puspawathy & sivanesan's wedding

we had the good fortune to attend a reputably magnificent indian wedding at a chinese hall nearby this morning. we are so deeply grateful that we did because it offered us a view of indian cultures and wedding traditions that were both amazing and completely unlike anything we had seen so far, or expected to see. especially for both my kids because it was their first time to see such event with full indian wedding traditions. it was a wedding of our family friend's daughter. our family knows each other from long time ago. when we arrived for the wedding, we were welcomed with open arms. we arrived about 10 minutes before the “start time” according to the invitation and were worried that we were late when we realised a lot of guests were already there.

we were however at ease when we were greeted and thanked for coming ‘early’. we had great seats in the front row.

i was also lucky enough to be invited by siva (pakcik (uncle) dore's another daughter) to join them on the stage to see the wedding ceremony with my very own eyes closer. megat didn't want to join me because the live indian cultural music, tabla i think was loud enough to be listened from the hall' floor. so i snapped lotsa pics maybe more than 60 of them. it's not that i have never been to an indian wedding before, but i guess i should just take the chance since i was already right in front of them!

just take a look at the above pic. it's of course a part of the indian wedding ceremonies. the pic shows the bride's mom standing on a tray. then the bride has to clean both her (mother) feet with milk to get her blessings. before that, the groom did the same to his mother.

i am going to be honest, that i don’t fully understand all the proceeding and ceremonies involved in an indian wedding. if you do, and you notice that i’ve made a factual error, please do not hesitate to correct me. hindus, sikhs and muslims all have unique traditions, although those of the hindus and sikhs are similar. we were in for a treat. the hindu wedding is a series of events staged to introduce the groom’s family to the bride’s, and bless both families.

the indian family is a very closely-knit and proud institution. families take each other, and their respect for each other seriously. the bad blood that day will be recycled, but will clear with time and effort. they are family, after all.

the above pic shows both bride and groom smiled through while bersanding after finally completed all the wedding ceremonies. this literally means the "sitting together of the bride and groom on the bridal couch". known as the pelamin, this couch is the centrepiece of the whole ceremony. more about the indian wedding ceremony can be read here. nonetheless you can jusk ask ms google, as there are many links about this that are available online.

to puspawathy & sivanesan,

the journey has just begun. the road ahead might be uncertain, but one thing is for sure… married life will be full of love and laughter after all.

and lastly, the above pic is of me with my junior in both primary and secondary school, selvambigai. she was so happy seeing me in lehnga. "you look gorgeous!", she told me. while i was so shy, smiling away... hehee... one thing for sure, the skirt is still a bit long for me although i was wearing high heels. i am just about 5'2" okay?!! you could see the difference clearly in the pic. see how tall selvambigai is!

a quick get-away

after having such a wonderful day at sunway tambun last week, kids were asking for another great holiday together. this time we went for a 2D/1N stay at bukit merah laketown resort.

at first we thought of going on friday since puteri does not have any ballet class this week. her extra classes in school were only from monday till thursday anyway. but suddenly the other morning i remembered that i was invited for an indian wedding reception here on friday too! so off we went there within an hour after puteri's extra class on thursday. we knew that the place must have been busy especially during the school holidays. that was what we were looking forward to. if not the place would be so damn quiet. we reached there almost 2pm. we were starving. so we headed straight to the coffe house for a buffet lunch, that was okay. a friend managed to get us a 3-bedrooms apartment at their lakefront villa. he also gave us a complimentary wetpark combo package, that include wetpark, orang utan island, ecopark and a choice of chairlift or skycycle.

we checked-in to our apartment after lunch. kids can't wait to get into the water that time. i hate to make them dissappointed. alas i asked them to get ready. believe it or not we were already in the waterpark by 4pm. the best thing was their mama also changed into her swimming gear. that makes a life-guard questioned megat.

"sape dengan adik ni (who is with you)", the life-guard asked megat.

"mama".

"ye ke".

"ya", megat assured him.

"bukan kakak?". alamak... not again hehe... i just kept quiet. didn't want to bother the guy. megat just looked at me and smiled.

we were there for more than two-hours i think. puteri said that she was hungry again. this time we went to the food stalls at the marina village. we didn't go back to our apartment since then. we spent our times there by wandering around. we missed the sunset cruise because it was drizzling, afraid that it was cancelled. we waited for night cruise then at 9.30pm. we cruised through the orang utan island and back. we stopped at the ecopark. we had a great time visiting the ecopark at night.

i woke-up at 8am the next day. wow... i really had a good nice one. so long i never had a complete 8-hours sleep you know. we had our breakfast at food stalls in marina village too. it was raining heavily. eventually all of us got wet eventhough we were sitting in the middle area! grr... should i complaint this to V :

while it was still raining, we enjoyed ourselves at the games area. we managed to ride the day cruise at 11.30am to orang utan island. the orang utan island is an eco-tourism attraction where these primates roam about freely. visitors will be able to observe the orang utans in their natural habitat as they are bred as part of the rehabilitation and preservation process to prevent them from becoming extinct. we stopped by at the ecopark again using the same complimentary package that my friend gave me. if you love animals then you should not miss this. we did watch the animal show at 12.30pm. its fun though. at pet park, visitors are allowed to feed the animals like deer, hamster, rabbit and such. kids were delighted to see the tortoise. this reminds me of my pet tortoise on-on when i was small. i cried when it ran-away after i took care of him for few years. his size was way bigger than an adult's palm. that memories makes me willing to buy a pair for both puteri and megat, without them needed to begging me so much. we went back to marina village by chairlift. we had our lunch at none other than mcD in taiping as requested by my beloved kids.

all in, it was an enjoyable and memorable vacation. even more precious was the family bonding we shared during the holiday.

i hope that you enjoyed the above slide with pictures taken during the holiday. i guess its a good way to up-load a number of pictures without any hassle.

i will also be loading another slide that shows pictures of the indian wedding reception that we attended last night. that was the first time for the kids. while several times for me. the best thing last night was that i met my former english teacher in primary school mrs silva. she still looks the same as before ;)

kuE's note: sorry people. my entry this time is rather long yea. i guess its all up to my mood. sometimes it could just be so quick and simple like this one ;)