Sleepy... Zzzz...

Argh... It is not good to attend a wedding dinner with lots a wine 1 night before your first day of school! Lesson learned!

Although... The food was excellent as it was a rich couple's wedding. This family is basically one of those high society types. Case in point; the brides younger sister was the valedictorian last year at SMU. Some other obscure cousin/family friend just returned from Oxford where he was studying Political Science, Econs and Philo. Oh yeah, he's on a PSC scholarship and he wants to start work in the PMO. Yup... high flyers all right.

The wedding was an eye opener all right. She had an expensive and talented group of singers(that would be Isabel, Cynthia, Martha, Del, Theodore and myself at $88 apiece) and an even more talented musician (refer to previous posts) to do her songs. Said musician was also at the lunch reception but more on that later. The 1st reader read the reading like it was some kind a BBC story-telling session. The prayers of the faithful required the use of a dictionary(for some people la) and it included things like " ...the couple, raised in an environment of order and respect for their ancestors... " and " ...in this tumultuous sea which we call life..." which were filled with powderful English. They had some 45 min long photo session to cap off the church wedding.

After the wedding, we headed to a chapel-looking house in Binjai Park for the lunch reception. The red carpet was literally rolled out and there was a very nice and fancy tentage on the lawn with a chef slicing roast and dishing out potatoes. There was salmon, scallops and duck and seafood risotto which were not bad. There were people sipping their wine by the pool while the above mentioned musician played jazz on a grand which was in a little corner of the living area(take note that their little corner can accommodate a grand and I said living area, not living room). The piano was of course mic-ed up to a sound system where a soundman idly fiddled about with countless knobs and levers. The couple arrived in a Rolls Royce and confetti cannons were fired. All in all, quite a nice house I must say. Of course, they had their 3 maids complete with uniform to clean up the considerable amount of confetti which littered the driveway so no worries there.

That was all on a Friday but of course, a wedding will not be complete without the dinner which was duly held at The Sentosa Spa and Resort last night. There was a four piece jazz band and a pretty ok singer( I say pretty ok cos I've been to South Bridge and Bellini's) with a pretty high vocal range. There was an opening speech... no wait, opening address by the valedictorian who talked about bloodlines joining and all that. The food was fabulous though and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Menu :
-Lobster Salad
-Shark fins Soup w/ Crab & Abalone
-Prawns
-Scallop w/ Celery
-Mushrooms, Vege & Abalone
-Stewed Duck
-Red Grouper
-Seafood Fried Rice
-Really Really Fantastic Tiramisu!

There was something quite novel about the dinner and that was the fact that everybody was separated from their families and seated according to "interests"/age which led to a lot of confusion among the guests. Luckily for me, I'm a pretty chirpy chap and was able to mix around. It wasn't too bad actually. My table was basically Catholic and single-sex educated and considerably younger than me(with the exception of the future minister from Oxford who's 22). I basically had 4 IJ girls(2 ex, 2 present), and 1 each(all alumni) from St. Gab's, St. Pat's, RI and ACS. It was a pity that Cynthia did not join my table as she was stuck with older people and I would have liked to have her company as we're in the same school now. Anyway, I was seated in between 2 girls who could hardly have been more different. On my left, was Theodore's niece, Victoria, who's 18, extremely outgoing and friendly, bubbly(or bimbotic depending on who you ask) and not too bad looking. She speaks in a slang and as far as I know, is pretty sporty(tennis). She's not gorgeous but a beautiful dress, make-up and immaculate tresses can make a helluva difference. She's kinda shallow though but fun all the same. On the other hand(my right to be exact), there's Joy, who's a CJ-ian(the new kind which hang out at the library), kinda plain looking(black specs and cardigan), witty in a dry way, loves rock and "blessed" with an aversion towards SJI guys(at least those in CJ). I had an interesting time though and it was quite enjoyable. We even had a toast to youth at our table which got the evergreen table next to us staring. Oh well, at least I did not wake up to a hangover this morning.

P.S. I just have to say this. I'm pleasantly surprised to see how Cynthia has grown from a shy little girl to a beautiful outgoing young lady. Younger guys, if you're interested, she's a Portuguese(mum)-Chinese(dad) 18 yr old with a lovely dress sense(inherited from both parents) and she's currently single.