Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Jan/ Chapter 1: Oh man, relatives and weddings

There seems to have been a lot of weddings in the last year or so. Last year was meant to be a good year, and so was last weekend on the old Chinese calender. So I had an interesting day last weekend. I went to my girlfriend's sister's wedding.

It was a beautiful day, we were out at Taipo by a lake, and the weather was just right. The ceremony was very touching, made me feel happy for the couple and actually made me feel good inside.

I had actually missed the serving tea to elders and the groom getting the bride and all the games in the morning. Most of them got up at 5:30am to get ready. By the afternoon I could see some people already looked tired.

We then went to Tsim Sha Tsui for the wedding banquet. It was pretty big, 22 tables. The bride's father has a very big family, he has 7 brothers and a sister. So that means a lot of relatives. Which is great, nice to have a big extended family.

But what wasn't cool, was when everyone asked me when I was going to propose to my girlfriend! I was actually sitting on the table with all the relatives on the bride's side, and throughout the whole meal I could tell their aunt was trying to find out what type of person I was like. She was checking me out with a bunch of very smart questions.

At the end of the night I was even asked to stand with the rest of the family, so I could escort all the guests out. It was really weird because I wasn't a member of the family yet!

Great day, interesting experience. I just wonder if I can handle all the pressure when I get married. Would I want to "perform" in front of 22 tables? I mean yeah, we celebrate at weddings to show the world that we want to spend the rest of our lives with someone. But all the traditions make it feel like we're performing for everyone else, and make the whole experience seem a little daunting.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

UGH! That's exactly why I've never liked weddings. I HATE it when people start asking you when it's your turn. The worse thing is, all you can do is smile politely and do a fake laugh 'yeah, ha ha ha, you got me, very funny' and sort of slink away.

Now that I am married, people keep asking "so when you having babies?" Please piss off. I don't know.

Although, I must admit, I do seem to be an exception to the rule and I do know that people often just say these things out of having nothing to say. But it's still annoying.

Carlton Bradshaw said...

haha, yeah, it's always the "when you having babies?" next.

Got to say though, once people our age get married and got babies, then we got no annoying comments to look forward to.

Life grinds to a boring pace, and then when younger people go to weddings we have to ask them questions like, "hey, so when you getting married?". haha =P

Anonymous said...

You got a girlfriend? I thought you are one of the player otherwise how did you know the player mentality that well?

Kidd :)

Nice to see you update your blog!

Carlton Bradshaw said...

Oh I was a player, and I wanted to try out that lifestyle, especially when I had friends around me living that lifestyle.

Ultimately it's pretty unhealthy.

But I'm glad I lived that way for a while, to see what it's like. That way I won't miss it.

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