I heaved a sigh of relief when the clock struck 6 pm. Quickly logging out of my office computer, I briskly made my way to International Plaza, where I had arranged to meet Da and SC at 6.30 pm. Arriving at about 6.25 pm, I was cornered by a guy who carried a clipboard and said that he was from a certain organisation. I figured that he was either going to try and sell me a product or encourage me to sign up for a talk. As I did not want to be late, I informed him that I was in a hurry as I had to attend a wedding rehearsal. He gave me a very skeptical look but let me pass. As I walked away, a thought occurred to me. He was probably thinking that of all the excuses that people give him to brush him aside, my "excuse" was the most ingenious. Most people would just vigorously shake their head or simply say that they are not interested or mumble beneath their voices as they scurried away. I chuckled.
I met up with Da and SC. SC had parked her car by the side of International Plaza. We got into the car and SC drove off.
We arrived at the Church at about 7 pm. The Church is a Roman Catholic Church and located at 2221 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8.
No walk around such beautiful premises would be complete without... you guessed it! Photo-taking! This time, not only was I armed with my trusty digital camera, so was SC!
The Church hall has lovely stained glass. Unfortunately, my digital camera's zoom lens was not powerful enough to take a photograph of the stained glass in the dwindling daylight.
As this is a Roman Catholic Church, there many sculptures of our Lord Jesus Christ located all over the premises.
There is also a little garden area where a statue of Mother Mary is displayed.
For the uninitiated, Roman Catholics believe that Mother Mary intercedes on behalf of the children of God. A colleague who is a staunch Catholic once gave me an analogy - if you have something to highlight to your boss, you can, of course, speak to your boss directly. Alternatively, you can speak to your boss' right hand man, who will then convey your message to your boss.
While waiting for WC to arrive, Da, SC and I decided to adjourn to a coffee shop at a neighbouring HDB block (block 332) for a quick dinner.
SC decided to order a Bak Kut Teh with rice.
WC arrived just as Da and I were about to place our orders. I ordered a seafood spaghetti. However, when the dish arrived, we all gasped in surprise. The portion of food on the plate was not worth the S$5.80 that it cost.
WC ordered the most healthy dinner - sliced fish soup with rice.
Da, being the Teochew that he is, ordered a pig stomach soup with rice.
I also ordered 2 rolls of popiah to be shared amongst the 4 of us.
After dinner, we made our way back to the Church.
As we entered the Church compound, I noticed a beautiful statue of Jesus, Mother Mary and Joseph.
As you can see from the photograph below, the Church has a lovely steeple.
The Mentors gave us a "dry run" of the wedding day. They were very helpful and even gave tips to the rest of us who will be helping out on that day. WC found the Mentors familiar and realised that they were also his and SC's Mentors when they got married 7 years ago! What a small world this is!
After the rehearsal, we proceeded to the home of RT (located at Block 282 somewhere in the eastern part of Singapore) for the 2nd choir practice of the DRSS Choir. Without warming up our voices, we decided to launch straight into the songs as the hour was growing late. Some of us recorded the singing and we cringed when the recorded singing was played back. Eeks! Honey to the rescue, please!
As the Mentors told us at the rehearsal, let's not worry too much. Everything will fall into place on the day itself. If not, no worries - the guests will have interesting things to talk about for years after the wedding. Memorable incidents from other church weddings include the following:-
(a) the groom's mobile phone rang during the wedding;
(b) during a solo performance of a hymn by a singer, it suddenly became a duet as a member of the congregation (who seemed to be familiar with the lyrics of the hymn, which lyrics were not printed in the wedding booklet) decided to join in the singing;
(c) the page boy started fanning himself with the ring cushion and the rings fell out;
(d) the page boy decided to make a 180 degree turn as he was walking halfway down the aisle and the bridesmaid had to turn him around and make him walk straight ahead;
(e) the page boy's father was enthusiastically giving encouragement to his son (as the boy was walking down the aisle) in a voice loud enough for the entire congregation to hear;
(f) the priest asked the groom several questions and in between, he slipped in a question to ask the groom whether he would agree to allow his sons to join the priesthood. The groom, having answered "I do" to several questions, automatically answered "I do" without thinking and suddenly paused and froze when he realised what he had answered the priest;
(g) the priest asked the wedding couple in the midst of the wedding why the portions that he had to speak (as set out in the wedding booklet) were so lengthy.
AH and JL - do not worry. Everything will turn out fine this saturday. Now, can you please practice your twirl for the recessional march?
1 comment:
Hahaha. nice pictures! i agree that christ the king is a very nice church... So...your friend is getting married on the 8 o november? Wow...I'll be going to the ZOO on the 8th Of November with my friends! HAHA
cheers,
Ardy
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