2 more days to I Swear By the Pool

Today was the day when we went to collect our rented car to be used as the bridal car. The company had called us earlier to inform us that the Nissan Sunny model we originally chose was not available as the car, in their words, "not suitable to be rented out". Guess the person who rented it previously thrashed the car. And as such, they gave us Toyato Vios at the price of the Nissan Sunny, which was lower and to our benefit. Earlier, I was actually worried that they will force us to pay more for a higher grade car once the Nissan Sunny is unavailable as they only had one Nissan Sunny in their entire fleet, like what some unscrupulous rental companies will do. I guess my fears were unfounded and in fact their service was well above my expectations. I would probably go back to them if I ever needed to rent a car again. This is their link: http://www.expresscar.com.sg/contact-us

For those who wish to try their luck at 4D...

My dear had been looking forward to this day as she highly anticipated sitting in a car that I drove. Of course, that made me nervous as the last time I drove was some years ago. But I guess the experience of only getting the license after the fourth try etched the basics firmly in my mind. After all, the additional money spent should not go to waste. However, there was just this one big problem, which compounded my nervousness. The rented car was an auto car, which I know nuts about, and thus I had to quickly sms some of my friends to ask about the foreign letters and numbers next to the gear stick. They got back to me after a while to induct me in the fastest possible time, which I am really grateful for, and I guess that was what friends are for.

As soon as the procedures were completed, we were on our way to the bridal studio to collect our suits and gowns. The next problem came when we reached the bridal studio, we had to find parking and there were no empty parking lots outside the studio. Even if there were, the lots required parallel parking, which I honestly had zero confidence in, especially since the traffic along the road was quite heavy and can be quite unforgiving. And as such, I stopped by the side of the road, with double yellow lines, which I believed to be alright for waiting (after all, my fourth-try passing experience should be fundamentally correct?).

Then, came the next twist of the story, the traffic police officer came. And he was like looking around before he started to take out a camera and wanted to take a photo of the car. Of course I had to stop him before I got a fine, thus I quickly told him that I will leave after my call ended and naturally I did because I wasn't very sure of the double yellow lines also. Maybe I am new to this, but I found the traffic police super unfriendly. He did not even come over to talk to me before he whipped out his camera. Well, the very least you can do was to just talk to me and let me know that I cannot stop there? (Then again, I waited there for quite a long while also, like close to 10 mins or so but then he was only there like for 1 or 2 mins, so unfriendly). Maybe there were too many unreasonable drivers around that they chose not to waste their breaths any more. And so, I went to find parking at the multi-storey carpark nearby. The evil side of me believed that someone actually tipped off the traffic police, but then again, it could have been my luck. Luckily, there was no fine in the end, though I did incur an additional ERP charges for accidentally leaving the restricted area by turning into the wrong lane and I had to re-enter the zone.

After collecting the gowns, we went to my dear's place as planned to transport her stuffs to our new home, followed by a trip to Giant Tampines to buy the other stuffs which we missed out buying the previous time. It was tiring but fun as I guess I simply like to drive and also because of the interesting events of the day. 1 more day to go.

Guo Da Li

Though it was the last day of school, we both took leave for this event. Originally, I thought of finishing the last day of school then proceed to do the guo da li, but on hindsight, the leave was well-taken else it would be very rushed. After all, my siblings also took whole-day leave to lend me support, so I should not waste their efforts.

The baskets of goodies

My mum and sister had helped me to pack the stuffs into the various bags and containers the day before. Thus, it was quite a breeze, as we just called for the taxi and proceed to my dear's place. Actually, the process was over in a jiffy as the exchange was done rather quickly. The time saved, however, was squandered on waiting for the cab back to our new place.

Guo Da Li mission success

Reaching our new place

Upon reaching our new place, we quickly got ready for the an chuan procedures as our bed mattress was totally in its original plastic packaging. With my dad helping to put the required food items, the bed was soon made ready for marriage to be laid on again only after our marriage.

The Fu Qi person (my dad)

The end result

我是小小裁缝！

好久没有上来写点什么了，一直都是小志在努力着，真是辛苦他了！

今天，让我向大家展示我的小作品。

用来套着结婚戒指的小枕头

用来签“卖身契”的熊熊笔


今天身体有点儿不舒服，希望我能快点好起来，做小志的新娘！

倒数开始......

3rd Year Anniversary Gift

My dear made a very nice gift for me for our third year anniversary, though she was very afraid that I would reprimand her for the cost incurred. After all, it could potentially cover our meals for about half a month. But anyway, it was a very nice gesture, considering that I did not give anything in return. Oops.

Here it is:

More Wedding Preparations

Actually much had been done but little was said with regards to the guo da li, an chuan and actual day procedures.

As early as last year, we had researched about the customary procedures online, only to realise that there were many different variants as they were customised to the individuals' needs and dialect groups. As such, we decided that we shall only carry out certain major procedures, subjected to the approval of our parents. But apparently they do not have much to object as they are not that particular and are alright with our planning.

Early this year, we started to visit the various shops that specialised in chinese wedding items, with one of the trips happening last week. There was one in Ang Mo Kio and about four in Chinatown.

It was an enlightening process as you started to see how things can be priced differently once it was considered a one-stop place. Probably the prices were marked up in exchange for the convenience but my dear was adamant that we should not succumb to the insatiable appetite of the store owners. Well, we managed to found the exact same bowl for drinking sweet soup at about 20% of the price listed in the wedding shops. But of course, the trade-off would be the time spent which could be used for other purposs. Luckily both of us felt the time spent was considered time spent together and instrumental in enhancing our relationship.

Now we are in the stage of preparing the items for guo da li. Perhaps photos can be taken then.

In the meantime, we had sent out the invitation cards. Prior to that, our hands somehow turned red after touching many of the invites. My dear was much better at this as she can write the name and address, fold and tie the string around the card in the time that I write the name and put it inside the envelope.

Anyway, the piles of cards:

The Avengers

My dear and I originally planned to watch this on the first day that it came out on the movie screens, which happens to be a public holiday. However, we opted to watch it instead on the following day, mainly for economic reasons and time constraints. Well, one needs to save after our investments in our house and wedding day.

The movie started with the entrance of the bad guys, mainly Loki and his partner in crime, (who is virtually uninvolved in the entire show, save for the start and the end) and he attempted to steal the all-mighty energy source, which the humans amazingly had but yet to know how to utilise it. While doing so, Loki managed to convert two of the good guys to become the bad guys: one scientist and Hawkeye. As such, the theft gave a legitimate reason for Nick to assemble the Avengers.

As with all teams, they will undergo the stages of team development. "Forming": They were called in. Period. "Storming": They had witty arguments here and there. They even had disputes as to how to capture and deal with Loki as they each had their own ideas of doing things. Especially true for Iron Man. Egoistic but cool nonetheless. That's his appeal actually. "Norming": That came after their storming phase caused one of the agents to die and them splitting up for a while. But Hawkeye came back after a big knock to the head dispelled Loki's hypnotic spell. "Performing": Well, they were simply kicking the asses off the alien invaders, climaxing at the point where Iron Man sort of sacrificed himself to direct the nuclear bomb to the alien hometown via the portal. "Adjoining": That's when the movie sort of ended with the heroes going their split ways to do their own stuffs.

As usual, please do check relevant websites for more details and as with all their movies, there is the small clip at the end which leads to the next movie.

The movie was engaging and very funny. The witty dialogues, compiled with the cockiness of Iron Man, the old-fashioned righteousness of Captain America, the outburst of Hulk, the awkwardness of Thor, the craftiness of Black Widow and the endless arrow ammunition of Hawkeye simply made the movie a great one. We both enjoyed it very much.