12 March 2016 Lunch at The Fullerton Hotel

Today MF and I were the emcees (masters of ceremonies, but really we were just following a *pun* script) 司仪 of Lynn's wedding banquet this afternoon. Obviously I was the English MC and Fatt was the Mandarin MC. It was my first time being a compere. It went not bad. I would not mind being a compere again if the other compere is not intimidated by my height.

With all my (not that much) theatre experience it was my first time having to speak formally that I had to suppress dramatic expressions. With all my school and work presentations I wanted to adopt a more pleasant sounding clear tone, definitely not my nasal squawk and that jarring Singaporean accent. I eventually worked out a mezzo soprano pitch that not too surprisingly had a British twang to it. I rehearsed at home with Poh to iron out the garbled pronunciation and separate out the consonants, so that the last syllable does not blend with the first syllable of the next word. If I was going to be a compere, I wanted to do it well by speaking the language properly.

I had missed Lynn's ROM which our other classmates attended as I was on a mission trip to Phnom Penh & Takeo in Cambodia. Our conversation triggered in her an idea that I could be an emcee for her wedding banquet. I agreed on condition that I was the English emcee since my Mandarin was known to be CMI. Time rolls and it becomes Fatt's birthday this year. She wished him happy birthday as usual given that his birthday is just one day before hers. He teased her that she "bojio" him to her banquet. She still had yet to find a Mandarin emcee and then the idea came to mind. So that was how both of us came to be the comperes.

I was glad that Fatt was my buddy compere. It is nice to work with someone we both are familiar with. Also, he was a calming influence or else I could become jittery. Formerly from Chinese drama, he also has stage experience. Better still, he is a teacher now (public speaking skills upz).

Fatt thought his Mandarin was rusty. Although he studied higher Chinese, he only uses English and cantonese on a regular basis nowadays. Turns out, his Mandarin is still quite there. He made much corrections and improvements to the Chinese script. His speaking was clear with a medium-tone pitch. Good job done.

Lynn's wedding banquet was pretty. The reception was held at the Roof Garden on the 5th floor (which was air-conditioned, oh yeah) and the lunch was held at the Straits Room. The Straits Room was fully white with carved ornamentation on the arched ceiling and walls. The diffused afternoon sunlight came through the skylights and windows, creating that airy & classy feeling unique to this place, all in air conditioned comfort. If held in the evening or in a sealed up ballroom one cannot create such an ambience.

Lynn's wedding was Japanese-themed. The colour scheme was light pink. As we could see, she decided all the decorations. There were plastic sakura branches as the table floral pieces, and flora, stands along the aisle. Hanging off them were strings of origami cranes in shades of pink and dark red. On the stage backdrop were paper umbrellas and unfolded fans. Lining each side of the aisle floor was a line of a mix of rose petals and plastic sakura. White and pink nice colour combo.

I checked in at 1020 ahead of the rest of the wedding contingent who were settling the tea ceremonies. We were given a hotel room for day use where we could store barang and change into yukata. Given the Japanese theme, Lynn encouraged us to come in yukata. In the end the only ones who came in yukata were Poh, me and Lynn's friend whom I loaned my yukata to. Lynn was indeed happy. Poh came because two people couldn't make it to the banquet; the food would have been wasted. Poh was definitely happy to come to the banquet and wear yukata. Lynn had met Poh before when she came over.

Lynn and YH performed a Japanese song <永遠に共に> towani tomoni meaning "together forever". Yong Hao sang most of the song actually; Lynn only joined in as duet at the chorus. He did whatever that makes her happy. Aww.

After all the events of the day, Fatt and I were tired & reclusive. We introverts needed to recover after going through a social event.