Last saturday is the 1st poly fren wedding dinner that I attend. And Jerry asked me to be his brother gang. :) The others are his long time frens. I've always thought it's an honour to be asked to be someone's brother gang.

Anyway, he stayed in Ang Mo Kio. The meeting time is 6:20 am. Way too early for me to make my way there from my house in Ghim Moh. So I spend friday night at his house. Friday is a busy day for me. I packed 1 extra shirt to wear for the wedding the next day before I leave hosue. I finish work early that day. At 4:30pm. I make my way to PSA recreation club to play soccer. After that I went for dinner with Gerald. By the time is finished, it's 9. But I left my wallet in the office, so I have to make my way back to office. I reach AMK at almost 11+pm and we went to a coffee shop for a drink until almost 2 before making our way back. By the time we sleep, it's 3+am. :P

He's pretty nervous about the whole thing. I heard from 1 of the brothers that Jerry called him to tell him hurry up at 6:15 am. Issac got lost and arrive only at 6:30am. Anyway, off we go. Oh, I forgot to mention the pig's leg that we supposed to bring the mich's parents. Oh mine. It's big. I carried it from his house to the bridal car and I got muscle ache now.

On reaching Mich's place, we had to wait quite abit for her brother to come down to open the car door. Later the sisters told me that we went too early and they have not finish preparations. Anyway, luckily we don't have to sing anything from the ground floor and can proceed straight up to mich's place. She lived on the 13th floor. Lucky for the neighbours. :P

The obstacle we meet at the door aren't too hard. Most of the stuff are targeted at Jerry. I drank a cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Oh mine, I do love to drink it. :) After that Jerry drank a glass of Sarsi syrup. Looking at his expression, it must be very very very sweet. After Sarsi syrup is bitter gourd juice. The gers wanted Jerry to drink all but he drank onli 10% before he passed Junren who finished it for him. Later he said that it taste simple at 1st, but the after taste is very very bitter. You can tell by the expression he made after the drink. The last is chilli padi. This is the simplest. Cos we simply hide it in our pockets. Of cos, to appease the gers, I ate 1 chilli padi in front of them. But it's not enuff for them, and Jerry gotta eat 1 more. After the food session, it's all down to jerry. He got to answer some questions about Mich. Questions like what's her fav brand of underwear, when did she get chicken pox, what's her fav fruit, what's her ring size, etc. Sadly, he duno most of them. But he did managed to guess correctly most of them. :P After that, an ang bao is given to the gers and they make Jerry put clothes peg on his face and he has to shed them all without using his hands and without any help. So we see him jumping and shaking his head vigorously. With that, the door is opened.

But it's not the end of it. We really reach there too early. The have to put on rafia string dresses and paper-plate-bras and do hawaiian dance. As I am holding a camera, I conveniently joined the gers and is clicking away while the rest of them do the dance. :P

And that's not enuff. Mich wants Jerry to write "I love you" with his lips on a piece of paper before opening the door for him. 1 of the sisters, Wendy, helped Jerry to apply the lipsticks. She has to do it a few times before he managed to write everything on the paper.

And finally, it's over. The games I mean. After this is the usual thing. The opening of the veil, the kiss, and offering of joss sticks to the gods and ancestors and we make our way back to Jerry's house.

Basically, there's nothing much for us to do now. We went to the park to took some pictures. I thought the photographer is quite good. Anyway, Mich throws the hand bouquet and it lands... on the ground as she threw it way too hard outta reach of the gers. So she threw again. this time it landed rite into wendy's arms. You can see the other gers all stand to the side. :P So Junren, all hopes on you now. :) It's the tea ceremony + buffet time. Only Junlong got a task to do. He's to safekeep the couple's earnings during the tea ceremony. The rest of us just make ourselves scarce. And brainstorming for numbers to buy 4D. And later that night, we found that we win abit of money. 1st time I win 4D.

Then it's back to Mich's place for more tea ceremony. Again, it's makan and get-outta-the-way time for us.

And now there's only the dinner left. We went back to Jerry's house, and get the stuff needed and set off for Orchid Coutnry Club, where the dinner is being held. We reach there at 2pm, and it's the briefing with the captain at 4:30pm. So we grabbed some sleep.

After the briefing, it's change time. I've not brought any spare shirt to change to. But I thought I sweated abit too much, so I changed to the shirt I wore the previous day. But both that shirt and my tie is navy blue. I actualyl brought a silver tie, but I left it at Jerry's place. So I gotta change back to the light blue shirt that I been wearing the whole day.

The dinner started late. The captain was saying the latest they should start is 7:45pm. But we started way after 8pm as some of Jerry's relatives are not there yet and his father do not want to start without them. Otherwise everything went quite smoothly. I thought the best man, Alan, did quite a good job. They played a video clip of the morning's event. They showed Junren's bitter face when he drank the bittergourd juice, but did not show anything of me eating the chilli paddi. Must be I not yandao for the camera. X( The 1st march in is done to the tradditional wedding march. Jerry told me it's mich dream to march in to that tune. The 2nd march in is in a buggy. It's cool. After that, I helped to arrange the guests for photo taking. That goes quite smoothly. And the dinner is almost over.

About 5 tables of guests stayed back to make Jerry drink. Junlong helped Jerry drank quite alot. Alan also helped him drank some. But that was enough to make Jerry quite gone.

We made our way back to the room. Watched 6th Sense on tv. Played mahjong. I won $3. :) And it's bedtime. It's in Yishun. Taking cab back would be too expensive for me.

The next day, we pack up and perpare for check out. I suggested to Jerry that we should count the ang bao money and give them to the OCC as part of the payment so that we don't have to carry the money around with us. It's abit weird as some of the ang baos are from us. Luckily all of us gave quite substantial amounts. :P

After checkout, it's to carry the stuff back to Jerry's place and we went for lunch, buy some more 4D. Apparently, Jerry and mich picked 4 numbers the nite before. And that there's 4 numbers on the champagne that we popped. We did not win anything from it though. And with that, we went on our separate ways. I went home to catch up on some sleep. I got an appointment with Yijun that night.

Happening weekend

The 5th and the 6th of March 2005 is a very hard weekend for me. An army buddy and an ex-colleague get married on those 2 dates respectively. Both spent a fortune on their wedding dinner.

I thought Kelvin is a lucky person. His wedding date wins the 4D top prize on the same say. 5th March 2005. The top prize is 3505. I bought 0305. Grr. But how many pp can boasts that their wedding date wins the top prize on their wedding day? I wonder if any of his guests / friends / relatives buys that number. I was close to winning $10k. That would make my ang bao problem go away immediately. :P

Speaking of ang bao problem, I have to thank Kelvin for telling me to just go enjoy the food without giving any ang bao. But I couldn't do that. I still wrap a sizable ang bao for him. After all, this is probably the onli chance I get to give him a wedding ang bao.

Sunday was Jasmin's wedding dinner. At 4 Seasons. It's a nice place with nice food and nice choclates. And they hired 2 singers to entertain the guests. They are good. Better than the 4 piece jazz band that Kelvin hired.

1 bad thing happen to me at the wedding though. I received a phone call with the caller ID unable to identify the caller. Normally when this happens, it's prob 1 of the following 3 persons, Yijun, Sang Wee or Floria. Sang Wee was at the dinner with me, and Floria dun really call me that often, so it's prob Yijun. However, when I answered the phone, there's no sound. I called for a few times, receiving no reply, I hung up the phone. The next day, Yijun asked to speak to me in a worried / sad tone. Turned out she's the 1 who called me. However, she said a lady answered. She asked who called, and Yijun answered saying she's my fren. The lady then hung up on her. This freaked Yijun out and she told me she couldn't sleep tat nite and had a restless day they next day until she talked to me. It's probably a crossed line. I think it's the 1st time it has happened to me. But poor Yijun. I should have called back when I hung up, tat will have soothed her somewhat. And, I hope she's ok now.