Story about family and love.

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a renowned wedding website asking if they could feature me as their bride of the month. I was quite thrilled and excitedly checked out their stories on their previous brides of the month.

Being a bridezilla, I immediately looked through my wedding album for similar pictures that I could provide to the website (without having even said yes to them) and then it dawned on me….I neither had pictures of my main dress in full length on its own nor with me in it. I didn’t have a single picture of my beautiful wedding dress train, laid out and not scrunched up. I didn’t have a single picture of myself just looking like a bride in it. I had a lot of beautiful & precious pictures from the wedding but I didn’t have those. And it killed me inside.

Was I disappointed at my photographer? Yes I was. I was so upset I tweeted about it, of which she immediately responded to me so apologetically. She told me the reasons of what happened and I accepted them. Later I deleted those tweets because it was done without any thinking on my part. Anna is a truly wonderful, amazing photographer but due to some awkward turn of events…she uncharacteristically missed out on taking pictures of me in my main wedding dress. What can I say? Shit happens, even to the very best.

Anyway, I spent about three days crying my eyes out and somehow managed to calm myself down thinking I could always rent the dress again for another photo session. Because the dress, is what they in the bridal industry called a “Super VIP” dress….it was a little expensive to rent, especially since I just got a new car too (am sorry, I’m beginning to sound like a real spoilt bitch here but please bear with me).

My closest friends of course knew about my predicament. They were incredibly supportive, consoling me and telling me that in their hearts they will always remember how beautiful I looked on my wedding day. Thank you guys!

Anyway, this is not a story about the missing pictures of a dress. This is a story about my family.

Today, after dropping my car off for re-tinting (that’s another long story) at Jalan Gombak, my brother from another mother M came to pick me, Celine and Gareth up for breakfast. He drove us all the way to Jalan Imbi, making several detours in the traffic jam looking for a particular restaurant before M realised we were supposed to eat at Jalan Ipoh. In my head, I was like…omg M you dumbass I am so HUNGRY!!! Hahahaha.

We finally found the restaurant and had a nice breakfastlunch and then M said he wanted to show us a project he’s working on. So we made our way to the project site. He said it was at Jalan Tun Razak. Gareth turned on Waze on his phone, but M kept making wrong turns and they both blamed Waze.

While we were in the car, Celine was using M’s car USB point to charge her phone. M later insisted to Celine that she had to remove her phone so he could plug in his iPod when they were nearer to his project site.

I thought he had to present something on his iPod or something but then I realised he was trying to play a song. So I asked M, “Bro, why you need to play this music when you’re nearer to your project site?”. He said, “IT’S MY THING”. So I was like,”Hah? OK lor”.

Anyway, after a while, we were near Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka, and in my head I was like, “Gawddamn it these two men are useless at directions”.

I kept telling them Jalan Tun Razak is near KLCC and we need to get back into the city…but M turned onto Jalan Loke Yew towards Cheras as I was telling them to turn into the city! WTF! M kept insisting that making a U-Turn on Loke Yew was the better way to reach Jalan Tun Razak. T_T

As we were on Loke Yew, I pointed out the bridal studio which I got my main wedding dress to Celine. Celine asked me whether I was still upset about the wedding dress pictures and I said, “No lah….just a little sad lor”.

And then Celine said, “Babe, we are heading to the bridal studio to get your dress”.

Blank. “What?”

“We are getting the dress for you so you can take proper pictures in it”

Blank. “What do you mean???”

“We are getting you the dress. Cass is doing your makeup again, Anna is taking your pictures again!”

“What are you talking about???”

I started tearing up. M drove up to the front of the bridal studio. They walked me in and I still couldn’t register what was happening. Then I went in and there was my dress, on a mannequin.

# – My dress.

As I was asking Celine if she was kidding again, suddenly I heard, “SURPRISE!!!”. Out jumped Jayna and Sin Loo from the changing room. At that point, I began to bawl.

# – Not a pretty crier, sorry.

I couldn’t believe it was really happening. I was going to take pictures in my main wedding dress again so soon. I was really expecting to do it on our fifth wedding anniversary or something. But right now I do not need to wait so long because the most awesome people in the world have gone ahead and made it happen for me.

It’s not my birthday, it’s not any special day. But you guys took your own time and money out to plan and do this. For me!?

Thank you Bro M, thank you Celine, thank you Jayna, thank you Sin Loo, thank you Whey Lu, thank you Ee Laine, thank you Ruby and thank you to my husband Gareth for this beautiful surprise. Especially thank you to M and Celine. This is totally up there with my wedding proposal hahaha.

I love you guys so much you have no idea!!

# – Being fussed over by my loved ones – G’s feet, Jayna, Sin Loo, Celine and M’s body. The lady buttoning my top works at the bridal studio.

So all the weird detours earlier now made sense. M and his “thing” about iPod…actually he wanted to play the song “Favorite Girl” by The Icarus Account because it’s the theme song for our wedding highlights video /sniffs

What a surreal, amazing day. I feel so incredibly blessed. A long time ago, I used to think that I could never love other people like I love my family. Well, you really can.

Thank you my sisters and brother from another mother. You are family to me. I love you.

Be good.

It’s like the universe is toying with my feelings. It’s like the universe is telling me to stop being a control freak and relax.

I need to take a deep breath and let go. Move on. What’s done is done is done is done.

I can’t change reality. I must learn to accept it. I must learn to embrace it.

I must be less arrogant. I must be less self-absorbed. I must learn to be good.

I must not speak of hurt. I must sleep more.

Resolutions for 2013.

Last year, I made a list of resolutions for 2012 and now it’s time to see if I had managed to achieve any.

My resolutions for 2012 and their statuses:

1.I vow to strike out all the unfulfilled resolutions in 2011 (all 6 of them).

Pimp up my ride (change the body kit, put in a sweet stereo system, install anti-roll bar, noise-proofing, maybeeee repaint :D).
Nope :( but… :)

Drive to Thailand.
We’ve done that! But obviously it’s the hubs who did the driving. I’m going to do it this year though.

Dive in Philippines.
Nope :( We did dive in Indonesia so that’s good. We’ve got a diving trip planned in May 2013 as well it’s very near Philippines but still consider Malaysia haha.

Get proper singing lessons (because I don’t want to waste these great genes, ahem).
Not yet…too chickenshit :(

Get proper sewing lessons (so I can sew in a straight line).
Honestly, I think I’ve lost the interest in sewing.

Run everyday (so Charlie can run instead of walk alongside me, so my heart can be strong & healthy despite the truck load of pork I’ll be consuming and finally, so money on that treadmill won’t be burnt :P)
Crap…

2. I vow to get my eyesight fixed with Lasik.
DONE! This is the best thing I have ever done for myself. To read about my lasik experience, go here.

3. I vow to make a crockenbouche.
Crap! I didn’t really make crockenbouche T_T but I did make choux pastry so technically am halfway there!

4. I vow to take care of my hair a little better than I normally do.
I guess? I am using virgin coconut oil for my hair these days…seems to work cause my hair is less frizzy!

5. I vow to travel more.
Not as much as I prefered but I did get out of the country a few times.

6. I vow to print and hang pictures on our currently empty walls.
Yikes! 2 years in this house and we haven’t actually done that :P

7. I vow to read at least one book a month.
I kept it up for about half a year….then failed :P

8. I vow to be positive and optimistic.
Not bad :)

9. I vow to be forgiving and patient.
Yes and no. I was very unforgiving and impatient towards certain people. I dropped two people permanently off my life cause life is too short to hang out with people that mess with your bliss.

10. I vow to be grateful and thankful for everything, no matter how trivial.
Glad to say I pretty much stuck to that. It is a very rewarding feeling.

11. Dig a hole in my backyard so when the world ends, I can hide in it.
You know how that turned out..

So what are my resolutions for 2013?

1. Take my mummy on a vacation
2. Get fitter (I know right, how cliched)
3. Dive in the Philippines (of course!)
4. Make a crockenbouche (I will really this time!)
5. Travel more. (Duh)
6. Start a bliss business (by that I mean something that is completely not profit oriented but I’d just do it because it makes me happy)
7. Have bi-monthly mini vacations with my girlfriends. (You all reading this?)
8. Get singing lessons! (Which means I need to get some balls too)
9. Get my teeth straightened (Am not too sure actually about this, cause I am completely put off by not being able to eat ferociously from my recent wisdom tooth extraction surgery T_T but vanity might just overcome this….)
10. See my family more regularly.

Have a good year, peeps!