Spread the Love – June 2017

Luckie’s birthday fell in June. My elder brother and wife took the trouble to prepare for the mini party. Initially, I was supposed to help to collect Luckie’s cake but my sister-in-law settled it. My mum and younger brother took the train over with me and happened to encounter a terrible train “delay”. Although we didn’t stay for long, I was glad to have the mini family gathering over there.
I tried my first “massage” from “ah hun”, and she helped to relieve a lot of pain from my right shoulder. The improvement was significant.
Nancy hosted the volunteers gang a gathering at her place. She fed us well. Yonghao was generous with his new dimsum making skill. As I wasn’t feeling well, Huiting prepared porridge for me – she prepared extra for me while cooking for her mum.
Gilbert and I gave Wanling a belated birthday celebration. Gilbert was the chauffeur again and also planned the dinner.
During Joy’s book launch, she gave me a two copies of her book.
Since the venue of Gold’s Gym outlet at Lim Teck Kim Road was going to be handed back to the landlord, Bobby suggested lending me a space in the Joo Chiat outlet. He picked me up from my place and sent me over. He also treated me to early supper over there.
I had an implied nude yoga shoot with Karina and I was flattered by the trust she gave me.
 

Spread the Love – May 2017

I went to Marsiling around three times, mainly to help to babysit Luckie and my elder brother took good care of me. He tried to pay for my meals. My sister-in-law also helped me to buy lunch. Eventually, I felt I had not contributed much.
During the day of the bike shoot with Boon Hui, she bought me drinks from Starbucks and helped me to press some of my acupuncture points to relief some pain from my shoulder injuries. She refused to split the cab fare and then insisted in giving a treat to her friend who was loaning us his bike. After the shoot, she suggested me to take a cab home and offered to pay for me.
My mum helped me to apply medication oil every night. Even though she was clueless about pressing the acupuncture points, it more or less would have helped in making improvement.
My ball-bearings for my trolley from Ebay arrived. I brought it down to Bike Culture and my elder brother and Fattie helped me to replace the old ones.
Gilbert brought me to the Fitness First gym at 100AM. As he was a busy person, it was not easy for him to fork out time to catch up with me.
I had a photoshoot with Cheryl Chua. She took the initiative to do a video discussion with me. As the shoot was a little revealing, I was glad of the trust she had placed on me.
During the shoot with Sharon Ng, she bought some delicious bread from ToastBox for me. She was also very patient with me to try out the yoga moves.
 

Spread the Love – January 2017

It was a very quiet start of the year.
I had an event shoot for sheep’s youngest child. He was one of the best clients ever.
Huiting was the heroine who organised another voluntary work. She roped me in last minute after we attended Jade’s grandparent’s wake. Jiayu dropped Yonghao, Huiting and I at Yonghao’s place before we waited for Yonghao’s dad’s lorry. Then, we met up with another three volunteers to collect second hand furniture to move to the beneficials’ houses. It was near midnight and one of the volunteers sent me home.
As usual, my youngest uncle on my dad organised the Chinese New Year gathering, spending the money, effort and time to organise everything.

Spread the Love – December 2016

I had a photoshoot with Kelly Lim. Even though the shoot was focusing on her tattoos, she had to show quite some amount of skin. It was the trust that I appreciated most.
For my photoshoot with Prudential, Leslie Eng helped me a lot. He even gave me a lift to and fro the location.
For the photoshoot with Martina, I received help from my new assistant – Yee Wei. She was quiet but helpful.
Gilbert took a day off from work to accompany me for a shoot. Besides being an escort, he did his part as an assistant, enduring some craps together.
I met up with Zaki and he treated me to a 3D movie – Rogue One. I helped him to collect his Wifi-Baby while he was away from Singapore. I met up with him again to pass him the device when he returned. He treated me to dessert – my favourite ice jelly.
During my second meet-up with Zaki, Sirachar dropped by to have a chat with me, which was rather rare for a net friend to make the effort.
Yaozhong insisted to treat me to a super belated birthday lunch. We met up at Chinatown for Dim Sum. He also accompanied me to recce LePark for my next shoot.
Angela Ni took a day off her packed schedule to have a shoot with me. She went from the East to North of Singapore for Koreen who was kind enough to do the makeup and hairstyling for her.
For the Christmas Gathering with my voluntary work friends, Yonghao and his family kindly hosted us. Yonghao cooked specially for us. Some of them also brought food and drinks along. Nancy hosted us for the second round of gathering at her gorgeous place and her fiance gladly welcomed us although we would be disturbing him from his rest. Nancy stunned us with the impromptu supper that she was able to dig out from her kitchen. Jiayu gave me a lift home.
Sam from Manda fixed my Cononmark B4. He also shared a lot of things with me.
Gilbert picked me up for our swim to use our Active SG accounts so that the remaining free value would be brought forward to the next year. He was the driver for the evening, for our dinner and sending me home.
After attending Jake’s son’s baby shower with my mum, his mum and her ex-classmate went to Waterway Point with us and treated us to drinks at Yakun Kaya Toast.

Spread the Love – November 2016

Weitat organised two volleyball games at Yusok Ishak Secondary school and one at OCBC Arena, which was booked by Jelly. We had late supper after the first game and Weitat specially instructed Steven to give me a lift home. Steven could have taken the PIE route home, which was much faster. After the second game, we had dinner at Bukit Gombak’s coffee shop. In order not to let “blackbean” uncle and auntie treat, I ordered my food from the western food stall instead of the seafood stall. However, SCDF uncle footed the bill for our drinks. For both the last games, Bernard gave me a lift home using Jingjie’s car as Jingjie was not in Singapore.
The process of doing photoshoot with Jasmine Tan was glad not because I was shooting a cute girl but because she was one of the rare models who could turn up on time for a 7am shoot. She was very cooperative and we managed to get many good photographs.
During the one-day reservist at Yishun Safra, Teck Hui met up with me to walk over. Then, Fabian gave me and Terry a lift to the nearest MRT station.
For the photoshoot with Wanling, Gilbert was the driver to send Yuko and I over to Wanling’s house. Candy played a good host, drove me to package dinner back and sent us to the shooting location and then sent us home.
For the photoshoot with Rouying, Guoxin was my best assistant ever. He helped me to carry my equipment, buy drinks for all of us on his own initiative, shine light for my camera to focus and even paid for the cab after the shoot.
In total, Yuko took up three shoots with me and I was very glad that she could use her talent to aid me in creating the wonderful work.
Gilbert booked a staycation at The Amara Sanctuary Resort and chauffeured both Wanling and I to and from our houses. He also paid a larger portion for the hotel fee. Lunch was on Gilbert and dinner was on Wanling.

Spread the Love – October 2016

I had a shoot with Beverley at Coney Island in the early morning. Gilbert gave us a lift over, helped in carrying my equipment and directed Beverley. He sacrificed his skin and blood to feed the mosquitoes and sandflies.
I had a beach volleyball game with my gang. Jingjie gave me a lift from Vivocity and Weitat sent me home after dinner.
Thiam Huat met me up at Tanjong Pagar for dinner. After that, we chilled up at Essen and he gave me two rounds of treat to drinks. We chatted till late and he had to catch a cab home.
My elder brother came to stayover with Luckie since my sister-in-law went overseas. During his stay, he tried to solve problems and passed me a good earpiece.
During my shoot with Dr Joy at her son’s birthday party, she treated me as a friend and not just a photographer. I was very touched by her kind gesture. During the entire evening, she kept asking me to eat. It was the first time I got to try out chicken from Jollibee.
I was so busy that I almost forgot it was the last public holiday that Tanjong Pagar Railway Station would be opened for visitors before closing down for integration work with the new MRT station. Just hours before the opening hour, I contacted Ahpa and Yoyo, who agreed to go down with me on such late notice – they reached home only after midnight. Yoyo had tried to accommodate to the choice of clothes that I wanted; discussion with both of them was much easier than many model-wannabes who had approached me. I was glad the simple shoot with Yoyo turned out quite well.

Spread the Love – September 2016

The month began with the resuming of my reservist. I was thankful of the great people who had accompanied me through the depressing period. They talked rot and kept me entertained. The drivers, Melvin, Fabian and Kenneth did us favours by ferrying us around.
I had not one but three photoshoot sessions with Ao Xuan to utilise her holidays. Although she sounded super laid back and lazy, she kept her promises despite having obstacles like rain. The first shoot was a lifestyle shoot done at Boat Quay. The second one was a studio kind of fashion shoot using Tze Khit’s gym and finally, a travel blog style of shoot to complete the entire Southern Ridges. It probably took her great effort to find out about me in order to trust me completely to hang out with me alone. (updates: she showed her princess-like attitude later)
Jake was finally able to meet up with me and he gave me a dinner treat. As usual, he was sharing things with me to try to help me while I was already too bored of updating him on my slow progress in life.
One of the luckiest things that had happened in my photography journey was the meeting of good people. Even people of higher status in life had showered me with love. Angie Mui, the woman I looked up to and someone who was busy in her passion, contacted me just to inform me that the photographs that I had taken for her would be released on the October 2016 issue of Expat Living magazine. Little kind gestures and lots of appreciation from her made me feel great.
Yonghao organised a mini hiking session from Harbourfront MRT to Henderson Waves. After that, we made a delivery of fruits donated by a nearby stall to the free chefs at Bukit Merah where they hosted free dinner for residents on every Sunday evening.

Spread the Love – August 2016

My mum noticed that I had many photography equipment lying around and she packed some space at the shelf previously used to put Luckie’s stuff for me to store things.
Gilbert had a free movie ticket as one of his colleagues fell sick and could not go. He even picked me up to go over to Lido together. I stopped him from sending me home after that and I actually made it home earlier than him. It would take him double the time if he were to give me a lift home.
During the re-shoot with Angie at her place, she cooked dinner for both her new social media manager, Mary, and me. It was great to be given a treat by someone of a high status who had cooked personally for us. In fact, Angie had arranged the shoot such that I would gain more exposure for Mary would be capturing the behind-the-scene photographs – if Mary were to use them on her publication.
Weitat arranged around three sessions of volleyball games at Yusof Ishak Secondary School and sent me home twice. During the last session, we had dinner at Clementi and I was able to go home by myself since the coffee shop was quite near to the train station. Alas, he was very concerned if I could catch the last train and I felt very touched. Alas, I could finally feel less guilty by not troubling him. After one of the games, our favourite auntie footed the bill for our supper at a coffee shop in Bukit Gombak, which made me feel very bad since there were quite a number of us. Jingjie bought many bottles of greentea for one of the sessions and shared with us generously.
As I was asking my elder brother about using HDMI cable to replace VGA cable for my computer, he told me he had a spare one. When he came back to my house, he actually remembered bringing it along.
My hairdresser endured another last-minute booking from me as I was about to go for reservist. As usual, she was not pissed off. Anyway, she charged me the same price since twenty years ago and she actually needed not take my business.
During reservist, the drivers Fabian, Melvin and Kenneth gave us free rides that had reduced the amount of time and energy used in travelling. I made a new friend, Teck Hui, a social worker, who gave me a treat on the second day.

Spread the Love – July 2016

Letian organised a baby shower his newborn and invited Tze Khit, Daoxiong and I. After that, Tze Khit gave me a lift to the nearest MRT even though he was running late for his appointment.
Gilbert brought me to the Fitness First gym at 100AM again. He managed to push me to do some real workout with the gym equipment and then a swim at the pool.
Yaozhong spent quite some time to go through computer’s component at Sim Lim Square, creating a shopping list for my new system. Not every friend would spend the effort and time when he was busy with his life.
I had a photoshoot with Jolene at Gold’s Gym The Strategy. I was glad that Bobby had suggested the outlet or otherwise, I might have used one of the two outlets in Tanjong Pagar, which was much smaller and the result would not be so good. Jolene was one of the best models I had worked with in terms of her attitude and intelligent. I was mesmerized by her appreciation for every single thing I did and said.
Weitat organised three volleyball games at Yusof Ishak Secondary School. Even though he had grumbled about the tedious job, he sacrificed himself, knowing nobody else could do better than him due to his connection with all the small groups of players. For the first game, Weitat had to rush off immediately as he had a plane to catch and Jingjie gave me a lift at Clementi MRT station after our supper. I was glad that he had opened out and shared some of his troubles with me. However, I had to rush off to catch my last train and thus could not accompany him longer at the car park to chat. Anyway, “black bean” uncle and auntie gave us a treat for the drinks again. For the next two volleyball games, Weitat gave me a lift home as usual and I didn’t stop him for the last trains were probably gone.
After Shuh broke up with me, Olivia and Stephanie gave me some cooling time before contacting me about a week later to show me concern. It was very sweet of them.
Justine was another sweet angel who had been texting me to show her concern after I posted any new Facebook status. She could be blunt and fierce, but she always spoke with a kind intention.
I visited Wanling at her place and she cooked lunch for both of us. Candy gave me a lift to the MRT station in the evening. A week later, Gilbert and I went over as well and we had a more splendid dinner.

Spread the Love – March 2016

I was invited to a furniture exhibition to help BoConcept to capture the interior design of their booth and the guests who dropped by. Chloe, How Jian and Aaron played good hosts. I also learned more about furniture from them.
I had photoshoots with Beverley and Rachel Liew separately and both of the interaction with them were awesome. I was thankful for the trust they had placed in me.
It was the beginning of a nightmare when Luckie had his first slip disc on the lower back. My sister-in-law paid for his surgery, which amounted to near ten grands.