Swine Flu

Yes...absolutely right...I got it on early Friday, 20th November, 2009 and amazingly I recovered within 48 hours. Blessed!
Who know or care the actual cause how I caught it.

Anyway, I had nasty sorethroat late Thrusday evening and suffered very high fever early morning (felt the whole body is boiling and sweat lightly...it was a cold night). Headache and all the joints aches and feeling very lame. You feel like you don't want to move at all but just lie down and rest. Luckily, I discussed this with the GP during my new patient registration in Highfield Surgery Friday morning.

She taken my temperature (which have subsided) and the reading showed 38.2C (she said I had Swine flu) before diagnosing my lung breathing. The GP issued a Tamiflu voucher for me to collect from the chemist. Tim picked it up for me without any queries from Lloyds pharmacy.

Fortunately Tim is still immuned as he had Swine flu in August, 2009 but only taken 2 Tamiflu tablets and he stopped as he get better after all. He started with a cold (couple days earlier) and dragged on to aches and fever one night. He diagnosed online and get his prescription at a Tamiflu centre in Watford.

Therefore, you're likely diagnose with Swine flu if you have symptoms like cough, cold, fever and aches all over your body. Tamiflu cured my Swine flu between 36 hours (2 tablets per day, one at a time) and I had Lemsip Max to ease the aching muscles. So, these 2 medicine did wonder on me.

If this happen in Malaysia, I don't think the scenario will be as relax as in UK, where they have enough supply of Tamiflu. My sister and brother in-law are doctor in Malacca Hospital and they said that Tamiflu supplies is running out and Malaysian government is short supply and control the medicine very seriously.

In Malaysia, blood test taken to confirm the H1N1 virus, you'll be isolated with others from the ward. You're advice to isolate yourself for minimum 7 days. I feel bad, I been out and about in my second day (Saturday) to Sainsbury's, Tesco, Watford town, John Lewis, etc...I'm sorry but I feel fit and bouncy and swine flu free :-)

Visa application again

Not joking....please treat this seriously. Visa applications rolls in just when I think of putting my feet up to relax after the marriage, honeymoon and settling down in our "new" home.

Not too bad, the spouse visa not so intimidated compare to the fiancee's visa application form. Less questions mean eliminates more possible mistakes. Its cost GBP465 postal order or premium same day service by person at GBP665. I'm in no hurry to get my passport for immediate travel, so will go for postal service.

More questions lingering in my mind..my current travel passport expired in 19months, then the spouse visa valid for 2 years...mean short of 5 months??? Need to clarify with Malaysia High Commission in London. Wish me luck but I'll prepare myself with sufficient documents to sort out the grey spot.

Buttonholes and Corsages

We have our first and only flowers arrangement with my sister, Cindy. We attempted the buttonholes, corsages, bride and groom chairs decoration. We discussed planning and possible decorations for church, wedding cake and restaurant. Busy day but great achievement..like the flowers...looked nice and cosy.

Thank you very much, Cindy for your great effort and ideas. I love the corsages, buttonholes, chairs' flower and wedding cake arrangements.



I feel the first punch hit me when we need to fix table seating instead of free-seating in order to encourage guests to mingle around. We need table chart, place card and table name card. We have 3 tables of 8 (one with a baby high chair, table of 9) and 2 tables of 10.

11 days...to go :-)

Surprisingly how we ended up picking a United Nation day without realising this mean something to our wedding. We just fixed date being flexible to majority of our families upon their availability.

Almost there;
Wedding's Order of service : 2 Readings, one from my cultural background being a Toaist...I-Ching (When Two People Are at One) AND
second reading from new international version Mark 10: 13-16 in English and Cantonese.

First Hymn : Morning Has Broken
Second Hymn : Praise, my soul, the King of heaven

Church preparation:
Rose petal and mixed roses confetti
Baskets for petals and mixed confetti, flower girl scatter petals along the aisle
Ordered pedestal and six pews ends, my bridal bouquet (very autumn feel, colourful and vibrant), buttonholes (white carnation; white is for wedding)
Chinese "Double Happiness" character to be sticked on church wall...representing cross-cultural wedding. Luckily, we have a flexible and relax curate conducting our ceremony
Appointed a friend to take photograph
Rehearsal Thursday, 22nd October
Good pen to sign the marriage registration (5 copies altogether,copy for Malaysian High Commision, spouse visa and future documentations)
Wedding bands to be handed to bestman on wedding day
Wedding car taken care of by Mike

Our favours:
Heart shaped candle wrapped in organza
Chopsticks (old Chinese tales of "getting a son soon" -"Fai Zhe")
Fortune Cookies
Five sugared almond (most likely for all guests rather than just female guests as a tradition)

On day:
Setting off from Richmond (my brother's place)
Make up artist start 7am
Set my own hair using hair straightener to curl it, half updo with tiara and combed veil


Restaurant:
Seating plan done, 44 adults and a toddler (don't forget to include the bride and groom when confirming seats)
Nice centerpiece flowers arrange by Pat
Put up few Chinese characters, confetti on tables, a bubble machine on entrance
Organized Jazz Trio (selected few playlist to surprise Tim)
Order of events
Three tier wedding cakes with a wedding couple as cake topper, decorated with few fresh roses and petals
Bought cake knife as family safekeeping
Will distribute wedding envelopes (red envelopes) to children
Packed extra gown just in case need changing


Honeymoon:
Weekend away locally to relax and chill out
A week in Lanzarote
Hired car for holiday

We started our preparation since June but most intensively for the past month, we are relieved when things progress and take care of themselves eventually. We are so looking forwards for it and feel more relax monitoring things as its goes. All mixed feelings and exited waiting for the day.

Things to do

Ooposh...time flies...in slightly less than a month, I'll be entering a new chapter in my life as Mrs......!

THINGS DONE :
*Wedding dress, shoes : may changed my mind and get a new pair:-), shopping for bolero
*Wedding bands and ring cushion
*Honeymoon : 7 days in winter sun...Lanzarote, Grand Canaria (Spain)
*Weekend away
*Confirmed reception, jazz trio, menu
*Posted Invitations
*Booked organist and flower lady
*Confirmed church ceremony date
*Granted special licence to marry in church under new Church of England regulation
*Wedding list from John Lewis
*Mike (Tim's brother) will sort out wedding car as gift for us..Thank you, Mike
*Bridal Make up artist
*Being brave to style my own hair:-)

LIST TO DO :
#Meet up Curate to discuss wedding service (order of service), hymn songs, reading and rehearsal
#Shopping for flower girl and page boy(s) presents
#Decide on cake....order M&S fruits cake and sponge, 3 tiers, cake stands, etc
#Choose flowers for pedestal and pew ends
#Bridal bouquet, Boutonnieres, Corsages, table centerpiece...will consult Pat (Tim's mother) when she back to UK from France
#Restaurant decoration....seating plan
#Selection of songs that we would like to play in the restaurant..."The Road That Never Ends" and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World" by Hawaiian artist
#Wedding Favours
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etc...

Chris Hen do Highlight

I had a very memorable "Hen do", thank you for the organisers MC, Mandy and Cindy...Everything went well except for the little drama while checking-in...apparently the agent booked us in two different date rather than rooms and the hotel was overbooked...Gosh...we were then blessed with a two rooms apartment instead

The Cafe de Paris club is one of the best club in West End that I been to..well done on spotted such a great atmosphere club...MC, Cindy & Mandy. Cool, we started our booze marathon with 2 bottles of frizze with nibbles followed by "cold dipped penis" straw mangoes cooktail..hey, its "Hot" there, right!
We proceed to colour me beautiful...fun make up session...Thanks MC for doing my brilliant make up...we looked drop death gorgeous with our dress to kill and heels...worth the pain!

We had a burlesque taster classes (30 minutes) and we learnt few burlesques tricks ..too challenging for the sock burlesque now but its fun learning all the burlesques. Finally, I was honoured to do a burlesques walk with the other Hen. The Wam Bam Club cabaret show is excellent...absolutely fantastic performance. Thumb up for the Hula Boy, Lady Alex, Sex bomb and gold finger ladies and not forgetting the stand up comedian Jason Wood, Wam Bam belles and lots more..the three bendy burlesque belles and the very atheltic Lady...wowww..wow!
Despite of the strict rules on no hen/stag wear but we managed to bring my sparky red Devil trident (fork) outrightly in.

Cindy won the GBP200 bottle of Absolute Vodka lucky-draw, this was the most expensive spirit mixer that I ever had in club..Cindy, thank you for sharing with us. Don't let the lady luck slipped through this Friday's EuroMillion 85 Millions Jack pot...good luck, everyone.

Unbelievable, 6 of us finished the 700ml vodka in 3 hours...wow hands up or even feets up..without hangover...afterall we had 2 bottles of frizze and 3 bottles of white wine. Hey, girls we drank like fish...normally my alcohol consumption is a small glass (125ml) of red wine with meal...Well done, all.
We party till 2:30am in the club then had supper at Hung's Leicester Square to line our acidic stomach...sHHhhh..! Then, everyone felt contented with the supper and back to apartment for a beauty sleep.

MC surprised us by spotting a Chinese supermarket after jogging in Hype Park, nice "choy sum" with noddles! Then we had our fine silver dining in one of Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's Mayfair Hotel. I was overwhelmed by the trendy and expensive furnishing in the dining room and the entire hotel. Its an eye opening decoration. We had a very leisurely 3 hours Sunday lunch till 5pm. Ooops, we did it again by pamphering ourselves..

Looking forwards for part 2 of the party goes on...Indulgent Pamper Day at Aquilla Health and Fitness club at London's Knightbridge. We suggested either first weekend of October or any September weekends before Rene's flying back to Malaysia, Sophie to Switzerland and Pat to New York City mid October. I can make it any weekends.

My Hen Do

Gosh...I feel really exited and butterfly in my stomach...phew...what surprise will I get from my lovely girlfriends and sisters for organising a "Chris's Dress To Kill" (without weapon) hen do. We have theme such as, "dress to kill with floral ornaments" Saturday night and "angelic whiteness" Sunday lunch...thank you all for such a memorable singleton send off.
By the way, we'll stayed in London's apartment for the weekend (12th and 13th September)...everyone bring nibble and booze...hey, hey... hang over, etc...cosy dinner and lunch but no other information on the "surprise" bit...Got to act like a Diva or Drama Queen at the grand entrance...bit challenging to me! There are girls rules (punishments for offender) and exchanging sexy gift for everyone!