As mentioned previously, the juicer is not available locally in Singapore/Malaysia so to get it means to factor in shipping costs from US where it’s available widely.

Out of good luck (or bad depending on how you see it), the website that I go to get my supply or Krill Oil (I’ll probably talk about that another time) had a Free Shipping offer for almost all their products in conjunction with the infamous Black Friday in the US. And the free shipping applies to international shipping as well.

So thanks to Mercola.com for providing this Free Shipping offer. Effectively I have saved at least SGD100 for shipping alone (well, I have spent like SGD360 on the juicer).

So now, based on the latest delivery status. The juicer has left the US and is on it’s way to Singapore. Will blog about it when it arrives.

By the way, Mercola.com is quite a good resource for health related stuff that deviates from mainstream health recommendations that we’ve grown up with. Definitely a good resource that I recommend to everyone.

The “projects” that we have in mind were always just talk and we sometimes forget about it then talk about it again after a while. So this time round, we’ve decided to list them down in a google document. We’ve just started listing them out and the next thing we’ll do is to prioritize, budget and give these items a timeline.

So the projects we have in mind so far in no particular order are

• Change metal gate to wrought iron gate
• New laminate flooring for the whole living room. Or if budget permits, bamboo flooring (go green)
• Modify kitchen cabinet for better storage.
• Enhance lighting in the kitchen. It’s not bright enough now.
• Add to working top area on top of the existing washer.
• New shoe rack

Of course, as and when a project gets materialized, I’ll blog about it.  Till then..

My impression of a juicer has always revolved around different types of “centrifugal” juicers, the most famous being the Power Juicers by Jack LaLanne since I see it advertised all the time on those shopping channels.

I’ve always been quite impressed with the Power Juicer until I came across this particular type of juicer. It is known as  a masticating juicer. The masticating juicer basically “chews” and “mash” the vegetables or fruits to produce the juice leaving a much dryer pulp. The motor itself runs slowly say about 80 rpm instead of the regular juicer that spins so fast you think it’s gonna fly away.

Probably it’s hard to imagine what it’s like so just watch the videos below.

The video below shows this product known as the Omega Nutrition Center 8003.

The following video shows a newer juicer from Omega as well known as the Omega Vert VRT 330.

Both are great juicers in my opinion but rather expensive. So far I don’t think you can find them around here so the only way to get them is to have them shipped from US.

Check out more videos on what these juicers can do. It’s quite interesting. Besides that do also check out articles on juicing and raw foods diet. It’s also very interesting.

Am I going to buy it? I dunno… we’ll see.

Okay, that said here are some photographs that I find decent.

Interesting outdoor gown shot. But didn't really have the effect that I want.

There was a nice pond at the bride's place

DIY Makeup by the bride

Got in real close with a 58mm prime

Look at the happy face under the veil

On the way to the groom's house

At the groom's place but waiting for the right time to get out of the car

Hot sunny day with blue skies

Standard pic right?

Cake decoration

Enjoying that aircon. hehe

The entrance.

That's definitely not champagne

The CWS delegation

The rare times you see me in a picture

So, now that the job is done think, I wanna keep away from wedding photography for a while. Photographing 3 Weddings in 3 months seems a bit too much for me at the moment. Need to go out and take some other genre of pics.

And Darren, I will be sending you an invoice for services rendered soon. hehehe.

She pointed me back to a blog post I made previously where I wrote..

Think this is one lens that I’m going to like a lot despite it being a manual focus lens. Now … to strike that damn lottery so I can get a Full Frame (D700) camera to use this lens with!

See here for the full posting. (It’s right at the bottom)

Well, I own a D700 now.. but no lottery struck obviously else I’d be blogging about all the great Nikon lens that I’d dream of having such as the 14-24 F2.8, 24-70 F2.8 and the 70-200 F2.8 to name a few. That reminds me of course to invest in lottery more often.

Anyway, don’t know why Peiwen suddenly went and read my old blog posts but I was acting dumb when she mentioned it. Luckily, she said that she doesn’t blame me for getting the D700 without striking the lottery. She blames Darren instead!. hahaha

So Darren, it’s your fault that I own the D700 now. But that said, the D700 has captured your pre-wedding photos and will be capturing your actual day wedding photos this weekend.

P/S: In case anyone is wondering, the 40mm Ultron works great on the full frame D700 and I’m still loving it. And to Darren, no hard feelings.. just a joke.

Xuejing is my secondary school friend so I’ve known her for like more than 10 years already.

Cutting down to the chase, here are some photos from that day.

I like this edit quite a bit.

Lovely couple at home

Full length portrait of Xuejing.

This little girl just loves the camera

Just a candid shot of Xuejing with a warm white balance.

The standard I Do's

Ring exchange

A group photo with the lovely couple

All in all, honored to have been tasked to photograph the event. Really hope I didn’t screw up too much and once again CONGRATS to Johnson and Xuejing!

Anyway, just a few updates on what has happened the past 2-3 months since I last blogged

1. Bali Trip
   Went to a short weekend trip to Bali with a group of 8 ppl including Peiwen and myself. My blog header picture (paddy field) is actually taken at Bali in case you’re wondering. Will probably take it down soon as it’s taking quite a bit of real estate. Took some photos there, so maybe will post a few on the blog soon. (or never depending on laziness level)
2. Actual Day Wedding Photography for Kaifeng And Meili
   Took wedding day photos for Kaifeng whom is Peishi’s (ex colleague) younger brother. Was a whole day affair starting at 8am at the bride’s house at the faraway land of Pioneer (west side). My day ended at 11 pm after the wedding dinner and all. Really tiring affair but glad the photo turned out alrite.
3. Actual Day Wedding Photography for Johnson And Xuejing
   Another wedding day photos for my good old friend Xuejing (secondary school classmate). Quite a delightful affair starting the day at 6+ am in JB and ending after a nice poolside ROM and buffet luncheon. No less tiring of course even though it was 1/2 day of work. They’re just going through the photos after coming back from honeymoon in Japan. Hope I managed to capture the moment.
4. A new desktop PC
   Got myself a new Desktop PC. Assembled it at Sim Lim. The big plan for this PC is more for CPU intensive work for image editing as well as a storage solution. Intend to actually fit in a few HDD configured in a RAID array. Well, the RAID part is not in yet due to budget constraints. So that’s upcoming in future (probably not so near unless SingaporePools approves my application)
5. New furniture from IKEA
   Bought 2 new furniture from IKEA. A table for my new desktop PC as well as a Billy Bookcase for well.. books and such. With these purchases I’ve clocked enough purchases from IKEA to qualify extension of my IKEA Friends card for another 2 years (yeah.. spending a lot at IKEA).
6. Helped a buddy with his website
   Helped a buddy revamp his clinic’s website. You can check out the website at http://backandneckchiro.com. My buddy Vish runs the clinic and I personally go there for chiropractic treatment to fix up my back aches as well as headaches. If you’re having issues with your back and neck, I personally recommend that you check out my friend’s clinic.
7. Gained a few Kilos
   Gained a few kgs.. DRATS.. need I say more

Well, some targets I have set for myself for the very new future

1. Buy ingredients for my next beer brew.
2. Upload a few pics from the Bali trip.
3. Upload a few pics from the weddings I’ve taken recently.
4. Cut on expenditure.. spending money like water the past few months.
5. Prepare to take wedding pics for my colleague Darren.
6. LOSE a few Kilos.

Okay, that sums up updates for now. Hope to blog again real soon.

Don’t really have much to say.. but my colleague just sent me this youtube clip that I think it’s very nice. Do check it out.

This clip has been out a while but kudos to the people who made it. Something refreshing in the midst of all these crap we hear about racial divides these days.

MERDEKA!!

Anyway, the beer brewing was a SUCCESS. And I actually did get to have a mini beer party. The initial plan from my sinister colleagues and friends was to actually finish up ALL my beer. But alas, pizzas and chicken wings caused stomachs to not being able to contain a lot of beer.

So in the end of the party, only managed to drink 9 bottles which is roughly about 6.5 litres of beer? So where are the pictures? Well, I was kinda busy eating and drinking to take any. I believe Darren took some pictures but I didn’t get it from him.

So now today at 22 July 09, I still have 8 bottles of beer remaining. Seeing that it has been 2 months since the beer was ready from drinking and I still have 8 bottles left does show that I’m no alcoholic. I am planning to finish up the beer soon and start to brew my 2nd batch. Will be ordering ingredients soon.

Okay, I can sense some of you complaining that the post is too wordy already. To end it off, a picture of my beer.

Beer...

Oh yeah… I am gonna go Bali tomorrow!. So hope that I’ll be able to take some decent pictures and blog about it!

Now that the fermentation has stopped, it’s time to bottle the beer. So I lay out the necessary items on my dining table.

All items layed out

So I’ll quickly run through few of the important items this round apart from of course… the beer.

Little bottler

Little bottler attached directly to the tap

First up we have this  nifty little thing known as the “Little bottler” and it attaches directly to the tap of the main fermenter. We’ll see how it is used in a short while.

Carbonation Drops

2 Carbonation Drops to each bottle

Then we have the carbonation drops. Carbonation drops are really sugars that aids to generate that “fizz” you get from the beer. We need to put in 2 drops for each bottle.

Bottle Cap

And let’s not forget the bottle cap.

So with that said, we go into bottling! The next 2 pictures will basically describe the whole process. We’ll just open up the tap and push up the empty bottle to the little bottler and voila… beer flows into the bottle.

Push the bottle up onto the little bottler

Beer will flow into the bottle

We just have to make sure that we pull the bottle down once the beer goes up to the neck of the bottle. Once that is done all we need to do is fasten the cap we then have successfully bottled the beer. This step is repeated till all 30 bottles are filled up.

Bottled beer

The bottled beer will need to mature for at least 2 weeks before it’s good for consumption. The 2 weeks is needed for further fermentation within the bottle and also to give it the beer “fizz”. So back to the chiller box it goes and now we put on the solid cover. The ice packs will continue to be rotated during this period to keep it nice and cool for this process.

Back to the chiller for 2 weeks

So guys and gals, beer party is on 6 June 09 Saturday!! Woohooo..