think it's $18 for 3 tiny delicate pieces, hope it'll be as good as those I ordered on Friday.

Then on Sat, I went down to Da Paolo and had their Duck liver and mushrooms pasta. It was a plate of heaven.