I have a brother-in-law now!!! So the wedding was this past Saturday and it was excellent! The whole wedding process up to Saturday will definitely be memorable! It was busy and hectic but it turned out the way it was meant to in the end ^_^. Thursday we had the rehearsal at Citadel Theatre and it that was pretty easy. I kept forgetting to pause at the places I was supposed to and almost fell down the steps cos Dave paused (Richard's brother and the groomsman I was paired with for the wedding) haha! We went for dinner separately after and then it was off to our house to decorate for the tea ceremony! I didn't have work the next day so I went to the reception hall and helped decorate. We were there from lunch until about 5pm to transform the place (looked beautiful when we finished ^_^) and the caterers were there to set the tables and buffet lines up. Then we went home to drop some stuff off and then it was off to Richard's mom's place for the rehearsal dinner. HUGE BBQ... I had a sirloin steak and some sides, and my cousin gave me half of her chicken. Needless to say, I ended up having to throw a lot away >_< But then it was back to our place to get ready for the candle ceremony at midnight. My uncles, aunts and cousins from BC just arrived so we got to see them for a bit before they left. Didn't sleep until close to 2 am but I couldn't sleep anyways cos I was sharing a room with my cousin and when she said she snored, boy did she mean it! lol! I ended up crawling to my mom's room and sleeping on her floor but my grandma was sharing the room with her and she kept waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. So I was pretty pooped at 6:30am when I had to wake up.
Saturday morning we all got ready, makeup and hair done, family from both sides of my parents came and it was basically just waiting for the guys to show up for Bride Haggling. We had it all figured out. At the door we did the bartering, then before entering Richard had to answer a math question which I asked in Chinese and he had to answer in Chinese (which he got correct by the way!) Then each one of them had to eat a tablespoon of Sofia's mom's famous tumeric and honey which is supposed to be good for your health but tasted horrible. Then we had Richard fold a basket of laundry which was filled with embarassing clothing (lingerie Sofia borrowed from a friend!) and then each of the groomsmen and Richard had to "wear" an item of lingerie. While wearing it they had to do the Macarena and YMCA. It was priceless! After that Richard finally went to go get my sister from the room she was in, by serenading to her. He sang "You Are My Sunshine" lol! Finally the tea ceremony began. It was kinda long cos aside from the parents we had from my mom's side my 3rd Aunt, 4th Uncle, 6th Uncle and Aunt, from my dad's side my 2nd Uncle and Aunt, 5th Uncle and Aunt, 6th Aunt and Uncle, and then Richard's eldest sister, brother and sister-in-law, his 2nd older brother. My 4th Uncle, who was complaining how it was a waste of time and money to do such an elaborate wedding, started crying! He'd never received tea like this before and he was so touched that he started crying! After eating a little bit, the guys went to the Citadel first and we helped my sister into her wedding gown and waited for the 1952 Jaguar that she rented as a surprise for Richard. The car was really nice and everything, but it smelt like gasoline the whole time...
Finally got to the Citadel and it was ceremony time! I remembered all my pauses (yay!) It was like paparazzi throughout cos there were SO many people with cameras! I faught back the tears when I saw my sister coming out with my mom. I tell ya, music always get me! I probably would have been fine if there wasn't any music but when her song came on for her to come out, my eyes just welled up. After the ceremony it was time for pictures with the families... that took quite a while! Then we went to take wedding photos around the city and boy did it get windy and cold! Mags and Richard came home not long after the wedding party finished taking photos with them cos it was too cold and windy for her to continue the couple photos like she wanted. The girls fussed around a bit while the guys... sat and watched Fringe on TV lol! We then piled into the cars and off to the reception hall!
My cousins were manning the guestbook table and my 5th Aunt (Aunt Julianna) was greating the guests. Basically they wrote or signed a card that looked like a shamrock or fortune cookie, had their photo taken, and then both pieces were stuck into a guestbook my sister made (she made pretty much EVERYTHING for her wedding!) The wedding party was supposed to walk out, followed by lion dancers and Richard and Mags, but there were people still missing from the lion dancers so we had to wait. We were a little behind, but they finally arrived and into the hall we went! Seth, the little ringbearer, had to go to the washroom and wasn't back yet when we were walking in. It was about time for him and the flower girls to walk in and all of a sudden his dad came flying out, carrying him and then plopped him on the floor. It was so cute!!! The lion dance was really loud cos they did the dance right in front of the head table but it was fantastic! They did such a good job!!! They had 2 lions, 8 cymbal players, a drummer, and a main cymbal player. It lasted 15 - 20 minutes long and they even had confetti poppers at the end! Everyone was mesmerized and a lot of people hadn't seen something like this before (especially because Richard's Irish, so his side of the family most likely hadn't seen anything like this at all!) They loved it though! We got served our food at the head table while everyone else did the buffet thing. We did speeches, mingled a bit, and then Richard and Mags did their first dance. They didn't really practice since learning how to dance at our house (my godparents were teaching them) but the dance was beautiful! They did such a wonderful job, and so professional! Then the wedding party had to dance with them. I was so scared I would step on Rob's feet, but I was fine (plus he said he drank so much already that he wouldn't be able to feel it even if I did step on his feet haha!) He knew what he was doing, but other than hip hop I don't know how to dance! No feet stepped on though (thank gosh!) Richard had his dance with his mom (her eyes were teary awww!!) and then the dance started. They did the cake cutting and the bouquet and garter toss. I got to hang out with my cousins from BC whom I don't get to see often, as well as my Aunt Julianna and Uncle Jimmy (5th Uncle). I didn't really get to spend a whole lot of time with my 2nd Aunt and Uncle though, but at least I was able to spend a little bit of time with them. I talked with my brother's godmother a bit and my sister's godbrother David, who insisted on talking about when I was like 5 years old and how I was such a chatterbox and once stole all the 2's from the deck of cards when they played Big 2. I swear I didn't do it lol! It was nice to see people you haven't seen in years gather together!
We cleaned up and by the time we were able to leave, it was really windy and cold and quite late. Luckily the rain stopped! I didn't get to bed until 3am though.
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Supposed to go for brunch at the River Cree with my family from BC but my brother wasn't feeling well. So my sister and brother-in-law came home to open the millions of gifts and cards they got and stored at our house. Then it was off to hip hop for me which, by the way, I got into the advanced animation class!!! YAY!!! The class was so large they had to turn it into an audition class and luckily I made it cos I planned my entire year around it! I was still half asleep though so when Harman asked me a question about what fast-forwarding was I kinda just stared at him with a blank look. He probably thought I was stupid or something haha! Then I had to bolt to Children's Choir class and didn't play as well this week cos I was SOOOOO tired. After, I picked up my grandma and my cousin from her dorm and it was off to another feast!!! My great uncle on my dad's side's birthday is soon but since my family from BC was here for the wedding he decided to hold the feast earlier. So more eating!! I arrived at the restaurant and no one was there! It was so strange cos I've never been the first one to these dinners before! My great uncle wasn't even there yet! I ate SO much food I felt sick! My cousin Iris had to leave earlier cos she had early classes while the rest of my relatives stayed for the dinner since they were driving back to BC. My cousin Mary didn't have class until 6pm so my Uncle Jimmy was joking how they should just drive her straight to school when they get back so they can take longer on the road haha! I hope I can see them more often. I really miss them >_<
So now we've got lots of stuff to clean up at home! It might take a week I think!!! Great weekend though!!! Oh yeah, and I got new godparents!!! Connie (the lady helping us with all the traditional Chinese wedding stuff) officially became my godmother the night of the candle ceremony! My mom was kinda joking when she said she should be my godmother, but she was serious and gave me lucky money and everything! I poured tea for her and that was that! She didn't tell her husband until they arrived for the tea ceremony the next day. He was a little shocked cos she already has 7 godchildren but apparently I left a really good first impression the first time I met him and he said I was a good girl ^_^. So now I have godparents!!!!!!! It's so cool too cos my godmother is SUCH a hip lady and she's ubber nice and sociable!! My godfather is ubber nice too and he's a REALLY good dancer. He's quite well known in Hong Kong and is even in the "history books" for dancing!!! AWESOME!!!
Mags and Richard are in Kelowna right now for a short one-week honeymoon. The official honeymoon starts when we go to Hong Kong for the 2nd half of the banquet (for relatives that couldn't come over). Hopefully I can start an entry soon with "I'M AN AUNT!!!" hehe!!
Only 5 more days before my sister's wedding!!! It felt like just yesterday that we were talking about what she's going to do for her wedding!!! I can't believe it's coming up!!! Got a few things on the go right now and some things to look forward to! Kari (a very sweet girl whom I met at my sister's stagette) was able to get me in on an SLP Conference at the beginning of October. I'm so stoked!! This is going to give me an inside look at SLP and give me the idea of whether or not it's something that I want to pursue. This is such a great opportunity cos there's going to be lectures from actual practicing SLP's (well, it's a conference for SLP's after all!) and it's free so if it does turn out to be not what I'm hoping for then I wouldn't have wasted any of my money! I'm hoping it doesn't turn out that way though cos I don't know what I'm going to do after going back to square one... maybe I shouldn't build it up too much or it might turn out like the Spiderman movie haha!
- Going to find out later today (hopefully!) whether or not I got into Harman's animation class. Turns out too many people signed up and it turned out to be an audition class. I planned my Sundays around this class and other people even had to change their schedule around me (yes, the choir rehearsal was changed completely because of me... should I feel honored or burdened??) because of it so I REALLY hope that I get into the advanced class. The stuff he's been doing so far is totally awesome!!! And like all my friends at dance knows, I LOVE animation!! I think I'm going to try out for the 3D company class too cos I love their choreo and if it's at DA this year, I'm willing to go through the pain of auditioning!!
- Another reunion is in the works right now and I'm HOPING (fingers crossed) that this year will finally be the year that we can ALL be together (minus Chan Chan >_<). I can't wait to see everyone again!! I miss them all so much!! Even though we don't usually talk or message each other during the year, it's like we continue from where we left off each time and it's just so awesome! I don't think I have friends with a deeper relationship than that and I couldn't ask for anything better! Totally stoked again! Even if it's just 3 or 4 days, it's well worth it!
- The kid's choir thing is turning out pretty nice! Although they said that Hong would be the one doing warm-ups with the kids, it's not really turning out that way. So far I've been helping the kids do warm-ups as well cos by the time I get there, they're still settling in. I still can't believe that they changed the rehearsal time because of me (and Jenny isn't letting me forget that either!) But it turns out that the conductor really wanted me to stay as their accompanist so she was willing to do anything at all cost to keep me. She was even going to let me come once every 3 weeks if that was going to work better for me! Basically she just wanted me to be there to play when she was there and she wasn't sure if she was going to conduct every week. So yeah, I have to book it out of class every Sunday to get over to the rehearsal which starts at 3 instead of 2 and ends at 5 instead of 4. I'm quite looking forward to our China / Hong Kong tour in 2011 though. I think it's gonna be really cool!
So my sister's wedding is only 10 days away!!! OMG!!! Damn, don't think I'm gonna be able to lose any inches by then *sigh*
So we had her stagette this past weekend. It was packed to the max with stuff ALL day long. And I mean ALL day long. Woke up bright and early and went to go pick my sister up cos I was her personal chauffeur for the day. We had to be at the spa by 9 am so I went to my sister's place and dropped my brother off at the same time so that he could hang out with my future brothr-in-law while we were out and about. You know it's too early when the bride-to-be wants to crawl back into bed haha! Nonetheless we made it to the spa 2 minutes before our appointment time and some of the girls had already shown up. It was my first time going to a spa so it was loads of fun! I got a manicure and pedicure and yes, I got my finger and toe nails painted and pretty! We also booked a massage for my sister and she said it was great ^_^.
After the spa we rushed off to Rutherford House for high tea. SO nice! The tea was de-lish and the little snacks were so good! I sat with Suzanne by the window and it was so bright and sunny out... a bit of greenhouse affect happening and let's just say that we were sweating even though we weren't doing anything tough or physical! But high tea was definitely great... I can see myself doing this more often! I would love to get a group of friends together and go again!
Next on the list was... pole-dancing!!! I didn't know what to expect!! We were about an hour early so we decided to go to Hudson's for a drink first, although it wasn't really that early by the time I finished circling around for a parking spot! The studio was a good size, considering there's 5 poles built into it! There were 15 of us in there and it didn't feel cramped at all! We had to come up with "sexy" names before starting and since I couldn't think up of one Ally (who btw has a very elaborate and gorgeous Alice in Wonderland sleeve tattoo) gave me the name Ruby Red ^_^. The whole "name of first pet and street you were born on" doesn't work for me especially since we use street numbers here! "Toy 64 Street" is NOT sexy. We had 2 instructors, one for the floor work and one for the poles. The floor work was actually quite good for strength building and toning! Of course they had to make it "sexy" so it was... different lol! I didn't find anything awkward though cos having had to do whack-offs, pose battles and runway walks in Kerry's class last year was far more difficult... and this time it's a bunch of girls as opposed to girls AND guys and random spectators walking in and watching us! It was loads of fun though! We were divided into groups since there were only 5 poles and we basically each learned a routine to show everyone else. Instead of doing the "sexy" walk to the pole, the instructor decided to have our group "sexy" crawl up to the pole. Yeah... lol!! Apparently I was one of the ones that looked good and natural while pole-dancing. Still trying to figure out if that's a good thing or bad thing!! Ok, I'm like blushing while typing this... NEXT!
We had to make our way downtown after to Kerstin's Chocolates for some chocolate tasting!!! YUM YUM!!! It's a beautiful store located in a really chic part of town. Kinda tucked in so easily missed! But a definite delicacy! Kerstin knows SO much about chocolate! It was so amazing! She told us all about chocolate production from the ground up... literally! We were planned to taste 8 chocolates but we were having so much fun that she ended up giving us 11 chocolates to taste! We learnt all about using the 5 senses to taste chocolate (just like tasting wine) and you can definitely tell the difference! I don't think I can go back to eating chocolate you find at the store anymore! I was sitting with Kari for the tasting and omg she's apparently a super-taster, which is highly saught after in the food industry! She was tasting all these flavours and I was like "huh? it just tastes like chocolate to me?" hehe! She's so cool though! I've never tasted so many different chocolates! There was one that had pretty much NO flavour but towards the end the flavour hits you and you're just left dumbfounded! Never experienced ANYTHING like that before! I never really liked anything too bitter, but that's cos I've never had quality chocolate before. Even 72% chocolate had a sweetness to it rather than bitterness you find with other chocolates you find out there! I bought some chocolate including a 100% chocolate bar for Thali cos I know she LOVES chocolate and the most she's been able to find was 99%. Kerstin said this is her best seller. So yeah, if you guys ever want to buy chocolate, GO TO A REAL CHOCOLATIER! Kerstin's Chocolates is AWESOME! Anyone wanna come for real drinking chocolate with me in the winter?? The caffeine in chocolate apparently can't make you gain weight even though it's high in calories. Suzanne said when she lost 40 pounds she never cut back on the chocolate ^_^!
The last place of the night was Red Piano Bar. We had to book it there cos the kitchen was closing at 9 pm and we finished at about 8:30-ish. Once again, somewhere I've never been! It's so nice and posh in there! 2 gorgeous red grand pianos raised on a stage in the middle (electric) flanked by a bar on either side and seats for the rest of the restaurant. The food was expensive though! Pretty good, although Joy's entree wasn't the best (when will non-rice eaters learn you don't have to soak rice in sauce to eat it!!!) At first I thought that they come out and just play the piano, "duelling" as I've heard people talk about, but I was wrong. They play requests and sing as well! Basically it was like going to a live concert featuring, like, all the music artists! The first song they did was Cold Play and it was AMAZING!! Man can they play AND sing!! You can request anything and even if they don't know it they'll attempt it which in the end sounds perfect anyways! I mean, they did Lady Gaga's Poker Face!!! They had about 5 entertainers, one of them was a woman so she did the female vocals. Then there was this Caucasian guy in a sweater that looked quite geeky... who rapped all night long! We thought we heard wrong when they said someone requested Eminem but then he started rapping and we were like O_O He plays the piano too but MAN can he rap! They even did an MC battle!! Mind you it wasn't THE best but it was impressive! People started filing into the bar as it got later and the atmosphere was excellent! They even whipped out an electric guitar at some points! These people really know how to work a crowd! I think I liked the atmosphere there more than a real concert! And it's only $10 to get in! We left at about 1 am and I've got to say kudos to my sister for not being plastered after all those drinks! She looked normal to me even! No staggering or slurred words! We were dead tired though and I basically just crashed when I got home.
I definitely need to do a girls' day out and do all these things again cos it was SO much fun!!
Another freak out session as I watch people move on with their dreams and goals. Isn't it about time that mine came and hit me in the face with a "HEY!! I'M HERE!!!" I need some kind of direction!! Anyone wanna help me? Anyone? Throw me a bone or give me a hint at least! I'm gonna do SLP but I don't even know if I can get in and if I do, what if it's not as it seemed? What if I end up NOT liking it in the end? Then that means back to square one and getting more and more lost. So damn frustrating!! じれったい!!
Random, but my fav quote of the day that Caleaf just posted on his Facebook status:
"DONT GET UPSET AT THEM IF THEY THINK THEY KNOW EVERYTHING ,IN TIME THE TRUTH WILL SHINE BRIGHT FOR ALL TO SEE,HEAR FEEL AND UNDERSTAND."
So yeah, you guys are probably wondering why my blog layout is different. Well let me tell you, I felt that I needed some change so I decided... actually no it was all due to stupidity. Thought I'd test something out and low and behold, I deleted my layout ㅠ_ㅠ
Awww it seems like everyone's moving forward and going places except me. So sad. Michi's in HK (yay Michi!!), Heather's in Korea (lucky bum! XP), Thali's leaving for HK next week and then relocating to New York not long after she comes home >_<, Carm's going to JP next summer (please take me with you!!) and then I just found out Tae Youn's working in Beijing for a year, possibly longer! Which makes me think, why am I still here and what am I doing?? It's soooooooooooooooooooooo frustrating... 天阿!! 我好想哭 >_<...
