It's official

After weeks of coordination and collaboration, the stage was finally set for "the proposal" to take place after the evening mass at SFX. As they moved forward to pray, the photographers sneaked from both sides of the church to capture the moment. Yes, the parents were in it too. With the proposal / acceptance; it's finally official. All set for a new chapter for Jared & Sarah. Congrats !!

Ushering in 2015

Potluck was the order of the day. Each brought some goodies and shared their secret recipe where Shawn Yeo revealed the way to make Pork Bellies crispy/bubble. With chicken curry, pasta, salad and assorted roast items ... it was just an afternoon of "eat all you can" event.

Whilst the original SFX group gather at the dining table, Sarah's group likewise had their own little corner of pow-wow sessions. Food was of course the common entity.

Fruit Tea Cocktail with some mix of PIMMS and coffee made its occasional appearance to ease the day, amidst amazing stories and recollection of incidents over the past colourful years.

Group photo for attendance taking was a MUST and where ever possible, the camera clicked away to capture the moment, be it in well-behaved posts to random shots.

Kristen & Simon + Shawn who joined us from their return trip certainly added to the "info sharing" sessions with their plans ahead, ranging from "What can be done at Sweden" to "Shawn's life in Australia".

Lessons learnt from past gatherings was to "snap" whenever any group is available. There will never be an ALL AVAILABLE shot, as many has deferring schedules.

The shot in a different setting at the patio ended the camera action for the day. Time for the cameraman to have his share of the goodies .... yummy pork bellies !!! (Hope there's some left !!)

Reflection

Guess its that time of the year for reflection. Kicking off the first day of 2015, it started with a "Thought of the Day" ... that "Things happened for a reason. It may not be apparent now. It may be realised in the near future or it may surface many years down the road. Its part of our journey ...." Reflecting on 2014, there were lots of episodes where I have probably kicked myself for believing in "some people", as in giving them the benefit of the doubt and to believe on "what's said" without further verifications. Boy was I wrong !!! Fortunately, not all falls in the same outcome. Guess they are the ones that came as "lessons".

Came to realised too that counting blessings is not as easily as said. Somehow, the negatives seem to be on higher grounds, as it always intertwined with anger. Time do heals but can be easily triggered when similar episode occurs. It only when we come to term with the lessons that blessings becomes clearer. Somehow, this quote by Mother Teresa kept popping up from time to time. Recognising this helps in moving on. Well, its the start of 2015. 364 days more to go !!!