'The Wedding'

"This is something for you to remember for all time," said my aunt, while I was tying up my shoelaces. I smiled and shrugged my usual. It was the morning that we left for Selangor, for my cousin's wedding. My eldest cousin had chartered a bus for the trip; it would be a grand affair - my mother's side of the family, from Taiping, Ipoh, and Kuala Lumpur/Selangor would be attending it. Aunt and her friend waited along with mum and me, to catch a glimpse of the bus which would be taking us all the way there, and back. It reached the house as I was feeding the fish for the second time that morning. Me and mum were the first on it. And so, our traveling began and one by one, the rest of the relatives were picked up as we began to move, from state to state; from Taiping to our destination.

I made the mistake of not sleeping enough the night before, as I thought of catching up on it on the bus instead. But even as individuals, my relatives are chatty by nature (and more so, when they are a collective), thus I was deprived of my precious REM, for the entire course of the journey. During the first few hours, someone had (also) put in a Chinese karaoke vcd into the bus' entertainment system and blared it for a while, supposedly for good festive measure, until some complained that it was making conversation hard. I found it a little strange that they remained as they were however, when a Stephen Chow movie was played later on. I watched the entire show with my raw and shot eyes, laughing like an idiot every now and then.

The bus took longer than it should in reaching our destination, as we had stopped to pick up a few more relatives on the way, in Ipoh. And the toilet breaks: they were many.

We made it to my second youngest uncle's place at around four o'clock. I breathed a sigh of relief as we approached the gate to his home, as I could have sworn that we had missed a crucial turn to reach the area in which he stays. I handed my aunt two bags worth of some Chinese biscuit and congratulated her, at the porch. I spent the rest of the evening recuperating from the trip in their livingroom, sipping beer and making small talk in front of the cable. Occasionally, noise pollution (in more ways than one) was produced by kids who were rather more able to express themselves musically over the piano, than to actually play it proper. On day two, the piano was made off-limits to everyone. The night went on with the pouring of various liquors and servings of food (the caterer was a team comprised of a motley crew of youths who looked liked they were into the emo/goth scene, but then again, I could be wrong). By midnight, many of the other guests had left, leaving us, the relatives, who were mostly exhausted, drunk or both.

We retired that night at Prescott Metro Inn, Kajang (fifteen rooms for the families who were attending the marriage), where I shared a room with my younger cousin. I'm not sure if anyone else knows that he smokes; but he sure does a good job at concealing it. "Mind if I smoke?" he asked me at first. And I replied, "Just make yourself at home, and just why are you asking me this anyway?" To which he replied that he thought that I might mind. If only he knew. I only slept after finishing Bruce Willis' 'Hudson Hawk'. It was cold, and very dark when I switched the lights off. That night, I didn't dream.

We were the last to get on the bus the very next morning. Everyone was to attend the tea ceremony, back at my second youngest uncle's place. Due to my blurry state that morning, I cannot recall being greeted with a frown or rebuke from anyone, for our tardiness. When we reached, the ensemble designated to fetch the bride was dispatched. After concurring with one another, the thirty or so of us concluded that remaining in the compound of my second youngest uncle's residence was just plain boring (we were to wait for the ensemble to return, with the bride), and so, with no map or directions whatsoever, we ventured out by bus, for the nearest mall to haunt, killing time effectively. We were almost following the ensemble back into my uncle's place, later.

The tea ceremony took almost forever (you will see why). I learned that I could not partake in the ceremony, as I was older than my cousin by a month. Also, I wasn't married (those who were younger received red packets from the couple, whereas those who were married had to give them red packets instead - I was neither, so I sat out). After it was all done, we took our family photo, together with the newlyweds:


A bit cluttered, I know.

That evening, me and my cousin checked out from our room - he had to leave for his place, almost an hour away. I made plans to spend that night back in my second youngest uncle's place, and passed the key to another cousin. We were caught in KL traffic for almost an hour on the way to the wedding dinner. It was held in a hall somewhere in an exclusive club in Selangor (there were thirty five tables). For two hours, while waiting for the dinner to be served, I helped myself to endless refills of beer, a few sips of cognac, and glasses of plain water. The wait didn't seem as bad after all that. From nine p.m. onwards, course after course of cuisine was served. In contrast, we were also bombarded with rendition after rendition of oldies; sung with much echo in the microphone setting - karaokes' patent sound.

I shared a room that night with my mum, her sister, my eldest aunt and her son. As both beds were used by them, I was left to sleep on the floor. I told them it was alright: I was drunk anyway. Everyone was awake around six a.m., chatting (I would think that my relatives would never run out of things to talk about) - so I took the bed closest to me and slept till eight. We left for Taiping after breakfast.

And I left for Butterworth from Taiping, that very evening.

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