Ada satu cerita kelakar...

Tapi, I tak tau nak gelak ker...or nak nangis...

Ayah and I had a wedding invitation yesterday. It was a reception for the son of my colleague at the Faculty - Prof Fa*zi, and his wife Dr. Fa*i*ah. It was to be held at Gr*nd Bl*e Wa*e, Shah Alam.

I went to get the wedding present on Saturday while waiting for Hanna to finish her guitar lesson at One-U. Jenuh jugak lah nak memilih the present because nearly all of the items which I berkenan semua dah out of stock. They should have tagged on the display items that only the display items were left lah kan? I think I asked for about 8 items, before they finally had one in stock. Wasting my time only!

Anyway, I had chosen our Bajus to wear for the wedding - sedondon, etc. Had asked Dar to iron them nicely, together with a matching samping for Ayah and tudung for me. I later had to go through my accessories collection to find a matching clutch handbag, and later asked the girls to find a matching pair of shoes to go with it. Finally, I took out some bling-bling to be worn to the wedding. By 3p.m all the bajus had been ironed, and Ayah's songkok had also been brushed.

I decided to cook Honeyed Chicken Casserole for the kids' dinner. Ye lah kan? Ayah and Mommy nak makan khenduri, takkan anak-anak mak makan Maggi ajer kat rumah, kan? Dinner was ready by 5:30p.m.

Ayah came back from the hospital just before 7:00p.m, and we left for the wedding at 7:40p.m. We reached GBW at 8:05p.m and was amazed when we actually found a parking slot in no time at all. Ayah and I joked - hmmmmm, maybe we were the only guests at the wedding because everybody else was busy waiting for the by-election results in Teluk Kemang. Hehehe!

We went up the lift to the 2nd Floor where the Grand Ballroom is, with the wedding present in our hands, and as we walked out of the lift, it suddenly dawned to us if we had got the date of the wedding wrong. It was eerily very quiet. Too quiet for a wedding. We walked towards the Grand Ballroom, and saw a group of workers clearing up the tables and stuff there.

I stopped in my stride, while Ayah continued to walk straight to one of the staff there and asked if there was any wedding reception in another Hall at the hotel, and the staff said 'Nope'. She then asked Ayah the name of the hosts and when Ayah gave the name, this was what she said -

"OOooohhh... Dr Fa*i*ah punya function buat petang tadi. Dia buat Hi-Tea from 2:30 sampai 6 petang tadi!"

And at that point in time how I wished the floor under me would just open up and swallow me - all of me, together with my matching handbag and shoes, tudung, and bling-blings!

It was just SO EMBARASSING, okay?!

We got the date right. We got the venue right. But, we got the time wrong!!

But, Ayah being Ayah, dia selamba ajer tanya -

"Oh, ye ke? Hmmmm, You tau tak, if there's any wedding tonight which we can go to? Alang-alang dah pakai Baju Melayu ni. Boleh jugak we all bagi hadiah ni kat they all..."

And I was like ???!!!

We walked back to the lift, went down to the basement parking, and Ayah called Prof Fa*zi to explain and apologize to him for not going to the wedding that afternoon. After which, we got into the car, and we started laughing!!!

Only Haizal and Shana are capable of doing these things, you all!!

Anyway, on the way back we started to come out with names of eating places to go to for our dinner, and we decided that it had to be a place which serves dishes similar to Nasi Khenduri as we, or rather I, had already set our minds to makan Nasi Khenduri that night.

And we settled for d'Ta*do*r in Damansara Utama.

But before we went out of the car, we obviously had to dress down lah kan? Giler apa nak masuk d'Ta*do*r with what we were wearing, kan?

So, Ayah took out his songkok and samping, unbutton a few of his butang Baju Melayu, sengseng lengan baju (biar nampak macho lah kan?),and changed to his chapal which fortunately were in his car.

As for me - I couldn't do much dressing down, except to take off my bling-blings. And I just couldn't bring myself to carry my clutch bag yang glamour giler to d'Ta*do*r. So, I kept my jewelleries in it, put it under the car seat, and berdo'a that nobody would take them, and lenggang masuk the restaurant.

We ordered Pilau Race and Garlic Naan, Chicken Jalfrezi, Mutton Roghan Josh and some Brinjal dish and some Mango Lassi. The Poppadums were complimentary. Kira okay lah tu...Lebih kurang macam Nasi Khenduri lah tu! HAHAHAHAHA!

We finished our dinner at 9:45p.m and headed back to Sri Damansara and reached home at 10:00p.m.

The kids were still up.

And barely a minute after we went in, Hilman asked -

"Ayah, you have not given the present yet?! Why?"

Hmmmm...That's what you get when you have a very observant child in the house.

And we ended up having to tell the kids our embarassing story...

The moral of the story, you guys -

(i) When you get an invitation, make sure you read it properly, and don't just assume that just because it is a Malay Wedding held at a hotel somewhere, it would be a sitting down dinner reception.

(ii) Make sure BOTH you and hubby read the invitation from A to Z, and put a reminder in BOTH your phone Calendar/Schedule. And of course, make sure that ALL the details are CORRECT.

(iii) Do not misplace the invitation card (like we did!). It'll do you good to CHECK it again a day BEFORE the function/event.

(iv) Make sure you have spare casual shoes/attires in your car, or you might end up having dinner at Kayu dressed macam nak gi meminang anak raja...