Weddings on Weekends

this is an auspicious weekend, every couple is rushing off to get married before the year of tiger. 2 of my relatives got married, so i was relatively busy on both saturday and sunday. never really enjoyed attending weddings, due to the long wait of the same old usual type of food. somehow this time round, i was really excited so go witness the marriage of both couples. :)

Nicholas & Evelyn

Solemnisation on Saturday 23rd of January

was supposed to join the rest of my relatives to go for the fetch the bride cum tea ceremony early in the morning. but because, boyfriend was here in singapore, i decided that i should spent time with him. thanks to mummy's presence that i managed to get photos of the bridal ferrari as well as the bridal buggy.

ferrari belongs to the groom's family, it is not rented. have seen it many times before, but somehow the flowers makes it look extra special! by the way, do you know that you need a special license to drive it!

look how cute the bridal buggy is! apparently, the bride just stays less than 200 meters away from the groom's, so the groom fetched the bride using a buggy, while all the best men walked behind. i love how the car plate is done up.

lucky couple, how often do you get to sit in a bridal ferrari and buggy! :)

later i met up with my relatives at swissotel- equinox for the solemnisation cum buffet lunch. took the lift up to the 69th level and i was served with cocktails in the waiting room until the bride was about to do the wedding march.

not many tables for this one, as it was mainly the close relatives and friends. totally love their door gift. it's a bath puppet, serves as a soap (that you can change) as well as a sponge. adore the little bag. would definitely use it for toiletries when traveling, the hanger makes it practical.

finally the bride made her appearance in a long white gown. though it's not vera wang's, but i love it. their wedding album photos are so gorgeous, they specially went to perth to have their photo shoot done (since they met there). love all the gowns she wore. so nice!!!

the justice of peace was so funny, she made everyone laughed the whole way through. nicholas and evelyn made their own vows too, very touching!

finally lunch were served. appetizers were japanese, main course were chinese and desserts were western. i have to say that it's the best wedding buffet lunch i have ever eaten. like duh, it's equinox!

i'm loving my fetish for raw japanese-style fish.

wei wei, the cute and handsome page boy for the afternoon.

evelyn changed her dress halfway through lunch. love this one even more! very simple and elegant. especially the accessories she wore, i bet you it's pure pink diamonds.

Wedding Dinner on Sunday 24th of January

rushed back from wedding lunch in malaysia (right below), rested awhile before i started preparing for ritz carlton. i have to say that it was the most grand and best wedding dinner i've ever attended.

was served with cocktails before we proceeded into the ballroom. when we reached, papa and mummy immediately disappeared from our sight and went greeting their friends. took me quite awhile before i could gather the whole family for a picture.

technology nowadays is so advance and cool. there were so many photographers that night who kept snapping photos of us (and of course everyone else), and immediately we could see our pictures being displayed on the large screen in the ballroom. also, they printed out wallet sized photos and gave each of us one.

the ballroom was huge, there were 100 tables in total that night. couldn't believe it when papa told me that. the decor was pretty too, it was similar to fann wong's wedding, just that the trees were white instead.

see how the table was arranged. so cute right? that was the guy's, girls were much simpler.

the food was very good that night, all the expensive dishes. the menu was long, so was the wait. honestly, i was quite pissed off with the slow service, but what's there to do, weddings are all like that. the whole dinner only ended at 11.30pm, when it started punctually at 8pm. to make things worst, i got a bad migraine that night. sigh man, luckily i had my relatives as well as the photos on the screen to entertain me throughout the night.

see the little princess, alexandra, in the long pretty gown. she looked so sweet that night.

Chris & Crystal

Wedding Lunch on Sunday 24th of January

woke up early in the morning to drive into JB. rested at my aunt's house first before heading off for lunch at some restaurant. this was the couple's second wedding lunch/dinner, the first was in singapore. i missed it due to my grandma's birthday celebration.

my (not technically) cute wei wei! it was supposed to be a twist, i guess i snapped too fast. :)

it was a very simple and common lunch, but i had fun. :) love the videos that the bride made, the sound effects made it so funny. also one of the most creative acts i ever come across, i think there were like 5-6 in total. there was this act called kiss the celling. the groom had to wear lipstick, while his friends had to carry/lift him up to fill the heart-shaped paper (that was stuck on the celling) with kisses. cute!

Telephone

before meeting up with the aussie peeps, i accompanied my brother for shopping at far east plaza and ion. i got myself a white blouse and a mac pencil eyeliner. very happy, but that means spending more money. my mum is really the best, she gave me 200 bucks before i left the house. i just wanted 100, but she insisted on giving all. i feel so fortunate to have such nice parents. despite receiving money so easily, it does not mean that i do not appreciate the value of money and how it's spent.

well, finally the four of us met up and we caught the blind side. it's a very noble and heart-warming movie. i enjoyed the show very much, and so did my friends. :) really admire the family for being so gracious and welcoming.

we decided to have dinner at nydc, because it has both proper meals and desserts. so did Big O, but we figured out that nydc's better. a good change too, if not i'll probably be munching on my spike d again. :) we spent two hours chatting, miss those days when we get to see each other everyday. anyways, in a blink of an eye, we'll all be back in melbourne in exactly one month's time. after that the girls did a little shopping while i rushed back home for something i didn't like.

i can't remember the name of it already, but it's one of their top selling cheesecakes. just look at the texture of the chocolate mouse as well as the cheese, so good! (but i still prefer spike d)

When Will We Meet Again?

Day 1- 20th

woke up early to pick boyfriend up from terminal 1. waited approximately 40 minutes before i saw him. he gave me a shock, as he appeared from behind, despite me looking out for him at belt number 18. took a cab to his hotel, and he was so disappointed with it. haha! what can you expect with that kind of price? :)

brought him to bugis and orchard for shopping. he said that shopping is so good in singapore compared to indonesia's. we practically went to every single mall, except for paragon, OC, tangs and shaw house. we walked till our legs hurt. snacked while we shopped, and he loves the fried mars bars. so many indonesians in singapore, can you believe that we actually met more of his friends compared to mine in orchard!

thereafter, we met up with his friend, sharon, and others for dinner at spice located near river valley. well, it is a class better than those indian roti prata stalls you find along the road. the price may be a buck or two more expensive, but the food makes up for it. so good. best chocolate banana prata i ever ate in singapore, couldn't even finish it!

Day 2- 21st

boyfriend cabbed to my place to pick me up and off we went to the zoo. he was very reluctant to go, but i forced him. i haven't been to the singapore zoo for almost 7 years, i've heard that it has changed so much and i wanna go check it out myself. indeed, it has changed A LOT, but somehow i expected much better. well, how good can a zoo get right?! but both of us enjoyed the shows, especially splash safari.

it was a long journey back to the hotel. rested awhile before heading to cityhall. brought him to all the malls there and had dinner at shokudo. was supposed to meet up with friends, but all were busy with school work. so, i brought him to esplanade, sat by the singapore river, talked and admired the view (though most of it are still under construction).

Day 3- 22nd

woke up to a pouring rain, and i was so sad as i thought our plans were washed away too. headed over to boyfriend's place and waited till the rain stopped. made our way down to vivo city for some shopping of presents and dinning at dian xiao er. didn't know that food there was good, especially the herbal roast duck! :)

thereafter, we went into sentosa. i wanted to take the luge ride and the chair lift! but he wasn't interested in the luge, he finds it lame. i was so disappointed, but at least he agreed to sit the chair lift down to the beach. walked along the beach and checked out wave house. oh my god man, the surfing thing is so damn cool. we would have done it if we brought an extra change of clothes.

headed back to the hotel, and prepared for dinner with my parents! it was supposed to be the whole family, but siblings couldn't make it at the last minute, which made us freak out more. we didn't know that it was just 4 until we reached jim thompson, a very good thai restaurant located at dempsey hill chosen by papa. both of us were so nervous, but i had to put up a strong front to calm him down. hahaha! after waiting for 15 minutes my parents finally arrived. somehow, their presence calmed us down. immediately, me and boyfriend felt at ease. nice dinner- good food, chat and people. glad my parents like him. :)

Day 4- 23rd

woke up exceptionally early to meet him before he checked out of his hotel. as i had a wedding solemnisation cum buffet lunch to attend at swissotel- equinox, he went over to his friend's place. i will totally blog about the solemnisation soon. wanna see a bridal ferrari? then wait for it! :) anyways, after the whole thing ended, i made my way down to ion to meet up with them. boyfriend did some last minute shopping before we both cabbed down to the airport.

not much photos taken as we were too busy having fun and couldn't be bothered to hold that DSLR, but that's obviously not all the photos we took! want to thank boyfriend for specially making this trip to singapore for me, his parents for allowing him to come, and my parents for letting me spend every single day with him in singapore. :)

time literally flies when you're having so much fun. 4 days just went past like that, so fast. :( anyhow, parting and meeting is a part and parcel of life, we just have to get used to it. again, this leaves me with the question of when are we going to meet again? jakarta or melbourne?

Wide Smiles

boyfriend is arriving in exactly 12 hours! going to pick him up at the airport tomorrow morning and spent time with him for the next 3-4 days. i'm so happy. :) haven't seen him for almost 2 months already. people give me ideas of where to go please, i have none for the third day besides going for dinner with my family.

driving has been extremely good the past 2 days. will finally get to move on to stage 2 practical in my next lesson. preferred my previous week's and today's instructor compared to yester's. anyways, i can proudly say that i drove very far out today. i was just giving a casual comment to my instructor that why do we always take the same route, and he immediately asked me to drive all the way to clementi. at first i thought he was joking, but he wasn't. we drove all the way from bukit batok to jurong to clementi to bukit timah to bukit panjang and then back to the driving school. :)

had a haircut, or shall i say a hair trim with rachel at mazu on monday. silly girl mixed up her theory trials dates which totally caused us a shopping trip in orchard. sigh man. :(

The Whole Family Get Together

yesterday was my grandma's 82nd surprise birthday celebration. it was organised by my ah yee, and all my relatives had to be there, from my uncles and aunties to my nephews. everyone was present, except for 6 family members who gave valid reasons not to be there.

my family drove up in the morning and arrived just in time for some indian rojak for lunch. it tasted good, better than the chinese ones, sweet and not too spicy. slacked over at my uncle's house and played pictionary and taboo with my cousins. we never fail to play them.

finally left for ah yee's house to give grandma her surprise at 6pm. i was the first to step into the house. grandma was so cute. she was sitting at the dinning table looking through photos, and when she saw me, she pointed at me, smiled and shouted "eh, yilin!" one by one, everybody started entering. we then told her that we were celebrating her birthday in advance and that everyone was here. she was so happy and started giving everyone kisses on their cheeks. :)

they are my nephews- shawn and lucas. shawn's always smiling and lucas's always stoning.

saying grace before we dig in to our awesome buffet dinner prepared by all my uncles and aunties. so delicious, had to have a second helping. desserts were good too, especially the delicious homemade nonya kuehs made by ah yee.

spend our time eating, chatting and snapping photos. there were like 3 DSLRs that night, which explains why i didn't take much. totally have no idea when i'll be able to get the photos.

finally decided to start singing the birthday song at the stroke of nine.

she's with her first two grandchildren and her first two great grandchildren.
with all her grandchildren, 5 not present.

with her children, 1 not present.

singing the birthday song in 2 languages and blowing the candles. it was so funny, grandma, shawn and lucas were using all their effort/might to blow them off!
look at the number of presents that grandma received! she was so happy that night, her smile tells it all. :)

a family picture with grandma and without yenlin.

we all left ah yee's place around 12 midnight. headed back to uncle's house and got to sleep real quick. we were so tired after one whole day of fun. :)

woke up early the next day and headed back to singapore. we had roti prata and nasi lemak for breakfast, and had mee rebus for lunch at one of the pit stops. love malaysian food.