14 & 15 Jan 2006 — William and I are constantly awed by the speed at which new buildings seem to sprout up around the island. Every trip back, either a new shopping centre has been built or a whole area has been restored. The latest of which that took us by surprise is the whole Arab St area. This sleepy laid-back place where I used to go only for Social Studies projects or to makan with the family at Zam-Zam is now a hip, thriving spot for tourists and locals alike. And it’s good to see that the buildings and architecture around the place still retain its flavour and authenticity.

So who should be the ones to reintroduce the area to us? None other than Jeff and Serene of course — they seem to have a knack for sussing out these strange, quirky places to hangout. But tonight we started at Geylang Lorong 9, where we first had the usual beef horfun, then proceeded to Yong He next door for tau-huay and you-zha-kway.

Come Geylang of course must come here right? Somehow I never tire of it! Haiyah, and if not for the fact that I’m oredi so full, I’ll have the carrot-cake and mian-xian as well! One thing about the place though is that it’s so busy you’re not really allowed to loiter. Even before we finish our food, they already came with the bill and started hinting for us to leave, so how? Look for hangout #2 lor…
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14 Jan 2006 — The date was 15 December 2005, the time was 10am sharp: at a healthy weight of 3.2 kg and only after 3 hours of labour on Yanwei’s part, baby Alven was born!

Isn’t he adorable? And Yanwei looked great too! And she was just as lively and spirited as ever, sharing with us all her labour stories. Doesn’t seem like someone who just delivered a baby less than a day ago!

Fast-forward to the present…

Alven is 1 month old! And perhaps more importantly, Yanwei has survived her one month confinement period! Can you imagine? Not being able to do basic things like wash your hair, bathe, leave the house, use the fan/air-con for one whole month!?! In addition, not being able to eat any of your favourite “cooling foods” and having to load up on “warming” foods. All of these coupled with the stress of having to care for a new baby?!? Whoa! Now that all those restrictions have finally been lifted, there’s much cause for celebration indeed!
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13 Jan 2006 — If any of you are wondering why I’ve been MIA recently, well, would you really want to be out and about if you looked like that?!?

No prizes for guessing right which side I removed my teeth from. And no, that’s not a piece of gum in my mouth!

Hee, bet the second pic completely freaked you out hey?! The tooth on the left was half stuck in the gums and had to be “surgically” removed by breaking it into 4 parts, especially tricky ‘cos it had two roots — damage: $500 man! The one on the right was just removed through simple extraction — $100.

How excited am I about the next appointment on the 20th to remove the other 2?!?

10 Jan 2006 — Seeing how it was Hari Raya Haji and a public holiday, we had initially planned to go to JB with Melvin and Adeline ‘cos Melvin found out we could get Abercrombie & Fitch stuff at dirt-cheap prices at the FOS there. Oops, maybe I shouldn’t have divulged that piece of info about him. Ahem, let me clarify that up to this point he has only shopped at their actual retail stores paying full retail prices. In any case, today he had to pull out due to some last minute assignment that was dumped on him. (Huh… maybe it was just an excuse, perhaps ultimately he just couldn’t bring himself to shop at factory outlets…) See, he no cheapskate ok!

So with Melvin and hence Adeline out of the picture, it just leaves me and Pipi, Jeff and Serene, David and Jessie, and Admund and Siew Yin — wah! 4 couples! so fun!!! That morning itself, it actually rained, but turns out everybody so “on”, never backed out, not even David! Paiseh paiseh, in fact, he and Jessie were the first to reach the taxi stand at Queen St. 10.15am, followed by Jeff and Serene at 10.45am, and Billie and I at 11am!?! Admund and Siew Yin making their own way there on his Harley. By the way, it’s David’s birthday as well. And Serene very kind, got us all goreng pisangs and curry puffs from Tekka Market for breakfast.

Without further ado, we were off to JB! And hey, even though it was a public holiday, there wasn’t any jam at the causeway, and pretty soon we were in… Malaysia, Truly Asia…

Me chomping on me curry-puff, haha boy do I love deep-fried things!

See, everyone looking very fresh and all ready to cheong!
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8 Jan 2006 — After sending off the rest of the guests from 1827, Wil, myself and some of our friends finally took a breather and made our way to Hotel Intercontinental — chosen for its central location, and lots of makan around if needs be. Haiyah, must at least one night romantic a bit right? since we don’t have our own place yet. But as it turns out, we were so beat, we just fell straight to sleep after the long night…

The hotel management were so kind as to upgrade us to a business room, hey not too bad considering we only paid S$160+++ (sponsored by my dad)! It was actually very spacious, and the bathroom was huge! It even came with a tub, but like I said, we were so shacked that night we didn’t even put it to use!?!

Isn’t this a classic photo? Just check out the 3 couples (from L to R: Admund & Siew Yin, David & Jessie, Jeff & Serene, and not forgetting Wil’s mum): Amazingly, the guy and girl of each couple have the same expressions on their faces?!!

oh… the very enticing and comfy bed

When our guests left us to relax, bathe and get ready for dinner, we horsed around and took another few photos of our own:

Here I am wearing my mum’s dress from 30 years ago. Want to know what’s the most amazing thing about it? I didn’t have to alter it one bit!

And here’s my intricately done-up hair before AND after removing about 1 million and 1 bobby pins!

Next we proceeded of course to the very important task of counting the ang-pows. To be honest, with these sort of events, we do tend to be a bit kan-cheong to find out if we “cover” or not. And yes, with the very generous gifts from our friends and relos, we did! Relatives don’t say lah, but where friends are concerned… the “hey, big spender” award for the night goes to Mr Alvin Jiang!!! I think maybe he confused our ROM with the actual wedding?!? As for everyone else, we also want to thank you for all your generosity, and more importantly for gracing our day with your presence. Though we might not have had the time to speak very much to each and everyone of you, we really really do appreciate all of you for making it to the event despite that crazy storm!

By the time we were done with the angpows, we were absolutely famished! Didn’t really get to eat much during the reception, as expected, which was a shame considering how yummy the food supposedly was! Luckily 1827 even gave us dinner vouchers to go back and dine for free! Such a sweet gesture right? But for tonight, we’ll be filling our tum-tums with the shiok food from the Railway Station — such a well-kept secret! Especially on nights with good weather, you can even dine al fresco. But as you can see, tonight the rain just didn’t let up…

Alvin giving us a ride in his Maserati.

But with the company of good friends and some shiok sedap food — what’s a little bit of rain? Must-trys: Mee Soto, Mutton Soup, Satay and Teh Tarik! So good, so cheap and so fun!!!

The night ended with a round of coffee at TCC back in Bugis Junction, and then it was off to bed… Ahh… such a sweet ending to such an amazing day. Hee hee (once the groundwork has been done) getting hitched is fun indeed!

8 Jan 2006 — Haloo Everybody! Sorry been out of action for so long, but there’s no stopping me today from shouting out that WILL & I ARE WED!!! Yes, FINALLY! Despite the torrential rain and some minor hiccups during set-up, the day went as planned, and turned out absolutely beautiful!

We really have to thank all our guests for arriving on time despite the weather, for sharing the day with us and showering us with much love and hee hee, gifts (especially our overseas “visitors” like Foke Leng jie-jie, Wini, Scott, Alvin and Adeline); our parents (both sides) for their never ending love, support and encouragement all these years; Wendy, Peiling, Jeff and Serene for helping us in so many ways not just today but all through the time we’ve known them; Sean for his wonderful chocolate fountain, lending us a hand and of course being an awesome brother, and last but not least, to 1827, for the great job they did with the food! Got lots of comments that the food was yummilicious! Too bad Wil and I were too kancheong to really savour the food… Oh and before I forget, also thanks so much to all our friends from abroad who have sent their well-wishes and actually remembering the day: Kate, Sumie, Amy, just to name a few…

It really was a special day, and I wouldn’t have changed anything. It was priceless to see the shock expression on my mum’s face when I appeared wearing one of her old dresses, Billie looked so dashing and gave such an impressive speech, our friends and relatives were all so genuinely happy for us, or perhaps just relieved we finally got hitched (though many advised me not to bully William, hey, what’s that supposed to mean?… Me bully him? Never!), the Justice of Peace, Dr Chung, was so pro and even had a sense of humour (what more can you ask from a JP? Anybody needs one? I’ll give you his contact), the venue was stunning, and even the flowers were gorgeous!

The day was pretty much a whirlwind for us. When we have settled down and got our hands on some photos from our “official photographer” Jeff, we’ll post up more. Till then, thank you once again everybody!!!