Happily wedded at last! - part 2

We walked to the Lippo Centre to have our brunch after the registry. Then it was just me and Adrian, the photographers and the hired cars (with the drivers of course). First we had some shots in the car and then as the car got on the high way, we took some more nice photos too(I presume they were nice – we had the roof opened and stood as the car moved slowly to the exit of Lippo Centre, standing up waving and posing and all sorts of stunts haha!).

We went to Shek O and Stanley for our photos. I climbed the rocks on my 3-inch high heels and almost got myself blown off the cliffs by strong wind – so strong that I had to take off my veil as it was just about to be “detached” from my hair by the wind…!! And as we arrived at Stanley, it started to rain. The horizon did not look a bit like HK… it was simply phenomenal! I just wish I had the photos with me now so that I can show you what I meant!

We then took a ferry from HK to Kowloon, as we got off the ferry, we took a few shots and before we knew it, the next ferry was docking already! As we were running away from it, people on that ferry cheered for us, it was unbelievable! Hehehe… Soooooooooo much fun!!

As we were making our way to our cars, we saw an accident at the taxi stand. One of the taxi just drove into the taxi in front of him in the queue! I sure hope that it wasn’t us that distracted him.

We were dropped off at Delaney’s, had a pint (yes, you guessed it, it was Guinness) and of course, some pictures taken (again!!) hehehe and then headed back to the hotel to prep for the banquet. It was just about 4:50pm when we finally made it back to the hotel. What a day what a day! And it’s not over yet!!

After a quick shower, Rosita put my face back in place, and we were ready for the tea ceremony! Yes, we have a tea ceremony, the Chinese way – where we serve tea to the family members and gifts/”Lai Si” were given to the bride & groom. We were late by the way. I made some last minute changes and that did not impress Adrian. Ooops! Ok, I make quick decisions and I know that if I waited I’d probably forget about it… but what so bad about me was that I forgot to tell Adrian about the changes!!! Me soooooooooooo baaaaaaaaaaad!! Well what am I meant to do when I needed to make the decision and he wasn’t there?? Oh well, what’s done is done and I thought those were right decisions hehehehe

As the song “I was born to love you” by Queen played, we happily walked into the room in linked arms (Adrian said he was proud to be doing that but I didn’t feel proud, just overjoyed). I was sooooo touched to see all of our friends there cheering for us… man, I almost cried!! I had tears in my eyes I could hardly see!!! I know that this could be the last time I see these guys in Hong Kong and it’s probably going to be a long long time until we see them again! These thoughts just beat me. (We’re still working on our thank you emails, and, it’s not easy at all!!)

The food was fantastic, the music was good (well, songs actually, and Adrian and I chose them), the people were fantastic, the view at the Patio (we have the breath-taking view of Victoria Harbour, yes, yes, yes, it was a very clear night!!) was phenomenal, Percy and his team of waiters were great, in fact, the best I’ve come across so far!! I mean they are by far the best waiters I’ve ever been served!! They are always there but they are never there!! I mean, they are always there the second you feel like you needed them, and they are never in your way or visible when you don’t need them!! How good is that? I can’t imagine the amount of training they had to be put through… 35% more than the market price was well worth it!

The night ended early, well it was a Sunday and almost everyone had to get back to work the next day, some to Macau and some had to get back to ZhuHai before the border closes at 12am you see… we are really really happy that almost all of our guests turned up, only one thing Adrian wasn’t impressed was that this mate of his (who now works in Singapore) who didn’t reply to any of his emails/invites (hence no formal invitation was sent out), he turned up because he happened to be in town and thought he wanted to turn up in a pair of jeans… with his mistress… Well I don’t think anyone would be impressed anyway, only one positive side about them turning up -- we had a couple of uninvited guests to fill the space of the two invited guests that couldn’t make it… Ya, me bad, but I’m not thick skin enough to gate crash a wedding dinner, not with my mistress anyway! Took me some time to calm Adrian down though…

Other than that, the dinner went fantastic! There were so much divine food (although I didn’t have much >______< to eat but I was very happy that the food turned out to be delicious, well, according to our guests), tasty wines (which I had quite a lot of hehehe), beautiful tulips, and Jane even to play a song at the piano (she was too nervous and forgot most of it), got Zuzanna and I sang along. Well Rosana did suggest for Zuzanna to sing but I was distracted immediately after she said it, dunno by what though hehehehe Anyway she sang and it was great! Haha! In the end, Mark & Shirty and my mom had to take away with them one wedding cake each (the wedding cake consists of 5 heart shaped cakes 3 of which were consumed…), mom got herself a bunch of tulips to take back to the hotel… phew! What a night!! In fact, what a day! There are sooooo many people to thank for, for this wonderful day. Our families – Philip & Ann, mom & Dad, my aunt, my brother Chee Mun, his wife Chian Chian and his son Heng Heng; Jane; Mark & Shirty & Conrad; our honourable guests (Steve & Rosana, Tony & Zuzanna, Terry, Peter & family, Eric, Jason, Eddie, Paul Lee, Don, Michelle & Frank, Chin & Philip, Malcolm, Dave, Paul S., Kenneth Terry, Robert, ; John, Percy and his team (The Peninsula), Ann Choi and her team, Billy Yiu (we hired his cars and had him and his mate driving us around HK for half of the day), Rosita and her assistant, The Delaney’s, the Star ferry, the good weather, and everyone and everything!! We has a little more than 4 hours sleep in our room (2306) in The Peninsula, which was upgraded FOC by Peninsula, then we were off to our honeymoon! Wahahahahaahaa!!!

Happily wedded at last - part 1

After all the hard work, it’s finally came through alright – what a relief!

Yes, we are finally married! And I’m writing this in our honeymoon suite – a jacuzzi water villa at Veligandu Island Resort in Maldives!! YES! MALDIVES!!

Adrian came back to HK on the 1st of August and that was when we got all the final bits of our wedding sorted out… including meeting with John Ho of The Peninsula, our catering manager; Ann Choi, our photographer; finalizing the guest list; hiring a suit for our Best Man, Mark, with all the help we could get from Shirty, Mark’s better half; the songs for the banquet etc. etc… And other than all these, Adrian has to find as much time as he possibly could to see the boys and show Ann & Philip (my in-laws now) around and sort out my parents, brother & sister-in-law & his son and my aunt upon their arrival in HK... Honestly, I’ve never been sooooooo busy before!

Luckily, all the hard work’s paid off in the end – it was a wonderful wedding, by my standard la of course! One down side about it was that Phil & Tom (Adrian’s boys) were both sick and couldn’t make it. One of the main reasons we have the wedding in HK was because his boys are there. It’s really a pity. However, it was afterall a happy occasion, and the show must go on hehehehe

We have no photo to show yet, well, all our photos taken by Ann and her team are still with them and I think that our guests have got more photos than I have now! We have none!!! Arrrrgh!!

The day started off me getting at 6am (after just about 3 hours’ sleep in one of the most comfy beds I’ve ever slept in… yes, that’s the Peninsula HK!!)– I had to get showered and all to get ready for the makeup artist, Rosita.

Rosita arrived at just about 7am, and she got started straight away. I hadn’t been using a lot of skincare after I got to HK since the 26th of July, no facials no masks… Only applied some Sulwhasoo Overnight Vitalizing Treatment the night before and it was all right all the way – no problem whatsoever when the makeup was done. You see if your skin is not hydrated properly, you would struggle with applying the foundation and everything else would me more difficult to apply and will have trouble staying on for the rest of the day…

Ann Choi and her team arrived an hour later than Rosita when the makeup was just about done. Everyone else, my mom, aunt, Jane have arrived not long before the time that Adrian should arrive. Then it was 8:45, right after I got dressed, Adrian came knocking on the door. I must explain a bit here, it’s Chinese tradition that the bridegroom comes and pick up the bride in the morning, while the western culture doesn’t practice this. The bride has to make it to the church on her own… This bit, we followed the Chinese tradition hehehe… no games like what ppl would do these days, he just knocked and slipped through the “Lai Si” under the door and Jane got it and opened the door for him – simple and straight forward, just like me la~~~

He then passed the dowry to my dad, they shoke hands and then he got my hand (which forgot about the glove…) from my dad, ironically, like a business deal hehehehehe but hey, that’s because we skipped the tradition where the future son-in-law sends a set of big gifts & presents that represents good future and marriage to the bride-to-be’s house.

We took some pictures, well Ann took some pictures, then we started to head off to the Registry, in the convertible BMW we hired. Felt kinda unreal when we made our way to the car through the Peninsula’s main lobby though…

Got to the registry at Cotton Tree Drive, saw Mark half naked outside of the Gents haha! It was just too hot and he just had to cool down a bit, well Adrian had some cooling patches (you know those that were invented by the Japanese and you use them on your forehead to bring your temperature down?) on him hehehehe… Ann taught us that, yes, the one with the most wedding experience! Ha! Well, she’s a photographer and I won’t expect less. And Heng Heng, my nephew, found his best friend there, Conrad, Mark’s son, 6, who’s also a big fan of Transformers…!! That kept them busy for a long time!

We exchanged rings, my dad & Mark are the witnesses – western tradition, best man and bridesmaid are the witnesses but Chinese, the parents, so I had my dad as my witness and Adrian had Mark as his. Fair and square. Hehe!

to be continued...

Absolutely a master piece!

I couldn't stop playing it and it looks like they are having so much fun that I wish I was one of them!

Enjoy!

I've finally done it!

Yes, I've finally tendered my resignation giving them a month's notice! Honestly, it's a relief!

I sent an email to the HR Director in HK and copied Greg, the Associate Director here in Macau. Sent it out 17:52 and gave Greg about 5 minutes to talk to me about it. Haha!

He asked, "Why? Is it personal or something else?" Gosh... since when resignation is not personal? Whatever reason it is, it is personal or I won't quit la! Ai...

I told Greg that although my last day is the 18th, I can stay until end of July if he feels that it's necessary. Sort of promised him I would give him longer notice if I ever quit. I sent the letter at 8 minutes to 6. Greg almost ran to me and insisted that we talk. I was heading to a Karaoke session and was really not in the mood and hadn't the time to do that, I gave him 5 minutes.

I've been thinking about when to do it for quite some time. They made us redundant twice -- April and May. And we were verbally... actually casually... informed that our redundancy will be withdrawn (last working day was 31st May 2009) and that we would be given the written notice on the 1st of June. I thought to myself, wait a minute, they should pay me my redundancy package because on the 1st of June, I'm officially unemployed. And if they wanted me to continue working for them, they should give me a new contract. Correct me if I'm wrong...

That's why I planned a holiday in Malaysia and then meet Adrian in UK -- I replied and said that I won't be available on the 1st of June and that I'll be abroad and that they can call me when I'm back 2 weeks later when Donna, the Sr. Administrator (what's that word Sr. for? I have no idea!) sent me a meeting invite... ha! And she even came around and asked if I've submitted my leave application... "What leave application?? today, since Saturday (30/05) and Sunday (31/05) are not working days, is officially my last day at work!" That was so easy.

I told Greg, "You know I could just walk out and you have to give me my package, it's not that difficult." He then told me he has all the soft copies of the letters for each and everyone of us but he was told that Sam, another Associate Director (??? don't ask me, I have no clue why we needed 2 of these in one team) who was relocated back to HK from Macau when they downsized the team by approx. 80%, originally played a leading role in our team, wanted to come and do it on Monday (01/06). Oh, so now someone wants to play boss... I said, "Greg, you could be screwed for this... what if none of us turns up? You are letting this happen because someone wants to play boss??" He could not argue -- at that point, everything was verbal, nothing in writing whatsoever. Then he called HK to get permission to give me the letter, changed the date and all... I signed it.

He even asked, "If you have planned to quit, why did you sign the letter?"

Daft.

"Ermm... it all happened over the holiday..."

believe it or not?

Ah! Talk about over reacting... can anyone top this please!!

I got back from London on Friday, which I will talk about shortly, but this is something that you would find much much more interesting!

I had fever Sunday evening. With the current situation in Hong Kong and UK... messages were sent to my cell constantly, "WHO alert raised to phase 6, Macau, without local confirmed cases, bla bla bla..." Yup, WHO declared an H1N1 pandemic... the first global pandemic since 1968.

I knew they will at least send me to the hospital if I went to the clinic if not quarantine me for 7 days for observation. So I waited for a night hoping that the temperature would get lower or I could just recover on my own. I took Adrian's advise and took a Panadol. I went to bed but when I got up in the morning I felt like shit.

I text the Admin in the office and told her that I had a temperature and won't be reporting to work. So at just about 10, I went to the clinic. Just like I expected, "I'm sorry, but according to standard procedure, I have to call an ambulance and send you to the hospital for a quick test just in case..." Ya, right. Quick. "How quick?" "Just about 4 hours they'll have the result." Great, I'm officially a "suspected case of infected H1N1". And so the ambulance arrived in no time. Got me all "geared up" and drove me to the government hospital...

Look...

Honestly it was no fun at all. First they took samples from the back of your mouth, somewhere near the throat which was very very irritating. And then I was sat by the hallway to wait for the result. YES! THEY EXPECTED ME -- A SICK PERSON, WITHOUT GIVEN ANY FORM OF MEDICAL TREATMENT, TO SIT AT THE HALLWAY (VERY WELL CONTAINED) AND WAIT FOR THE QUICK H1N1 VIRUS TEST RESULT (WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO TAKE 4 HOURS, AND THEY CALL IT QUICK) ON SOME HARD SHELL OLD STADIUM STYLE CHAIR!!! How so very nice of them!!

I arrived at the hospital at 10:30am or so. The paramedics told me to stay in the ambulance before the hospital could open the door to the "Special Emergency Room" (this is translated from how they call it in Cantonese) for me.
While waiting, a member of the paramedics asked, "how are you feeling?"
"Alright"
"Then why did you go to see the doctor?"
"I have fever since last night!"
He sorta shut up. I wasn't feel like dying so I said I was alright!! What did he expect anyway? Me passing out in front of him??? Strange people.

I finally got into the "Special Emergency Room". The doctor came to take my temperature (which has been taken sooooo many times in the clinic, the ambulance) and the sample for the so called Quick Test for H1N1 flu -- swine flu... oink oink!! In Malaysia, unless you're dying you don't call the ambulance... I'm not impressed by how Malaysians do it but I'm not impressed here either!

Then they left me there in the hallway... ... ... with a bottle of water... ... ...

At just about 12:30pm, they sent me lunch. Nothing fancy, just edible, with a banana and a bowl of soup with a big piece of chicken skin floating in it!!

My butt started to hurt (because it doesn't have a lot of cushioning, it's just a tiny bum unfortunately), and I was getting really tired and bored...

"Erm... Nurse, am I meant to sit here and wait for my result?"
"Ya, you have to."
"but I'm sick, you see, I'm tired, I'm sleepy and these chairs are crap to sit in..."
She had no choice but to offer me the only bed they have in the ER, you know those damn hard bed, with only 1.5" cushion and just about 2.5' x 6'L... OK better than none. I slept in it until just about 5:30pm -- I talked to Adrian again and he was just wondering if I started to snort... haha Just after we were done talking, the nurse told me that the result came back negative but they have to wait for the fax to come through before they can release me... fine. It's just been 7 hours, I'm alright. Don't worry, take your time. I'm alright.

And so I waited. The fax came in finally, at about 6... I thought that was slow. Nope the doctor was even slower. A doctor has to come and examine me for the last time and give me a proper diagnose and then release me... hmm... I thought he got seriously lost trying to come to this "Special Emergency Room" (it's obviously very new if you know what I mean). He arrived at approx. 6:30pm. Thank goodness Doc, you found your way!! Congrats!! His name if translated into English, is "Hot Spring"... and he was sweating big time when he got there I tell you... He'll lose a lot of weight doing this... I mean wearing the "protective gear" namely the coat, the mask and the shower cap not for shower" hahaha! He took my temperature again (they took it so many times I think they took it away...) prescribed me some paracetamol and let me go.

There was already a girl who returned to Macau from Canada via Japan & HK, who's been held for 2 days... she had a temperature but the first test came back negative. However, because it takes time for the virus to "surface" (before any symptom) after a person is infected, they will take her sample for another test later in the day. She wasn't a quiet girl in that room... She had rashes and it was itching like crazy, which drove her mad... it started last night but they didn't give her the cream for it until just about 3pm the next day... she was crying for it desperately... poor girl.

Also, there are a couple of other girls checking in when I was waiting for the result of the QUICK TEST. One came in, a German woman, who came to the hospital on her own, whom the nurses could hardly understand, with all the symptoms, but they have decided to send her to the normal ER because she came from Nanjing, via HK. Nowhere near USA/UK/Japan... ha!! I had to help translate when the nurses tried to find out where she came from.

And there was this girl who arrived in an ambulance without any sort of symptoms. She came because she was sat near a confirmed case in her flight to Guangzhou. She was complaining about the mask suffocating her as she was arriving and asked if she could take it off... but of course, she was advised not to. And then the nurse asked he to fill out some form, ah... there was this question, "do you have problem breathing?" she said, "well, of course, after I put this mask on!!" hahaha!! and me and the nurse laughed big time! Yup, we all suffer from that!!!

I pity the nurse though, she has to wear it all day long except lunch. No one can breath normal in these masks! Crazy!

Now, tell me if you could find a city besides HK & Macau (which basically follows everything, if possible, HK does & enforces) which would over react like this...

My 34th birthday - backdate to 8 April 2009

Ahh... yes, I'm backdating this... Should have done this a long time ago...

Unlike last year, I "celebrated" my birthday this year with Adrian miles away from me. But Adrian being the sweetest fiance, he made this power point presentation about my life without him and how he's going to "upgrade" all that from now onwards... once again, he did it. The slide show brought tears to my eyes.

That's not all, he got me a Kwanpen wallet -- given to me before he left for Libya which he knew I had my eyes on... However, not long after I've looked at it with Adrian (I didn't tell him that I wanted it la!!), I returned to the shop with the girls while the shop is still giving 30% discount to all the merchandises. I placed order (they have to take it in from HK, the design and colour that I wanted) for a brown, medium size wallet that has enough compartments for my stuff... I didn't tell Adrian I bought it though -- didn't want him to think I'm a big spender la! But it's made of croc skins, it could last a lifetime la!

Honestly, the thought of Adrian buying me one has never occurred to me because he had just been made redundant at that time, also, considering the commitment that he has with the kids. Imagine how shocked I was when he took me to the Crystal Club on the 38th Floor of the 6 star hotel previously called The Crown here in Macau. He asked the waitress to hand it to me... Gosh, I was speechless. It's a black, medium size wallet, slightly different from the one that I have ordered but equally beautiful.

I didn't want to disappoint Adrian, I have decided not to tell him about the order of that other wallet. I have decided to use it on my birthday. Meanwhile, I will use the one that I ordered once it's arrived. Hehe... The plan failed when I took it out of my handbag when I was talking to Adrian on Skype. He saw!!! Awe!!! He was so disappointed and I was so sorry that I didn't tell him about this order that I made! hmm...

Adrian is a wonderful man. He tries to please me in everyway and I'm thankful for that. Sometimes I have to pinch myself just to make sure that I wasn't dreaming... hehe... He insists that I should be less independant and rely on him more. I will try but I tend to forget -- I have never been used to being dependant... well, he'll remind me anyway... hehehe