Custom Made Green & Yellow Fairy Wings

I’ve been in correspondence with Lisa of www.fairy.com.au regarding fairy wings for the Fairy Wedding. After some discussions on the wings I’m looking for, she custom made a pair, to fit the exact colour of my dress. So you now know the colour of my fairy dress too!

My wedding planner is very excited about the wings too and has insisted that she makes me one pair also. It’s hard enough getting the sheer and stretchy fabric here. What more to get the right colours to match the fairy dress. So I’ve asked her to make one in white. That will match my bridal gown.

But looking at the green and yellow wings, they are just too beautiful and I can’t resist!

I just ordered them today and they should be arriving in 10 days time. I can’t wait!

So I should have 2 pairs of wings for my 2 dresses during the photo shoot in 3 weeks time.

A Wedding at Passion Road (not mine)

Apart from the usual hotels and Chinese restaurants which offer cookie cutter wedding packages, there really aren’t that many locations offered to a couple for their wedding.

Ciao was very popular. But their land has been taken away and the last time I saw, the bungalow was about to be demolished. That’s quite sad because their venue was very nice for a garden wedding, complete with a fountain even!

The other very popular place is Courtyard Garden but if you’ve followed my blog, you’ll know that I find them unprofessional, tardy and messy and thus they are on my boycott list!

I’m still very glad I found Passion Road. I’ve been there about a dozen times to talk through the details with the manager there and also to show friends and supplier how the set up will be. Melissa is new but she’s been very helpful and accommodating. And now there’s another person, Travis who has so far been great too.

There was a wedding on Sunday and Melissa suggested I go look at the set up to get a feel of what I can expect. It’s really lovely. Just look at the pics.

2nd Walk in the Park

I made it! And I’m glad to say that it just gets easier. I made it for the walk in the park for the 2^nd Saturday in a row! Not a huge achievement I know but for someone who rather sleep that to do any form of exercising, getting up early on a weekend and going to the park is a feat indeed!

I started getting winded earlier as I climbed the hill but at least I didn’t get a shock when I saw the word START this time. It was a bit tough but I pushed myself and I even ran a bit albeit downhill.

And before I realized it, we’d completed the course!

I’m really looking forward to making it a weekly Saturday morning affair.

Paul even said that he wants to train and run in the KL marathon!

Good for us!

A Trip Down Memory Lane in Subang

Paul & I had an errand to run in Subang so we went to Swensens in Subang Parade. Neither of us had Swensens in years. My last time was probably when I was in college.

The cheese stick was absolutely yummy.

The clam chowder was good too and it came served in a hollowed sough dough bun.

I was beginning to really enjoy the food and was wondering why we stopped eating at Swensens.

Unfortunately the fried chicken was too oily, tasteless and worst of all, only half cook. I asked them if we’d get a 50% discount.

While waiting for an answer, I wanted to order some ice cream. Sticky chewy chocolate! But they ran out of my favourite flavour from Swensens. As was 6 of the other best selling flavours from them. Hmmmm.

I asked for the bill and checked if they gave a discount off the chicken. Nope. Butt the did give a RM5 discount voucher …….. which has only a 1 month validity and I’ve to spend a minimum of RM50 to get the discount. Now I know why I’ve not been back at Swensens.

And since we we’re on a trip down memory lane, we took a drive around the corner and went to check out Taylor's College where we both crossed paths 13 years ago but never really met till 11 1/2 years later.

But instead of Taylor's College, what we saw was Taylor's University College. Our dear college has expanded so much since our time there. And they were really good times indeed. Good memories. Sure doesn't feel like I graduated from college 13 years ago. The age is showing. Hahaha!

Woke Up Tired

I woke up today tired.

I snoozed for more than an hour till it was 9am and I knew I had to get up for work whether I liked it or not.

But it was hard getting out of bed cos my thoughts immediately went to the things which I needed to do today and over the weekend for the wedding, for the house renovation and for personal which is:

- Call Melissa of Passion Road to tell her I’ll be there tomorrow and will bring Chris Viva to recee and to look at positions for the stage, back drop and the canopy.

- Confirm with Chris and his supplier about meeting at Passion Road.

- Call both Val from As You Like It and Mng from MNG Bouquets and chase them for quotes and see if they want to join me at Passion Road for the recce.

- Look for accessories to match the wedding dresses for the photo shoot.

- Look for wedding bands. Or custom make one.

- Make appointment with dentist for teeth whitening and other dental work.

- Check with Fruitcake if she’s going running this Saturday in Taman Tun. If no, will have to push and cajole her to go.

- Call Amex to get them to set up an account at Galaxy Lights so that I can use my card there when I buy lights for the new house.

- Check with the lawyers if final payment can be made so that I can start renovations.

- Check with the contractors on their quotes.

- Contact izzi.com.my to get wireless broadband. With so much to do, I need to constantly work on the go now. Izzi's package is much cheaper than Maxis Wireless Broadband.

- It’s Looqy’s birthday today! Need to send her an email and an e card.

- Go with Paul to make his wedding suit tonight.

- Go running tomorrow in the park tomorrow morning.

- Pick Paul up while he drops his car in to get fixed.

- Make appointment at Strip and go get my legs waxed.

- Book hotel & take leave for next weekend cos Paul & I really need a break from constantly running around doing all of the above.

The above is for today and the weekend alone. It’s no wonder I’m going nuts.

Only consolation is that Sin Cyn, Michelle Who Stay on the Seashore and I are now going for lunch in 1U to look at wedding shoes.

Didn’t I just buy 2 pairs of wedding shoes yesterday? Yes I did. But a woman can never have enough shoes. What more it’s for a wedding.

It’s 4 months till the wedding which is a fair amount of time to do all I need to do. But what I forgot was that the pre wedding photography is in 1 month! I may have the dresses but I don’t have the matching shoes! So Sin Cyn, Michelle Who Stays on the Seashore and I had lunch in 1U then went to Vincci, Nose, Colleen, Aldo and Nine West. After all the walking and trying dozens of pair, I finally bought 2 pairs from Nine West. One to match my bridal gown and one to match my fairy dress.

While walking to the car park, we saw that Lewre was on sale too! I went in and saw this exquisite pair of silvery white strappy heels with diamantes. It was RM199 with 10% off.

I wanted to try it but we were late. So I’ll go back another day. Shell was asking why I need another pair of white wedding shoes when I already have one pair which I just bought a few moments ago. So I gave her this analogy.

The 2 pairs of shoes that I bought at Nine West were really nice. They were pretty and I like them. I know I can depend on them. They’re like a husband. You love him and you know he will be there for you and you feel comfortable with him.

But the other shoe is like a torrid affair. He doesn’t cover up very much, he’s probably gonna hurt you he looks great and utterly sexy and makes you go ggggggrrrr!

If it makes sense to you, you probably love shoes too. If you don’t get it, it’s okay. It’s not something that’s hard to understand.

It’s in like the movie PS I Love You. After Hillary Swank made up with Gerard Butler after a fight where she threw her shoes at him, she suddenly stopped and said “Stop. I got to pick up my shoes. They may think I don’t love them anymore”.

I totally understand where she’s coming from.

Fairy Wings Online

The theme is The Secret Garden of the Fairies and I’m so excited to be a fairy bride with my fairy brides maids!

Patricia Wedding Planner has advised that she’s done up the frame work for the fairy wings but has problems finding the soft stretchy see-thought material to make the wings.

I’ve seen loads of fairy wings design on the net but this time I looked for sites where I could purchase them. There were a few but most of them were from the States and the wings averaged more than USD100. Once I convert it to Ringgit Malaysia, that’s a lot of money for something I’m only going to wear once, even if it is for a once in a life time wedding. After looking some more, I found www.fairy.com.au

They have lovely lovely wings from small wings to really huge ones. The small once are really sweet and the big one is amazing. But I thought it would be better not to have something too big so that it’s easier to move about. Plus I want to pin the wings to the dress rather than wear it by looping it on my arms and wearing it on my back. So it can’t be too big.

And their cost is reasonable too. They range from AUS$23 and above.

They can even custom-make wings. I’ve been in correspondence with Lisa from www.fairy.com.au regarding doing up a pair of wings in the size and I want and in the colour that will match my fairy dress.

I really could not decide because each design was utterly gorgeous. And I had so many questions on what can and can’t be done. Here are some examples of Lisa’s work.

She’s been really helpful and we’ve almost finalized the details. Once I do, in 2 weeks time, I’ll have my fairy wings!

This is so exciting! If the wings are so beautiful on a screen, just imagine how WOW it would be once worn.

4 Months Till The Wedding

The wedding is exactly 4 months away!

After our engagement in January, there seemed to be so much time to plan the wedding. Granted I’ve:

- engaged a wedding planner

- secured the wedding locations

- chosen my wedding dresses

- identified a wedding photographer

- confirmed my hair & make up artist

- purchased part of the wedding favours

But I also have to:

- rush all the florists whom I’ve briefed for their quotes so I can confirm one

- rush the wedding planner to get details of the ROM and pastor

- food tasting for the Chinese banquet dinner and cocktail

- order the wedding cupcakes

- look at wedding cupcake tiered tray for the display

- look for old pics for the wedding video

- work with Sin Cyn and Beryl for a second video

- work with Shell to pick a song which she’ll sing

- remind Paul to check if his friends will be performing

- talk to Chris Viva if he can supply the canopy, stage & lighting

- look at fairy lights and candles to set the mood

- do the pre wedding photography

- select & rent a dress with a long train specifically for the photo shoot (my wedding dresses are very simple so I wanted something more elaborate and different for the shoot)

- buy gold shoes to match my dress for the wedding photography

- see a dentist on possible teeth whitening procedure

- buy the other part of the wedding favour

- look for a good wedding website for the e-invite and RSVPs

- see the card printer for the Chinese wedding banquet wedding invites

- review the design work by the art directors for the e-invite

- brief the copy writer on doing up the e-invitations

- do a trial on hair & make up

- look for accessories to match my various dresses for the various weddings

- book spas, manicures, pedicures and facials

- buy the alcohol for all the weddings

- buy wedding bands. We’ve still not found one we like.

- decide on the size and colours of the fairy wings and order them

and I’m sure there will be many other things as the wedding date comes even closer.

With the amount of work I have to do on my day job, there’s only some weekday evenings and the weekends available to do all of the above.

It’s all very overwhelming. I wished I had less work and more time so I can revel and plan the wedding properly.

Thank God for the wedding planner and friends who have been very supporting and have offered their time, services and ideas to make this wedding as special as I know it will be.

It's No Walk In The Park

I’m in pain! In an effort to be more healthy, and based on the agreement that Fruitcake, Ed, Paul & I made while clubbing in Bamboo9 last week, we decided to get off our lazy asses and stick to the plan.

Paul & I woke up at 7am on Saturday, got dressed and hopped into the car. On the way, I called Fruitcake to make sure they were up and on the way too.

We drove to the Taman Tun Park (not the one with the small lake but the hilly one for serious runners. Yes, we’re ambitious) and thought that there would be an issue with parking. But there were lots of empty lots as people were leaving since they’ve FINISHED their run / jog / walk. And we’re just arriving.

We were surprised to see so many young people among the old. Shouldn’t they be in bed after a night on clubbing on Friday? Fruitcake made a good point. These were probably not the type of people we hung out with during our clubbing days. Such different lifestyles.

Anyway the 4 of us started walking up the hill. We reached some kinda guard house and mentally prepared ourselves for a long walk. After a few minutes, Fruitcake and I were slightly winded but were glad to finally reach the top of the hill. That’s when we saw the word ‘START’ painted on the tarmac. This is the start?!! Then what was the walk up? A warm up?

Talking a deep breath, we started walking, first with Paul and Ed at the back of us. But we were too busy talking and catching up so they guys went ahead of us so that we had someone to follow in terms of pace and don’t drop too far behind.

We went up hill and downhill and up again. I said hello to some monkeys. Then we went downhill. And around a bend. Paul was wearing this Camelbac back pack which held cold water and there was a strap hanging from the bag. I kept on trying to catch up so that I can drab and hang on to the strap so he could tow me up the hill. But I couldn’t even get within 15 feet of him!

Fruitcake and I talked even less as we got more and more winded. We just concentrated on taking the shortest path possible like walking in a straight line if the patch was not too winding.

We went up and down again and we finally arrived back at the guard house where we first saw the word ‘START’. So we made it after all!

It was tough but we made it. And I’m glad we made it. It felt good too. Tiring but the fresh air was such a great change.

We drove around the corner to Jaipur where we heard had great tosai for breakfast.

But I’m in so much pain now. From my hips to my outer thigh to my calves. They really hurt especially after I’ve been seated for a while and get up to walk.

But its good pain and we’re planning to make the walk a weekly affair. It was tough waking up in the morning but once you’re out there, it feels like such a waste to sleep the morning away. We completed the 5km walk on Saturday. We’ll aim for the 9km course after a few more times of going.

Fruitcake and I were just saying that the very fact that we’re doing the walk showed just how much our lifestyle was changing. In our previous life, we’d be going home at 7am AFTER clubbing and not up and ready for a walk.

Yay! Long weekend! The office is closed as replacement for the Agong’s Birthday on Saturday. But then I realized that everyone else is working today! Only the Saatchian were not. Sin Cyn is in Bangkok. So I called Michelle Who Stays on The Seashore and invited her for lunch at Prego. I bought the Starwood membership and it comes with a complementary lunch at Prego for 2 but it’s only valid on weekdays so I thought that this was the perfect opportunity since we’ll not get another day off on an official work day.

I called Westin to make the reservation and within minutes, I received a SMS confirming the reservation! I thought that was interesting. Shell picked me up and we had a lovely lunch.

The soup we both had

The fish which Shell had

I had the penne pasta with a fancy name (but essentially it’s in bolognaise sauce)

All the courses very good and the pasta was al dante (the desired texture of cooked pasta in Italian cooking. It literally means "to the tooth". When the pasta is cooked al dente, there should be a slight resistance in the center when the pasta is chewed). Perfect. I don’t know why but most places cannot cook their pasta al dante. It’s usually always over cooked and soft which irritates the hell out of me. Even high end places don’t always get it right. So I was impressed with the consistency of their pasta.

We had a good meal and stayed on and chatted for almost 3 hours. And within 10 mins of us leaving, I received another SMS from Prego saying ‘Thank you for dining with us’. That was truly a very nice thought. 5 star hotels are these big establishment from whom we’ve come to expect good service but they do seems a bit cold and distant apart from the good service from their staff. But those SMSes just put them tops in my book as they’ve just made that dining experience that much more personal. I'll be back there again.

Raj & Diva's Wedding - 8 June 2008

Congrats Raj and Diva on your wedding! Diva looked absolutely gorgeous, as every bride should be on their wedding. Their entry into the grand ball room of the Royal Selangor Club was accompanied by traditional Indian drums and much fanfare. They then did the cake cutting and feeding ceremony. Then there were loads of performances from traditional dances to Hindi song singing to even Indian rap.

Weddings are great places for reunions so I caught up with the Taylorians. We graduated in 1996. Wow that’s 12 years. Sure doesn’t feel like 12 years. And when together, we almost act like time never passed and the same jokes and slag lines we said together would come out all over again. Some things never change.

Paul & I

Wendy, Sri Pickles Baby & I

The gang and some of our partners, minus Sainthan who’s in Romania and hardly talks to us anymore!

L to R: Paul, me, Vignesh, Geoffrey, Susan, Patrick, Raj, Sri, Wendy & Ee.

I was talking about the performances of the wedding to Sri Pickles Baby and the conversation turned to the performances by our Drama Society while we were in college. We sure did quite a few productions. We even did one for charity! And Sri was really famous for singing this ‘Sunrangani’ song where he’ll create a beat by just banging on tables or whatever he can put his palm on and he’ll sing and make up the lyrics as he goes along. It’s funny and everyone cracks up laughing till he sings out your name and adds a bad trait of yours into the song for everyone’s laughter.

Michelle will be singing a song at my wedding. And Paul is inviting a friend who plays the viola at the Philharmonic Orchestra to come play too. And I thought that Sri could come and do his Surangani for old time sake and it’s incredibly entertaining too. We were discussing the details of that when I realized that most of the Drama Society members were on our table anyway so I asked all of them if they would like to perform a skit at my wedding, director by Sri, and they all said yes!

This is fantastic! I’m going to have a song sung, a musical instrument played and a skit performed at my wedding! I love it that all my friends are so involved and want to be a party of my wedding and contribute more than just being a guest. All that’s missing now is a dance performance!

Clubbing With The Insane Friends

Since the petrol hike, prices of everything have gone up. Before they go up even further Marsupial suggested that we go out for a last night of clubbing before even the clubs get hit. So we went to Tao. The opening 2 weeks ago wasn’t anything to shout about but we though we’d go back since an opening does not depict a club at it’s usual state. But nope, still nothing to shout about and there were not many people there. The consolation was that we got a table. We bought a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label but it was fake. So that sucked. Then Sue Ann came over, convinced us to go to Bamboo9, made us drink another bottle and before you knew it, it was 4am!

Clubbing just isn’t fun anymore because the clubs are not of the same quality as before and also we’re all just jaded. We’ve chased and achieved such high (not necessarily from the alcohol only) that nothing can compare anymore.

But it sure was fun going out for a night out with the old gang! And our partners.

Friday Night KFC & Prison Break

On Friday, Paul and I went to KFC Taman Tun. They have one of the best fried chicken among the rest of the KFCs. The KFC in Atria comes a close second. Don’t ask me why or how but the Taman Tun one just tastes so much better. And KFC already tastes so damn good. So it is the best of the best among all the KFCs which we’ve tried in the Klang Valley. We went to pack a bucket of chicken and went home to eat and watch the entire Prison Break Season 3. We slept at 4am. It was a great night of yummy chicken and yummy Wenworth Miller.

Saturday Afternoon with Insane Friends

Fruitcake, Michelle Who Stays On The Seashore, Marsupial and I went to the Big Book Shop Warehouse sale at Atria followed by coffee at one of the kopitiam in the mall (there wasn’t a Starbucks or Coffee Bean).

We had a conversation about who among us was the weirdest or the most insane.

Out of the 4, we all agreed that Gerry was at one far end of the insanity spectrum. That’s why she’s called Loony. She’s certifiable too. And I’m the next, that’s why I’m called Loopy. And Michelle Who Stays On The Seashore and Marsupial both agreed that they are not totally insane but they are closer towards the sanity.

Fruitcake and I have a hundred insane stories about what we’ve done together and it’s still funny every single time we re-tell them. Too many to be stated here. We could even write a book on them.

Michelle Who Stays On The Seashore and Marsupial have only a few weird things so we agreed they were a bit more sane than us.

Michelle has a fascination with death and she likes slit wrist songs. And she’s scared of fish, even fish who are small and cute like Nemo the clown fish.

Marsupial bought a car without being able to drive, does not want to dive in case he looked like a penguin when wearing a dive suit, takes 45 mins to shower each time and there are a few more things he won’t be comfortable me stating here for the world to read. Hehehe!

We then began to think about all of my friends and tried to pick up names of people who were totally sane or as close to sane as possible.

Sin Cyn is so motherly and caring most of the time but at an instant can flip and be all cutesy and child-like.

Smelly Slutty Cheryl drinks like a fish and when drunk, she goes around kissing and climbing (yes, climbing as in climb a tree) everyone. The climbing is made easier since she’s small in size.

DJ Chris needs to eat pork at least once a day. If he does not consume pork for breakfast or lunch, by evening, he’ll he incredible scared that he’ll turn stupid and will have to go immediately for a plate of siew yoke fan or char siew fan.

Superstar Raj doesn’t seem to look for trouble but trouble agrees with him. Like the time he came to my pool party, got stripped by 2 gay guys, popped out of the pool totally naked and ran to his bag and bends over to find a pair of shorts while fully mooning my colleagues for a few seconds before running towards the spot light where he’s in full view of the 50 other people. Or the time he went to Samui for a full moon party and got bitten by a snake in the club. And these are just 2 examples. I’ve loads more.

But Teoh really takes the cake. Fruitcake and I first met Teoh through Raj a few years ago at an Oktoberfest event in 1U. After introductions were made, he proceeded to tell us that he likes and has a need to be naked. And that if he takes a dump even in a public place, he’ll need to remove all his clothes and every item on him including his watch. I don’t know what’s weirder – that he needs to be totally naked when taking a dump even in public toilets or him telling people he just met about it. And he recently went camping alone in the jungle just to see if he’ll get scared. He wanted to be ‘at one’ with nature. But I asked him and he verified that the real reason he did it is so that he can be totally naked in the jungle! Or the time after clubbing when were went to Fruitcake’s place and he insisted that we play a stripping game so he had a reason to be naked. And when a friend was a bit shy, he volunteer to strip on his behalf.

So we concluded no matter how insane Gerry is, Teoh beats her hands down.

And we also concluded that while no one is really truly totally sane, my friends tend to be a lil more insane than the average person out there.

Petrol Price Hike - Did you queue for an hour?

I heard about the massive traffic jams last night and the 1 hour wait at all the petrol stations last night.

I said ‘heard’ because as soon as I heard about the petrol price hike via all the SMSes which were coming in, I stayed in my housing area for dinner and drinks and made sure I was no where near a petrol station.

I don’t understand the mad rush to fill petrol last night. Sure the price went up by 78 sen per litre which is a significant hike. But for the average 1.5 litre car out there, how much are u going to save by pumping petrol last night? RM20+? And that is if u had an empty tank. If not, you’ll be saving 10 bucks.

Is it worth queuing for 1 hour to save RM20? My time cost per hour is surely worth more than that. And it’s a one time saving. Tomorrow or the day after when you’ll need to fill petrol, you’ll be paying the new prices anyway. I don’t get it. Okay maybe for the poorer among us, RM20 means a lot and it is worth the 1 hour wait. But for the rich among us, those who drive Merc n Beemers? Sure, the capacity of the car is larger and they can fill more and save more. Maybe they can save a one time RM50? But if you can afford a continental car, do you really want to save RM50 by waiting in queue rather than having a nice dinner with the family or staying in the comfort of your home watching TV?

Long Lost Aunt & Other Family Members

I had a very interesting night last night. I met an aunt which I haven’t met and kinda didn’t know existed for the past 31 years.

I always knew that my dad had one sister. That’s the aunt I know. But she’s rather elusive. Long story.

And recently, I received a SMS from another person saying that she’s my aunt and that she would like to invite me to her son, aka my cousin’s wedding.

After investigating, I found out that my paternal grand father had 2 wives and this new aunt, Aunt Myra, was the youngest daughter of my grand father from the second wife! And she has a brother. So now instead of 1 aunt, I now have 2 aunts and 1 uncle!

And apparently there were a lot of non official wives. It was very common then.

We decided to meet up cos it would be really strange for me to attend and wedding and not know the bride and groom. Nor know whom I’m related to in the room since it is a relatives’ wedding.

We met up in Sid’s and had a fantastic time! Both my aunt and her husband were a hoot and we had such a great time catching up, drinking and talking.

And I found out so much about my family line. Some things I knew already but some were complete revelations.

I knew that my great great grand father was Yap Ah Syak (you know the road in KL with the good food). And he was a real gangster! The Kapitans ruled KL!

What I didn’t know was that:

- he was the 4^th Kapitan Cina in KL (Yap Ah Loy was the first and no one know much about the 2^nd and the 3^rd)

- the family used to own two thirds of the land in KL (I could have been a multi multi multi billionaire today if it wasn’t the curse of money not lasting more than 3 generations. Dammit!)

- The family house used to be on Jalan Bukit Bintang and anyone who isn’t a Yap who slept in the house, always woke up outside or in another part of the house! Apparently the ghosts of the ancestors only looked after the Yaps and didn’t like outsiders.

I thought my family was small but about a decade ago, The Star did an article about my Aunt and Yap Ah Shak and she managed to find 72 different relatives to attend a dinner. 10 years on, I probably have more than a hundred relatives out there I don’t know about!

This is going to be an interesting wedding indeed!

But like Paul said, just hope that I don’t meet an ex boyfriend there!