Wedding

Towards the end of the year, a lot of people would just get married.... And so, 2 Sundays ago I had the pleasure of attending one grand wedding in Hilton KL. Who got married? My ex-colleague from my first job after graduation in Padini.

the reception

Honestly speaking, I usually not that excited about attending weddings but this one is different. It's the opportunity to catch up with my former team mates, some I have not met since 2000. Another reason also this wedding can be considered a diva's wedding, and the diva is the groom John.

John's family runs a business called New Convox. If you have never heard of the name, it's ok... chances are you have used stuffs supplied by his company, especially if you patron places like Secret Recipe - almost everything there is from New Convox. The chairs, tables, knives, spoons, plates etc.

the main table

Apparently couples are too busy on their own wedding night to take pictures with the guests. So, as a replacement....

cardboard stand-ins

The wedding was supposed to start at 8pm but we started around 8.30pm, quite early for a chinese wedding.

This is quite a big wedding with 70 tables. John invited his relatives, uni mates, ex-colleagues(which are only the Padini table people), other friends, company staffs, and business partners.

Chocolates!

Guess what we got as souvenirs from the wedding?

plates for you to bring home...

The initials... John & Fern Fern

This is one the rare occassions where the groom upstaged the bride. Usually the bride would change clothes a couple of times during the dinner, but this one John also changed his clothes to match his wife's.

the grand entrance

Anyone who knows John would say that he likes to talk. So having a wedding dinner is not a reason to stop talking....

"Thank you for coming..."

Food was good. After all, John is quite fussy about food- you'll never see John in a restaurant where the food sucks.

shark's fin soup in a pumpkin


One of the highlights was a video presentation of how much effort they took to take the wedding photos. For this, John flew an entire team to Langkawi Four Seasons Hotelfor three days... taking more than 1,000 pictures... talk about too much free time

The flight... looking like celebrities, complete with sunglasses

Most of the time, it was just chatting with my ex-colleagues about the good ol' times in Padini, sometimes sharing our funny moments with John.

eating prawns without getting your hands dirty

The last time I saw Annie was a couple of months back at the Curve and just had a small talk. I'd not seen her since she left Padini in 2000. Now she runs her own boutique in Cheras, with also a blog to sell her items online. Ladies, check out Pandora Gallery & Boutique.

Jojoe got married in Nov 2004 and is now a proud mother of 2. The first time I saw her was when she joined us to party at Bali(not the island but the old disco in Sunway). She was such a party animal back then! Still can't imagine her as a mother.

Annie, me & Jojoe

Met Alex in Singapore early this year when gf & I went to see The Phantom of the Opera. He's getting married too next month in Singapore... still undecided whether to attend his wedding down south or not. Was colleagues with him twice, first in Padini and later Giordano.

Alex and his fiance, Karen

Sim Jeng and wife Lisa(still in Padini) came late, as this dinner was their third one that night.

(clockwise from left to right)Karen, Alex, Eddie(Theng Theng's hubby), Theng Theng, Magic, someone I dunno who, Sim Jeng, Lisa, Annie, gf, me

If any of us in the picture looks familiar to you, it's probably we have served you before when you were shopping for clothes. We are among the 20 or so fresh graduates recruited by Padini in 1999 to set up the new brand PDI. I had a hand in setting up PDI outlets in Island Plaza, Kinta City, 1 Utama, Mid Valley, Bukit Raja, Mahkota Parade, JB City Square Padini Concept store. I also managed the Mid Valley outlet for 3 months when the outlet first opened.

Together with my current job, my time in PDI is one of the most fun-filled time of my working career. Being young and hip, we sometimes closed our shops at 10pm and then all went straight to clubbing. We had this bond as freshies with so many new things to experience in the working world, it was very good to meet up again after such a long time. Great, more people to invite should I get marriedHope there'll be more opportunities to meet like this...

Politics and Pondans...

It's not that often politics and pondans can be found together....

All that jazz!!

Did do classes in the evening last Tuesday- gf and I went on a date to watch the musical...

We both finished work early so by 6 pm we had already reached the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Had a look around the food court and decided that we should eat in KLCC instead.

As we were walking to KLCC, we realised that we hardly come to this part of KLCC before. So we got a big trigger happy with my camera...

the path of KLCC



Petronas Twin Towers on a gloomy day

Behaving like tourists

I love this pic

It's nice to see people who don't go to gym still working out in the city centre....

And of course, some who couldn't care less about clean air.

In fact, KLCC park would've been a wonderful place to hang out if not for the smoking.

We ended up in California Kitchen for pizza and pasta.

The restaurant

Pasta with Creamy Garlic Sauce

Mango Tandoori Chicken Pizza

We finished our dinner and went back to the convention center.

GF with the promo balloons

The hall looks nice. Not as big as Singapore's Esplanade as the seats are well spaced. When we were in Singaprre for The Phantom of The Opera we were seated very far away from the stage.

A pleasant show with great songs and fantastic orchestra. Totally love the dancing and singing! Hmm, if only they'd bring Les Miserable here....

Did you know....???

1. China has 37 million more males than females
If you are a male of chinese descent living in anywhere but China, most likely you'd still get married eventually... unless you're my OCD bro.

2. China has 345,000 millionaires
As of last year, China had 345,000 millionaires, second in Asia behind the ever hardworking Japan. Not bad for a socialist country. I wonder how many millionaires we have in Malaysia?

3. China has 162 million Internet users in 2007
An increase of 30 million compared to the year before, with 20 millions bloggers. Still, the number is still small, compared to the population of 1.3 billion(2005 figure).

China's former #1

4.Chinese Money is called Renminbi (RMB) (means "People's Currency")
Some expats incorrectly calls it Renminpi (means "People's Fart").


5. The national language is known as Putonghua(the common speech)
Also known as Mandarin, which is one of the five working languages at the United Nations. Most of the 55 minority nationalities have their own languages. Cantonese is one of the local dialects of southern China. As a written language, Chinese has been used for 6,000 years.

6.China is still at war with Taiwan
At least, technically...

The little prick

7. In Chinese, "Zhong Guo" means the Middle Kingdom(not to be confused with Middle Earth)
Ancient China viewed itself as the heart of the world's civilisation.

8. In Chinese, Malaysia is sometimes called "Da Ma"
Literally, BIG HORSE...

Sabah does look like the head of a horse...

9.Total number of journalists in China: 700,000
How come we don't hear much about China then?

10. There is a place called Jing Jin
Situated between Beijing & Tian Jin.... hence the name.


And now... YOU KNOW....

Busy... not really

Been caught in this holiday mood, don't really have any inspiration to blog.

However, I do have this video made by a BODYCOMBAT instructor to share with you...

Wednesday indulgence

Time: 7.00pm

Venue: Bangsar Village II

Reason:

Choices:





Final Score:

SHADES 12

GF 10

The week long birthday celebration

Last week was quite an eventful week. Apart from the gathering where we witness the love between 2 grown-up men, I started celebrating my birthday on Tuesday 25 Sept as I was born on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calender.

The day started pretty normal. I had an date with gf for dinner. In the afternoon, my left shoulder wasn't feeling good so I decided to go to my usual Tmn Megah place called Yee Chou for some traditional massage.



right above Secret Recipe in Tmn Megah, opp the kopitiam formerly known as The Beach


I've been to quite a few places for massage since I moved to KL, and I would say this place offers the best treatment for me, not to mention that it's not as pricey as others.


Apparently they've ventured into the slimming business

Anyhow, while being treated by one of the "sifus" from China, a couple of them were saying that it was Mid- Autumn. So, I casually mentioned that it's my birthday. Mana tahu, the big master just asked one of the fellows over there to go buy a cake to celebrate for me. I thought they were just joking... but at the end I got this:

Orange cake from Cake Sense

So there I had all of them, together with a few patients sang "Happy Birthday" for me while I sheepishly cut the cake.

The big master(on the left) with a few of his ma-chais

Definitely one of the oddest birthday celebration for me ever.

At night was supposed to go out for dinner with gf but because I was covering a class in Maxis and she was in KL, she decided to cook for me instead. So after class, I hit straight to her place for some pasta meal.

Only remembered to take pic after halfway eating


The chef enjoying her share of the pasta

THen Friday was another celebration, this time organized by the wonderful ladies of FF IOI Mall

Someone made jelly mooncakes

My favourite, Choc Banana Cake from Secret Recipe - HEAVEN!

Been rather fortunate to have good relationships with my morning/afternoon members, mostly ladies. Guess I'm a real si-lai sat sau.

thorn among the roses

The highlight of the celebration was the weekend getaway with gf to Melaka. We left Ampang after church and arrived there at around 3pm. Didn't go there for shopping, rather it was for the wonderful food.

We had a simple late lunch near Mahkota Parade(some food village) before we went serious... Portugese Village for the seafood. There were so many shops selling the same things. The moment we parked our car, we were immediately surrounded by no less than 5 people, all wanted to persuade us to patronise their respective shop.

Since we didn't know which one is good, we stayed in the car for a few minutes while I contacted my ex- colleague from PADINI. Apparently being a nonya doesn't mean you know everything about Melaka... she too didn't know which one is better.

In the end, we got out of the car and these fellas really got us even more confused. I reckon if we didn't just sit down at a table, they would continue to bombard us. So I just made a decision and sat down right in the centre.

Finally, they all went away.

We settled for no. 6 BIG BEN

With so many shops, it's really amazing how they can survive. But I have to admit, they are really fast to act the moment a car drove in.

Standing and waiting

Working like vultures

Ordered a couple of dishes and we have pics to show:

Not a lala person, but gf finished all by herself. Verdict? Very good sauce/gravy but lala not that fresh.

No comment for the kailan. After all, anyone who can go wrong with kailan ought to be put to sleep.

Not bad, though I find it a bit too sour.

You can serve me anything that's sweet, sour and spicy! My favourite...


After dinner, it was time to burn some calories going to Jonker Walk.

Not forgetting our mission in Melaka, we had some desserts.

Can't remember what gf ordered

Chendol

Walking back to our vehicle, we walked pass the famous Melaka landmark.

Might as well do the tourist-y thing...

Next day we had a nice lunch in Ole Sayang before we drove back to reality.... Man, should do this(going to Melaka) more often!