Hubby's Confirmation

After having been a Catholic all his life (save for the first month before he was baptised), Hubby finally went through his confirmation; at the ripe, old age of 28 (old in terms of confirmation). He got 'caught' by Fr. Richards when he had to submit his baptism cert for the wedding. So Fr. Rich got him to join in the confirmation this time round.

As he had to go much earlier for the prayers and preparation before mass, Hubby left the car to me and walked to church. Luckily there was an empty slot by the side of the road without any cars in front or behind. So I could easily slot myself in without having to parallel park. Haha...I'm not at all confident that I can parallel park. Although when push comes to shove, I think I would have been able to do it.

Hubby's mian zi (face value) is quite big. Big enuff to have his sister, who hasn't attended mass for godzillion years, come for his confirmation mass. Not bad! And it is a good thing that Damien wanna attend church. So Diana got the forms to enrol both Damien and Jemas for Cathechism classes. We'll see where that leads the children to. Hopefully to Christ.

After mass, we went for lunch at Tiong Bahru Plaza with Hubby's godparents. Oh, and did I mention we played mahjong till almost 5am on Saturday and I was so afraid Hubby would fall asleep during homily. He usually dozes off during homily and I had to pinch him to keep him awake. During the confirmation mass I couldn't sit with him. So I was afraid he will doze off. But he didn't, which is good. Haha....

Starting of a Long Weekend

I'm so glad the weekend is here. Although I am not working anymore, the long weekend means Hubby can stay at home on Monday and keep me company. As mentioned in my previous post, we stayed at home and had a home-cooked meal.

It was a lot of effort and I'm quite pleased with the apple crumble that I baked for Hubby. It's one of the desserts he likes and I'm glad my first effort was successful. Although it required quite a lotta work, it was quite easy to make.

The kitchen was in quite a mess but Hubby helped to clean up. The rest of the mess was cleared up after dinner and we managed to restore the kitchen to its state before the dinner.

We went to Night Safari again cos we got the entrance ticket revalidated due to some unpleasant experience on our first visit there the previous week. This time round, we had much more fun than we did the previous time. It was a good thing we decided to walk around and not leave straight after the tram ride. The walk proved to be fun as they were having some scare in honour of Halloween and some of them can be quite good if they weren't discovered by others. Some of them didn't manage to fulfill their job of scaring others cos they are constantly being 'grabbed' by passers-by to take photo. So they ended up being objects of photo-taking rather than 'ghosts'.

The walk worked up an appetite and we went for a simple dinner. It was good and I must say pretty affordable. For 5 dishes and 1 soup, we were only charged for $65 and the food fed a total of 6 pax. Not bad at all.

Let's see if we're really going to JB for seafood tomorrow. Cos we received some ringgit for our wedding dinner angpow and are trying to spend it. :o)

Random Thots

I was waiting for the apples to cool and had nothing to do (I'm baking apple crumble as dessert for Hubby and my weekly 'pat tor' night. To save money, cos we really spent A LOT this month, I decided to cook myself). So I took to reading my friends' blogs and saw what Elaine wrote.

Yes, indeed, life is fragile. We dun really know what's gonna happen tomorrow and what is in store for us. Fr. Rich has been challenging the parish on what our purpose in life is and I have been asking myself that question. It used to be that I wanna accomplish loads and climb the corporate laddar. I wanna go all the way to the top, surpassing TC and I set a time frame for myself. But as time goes by and I grow older, my priorities in life changed and I gave up climbing. I have found my purpose and my 'calling' (dunno if you can call that a calling). But God has not blessed me with that gift as yet. Some parts of me know that God will provide. But in His time. Yet, it is disheartening when you discover it is not to be and you keep thinking if you are paying the consequences for certain actions in the past.

Chum, if you are reading this, please do straighten out your life. Being stuck in a job that makes you so bitter is not worth it, for all the promotions and money it gives you. There are much more to life that that. I dun want you to end up like TC. Gave half her life to the hotel only to be unappreciated and left with nothing.

Those who are close to me know that something has happened at home that is beyond our control. Yes, dad is ill. Very ill, in fact, and the outcome that mum and I have been waiting for for many, many years has now realised itself. We knew this day will come but the severity of the situation is something that I have never thought of. We're still waiting for the report from SGH and they are really taking their own sweet time. I was thinking if it'll be easier for him to just go. It may sound callous. But is it really? Should he really have to go through all that and then die? Wouldn't it be better for him to live the rest of his days without the torture? What is he hanging on for? And we are expecting the surgery to solve one of his many ailments. What if it doesn't? What if the worst case scenario happened and the surgery actually expedited his death? Oh well, we leave that choice up to him.

My only regret is that he has obstinately refused Christ over the years. I wonder if we have done him harm by bringing that knowledge to him. Had we not preached Christ to him, would it have been a case of 'what he doesn't know can't hurt him'? Then he wouldn't have consciously made the decision to turn away from Christ. He would have been in a state of ignorance and that would have been better than him rejecting Christ. But then we wouldn't have been doing what Christ wanted us to do. Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma....Let's hope mum can take this well. They may have been on bad terms for as long as I can remember. But she is still a woman with emotions and she still does have feelings for dad, albeit masked by years of disappointments and resentment. Afterall, they were once happily in love and they shared years of history together. With our impending move overseas, let's hope mum and sis will be strong enough to ride this without bro and me. Let's leave it in the hands of our Creator.

Our Wedding Montage

O What A Week!

Last week has to be the most eventful week in my life thus far. 2 major events took place one after another.

After a long battle with the church (those close to me will know what happened), I finally was able to get myself baptized in time for me to hold my church wedding too! It was a great regret when I was told I can't get baptized and when the reality of not being able to hold a church wedding sank in.

I've always wanted to hold a church wedding so that our marriage will be witnessed by our friends and family and recognised and blessed by God. The only third party I want in our marriage is God and only with Him watching over us will I be reassured that the marriage is protected.

With the help of a friend (thanks, Damien!), I made a few calls and although was frustrated and disappointed time and time again, I finally managed to break through the gates and enter into the family home of God - the church. I almost wanted to give up after several failed attempts. But friends kept egging me on and their constant question about the progress 'forced' me to go on and I'm glad I did. Thanks to you, Damien, Amanda and Elaine! I'm sure God will bless you richly. And Damien, to your impending wedding, all the best!!!

It was a long and tough journey. But I am glad I have arrived and on 9 October, I was baptized and formally accepted into the family.

It was a busy day. Since I was staying the night at my mum's, I had to pack everything to be brought for the wedding the next day and to go for my mani and padi as well. As a result, I couldn't make it to church early for my baptism and was there on the dot! I was so embarrassed cos Fr. Richards got some of the helpers from RCIA to come along to witness the ceremony and all of them were already there half an hour earlier. I felt bad that they had to rush down from work cos of me and yet I wasted their time. Oops!

We had to start the ceremony at 7pm cos of RCIA which starts at 7.30pm for attendance. Elaine was late cos she was 'caught' by Shyann who insisted on tagging along. So Hubby had to stand in as the Godparent cos Fr. Rich didn't wanna wait anymore.

After RCIA, Hubby sent me back to mum's and then went back home to continue with more preparations for the wedding before returning to his own mum's place for the night.

10 October 2008. The big day. I couldn't sleep the night before so woke up even before the alarm went off. As I was sick and didn't have time to eat the day before, mum made me a bowl of porridge and insisted that I finished it off while I waited for the make-up artiste to arrive. As usual, she was late. And when she finally arrived and started to apply foundation to my face, Hubby called and said they are arriving! They were an hour earlier than scheduled! So kiasu! But I gathered being early is better than being caught in the morning rush-hour jam. So they went for breakfast at Mac's while I finished my make-up.

The whole day of events finally kicked off with the honking of the horns and Hubby and his entourage made their way up.

The sisters prepared some really disgusting stuff in anticipation of their arrival and it wasn't after 45 minutes or so that Hubby finally got to see me. Great job, gals!

Then we started our rah-rah of the customary wedding before proceeding to church for the more meaningful ceremony. I was looking forward to that more than the tea ceremony and what not. The first sentimental emotions that I felt for the day started in church. I started to tear. But held it back for fear of smudging my make-up. The church wedding meant so much more to me.

The ceremony closed with a buffet lunch which we arranged. Then we proceeded to Conrad where we'll be staying for the night. To my dismay, the suite wasn't ready so Hubby and I stayed in the helpers' rooms first. I was slightly cheesed off cos Hubby and I could have napped for a while if the suite was ready. End up we only got to step into the suite at about 5pm and after a quick shower, Hubby had to make his way to CHIJMES and I started on my make-up for the evening. So we didn't get to rest at all. Thanks to the Front Office team at Conrad.

When Amanda and I arrived at CHIJMES in the bridal car, there were already a lot of guests. I was glad cos I wanted to start the dinner latest at 8pm, if not 7.30pm. I went around mingling with the guests and was enjoying myself throroughly when Hubby said we can't start dinner yet as we were waiting for some of his relatives. That got me riled. Why should we wait for some people who weren't even interested or courteous enough to arrive on time? But knowing Hubby, he'll give in to his father and no matter what I said, he'll wait. I was extremely irritated and totally ready to throw a tantrum. Ggggrrrr.....

The dinner went well and I enjoyed it. The only thing that marred the evening was my evening gown. It was too tight for me to be comfortable and right after the photo-taking, I had no choice but to change into my kua, which I didn't like. But at least it's comfortable.

After sending some guests off, Hubby and I finally had the chance to sit down and have some fun with our friends.

After some credit card issues, we finally was able to return to the hotel. The guys came over to our room for a short chat before Hubby zonked out on the toilet bowl while trying to vomit and I had to half drag him onto the bed. Seeing that their job was accomplished, the rest of them went back to their room and we called it a day.

The day went past in a flash; before I had the chance to really savour every moment. Thinking back, Hubby and I didn't managed to immerse ourselves in the day and really enjoy it. We were too busy running around. If we could rewind the day and do it all over again, I would have slowed down a little and commit more to memory.