gnatweds

So we were chilling out (in other words, we were about to fall asleep after big lunch and Gene's big night out and my interrupted sleep from Gene's big night out), when we heard an almighty CRACK and CRASH.
It sounded like something big had fallen over.
We ran out and found that some tiles in the living room had ERUPTED. I jest you not, it seemed like it had literally popped under pressure. ARgh.
The agent says that he's seen this happen twice before, it all means that its gotta be sorted next week. My busiest week.

Great. Something else to deal with.
NB: The invites have still be the written, and no, have not finished my story either. Crap.
Arggggggggggggggggggggh.

Oh PS:
Girls, just a note of advice: During sabo-parties for the dude (where you're not included) REMEMBER to give him his house keys before he leaves for the party.
Even if he is tied up/blindfolded.

Trust me.

You really don't want to be waking up in the middle of the night, stumbling out to open the doors and then not being able to fall asleep yourself for the next 2 hours.

Oh yes. He did puke. And he did snore like a pnuematic drill. i.e: It was a complete success.

:)

Thanks to AQ *thanks for organising this!*: he was a tad bit unsteady this morning, but still smiling broadly.

Check out the delighted grin. Happiness is pouring forth from every pore! Why? Heheheh
Obvious lah.... his new watch. His head is a bit cut off ... I was trying to fit everything in: Watch, camera and big cat-that-got-the-cream smile.

Speaking to David, a friend in KL. Sharing the mutual glee at getting a new watch. Watch freaks all.

The Watch.

Panerai Luminor with a matt finish and something called a Sandwich dial.

In comparision: My source of happiness. I haven't given it a name... contemplating christening it "Bubbles". It's my first plant. Not kidding. It's kinda cute.

Right now, Gene is getting pissed drunk at Kumar's (yes, the drag queen of the Boom Boom Room fame) new club.
Heh, am sure it will be great fun.
It is sort of like let's-take-this-opportunity-to-sabo-him-bigtime by some of his colleagues because a) he passed his exams, b) he got through the Mayo interview for the 2006 fellowship ** and c) he's getting married.
It was so funny - they told him that they were going to Sungei Buloh for a nature trail and hike. AT NIGHT.
The poor chap was so confused!
He kept bugging me about what his friends up to - he was convinced that I was in it.
I, of course, feigned complete and total ignorance.
He sent his pals the MOH flyer on the risks of Dengue mosquitos, pleaded ernestly for another friend who's getting married next weekend: "If Alvin falls sick, Vin Yuen will KILL US..''
And when all else fails:
"Guys, there are SPIDERS in Sungei Buloh''.

Anyways, right up till the last moment, we still had him thinking that he was going to Sungei Buloh.
He was busy changing the leather strap on his *new* watch for a rubber one, convinced that he needed to bash through the rainforests at night.

So hilarious.

Anyways, am thinking he will stumble home at about 3 am today. Hopefully he doesn't puke into the sink and choke it up.

For some strange reason, he can't fathom or comprehend the fact that puking anywhere else (eg, sink, bathtub, shower stall) but the bowl will choke the plumbing and it will only mean regurgitation I'LL have to clean up!

Me? I'm at home. TRYING very very hard to type my way through a couple of stories if I want any chance in hell of surviving on Monday. Die lah. Cannot do it. Am tired already.

It's been a very eventful two weeks.
Okay, here's a recap.

1) Eugene passed his exit exams. This is something he had to pass since he started his anaesthesia training SIX years ago. Only now, can he officially call himself an anaesthesiologist (watta mouthful) as opposed to registrar/medical officer/doctor.

2) Eugene also got through his interview with the Mayo Clinic. If (big crossed fingers here) funding from the Ministry of Health gets through... He's on his way to Rochester, MN in July 2006. (This possibility is also responsible for this madness in November)

Anyways, ok, no matter what you may think, journos really aren't paid very well here in Sg.
Really.

I can't afford to buy Eugene a watch for the wedding (all his pals getting married are getting Watches - yes, Watches with a capital W... think Audemars Piguet, etc etc from their dads in laws)... and I kinda sensed that it was getting to him a wee bit, because really wanted a new watch for the wedding.

So I tried to do the next best thing: I got him a digital SLR. It's the Canon 350 D. Check it out here . The good news is that he seems to REALLY like it. Except its soooo fiddly, you can change every imaginable setting, filters, auto focus points... aiyoooo! He already has a hard enough time making up his mind about where to go for dinner - can just imagine the prevarication before he takes the photo. heheheh.

I reckon its good reward for the poor chap who has been busting his a** trying to do all those exams and stuff just to get into Mayo and to pass his exits.

Back to the watch issue. Just two days ago, he saw, and fell in love, with a Panerai. Yes, I think I have some competition. So today, he trotted down and got it. (I'll let him post details himself).

But suffice to say, he was grinning when he came back home from the shops today.

Will post photos if I can.

This is Captain's Log, Stardate 22.133.89975.96586545454 - we have arrived at the planet Panic. Natives seem hostile... strange...red... haze... closing over... can't breathe.

Alright. Alright. I am being dramatic.

Can't help it. It's Sept 15. I technically... technically have six weeks to pull of this HUGE logistical nightmare.

"I" mainly because its horribly lonely in this universe where there's a wedding happening in a few weeks.

The groom is extremely stressed, uncivil, snappy and grumpy. He is going to go on a conference call (not here: he's been retreating to his parents' home for rest, food and quiet time - which makes this place sound like party central hor? but its not leh.... getting fed up with all the damned laundry and cleaning that this place seems to always need) with some deans in America in about half an hour, and on Friday, he has yet another exam - a biggie to see if he can finally "exit" the system and call himself an anaesthetist.

The poor chap has been giving himself dyspepsia with all the stress and worrying. Like his good friend kenneth says: (Gene) is like a duck.
All serene on the surface - but under water, and out of sight, paddling furiously.. hheheheheh. thought that was a really good description.

Hopefully, all this craziness for him ends, and ends well (!) for him in the next few days.

Meanwhile, I have to try to trudge through all these stories.

Oh wait - update: (almost forgot in the throes of my self pity) the cards have come back from the printers. The envelopes are very tight. They fit *just* right.... getting worried about the seals again.

My parents have been absolute gems - they went down to the seal-making shop and got more of them. I have no idea what to do with all these seals after the invites go out... but hey.

Speaking of gems: Gene's parents have bought me their wedding gifts. Lets just say that they are very sparkly stones and my hands go clammy at the thought of wearing them because there is the risk of losing them.
*ulps*

Shan't post pictures of the card. Too informal, wait till you guys all get one then I'll post pic - i suppose mid next month.

Okay, gotta go back and type out at least a story before these eyelids shut down on me.

We attended one wedding last Sunday, will have one to go to next week, and yet another on Sep 30. Its going to be a busy month. Check out the invites man.

Unlike the US or UK, August is definitely not a favoured month to get married in this jurisdiction. Reason being, August in the roman calendar falls into the 7th Chinese lunar calendar month - when the Chinese believe the gates of hell are opened so spirits can roam the earth. Superstition and tradition, and parental displeasure means that there is a sort of backlog in September and that's when everyone gets hitched.

The Usual Singaporean Wedding:
The groom arrives at the Brides home at some unearthly hour of the morning accompanied by his posse of "brothers".
(NB: Please note that this means that the bride has to wake up three hours in advance to get prettified - there may be some accompanying rituals like hair combing yadadadada - the reasons for which this uncultured clout has no idea about)
The brothers are stopped at the door by the bride's own posse of "sisters". Sounds bad yet?
The brothers have to barter/buy/try everything possible to get through the sisters - this usually involves extremely embarrassing stunts, horrible hot sauce concoctions and money changing hands before the groom is allowed to get to his bride.
But all this has to happen before a magic hour - else it would be horribly unlucky for the couple - when they'd have to leave for the groom's place.
There they will kneel and serve tea to 1001 relatives who will give blessings of many children - *shudders*.
THEN, they have to go back to the bride's home to serve tea to her 1001 relatives - who will also most likely call down wishes from the heavens for children. (she also changes her outfit - apparently it is tres unlucky to wear the same gown)
(BTW, this uncultured lout actually knows this little factiod: The bride back in those feudal days would only go home three days later, but the entire thing has been compressed to fit the modern day and age)
If they have their own home, they then go there and sometimes have strange ceremonies which involve children rolling around the nuptial bed - again, its this archaic fertility rite. Sometimes there are even live chickens involved. A cock and a hen are thrown under the bed - the first to emerge is a clue to the sex of the couple's first child.
What is it about children and marriages anyway? Isn't it supposed to be ahem about the couple???
They then get transported in a garishly decorated car with fountains of ribbons, half wilted flowers and occasionally scary looking dolls to the designated hotel where the 10 course Chinese dinner is held. The car is parked right outside the hotel - mainly as a way to show it off: ahem. If course, there are often more than 2 weddings at the hotel on any given night SO it just means that there are a lot of rather sorry looking mercs, BMWs and Jags drooping with flowers in the driveway.
These dinners usually feature ... ugh.... shark's fin soup! *triple shudders and annoyance*
But the dinners have to start with a de riguer slide show showing the couple's entire life story in pictures - usually starting with baby pixes. Geez. Okay, if this corniness is not enough, there's usually a grand entrance of the couple, complete with dry ice.
Sigh. Halfway through this extremely protracted affair - the bride changes into another outfit.
By this time, its 10 pm and the guests are raring to go home, the couple is exhausted but noooo:
its not the end.
There's the yam seng ceremony, a couple of speeches AND the mandatory table photos where guests huddle into a scrimmage at one end of the table, the bride and groom joins them and the photographer takes the obligatory shot. Wha liaus.

I'll let you find out for yourselves how many of these milestones actually happen on our wedding dinners.

On another note in the run up to the wedding: Our invites have gone out to the printers.
It involved a fairly painful process of choosing paper etc etc. Man, I hope it turns out alright.
This is a picture of our seal... Its upside down here, but when printed it should read NE.
Everything on your invites and seals was designed by Mr Peter Williams. He is the hubby of my great friend Mrs Arti Mulchand-Williams.
Thank YOU Pete!




Erh, of course, Pete didn't quite count on the clumsy cloddishness inherent in Gnat.
If you look closely, you'll see that the sealing wax has the ends rather sooty and mangled.
We can't get it quite right yet! The wax isn't melting the way it should and *whimper*
this has to go on 300 invites. Arghhhhhhhhhhhh.

Let's hope it goes alright. Pray for me/us.

One Ring to rule them all, One ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. - Tolkien

I tell you. That all hullabaloo about that Tolkien Ring pales in comparision what we went through to get those bands of gold to bind us.... actually since sunset ceremony... also in darkness hor? Okay lah, more accurate to say bind us in duskness...

But, I digress:

A) Sunday + rain = extremely jammed Orchard Road.
B) Two months to D day = rather urgent need to get wedding bands, since the ones we want have to be ordered from a continent or two away... according to the Krisflyer website, 6173 miles away, and hence need five weeks to get here.

BUT A+B .... not a good omen for shopping.

Of course, like all good Singaporeans, a little rain wasn't going to stop us!!
Ahem, of course the 10,000 other people travelling to Orchard Road exactly at the same time thought exactly the same thing lah.

Anyway, battling the weekend crowds, we made it into Georg Jensen at Takashimaya. And if you know what Taka is like on a weekend, you will realise this was actually quite a feat in itself.

BUT that's when another typically Singaporean instinct took over. We simply had to give the other contenders one final look, just to convince ourselves yet one more time that hey, we were making the right choice (despite having debated this, oh five time over in the last eight months or so, and agreed on this particular design each time.)

So we took some time, exploring two other boutiques and almost got swayed by something else. It was however waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too expensive (in fact, the number of a's I just typed is probably a good indication of the beats of eugene's heart when he saw the price tag - heheheh - too many in too short a space. Let's just say, ahem, we went into a Cartier boutique)

In the end, we decided "no" and it was back to Georg Jensen, where he very confidently said "yes, we want this.'' The lady gave us some size rings - these are gold bands that you slip onto your finger to check out the correct circumference for the ring - and I was stupid enough to mention: "hey... you actually look quite good in yellow gold''.

Big Mistake.

For the next 40 minutes or more, we were at the shop as Gene tried and retried and tried and retried the rings. He was convinced - at first - that the yellow gold was too "tao kay" (chinese big boss), and he'd have to grow a pinkie fingernail three inches long.
But he did concede that the yellow gold looked much better than the white gold on his skin.
But wait, the yellow gold ring did not go with his watch - gasp, it would not go with any of his watches which are all in shades of silver and black!
Oh, but yellow gold is making a comeback.
But, its *yellow*
It's nice though.
But it can't be a thick yellow gold ring. Its too much.
But is the thin one too feminine...

See what I mean?

He *even* calls his parents in desperation (yes, nat is rolling eyes bigtime here)
Who didn't help because they suggested getting a combination white and yellow gold ring.

Sigh.

Anyways, we finally decide. And as we were paying up... he goes: "you sure right?"

Gaaaaaaaahhhhhhh. Could have brained the chap right then and there.