A Friend's Wedding at My Secret Garden

Ahaha... corny title, but I'm rushing my laundry.

Got back around midnight from an ex-colleague's wedding at My Secret Garden. It was a nice affair, with a slightly above-average food but even better friends & company and music entertainment - that's all I can say. I really liked the place though when I first stepped in I was half-expecting a lush garden set-up, but, no such thing. It was basically a cemented courtyard with some trees planted and candle-lit dinner tables and chairs. There was also an adjacent in-door dining area, which was near occupied by guests. I wondered why they chose to sit there when the best seats were obviously in the courtyard.

Together with some friends I sat at the table set-up immediately facing the band. From thereon it was your typical wedding social mode.

The feeling I got from the reception was that of low-key charm and closeness and intimacy. It was a complete breakaway from the stuff you'd expect locals tend to do at weddings, yes, none of that tired exchanged of vows, the bride walk-in ceremony or 'when was the first time I met my spouse' speech - thank god! Ok, ok here we go, my cynicism starts to creep in here, the only thing that spoiled the atmosphere was the crass 'yamseng' toasts, which apparently put a lot of pressure on the couple to oblige those drunkards, lol, and to do forced bottoms-up. Can't help it but it is in my virgo nature to disapprove. Anyway some things will never change that I admit, lol, but I'm really glad that sharks fin was absent in the menu - a breakaway from the old tradition, right?

So I saw many familiar faces. But I especially caught up with some fav peeps - with Noor (bubbly and resplendent), Qi (casual and genuine nondescript as usual), Ruby (appropriately boisterous), Murali (had a good tri-chat with him & Noor), Terence (with a ciggy? lol, I really like this bro), Ann (who lended her great vocals on 2 or was it 3 numbers?), Maureen (whose genial manners was really awesome, heck she even took impromtu lessons from a drum-beats player!), Teresa (who looked like she put on weight at the right places!), Ed (with a bottle glued in his hands) Sharon (wearing that wicked dress!), Michelle (whom I profusely apologised to for not attending her wedding the other day), Clifford (this bro is talented), Jean & Jason (The Couple), SK (my ex-boss), Lina (who put up a 'Wow' impromptu singing perfomance) and Andrew (whose ebbulience really showed when we chatted on the way his life was heading.)

I left at 11.15pm with a friend. We thought of sharing a cab together as she lives in Jurong and I was meeting M for a midnight show. But as usual, cabs at that hour were non-existent and I had to call M for a raincheck.

We chatted for like half an hour and it was funny - I've known her at TT for so long, not that close, but, it is always during these chats that I find more revealing and intimate matters from peeps. The taxi came and I let her take it first, leaving me dwelling another 20 minutes of waiting at the roadside along Waterloo Street. Again, times like these made me wallow deep with instrospection and if I could only employ a stream-of-conciousness writing ala Woolf, ahaha, I'd do so - but dear readers, my laundry is waiting for me.