ぼくの日記

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

The Prez Relinquished his Role Part 2

6th October 2009, Tuesday

The bride's home was in the heartland of Bishan and by the expressway it was a good 20 minutes as we stay tuned to the nonchalant voice of the simulated lady announcer off CS' Global Positioning System.
I was assigned to be the chap that bear the customary practice of opening the door of the nuptial wagon; and I constantly joked about going to the wrong household such as an Indian one.
I nearly did as from where we had parked, I had the misconception of the exact block to head towards.
Ultimately, I had became redundant as the bride's brood had a dashing lad ready to do the occasion and TW in his best looking tuxedo was ready to receive his bride.

As mentioned prior, there was no usual "gate-crashing" shenanigans although the supporting casts were present on both sides.
The groom though still had to pronounce his undying love for his bride-to-be in front of family and friends.
My buddy was more receptive for those mushy lines yet it was an ordeal for him to go so in depth with the declaration though everyone knows it was not skin deep.

This was followed by the serving of the tea to the elders. Usually for the bride, it would be carried out in a return trip but in this case with the luncheon beckoning, they just got on to it there and then. The trio of us were really standing aside in a state of redundancy except CS was totally drenched in his own perspiration as the morning heat was too excruciating to take.

The return trip was definitely not a smooth ride as CS nearly broke into an alteration with a van driver who was adamant not to be cut his lane by the flashy white Lancer.
My friend who had like many Singaporean drivers had extremely short fuses on the road, decided to sped and overtake the van before signaling his conquest with a blasting of his car horn.
I was sure if that driver was a healthy lad with a few other ruffian-like accomplices, all hell would break loose at the middle of Jalan Eunos.

Back at TW's ivory white maisonette, the relatives were ready to welcome the new member of the family as the toddler and the dog were starting to draw attention as usual.
There was slight delay to the whole tea serving procession as one of the auntie had yet to arrive.
Therefore the free time was used to take family photos while we started to assume the roles of props or merely security due to our lack of involvements.
When we were next to take pictures with the newly-wed, it seemed like the lens were not directed towards us as we had been ostracized.

My buddy was an emotional sop bag on his big day as he choked on words twice on perhaps the biggest day of his life.
First instance was when he was serving tea to his aunts from the paternal side. His emotions perhaps was triggered with respect to his late grandma who was tad too late to grace this happy day.

By around 10 am, the skies around the island were overcasted with an impending storm on its way, there had been news with regards to wretched traffic jams on all major expressways.
The nuptial wagon took some key personnel together with the bride's entourage to the venue of the luncheon, Traders Hotel while CS made his way to pick up his lass who was still caught up with her work.

Foo and myself were to take a ride on one of the aunties' car and it happened to be the parents of TW's cousin, Sarah whom I had went on my very first Japan trip with and whom I adopted the reference of "Jia Biao Jie (doppelganger cousin)".
Along the trip to Tanglin road, we chatted about the atrocities of foreign maids these days, in such a way that you can't live with them yet you can't live without them.

The ballroom/hall for the solemnization ceremony and the buffet luncheon was a rather elongated room but narrow enough to fit just 2 tables side by side.
It did seemed like they had prepared the tables at the very last minute which crossed TW's old man.

By 11 plus, most of the guests had arrived including CS with Lili and Michelle who got stranded around Tanglin Mall somehow.
But there was no sight of the missus who was responsible to send my parents from home.
It seemed like the traffic jam was not showing sign of receding and they would eventually miss the march-in, the solemnization from the justice of peace, the cake (real) cutting ceremony and TW's speech to thank the parents on both sides when he choked for the second time for the day.

My family did arrived in time for the buffet which was quite a spread of cold seafood, sushi, pasta, yakitori, stewed beef, grilled fish with cheese and potato and tasty looking desserts.
My old man was harping over how good the food was and how convenient it was as compared to having the traditional banquet.

With the newly weds being swamped to mingle with friends and families who they had not seen on regular basis, we just had our usual banter usually circling the colorful co-workers of CS whom he mentioned the night before.

Not before long, we lured the couple over to take some pictures with us as seen below:




The Wreckers, all tied up

Somehow you knew we would not stay sane for long.

Foo doing a great impersonation of one of CS' paranoid colleague.

21 years of friendship and more to come

The lunch ended at a good 2 plus when some friends remained to catch up old times while it was all soggy outside.
We had a chance to have a look at the complimentary suite which was pretty impressive but they might be too drained to really enjoy the amenities and facilities.

We bid farewell soon after that with Lili still needed to go back to work while under the insistence of the missus, we had a comprehensive stroll around ION Orchard which really put the "high" in "high end shopping".
There was struck of good luck in the evening as my mom and missus placed a bet on 4D for the car plate number and struck consolation.
The winning sum was quite negligible but it was something to cheer about especially for Mom who had always welcome winning lottery money from any avenues.

The whole event seemed to last shorter than it actually was and now we looked forward to the next wedding from perhaps CS who looked the most probable, well we never know, do we.
Japanese word of the day: 感情的 (Emotional) It had been emotional day, either in the tea serving, speech giving or simply on the road


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