Chronicles of A Wedding Guest
12th June 2006, Monday
Enjoyed a weekend highlighted by the World Cup and the 2 wedding celebrations I had attended of course...
The late turn-in on Friday evening (more like wee hours of Saturday morning) did not take a toll on me as I woke up at around 9 as the blinding sunlight could not be contained by the white curtain in my room..seriously need to get a suitable one once my lass is back...
Spent the entire afternoon working on my webpage while recapping that 3 am match I had missed between Ecuador and Poland and realized my choice of sleep had been justified...
Clad in what I felt was suitable for the occasion including that 3 inch shoes for my wedding as I took such golden opportunity to conform myself into it and found it much comfortable this time round...
Reached La Tendo at around 7 when the rest had arrived and waiting for Tay-chan to fetch us with his other brother's (the one that is not Eng Kiong) car.
In the end, I took EK's car to Grand Copthorne Hotel instead and with Tay-chan needing to fetch a couple of the Tri-Angle lads as well, Vincent and Ferris went on their on via their bikes.
I never realized Grand Copthorne was that hotel just beside Zouk discotheque..It was always the familiar backdrop during my "cheong" days when I was lining for entry to perhaps the hottest discotheque locally..as well as some overdosed with alcohol would just hung on the barricading walls at the entrance and even vomit if it got too far..
So we arrived after 8 and thoroughly missed the solemnization ceremony which was held just before the dinner...
Good food was raved by Vincent of course before the dinner and it would be a continous mind game with "Mr Gluttony" for food even when EK and his wife would be taking vegetarian cuisine instead...
The entire ballroom wasn't too big and there were most probably 10-15 tables as Matthew had mentioned to be not too big an affair...
The newly-weds followed the usual sequence of event and came in from seperate doors before rendezvous at the center point of the red carpet before waltzed down the aisle together to the stage...
Being staunch Christians, the pair invited a pastor who gave grace to Lord before we dug in...
The mad-cap and often boisterious fun we had for this "La Tendo" table began with Miyano and Vincent starting to tease Tay-chan of weeping while he was just rubbing his eyes in the dark..
While the couple later on showed a video montage of their album and church ceremony, the rest of us were busy preventing Vincent of having too much servings of the cold dish and shark's fin soup..
The alcohol consumption especially beer for our table was escalating with every seconds as well with binging drinkers like Vincent and Miyano as well as Chan and myself (later on)...
Then again a lot of people were asking and updating each about the score between England and Paraguay...
After the usual "Yam Seng" procession which we contributed a whole deal, then the newly-weds were to go around for photo-taking..
When they got here, Vincent was insisting Matthew to down a glass of beer followed by a glass of red wine (potent concoction) which the latter finished neither..but we did broke into a cheer which was quite hilarious as well as embarrassing to say the least...
At a certain moment when Miyano went to the Ladies and the next dish of mushroom with sea cucumber arrived, Chan asked Vincent shouldn't he served some for his wife, Vincent shrugged and said she wouldn't like it while taking a double share...
Miyano returned, very much incensed by her husband's insensitivity but the whole process was just too amusing to be taken seriously...
So was the time Miyano congratualed Vincent on leading a good cheer and the pair acted like they were total strangers showing admirations to each other...
I must say at the end of the dinner we were really full for gastronomical aspect as well as entertainment aspect...
After bidding the newly-weds farewell, our night just began as the whole lot of us proceed back to Bencoolen street after pondering which suitable karaoke box we could patronise...before deciding on the K-Box at Paradiz Center..
Boy we got the biggest room in the vicinity which could really hold up to 30 people without breaking into a sweat...
There were live telecast of the World Cup matches at one corner as well which is great as we would be updated of the scores between Trinidad & Tobago & Sweden as well as the 1st half of Argentina and Ivory Coast...
Vincent wasted no time to start the ball rolling with a really long George Lam remix repertiore which was not what we intended to listen to ever...the song got ejected after 10 minutes and we doubt it was even halfway through...
So we stayed in that room for a good 5 hours at least till 4 in the morning, working on our vocal chords as well as more beer which was included in our package...
I got to sing some Japanese tunes including a L'Arc~en~ciel number which I never expected to find here...
I was very impressed with Tay-chan's renditon of The Yellow Monkey's "Taiyo ga Moetairu" and it seemed like he really had some rock genes in him...
EK and wife did a mini concert of JJ's songs while Chan usually receptive to performing in karaoke provided back-ups on certain tracks...
Karen started the session binging on the snacks which led to our curiosity that she had not had her fill during the banquet...she stayed pretty dormant for the night before Vincent and Miyano tried to to inject some life in her...
Ferris did a few numbers but was seemingly down with flu and dozed off halfway through...
But the star of the night was Bryan who really can sing even did a Jay Chou rap to close perfection and little pretendance...
Of course the livewire couple tried to get the crowd going at times with their enka-Jpop numbers and at times just wild shrieking in "We Are the World" and "We will Rock You"...heehee
We parted ways at around 4 plus and I felt it was fun not justified for $28 per person..then again not everyday the whole La Tendo clique got to gather at one spot and had each other's company like that...
When I got home, Mom was already up and ready to embark for her M;sia home-going trip...
Sunday began at 12 noon as for an hour or so I tried in vain to contact Kian Huat who I had liaised to go to Rizan's wedding with, since we lived basically a stone throw away from each other...
A heavy downpour hindered our preparations to meet up but he duly picked me up 3/4 past 2 as we hoped that we would arrive just in time when Rizan had fetched his bride over from Bukit Panjang...
HC who days before caught me on MSN stating that his Penang trip had been prolonged and might not make it, came back just in the morning and fought fatigue (yah right) to wish his buddy a blissful marriage...
Nanzhou, whom I had not seen in years but always knew he had been hanging out with HC since their NS days, came as well with some other football kakis...
While waiting for Rizan's return, we of course indulged ourselves about the World Cup and the fact that most of them do gamble for certain matches started bemoaning how they lost...
Eventually my old neighbour and classmate appeared with the vociferous drummings at the backdrop as he and his pretty wife (who happened to be a junior of ours in our Secondary school and Rizan managed to win her heart after so many years) made their grand entrance in front of family, friends, colleagues, neighbours and all other well-wishers...
After finding a seat at the void deck, we started digging in of the authentic Muslim cuisine which is always a feature of Malay wedding while the crowd slowly proceed to take pictures with the newly-weds...
Eventually we took a picture with them as well but I had little opportunity to speak to the groom whom I had not met for quite a while as well...
We lingered for a while even as the couple proceed for a change of attire coming to 4 in the afternoon before bidding Rizan's mother farewell and each other farewell...
On the way back, had a nice chat with Kian Huat to catch up on some ongongs with our lives as well walking down some memory lanes as well...
Surely I think I should try to make some effort to meet up some of these old classmates of mine before my actual wedding in October...
My lass who stayed in for the weekend, called and said she had been following World Cup herself...and described how easy it was to manuveour around Europe for free & easy tour... but in my mind, I really hope she would be back by my side as soon as she could...
Finally to the World Cup...
So far 8 matches had been played for Group A to D and I would say the most exciting one has to be that Group C clash between Argentina & Ivory Coast which I was very impressed by the skill and power some of the Cote'de Ivore players possessed with Man Utd's target Didier Zokora and Akale been 2 which really caught everyone's attention...
It would be interesting if they managed to grab the equalizer after been 2 goals down and proved my prediction right...
The other more exciting game would be last evening's Mexico vs Iran which the teams came out to attack and could swing either way...but looking at the way Mexico play I got a feeling they might be the surprise package of the tournament
Germany, England and Portugal won respectively but leave a lot to be desired for the fact that they are some of the contenders for the title...
Germany showed attacking football and scored 4 goals with Frings' scorcher might yet to be the goal of the tournament (let's hope not), but Costa Rica goes on to prove that they have a leaky defence...
The English needed an own goal to win while the Angolans really didn't helped boost their former colonial rulers' confidence by restricting them to just a mere early goal especially with the talent they had in their disposal.
The biggest shock would be the fact T&T held Sweden to a 0-all draw with a 2nd choice keeper and a man down since early 2nd half (refereed by a Singapore chap)
The Swedes could still do well against Paraguay and most important England...but Ibrahimovic and Larsson got to find their scoring boots..because they had only a guy called Marcus Allback as back-up
The Pole played organised football but if they can't score against Ecuador (despite having the worst luck) they deserved to be out of the tournament...while Costa Rica might pip the other 2 for the runners-up spot with Germany definitely top of Group A
My beloved Netherlands proved my 1:0 prediction right...but al thanks to Robben really...without him I feel this Dutch squad is very average without much flair as well...
And thanks to the experience of van der Sar, as the defence looks jittery even against a Serbian attack which doesn't seem to go anywhere...
Ivory Coast would prove a strong test next...Let's hope they would play better and Robben continue his devastating form on the left wing...
Ok prediction for tonight's games:
Australia vs Japan (Group F)
Many tout this as a top Asian derby since the Aussies had pledged allegiance to the AFA...
But seriously the game can go anyway for 2 teams who I feel are slightly above average and could beat anyone on their finest day...
Prediction: Australia 2 : Japan 1 (I would go for a draw but I think the Socceroos and the wise tactician Hiddink might just carve out the result)
U.S.A vs Czech Republic (Group E)
Both teams are recentoly hit by injuries to key players though the Americans should have an almost full squad for gaffer Arena to choose...
The Czech had such latent potential and we had seen from Euro 2004 how good they can be in top tournament
Prediction: U.S.A 1 : Czech 3 (even with Roiscky and Baros, I think the Czechs are still a bit too strong for the Americans)
Italy vs Ghana (Group E)
This 3 am game is one I would like to watch but might be a dull affair...
So far the Africans showed that they could compete with the best and Ghana with Essien, Appiah and Muntari would definitely be among the best especially with recent form...
Totti will be starting behind Toni and most probably joined by Gilardino which is a very potent strike force and if Pirlo find his usual form , Ghana need a great wall to block all the ball into their penalty areas...
Prediction: Italy 2 (or 1) : Ghana 0 (The Italians will score but after seeing the Portugal-Angola match and that Ghana is of different pedigree than Angola, I think this will be a tight affair)
Enjoyed a weekend highlighted by the World Cup and the 2 wedding celebrations I had attended of course...
The late turn-in on Friday evening (more like wee hours of Saturday morning) did not take a toll on me as I woke up at around 9 as the blinding sunlight could not be contained by the white curtain in my room..seriously need to get a suitable one once my lass is back...
Spent the entire afternoon working on my webpage while recapping that 3 am match I had missed between Ecuador and Poland and realized my choice of sleep had been justified...
Clad in what I felt was suitable for the occasion including that 3 inch shoes for my wedding as I took such golden opportunity to conform myself into it and found it much comfortable this time round...
Reached La Tendo at around 7 when the rest had arrived and waiting for Tay-chan to fetch us with his other brother's (the one that is not Eng Kiong) car.
In the end, I took EK's car to Grand Copthorne Hotel instead and with Tay-chan needing to fetch a couple of the Tri-Angle lads as well, Vincent and Ferris went on their on via their bikes.
I never realized Grand Copthorne was that hotel just beside Zouk discotheque..It was always the familiar backdrop during my "cheong" days when I was lining for entry to perhaps the hottest discotheque locally..as well as some overdosed with alcohol would just hung on the barricading walls at the entrance and even vomit if it got too far..
So we arrived after 8 and thoroughly missed the solemnization ceremony which was held just before the dinner...
Good food was raved by Vincent of course before the dinner and it would be a continous mind game with "Mr Gluttony" for food even when EK and his wife would be taking vegetarian cuisine instead...
The entire ballroom wasn't too big and there were most probably 10-15 tables as Matthew had mentioned to be not too big an affair...
The newly-weds followed the usual sequence of event and came in from seperate doors before rendezvous at the center point of the red carpet before waltzed down the aisle together to the stage...
Being staunch Christians, the pair invited a pastor who gave grace to Lord before we dug in...
The mad-cap and often boisterious fun we had for this "La Tendo" table began with Miyano and Vincent starting to tease Tay-chan of weeping while he was just rubbing his eyes in the dark..
While the couple later on showed a video montage of their album and church ceremony, the rest of us were busy preventing Vincent of having too much servings of the cold dish and shark's fin soup..
The alcohol consumption especially beer for our table was escalating with every seconds as well with binging drinkers like Vincent and Miyano as well as Chan and myself (later on)...
Then again a lot of people were asking and updating each about the score between England and Paraguay...
After the usual "Yam Seng" procession which we contributed a whole deal, then the newly-weds were to go around for photo-taking..
When they got here, Vincent was insisting Matthew to down a glass of beer followed by a glass of red wine (potent concoction) which the latter finished neither..but we did broke into a cheer which was quite hilarious as well as embarrassing to say the least...
At a certain moment when Miyano went to the Ladies and the next dish of mushroom with sea cucumber arrived, Chan asked Vincent shouldn't he served some for his wife, Vincent shrugged and said she wouldn't like it while taking a double share...
Miyano returned, very much incensed by her husband's insensitivity but the whole process was just too amusing to be taken seriously...
So was the time Miyano congratualed Vincent on leading a good cheer and the pair acted like they were total strangers showing admirations to each other...
I must say at the end of the dinner we were really full for gastronomical aspect as well as entertainment aspect...
After bidding the newly-weds farewell, our night just began as the whole lot of us proceed back to Bencoolen street after pondering which suitable karaoke box we could patronise...before deciding on the K-Box at Paradiz Center..
Boy we got the biggest room in the vicinity which could really hold up to 30 people without breaking into a sweat...
There were live telecast of the World Cup matches at one corner as well which is great as we would be updated of the scores between Trinidad & Tobago & Sweden as well as the 1st half of Argentina and Ivory Coast...
Vincent wasted no time to start the ball rolling with a really long George Lam remix repertiore which was not what we intended to listen to ever...the song got ejected after 10 minutes and we doubt it was even halfway through...
So we stayed in that room for a good 5 hours at least till 4 in the morning, working on our vocal chords as well as more beer which was included in our package...
I got to sing some Japanese tunes including a L'Arc~en~ciel number which I never expected to find here...
I was very impressed with Tay-chan's renditon of The Yellow Monkey's "Taiyo ga Moetairu" and it seemed like he really had some rock genes in him...
EK and wife did a mini concert of JJ's songs while Chan usually receptive to performing in karaoke provided back-ups on certain tracks...
Karen started the session binging on the snacks which led to our curiosity that she had not had her fill during the banquet...she stayed pretty dormant for the night before Vincent and Miyano tried to to inject some life in her...
Ferris did a few numbers but was seemingly down with flu and dozed off halfway through...
But the star of the night was Bryan who really can sing even did a Jay Chou rap to close perfection and little pretendance...
Of course the livewire couple tried to get the crowd going at times with their enka-Jpop numbers and at times just wild shrieking in "We Are the World" and "We will Rock You"...heehee
We parted ways at around 4 plus and I felt it was fun not justified for $28 per person..then again not everyday the whole La Tendo clique got to gather at one spot and had each other's company like that...
When I got home, Mom was already up and ready to embark for her M;sia home-going trip...
Sunday began at 12 noon as for an hour or so I tried in vain to contact Kian Huat who I had liaised to go to Rizan's wedding with, since we lived basically a stone throw away from each other...
A heavy downpour hindered our preparations to meet up but he duly picked me up 3/4 past 2 as we hoped that we would arrive just in time when Rizan had fetched his bride over from Bukit Panjang...
HC who days before caught me on MSN stating that his Penang trip had been prolonged and might not make it, came back just in the morning and fought fatigue (yah right) to wish his buddy a blissful marriage...
Nanzhou, whom I had not seen in years but always knew he had been hanging out with HC since their NS days, came as well with some other football kakis...
While waiting for Rizan's return, we of course indulged ourselves about the World Cup and the fact that most of them do gamble for certain matches started bemoaning how they lost...
Eventually my old neighbour and classmate appeared with the vociferous drummings at the backdrop as he and his pretty wife (who happened to be a junior of ours in our Secondary school and Rizan managed to win her heart after so many years) made their grand entrance in front of family, friends, colleagues, neighbours and all other well-wishers...
After finding a seat at the void deck, we started digging in of the authentic Muslim cuisine which is always a feature of Malay wedding while the crowd slowly proceed to take pictures with the newly-weds...
Eventually we took a picture with them as well but I had little opportunity to speak to the groom whom I had not met for quite a while as well...
We lingered for a while even as the couple proceed for a change of attire coming to 4 in the afternoon before bidding Rizan's mother farewell and each other farewell...
On the way back, had a nice chat with Kian Huat to catch up on some ongongs with our lives as well walking down some memory lanes as well...
Surely I think I should try to make some effort to meet up some of these old classmates of mine before my actual wedding in October...
My lass who stayed in for the weekend, called and said she had been following World Cup herself...and described how easy it was to manuveour around Europe for free & easy tour... but in my mind, I really hope she would be back by my side as soon as she could...
Finally to the World Cup...
So far 8 matches had been played for Group A to D and I would say the most exciting one has to be that Group C clash between Argentina & Ivory Coast which I was very impressed by the skill and power some of the Cote'de Ivore players possessed with Man Utd's target Didier Zokora and Akale been 2 which really caught everyone's attention...
It would be interesting if they managed to grab the equalizer after been 2 goals down and proved my prediction right...
The other more exciting game would be last evening's Mexico vs Iran which the teams came out to attack and could swing either way...but looking at the way Mexico play I got a feeling they might be the surprise package of the tournament
Germany, England and Portugal won respectively but leave a lot to be desired for the fact that they are some of the contenders for the title...
Germany showed attacking football and scored 4 goals with Frings' scorcher might yet to be the goal of the tournament (let's hope not), but Costa Rica goes on to prove that they have a leaky defence...
The English needed an own goal to win while the Angolans really didn't helped boost their former colonial rulers' confidence by restricting them to just a mere early goal especially with the talent they had in their disposal.
The biggest shock would be the fact T&T held Sweden to a 0-all draw with a 2nd choice keeper and a man down since early 2nd half (refereed by a Singapore chap)
The Swedes could still do well against Paraguay and most important England...but Ibrahimovic and Larsson got to find their scoring boots..because they had only a guy called Marcus Allback as back-up
The Pole played organised football but if they can't score against Ecuador (despite having the worst luck) they deserved to be out of the tournament...while Costa Rica might pip the other 2 for the runners-up spot with Germany definitely top of Group A
My beloved Netherlands proved my 1:0 prediction right...but al thanks to Robben really...without him I feel this Dutch squad is very average without much flair as well...
And thanks to the experience of van der Sar, as the defence looks jittery even against a Serbian attack which doesn't seem to go anywhere...
Ivory Coast would prove a strong test next...Let's hope they would play better and Robben continue his devastating form on the left wing...
Ok prediction for tonight's games:
Australia vs Japan (Group F)
Many tout this as a top Asian derby since the Aussies had pledged allegiance to the AFA...
But seriously the game can go anyway for 2 teams who I feel are slightly above average and could beat anyone on their finest day...
Prediction: Australia 2 : Japan 1 (I would go for a draw but I think the Socceroos and the wise tactician Hiddink might just carve out the result)
U.S.A vs Czech Republic (Group E)
Both teams are recentoly hit by injuries to key players though the Americans should have an almost full squad for gaffer Arena to choose...
The Czech had such latent potential and we had seen from Euro 2004 how good they can be in top tournament
Prediction: U.S.A 1 : Czech 3 (even with Roiscky and Baros, I think the Czechs are still a bit too strong for the Americans)
Italy vs Ghana (Group E)
This 3 am game is one I would like to watch but might be a dull affair...
So far the Africans showed that they could compete with the best and Ghana with Essien, Appiah and Muntari would definitely be among the best especially with recent form...
Totti will be starting behind Toni and most probably joined by Gilardino which is a very potent strike force and if Pirlo find his usual form , Ghana need a great wall to block all the ball into their penalty areas...
Prediction: Italy 2 (or 1) : Ghana 0 (The Italians will score but after seeing the Portugal-Angola match and that Ghana is of different pedigree than Angola, I think this will be a tight affair)
Japanese word of the day: ゴールス ~goo-ru-su~(Goals) I want to see more of those and more spectacular ones..so far I feel 2002 is much more exciting than this
posted by Kei at
2:24 PM
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