Means that i got through the wedding weekend.
Friday there was a dinner up in KL for the Bride's family to celebrate MANY MANY people there... 26 odd tables ? like damn man.... people in Malaysia have loads of relatives it's just insane O.O
Saturday was a quiet ... *kinda* dinner at the Ong residence with all of the relatives invited.
Supposed to be a session for the 'heng dais' to get together and discuss strategy, ..... FAIL :P
hahahahah just sat around talking crap.
Sunday was the same as friday but for the groom's side. Different restaurant, this time it was a place owned by a family member. A restuarant in the Royal Bintang in Seremban
But before we got to the dinner there was an ordeal to be had....
630 in the morning, Mr Ong wakes us up to get ready etc.
730-ish the heng dai and the groom-side family who are accompanying the convoy arrive and we all head off together to bring the bride 'home'
About an hour later we arrive in Cheras right in front of her house, and the tradition of zip sun leung (fetching the bride) begins:
Challenge One: Getting through the gate
This involved some heavy negotiation and wordplay on the part of the groom and his best man, not to mention the zi mui (sisters/sisterhood), and after many 'unreasonable' requests made by the girls and numerous threats by the best man to just leave the girl in the house and/or go down the street to pick up a different bride, an agreement was finally reached. The girls would receive a red packet of money in exchange for opening the gate. But the boys being savvy and untrusting said that both the guys and the girls would hang onto the red packet until the door opened and then the boys would let go.
Good plan...
unfortunately in all the excitement and the realisation that their hands are through the grills of a door about to be opened they jerked a bit too hard and the money and the red packet were both ripped :P much to the amusement of all.
Challenge 2: getting through front door
This was a ... culinary challenge.... the boys were required to eat a series of ... 'treats' prepared by the girls.
Dish 1: Sweet
This was, according to the girl that made this ... it was chunks of chicken that were marinated in sugar, which was then COVERED in sugar and the covered some MORE in jam.....
I have to admit, being a man of more savoury tastes, that this was quite a challenge to eat
Dish 2: Sour
This i felt really wasn't that bad, it was just a cup of lemon juice followed by a slice of lemon.
Personally i quite enjoyed this one, the juice was pretty but not overly sour, and by the time i ate the lemon it actully tasted quite sweet in comparison
Dish 3: Hot
Now this particular dish looked ominous it was a tiny cracker covered in wasabi and some other green substance topped off with a chilli..... admittedly when i ate this it really wasn't that bad... in fact i ended up eating 2 :S covering somebody else's the wasabi did its usual business on the nasal passages but the chilli wasn't so bad. Acoording to the girl responsible for this challenge she actually toned it down quite a lot because when she tried it on herself she got gastric from it like right away :P hahahahah how considerate of her to test it on herself first right? :P ( i wouldn't have)
also according to the groom this was peanuts compared to what his cousin had to do: two slices of bread covered in wasabi on both sides with a series of sliced chillis all over the inside O.O yikes....
So after all of this... we finally got to the front door... where Jin had to give another red packet for the door to be opened.....
Inside, more challenges awaited for us before we proceeded.
1st a simple matter for Jin Khang to actually iron a shirt...... easy right? and for those who know me.. yeah that's nothing... quite like ironing shirts... especially more than pants. .. ANYWAY apparently it's not so easy for Jin...... cos he's never ironeed a shirt in his life apparently.
2nd challenge... another one i laughed at...... Waxing of the legs :P
Each boy had a wax strip attached to their leg and it was pulled off by a zi mui :P
the girl came up to me and said "lift up your pants leg"
*lifts up*
O.O ... "wow... there's nothing there" :P
"...... lift up the other one"
O.O (lol actually quite a few people were like..."wtf? no hair at ALL>?!"
"roll your socks down" ....
-.-"
*sigh*
"Take off your shirt"
Now at this point i said "woooo.... only said legs... if you want the shirt off you gotta pay :P"
so anyway this challenge passed me with any real incident
After that we were allowed to head upstairs where the zi mui blocked off the top... so MORE money had to be paid in order for that particular obstacle to go away.
Then there was the final challenge, we had to sing "You're just too good to be true" with a slight difference....
the first verse was to be sung in Bahasa Malayu
the second verse was supposed to be in Chinese
and only the last verse was to be in English.
The Chinese part was hilarious the first line "Pardon the way that i stare" was translated into
"ze me ngo tai lei gor fong faat" :P hahahahaha
"ze me" is usually used for "pardon" for when you want to say "get out of my way" :P hahaha
And actually there was one more thing to do.... Jin Khang had to sign the 'Declaration of Respect to Women" something which, after reading it just once, the Best man said "omg, sorry Jin Khang, i can't do this ... " :P hahaha
The declaration is quite funny :P so you should check it out :)
So after ALL of this crap he finally gets the girl :)
and then there was the tea ceremony where the newlyweds pour tea for the close married relatives of the bride's family, before we headed back to Seremban to do the same thing for the Groom's family.
Not meaning to belittle it, Dinner was your typical wedding dinner, lots of laughs and jokes.
Another tradition for those that don't know is for the couple to go to each table and toast them, the heng dai are also required to be there to toast as well. :P For friday night most of us just toasted with tea but on Sunday because it was the last night, we all drank wine, Chivas, or Martel :p hahahaha for all 26 tables :P hahahah it was hilarious :P aahhhh the fun that can be had with alcohol :P REALLY and enjoyable night overall :) Poor Jin was pretty trashed :P haha
This video is the last table we toasted, Jin Khang's med friends... they made some kind of concoction out of Martell, red wine and what tasted to me like soy sauce....
my reaction to this is .... obvious :P
Dr Ong chose me as a heng dai, and i gotta say despite the awkwardness of me not knowing like anybody in the heng dai group and the fact that i couldn't remember peoples names and hierachy on th family tree, i felt really honoured that he would choose me. It is a position held by a trusted/close friend meant to be like, a bodyguard/honour guard of sorts for the groom. It's more that just 'groomsman' in the traditional western sense because there's so much more involved. Western groomsman just stand around for the wedding and generally just participate in the buck's night. Heng dais accompany the groom almost everywhere, and are a crucial part of the groom's mission to fetch the bride from her house. They step in to take challenges that the "zi mui" throw at him and basically are a bunch of people who take the hits for the groom so that he may.... perform his duties (i'm guessing) later that evening.
It is a position of honour and privilege
Thanks a lot man, i hope you and Kim have a wonderful and long marriage together : )
and of course i have to post about my girly
Here's my gorgeous girl in her cheong sam :)
and her amazing hair....
before i dismantled it....
after i took out all of the pins...
after i untied her hair
and this is the number of metal objects i found in her hair :P
hahahaha
But i have to admit (biased or not doesn't really matter) that she looked amazingly stunning and it was fantastic to have such a gorgeous young lady on my arm =)
And the absolute final thing for this ridiculously long blog is the Video of the Day by the photographer... a REALLY excellent compilation of photos :) even if you don't load ANY other video you should load this one, and if you understand Canto, you should DEFINITELY load it if for no other reason that to listen to the really really cute song attached with it :) damn fitting
