"Surprise? Hello? Happy Birthday?"

ok to confess, this is probably the FIRST ever surprise party that stayed a surprise all the way. and i think the trick is to be maticulous about EVERYTHING. Of course it helped that Al is a playwrite and stage director!!!!! and i'm a visualiser. Oh the perfect axis of evils. We planned a party for Nate's godma, Tse Chueen who's leaving for Hong Kong_for greener pastures of course. Planning a suprise party took a lot more effort than I thought... and boy, did we (al and i) THINK ALOT. I was mentally drained by the end of the week being paranoid about all the "what-ifs". Emails were sent, caterers were booked, friends were called and scenarios were painted. We had so many different drafts and plans if A didn't work out, B would do. Cs and Ds were sought after as well. I think Al and I fed off each other when it came to ideas and sussing TC out - up to the very last minute. Thanks everyone for coming and being part of this party. TC enjoyed herself very much which matters the most at the end of the day. (: I leave you with some pictures and a few planning quotes: on Ryd asking TC to hang on the phone while she enters the house:

"so.. is it within Ryd's character to ask her to hang on the phone?"

on getting TC into Ryd's room:

"what if she needs to pee urgently?"

on what we should shout at her when she enters :

"Happy Birthday? Happy Deepavali? I think Suprise will do!"

TC enters and huifen actually shouts:

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!"

TC upon recovery from the shock:

"uhh Welcome Welcome (to her home).."

Space filler

ikea funiture going zen?

Happy Birthday Shea

God Bless you on your 9th Birthday dearie!

Comfort foods of the moment

I'm addicted to furikake nori katsuo and ham and grapes pizzas at the moment... needless to say, the weight is coming on as well.

Riding

I love riding.

(one of them does not belong to me.. haha i wish)

Cell group mates

old photo was taken 2 years ago

There's nothing better than a strong bond of friendship, bond being GOD. When anyone of us is hurting or in need of company, everyone comes together and rally round that person, together, worshipping God through times of brokeness as well as times of rejoicing.

Even if its after 2 years of not getting together.

Amen.

Singapore F1 night race

view of the first practice session from Swissotel The Stamford i got to meet with Sir Jackie Stewart, a real inspiration I must admit that I wasn't very excited when i heard that we were hosting the F1 night race in singapore early this year. Mainly cause it's no fun for me who will have to be on assignment. The co-ordination is a hassle, F1 races are hard to shoot even though the picture looks simple and easy (cause its a still!) and it's a language i didn't even speak til March this year when i was sent to Sepang so i'd learn the ropes of the F1. It's pretty daunting for anyone to cover the race if you don't normally follow the race. Plus it was to be a race held at night and exposing for pictures was gonna be a real pain. Luckily for me, i had a great team which flew in from around the world for this race. I approached the week quite reluctantly. However as the days passed and work settled in, the day spent shooting got easier and actually fun. The buzz of F1 in the city was a very surreal and different experience. It was weird to see the actual cars and drivers zooming past familiar sites and routes that i take to work daily. It started to get exciting and i really enjoyed it in the end. The race drama with Ferrari driving off with the petrol tubes still stuck on, did help add to excitement. I felt really proud watching the race over the screens and actually thought that Singapore did look very pretty and good on TV. The fun thing about this race which is different from most of the other races was that we could spend time making some pretty picturesForce India took a crash at turn 10

Jet lag did set in though.

We were operating on European timing, having to eat dinner at 2am and sleeping by 4am. I took 2 - 3 days to recover from the bio-clock change and lugging all that gear, walking round the track. I think that cross training actually added to my fitness level which is pretty neat. I went running the other morning and found that my heart rate was lower and i was running faster. heh. So i guess this F1 thing is gonna stick around for the next 4 years and i hope i still feel the same way about it. For the highlights click here http://www.formula1.com/services/play_video.html