I remember her…

Do you remember her? Stephanie, my ex-student in my English language tuition class a long time ago. She used to make those awesome mushroom pies and cheese tarts and chicken pies and also the lovely cupcakes and she would always make it a point to send some over to my house for me to try. That was when she had graduated and was waiting for her posting whilst pursuing her post-graduate studies. Well, she has been teaching at a school in Kapit, a town upriver, for sometime now and on Tuesday this week, she tied the knot with Andrew, lucky guy, at the cathedral here…

Of course I was at the service – I always consider that to be the most important part of any wedding though usually, you would see a lot more people showing up for the banquet…

…held at one of the grand ballrooms at one of the leading hotels in town…

I made it a point to go early for fear of not being able to find a parking space…

…but I think many did not have that same idea in mind so the guests trickled in rather slowly…

…and it was way over an hour after the time stated in the invitation card when the event…

…started. I guess that was not too bad – I hear that in places like KL, if it says 7.00 p.m., one should expect it to start at around 9.00 p.m. even. Good grief!!!

Dinner was good…

…but after the first two dishes, the rest…

…took quite a while to be served…

…and I did not take any photographs of those that came when I went out to stretch my legs. Hehehehe!!!

Yes, like the last time I had dinner here, they were pretty efficient where the serving of the food…

…was concerned albeit a bit staggered, probably the fault of the people in the kitchen but yes, like that previous time too, the “wallflowers” were quite happy to hang around the drink stations instead of going round to refill everyone’s glasses as and when necessary. Note how in the 2nd photograph above, there was not a single one of them in sight.

This time, I was seated right beside one of those stations and it was very convenient for me to go and help myself. There was one guy at my table who sat there, his glass empty, for quite a long time and in the end, he too had to get up and go to get his drink himself…and there was one at the next table who went and got the drinks for himself and his female partners at his table. I even spotted one guy at another table raising an empty glass during the toast!

Well, there was something else that made me tell off one of the waitresses and she did not look too happy with this grumpy old man for the rest of the evening but I shall not elaborate on that. However, I do think those who intend to host their receptions here should insist on better service when negotiating with the F&B or Banquet Manager. In my opinion, unlike the ones here or here, they badly need a lot more training and supervision.

Congratulations once again, Stephanie & Andrew!…

May God bless the two of you with endless love and abundant happiness in the years ahead and congratulations to the proud and happy parents too – thank you so much for the invitation. Cheers!!!

THE RINWOOD BALLROOM (2.2832589,111.8327029) is located on the 5th floor of the Kingwood Hotel at No. 12. Lorong Lanang 4.