Vincent Wong n Siew Fong (3)

Dinner was at the Mines Beach and Spa Resort. It was meant to be a beach party. However, the skies were not cooperative and it drizzled causing a last minute change to a sit down table setting in the restaurant.

Yours truly was co-opted to be the MC for the night. Confusion reigned for the first hour or so as the hotel staff struggled to lay out the tables and numbered them so that guests could be properly seated. One of the people at my table added to the confusion by swapping the numbers around as he preferred a particular table that he was seated at. That table was reserved for Esther's brother and relatives!

The night started with an invitation to Pastor Michael to bless the couple and give thanks for the food. With that gorging began.

The Yam Seng toast was suppose to start at 8pm but got delayed as the groom had left the wine at home. Luckily that was nearby. So I spent some time to help collect all the ang pows (red packets) to count and collate. Lesson I learn from V and M's wedding, you need a lot of helpers in all the activities from front desk reception all the way to the end of the day. And Vincent's dinner could have done with more helpers!

When the wine arrived, I did my assigned job as MC, got the couple through the pouring of the wine and did just one round of Yam seng (as agreed with the groom) and went back happily to gorging myself.

As people started leaving, we decided to call it a day

Congratulations Vincent and Siew Fong! May your lives be white haired together.

Vincent Wong n Siew Fong (2)

FINALLY!!! Vincent passed his wedding photos over. The first couple of times, the CD writer at the photographer was acting up - the CDs that were burned could not be read.

So.... where was I? This is like Lee Tai Sor's story telling. Like in the old days when we had cabled radio called Rediffusion. The last time, the story ended at the tea ceremony in Tanjong Malim.

And so, from Tanjong Malim, it took a little more than 1 hour to get back to the groom's house in Lagenda Mas(LM) for the next tea ceremony with the groom's family and friends. Arriving at LM, the bride and groom were not allowed to get out of the car until they "bribed" the youngest of the Wong family - in this case Vincent's nephew. He made life difficult for them - more difficult than Siew Fong's brother in Tanjong Malim. In the end, the bribe was sufficient and the happy couple could get out.

The tea ceremony started off with Vincent's parents. They had waited more than 20 years for this and you can certainly tell from Esther's happy reaction after taking the tea!! Then it was the turn of all the relatives in order of seniority, followed by siblings and the young ones. Unexpectedly, I was also asked to partake in the tea ceremony as an old friend of the family. Blush blush - did not prepare myself with the red packet and had to get one from Grace in a hurry.

And again, when the tea ceremony was over, it was photo ops time. Family first. Then friends, and family and friends combo and so on. The photos were the reason, I had delayed writing on this. I had no photos of Alex and myself with the happy couple as were we taking the photos and videos. For the tea ceremony, I was showing up in almost all the shots as I had positioned myself opposite the official photographers to get the videos.

And to cap off the morning's events, Vincent carried Siew Fong into the bedroom. He must have been practicing for quite a while since they are both about the same size. You can almost hear him go "Phew - what did she eat this morning??"

One more main event to go- the evening dinner for family and friends.

An uncouth, ill mannered BITCH

We were eating in KFC, Mid Valley and when my wife went to wash her hand, an impatient bitch slapped her back and asked her to hurry up. Hello - in good time - when the washing is done. You think the world revolve around you ah?

The bitch was sitting alone and hoarding at least 3 bottles of chilli sauce.
Bitch!

Happy New Year 2009

We need 2009 to be a happy year. A year that will see the economic crisis recovering. A year to see careers progress. A year to see family and friends feel good about.

So....
Happy New year to one and all.
May your blessings be big and small
Don't spend all your money at the mall
And you can be sure you can walk tall

I've never made New Year resolutions before, much less public resolutions. But maybe making them publicly would help me achieve them. Here goes
- to weigh 95kg or less by 31st Dec 2009
- to visit Gua Tempurung
- to complete a 10km walk/run by year end


I am not that ambitious - 3 should be enough goals for me to hit. And they are the toughest goals.

Observations of Penang

During the last holiday trip to Penang, I made 3 key observations that I would like to share

FOOD
At many of the food stalls - the hawker stalls - the serving is rather small. Not that you should complain as the price is also relatively low (low not cheap). I ordered Char Kway Teow and it was just enough for 3 large bites. Had to complement that with Prawn mee which turns out to be 2 mouths full (for RM2.50). On the bright side, this allows you to savour more types of Penang food without burning too big a hole in your pocket.

GURNEY DRIVE
Lesson to be learnt from the Christmas celebrations - do NOT go anywhere near there in your car. The Penangites will literally rock your car with you in it and spray you and the car with (if God was merciful), genuine fake snow. When we looked at Gurney drive in the evening of boxing day, the tide was out and you can see hundreds of cans of aerosols strewn all over the sea bed. Disgusting!!

And since this was the biggest tourist trap on the island, food here costs a lot more and is just so so. Go and look for food in the older parts of Penang. You won't regret it.

SHIPS
Since Penang has a port, you can expect many ships to be calling here. For the 3 days we were there, I caught the same ship on camera steaming towards the port (on 2 of those mornings). The zoom on my camera ( a Lumix DMZ TC15) is great. I can zoom in onto an object from a great distance, snap that photo. Then I review the photo and zoom in again (I am using 9M resolution) and I can make out the names of the ships although the shot may have been taken about 1km or more away.

I manage to catch the AMUSEMENT WORLD in the evening from Gurney drive - just sitting there. And then on 2 subsequent mornings, I caught it again heading towards port. I wonder if this is one of those casino ships which anchors just outside in International Waters so that gambling can take place.

So I googled it and voila - I am right!!

As Amusement World she is owned by Jackston MTME Ltd., Singapore and sails on non-landing gambling cruises from the port of Penang(Malaysia). Although she is nearly 40 years old she operates two 9 hour cruises from Penang each day is very reliable and popular with the local Chinese gambling community.

AS one gets to the end of this additional information you will see that she has had a very colourful recent history!

IMO number:	6620773	Name of ship:	AMUSEMENT WORLD
Call Sign:	T2JA2	Gross tonnage:	12764
Type of ship:	Passenger Ship	Year of build:	1967
Flag:	Tuvalu	Status of ship:	In Service
Registered owner:	JACKSTON MTME LTD	Address:	05-31, Ubi Avenue 1, Singapore SINGAPORE
Ship manager:	UNIVERSAL SHIPMANAGEMENT	Address:	05-31, Ubi Avenue 1, Singapore SINGAPORE