My Classmate's Daughter Wedding in a popular Blog

My daughter and I like to boycott D__n Y__g and X X's blog because they get an insane amount of hits and we do not want to add to their statistics.

One of the reasons why I don't check her blog is because she is always dressed to the nines (always different outfits and dressed provocatively even to the Singapore Eye)  and I cannot bear to look at her ridiculously big baleful eyes that stare soulfully at you or her attractive poses that I cannot seem to emulate no matter how much I practise in front of the mirror!!

She always show herself eating and going to posh and exotic locations and eateries but remain so slim and shapely, I can't stand it!

Look at her impossibly curvaceous figure.....

Anyway, out of curiosity, I logged into her blog, because long time no visit liao, and I saw this invite with the name Paulette that sounded familiar to me

scrolling down her pictures...my suspicions were confrimed!!! It was my friend's daughter's wedding!!

My classmate is the one in blue, her daughter is the bride in red.

I met my classmate after what? 30 years? at our reunion in Singapore on 23 January 2010, a week before her daughter's wedding.

Here she is....mother of the bride...she actually invited us to her daughter's wedding

But I had already booked a family Pangkor Trip exactly on that day, 30 January 2010

She visited me at the university, and picture shows us outside 3rd residential college, where I stayed. She had just come back from England where she joined her then boyfriend to further her studies.

We were in the same class in Form 6, and being the gregarious type, she dominated us, or rather me!!

(These pictures are courtesy of D!!) Her husband giving her daughter away.

Bridegroom Derrick Yeo is D_n Y_g's cousin, they grew up together. (Yang is mandarin for Yeo)

Gorgeous D_n in the sexy clinging slinky lurex "nude" gown.  Just imagine, if I had attended the wedding, I would have run into her, then I will blog about the blogger who blogged about the blog.( sorry, couldn't resist that!)

Agilent sponsors MBS newspapers

Pn Nirmala handed me a letter and asked me to attend the mock cheque ceremony of Agilent sponsoring our school's Star newspaper on Mondays which has the pullout: F1F2 and F4F5.

I had to bring 4 students, so I entered my Upper 6 Wesley and 4 boys eagerly volunteered to go.

We thought it was a simple thing, so we finished our class first, and even went to the canteen for breakfast. When we reached there (late!) there was a welcoming person waiting to bring us up to Level 2 of Damansara Uptown 2.

Agilent representative giving her welcoming address.

Leanne Goh, the Star NIE editor

Anwar Abdullah from Agilent giving a presentation on  Agilent

From the MOE (Ministry of Education)!!En Halim

For Star...we had to pose with NIE pullouts...

conducted tour of Agilent...(they sell it so much, now I wanna work there!)

even when we are listening to his talk, we had to make sure the NIE pullout is in view!!

?????

Posing. Posing! With F123F45 newspapers and Agilent equipment.

Lunch!!! Down at the terrace

Agilent is fortunate to get the 2nd floor which has this landscaped water feature for no extra cost

Our lunch venue overlooks this

We were very sad, bec we had a heavy breakfast at our school canteen! Then we went to Subway Sandwich and looked at it sadly, because we were too full! We did not even have the mood to ta pau Subway!!

From left to right: Leong Choy Meng, Koh Peng Seng, Dhilip Kumar and Ow Ji Jim.

Remember Ben Johnson when he tested positive for steroid abuse? Agilent was the one who nailed him.

 "Remember the melamine scare? Agilent did the testing. Do you know when we take urine tests? Suspect actually has to pee in front of doctor...suspect can easily put a bag of clean urine under his arm, feed it into catether (er, I can't spell that) and press pee into the cup for testing.....

Elaborate Prayer Offerings (Praying to the Kitchen God)

I came downstairs to see what's cooking and saw this elaborate spread on the dining table.  It looked like a buffet at a local eatery only, it wasn't. It was a preparation for some prayers.

All these food are a must:

choice cuts of pork boiled in soya sauce or can be substituted with roast pork

kaktoh kueh or teochew rice cake (non vegetarian)Kaktoh kueh has fillings of sticky rice with bits of pork, dried prawns, mushrooms, etc encased in a jacket of yam or rice flour...yummy!

ang koo kueh (vegetarian) filling is either tausah(black bean paste) or linyong (lotus seed paste)

pak cham kai or boiled chickens (Not one, but many chickens) with head and feet intact

pomfret

( I wonder: how do the less fortunate observe this religious ritual: can they afford all these expensive food and fruits ? Do they even get to enjoy these on a good day? are they less blessed for not being able to offer them?)

nuts, mushrooms sometimes  include fuchuk too (all these are vegetarian because Grandmother was a vegan)

tauhu, vermicelli (vegetarian)

fruits like pineapples, oranges, pomeloes, apples

persimmons and bananas...all laid out on the altar

offered with joss-sticks served with rice, tea and wine

must offer at the house entrance too

I am sorry to say that this traditional custom and worship will die with me, for I am unable to carry out the ritual for the younger generation. 
 First, I do not have the faith to carry it out,
then even, if I were to do it, my heart is not in it,  I will only be going through the motions of doing it, or worse, I will even be doing grudgingly: next, I do not have the time nor the commitment to remember the dates, the occasion, or to buy the stuff shown above and cook or prepare them.  I also do not take note how to place them (the food) on the altar, or where to place them , (I do not even have an altar), or how many joss sticks to burn.  I also do not think I can pray to any  Kitchen God. So these pictures will be a reminder of this cultural /religious belief in years to come.

The food above were bought and prepared by the maids under supervision of father-in-law and his daughter.

That night, Grandfather invited all his family members to partake of the offerings and had a feast.