They're married now, and in for one long haul of translating!
This morning, I got up a little earlier than I needed to because I had to do certain things before the wedding. Waited 20 minutes in the rain (under cover) for Eric, who got to my place 20 minutes late - he apologized, though. He got up even later than I did, which just caused me to envy guys again! Seems his mom told him about social etiquette when it comes to weddings, so he confirmed the spelling of Chung Yan's name with me before writing it out on the card and other places... I'm sure they'll appreciate the gift. We discussed how I blog, weekend plans, certain predictable conversational topics, and stupid people who don't know how to drive in the rain. It's not like rain is a very rare occurrence here, eh? We didn't get good seats, but at least we were there before things got underway! When we got to the church, Hunter was waving cars into the parking lot - he bowed to every car, so Eric said that if he really respected him, he'd lie down prostrate on the ground even in the pouring rain! Yeah, I don't think he'd go THAT far!
We chatted to various people in line - Eddie, Eunice, Olivia, Uncle Johnny, Joey, Mike, Chris - and had to go to the other side of the church since one side was getting quite full. Eric pointed out a poster of Karen and Chung Yan, but figured I couldn't see it yet since I was too short - you know I wish to be taller! (Skee-Lo references!) Then he wondered why people were shaking Chung's hand before the wedding - hey, I agree! You never know what could happen in these wedding ceremonies! Turns out we were in the baby section, but there was no real room in front of us, and we didn't really want to move to the balcony! He saw Alan and Jeremy, and wondered where my family was in the crowd of 600 - yeah, like I can see them?! (Jon was rather obvious since he played piano for the ceremony) Saw various babies: Joe and Helen's new daughter Abigail, Winnie's daughter Megan, Kelvin and Evelyn's son Taylor two rows up (who looks a LOT like his dad!), Tim and Maxine's sons Joshua (who waved to me when I gave Maxine her birthday card) and Keenan ("you can call him Iron Mike!"), Lee and Lily's daughter Hannah ("hey, there's Roberta Luongo!"), and others.
Taylor didn't look too happy, and started crying before the wedding - I jokingly asked Eric what kind of faces he was making at the baby. He said he was making normal faces... and blamed Darren, who was sitting in front of us with Sam / his brother Jeremy / Lucas and his sister Hannah / J-Mak / Jessica, and denied everything. So Eric joked that he'd make the baby happy by covering Darren's face with an open Bible, haha. He was looking for suitable passages to write in the wedding card - he's not a fan of 1 Corinthians 13 (the LOVE chapter, which Chung and Karen used), and pointed out various other unsuitable passages: yeah, divorce / the Philistine army / dealing with your enemies won't cut it! I bugged him about putting the card in the envelope a different way from how I do it, haha. He said my way was wrong because of the front of the card not being the first thing they see - eh, I'm quirky and you know it, so shush!
When we all stood up to welcome the bride, Eric correctly figured that I couldn't really see her - nope! But as long as one of us could, I was happy with that. I noted the rather long list of photo groups (24?!), and he noted that the pastor's name was Genghis CHAN instead of KHAN. Interesting choice of name, no matter if he picked it or his parents did! He plugged the Winter Conference at the very end of the exhortation, haha. Said hi to Chrystal later on, and walked with Eric and Jeremy to the reception in the gym - that was a long slow trek, made even worse because it was cold in that hallway! Could be akin to Moses' trip in the desert with the Israelites, only not really... "THE DESERT FELLOWSHIP! Y'know... dependency and support in the desert even if nothing grows there!" Joked with them about a few things - yup, I needed more white humor, haha. Talked to them while lining up to get food - Jeremy went back and grabbed forks for the three of us since we didn't see them beforehand, heh. I finally congratulated Angus and Melia on their engagement at a Yaletown restaurant called The Coast - he says he wasn't nervous when he proposed to her, and Phil described his sister's engagement ring as "a big rock on her hand." (and it was!)
Stuck around the guys for most of lunchtime - and it was a huge lunch, with Chinese food and buns / dessert / cake / drinks / everything else. Angus said he wasn't full, but the rest of us were - here, YOU can have the rest of Melia's cake slice after four people took turns eating some of it then! Nathan was the driver for the couple, and had to get up before 5 - he was telling everyone about what he'd done so far today, and it sounded busy! When Chung and Karen did a toast, he said that they translated for each other - yes, we noticed the ceremony was bilingual. (English into Chinese) We discussed the Alanis Morissette song IRONIC at one point - I tried to include someone in that conversation, but he just wasn't into it for some reason! Oh well... said hi to Martin, Quan, Mike, Emily, and others. Finally saw Kingsley and Kittie, whom I haven't seen since Anita's wedding back in 2005 - their daughter Natassja still remembers me, and so does her brother Justin. Talked to them and Elenor about my life, what Jon was doing now, and living in Richmond. Told Jon that some people wanted to talk to him, so they discussed his interning as a pastor / Tony, Teresa, Lukas, and Tabitha Lim in Malaysia (Tony was our pastor YEARS ago!) / people growing up fast / parenting / chairing things that they really didn't know much about / his teaching / Natassja and Justin's older brother Adam being almost 16 and in air cadets / other interesting things. It was good seeing them again! I also saw Larry and Sandra briefly with their kids Joshua (three years old) and Elizabeth (ten months old) - very nice to see them too!
Interacted with baby Megan a little bit, mostly centred around food. She's so cute! Saw Sam, Connie, and their son Jaden - didn't talk to them since they were kinda busy with other people. Talked to Vernon and Sarah just as briefly, and jokingly told Andrew that he could eat ALL the leftovers - there were TONS of them! Steph says the teens are taking a platter to Floodlight tonight: we could have a Koinonia lunch with the rest, and STILL have a lot of leftovers! Jeremy took some home, and that applied to plenty of other people as well. Good times, even if we hung out in the kitchen for a little bit. Said hi to Esther, Mel, Sheena, Chalaine, and others - the pictures took a LONG time! Cindy definitely doesn't fit the CSC adult demographic, yet there she was in their photo! Joey was going to see 300, but realized things were taking too long. I got to shake Karen's hand right after we took our group photo: yay! Told Eric and Jeremy that I'd have to tell them about the banquet tomorrow since they weren't invited - it's going to be interesting, heh.
Later on, my mom took me to the townhouse - let's just say she's a little TOO focused and melodramatic about certain subjects, and leave it at that. As for "no worries" and using it correctly when we don't use it around her, she says she just heard it somewhere - she asked if it wasn't "hip" to use it or something, haha. (it's only not hip if you're MY MOTHER WHO'S ALMOST 60!!!) Says she'll take me to the glasses place on Tuesday before my dental appointment, and I can bus home - good thing I don't have to fear certain things, heh. Lunch is good, too. (11:30 - sure then...) She says that Grandma doesn't like celebrating her birthday after the date's passed because of some odd (to us) old Chinese cultural tradition - if you celebrate your birthday after the actual day, you'll die in the next year. Then you can add some family history to that: Grandma's mom died ON HER BIRTHDAY years ago (when I was under one year old), so of course Grandma doesn't want to celebrate it then. We'll probably have shark's fin soup somewhere tomorrow - old people apparently like celebrating their birthdays with expensive stuff. Can't celebrate it Monday (her actual birthday) or afterwards, especially since Grandma's afraid she won't live for another year - and we couldn't celebrate it tonight or yesterday for obvious reasons! (wedding banquet and our Fellowship obligations) Oh well, at least Cousin Aaron is taking her out for dinner somewhere... that way, she won't be paranoid for the other half of the day / evening!
Angus: "Yeah, I need to alienate people so it won't take this long for photos after my wedding ceremony! Oh wait - Melia knows the CSC, so SHE has to work on alienating them! Hey Joey, you're ugly!" (haha, nice joke!)
We chatted to various people in line - Eddie, Eunice, Olivia, Uncle Johnny, Joey, Mike, Chris - and had to go to the other side of the church since one side was getting quite full. Eric pointed out a poster of Karen and Chung Yan, but figured I couldn't see it yet since I was too short - you know I wish to be taller! (Skee-Lo references!) Then he wondered why people were shaking Chung's hand before the wedding - hey, I agree! You never know what could happen in these wedding ceremonies! Turns out we were in the baby section, but there was no real room in front of us, and we didn't really want to move to the balcony! He saw Alan and Jeremy, and wondered where my family was in the crowd of 600 - yeah, like I can see them?! (Jon was rather obvious since he played piano for the ceremony) Saw various babies: Joe and Helen's new daughter Abigail, Winnie's daughter Megan, Kelvin and Evelyn's son Taylor two rows up (who looks a LOT like his dad!), Tim and Maxine's sons Joshua (who waved to me when I gave Maxine her birthday card) and Keenan ("you can call him Iron Mike!"), Lee and Lily's daughter Hannah ("hey, there's Roberta Luongo!"), and others.
Taylor didn't look too happy, and started crying before the wedding - I jokingly asked Eric what kind of faces he was making at the baby. He said he was making normal faces... and blamed Darren, who was sitting in front of us with Sam / his brother Jeremy / Lucas and his sister Hannah / J-Mak / Jessica, and denied everything. So Eric joked that he'd make the baby happy by covering Darren's face with an open Bible, haha. He was looking for suitable passages to write in the wedding card - he's not a fan of 1 Corinthians 13 (the LOVE chapter, which Chung and Karen used), and pointed out various other unsuitable passages: yeah, divorce / the Philistine army / dealing with your enemies won't cut it! I bugged him about putting the card in the envelope a different way from how I do it, haha. He said my way was wrong because of the front of the card not being the first thing they see - eh, I'm quirky and you know it, so shush!
When we all stood up to welcome the bride, Eric correctly figured that I couldn't really see her - nope! But as long as one of us could, I was happy with that. I noted the rather long list of photo groups (24?!), and he noted that the pastor's name was Genghis CHAN instead of KHAN. Interesting choice of name, no matter if he picked it or his parents did! He plugged the Winter Conference at the very end of the exhortation, haha. Said hi to Chrystal later on, and walked with Eric and Jeremy to the reception in the gym - that was a long slow trek, made even worse because it was cold in that hallway! Could be akin to Moses' trip in the desert with the Israelites, only not really... "THE DESERT FELLOWSHIP! Y'know... dependency and support in the desert even if nothing grows there!" Joked with them about a few things - yup, I needed more white humor, haha. Talked to them while lining up to get food - Jeremy went back and grabbed forks for the three of us since we didn't see them beforehand, heh. I finally congratulated Angus and Melia on their engagement at a Yaletown restaurant called The Coast - he says he wasn't nervous when he proposed to her, and Phil described his sister's engagement ring as "a big rock on her hand." (and it was!)
Stuck around the guys for most of lunchtime - and it was a huge lunch, with Chinese food and buns / dessert / cake / drinks / everything else. Angus said he wasn't full, but the rest of us were - here, YOU can have the rest of Melia's cake slice after four people took turns eating some of it then! Nathan was the driver for the couple, and had to get up before 5 - he was telling everyone about what he'd done so far today, and it sounded busy! When Chung and Karen did a toast, he said that they translated for each other - yes, we noticed the ceremony was bilingual. (English into Chinese) We discussed the Alanis Morissette song IRONIC at one point - I tried to include someone in that conversation, but he just wasn't into it for some reason! Oh well... said hi to Martin, Quan, Mike, Emily, and others. Finally saw Kingsley and Kittie, whom I haven't seen since Anita's wedding back in 2005 - their daughter Natassja still remembers me, and so does her brother Justin. Talked to them and Elenor about my life, what Jon was doing now, and living in Richmond. Told Jon that some people wanted to talk to him, so they discussed his interning as a pastor / Tony, Teresa, Lukas, and Tabitha Lim in Malaysia (Tony was our pastor YEARS ago!) / people growing up fast / parenting / chairing things that they really didn't know much about / his teaching / Natassja and Justin's older brother Adam being almost 16 and in air cadets / other interesting things. It was good seeing them again! I also saw Larry and Sandra briefly with their kids Joshua (three years old) and Elizabeth (ten months old) - very nice to see them too!
Interacted with baby Megan a little bit, mostly centred around food. She's so cute! Saw Sam, Connie, and their son Jaden - didn't talk to them since they were kinda busy with other people. Talked to Vernon and Sarah just as briefly, and jokingly told Andrew that he could eat ALL the leftovers - there were TONS of them! Steph says the teens are taking a platter to Floodlight tonight: we could have a Koinonia lunch with the rest, and STILL have a lot of leftovers! Jeremy took some home, and that applied to plenty of other people as well. Good times, even if we hung out in the kitchen for a little bit. Said hi to Esther, Mel, Sheena, Chalaine, and others - the pictures took a LONG time! Cindy definitely doesn't fit the CSC adult demographic, yet there she was in their photo! Joey was going to see 300, but realized things were taking too long. I got to shake Karen's hand right after we took our group photo: yay! Told Eric and Jeremy that I'd have to tell them about the banquet tomorrow since they weren't invited - it's going to be interesting, heh.
Later on, my mom took me to the townhouse - let's just say she's a little TOO focused and melodramatic about certain subjects, and leave it at that. As for "no worries" and using it correctly when we don't use it around her, she says she just heard it somewhere - she asked if it wasn't "hip" to use it or something, haha. (it's only not hip if you're MY MOTHER WHO'S ALMOST 60!!!) Says she'll take me to the glasses place on Tuesday before my dental appointment, and I can bus home - good thing I don't have to fear certain things, heh. Lunch is good, too. (11:30 - sure then...) She says that Grandma doesn't like celebrating her birthday after the date's passed because of some odd (to us) old Chinese cultural tradition - if you celebrate your birthday after the actual day, you'll die in the next year. Then you can add some family history to that: Grandma's mom died ON HER BIRTHDAY years ago (when I was under one year old), so of course Grandma doesn't want to celebrate it then. We'll probably have shark's fin soup somewhere tomorrow - old people apparently like celebrating their birthdays with expensive stuff. Can't celebrate it Monday (her actual birthday) or afterwards, especially since Grandma's afraid she won't live for another year - and we couldn't celebrate it tonight or yesterday for obvious reasons! (wedding banquet and our Fellowship obligations) Oh well, at least Cousin Aaron is taking her out for dinner somewhere... that way, she won't be paranoid for the other half of the day / evening!
Angus: "Yeah, I need to alienate people so it won't take this long for photos after my wedding ceremony! Oh wait - Melia knows the CSC, so SHE has to work on alienating them! Hey Joey, you're ugly!" (haha, nice joke!)
Labels: andrew, angus, chris, chrystal, chung yan, connie, emily, friends, jeremy, justin, kids, life, martin, maxed-out tags limit, mel, quan, sheena, teresa, tim, weddings
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