Seng Ka Lap Sat

CDM, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Received a wedding invitation from a neighbour in Kuantan for their eldest son's wedding. Old colleague's of my dad back in the civil service. Very good people who were there when we needed them. After my dad had passed away when I was seventeen, they consoled us. Since they were a Catholic family, they helped a lot when my mum decided to learn more about my dad's faith. Arranged for her to join RCIA and brought her to church. The uncle tried his best to help me brush up my driving skills, but I did not force myself to drive until I was in KL in the face of crazy traffic. He also tried his level best to teach how to ride my dad's motorycle, but my spindly arms really couldn't even handle the weight of the machine, let alone ride it. Haha. Oh well. I remember when my mum went out of town, the auntie cooked me a huge meal. She brought it over in a hospital tray and it was filled to the brim with rice, vegetables, free-range chicken drumstick and fish. I couldn't believe my eyes! And when I was down with dengue, she also gave much valuable advise on the importance to keep one's strength up and brought me a huge bottle of Horlicks which I suffered months later.

Back to the wedding... SK, mum and I attended the wedding mass at the Church of the Divine Mercy. Sorry to say that I found it to be the messiest wedding mass I ever attended! Let's start at the very beginning. When the bride entered the church, she wasn't veiled. And when the priest came in, he raised his eyebrows and gestured for her to veil herself. Oppps. And when the liturgy started, I was totally at a lost because the programme book was a complete mess. The sequence was all wrong and the words very quite different. It was a half-mass (the bride isn't Catholic), but I think they copied the liturgy for a full mass instead. The readings also definitely came from a different version of the bible. Fail... At the mass, also met a few other old neighbours from the days we stayed at the government quarters. Nice to hear updates about the children I used to play with. There was a small luncheon after that where I managed to talk to the groom's sisters. How they have grown.

Mum: Where are you now?

Sister: I'm based in London now. Doing my masters. Going back tomorrow.

Mum: What are you studying?

Sister: Masters.

Mum: What are you studying?

Sister: Masters.



LOL. Actually mum was interested to know what field of study. Guess we will find out some other time. The wedding banquet was held at Tai Thong Tropicana. Luckily the traffic to the venue was quite good. Waze proved to be very useful. Getting to the restaurant from the basement car park felt like joining The Amazing Race. Mum and I had to climb up three storeys (get this, no elevator!) but that wasn't all. Several hallways and several flight of stairs later, we arrived at the main building, only to be greeted by another large flight of stairs. LOL. Pity the poor old granny with a walking stick behind us. Food was so-so la. Typical Tai Thong fare. The interesting thing was seeing the bride and groom enter the banquet hall with a faux Kenny G in tow. LOL. Quite interesting. He was a talented performer who played many-many wind instruments. Gave them as much applause as I could afford. The bride looked resplendent and when the groom made his speech, I nearly did a facepalm.

"My wife is so beautiful. Ever more so tonight. I'm so blessed to have her. It feels like Christmas in May to receive such a beautiful gift from God. And like all little boys, I can't wait to open up my present tonight."

Wahlau. That sounded a bit too hamsap. LOL. Anyway, wish the happy couple many years of happiness and many bundles of joy. Hope he managed to 'open' his present proper that night, the groom looked quite wasted during the yam seng at my table!