You are invited…

Yes, we were invited to my friends’ eldest son’s wedding last Saturday…

…and of course, we all made an effort to attend the wedding service at the cathedral here in the morning. As I have said many times before, to me, that is the most significantly important part of any wedding and I would make it a point to attend any that I am invited to.

That night, we went to the grand reception in one of the ballrooms at a hotel in town…

We went very early (as you can see in the photograph) as with 4 ballrooms in one hotel and all were being used that night, we wanted to avoid the jam. I guess not everyone was thinking along that same line and that was why the dinner stared at least an hour after the time stated in the  invitation card. Thankfully, it isn’t quite as bad here as in KL…yet.

As usual, there was the more-than-Four Seasons…

…to kick off the dinner followed by this very nice black chicken & fish maw soup…

Yes, many here have opted not to serve the offensive not-to-be-named soup, the main ingredient of which is actually completely tasteless and other than its snob appeal among some communities, I really do not see why anyone should insist on having that.

We were kind of disappointed that the specialty of the house, the duck stuffed with glutinous rice…

…was not all that nice that night – it certainly was a lot better the last time we had it. I guess that is the problem when there are too many functions at one venue and the kitchens would have to cope with the crowd. I was telling somebody at the table that it probably would be best to get married during the Chinese 7th Month as the restaurants would be deserted and they may even give a special discount. The colour is probably due to the lightning though – not that it was purple or anything like that but yes, there was a part inside where the rice was not really cooked and I thought the chestnuts were on the hard side as well.

The steamed fish…

…and in fact, everything else, was fine.

I did not manage to take a photograph of the broccoli and mushroom dish as it was served when I went out to have some fresh air and by the time I came back, they were already halfway through. Hehehehehe!!!! The prawn dish…

…came right before the deep-fried Chinese pancakes with bean paste filling and the honeydew melon dessert and despite the not-very-satisfactorily-done duck, all in all, it was an enjoyable dinner.

My friends were my colleague/fellow-teachers so it sure felt like some kind of a reunion that night – getting to see all the familiar faces from the various schools once again…and that certainly made the evening all the more delightful, I must say.

Congratulations once again to the newly-weds, Daniel and Natalie…

All good wishes and may God bless you two abundantly in the years ahead…and thank you so much, Catherine and Stephen, for the invitation to share the joy on this very happy and auspicious occasion in your lives.