Bleargh

There’s something wrong with me. I don’t know what to write about. That’s like the third worst thing that could ever happen to a reporter.

Let’s see… Deepavali was boring. Raya was even more dull. Well, at least for me. I only got ONE invitation to a Raya open house and couldn’t even go in the end because a kid in the host’s family got the chicken pox and was pretty contagious.

So, I spent my five-day holiday doing what I do best: Eat, shop, watch TV. By the third day I was dying of boredom. So much so I contemplated going to the office to check my e-mail and update this blog. Hahahahahaha. Kesian.

After a while I decided to clean the house properly this time. I swept my ass off, mopped like a crazed woman and went down in my knees scrubbing the damn floor.

Out, out damn spot!

But when the holidays were over and work started again, the stupid floor got dirty again. What the???!

All that hazy dust in the air is not just bad for the health, it’s terrible for my once spotless house too.

So, when V and D came over for a visit the other night (yay, they’re back from Manchester!), the floor was annoyingly dirty. Hair here, hair there, dead skin cells on the rug, lint by chair. Arrrgh!

The good thing is that neither of them noticed it. And I know that if V noticed anything she would have said something. Hehe.

I can’t wait to go to Singapore next Friday. Yay!

I’m attending two weddings - my cousin Debra’s tying the knot, and so will my Cina friends Adeline and Ernie.

Belle, Gords and Pnuts will also be going for the DebDon event, while R&R will be there for the AdErn wedding, with, quite possibly MiaoMiaoKong too. It’ll be a blast.

After that, the troop will arrive in Villa de La Melodious (yes, I’ve upgraded my house to the status of "villa"). That’s right, two girl monkeys, one boy monkey and four adults will be checking in at the Villa on Nov 19.

Yahoo! 

Can’t wait for everyone to arrive. Fun fun fun!

Before I clock out, let me share with you a few pictures of my cousin Jihan’s wedding way back in August. I wasn’t able to go, but from the pictures it sure did look beautiful! Congratulations Jihan and Izham on spending your first Raya as husband and wife.

Well, I guess I do know what to write about after all. 

I feel like the pictures need some explainin’ to do. So, here are more pics with some captions:

• That’s the complete family in traditional Kadazan attire. This was party number three I think, the one at the hotel.

• This was the nikah day I think, also known as party number one. It was held at the family house - check out them jungle flowers in those big vases with candles in them! Niice…

• The bunga telur. So nice lor… Tying the eggs to the stalks of these naturally gigantic flowers was ingenious. And pretty too.

• The garden party, or party number two, was also held at the house. Yep, the nice big compound of the family house makes for the perfect setting to a kick-ass garden party like this kan?

• Awwww… so touching. Little sister crying on big sister’s wedding day..

• A repeat of one of the earlier pics, but it’s nice… From the picture one can tell that the garden party theme was black and green. Or maybe gold, I can’t really tell what colour Aunty S is wearing. Ji is sitting pretty with her girlies around her…

Have you ever come across this info-ad on TV for National Geographic where the announcer pronounces FINAS (which I think stands for Filem Nasional) as "fee-nes"? I swear if you weren’t paying attention to the TV, you’d think he was saying penis!

Ah well.

Last week was hell. What started as a bad day escalated into what Douglas Adams would call a "mind bogglingly catastrophic" week.

Something happened in the office on Monday that sort of paved the way for the rest of the awful week.

On Friday, everything was a blur. The day started with some bad news about a friend’s mother, but it ended with me bawling my eyes out over terrible, horrific news from home.

The sentence "they didn’t make it", no matter how slowly and carefully it is being said, is really not something you can hear without your hands trembling, your legs turning into jelly, your heart pounding fast and furious and your eyes welling up, almost immediately.

The rest of the night, I was sad beyond words. I managed to feed myself and even sat in front of the TV like I always do every night. I was running on auto pilot.

I finally knew what it meant to be "in a daze" when I went to the supermarket the next day and stared at a shelf filled with tuna cans. I couldn’t go home in time for the funeral, and I was at a loss as to what to do. So I just stood there. 

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It hasn’t been easy for me and my family, but things have to go on. I think talking about it with my three cousins and my mum and my sister helped some. At least it helped me cope with the grief that I wasn’t able to share with friends.

Still, on behalf of all my cousins on Friendster, thank you for your kind thoughts and wishes. We are doing just fine. We’re still very sad for our unfortunate loss, but that doesn’t mean you can’t share your jokes with us anymore.

We’ll still smile and laugh when there is a reason to, and if we shed a tear in the middle of a conversation, it’ll probably just mean that your stories are dull. We’ll probably not join you for any wild crazy parties just yet, but we won’t get upset if you feel like inviting us.

Things go on.

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Patience makes lighter what sorrow may not heal.

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And, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of Heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun. 

Pictures galore!

Cranes and ice cream sticks.

I’ve been trying to upload pictures from last Saturday’s wedding reception but each time I do it, something happens and the pics don’t get through.

But you don’t want to hear about that.

As a last resort, I’ll just post some of the "funnier" pics on the blog. I’m tired uploading and reuploading and re-reuploading…

But first, let me give you a rundown of what happened on Saturday.

To those not in the know, log off now and go do something more worthwhile with your time. To those who do know, well here’s roughly what happened:

Last Saturday was LC and KH’s wedding reception. It was a union of sorts - of the East and West, of friends and family, of lovers and former lovers (muahahaha), of business contacts and social acquaintances.

ET and I were at table number 23, as well as WK, Edwin, Jac, Cheryl and partner and Marcus and partner. Ronnie and John were supposed to sit with us but a slight misunderstanding with the seating arrangements left them stranded on another unpopular table. (hehe)

Didn’t really matter though cause then we had one seat empty.

Food was served, wines were poured, and jokes were made.

When the bride and groom began their walkabout, only the soft mumbles of "cheers" and "congratulations" were heard from some of the tables. As Elaine, proudly proclaimed later that night, Table 23 was the first one that started the proper "Yam Seng" session, the earlier tables were perhaps a little too shy to shout out the traditional toast.

Much later, speeches were made. Everyone in the hall was talking loudly by then, and since Table 23 was in the middle of the hall, we could hardly hear anything. The sound system was also a little problematic. No worries though - we all knew the guy responsible for the PA system, so we did the right thing, we complained and made fun of him.

So anyways, I was trying to be the good friend that night so I struggled to hear the speeches. I couldn’t hear anything the father of the bride or the best man said. The father of the groom though, said something like: "People always tell us to keep speeches short at events like these, but I’m not going to." Or something to that effect. I could be wrong.

The Maid of Honour said something about the groom that sounded like: "… the guy with the skinniest arms we’ve ever seen…" I’m sure it was supposed to be funny.

The Groom said: "I’ll keep this short" and then he went on to thank his family and friends who came all the way from the US.

The Bride said almost the same thing, but the one line that I remember most (and which I immediately SMS-ed JP about) was: "… and thank you to all my friends who have seen me through this, your friendship has never gone appreciated." Aww…

Alright.

By the end of the dinner, SOMEONE was drunk. And lo and behold, it wasn’t ME! It was ET. The woman was so drunk she went up to the father of the bride and got him to gulp down a glass of wine. Classic.

We hung around the foyer for a bit. Somebody said: "Let’s go to The Ivy." So of course, we did.

When we go to The Ivy, WK got a bottle of whisky all for the purpose of getting the bride and groom drunk.

When the happy couple finally arrived, we decided that whisky was child’s play and bought them flaming lamboughinis instead. Yay. I know how much the bride hates that drink, which kinda made it even more special. hehe.

Later on, ET and I went prowling through the bar looking for other victims. We found the Maid of Honour, and she graciously drank our poison. We also got hold of one of the sisters of the bride, who was kinda scared of ET.

Glug glug glug…

A few more drinks later, it was time to go home. At least for ET, WK and me. The rest were still partying when we left, though I don’t think for much longer since the Groom was W-A-S-T-E-D by the time he hit his second flaming. Heehee. (JP, it was sooo funny…)

However, the adventure, or misadventure, didn’t end there for the three of us. On our way back, we had sort of a "mishap". All I can say is that it involved the words "lock-up" and "bagi chan", and my lucky cleavage.

But I digress.

Last Saturday was fun. A whole lotta fun actually. Food was delicious, drinks were free-flowing and music was wonderful. Best of all, the company was fucking great.

PS/ Lesson of the day: Always bring your IC along.