We have had a couple of busy days here in Singapore, and I guess it has all taken a toll on Marc, who is sick with a very sore throat today. Truth is, his symptoms have been mild ever since the last night spent in France, but bearable. Somehow, over the course of the preparations for the "wedding" dinner happening here, things got much worse. He is trying to drink a Chinese syrup concoction to ease the pain, but it probably will not go away any time soon.

That is not to say that the dinner went badly at all. In fact, the preparations proved to be a good time for family bonding. We all went to a flower depot on Friday to begin to look for centerpiece decorations, and then moved on to the cake shop in the center of town - more on the cake later - and stopped for a quick lunch. Finally, we went to the Singapore Recreation Club (SRC) where we were having the dinner in order to finalize arrangements and make them take down cheesy "chin-na" stuff like the fake floral centerpieces and the heart-shaped sign with flowers on the wall that said Marc Allan and Shu Wen. We could not get rid of it all - more on that later too.

Shu Wen had some work to do, so we returned to the apartment in the afternoon and took care of that. Marc later went for a long-ish run and explored some of the residential streets around the apartment here.

Saturday - the big day- began with a 10 am tea ceremony in Bishan, where Shu Wen's paternal grandmother lives. A number of other relatives (uncles and aunts, and cousins) were there, so we served all of our elder relatives tea. We served Korkor - big brother - there too, and collected the red packets (or other gifts) that they all gave us in exchange. Red packets are envelopes containing various sums of money that each person thinks he/she can give to the new couple. They are also given out for other festive occasions, including New Year celebrations.

After the first tea ceremony, we stayed for lunch and then headed back home for a short rest before working on flower arrangements and decorations, all as a family. Everyone was hard at work, cutting and arranging flowers, removing thorns from roses, making the pots look nice. We finished just in time to take the flowers to the SRC and make it to the second tea ceremony, at Shu Wen's maternal grandmother's house. There were many more relatives there, a consequence of the 22 children her great grandparents had. All of the grand uncles and aunts are numbered in age order, which kind of helps, but it's still very confusing.

After the tea ceremony, we made a brief stop at home and then headed over to the dinner, and the guests started arriving promptly at 7. The greetings took a little over an hour. We then were introduced by a cousin of Shu Wen's and her best friend from childhood, and said a few words. Marc stumbled through some Mandarin greetings and made a general fool of himself. Shu Wen sounded much more eloquent, in both Mandarin and English.

After grace, the drama began. The lights went really dim, and the serving staff trouped in carrying large platters of a lobster and fruit salad. Around the sides of the platters was dry ice, which added to the atmosphere. It was a bit frightening, but everyone seemed to enjoy the presentation. The meal began in earnest then, and we ate ten dishes throughout the evening, including roasted pork and duck, shark fin soup, sauteed scallops and vegetables, steamed fish, abalone and sea cucumber, a chicken dish and noodles with mushrooms and scallops. Desert was mango pudding and cake. There is a dish missing in there, but neither of us can remember it right now.

A word about the cake. When Mama found out that Marc was half french (a while ago), she set her heart on finding a French wedding cake called the "Croque-en-bouche," which is an elaborate tower of pastry puffs stacked in conical shape, and set in place by sticky caramel sauce. Well, we deviated from the ideal a bit, as she found a similar type of cake with chocolate binding instead, and each puff decorated with candy and chocolate rather than just caramel. The origin of these cakes is that the first real chef in "haute cuisine" in France, a man named Careme, had somewhat of an obsession with architecture and cooking, and he designed large centerpieces to adorn his tables, called pieces montees. These were never meant to be eaten, but they were made entirely of edible materials. He modeled them on temples, pyramids and ancient ruins, and said that architecture was the noblest of the arts, and that the pastry was the highest form of architecture. Eventually, some gourmand decided to consume one of these pieces, and the croque-en-bouche and other yummy delights were born.

All throughout dinner, we tried desperately to greet people and eat and do some crazy toasts (Yam Seng) , which were part of the reason Marc cannot talk today. Shu Wen says he sounds like a bullfrog.

Today was a day of rest and trying to organize thank you note writing and our record of gifts received, but we seem to be on the right track and are now ready to call it a night. Korkor left to go back to Dubai, so the apartment seems a bit emptier already.