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Monday 23 October 2006

Tokyo ticket machines powered by footsteps

Sweet!

"JR East's new experiment consists of energy-generators under ticket wickets, a milliwatt-tracking counter, and 700,000 daily commuters. For the next two months, the railway company will be using using the vibrations of human footsteps at Tokyo Station to generate up to 100 milliwatts per second per person that walks through. The idea is to be able to generate enough electricity to power the wickets themselves and their display panels regularly." BoingBoing

Monday 16 October 2006

Thumbs up for the big day crew!

I hope I'm not jumping the gun but I thought I would plug the excellent people whom I have dealt with to date for my wedding. I hope some Melbourne bride or groom out there will find this helpful.

All mentioned here have been professional, really friendly, helpful and a pleasure to deal with.

Wedding Gown

Sue and Christa at Brides of Armadale, High Street, Armadale. Amaline and Sue helped me to choose my dress and made the experience enjoyable and pain-free. First fitting went well and again, Sue and Christa made it an entertaining evening.


Photographer

Joseph of Joseph Koprek Photography. Down to earth, friendly and showed us some beautiful shots from previous weddings. Joseph was recommended to me by a friend whose wedding photographs worked out fantastically.

Videographer

Marcus of C2 Video. Down to earth, friendly, full of ideas. You can view a number of brilliant sample videos on his website.

Venue for ceremony and reception

Churchers on Richmond Hill. Judith and Joe have been so friendly and upbeat. They have been most helpful and happily answer questions and offer their assistance at every turn. Churchers has a beautiful, brick-paved courtyard which is most versatile. I've attended a wedding at Churchers when the couple held their ceremony in the courtyard. Scooterboy and I will hold the ceremony in an adjoining room, electing to set up the tables for the reception in the courtyard.

Bouquet


Gaylene at Flowers Vasette was an absolute delight to meet and work with. Friendly and funny, I had a great time walking through sample bouquets with her. Vasette have a wonderful selection of bouquets and arrangements. From the good old bunch of red roses to more interesting and different arrangements at a reasonable price.

Wedding Cake

The ladies at AbFab Cakes were really friendly despite my showing up without an appointment when they were incredibly busy in the shop. AbFab have a great showroom where you can wander around amongst the sample cakes and samples are free for the taking in a covered cake tray. Their chocolate cake is this-must-be-some-kind-of-sin good. My sister's wedding cake ages ago was made with this chocolate cake... a number of her guests still remember her cake to this day!

Vintage Car

TripleR - friendly and easy to deal with. They have a huge warehouse where you can wander around all the cars on offer and are free to jump into them to test them out.

Celebrant

Marie Scomazzon - Very helpful, friendly and we have greatly appreciated Marie's no-nonsense, non flappy-hands-wedding-frou-frou approach. Google "Marie Scomazzon" and her details should pop up on a number of wedding sites.

So, that's the crew to date. I hope the positive experience continues right up to the wedding!