Back to back celebrations 2

Saturday, 17 Nov 2007.

Seems like today is an auspicious day. Another back to back celebration. Kenson's wedding and Wai Mun's b-day. Kenson's wedding lasted till almost 12 and we were already all high with all the "yam sengs" and we still have to adjourn to Wai Mun's party at Velvet (Zouk). It was quite a messy entrance for us as we found out that Velvet's entrance rules for men was above 25! Can you imagine that some of our friends wasn't granted entry?!!! hahahaha

Jack and Louise at Kenson's wedding

Carmen, me, Simon and Alina.

Really crazy night with everyone drinking till their limit and I surprised myself with my new level of tolerance to alcohol as once again, I was the designated driver.... Imagine how "pei" they were, when Carmen and Wai Mun had to spend the night at my house... hahahaha...

And here's the b-day boy.... spilling his guts out... all 25 years of it. hahaha.

Of Bachelors nights and such

Our soon to be "not eligible"
bachelor Anthony Chan
- err.. Kenson...
My feet are extremely tired out, due to the crazy night out at Aloha last Saturday, so much so the muscles are complaining by sending out pain signals every time I stress them to take a step up a flight of stairs. From these muscle cramps, you’d guessed that it’s been a long time since I’ve done any clubbing at all – yeah, my clubbing social life has practical ground to a halt, zilch, void, null…. Until Kenson came along and decided he is tired of his singlehood and no longer wants to be a bachelor. Yes, he’s finally ready to trade his freedom for mops, and pots and pans and babies in tow…. Well, about time, took him more than 30 years to come out of this dilemma (opps did I just revealed your age? hahahah) … Anyway, it’s high time you did it anyway, don’t want to keep Vanessa waiting too long now, do we? Better get her hitched before she gets tired of waiting ehehehe..

Anyway, so that’s the reason for my “chung chut kong woo” (re-entering the clubbing scene). Wai Mun had sort of organized a “Bachelor’s Night” for him to commemorate his “wild days” and to give him one last fling before he kiss goodbye to his bachelorhood for good… (NO TURNING BACK, KENSON, there’s no turning back.….Ahahahhaa). The theme for the night was “A day to remember Kenson Koh (1974 – 2007)”. Wai Mun has even meticulously thought of the wordings to be etched on his bachelorhood epitaph:

“6th October 2007 – a day to commemerate the last few days of our comrade Kenson's glorious bachelor days before his downfall to marriage. It is a day to rejoice for guys because there’s less one competitor. And a day to grieve for the ladies, for there is one less eligible bachelor in this world.”

Anyway, the night went well after the late dinner at Picollo Mondo’s where Wai Mun had lasagna made from bad tomatoes. He was already hungry when we reached Aloha. Kenson worked his charms on the Henessy girl (or was it the other way around?) and got all of us in (some 20 of us or more) with just 4 bottles. (Ed's special note: I knew it was a good night already when the bouncer asked for my IC despite Wai Mun and Alex jeering, "You ah? don't even bother taking it out lor...")

Inside, the live band and the pet python and piranhas were already driving the jam packed crowd crazy. Obviously, we couldn’t get a table there despite pre-booking earlier, so we had to settle for the lower ground where the DJs played a lot of comtemporary "house" music remix, which was good as I couldn’t identify with techno and rap music…

The atmosphere was hot and after a few drinks, everyone was in the mood and started dancing … except Kenson who didn’t drink much (why ah? Already having second thoughts? kakaka). He wasn’t even sporting enough when we asked him for a "strip show"… - Umm, that meant he has to "strip" and "show" us… hahahaahah… So all the guys start working their ways to “coax” him to strip hahahaha….Well, all the guys yanked at his t-shirt so hard to get it off that his t-shirt became a “skirt” after that. Hahahaah… Later he told me that “it’s not the right place lar…. I want some place quieter where we can chat and dance” … So guys, now you know where he’ll strip for you guys.. work on that!! Hahahahaah

Wai Mun(the original striptease who couldnt do it) and Kenson, the skirt, who wasnt sporting enough to bare all...

After a lot of dancing and drinking and dancing and drinking and drinking and dancing (like how CK likes it, REPEAT and REPEAT..... err, did I mention drinking?), most were out. Except maybe for Simon who was busy working on his PR skills the whole night. Way to go, Simon! What’s the score? :P.….

Here are the work of arts courtesy of Simon, part of his PR work ...

It’s amazing how all of us manage to find our ways home after that. Alex was the only one who could walk and talk straight after downing 2 bottles due to all his training with the Yakuzas of Japan. Remarkably too, Sau Teng and CK, who were great drinkers and dancers, were still keeping their all-time-cool composure, after all those drinks and dance. How do you guys do it? Carmen, sad to say this, although you could sing and dance pretty well, you’re a bad drinker coz you were out even before we started!!! ahahaha

Wai Mun was sleepy (he paid me not to mention he was "out" while CK looks on, gleefully...

Oh, since kids will be reading this, “Don’t drink and drive!”. We had sober Kenson driving us back… and of course, yours truly was as sober as a judge, so there’ll never be short of designated drivers on our night outs. (Ok ok, I will remember to bring my driving license next time!!)…

Anyway, Kenson, it was a great night and all of us had fun….Hope you had fun too (while it last hahahah).

Well, as lame as it might sound, Congratulations on the brave decision and all the best in your embarkation aboard the marriage-ship.

*Note: all the above are just a satirical view on the night-out to commemorate Kenson and his last days of bachelorhood. The event and names mentioned were used just for the sole purpose of making merry and fun and no harmful intentions are deliberated in any way.

Musical Wedding

Another wedding extraordinaire. Went to a very musical wedding. My girlfriend, Cathlyn married a musicman, the Musicman Ken. (well, actually I am a friend of both the bride and the groom as they were both my MBA coursemates, but of course I was closer to the bride. Now who says nothing good comes out of our MBA course hehehe)

Anyway, Ken is the owner of Bently Music School (well, sounds a bit of advertisement here… but no they didn’t pay me for this.. :P) so it’s no wonder that they identify the dining tables by musical instruments and Musical Band names. Mine was Musicman Stingray… with a picture of an electric guitar. Since I am not quite musically incline, I am open to comments on the interpretation of that.. :P

Needless to say, the musical entertainment for the night was of A-class. They broke the normal routine of walking down the red carpet to the tune of their favourite music. Instead, they sung “Endless Love” themselves as they waltz in graciously hand in hand. Now that was an extremely romantic scene and I am sure a few romantics nearly swoon. (Ed: And to think they initially wanted us to sing for them - I personally think singing themselves is a more original idea and more memorable and meaningful, don't you think?) The life band that they hired was superb, whereby the beautiful girl belted out number after number of superb soothing songs which were just right for the dining ambience.


I had my handsful with Bryan, as usual if I bring him to any dinner. Actually the thoughtful bride and groom provided a special section for kids where there were clowns and coloring books and prizes just for the children. I guess the children would loved it as they could have endless supply of sausages and fries at that section. However, I, being a paranoid parent, cannot bear to lose sight of Bryan, decided to keep Bryan at the “adults” section instead; much to the chagrin of one of the “chee muis” as initially Bryan had occupied her seat.. :P Have to apologize again for keeping her husband sitting at the next table until the baby chair came along which was much much later.. hahahah…



Anyway, the event was nicely planned and everything and everyone was beautiful… had a good time meeting up old friends but catching up was a little tedious for me due to Bryan’s constant craving for my attention. He keep asking me questions which I couldn’t answer, much to the amusement of everyone on my table.

For example, Ken said in his speech about something “I am very touched but I couldn’t cry….”

And then, Bryan asked, “Why he said he couldn’t cry?”

I really don’t know how to answer… ahahaha and I could hear the sniggers from my classmates at my table…. :P

After a few glasses of wine, (which was kinda good but I forgot the brand… Ken/Cathlyn, mind dropping us the name and year of the red wine served?) we were a little drunk and I completely forgot about Bryan’s Doraemon tumbler. After leaving the place, Bryan suddenly exclaimed that he forgot his tumbler and started crying for his Doraemon tumbler. Well, instead of bothering the newly weds with my phonecall (who knows what they would be doing already after the dinner right…hahaha), I sent an sms to Cathlyn and told her to keep the tumbler for me if she was still in Millenium hotel.


She brought me good news the next morning and she said she wasn’t doing much now that she has upgraded her status to an “Ah So” (auntie). Welcome to the club Cath.. hahahaha

Anyway, Congratulations Ken and Cathlyn. May your days ahead be filled with sun shiny happy tunes and your nights with romantic and soothing music and may both of you enjoy these pleasant tunes together forever….

Lily and Kevin's Wedding

Attended a hilarious wedding dinner on Sunday (15 July 07). I haven’t been blogging about the wedding banquets lately as I don’t find them a satirical write. Most of the weddings have ground to similarity and routine… even through my keen eye for humour….. But this one was fresh…

Lily and Kevin’s wedding was held at Ritz-Carlton, one of the finest hotel in KL, 6-stars to be exact. So you’d be expecting a lot of no-nonsense “Penguins” (men-in-tux) and partners hanging around, mingling with each other, getting drunk on business talks and world news. This wedding was a little different however. It was more of a small family reunion, finely organized for a table of six for close friends and relatives. Lily (oh, I am a friend of the bride by the way…) has been in Australia for as long as I could remember… not sure how many years… but 5 years at least! It’s amazing that she still keep in touch with all of us ex-colleagues of Aetna days. In fact, more than 3 tables were allocated for Aetna friends. Of course, most of the old “Aetna friends” have grown in numbers due to the expansion of family members (spouse, children, grandchildren? ahahah)….

Anyway, if you think 9 years friendship (I got to know Lily since 98 when we worked for Aetna’s Y2K project) goes a long way, I happen to sit next to Kevin’s 3 close friends who flew all the way from Sydney, Australia to attend Kevin’s Malaysian wedding (they already had one in Sydney I was told). And they told me, their friendship with Kevin goes back around 30 years. I heard them saying that they’ve known each other like since 12th grade. Now that’s something that deserves some respect. I mean, I am a sucker for loyalty and comradeship and this kind of “long term friendship” (I assume it’s a “through-thick-and-thin” kind of relationship) puts a lump in my throat. And the amazing thing was they were of different professions, which meant that they got together based on their own effort and not through work contacts. One of them was a treasurer in PWC, another a fireman, and yet another is a plumber who runs his own successful business. And Kevin and Lily are in the IT industry....

Well, far from expectation that this would be a serious wedding reception, Kevin, Lily and their family made it one of the most entertaining weddings that I went to. Kevin, an Australian, attempted to make a “serious” speech in Hokkien (Chinese dialect) which had everyone practically rolling on the floor laughing…we couldn’t understand a word he said (partly because I don’t understand Hokkien anyway). Well, it was a good attempt… and you could see that they both try hard to blend both the western and eastern cultures together.

Well, the dinner went on like any Malaysian weddings complete with the cake cutting (the layers signifying the many layers that they will go through together in life and achieving higher and higher together in life), champagne fountain (signifying prosperity and basically everything overflowing in abundance), and Yum Seng (Bottom’s up) toast sessions - the first toast is to thank everyone for coming, the second for good health, wealth and prosperity and the third toast's to bless the bride and groom togetherness until their wee old age (i.e. the western till death do they part) and also to wish them speedy expansion of their family so that their offsprings can accompany them on their journey together…

And then comes Karaoke. Yes, Karaoke is very much a “staple diet” of many a weddings in Malaysia nowadays. Most of the wedding couples nowadays try to make do without one, fearing that all the “Malaysian Idol” wannabes might hog the mic for the whole night. There was a wedding I went to in Ipoh where they didn’t have Karaoke, but the guests insist on singing for the couple by doing acapella numbers. And I also remember my own wedding when an old lady went up to sing some rotten Chinese song.... neither Brandon nor I admitted that she’s our relative. Until today, we still don’t know whether she’s from Brandon’s side or mine. ha ha.

Nevertheless, I don’t blame Lily and Kevin for having a karaoke session at their wedding since their whole family have been in Australia for so long and they miss Malaysia and the karaoke much. It was such a romantic scene seeing Kevin, a virgin at Karaoke, belting out a wedding favourite, “You were always on my mind”, with his beautiful wife, Lily by his side.

And then we could also see that Lily and her 3 sisters missed karaoke so much that they belted out 5 to 6 songs in a row and having fun at that (boy you should see them dance!). It was great to see them having so much fun… errr….even though the sound system was terrible … yeah I blame the sound system for the “chagrin faces” of fellow attendees of the wedding as they belted out number after number of yesteryears favourites ….. hahahaahah Even the 3 Australian friends of Kevin, (the 3 tenors?) had a try with “Love Me Tender”. You will have to watch their wedding video to know how they sound like.. ha ha (Air Supply perhaps?)

And oh, I am sure the wedding guests wanted to show off their prowess in singing as they didn’t need much coaxing to go up to the stage… hahaha. Kudos to Loo who was so brave to invite himself onto the stage to belt out a beautiful Chinese rendition of “Will you still love me tomorrow” for the wedded couple.

Albeit all the homour, it’s great to see this kind of “east meet west” weddings where there was so much culture exchange being shared amongst the family and friends. The food was delicious, entertainment (aka Karaoke) was great (have to say this since the camera is rolling ha ha), location setting was beautiful, timing was superb… definitely what a successful marriage is made of.

To dear Kevin and Lily, Congratulations again on your marriage and May you have many, many more happy days together ahead of you….

*Oh I just remembered something funny when David, Martin and the Fireman (*sorry I forgot your name) was about to eat the fine sharks fin soup. I explained to them that if you don’t like the strong fishy smell that Sharks Fin sometimes emit, you can use the vinegar to cover the smell….. and then at that very same moment, Loo asked them to try DURIANS, the King of fruits. And I was thinking to myself, “Boy, you definitely can’t use vinegar to cover the durian’s pong…. Ha ha”….. And then David exclaimed, “Yeah, the Durian smells like GARBAGE!!... “ Hahahahahahaa…. A really apt explanation to “one’s man mean is another man’s poison.. “ hahahaha

Will you still love me... tomorrow...

When I get older losing my hair,
Many years from now,
Will you still be sending me a valentine,
Birthday greetings, bottles of wine?

You'll be older too

And if you say the word

I could stay with you

I could be handy, mending a fuse,
When your lights have gone,
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride,

Doing the garden, digging the weeds,
Who could ask for more,
Will you still need me,
Will you still feed me,
When I am sixty-four?

(Excerpt from Beatle's song, 'When I'm Sixty Four', 1967 Northern Songs.)

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13 April 2007, Friday.

Yesterday night, I worked till late, skipping dinner and all. I got a call from Brandon at around 10pm asking for my whereabouts and he sounded disappointed that I was still in the office and passed the phone to our son to wish me goodnight. I told him I’d probably finished at around 11 and reach home by 12, expecting him to tuck himself to bed first. When I finish, it was already 11:30pm. I literally flew home (KL to home in around 20 minutes!) as I was so tired and exhausted that I want to end the day as soon as possible. When I reached home, Brandon has thoughtfully left the non-auto gate open for me so that I can drive straight in. As I close the gate, I heard the front door opening, and a sleepy head peeked out from behind the grill. He smiled and that was the sweetest smile I have seen the whole day and it immediately took some of my fatigue away. I gave him a bear hug and kiss as I entered the door and I could tell that he missed me very much from his lingering kiss right at the gates (we are very shy people and usually avoid public expression of love haha). Then we suddenly realized that the neighbours might be watching, and giggled as we close the wooden door and walked hugging each other upstairs.


Now, if you think that we did something X-rated after that… no worries, no juicy details as I am having my monthly cycle. Ha ha. Our usual routine would be he’d go to bed and I will continue with my “getting ready for bed” ritual which may range from 30 minutes to 3 hours depending whether I get stuck surfing the internet. But yesterday was a little different. He was still awake after my bath and asked if I wanted to have supper. I was hungry, but I didn’t want to get fat, so I told him so.

Although we know that we’ll both get fat eating at 1 o’clock in the morning, he was adamant that I shouldn’t go to bed without dinner (an excuse I presume as he also wanted to eat! :P). So, he rushed down to the kitchen and fixed me my favourite Indomie Goreng (topped with a sunny side up) and an Ibumie Prawn Mee for himself. I was truly smitten by the perfectly done eggs…. I melted when he served me the hot plate of noodles capped with the wobbling orange egg yolk. I switched the TV to his favourite sports channel and we both slurped down our noodles watching the Champion’s League highlights where Man U thrashed Roma 7-1 and Arsenal beat Valencia 2-1. After I cleaned up all the dishes, we walked up again hand-in-hand, tired, sleepy, but fully satisfied. :D


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The above was a sneak preview of what an ordinary married life would be. Of course it varies from day to day and it definitely has its ups and downs, but these are the days we live for and cherish and try to remember till our dying days.

Recently I had a friend who was quite adamant in staying single, possibly due to pass failed relationship, bad experiences or the ever increasing divorce rate. I felt sad as I thought he was missing a little gift from God. I mean, I am not saying marriage is all bliss and seventh heaven, but it’s really not as bad as we all think it is. God created this life cycle,

born -> grow -> marriage -> reproduce

for a reason. I am sure He didn’t create it just to punish us sinners ahahaha…

So I hope the above snippet would spread a little cheer, give a little hope, maybe change some views about getting married…

The Beatle song serves as a reminder of how wonderful married life (or staying together with someone) can be in our golden retirement years (if we set our goals to achieve so....)

Yet Another Wedding..

Yet another wedding. Strange as it may be, but at our age, we still get a lot of wedding invitations. At least that’s what my sister thought. She said, most of the invites that we should be getting are children parties invites… not weddings, as most of my friends should have been married by now at our age. ha ha, What’s my age again? (Note: No offence to my single, unattached friends. I think you guys are great to be able to hold on to your own principles for so long!)

Well, the invites are mainly due to the diversity of friends that both Brandon and I have. And of course the influx of weddings is mainly due to the race to get the ‘Golden Boar’ baby by the end of the year (according to one of the wives during our casual conversations). The latest wedding we attended was Brandon’s futsal friend, Kien Mun’s wedding. One would have thought that after attending so many weddings by now, there’s really nothing new to look forward to. However, with Brandon’s friends, one can and SHOULD expect the extra-ordinary. Well, one thing for sure, if they are the “heng tai” (brothers or buddies or a member of the groom’s entourage), they will surely be early birds, no matter how drunk or how tired they were the night before or in this case, even if they had a tiring golf game just before the wedding banquet.

This time, Brandon had to be there at 5pm, for rehearsals, debriefing, organizing, the works. At the rehearsals, I found that 2 of Brandon’s friends, the Lees (coincidentally, both share the same surname but not the same blood), were given the chance to grace the banquet as Master of Ceremonies! This was their maiden attempt and gosh, I thought, these two comedians are going create some fun… and a lot of fun they DID create. I had lots of laugh when they were rehearsing their lines and trying to get everything right, down to the very last details and timing.

They ask the groom to time their wedding march down the aisle, so that when they enter the dinner hall, the correct melodies were aired and the right video was projected and the precise words were uttered. Since the bride was busy preparing herself, another “heng tai” had to play her part and it was hilarious to see 2 men in tuxedos waltzing down the red carpet while waving their hands and blowing kisses like beauty queens walking their walk of honour. They timed everything exactly, from the music to the beat whereby the groom must step in, to the pause in the middle of the hall to wave at the guests, to the timing of the photo-video, to the seating of the bride and moment when the MCs starts to entertain. What’s even more hilarious was, when it was time for the actual thing, the groom was so nervous, he just marched straight into the dinning hall, forgetting his waves and forgetting the pause in the middle. I guess his thoughts was with the Bride all the time that he totally forgot his rehearsed steps.. awwww… how romantic…

Talking about romance, the couple had earlier shot a documentary about their romantic courtship and it was the first of its kind that I have seen, so I was truly taken by its novelty. (yeah, I am a sucker for romance!) The short movie clip included interviews, behind the scenes, the actual shot of the proposal (shot in the jewelry shop, much like in the movies!). It was really romantic of the guy to go through the trouble to plan and get everything in place. Brandon will not even participate even if I had planned all these things… he’s the shy type and thinks romance is a dirty word ahahaha…

The MCs, being their first attempt, was exceptionally smart and funny that night, especially the time when they panicked when they realized that they had lost their scripts just minutes before the ceremony starts. They later found it under their own seats. One wonders how on earth it ever got there in the first place…. (*hmm what were they doing under the table???!!!)

Well, as I type this, the blissfully married couple is enjoying their honeymoon in Europe, and is now in the romantic city of Paris…. :) Congratulations again to Kien Mun and wife, and may you have a Golden Boar baby (better yet, twins!) by the end of the year!

Oh, will upload some photos if I ever get my hands on one. I noticed Lee always made sure the ‘heng tais’ took some photos at the end of each wedding…. So I am sure there are some good photos to be uploaded in the near future. Watch this space for the photos okay.. :)

Celebrations... (Wedding Anniversary 19/1/2006)

If you are looking for a romantic western eatery to celebrate a special occasion, I know the place just for you. On Monday, Brandon and I went to San Francisco Steak House in Summit USJ to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The place looks quite ordinary from the front but when we reach the interior, we were pleasantly surprised by the spacious and warm cozy ambience.

Then we ordered. The waitress was extremely friendly and funny. She even joked about the lobster saluting to us when she showed us our live lobster. We ordered 1 live lobster to be shared and they allow 2 different flavours for it, i.e. Cream Cheese Mushroom and Bake Tomato. Both was extremely good because the lobster was really fresh (it's live!) and I love the succulent sweet taste of the lobster meat. A bit pricy for an Australian Lobster (or was it Boston..not sure lar) at RM19 per 100gm. Averagely, 1 lobster comes to about 800gm - 1kg. Ours was 950gm.

We also had escargots, which was quite good. The garlic and cheese was abundance.

The sharksfin soup however was not too good as it was done in western cream style. I would prefer the Chinese clear soup style.

Anyway, food portion wise was quite reasonable. We shared most of the dishes and I was very full and well, Brandon (being his size) was just nice. If you spend above RM100, you get a complimentary special Sugar Coffee (sugar is burnt onto the outside the glass and you're to sip the black coffee while laying your tongue on the sugary glass).

You also get a couple of complimentary roses, which the waitress will playfully force the guy to give to the girl. If you are celebrating an occasion, they will bring a piece of cake complete with a candle for you. Actually I think they will give complimentary photo also but I think they forgot as we asked for the bill right after the main dish (Brandon wanted to go Karaoke after that).

Best of all, if you have children, there's a playground for your kids complete with slides and other play things just beside the lounge where you can have a seat to relax while waiting for your dessert or waiting for a seat before your food comes. There are magazines there if you're waiting for someone to arrive.

The bill came up to about RM260 or RM280 (cant remember coz I didn’t pay for it) but I think it was quite alright for a nice evening out, complete with a full course of starters, main dish and dessert (and a beer). We couldn’t even finish the small piece of chocolate brownie.

Go have a try... you will feel that you want to celebrate every special occasion there!