At least I’m making good progress on Season 2 of Friday Night Lights. Being horizontal all day has some perks.

Y and I were up 7.30 yesterday morning to attend the wedding of one of my childhood friends. I’d probably only seen Jo twice since I was 16 - my wedding ceremony, and my wedding dinner. But we’d kept in touch via MSN and that most glorious of creations, Facebook. Now it was her turn to get married.

The wedding ceremony was held in the Botanical Gardens of Putrajaya, where the rain clouds moved on in time for the grass to be not too muddy and the photographs to turn out great. The only way to have a garden wedding in Malaysia, really, is to have it at 9am, which Jo did. So it’s not too hot. And/or keep it short and very sweet.

I had to admit, even as the sun rose higher in the sky and heat-sensitive Y threatened to melt into a pool of slush, it was really lovely. There was even a lake. And of course, the bride.

Jo has always been gorgeous, but as a bride, she was stunning. I’d never met her husband, Shaun, before, but Jo started crying almost as soon as she saw Shaun standing at the altar. He sang through tears while she walked down the aisle. I have a thing for grooms who cry when they see their bride walking towards them - I know it’s not necessarily accurate but I always think it must be true love when that happens. Not that it isn’t when they don’t.

There used to be three of us. We were the same age and we would hang out and tell each other our secret crushes. We went through the UPSR and PMR exams together and never got competitive over our results. Now two out of three of us are married. And each time one of us tied the knot, the other two were there. I think there’s something really beautiful in that.

Yesterday, MA brought these tiny hamsters to the office. They were going to be our mascots and we were going to name them “hot” and “HELLO!”. Actually, we did. A bunch of them went out during lunch to buy a proper hamster cage and wood shavings because the hamsters were living in a mini plastic aquarium among newspaper cuttings. I briefly considered naming them Dolce and Gabbana. Sean kept calling them rats.

“They’re rodents,” I said.

“They’re rats,” he said.

“Rodents.”

“Same family.”

“So are a kitten and a lion,” interjected R.

The girls couldn’t find a cheap hamster cage, so they improvised and bought a bird cage instead. They filled the bottom with wood shavings, put water and hamster food into the feeding containers, installed a yellow running wheel and even put up a ladder and second floor. I think the hamsters really liked their new home.

We also found out one is male and one is female. Uh oh.

When I got into work this morning, the hamsters were looking a lot happier than they did 24 hours earlier. Even their fur didn’t seem quite as straggly. But everyone else looked a little glum. Turns out our boss had realised the hamsters were here to stay and had put his foot down. The critters had to go.

And that was the end of our mascots.

Originally taken from here.

To one of the coolest, nicest persons I know, have a very happy “Forever 21″. This photo, captured on my mobile phone at a random gift shop during one lunch hour, was too good not to put up on Reta’s birthday. If any of you are on Facebook, give her a lil’ poke, won’t you?

I have managed to break one of the hardiest spectacles around - Silhouettes. Half-asleep one night, I must have taken them off and tossed them to one side. The next morning, when I finally found them between my pillow and headboard, they had been somewhat grotesquely twisted. Ever the optimist, I tried bending them back into shape and they snapped into two in my hands.

Before, I’d taken pride in telling people that these glasses have lasted me eight years - more a testament to their durability than to my care. And now that they’re broken, I admit I’m a little lost without them. Sure, I have another pair of spectacles on hand so I’m not blind without my contact lenses, but my Silhouettes were what I’d used to read in bed or watch telly till I fell asleep, because I always thought they were unbreakable. I suppose nobody ever tried squashing them up against a headboard.

Goodbye, my Silhouettes. I can honestly say I’ll miss you.

http://postcardpictures.wordpress.com

Stay tuned also for his photos of Paris and Rome, he’s got some really great ones.

I didn’t realise until after I’d arrived in Rome how few pictures I’d taken in Paris. The City of Light is called that for a reason - for me, it’s because it’s far more beautiful by night. Unfortunately, that also means my point-and-shoot simply couldn’t cut it, especially when it came to capturing all those stunning, light-bathed monuments. So I only took 19 photographs in all. Preposterous, I know.

Rome was a slightly different story, but by then I was already used to not snapping away on a camera. I find that when I’m busy taking photos, I fail to truly absorb the beauty and magnificence of what is before me because I’m so busy concentrating on the small square of my camera viewfinder. No matter how good the camera, it simply cannot capture the awesomeness, my awe, of those buildings and places, and so I determined instead to spend more time breathing in the sights and sounds. If I couldn’t adequately capture something in megapixels, then I wanted to remember my wonder as I beheld it, and there were many moments of those.

For the rest of my photos from Paris and Rome, go here.

Yes. They can, indeed.