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.

Slightly elaborate Instagram updates with a Tomato & Ham Pasta recipe.

Do you know what this is?

# – Take a guess.

It’s a pet overall that my mom has fashioned out of a pair of old granny pants. My mom even made a hole for the tail…it is freakin’ brilliant!

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This is Charlie looking absolutely miffed because I tied his patch of hair up.

# – Dude needs a groomin’.

FTS, while writing this post I forgot he had a grooming appointment at 3pm today. Completely forgot about it T_T.

Looks like a couple more weeks before we’ve got time to make you look more presentable, boy.

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This qipao is 31 years old. My mom wore this on her wedding day and soon, I will be wearing it on mine too :)

My mom was a really tiny girl and according to her, the dress was loose on her.

I’m just glad I could fit in it now because I remember trying it when I was 15 and it wouldn’t even zip up pass my hips!!!

My mom has a good strategy, that I wear this while saying goodbye to guests on my reception cause I won’t be sitting down. Cause if I sat down, my belly layers will jut out. Well, thanks for the advice Mom!

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This is Mom being a total fan girl posing with Sam Lee, a HK actor. We were at Unity Store KL launch.

She’s currently watching a TVB show with him in it called Ghetto Justice. I think he looks a lot cuter in real life!

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Today’s dinner was pumpkin gnocchi with spinach & tomatoes in Chinoz BSC. One of my favourite foods and about the only vegetarian that rocks my socks off.

# – Top is fish & chips (ordinary) but pumpkin gnocchi below is OMGZ!

Pillowy but light gnocchi with a mild pumpkin taste with blanched spinach and tomato sauce. So simple but soooooooooo gooood!

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And now….recipe for my simple tomato & ham pasta. This is a truly simple recipe and doesn’t require many ingredients. Very tasty and quite healthy too!

# – Simple tomato & ham pasta.

The ingredients:

  • 200grams of pasta (I used tagliatelle), cooked according to instructions on packet
  • 2 tomatoes, quartered
  • 2 onions, thinly sliced
  • 3 slices of ham, julienned
  • 300ml of tomato juice
  • Salt and black pepper to taste
  • #1 – First saute the sliced onions until translucent.

    #2 – Then, throw in the ham and stir fry until slightly browned.

    #3 – Next, throw in the quartered tomatoes.

    #4 – With a potato masher, squash the tomatoes till they break down. Crying.

    #5 – Pour in the tomato juice, little by little and stir until you get the consistency of a slightly thickened sauce.

    #6 – Season with salt & pepper. Remember to taste as you go as tomato juice is quite salty on its own!

    #7 – Dump in the cooked pasta (which you of course, was already cooking while you were making the sauce) and mix to coat evenly.

    #8 – Tomato & ham pasta with a sprinkling of grated parmesan, DONE!

    Love this dish, I have made it several times actually. It’s quick & easy to make and really flavourful without having to use an entire can of plum tomatoes or herbs. You’d be surprised!

    Have a good week, peeps :)

    Woohoo wedding planning progress!

    I have made a lot of progress on wedding planning since my last post. So grateful that Mom’s staying with me over the week to help me sort out wedding stuff.

    1. For one, I have found the dress! I finally understood what people mean when they say, “You know it when you see it”. At first I was quite worried because the first half dozen of places my mom and I went to had stuff that I didn’t really like.

    Most of the dresses could be summed up as “okay but not quite”. Finally we went to this shop and the girl was showing me a bunch of ball gowns and I was on the verge of giving up explaining to her what I have in mind when suddenly she said she might have something downstairs.

    Mom and I followed her and then she pulled out something from a large bag. I looked at it and my heart skipped a beat. I was like, please please please let it look good on me and let me look good in it!!!!

    Then I put it on, and I felt a sensation in my chest, a good sort of sensation…not the type where you want to see a doctor but the type you want to start doing the chicken dance and sing I’m so happy…I’m so happy…I’m so happy and jolly and gay.

    I was like…OMG I hope she’s not going to quote me a crazy price. And then she told me the price and I was like…:D :D :D :D :D :D

    Nobody has seen the dress except me, mom and people from the shop and I will keep it that way until the wedding day. I don’t even need it altered I think but I reckon when I lose more weight I might nip it in a bit more. As for the evening dress, I’m quite chilled about it…because I want something fun, flirty and a little slutty (lol) for the later part of the reception aka PARTY TIME.

    2. We have also found a wedding cinematographer we really like, thanks to a tip from a blog reader. Thank you Yu Jen! We’re meeting them this weekend to discuss the details and hopefully, by then we will have confirmed them.

    3. My makeup and hair will be done respectively by Cassandra and Cindy from dominicabyc.com. Cassandra is a BOH Cameronian award winning makeup artiste and I loveeeeee her style. Very chic, clean and natural. Her brides are so gorgeous!

    4. Gareth’s wonderful colleague, Chee Ling is helping us design our invites too. We’re loving what she’s done so far and she’s got an awesome idea with the invites which I’m so incredibly excited to share but I have to refrain because don’t want people to steal it *cue maniacal possessive laugh.

    5. As for the wedding theme, it’s clearer than ever. I know exactly what to do, how the decor’s going to be, what is the feel and etc. I feel a lot calmer now and ready for some proper ground work.

    6. I’ve got my wedding shoes while in Bangkok. I might change it I might not, we’ll see. Not that worried about shoes to be honest.

    7. Still haven’t found an emcee, partially because we haven’t really been looking yet. I wish more emcees upload their gigs onto Youtube.

    8. Photography will be by Anna-Rina of course. She also took our ROM pictures, which I was so happy with. Anna-Rina is great at capturing “moments”, she can speak like a gazillion languages which means she can communicate basically with all my guests (especially the non-English speaking elderly) and best of all, she’s just a bundle of positive energy!

    9. We are doing cheesy studio photography. LOL. Yeap, not kidding. I asked specifically for indoor shoot only though, cause can’t be arsed to pose around in the heat in wedding costumes. Oh well, my grandmothers will be happy to hang pictures of us in gaudy gowns and white suit with our eyes closed on their walls. Trolololol.

    10. Going to start dieting and exercise more, I promise.