Dr Joe's Wedding

The past week in KL had been most hectic for me.

The star event was Joe’s wedding on December 26. Joe is the elder son of one of my wife’s sisters. The marriage of two doctors who were course-mates in the University of New South Wales, Australia, was more interesting as Isabel is Korean.

The wedding was celebrated over 3 days: Home-cooked lunch and catered Buffet dinner on Christmas Day, being Wedding Eve; catered Buffet lunch and Dinner at a restaurant in a 5-star hotel on Wedding Day; followed by Korean Dinner at a Korean restaurant hosted by the bride’s parents.

On top of these functions at which our presence were required, we have 2 couples from UK who were invited for the event, whom we have to play hosts to. In addition, we have my brother-in-law and family who are related to the Chinese couple and therefore are part of the “tour group”.

I acted as driver on call and it was fortunate for me that the traffic situation was favourable during those public holidays. My main complaint was having to deal with security guards at the entrances of condominiums. I was ever grateful for the usefulness of the handphone though sometimes, I wish I could not be contacted! My close friend, KC has called me Dr. Kildare for being on call most of the time! Being on call meant I cannot commit myself to any arrangement with him or another ex-classmate, Ken, from Sydney who happened to be on holiday.

Fortunately, Ken stayed in PJ Hilton and had a spare bed which he had kindly offered to me during the few days. PJ Hilton is just across the Federal Highway from the condominium where the guests from UK stayed, and my son’s house in Section 14. So we had the odd situation of a driver living in Hilton with nice buffet breakfast thrown in!

For the British couple, Paul and Helen, this is their first visit to Malaysia. They have played hosts to our two daughters in UK and we are trying to organize some interesting places to take them to.

Paul plays the guitar and enjoys jam sessions. With Ken as pianist and me as guitarist as well, we tried a few songs. Then Paul and I went to KC’s home studio to jam too. But the main problem, as usual, was trying to choose songs familiar to all. Paul hates Beatles’ songs and was unfamiliar with Shadows’. We were unfamiliar with some Irish or British songs which he suggested. So we gave up any idea of jamming on that wedding day. In fact, there must have been about 10 guitarists who were present during lunch. All three acoustic guitars were lying idle. Wonder if presence of electric guitars would have made any difference. I would have been more disappointed if I took the trouble to arrange and nobody touched them.

They are presently spending a few days in Singapore and will be heading to Fraser’s Hill before coming to Perak where we will play hosts.