The After Action Report

Okay, now that things have calmed down somewhat…

So. I am married. Whoo hoo.

The wedding night (Since it took place in the evening) was for the most part, the kind of wedding I’ve always wanted to attend, but thus far, haven’t; small, intimate, and surrounded by friends with a nice ambience, good food, lots of conversation, and no hordes and hordes of relatives, strangers, and co-workers, cousins, vague acquaintances that I was only remotely familiar with. The ceremony itself took place in our actual hotel room, which was a suite at the previously mentioned Gallery Hotel. The only people in attendance besides me and the then Fiance were her immediate family–consisting of her mother, father and younger sister–my friend Aerin, who flown in from Canada to see the wedding and see a country she’d never been to before, and Eugene, a friend of mine who–in tandem with the Fiance’s mom–was acting as witness. And of course the guy that presided over the ceremony itself, the Solemnizer.

The ceremony was brief and relaxed, and I think it may have barely grazed past the seven minute mark. I didn’t bother with writing vows (The mercenary part of me figured since I wasn’t being paid to, why bother…) and so we just fell back on the standard vows the Solemnizer had on hand with the usual sickness, health, richer and poorer clauses, and then there were the “I dos” the kissing of the bride, and that was that. It was over and time for the inevitable round of pictures. My new mother-in-law hugged me and I could hear the choke in her voice as she said, “Take care of her.”

After that, the wedding party left the hotel and crossed the street for the book cafe where exactly one guest of the 20 invited had already shown up and claimed a seat. Eugene and the Wife’s family comprised a sizeable chunk of the other guests, with a few friends on both my side and the wife’s to fill it out. The Book Cafe has an area with couches and coffee tables which they’d cordoned off for us, and then the “light supper” we’d ordered started to arrive and we realized there was nothing light about it. It was good food and there was lots of it, a fact that some of the guests bemoaned as they’d read “light supper” on the invitation and so had gotten something to eat in the meantime, thus depriving themselves of valuable stomach space with which to stuff obscenely stuff themselves. C’est la vie.

It was a totally cool reception. The Wife and I flitted to the appropriate tables to talk to our various friends, and the tininess of the event really made it a lot of fun. It’s nice to know everyone there, and mostly have everyone know everybody else. And the few people on my side that didn’t know each other were sufficiently conversant in gaming anyway that they quickly bridged the gap and became friends fast as the inevitable topic of World of Warcraft came up, and they found common ground. But as all good things must, this came to an end, and we retired to our hotel room for the night.

The days since then have mostly been us playing tour guide for Aerin. So far we’ve subjected her to the Esplanade (Or as I like to call it, the Bug Eyes), the central business district, the shopping district of Orchard Road, our own neighborhood, which is going through Ramadan right now, the Singapore zoo, and even the SPCA and a columbarium (For those of you that don’t know what that is, it’s a “graveyard” for the ashes of the cremated).

Things are getting kind of busy now again though. The Wife now has an exhibition at the Singapore Design convention to oversee, I’m wrapping my mini-series, starting on an animated series, and getting involved in another documentary, we are moving very shortly, and there’s still the little matter of putting in her application for Canadian permanent residency.

All in all, a happy and productive last week. Except that I didn’t start on a new novel, but oh well…