Scenes behind the Dinner

I had like 5 hours of sleep the night before the D-day as there was so much to do. Helped wife to sort out the flowers in the morning (as in cut the leaves and thorns etc) and she had to do 12 floral arrangements in the morning.

I drove first to Langat with my friends (the emcee aka Yo, the music man aka Ajak and the assistant aka Yeh) in two other cars at about 12 noon. Followed the usual way through Ampang Point/Bukit Belacan way but whaddaya know...the road was jammed right from Ampang Point. Made a detour following MRR2 through Taman Kencana (I roughly know the way but man....I got a bit lost without my entourage realizing that I was groping in the dark). Eventually made it to the road leading to Langat. Reached Langat close to 1 pm... Not long after that, my aunt from Muar arrived with the telur pindang (eggs cooked with herbs and spices) to give out to guests - a symbol of prosperity and longevity. We started unloading stuff from an MPV and two cars (imagine the amount of stuff we brought along!). My sis and hubby arrived soon after.

Couldn't do much except to place the telur pindang in the netting of the bunga pahar and assembling the sound system.

My heart dropped by the sound of thunder rumbling across the hills...It was looking very bleak but somehow it didn't rain heavily - just drizzled intermittently. Whtever it was, the show had to go on.

We were so annoyed with the resort people...They promised that we could start decorating the tables by 3.30 pm....It was already 4.30 pm and that group which gate-crashed our booking was using the lawn under the canopy for their telematch.....! Complained and complained but fell on deaf ears. We decided to concentrate on decorating the dais area plus working Yusof and Afiq on the speech and of course the rehearsal for the singing etc.

Finally at 6pm they laid the tables and chairs under the canopy. Another heart-dropping incident - the guest tables were draped in blue table cloths . Blue with our red (ruby) theme? I had the management office confirm that they have red table cloths for the guest tables....What now? Apparently they only have a few for that table size we were using! Two hours to go.....no point arguing with an incompetent lot as there were a lot of things left to be completed!

I haven't told you this....The day before the bash my parents' car broke down and they had to order spareparts from KL and they could only get it on Monday (1st April 2007)! Discussed amongst siblings and despatched my bro to fetch them!

But then, with all the odds against us, we braved through it amongst us....Thanks everybody!

Part of the floral arrangements

Telur pindang


The boys inserting telur pindang into the netting egg holder

Emcee/best friend/Yo behind the bunga pahar

Me brother coaching Afiq, his son with the opening speech

Putting the turpentine in to the kerosene lamp

Whilst the preparation was on going, the guests had a gala time frolicking in the stream.

The gynae, teacher and homemaker practising their repertoire giving Kris Dayanti, Titi DJ and Ruth Sahanaya aka three divas, a run for their money!

Menu card

Agenda

The dais prepared by my aunt with the help of my cousins

The favour with a thank you note (lyrics of Where do I begin - my parents' favourite song which is also the theme song for the night i.e. the first song in the video clip posted earlier)

The main table where my parents and their siblings and in-laws sat

The guest table

The registration table minus the guest book