The Football Connection… by Shawn
I first knew of Joyce’s existence when we were way back in our teens. We used to attend the same church and I notice how she didn’t seem to follow the crowd or hang out with the rest of the kids her age.
For some reason I found her independence and individuality appealing and told myself it would be cool to get to know her but we were way too young and I hadn’t learnt enough moves to win over the ladies over yet so I left it at that. Joyce eventually moved to Australia to pursue her studies and I only ever saw her when she came down to visit family during semester breaks.
Then there was the creation of FaceBook. I was a little bit of a late bloomer with this social networking site and it was not till my university days did I actually had a Facebook account. This was also how I came about finding how big a football fan Joyce was. She wasn’t just a football fan that many girls are these days. She didn’t support a team because there was a good looking player in there or because it was just a famous team. She actually knew all about the history of the club she supported. She knew more football than most of my guy friends put together. I was pretty much sold there and then.
Joyce says:
We may have opposite personalities but we have a lot of common interests and that’s what brought us together, our joint love for football and FC Barcelona. His energetic personality definitely brings me out of my shell and I am the calming influence that keeps him down to earth. We frequently wake up to watch football together and will have long whatsapp chats with each other during matches when we are apart. We have a no holds barred, transparent relationship. We both have different outlooks in life and often find ourselves throwing opinions at each other during a heated discussion. We don’t consider that arguing, just a competition on who is better at convincing the other.
Tjin made a promise to Dawn that he would visit as often as he can. This resulted in a long list of flights every 2-3 months over three years – becoming Jetstar’s unofficial number one customer. Some trips were long trips to Hanoi, Bali, Seoul or KL. Some trips to Singapore were only 3 nights over the weekend. Many exciting hellos, and equally as many heartbreaking goodbyes. Dawn would also visit Melbourne at least once a year. Story of their lives for 3 years.
Watch the Fusion slideshow of their wedding here.
I remember my first encounter with Rani. It was at the Westin wedding fair, and she came with a group of friends who were funny, witty and easy to chat with. That instant, we clicked. Rani signed up for our photography package, and months later, off to Penang I went with Diane to photograph their Malaysian reception. Arun and Rani were wed in India (darn, I still am hoping to photograph a wedding there one day!) but they had a 2nd celebration in Penang’s colonial looking E&O Hotel. We spent a good part of the day taking portraits, and then photographing their dinner reception in the evening.
