Ainal's wedding

On a bright Sunday morning, 30th November 2008 Ainal, my nephew got married to his love, Shikin, a sweet girl from Merlimau. As aunt, and the eldest one at that, I had to be there - as chief of reception awaiting the bride's entourage. Everything has been ready since the day before - the tents are up, the food is being cooked in the back yard by hired cooks and the bride's dais all ready. Suddenly I realise there are no flowers on the main table. What a disaster! How could we have forgotten that? So its rush rush rush after that. Twenty minutes to go before they arrive and we had to run over to the nearest flower shop to get flowers. And its a Sunday. Will they open? No, its not open so we had to go back to plastic, naturally. Hmm... is that an oxymoron?
So here we are finally and the bride is late. Its almost two when she arrived. The food was getting cold, most of the guests had left. BUt they came - the whole entourage of 40 people.
But things got better immediately after the bride came. All dressed in pink, she looked lovely and sweet. Despite the wait everybody smiled and came forward to get a closer look. Ainal too looked resplendent, dressed in pink baju melayu and samping. Amir was the best man, looking solemn enough to be the groom himself. Things went well considering the late start.

What I'm reading now

I've just finished reading this very insightful novel - "Things I want my daughter to know" by Elizabeth Noble. Its about a woman, a mother of 4 daughters. She has cancer and knows that she is dying soon. So she writes letters to each of her four daughters - the eldest a 37 year old who is afraid of commitment, the second is married but not happy, the third runs away from her problems by travelling to far and distant lands and the youngest, a fifteen year old who is still at home and preparing to do her GCSE as well as look after a sick mother. The writer goes into the personal lives of these 4 women and see how their lives inter twine, how they each go through a period of black despair and how they all survive it by helping and depending on each other. This is by no means a deep book, if you're looking for something freudan or something classic. But I think most of us will find something for ourselves in this book. There is also the story of the father or the step father - Mark. He is Barbara, the cancer victim's husband and the ideal parent in a way. How he copes with his daughter (the 15 year year) and his step daughters' grief is something I can really admire, his own grief notwithstanding. A good read for a lazy weekend but very thought provoking too.
The other book I'm reading now is The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga- winner of the Man Booker Prize for 2008. A hilarious book; well written and full of irony about India's modern society and especially Bangalore.

Garden in Batu Berendam

A corner of the garden in Batu Berendam. The ginger plants are on the right, next to the Bird of paradise flowers.

My Ginger border

Last week I bought some dahlias - bright yellow ones and also a deep dark red. Both of these I planted in pots because there isn't that much space left. I don't want a cluttered garden and Repin prefers to keep the lawn as green and flower free as possible. So if I get any more new plants they'll be potted ones. The dahlias are growing well I think. At least they're blooming now. Hopefully they will still bloom in January.

I've designed a border - at least its a start. I'll have some primulas I think - maybe pink and white ones because of the colour and I'll mix them with the marigolds. Will the colours clash? I like marigolds because they're perennials and easy to maintain and so are primulas.

So far my lillies have not bloomed except for that one occasion when one of the white ones sprouted some blooms. Can't wait to see them actually because I really don't have any idea what they look like. They were given to me by Norlee and hers too have not bloomed.