I went to your wedding…

Jude was actually my sister’s student in another school but I had heard a lot about him from her. Some of his classmates were in my tuition class but not him, and I only got to meet him personally when he joined my Lower 6 MUET class when he came to Sacred Heart School to do Form 6. But he did not stay very long as he left for further studies after a month or two. The next time I saw him again, he had already graduated and was working in Miri… 

Anyway, fast forward to…yesterday, 26th November, 2008. Jude got married to Claire at the Church of St Mary of Divine Mercy here in Sibu…

This was the bridal car. Note the traditionally-Chinese red lanterns!

And here you can see the bride about to enter the church. Note the traditionally-Chinese red umbrella!

In the background, you can see Jude’s younger brother – blogger Clement who was the designated chaufeeur for the day. To the left, you can see two of the fleet of Kenari’s that were prepared to transport guests to the wedding and back.

This next photo shows the father of the bride leading his daughter down the aisle to the altar to give away her hand in marriage…

…and an emotional moment was when Jude hugged the soon-to-be father-in-law and the old man broke down in tears! Gee! I think I would also cry at my daughter’s wedding….hehehe!!! Here you can see the congregation and the wedding mass in progress…

Eyew! That lady two rows in front of me had just gone for cupping! I wouldn’t want to wear that blouse if I were her! LOL!!! And once the service was over, Jude and Claire walked out of the church, now man and wife…

…and here’s a photo of the happy newly-weds!

Note the traditionally-Chinese gold chain. Well, at least, she has good taste…unlike the bride in China that I had a post on sometime ago. LOL!!! Jude saw me and told Claire, “Look! Look over there! Stp’s taking our photo! You’ll get to see it in his blog!” Hahahahaha!!! Am I that predicatable, Jude? But the picture has turned out pretty nice, don’t you think? Especially when considering that it was taken with my miserable handphone with photo-snapping facility and my amateur photo-taking skill.

The wedding reception was held in the evening at the Phoenix Court, the Chinese restaurant at the Paramount Hotel. However, the lighting was poor so I did not bother to take any photographs to post.

Well, once again, our heartiest congratulations to the two of you, Jude and Claire, from my sister and me…and here’s wishing both of you blue skies and everything nice in the years ahead.

Empty garden…

Noontime on Tuesday, my daughter and I went to the Sibu Esplanade…

…because we wanted to go to The Ark for lunch. The restaurant is located to the left of this waterfront park, if you are facing the mighty Rejang River, the longest in Malaysia…

Those are the express boats that link Sibu to the towns upriver like Song, Kapit and Belaga. Here, if somebody tells you that he came by express, he is not talking about a bus or a train, but one of those boats instead.

Unfortunately, The Ark is closed on Tuesdays, so the two of us went to the Garden Hotel cafe instead. This is the open air section outside…

…and as you can see, it was empty. Inside, it wasn’t much better with around 3-4 tables occupied only, a far cry from those days when the place would be packed by yuppies on their lunch break. I also noticed that it was somewhat dimmer than the last time I had dinner there with a sweet and young birthday girl but I reckoned that they must be trying to cut down the electricity charges.

I had the RM8++ set lunch…

I had the fried lamb with curry sauce and two side dishes – fried ladies fingers and sambal ikan bilis, plus rice and complimentary soup…

…and a free cold drink…

My daughter had the iced Milo and this plate of fish and chips from the a la carte menu…

I did not check the price but I guess it is still around RM11-12++ but it was a lot less substantial than before, that’s for sure, and I do wish they would serve the tartar sauce in something more presentable than that horrendous melamine bowl. No wonder business seems so poor these days especially when compared to the time with their RM5 nett set lunch – one specific set menu per day for the whole month. Now it is RM9.20 altogether and they give a choice of one out of 4 or 5 set meals everyday in one entire month. They should have maintained the old prices and with the huge turnover, they would be reaping higher profits, I’m sure, even though they may be earning less from each diner.

Compared to what they used to serve before, the set lunch was not really that great and at that price, especially during such difficult times economically, I am sure it will just go on being one pathetic and miserable empty garden….