A Mind of My Own

I woke up early again this morning. Same time, 4.30am. Freaking early. Luckily, my dad was going in the direction I was going and I took a lift from him, It’s a very good thing I did too. The groom was super stingy. I doubt it would be enough to cover the taxi fare either.

It was also a good thing I had another lift from his friend too. It started to rain heavily just as we left the place after the ROM buffet. Overall, this event was very simple. No time was the phrase I kept hearing. Let’s see how tonight goes.

By evening, I was starting to wind down. I stole a 30-minute nap at home which helped me to last till 1am. That was how late it was. I had to keep my hair styling appointment. The 8 course dinner was served quite timely. However, by the 5th dish, everyone was full and the food started to get wasted. The photo montage showed the bride’s and groom’s lives, a few photos of me were also included. Good friend with the bride, so I was rather honoured to be included too.

I was to be the receptionist with HF and we were, unfortunately, late to take up our places. Touching up sure took up a lot of time. The guests had arrived and we started taking down their attendance. I was starting to get tired. By 8.25pm, we left the reception table as 98% of the guests have arrived.

We took our seats at the designated table and the dinner commenced. The bride and groom started their walk in after the photo montage. Dinner was served. Throughout the courses, I was thinking if the whole event could end soon. My urge to sleep was stronger than the urge to eat even though I hadn’t eaten much that day.

I was so relieved when dessert was served. The guests started leaving and the rest of the sisters who haven’t left stayed to take whatever “revenge” the brothers came up with. 3 bottles of red wine and 1 jug of beer were all we got. One of the brothers wanted to serve Martell. Were we that torturing in the morning? No, right? We gave them drinks to soothe the spicy throats, ok?

At least we cleared that part and took a few group photographs. The wedding was finally over. Looking back, I feel a sense of nostalgia, we used to be able to gather together and chat about anything. Four of us try to gather together to have dinner or travel. I missed that time we went for a cruise.

The girls reached the bride’s place by 7.15am. HY, WL and me were the earliest. I did give an early morning call. We were there by 6.35am. The rest of the sisters told me, “Thanks but no thanks, you don’t have to give me morning call.” My heart broke into tiny little pieces.

When the rest of the sisters arrived, we started our strategy for getting more ang baos from the brothers. We closed wooden door after the grille gate was double-locked. Purpose was to get one ang bao before opening the wooden door.

The guys tried to haggle for the door to open saying it was easier. There was no way they could get it opened so easily. There was an ang bao alright. $10. How miserly, right? We managed to get more when we complained loudly that he didn’t want to get his bride.

Thus, the torture started. We had sour, sweet, bitter and spicy for them. The lime lemons were supposed to be sour but they ended up sweet. What a waste. Next was the sweet, some honey and sugar cubes. When they cleared them, they were fed small bitter gourds.

All they had to do was to give a bite. The groom was pathetic. His 1st bite was mousy. One of the guys ate the whole bitter gourd and returned us the stalk. Oh my. He must have been hungry. We fed them our bun with red and green chili padi. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get wasabi. It would have been perfect. The guys gamely ate whatever we gave them. We didn’t ill-treat them either, since 2 of them ate the bun, we passed them 2 packets of drinks for them.

It wasn’t over yet. There was no way they could get in that fast. We had carrots and each of them had to give a bite, most of all, the groom must have a big bite. He gave another mousy bite. Since he didn’t want to eat it, we got another ang bao from him. We fed them some celery which 2 of them gamely gave a bite. The first stalk was short and meant for the groom. However, he passed to his brothers. The 2nd one was twice as long and we demanded that he gave a bite. One mousy bite again.

So, we got another ang bao from him since he didn’t give a huge bite from the celery. He tried to get away with it, naturally. Before we got the lock with numbers opened for them, they had to sing a song. For 12 strong guys, they sure couldn’t sing loud. When they didn’t want to sing, the groom had to sing by himself. He didn’t want to. They had to sing loudly for the bride to hear. Which they managed after 3 tries.

When they finally got in, the groom had to propose properly to the bride. He didn’t make a proper one and we required him to do it for our good friend. He made a very touching but funny speech to her. I think he’s the only one who can do that.

And that was the end of the fetching of the bride. Above events excluded the posing, retakes and 3 times of walking into the room by the groom because the camera man wasn’t ready.