千九百九十九: The Weddings

bb was trying to flip through the hymn book. 

June was a hectic month, because of my sister's weddings. Not that we really managed to help a lot, but mainly running around with her amidst work to settle last minute stuff and also to be able to catch up since she was jetting off 2 days after the wedding.

It was the first church wedding that I'm part of as behind the scenes, with bb being the ringbearer and Julius asked to help take photos, so it was quite cool to be able to see everything from up close. The days before that was quite crazy though, we had to source for stuff to help with church decorations, my sister ordered pastries from Carpenter & Cook (the lavender madeleines were heavenly), printed out all the programs & signs for them (luckily I went to the office on a strategic day), mum sewed the hairbands and ties using all the elephant clothes for them, etc etc. I think the church wedding was too hectic to be really enjoyable, with it being in the middle of a weekday (& mum kept saying she was late for her makeup and hair when we were actually only slightly late and there was still plenty of time), and with the baby being the official wailer of the wedding (she kept doing the ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh screaming in the middle of the service which was super embarrassing and I had to try to silence her), I had to be the ring bearer instead. After that, my sister had a wardrobe mishap, I think one of her strings on her dress broke and the front of the dress kept slipping downwards after that.. well at least no one would say that it was an uneventful wedding haha! So I was too busy with the baby throughout to feel teary-eyed when my dad gave my sister away. But I did feel a bit of an emptiness when she wasn't around to squeeze on the bed with me & bb and to chat with till late night that night when she decided she could go over to her new hubby's place to sleep. sighz.

Took abit of a breather for the next few days until the Saturday traditional wedding, day after Jay Chou concert. yes i went to the Jay Chou concert! woohoo! IT WAS FANTASTIC! of course I was comparing it to the last concert I went to 10 years ago (how time flies) and back then, there was less bright computer effects and more proper performance. I was kind of hoping for more singing from him but there was more showcasing of other performers this time round. Maybe now big star le, can afford to sing less at his own concerts. Thanks to Umera, the seats were like centre front, super good! but of course, best part is because mum looked after bb and I could enjoy the concert undisturbed. Nowadays she is able to not take milk when i'm not around, and my mum just feeds her normal food and she doesn't even remember me unless it's time to sleep (so I still can't stay out too late, latest maybe 2am?) when she will whine and whine until my mum calls me to come back asap. But, all in all, it was fantastic to see Jay in concert again (think this concert can keep me happy for the next few years at least until I manage to come back to sg at the right time again hahah!) .

I digress. About the wedding - Saturday was the real wedding day. It was not as hectic, but of course, having to wake the baby up at 6am, she wasn't too happy about it, given that she slept not so early the night before. This time, her role was to open the groom's car door with Ryo. I think she did it quite well from the looks of the photos. After that, the usual haggling at the door and making Calvin dance around before coming into the room for my sister, but my tear glands finally gave up when Calvin hit on the correct song for the final obstacle. "Yum Yum.. something something the baker goes " song. You have to know my sister to know this, and I guess that just felt so correct that i was like (T.T) and a whole whoosh of emotions just overwhelmed me (感動？） and of course my sis let him in with this song. They left for his place after this, and we thought we could get a nap in, but it turns out that we have to go to the hotel at 2pm (because dad's car broke down so we had to catch a ride with Calvin's uncle) and we ended up having to leave just a short while after lunch.

Reached the hotel, we tried to nap or watch tv or something, but since Ryo was around, I wanted to actually head to town (since we were already in Newton) to just get some caffeine in my system to survive the rest of the day (only slept 3 hours after all the Jay excitement).. We ended up at Paragon after Ryo finally managed to tear himself away from the hotel TV which was showing the Day after tomorrow (>.<), and finally replaced his 8 years old sandals with a new teva pair at a world of sports sale (my mum had bought that pair for him in his first trip to sg with me in 2005 and it is disintegrating to grossness by now and can you believe it, he has no other slippers or sandals at home?!) and we finally settled down at starbucks for a 2 hour nuaing session. BB of cos was fast asleep by then. It actually felt kinda like we were back home, where all the shops, dept stores and malls were within walking / 1 train ride distance away.

Finally made it back to the hotel at around 6, took a quick shower, surveyed my face and decided I look too crappy from the lack of sleep to do anything about myself, and decided to just pay the makeup artist to help make me look good. (she did a great job!). The night went by quite smoothly, with everything ending about 11pm++ . BB had a good time meeting everyone, chance to play with her godpa too, and end of the story is - my sis is married and gone. *sobzz*

Other highlights of the month -
1. Legoland - went in spite of the haze, even though EVERYONE cancelled on me. HOW WIMPY! i was mad of course, stuck with 5 tickets (No one has paid me for them yet btw, which is really uncool of them) and I had to call pple up on friday night at 2am to ask if they were free on Saturday. Luckily my cousin agreed to go with me, and miraculously, the skies cleared up at around noon??! and the rest of the day was amazingly clear (and hot). so .. good things happen to good people after all.

2. Meeting other babies - had a baby picnic with some of my classmates from sec sch and their babies at Botanic gardens, lots of baby birthday parties and some cafe/playdates! At the picnic, bb was the oldest bb, so it was quite funny to see her trying to interact with the younger bb-ies. She seemed like such a giant among them. Brought her to playdates at bb gyms or playgrounds, but that's really too much for a bb who can't walk, so i think Hokey Pokey is probably her best option. Also met up with my pri sch fren whose bb is 3 weeks younger than bb, their development was probably most similar, and actually they got on quite well.  Maybe next time I can try to meet everyone again.

3. Old friends - hmm.. This trip, I've actually made an effort to meet up with quite a few people whom I've not seen for the past 5 years at least? We've all moved on to different stages in our lives now, and it feels "safer" to meet them now. There are some people I don't dare to meet up with, because they are always so demanding, and I'm sure they haven't changed. Some of these old friends were accidental meetings, bumped into them, and made promises to catch up. I had been quite nervous in fact, and was glad that everything turned out fine. In fact, I had quite a good time catching up with them even though I was really worried we would have nothing to talk about. But surprisingly, the vibes/(sparks?) were still there, it was easy to fall back into our previous friendliness. of course, everyone is hands off now.

anyway. July - time to go home to Japan soon..