Its been an amazing end of 2007 and I know that I haven’t blogged in ages but I promise to keep this as concise as I can J Im typing this out as im having a quiet new year in with my family, one of the quietest in comparison with my previous years really! I cant remember the last time I had a new year eve at home! Except last year when I just came back from Bangkok and missed the NYE fireworks coz I stupidly thought the prices of petrol would rise and I went to fill my tank when it didn’t! I filled my tank again this evening hehe.
Im gonna double blog this on Friendster and Wordpress so everyone who’s not in touch with the fact that I have a whole new blog url can read it too 
THE WEDDING
Dates : 8th & 15th December 2007
Venue : Melaka & Tg Sepat, Selangor
I’ve had a whole December off and I don’t know where to begin but let’s start with the highlight of the month, which was of course, my wedding ; ) My first ceremony was held on the 8th December and I think the first thing I should do is to say what an amazing time I had, and to thank all my friends and family for helping to make it the success that I surely think it was!! Lotsa love and thanks going out to my parents and aunt for helping out more than you can imagine – you guys were fabulous! And of course to my sis who braved her dengue fever and daily blood drawing to come back AND be my maid of honour! Then I have to mention my darling bridesmaids and groomsmen who came from all around to be by our side – from KL, Singapore and London ~ thanks heaps to dears Yien, Jo, Sharon, Xav, Les & Nick. Then I have to add a ton of thanks to my sis & bros in law for being our best man and for allowing your super cute kids to be our flower girls and ring bearers, and to my darling emcees Li & Nick for making the dinner a huge success. Thanks to Scott as well for your gorgeous pics which we cant get enough of! And then thanks to the rest of my friends who came back from all over Malaysia, Singapore and beyond to be with us during this joyous occasion – I cant thank you enough for your attendance and support. Muaks!!
Our church ceremony on the 8th was held in St Francis Xavier’s Church Melaka and thanks a whole bunch to my cousin Matt for being the best commentator anyone could ask for and to Martinian for being our reader, to Fr Ravi for adding some much needed life into the wedding mass and last but not least – to the CFM choir, my alma mater choir – for the beautiful music. The ceremony would not have been a success without you. The dinner was on the same day at Mahkota Hotel – a million thanks to Jo & Xav for picking me up at the make up studio and to Yien for helping me with the gown, feeding me the bananas and to Jo & Sharon for helping me to get in and out of the gowns that nite. You girls are truly the best bridesmaids anyone could ask for!! Thanks to my sis and my cousins Alban and dear wife Amy, and my sisters in law Michelle & Michelle (hehe, yes they share the same name!) for helping me out with the registration table and Alban & Amy with the money counting later that nite. Love u heaps for everything you’ve done for me. Cannot thank you enough. Kisses & hugs & all that!
Our second ceremony was held the week after on the 15th December and again I wanna say a big FAT thanks to my darling chi muis who planned and schemed via email as some of you have never met each other – to make La Tortura a success!! Hugs & kisses to Jo, Sharon, Eileen, Lee Wee, Wee Leng, Lyn, Anushia, Gowri (thanks for coming back all the way from HK for me!!) and my sis for being the prettiest girls in PINK that day and for kicking ass!! I really appreciated all that u know, and I still cant stop laughing when I watch the whole session back on video!! J Thanks to the heng tais and my hubby for being such good sports as well. Hehe. Although I think the girls were complaining about some ahem…shortage of dim sum funds.
Thanks to my sis and parents and aunt for all your support that nite, and to my wonderful in laws for tolerating my mood swings haha. Also to CS’ friends and family, thanks for making both nights such a wonderful memory for us! It was so tiring and draining to prepare for our wedding and I sincerely don’t think I would like to go through the planning again, but I would agree in a heartbeat to relive both days of my wedding J
Cannot thank each and everyong of u enough *hugs*
THE HONEYMOON
Date : 18th – 28th December 2007
Venue : Italy, Nice & Cannes (France), Lugano (Switzerland)
We couldn’t have breathed a longer sigh of relief once our wedding was over and after sending everyone home, it was time for our HONEYMOON!! One which I kinda dreaded going for since I was still extremely knackered from both weekends. But im glad it turned out to be one of the bestest times in my LIFE and we met some amazing people during the trip as well!
On the 18th we left for Rome and transited in Bangkok, via Thai Airways. They couldn’t stop feeding us enough and I thought the meals on board were pretty good! We touched down in Rome at 6am local time and immediately got to our tour. Of course with some face washing, teeth brushing and contact lens inserting first J We visited Vatican City, the Colloseum, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Square to name a few. I so regretted the fact that we didn’t buy anything on my first day except Godiva chocs as later I would come to realize that not only did we not have enough shopping time…a majority of the shops were closed for Christmas! First night was spent in Rome.
The next day we left Rome and visited the lovely pilgrimage town of Assisi. In the afternoon we headed on to the little sovereign state of San Marino and spent a night there. There was snow in San Marino and we childishly made a dwarf snowman and a snow angel *chuckle chuckle*. I’ve seen snow before but Chai Sern hadn’t so I accompanied him in our childish feat J The town is also a duty free town so I didn’t hesitate when I bought my Prada sunnies hehe. Love them to bits. We also bought about 3 bottles of wine and some chocs.
The next day we trekked the hills of San Marino and wondered around the castles snapping pics to no end as there was a spectacular view from Mt Titano. We left for Venice in late morning and we finally arrived by boat to Venice in about 2 hours later. We had lunch in Venice before visiting St Mark’s Square and the Basilica. We also visited the Murano Glass factory and we took a gondola ride down the canals! Thank goodness it was winter and the canals weren’t as stinky as they usually are in summer. Hehe. By then it was getting dark (in daylight savings the sky turns dark by 4.30pm) and I didn’t get to do much shopping (and by shopping I mean for bags and not souvenirs) as we couldn’t locate the shops. We did however come back with 2 Venetian masks and several keychains plus some Murano glass ear rings for my relatives. We spent a night in Holiday Inn Padova.
On our third day we headed to Florence and stopped by Pisa first as there were some riots in Florence. We took some compulsory pushing the tower pics with the tower and bought some souvenirs including Chai Sern’s AC Milan hat, scarf and shirt. He loved them and immediately wore them hehehe. Forgot to mention that we also have been having and loving the Italian gelato. Nothing beats the real gelato!! Those fakies back in Singapore or Malaysia will never make it! Hehs. Then we headed for Florence. We stopped by a factory outlet store which didn’t sell stuff THAT MUCH cheaper anyways but I bought a Fendi ski cap only coz I loved it to bits, it was about 65 euros which I thought was a steal. Although it does seem pretty expensive after the conversion. Thank God I stopped myself from getting a scarf. It was pretty exciting as we got to take the Metro into the city, although it was only two stops away J When we got to Florence we immediately started taking pics with those sculptures including Michaelangelo’s famous David. Then we had to SHOP. But of course! We managed to locate a Gucci store on our own and I bought a bag for my sis, the overpriced souvenir cum belated bday gift cum Christmas gift. I had to call back to ask which one she reaaaallly wanted though hehe. Mind you, im not a fan of Gucci – I love Prada but as my story proceeds u will see how I come to end up with a Gucci bag for myself. We had dinner and spent the night in Tuscany.
One of the most exciting days had to be our fourth day as we drove into Nice. We all took an optional tour to visit Genova and Porto Fino, which is this little town filled with property costing more than the bungalows in Kenny Hills. Giorgio Armani and Dolce & Gabbana have properties here. It was raining for most of the day and it was extremely cold in Genova as the winds just couldn’t stop blowing! We had lunch and visited Marco Polo’s house…I think. It was too cold and we couldn’t be bothered with too many pics. Then we headed to lovely beautiful gorgeous spectacular Nice. By the time we got there it was pretty late and to all the ladies’ dismay, the LV shop had JUST shut down!! So me & Chai Sern went into the Longchamp store to get a bag for my sis and a wallet for myself J We spent 2 nights at Nice. Pity we never visited the beach though!!! And for this reason I vow to return to Nice. In summer. When I can walk into the sea without my boots ; P
Fifth day – equally as exciting. In the morning we went up to the hilly medieval city of St. Paul Vence to take pics with the many artworks including the THINKER J Then we headed to Cannes for lunch but the restaurant was closed! No fear. There’s always shopping. It was here that the LV boutique was so darned full of people that I had to divert to my darling Bottega Veneta boutique before managing to find someone who would entertain me in LV! I bought 2 pig shaped keychains from BV one as a gift, one for myself. I decided agains the bag the way I decided against the Tod’s as they all costed 1500 euros at least!! And at current conversion rate that would be RM7,200 at the very minimum! So I resisted. I did however get an LV canvas Speedy for myself and CS got his sis a Neverfull. Happy! We then took a drive into YES the highlight of the tour – MONTE CARLO!!! By the time we got there the stores were closed and once again I was sad coz the clock was ticking and I still hadn’t gotten myself my Prada! Anyways. The place is gorgeous. But there weren’t that many people OR cars. So we only posed with one Ferrari and one Bentley. I wanted to snap the Maserati but there were just too many poseurs lurking outside the Casino hehes. We bought some souvenirs and then it was DARK and we walked around including to the tunnel where the Formula 1 cars pass through and Monte Carlo surely has one of the best night views in the whole world. Apparently people paid auctioneers to grab a chance of this night view. Like Nice, it also overlooks the French Riviera or Cote d’Azur, and it is a complete joy to look at from above…we return to Nice to spend the night.
Day 8… It is Christmas Day!!! We head on to Milan. We visited the Sforza castle, the super amazing Gothic Cathedral and the amazing Piazza beside. And I couldn’t be more disappointed than with the fact that all the bleeding stores were closed save for McD’s, Burger King and Spizza. Or something. And we had 2 bloody solid hours to shop. Kill me. The worse thing was that all the stores had their lights on and all I could do was to drool at the stupid Prada bags. And the Milan store had to be one of the largest. Arghhh….we all had McD’s though. Their flurry mixes Baci with their original gelato and it just has to be the best I’ve tasted. Along with the coffee…Italian coffee is to die for. And we have more of it in McD’s. Lovely warm coffee for a cold winter’s day, made colder by the fact that im deprived of my bags. We spent 2 nights in Milan.
The next day, we head on to Lugano, this little border town in Switzerland where we were supposed (note the SUPPOSED) to buy chocs and watches. Again. All the stores were closed. I could practically hear myself crying as I missed the chance of buying those Swiss made watches…those with higher resale value as compared to Asian purchased watches ARGHHH. I shall return some day. Haha. I forgot to mention that the lake view was gorgeous. So we had to extend our tour to an additional island somewhere in the Lake District off Milan…Lake Como or Lake Maggiore or something and by this time I hardly cared. I couldn’t shop for goodness sakes!!! We had lunch and returned to Milan. The shops were ALL STILL CLOSED so no Prada for me…but the tour leader was kind enough to bring us to the stadium Meazza – where AC Milan (and Inter) plays!!! Chai Sern and several other members of the tour couldn’t be happier. I just snapped pics while lamenting that I bought more bags for my sis than for myself hee hee.
The next day…our final day in Italy. It was time to fly back to Malaysia via Bangkok. When we arrived at Milan airport I couldn’t be happier as there were boutiques!!! Hermes, Ferragamo and Gucci. I asked the Gucci salesman and I swear he almost choked when he replied me that there were no Prada stores in the airport. Oh well. Time to get myself a Gucci. And so I did. As did some other members of our tour as we were all seriously shopping deprived haha. Throughout the 10 hour flight I did not sleep a wink and watched 4 movies coz I have been so deprived of movies in the months leading up to my wedding hahahaha. I watched Stardust (which I love to bits), Ratatouille (yes I had sadly not seen this), Harry Potter – The Order of the Phoenix (which I found really boring) and I cant bloody remember what the last movie was. Good lord. Anyways we touched down in Bangkok at about 6am and we STILL shopped LOL. But just some Absolut and Chanel Precision and then we were done. We had waaay too many bags with us haha.
Then we touched down in KL at about noon. I slept the whole bloody flight from Bangkok and didn’t even eat the breakfast (after all we already had one on the MXP-BKK flight). When we got back we didn’t sleep for fear of jetlag…so we went and ate, I did the laundry and we downloaded all our pics to see and THEN we slept. I woke up at 4am the next morning!! And then we came home. Back to our separate hometowns and me being the Santa bringing chocs and souvenirs and BAGS home to my family…much to my sis’ delight. HOHOHO.
And that was the end bit of my 2007 for you. HAPPY 2008 to everyone, and I hope that the new year brings the best in life, love and $$$. I know that 2007 wasn’t the kindest year to many of us, but let’s give a toast to it anyways for the sweets and the sours…and welcome 2008 in anticipation of bringing more sweets to our lives!!! Bless you all.
X0X0
Ps : Pics of both my wedding and my honeymoon are up on Friendster and Facebook so friends do go over when you’re free ok J You can get the URLs from me if u wish, just email me! AND YES, this post is coloured in my church wedding theme colour on purpose ; )
