So I Now Have A Brother In Law...

Yes, its been a really really mad week of activities... and now that my sis has finally been married off, and is now happily on her way to Germany for her honeymoon, I finally have time to take stock of all that has passed.

The week started with my frantic last-minute attempts to write a song for her. The first draft was naturally an unmitigated disaster, absolutely exacerbated by my desire to write it in chinese, since it will be sung in a chinese wedding service. I'm glad to say that I have trashed every copy of the first draft I could get my hands on, and hopefully no copies of it exists anymore on the face of this earth. Yet I stubbornly chose to meet Henry on tue night with that draft, and try to come up with a melody. Naturally, it was an utter and abject failure. We ended up singing lots of other love songs that popped to mind, and had a lotta fun jamming away. But nothing much came out that night. So we were left with thus night as our only alternative practice slot. So on wed night I decided that it was time for me to rise to the occasion and come up with something decent, as a small measure of reciprocation for all the years my sis had been so gracious and loving towards me.

Stopping short of going down on my knees, (tho that would have been my next resort), I was asking God to give me something that I could take to my sister. And how the big guy answered my prayers! 2 hrs that night as I hammered away at the keyboard and finally came up with the lyrics, followed by a whole day of arduous torture at work as I struggled to stay awake, followed by 2 hrs of intense composing, and the song was finally complete. I was so happy then. So the most natural thing to have happened in that moment of euphoria, which was what I did - was to forget to thank God. But nevertheless, somehow if any credit could be taken from me for this song, it would have been that brief prayer I made that night before God, because it certainly couldn't have come from me.

The drama continues tho. Not being all too sure of the song, I decided to go down to Bernice's house to prac it again with Henry on fri, where the worship team were gathering for their practice. That's when we came up with the brilliant idea that we shd turn it into a duet. Actually Henry had already mentioned on thus night after we completed it, that it sounds like a duet song. I concurred - but dismissed the idea since I figured it was too late to find someone on such short notice. Up stepped Sylvia to take up the responsibility. She bravely shouldered the task, praticed it really diligently, and did a lot better than she gave herself credit for. So when saturday came, and we did the song on stage, it is with really minimal humility when I say that of all the many positive feedbacks that I came across of the song, there was very little I dared to even consider attributing to myself. But I guess that's how God always intended His gifts to be.

Interesting, to consider the song as sort of God's wedding gift to the couple...

Hehz...

Friday night marked the beginning of a mad rush to prep the house for the next day's activities. Early in the morning, the sisters all trooped in and took over the house, plotting their devious little 'sabo's for the brothers, and for Joseph. Thinking of how I'm gonna be in the brothers's team soon enough for Xianghui's wedding, I shuddered a little when I overheard all the plans the sisters had in mind. And sure enough, when the brothers and Joseph came, they had do some really disgusting stuff. I managed to dodge the bullet on account of being the bride's brother. Grins.

It was a really hot day, but we gamely trooped over to church after all that for the wedding ceremony. The whole ceremony proceeded really smoothly, and there were many who came up to extend their congratulations. Many relatives, whom I don't even recognize, all called my name and grabbed my hand to speak to me. Was a really really embarrassing time for me man... Hehz... Was thinking to myself just how dead am I gonna be at my own wedding (if I ever manage to con a girl into marrying me, I mean), when it comes to inviting relatives, and greeting them when they show up. Worse was to follow at the tea ceremony, when Jo and my sis had to serve tea and call each relative by their exact 'title'. I think I would have just chosen to jump out of the window.

Then when it was all over, I stayed out with Paul and Stanley to have dinner and a drink while watching Man Utd screw up a match against Spurs. Went home late, tried working on my MC script for the dinner, and realised I was too drunk to think clearly. So slept instead and woke up with a terrific hangover. Went for service, after which we celebrated Enoch and Huilin's birthday. Rushed down to the hotel (thank God for the Lancer. Hehz...) to meet the co-ordinators to finalize plans for the dinner, then had to spend an hour frantically trying to prepare something to say at the dinner. Bathed, then rushed down for all the sound checks and stuff, and never looked back since then.

I thought the dinner was really sweet, I had my fair share of banter with Joseph on stage, and there was enough mush to go around by the various speeches to qualify it as a heart-warming dinner. All in all, I really felt the whole thing went off really well. I had my share of pretty major screw-ups on stage, but I doubt many caught it. I was a little raw, naturally, since it was my first time being an MC... but I think I would have been a tad too harsh with myself if I said I sucked.

*deep breathe*

Here's the song I wrote, for anyone interested in reading it. Yes, Mei, feel free to mock this work of love that is God's gift to the couple...

从今以后

Verse 1:
现在起
你我要学习
从今以后
彼此地相依
不顾前路有多么艰苦
两颗心
永远不分离

Verse 2:
在此刻
只想对你说
从今以后
将与你合一
生命不再
只属于自己
我愿把
一生交给你

Chorus:
从今以后
要学习爱戴与珍惜
从今以后
风雨路陪你走过
天父祂慈爱的看顾
成全我与你
在祂爱里
你我建立
我们的家庭

Bridge:
一生一世在祂爱里
一同经历祂丰盛的慈爱

Last Line:
在祂爱里
你我约定
终生不分离

I've put up the song 我愿意为你 because throughout the whole process of composing the song, we couldn't stop bemoaning the fact that this was such a beautiful song to sing at a wedding. Unfortunately Faye Wong has really made it her own, and made it almost impossible to do a better job of it. As such, any attempts to use it at a wedding would really be awful. But its always a personal favorite. Everytime I read the lyrics, I find myself almost soulishly reaching to every emotion that the lyrics convey....

Weddings always stirs up the same feelings of desire that I have to find someone to share my life with, someone whom I could run to at a moments notice, just because I had a spontaneous urge to tell her I love her. Seeing those couples walking in to the dinner and at the wedding... sometimes I had to remind myself to focus on the things I had to do, and not get caught up in my wistful musings.

But I guess I've said enough abt that, so I shall not prolong this post anymore.

Except to say this...

I'm SO gonna miss my sis.