The wedding of my niece and her groom culminated with a grand banquet…
…held at the sparkling new hall at this recently-completed building in town.
The door gifts…
…included a pair of lovey-dovey heart-shaped glass photo frames and a box containing personalised red velvet cookies and a slice of cake – if I’m not mistaken, it was the hati parek with its lovely rich taste of fruit (raisins or prune).
Upon the arrival of the newly-weds, they took their places at the pelamin (dais) and there followed the bersanding and menepung tawar ceremony…
…with the blessings by the distinguished guests and the immediate members of the couple’s families.
After that, the couple proceeded to the main table…
…where they were seated with the guest-of-honour, the bride’s paternal grand-uncle, my maternal uncle.
Dinner was served in what I always call “the dome” – I used to have that very frequently at hotel restaurants and other venues on my working trips here, there and everywhere in the peninsula prior to my retirement but this was the first time I had seen this here. Selections included the ayam masak merah (red-cooked chicken)…
…and the Sarawak’s own daging masak hitam (black-cooked beef)…
I loved the pineapple curry…
…and the acar ikan masin (pickled salted fish)…
…though the latter was a tad too salty. It would be good to soak the salted fish first so it would not be so salty in which case, I would be able to indulge in more of it. Hehehehehe!!!!
There were the acar limau (calamansi lime pickle) and fruits as well and to go with all those, we were given a choice of white rice or nasi kuning (yellow rice)…
I would say that I enjoyed the dinner very much, a nice change from the usual Chinese dinners at the hotels or restaurants.
In the course of the evening, the sister of the bride…
…gave a very delightful and entertaining speech.
Gee! I love weddings, I really do and I would say I enjoyed the evening very much, basking in all the joy and the splendour…and there will be another one coming up at the end of next week – I’m certainly looking forward to that.
In the meantime, here’s wishing the two of you again, Nadya and Helmi, everlasting love and happiness and all the best in the years ahead. Cheers!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 