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Saturday 25 February 2012

Makeover photography in City Square, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

If you are looking a good makeover studio with a budget, I would certainly brag about Superstar Bridal at Level 4, City Square shopping centre, Johor Bahru, Malaysia.  I have shared by word-of-mouth about their wonderful packages and excellent customer service to many friends, that reason also made me return for a couple’s album with my boyfriend as he practically went gaga upon seeing the personal makeover album I took with a girlfriend the year before.

I personally love their basic package, which come with a perfectly handy size (7'' by 5") album, their prices for personal makeover is RM498, inclusive of 4 gowns/costumes, 4 hairstyles and makeup, 25 photos, digital design, 1 CD (soft copies of the original photo without design) and a quality photo album, excluding prices for fake lashes, nails, ampoule and hair-curling.  You can also choose to dress in your own clothes.
Price for couple makeover will be RM598.

What makes me love Superstar Bridal?

Firstly, Price.  My friends and I have previously sourced a few bridals in Singapore few years back.  For about SG$300, we can only get 30 loose copies of 4R photographs with touch-up, but without digital design and album, without providing gowns and costume and 3 hairstyles and makeup only.  Even for studios with digital design, there is no album provided too and their digital design is not that fantastic also.
Whereas, for a lower price, of RM498 which is approx. SG$212 (based on exchange rate of SG$1 to RM2.35), you will get fantastic digital design, lovely little album and an array of gowns to choose from.

Secondly, Customer Service.  While I do not regard myself as a fussy consumer, I do have a whole lot of ideas on what poses I wanted, what kind of digital designs to be done on what photos, what kind of makeup and hair-do etc.  The photographers, digital designer, makeup artist are all very customer-oriented, patient and friendly, even the seamstress and salesperson are helpful.  They always do their best to accede to my requests.  Personally, I find that the digital designer is very creative with veteran skills set.  I’ve sent him a series of photos from Chinese novels, Korean drama, Hong Kong movie, Hollywood movie, concert poster, advertisements, even photos of single objects, eg, guitar, bird, diamond.  He could also design our photos closely to my ideas.  And when we went down to do further amendments, he can readily edit anything we suggested, which is mind-blowing.

The beautiful makeup artist

Superstar is very experienced in makeover, they have many customers’ samples displayed at their front door and will add on when they have some latest samples.  They are also the only bridal in the shopping centre who provides the smallest size album and needless to say, they have the most economical pricing, probably due to smaller album is slightly cheaper.

I decided to write a review on Superstar only now because for my first album, my girlfriend and I haggled for some goodies on top of the basic package and got photo-frames in our package.  However, when it was time to collect our photo-frame, we were told that the frame was flawed and no longer in stock.  We were then given a choice of a small crystal laser photo-frame.  When I finally collected my second album, I was pleasantly surprised that the photo-frame I received, was twice the size of what was promised!

My second album, due to experience in choice of clothes, poses, makeup and ideas for digital design, was very much nicer than my first.  Esp. when we were heavily involved in the making of our album, the sense of satisfaction is even greater.  I will still suggest customers to do some homework before heading down for a photography session, after all, no matter how brilliant the professionals are, they can’t read minds.  It will be good to give them an overview of your requirements if you are like me, fussy?  This time, other than praises by word-of-mouth, our album itself is the testimony!
Their Official Website: http://superstarwedding.com.my/intro.php

Monday 13 February 2012

A trip to Reflections at Bukit Chandu

I have always been curious and wanting to visit “Reflections at Bukit Chandu”, the museum that commemorate our 1400 brave and unyielding Singapore’s Malay Regiment Soldiers, who fought and died in the battle against Japanese invasion during World War II.  It is situated in a detached house at the top of Pepys Hill along Pasir Panjang.  I finally got a chance to visit when my dad also got interested when it was featured in the Chinese Newspapers联合早报. 

To allow readers to fully feel our walking journey up Bukit Chandu, I have taken pictures along the way.

Here is the start of the route.  It is not exactly very far, but it is neither a short distance.  Probably takes a 25-minutes of walking distance.  Old signage spotted at the entrance of Pepys Road.

A long way in…

A viewing tower – there are 2 of them in the vicinity, this is the shorter one.

Finally, we reached the gate of museum, a few more steps to go…

Reached!  This is the sculpture of our heroes – Malay Regiment Soldiers.

Museum – Reflections at Bukit Chandu

Artifacts – Bomb Siren

Artifacts – Bomb Compass

Artifacts – Lamp


Artifacts – Ammunition Box

Artifacts – Binoculars

Artifacts – Microphone and Head Set

Artifacts – Japanese Bayonet (this weapon gave me the goosebumps thinking about how many lives it took back then)
 
Japanese Troops invading Singapore on Bicycles.

Hero – Lieutenant Adnan who defended and died at a young age of 27

A Prisoner of War
 
I noticed this cute retro fan, I don’t think it is an artifact, there are 2 of them on the 2nd floor and they looks quite new.
 
More artifacts on the 2nd floor…

There are a few machine guns of different models on display, shall leave something for you guys to explore if you are keen to find out...

There is a short movie clip on the fight of Lieutenant Adnan and his fellow soldiers.  During the movie, there are many moments where there is complete darkness as well as moments of flashing red light with nothing shown on the screen, these effects made my mum felt rather uncomfortable.  While I feel that the movie served as a great reminder of the history of Singapore and teaching us that we should always be vigilant against attacks and terrorism, the producer of the movie can probably re-look on this aspect, especially when elder viewers who could not fully understand the movie in English will be in a state of confusion and lose interest when there are no images on the screen for some time.

While I won’t say that there are a lot of artifacts on display, this, however, is a nice experience which I feel that every Singapore should at least visit once, to remember how Singapore has come this far.