a cousin held his lovely wedding reception at parkroyal hotel last weekend. the food was delicious (indian fare, a refreshing change), and we didn’t break a single drop of sweat (literally and figuratively). yes, his relatives are quite a spoilt lot. :p

while the bride & groom had a costume change, the little ones were quite busy themselves…

angels…

… demons?

here comes the bride…

… here come the little boy monsters.

(they were actually pinching their noses because they thought the fog from the dry-ice smelled like smoke, only here it looks like they were pinching their noses due to ‘gases’ emitting from under the gown. i could just PINCH their ears for spoiling this otherwise lovely scene of innocent flower girls carrying out the honourable duty of holding the princess bride’s wedding train!) (so sorry, bride.)

angels again, thankfully.

selamat pengantin baru, adib & hafiza…

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recap on our trip to shah alam, selangor, 2 weeks ago:

1) it was my first drive on malaysian roads – i don’t know why i never attempted this in all my years of driving. but it really wasn’t very exciting despite the speedometer hovering at 140km/h. felt vair sleepy, in fact. even now while i’m typing this out i feel sleepy at the thought of driving on a malaysian highway in daylight. we made a pitstop at the restoran jejantas for A&W. had a coney dog. it sucked.

2) we stayed at concorde shah alam, and it’s so convenient because my uncle’s house is just a five-minute ride away from the hotel. and what do kids love most about hotels? why…

of course.

3) the first thing we spotted as we made the turn into the hotel was the big SUBWAY sign at the shopping centre next to it. joy! (yes, we singaporeans are so deprived of halal eateries that malaysia’s Subway, Tony Roma’s, Carl’s Jr. etc are like holy grails. speaking of which, our biggest regret that weekend was discovering too late that there was a Carl’s Jr. outlet at Midvalley Megamall after we’d just eaten at Nando’s. unfortunately, we weren’t gluttons enough to go for a second round of dinner.)

4) yes, there was even a Krispy Kreme. which you don’t have in singapore, so that makes it something you covet, and will have you INSIST that the donuts are SO much nicer than [insert any other donut franchise in singapore]. i’m not a donut person so i say, “meh”. anyway, this shopping mall was also where we lost aniq. yes, lost. not that it was a very big place to get lost in. we were browsing in a bookstore and my brother wanted to go back to the hotel with his kids, and our aniq, in his usual impulsive way, ran along with them, without any of our knowledge, and then changed his mind halfway and turned back, but couldn’t remember where we were, and we thought oh, he’s probably just with his uncle, but in actual fact, was now with a security guard and a tissue paper soaked in tears in one hand. and we wouldn’t have seen him if we’d turned to walk the other way, and he’d probably have been sold off to a child labour syndicate somewhere in malaysia right now if we hadn’t found him then.

it wasn’t the first time this happened in singapore, so yeah, we’re negligent parents.

moving on… the wedding!

5) who would’ve thought the little girl i played Barbie dolls with would turn out to be a doctor? she still looks so.. little! (she’s tiny, i think even tinier than me. we share the tiny genes in our family. but unfortunately not the smart-doctor genes. sigh.)

6) malaysian weddings are just as lively as singaporean weddings. except there weren’t any noisy music and deejays and people croaking on karaoke (phew). there was a theme (turquoise, obviously), a home-made dais, nasi minyak, bunga manggar (which my sis-in-law and i did, ok! ha ha –> loser rewang contribution), the renjis-renjis custom, etc. ’twas pretty traditional and low fuss. well, the biggest fuss probably happened when the groom came and we blocked him like, 3 times, the poor chap. it’s such a funny tradition, this, blocking the groom for money. and just like how you’d bribe a police officer at malaysian road blocks, that’s what happens at these ‘tolls’.

7) that’s the matriarch. she sure has been through a lot, including the deaths of two adult sons (including my dad), and a grandchild (one of the bride’s younger brothers, who was a victim of a road accident a few years ago), the births of 8 great-grandchildren, and of course let’s not forget the japanese occupation….

long live the Queen! :)

8 ) our small singapore contingent in the sea of malaysian relatives and guests.

congrats to najwa & mubarik – we await their addition to this clan…

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the wedding was without the person most dear to her – her father, my uncle. he’d passed on recently, not long after my own father did.

as such, bonds between certain parties were not the same as it used to be, but thankfully, our generation of cousins still have each others’ support, no matter what (sorry to say) crap the elders are going through. (yes, i am bitter. alas, washing family laundry in public is not very pleasant. and izadnhana.com, if anything, is a happy, happy place.)

in any case, the wedding went WONDERFULLY, with enough love and laughter to go around, and us cousins (plus the little nephews and nieces!) couldn’t be happier for her. :)

the late Atan grandchildren & great-grandchildren

wedding cake by Shamilah

azfar, who acted as his older sister’s wali, or “guardian”. that means “authorised”, by the way, but apparently not to certain parties. ha ha. (in-joke.) again, so proud of him, can?

Anugerah non-finalist turns Wedding Singer

some mutual friends

some old friends

Official Guardian of the Playground

Operation Flower Girl: Fail Whale!

i wished my mum was around, she’s on holiday for a week at sabah with her sister’s family. which is why i’m on leave too, to hang out with the kids.

and now i hear the little one stirring in her cot. think she’s just woken up from a loooong nap. fetching aniq from school, and buying tulang for dinner later, you know.

tata! have a great week, happy, happy people. :)

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just a few highlights from the brother-in-law’s wedding.

i) the beautiful setting at pias plaza, pasir ris park. don’t bother googling it, it’s so new, the place isn’t even on the map. it’s this open hall amidst a background of greenery, perfect for that garden wedding we wished we’d had in our days.

ii) as you can see, this was my favourite spot of the day. and obviously, aniq’s.

for me, it wasn’t so much the spread of candies and chocs, which obviously was the draw for aniq and all his little friends. it was the innovative concept, the loving attention to details, and the pretty, pretty colours – i think we’ve established that i’m a sucker for such things.

iii) as i had my hands full running after the little girl who was going berserk with all that grass to trod and trample on, i didn’t get to witness the little feeding ritual of milk and banana between the bride and groom. we thought it was a quaint and interesting tradition, but never got to find out its cultural significance.

iv) the best thing about the juahir family’s weddings, i must say, is the food! the nasi padang and satay alone are worth going to their weddings for. so now you know where izad gets his love for traditional food from – yes, his family. and to top it off, there was an unending flow of piping hot pisang goreng which i stuffed myself with throughout the day. but, er, please don’t tell anyone that.

v) the popcorn machine which i’d love to have kept for myself, if i knew how to work the thing. then again, izad’s other brothers and cousins were all professional popcorn makers by the end of the day, so i could hire them to do the work for minimum wage.

vi) the kids who thoroughly enjoyed themselves over the two days. mainly, the band of four sticky, smelly, sweaty boys. thanks is, for sponsoring their colour-coordinated shirts.

vii) the wedding croquembouche, sponsored by the groom’s generous eldest sibling, ie. izad, and by proxy, hana. we were exceedingly pleased that the colours turned out exactly right, thanks to the brilliant people at the patissier.

am now seriously considering getting a mini version for auni’s first birthday, just because i didn’t get enough of it at the wedding, dang.

viii) and last, but not least, the gorgeous couple. of course.

everlasting love to you, emi+hajar. :)

so now, i am officially… The Da Jie!

(ps: is there a manual somewhere on How To Be A Da Jie that i can refer to, you think?)

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picture of my brother with his bride. taken at pasir ris park during the akad nikah. so happy for them, finally married! already been together for more than 10 years i think! anyway, they are off on their honeymoon to a resort island, somewhere near Queensland, Australia.

ps: i know, i’ve been slow in updating in the pictures department, my APAD section was sort of, in a coma for the past month. anyway come 1st april i will update the section with more pictures, promise!

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a lotta exciting things have been happening to many, many people over the weekend.

congrats to the need-i-mention-gorgeous-couple nurul & sofian…

and congrats to the mummies of the new babies who just popped out!

namely ogy (baby aqil), an ol’ tkg friend herda (baby adlynn – darn, there goes another A name i can’t use now, hehe), and…

MY NEW NEPHEW, WHOSE NAME I DON’T EVEN KNOW YET!! (but should start with A too, to follow his older brother, adam.)

he came out right on the dot on the day he’s supposed to. and he’s a hefty one, weighing in at 3.92kg. (can i say “OH. MY. GAWD!”?) nevermind, another cousin for aniq to wrestle with!

so, when will this baby A come out, then?? *looks down at heeyuuuuge tummy hanging down almost to my ankles.*

the makciks at the wedding just now were staring SO HARD at it already. not just the makciks, but also the nyonyas, wherever i go. “wow, look at that circus freak,” they’re saying (i think). gah!

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lina & zaidi

boleh tak? macam cool gitu lah, duduk kat atas stage.

hep, makan kena suap, nak kahwin eh….

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“i’m… dreaming of a white…. christmas…”

eh, salah – wedding lah!

we were very makan ajar guests and came as per instruction on the wedding card.

‘attire: white’, it said.

if i could turn back the clock, i’d make all the guests at MY wedding wear white too. nice right??

very suci TAK berdebu. ;)

even this baby makan ajar one. he almost stole the limelight, ok, this boy. he’s also a Kid A you know! :)

one stray guest who tak makan ajar *looks at farah*… tsk. :p

the other Kid A, aka Niqi Boy (as his daddy has been calling him), was Missing In Action that evening. our outfits wouldn’t stay white very long otherwise.

anyway, twas a lovely wedding, lydia, you radiant bride you. nine years together, you guys?! wow.

oh, and happy birthday!

btw, groom’s white adidas shoes not in picture.

(and to think i ‘scolded’ the Husband for wearing his white sneakers instead of proper formal shoes. rupanye Husband esah pon sama jugak. you Husbands got separate cards with instructions also is it??)

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