I remember the FA Cup in the 80’s..complete with the cheesy music on RTM 1 that accompanies the live matches played in the UK.I remember endless sleepless night for my dad who stayed up to watch all the excitement, to promptly fall asleep at half time and not get up tll 7am.I remember the commentator named Azizul/Azman/whatever with the curry-puffed hair going about the “Bola cantik..adakah ini akan masuk dalam pintu gol”

What I don’t remember is me wanting to watch one of these boring matches that are always held at 3am thereabouts

Due to a strange twist of fate,I went to a FA Cup match on tuesday.For all you footy fans out there,you would know that Wigan from the premiership have been doing quite well this season in kicking ass. Leeds,who are comming up third on the Championships, are supposedly no match for them (if you need an explanation on the different leagues,please click on the comments from my first match)

When I initially heard that Wigan was playing Leeds, I was incidentally looking at a newsreport of how Wigan had beat one team 5-0. I thought Leeds would be lucky to get away with 7-0 on the losing end! However,they suprised the world by drawing with Wigan 1-1 during their first FA Cup match at Wigan’s home ground.

It started out quite boring, with Wigan scoring one in the first 15 minutes.That just served to bore me…as I personally think Leeds is no match for this giant of a team.But lo and behold..they bloody scored!The whole stadium went beserk with joy for this one teeny puny goal.

Remember what I said about the qurikiness of the football fans? Well,I got the full song:

(sing to the tune of Que Sera Sera)

When I was just a little boy
I asked my mother,what shall I be
Shall I be Chelsea, shall I be Leeds?

Here’s what she said to me

Wash your mouth out lad
And go get your father’s gun
And go shoot the Chelsea scum,
Shoot the Chelsea Scum
We hate Chelsea!We hate Chelsea!We hate Chelsea!

Yes,that was the whole song. And yes, they sing that whilst playing Wigan.Well,they sing that whilst playing anyone actually.

Anyway, by half time, it was too cold to stand out there,so we went into the bar to grab a pint.Kickoff was announced before we could get out of the bar..but by the time we manage to get back to our seats,it was too late.Wigan has scored again! Supporting the underdog,we were dissapointed. But Leeds tend to play better in the second half anyway..so here’s hoping.

Lo and Behold..at 75 minutes, Leeds scored against the mighty Wigan.Woohoo! It’s startin to look like magic might just be in the air tonight.One more goal and we are home free and still in the FA Cup!

A couple of desparate long shot attempts by both teams lead the game to go on to overtime. Damn…anoher half an hour in the cold? No matter,for the first time in my life I’m beginning to love watching football. Worth every penny of the 21pounds that I paid for my ticket

30 minutes are given in extra time. Half way thorough at the 15 minutes marker,teams switch sides. Yes,just like a mini football match but 15 minutes each way.

First 15 minutes saw Wigan scored again. By then, I was losing hope and really dissapointed. You could see that the poor players are really exhausted and tired from all that running around.By the end of the 15 minutes, the score still stands at 3-0 and you could see people starting to leave.

And then lo and behold, Kelly scored one in the second half of the extra time! Woohoo,we are going to penalty,where the best man wins..that is if Wigan don’t score again in the 5 minutes that is left on the clock.

It is quite rare that you have penalties in the game..it is not usual for teams to draw all the way into extra time.My favourite player in the team was the goalkeeper,and I was hoping that he would be the saviour for Leeds.

Alas, it was the strikers’ fault. Two of the strikers bloody cock-eyed and their finishing goals hit the top goalposts instead of into the goal,no assistance from Wigan’s goalkeeper who did not even had to do anything. Wigan polished off their goals with panache.

All in all, a very very good game. Leeds put up a brave fight against the mighty premiership team, and proved that they could play well too, if they wanted to. They have been known to lose to lousy teams when they are not in the mood to play,but this game really showed that they are premiership material.

Part 1 and Part 2, if you’ve missed it earlier
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The Family and The Reception

Now that I am unbelievably Mrs Barker,compulsary pictures with the new happy family is a requirement,not a want.No matter..I was standing there in the biting cold and a forced smile looking like I’m constipated.

Not the most flattering pose. The Mom,Grandma and Stepdad

Stepmom and Dad

Lindz and the Bro in Law

Jo,aka our chauffer of the day and general do-it-all

Amazingly,I was standing there for 10 minutes without a jacket or anything.All the pictures came out with a constipated look and was not very flattering at all,no?

The Reception

At 12.33,we were all set in the ante-room of the John-T’s at Leeds Marriott.Used to the typical cheena wedding of hundreds of people,this reception of 11 people seems pathetcally lonely.It came out nice though,as Bridezilla and Groomzilla was able to take it slow and enjoy it properly

To start off,we had pink Moet&Chandon,which was really really nice…a posh touch.

Bride and Groom’s clinks

Mr & Mrs Snowman!

A view of the cake and my flowers..we had heart shaped confetti all over the tables as well as lovehearts,candies with love messages to amuse our guests

A view of my cheena tanglungs,which were promptly snatched up by the gwai lous after the reception!They have not seen anything so pretty before..it was hilarious seeing them scram around taking the lanterns off.

Instead of sugared almonds or the typical Malaysian gift of sucky cake in a box,we passed our jade chopsticks complete with a holder that we purchased whilst in Hong Kong during Easter last year.

My tulip bloomed halfway through the reception

This is turning into a super long post.Next up: Part 4 -Food(my favourite!) and snaps of the reception.

If you’ve missed Part 1; click here.
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The Ceremony

Our Tiffany & Co.’s binding rings!

At 11.15,we were whisked into an ante-room,where they asked us both silly questions like when were our birthdays,address ect even though they already have it all in records from when we put in our notice.

At 11.30 sharp,we were ushered into the Brodrick Suite to the sounds of U2’s “Its a beautful day” as our bridal march.If you know me in real,you would’ve known that it is just expected that I won’t march in with the bridal march going ta-ta-ta-taaaanng.

For once,I’m the one with the double chin! I was in a state of panic..heck,we both were.And with our upbeat bridal march,I felt like running instead of pretending to walk demurely.

The next 10 minutes felt like and eternity.I had no idea what the Registrar’s was saying and I had no idea what we both said in our vows,so we took a look at it after the ceremony to see what had we put ourselves in…

We are here today to celebrate the marriage of Bacon and Baconette

And on their behalf I would like to welcome you all to the Brodrick Suite. I m sure it means a great deal to them that you can be here to share in their happiness on this occasion.

This place in which we are now met has been duly sanctioned, according to law, for the celebration of marriages. You are here to witness the joining in matrimony of Bacon and & Baconette. If any person present knows of any lawful impediment to this marriage, he or she should declare it now.

BRIDE AND GROOM STAND

Bacon and Baconette, before you are joined in matrimony I have to remind you of the solemn and binding character of the vows you are about to make. Marriage according to the law of this country is the union of one man with one woman, voluntarily entered into for life to the exclusion of all others.

The purpose of marriage is that you may always love, care for and support each other through all the joys and sorrows of life; and that love may be fulfilled in a relationship of permanent and continuing commitment. Today & & and & & wish to publicly affirm this commitment and offer each other the security that comes from legally binding vows, sincerely made and faithfully kept.

Now I am going to ask each of you in turn to declare that you know of no lawful reason why you should not be married to each other.

Will the bridegroom please say the following words after me.

I do solemnly declare that I know not of any lawful impediment why I Bacon, may not be joined in matrimony to Baconette

And now the bride. (repeat above)

Now the moment has come for Bacon and Baconette to contract their marriage before you , their witnesses, family and friends. Will you all please stand?

RINGS MAY BE EXCHANGED BY THE BRIDE AND GROOM

Will the bridegroom please say the following words after me.

& . I give you this ring as a sign of our marriage, as a token of my love and affection and as a symbol of our commitment to each other. I call upon these persons here present to witness that I Bacon do take thee Baconette to be my lawful wedded wife. I promise to love and care for you, honour and respect you and share with you all that I have. May we look forward to our future together with hope and happiness and always remember the feelings we share for each other on this our wedding day.

And now the bride. (repeat above)

Bacon and Baconette, you have both made the declarations prescribed by law and have made your promises to one another in the presence of your witnesses here today. Let us hope that this day will form a special day in your lives to look upon with much love and happiness.

Bacon and Baconette, It gives me great pleasure to declare that you are now husband and wife.

Ta-da!

I don’t rememeber standing

Me saying my vows..

And then it was…

OVER!!!I can sit again,pheww!

The whole thing only took 11minutes in total…it felt like 10 fooking years!

During the signing,we had Pussycat Dolls’ “Stickwitu” playing…courtesy of Mooi kindly downloading it for me…danke!
We had one last song after that,which was Sixpence None the Richer’s “Kiss me”, a ditzy happy kissy song.

As we were walking out,Bacon was overwhelmed,so it was Bridezilla to the rescue!

Everyone was waiting behind of us and the registrar’s was waiting for us to get a move on before they close the doors behind us..hey,it’s MY wedding,I will do whatever heck I want!

At 11.48am..

Out at last..

S-M-I-L-E

Lindz(the bro in law’s gf) raining us with confetti.I love the sepia-toned vintage look.This was not done on purpose,the step-father in law’s camera sort of sucks,and all his pictures came out looking like this!

Confettied hair

Stay tuned for Part 3 - The family and The Reception!

Waking up at 8.30am is never this housewife’s forte..especially since I’ve been out of a job for the past few months and the usual waking up time is 10am.So even though it was my wedding day,I was only barely awake crawling to the loo.

At 8.57am,my outfit’s ready to go

Zooming in

As part of {lunabliss},of course there’s earrings!

Blue suede shoes

By 9.28,I was up and running around in front of the mirror

Unlike a typical bride,I am doing my own makeup,hair,manicure and even pictures.

First view of the tulips that Bacon had put together for his bride

At 10.26am, we were both panicking…Bacon was fiddling with my bouquet and smirking nervously.Mind the Christmas tree..

At that point,we were both on tenterhooks and ready to run out and away.Luckily,our chauffer for the day,Jo,was over and just laughed and laughed at how stupid we were both being

We arrived at the Town Hall half hour early…all the way still giddy with excitement.I was seriously contemplating just runnng out of the car,but I figured that I could not run very far with my stilettoes and besides,it’s bloody freezing.

To avert the rising panic that I am feeling,I suggested that Bacon started snapping pictures of me,so I won’t be thinking of an escape route.Sorry…next few pictures are all in self vanity.

Blooming again

*Ptttttt*!

Constipated

Reflections

Up looking down

A view from behind..

To cut down on the bandwith-draining effect…stay tuned for the next episode - The Ceremony!

Dreydrey a.k.a maidzilla: Of course NO!!!I was afraid I might throw it to his grandma..and besides,I also think it’s sibeh sexy..hehe.

Skippy:Suffice to say, it’s all I’ve dreamt of..:P

Mooi: I thought so too!

Mavis: Thank you for saying hi:). Will do a blog of ‘the meeting’ upon your request..keep your eyes peeled!

thanks laynie & Mishellz!

Bacon’s laptop is acting up again,and I am facing difficulties viewing the pictures.Dad’s pushing for more pictures of his fatass daughter and son-in-law to preen to the old fart cynics who tell me every chinese new year that I am too fat=will never get married. NAH! Suck it up you bitter old farts…

Yes…I’ve gone and done it.Taken the plunge and just jumped.No,louyau Mike,I am not Mrs Bacon…heehee.Although that would’ve been really funny.

Have an important interview tomorrow,so not much in a mood to really blog now,but as soon as I can get all my pixs together,watch out for a bandwith swallowing post!

That’s what I’ve been saying ever since I became a Mrs.It’s creepily grownup and oh so posh-like..

Yes, I am now an honest woman.Thank you all for your kind wishes of happiness and joy…..and food,in Nadia’s case..:).Just got back from a short trip aka mini honeymoon.Have an interview twhatomorrow,so will be blogging more about the wedding later in the week.Some initial thoughts…

There should NOT be an exit right outside the wedding waiting room
There is nothing wrong with a bride holding a camera as part of her bouquet
Never ever get married in the freezing cold winter.
Prepare tissues
Do not even bother trying to recite your own vows,you’d be lucky if you still remember your own name,let alone your spouse’s

And….No self serving bride will walk down the aisle without a garter belt..

Rite, in less than two hours I am poised to be Mrs Bacon.OMG,I am so so scared now..Thought I might do a one last blog as a swinging single.

I’d miss my swinging single lifestyle,which I had made many friends and learnt so much about life.But it’s time to move on, and here we go.

Wish me luck!

is getting married.

Like maidzilla said,oh how grown up and aunty-like!

Been busy with wedding preps the last week or two,thus the disgustingly lack of posts here.Its kinda sad that family and friends are not here with me but then again this is not a wedding,just a civil marriage and we will do our wedding in Malaysia in July as planned.

For those of you with nothing to do, please check me out on 4th Jan at 11.30am (UK time) or 7.30pm HK/KL time at their webcam here at the Brodrick Suite.A word of warning though, it is really slow,30sec frame update.

So,this little piggy is going to be Mrs.Bacon.God,I’ve really got cold feet now,someone hold me down and chain me to the room!