April and Yew Chong's Wedding

I'm back and recharged! Finally managed to sleep 10 hours straight. Didn't sleep much at all in Singapore, esp the night before the wedding, i tossed and turned for 8 hours, feeling the nerves of daunting tasks the next day. I was so afraid of screwing up and ruining the wedding.

Anyway, there were high and low points for me personally. The haggling was very successful, it was meaningful and the boys were very sporting and did everything we asked them to. But the emceeing was a disgrace. I just wasn't very engaging, and i forgot the brides' parents' name!!! I was tired and distracted, just wasn't my usual charming self (haha). I still feel a bit bad seriously. I don't know how Mel and Sze Yong pulled it off so smoothly at our wedding, they were so comfortable and fun.

I really wanna talk more about the haggling cos it was SO interesting, educational and meaningful.

The games were designed around the 5 languages of love. FOr those who are not familiar with this concept, basically LOVE can be given or felt by a person in 5 different ways.

1. Quality Time
2. Acts of Service
3. Givng of Gifts
4. Physical Touch
5. Words of Affirmation

So the deal was for Yew Chong to learn about all 5 of these, and how to apply them to his marriage with April. At each stage, upon receiving an angpao, the boys will receive an envelope with an explanation of each love language and the task at hand. They have to complete the task within a certain time, failure to do so will lead to a certan forfeits (read: mindless, senseless torture).

Mean Bitch haggler from hell: So are u ready boys?

Boys: Bring it on..We feel cool wearing matching 喜喜 T-shirts.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

1. Quality Time

The bride is a TV-holic, she loves watching TV and hopes that the groom will watch them with her in future. The boys had to play a game of charades to guess Aprils favourite TV shows.

Out of 30 shows, they got only 1 right. haha.

Forfeit was horrible... They had to eat a spoonfool of Mystery powder (either spices, pastes, flour, or fybrogel!!!) and then down a shot of cooking oil.

2. Acts of Service

April needs to know that Chong will share her chores, especially in caring for their future babies. So the groom had to change diapers, feed and sing a lullaby to the "babies". THis part was very funny. The adult pampers we got were too small, and there were funny adult pictures drawn all over them. The milk bottle was half filled with sugar. But they said it was delicious!

Ruperto: it's not my size daddy...



The forfeit was for them to experience one of women's worst pain- HAIR REMOVAL. it was so fun watching them growl in pain.

Stella: Where's the hair? not thick enough, pluck again!!!

3. Givng of Gifts

THis was the simplest. The groom had to fill in a questionnaire on important dates and April's favourite gifts and brands of things she uses.

4. Physical Touch

This one i borrowed from Esther's haggling session. The groom had to identify his bride's lips amongst a group of lipstick marks (most of them belonged to siblings of the bride).

Of course he failed and he had to kiss his brothers...

Jasper: Woah Chong how come u eat so much garlic early in the morning?

5. Words of Affirmation

Okay this part is the sweetest. All the groom had to do was to serenade us with the bride's favourite song "The Way You Make Me Feel". They sang in the garden while the bride peered out of her window. So sweet, the groom and groomsmen are all talented musicians so they really pulled it off impromptu. I teared a bit.

The groom(extreme left) and his bestman (Ruperto, extreme right)also gave very touching speeches during the night.

If i recall correctly, he said "the person u want to marry is not the one u can live with, but the one u cannot live without. I was a weirdo, but i hope today i'm your hero". *wipe tears*.

They also prepared a special item for the bride during the night. In these Arms by Bon Jovi. *Wipe Tears* I want to get married again.

You want commitment

Take a look into these eyes

They burn with a fire, just for you now

Until the end of time

I would do anything

Id beg, Id steal, Id die

To have you in these arms tonight Baby

All photos taken by Jo Chua, Alwin Lim's photos coming up soon.

Back in Sunny Island (3 days only)

Back for April's wedding. Now at Pacific Coffee Company (Red Dot) waiting for my 2nd appointment (I have 6 appointments today), my fellow emcee for the wedding. Lucky got internet cos he is 30 minutes late already!

Anyway, flight yesterday was horrible, BJ -> SG is about 2 hrs more than SH ->SG. I took the early morning and didn't sleep well the night before, i spent about 7 hrs on flight drifting in and out of twilight zone, waking up in weird positions (like my head suspended 45degrees away from my neck). Also experienced T3 in beijing, the terminal built especially for the Olympics. Super big and chic, but the terminal shuttle train broke down! we were brought to the carpark in the basement where we had to take the bus.

Okay gotta run sorry for the abrupt entry, Ruperto shd be arriving any minute!

Coping with failure

I had my worst night in the kitchen. My 2nd attempt at kung pao chicken was a failure, and actually i had succeeded at KPC the first time, it was delicious and was such a breeze to cook.

I wasn't thinking. I put the nuts in before the meat, something i NEVER do. i ALWAYS put the meat in first. And then the chicken was overmarinated so it was super salty. And then somehow the new kitchen is not equipped for crisis management, so i kinda spilled stuff on the floor, clogged the sink, plates were overturned....

By the time i was halfway done with the KPC, i was depressed and wanted to cry. I wanted to give up on the meal and just order in.

At that point Les came back home. I was whining and whining about not wanting to cook even tho my hands just kept on working and cutting vegetables. I guess i wanted to hear him say my KPC was delicious. But all he said was, it's EDIBLE!!! Booohoohooo....

Well I really shouldn't demand more in such circumstances. He has always been appreciative of my cooking, he finishes up everything (on good kitchen days and BAD kitchen days). He even endures my after-cooking high, I'll keep asking him if it's nice (to which there is only one correct answer), and he'll have to counter my own self-criticism with his praises. In yesterday's case, he knew i was so depressed that he let me hog the Wii while he play his PSP. so sweet.

The night actually got better when we finally won the last guitar battle against Loucifer. We've been playing for the past 3 nights and we NEVER got past this "whammy" attack. Basically as u play the notes, players accumulate different attacks and the attacks can be undone with time or a particular counter-attach action. So i suspect that our Anti-Whammy attack button has malfunctioned, so i devised a strategy to overcome the whammy attack by attacking the opponent before he can accumulate the whammy. It's OK if u're confused. To cut the long story short, i kept urging(bugging) Les to keep playing and eventually we overcame Loucifer! Woohoo...

It's really important for couples to constantly give each other words of encouragement. The promise of love and acceptance when the tough gets going. =)

New function on Blog

Hi all,

I've added a new function called "Categories" on right hand column.

You can now access the entires by different topics of interest. It's not a foolproof categorization, and i haven't categorised everything. But i hope it somewhat improves the reading experience! This entry is categorised under "unclassified". haha.

Toilet Time

U know how sometimes the toilet cubicle is quite a boring place... I tend to observe the "surroundings" if i forget my magazine.

So i saw this in our company toilet. I assumed that the hook was originally placed much higher than where my bag is now hanging. Of course when i saw this i was seated, but i was curious to find out how high it was originally.

Then i stood up. wearing 3 inch heels. I am almost 1.7m. I am taller than average office height. I would have needed to stretch my hand all the way up before i can hook my bag if it were on the upper hole.

At least they figured it out and made it lower. Hehe. i think i need a section on the blog which says "useless information".

Nu Ren Jie + Nan luo Gu Xiang...(Updated Wii Section)

The weekend was quite fullfilling... Saw enough, ate enough, rested enough and also met new friends who are very nice pple. The house is really coming together. Won't show u pictures till our new furniture arrives next week!

Anyway, on Saturday, we were out hunting for an umbrella stand, so we went to Nu Ren Jie (Street for Women). Unlike the Nu Ren Jie in HK, this one has alot more household stuff. Lamps, ceramic casseroles, tablecloths....

We saw this spastic donkey toy... the head just goes round and round and round. The rustafarian toys at the back look pretty Hahppy.

Nothing special bout the clocks except after i took this picture, the lady walked over to say, No pictures allowed! so this must be priceless.

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On Sunday, we were at Nan Luo Gu Xiang. THis place is best compared to Taikang Lu, but a much bigger version. Quaint, old but charming, a little artsy fartsy. I have a feeling i'm gonna be exploring this place quite a lot. This is also the place to go if u want to buy musical instruments.

Pls ignore my untamed hair. It's 30 over degrees and i'd been out the whole day.

China Boy. Once he realised i was there, he ran away.

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I forgot to mention that Les and i been playing Wii all weekend! Guitar heroes 3 is a rockstar wannabe's greatest addiction.

Btw, can someone help. We're down to our last battle with Lou. I can't seem to get undo the whammy attack. Pls help!!! I suspect my whammy lever is not working properly!!!

Well Done Zheng Jie!

For the first time in history, a chinese made it through to the semis of a big tournament. I can't describe how proud i am, and i am sure that at least 1.3 billion other people would share my sentiments.

Even though Zheng Jie didn't beat Serena Williams who apparently is at the peak of her form, she gave a good fight. 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) is not a bad score.

BTW, I'm a little behind with the scoring system now, i don't know wht happens during tiebreak, is it sudden death? Maybe someone can enlighten.