matrimony of mass destruction

it's almost midnight and i just got back from bedok south. man i felt adventourous tonight. i was already bumped out after my friend cancelled our usual dinner outings because someone's grandmother had to die and he resorted to attend the funeral instead.

the good news is, my headache healed so i could be all set for a friday night's rendezvous. i don't know, i get headache everytime i'm hit by the singapore rain. i'm not kidding. i guess that's why we never see kids playing in the rain here. the rain is simply hazardous.

that, or maybe just because they've managed to simulate rain-playing inside xbox 360 or something.

too bad i didn't have my panadol extra with me today because, well, we don't carry panadol to weddings, do we?

what happened was, a bunch of us skipped work, or let's just say we went for an early lunch at 9.30am. a colleague of us got married today at hougang virgin mary church. being some warm hearted, thoughtful friends like we are, we opted to watch the ceremony. after all, it sounded more fun than work.

turned out, it was good that we decided to gate-crash the wedding because apparently, it was otherwise only attended by his mother, an aunty and his 2 housemates. that's all, only 4 people. there were lots and lots of empty benches, i felt a bit like robert langdon searching for the holy grail in an abandoned church.

i mean, i know that the couple is from the phillipines so there was not much relatives and friends around but still, weddings must be all buzzy and festive, right? so we went 'surprise!!' when our dear friend entered the church, gave him a little shock of his life before filling in 2 more rows of seats.

it was raining very heavily at that time, which was ironic on a wedding day just like alanis morrisette's song. it was even up by a notch for us today because when we were stranded at the taxi stand heading for the church, not able to move because of the downpour, the taxi never came.

i call it the taxi bitch situation. you know, when you try to drive and been blocked by a streetfull of taxis, but when you really need one it's as if they are all swallowed by the earth.

when we finally got one after 20 minutes of cursings and swearings, the main church door where the driver dropped us at, was closed. the only opening to the ceremony was at the keyhole.

talk about not being invited.

so we had to detour, running under the heavy rain around the building to find the alternate entrance. by the time we settled down, i was already drenched, my hair went flat and my headache started pounding. i felt like i was at the end of a quest, all beaten up good.

friday morning matrimony


at last, our dear friend is safely married and living happily ever after. well, at least he won't have any shock coming anymore since they already have a 2 year-old daughter. they have been living together for years, and i think they just got married so the wife could get the visiting visa easier.

the things is, last weekend i went back to kl to visit my parents. also because my little brother was going to return to the states after spending summer holiday in malaysia, so i wanted to meet him before he flew off. my other brother was at home too, so i got to play with his son, my nephew.

and i must mention, taking care of a one year old child is not easy. everytime i let him on all four, he would crawl towards to door, or the stairs, trying to grab all those electrical cords along the way. not able to just escorting him anywhere, i carried him up, but couldn't do for long for long because my arms would sore and my back all painful. imagine carrying a 10kg dumbell consistently around.

i so have a new found respect for parents.

only after i got back to singapore by bus, i read about the express bus accident in malaysia that killed 21 people. scary huh. come to think about it, the bus was speeding too throughout the night on the highway when i took the bus after work last friday heading for kl. once in awhile i was woken up by the shudder, like when the bus tried to overtake a big lorry on lane 2, which was overtaking a small car on lane 3.

those people that perished in that accident when the bus fell over the cliff and hit a big rock before overturned in a big drain, never woke up from their past midnight sleep.

after this kind of mishap happened, those relevent authoritied would stir a bit and make noise. it's all very predictable. how could a driver with 15 summonses and 2 warrants be allowed to drive the bus, which by the way failed the brake inspections 3 times? where the hell was the traffic police?

not only on highways, in fact, it's hard to find even a neighbourhood police in malaysia. or at least in kl where my parents are staying. i mean, our house is only a block away from the police quarters, but still, one time you forgot to close the main house gate at dusk and voila! your bicycle is gone.

i guess it's hard to keep a watch on the safety of the commoners when the policemen are busy escorting vips around all the time. have you seen how much security the ministers or royals have in malaysia? you'd think they are hamas or something. others would be to make arrest everytime there are talks by the opposition parties.

so there you go, a nation without much law and order. when i walked pass through the immigration officer at jb checkpoint to leave malaysia last weekend, the officer just brushed me aside without even seeing my passport. the 3 automatic gates were non-functional and the 2 officers in charge were merely chatting with each other.

it would make another 911 incidents for them to buck up and really do their job i suppose. for all i know, someone's grandmother would die because of that, then my friend would have to cancel on me again and i would be forced for another rendezvous.

why am i complaining?



...ed