Wednesday, September 20, 2017

My Best Friend's Wedding

Last Friday one of my best friends got married!!! The first of Charlie's Angels to get married lol 😂 It was a wonderful day and I'm still reminiscing about it until now. I have never actually understood when people say they are very happy and honoured to be there on someone's wedding day, especially the bridesmaids, considering there are an awful lot of work to do, but now I actually understand.

It was a lot of work to do, I had to prepare the booklets, place cards, pack whatever the bride might need on the day, make sure I will be healthy and can walk on her wedding day (believe me, there was a lot of incidents leading to her wedding day which involved my legs and feet, I had to actually stop going out during lunch to avoid anymore injuries), make sure the bride remembers her vow, learning the steps to walk down the aisle, outsourcing my bridesmaid's duty *cough cough*, etc.

And on the day too! I had to wake up at 6 to have make up and hair done. When my make up done, and make up artist was doing Eva's - with messy hair rollers on my head - I had to do errands and helped the photographer setting up her wedding dress for photos, making tea or getting drink for everyone who needed it, find the stuffs someone needs, clear up the place and pack-up, putting on her veil, and so on. 6 AM to 1 PM literally went in a blink of an eye.

But I was happy to be there. I'm glad I was there and saw the day unfolded. I didn't even mind at all when she was stressing out and started to get cranky. I was genuinely happy to help and be there for her.

Everything went smoothly. We were a bit late for church (though no fault of the bridal party. Her brother went to get take away in Kingsford!!! -_-). But other than that, we were pretty on time and no drama happened on the day. She looked happy, pretty and radiant. Her friends and colleagues put in effort to come to the mass, so it was like a mini reunion. She looked very very happy. Her husband too.

Wedding photos were a bit short, but she's still got over 1000 photos of the day, and they are all lovely photos. The bridesmaids were pretty too *cough cough* 😂

After photoshoots, we went back to hotel for her make up touch up and tea ceremony. The bridesmaids and bridesmaids little helpers 😂 set up the place cards and bonbonieres, and finally could sit for a bit. Then, tea ceremony. I completely forgot about that, and that bride and groom would need people to help with pouring tea etc. This time, I was ready with tissues!! And yep, she needed it big time this time. FYI, I was ready with tissue even at the church, but I wasn't sure if I was allowed to step back to my seat and get it 😐 next time I become a bridesmaid, I would know 😆.

Then, welcoming the guests and dinner time!! You know what? When we were preparing the flowers, cakes, place cards, etc, we didn't really plan on a color scheme or design matching. But in that reception hall, everything worked! The colour was all in sync and even the place cards design and pattern matched the room! It's amazing sometimes how things somehow works perfectly well at the end.

I was seated at the table right in front of the bridal table with our uni friends. It was like reunion and we all had fun joking around. It's always sad remembering how time goes on and life gets in the way and we can't be just like we all were in uni, seeing each other every single day till we were bored. However, things like this brings us back together and reminds me of the good old times, and just how lucky we are to meet each others and be part of one of our happiest time.

I did not give a speech. The bride and groom didn't ask me or Eva to give a speech *phewwwwww... Thank God for that XD the best man and the groom did though. The bride looked teary when she heard her husband's speech. It was moving. Eva and me were teary as well. The best man speech was funny to begin with, but then quite moving at the end too. Our friends at our table kept jokingly asking me to make a speech -_-

After that was cutting the wedding cake. The cake was good BTW and smelled SO GOOD! When we opened the box, a delicious aroma straight away comes out. And when they were put up on the stand, we could smell the nice aroma even from 3 meters away! Our gang then made some noises with our forks and wine glasses asking for a kiss 😆 and as I have guessed, those new husband and wife didn't know that those glass noises meant something! 😐 the MC had to explain to them what it meant 😕 then they kissed 😆 (I was worried the bride would scold us for that, but luckily no haha).

Bouquet throwing was next. All the single ladies were asked to come up to catch the bouquet. I have always thought that it's for single guys and girls. In Indonesia, usually guys come up too and gahar-ly catch the bouquet. I've seen bouquets broke into pieces and they had to see who got the biggest piece of the bouquet to declare the winner 😐

There were only about 7 single ladies in total. FYI, the bride had told me and Eva multiple times, that any one of us MUST catch the bouquet. It is a MUST. She didn't care how, but one of us must catch it (the bouquet was a fake, so she was worried other girl would catch it and be like, Huh? Fake?). So, I straight away went to the center, right behind her. She looked back a couple of times trying to measure, and then she threw. Usually I never put any effort catching it, but this time I went forward, and reach out to catch it. I got it!!! Hip hip hoorayyyyyy 😆😆 🎉🎉 🎊🎊 when the bride turned around and saw me with the bouquet, she broke into a big smile and straight away came over to hug me 😆😆😆

Then the bride and groom had their first dance together. It actually looked alright, considering they can't dance. And for the fact that the bride couldn't move much in her big dress. They only moved left and right together, but they looked lovely. Eva told me to look at the bride's father, he was smiling a little gentle smile, I can't describe it, calm, peaceful, content, glad, serene, kinda smile? Maybe this is the type of smile, the fathers of the bride have when their daughters get married. We hoped it was captured in a photo.

Then you know what? After that, the MC announced, "Would the groomsmen and bridesmaids join the bride and groom on the dance floor please?". "WHAT??? I wasn't told of this??!! Damnnnnnn". Then the best man came up to me and asked me to dance, for the bride and groom he said. I didn't have a choice, did I?

But turned out it wasn't thaaaaaaat bad. Of course we didn't dance, it was just moving left, right, backwards, and forward. But I was surprised on how easy it was. I always wonder, how do you know you're both going left, or right, or forward, or backward? But I just knew, I just followed his lead. And about following his lead too, I watched a lot of dancing competition show on TV, and I didn't get when they said "follow his lead", how would you feel that? I guess you just feel it.

After that it was just photo and selfie sessions and chatting etc. It was a fun wedding. I guess on Oz weddings, you get to spend more time with the newly weds compared to Indonesian weddings. I hardly speak to the couple on that night usually.

The party was over around 11. We packed up our stuff, took them to their hotel room, get changed, helped Helen loosen her dress and said good byes.

The whole wedding preparations up to the wedding day was full of surprises, bad luck and also good luck. The bride was made redundant a month before the wedding, she had to cancel and rebook hair dresser so many times, her make up artist had some attitudes, our make up artist went back to Indo so delaying my trial, I fell in the middle of the street while jaywalking and injured my knee, plus rolling on that ankle few days after, and finally her make up artist got stranded in Melbourne due to strong wind in Sydney the day before her wedding and her assistant had to do her morning make up instead.

The good luck was quite interesting too. When I was trying to hire a room to do bridesmaids make up, I was given a cheaper quote for the room! So, Helen rebooked the apartment and cancelled the old one. And when I checked in, the guy said, "Your booking is 3 bedrooms apartment for 1 night". I thought I heard it wrong, and just whatever. Plus when I signed the paper, the price was right and it was written "1 bedroom". But when we got to the room, it was a 3 bedrooms apartment!!!! Me and Eva were thrilled and straight away called Helen and her hubby asking if this is what she booked? Turned out it wasn't, she only booked 1 bedroom, but she asked for higher level, so it seems that we were upgraded 😆😆😆😆

The luck seemed to run even until midnight of her wedding day. After saying good byes, we went downstairs and wanted to call uber. But we just realised, since it was Friday night, there would be a 1.4x surcharge. The estimate price to go home was $78-112, then it would be like $150?????!!!!!

We were still thinking of what to do, when an old guy next to us asked where we were going. It turned out that he was an uber driver who accidentally just uninstalled his uber app! So he was there for half hour trying to download the app using the hotel Wi-Fi, but still not successful! Long story short, he asked me how much was the estimate, and I said $70 plus surcharge. Then he told us to wait till he's downloaded the app and he would take us home, he'll scrap the surcharge. At the end, he still couldn't download it, and just said, "Let's go, you can pay me with cash or credit card. It's fine. "

So that's how we got a cheap ride even cheaper than uber on a Friday night 😐 Life is funny sometimes, don't you think? Well, his gps set wrong starting point, so we went over the harbour bridge just to get back to our starting point again, but we got home on an Uber black. And we heard Gary's stories about how he used to own a business but then crashed during GFC. How his ex-driver persuaded him to drive after he's lost everything and ended up loving it and still doing it until now. Life is indeed funny. Now he earns as much as before, driving.

We got home around 1, get changed and everything. We were suddenly starving, so snacked a bit, had tea and chatted before going to bed.

It was a very good day indeed. Happy Wedding Helen and Hubby!! 😘 I wish you both a lifelong of great marriage together. I know happily ever after doesn't exist, but as long as you're there for each other, to annoy and please each other, I think that's happiness. Please be patient to my BFF, I know she can be stubborn sometimes 😆 I've seen it during our uni days 😂

Friday, September 1, 2017

My First Thoughts on Barefoot Investor

I'm reading Barefoot Investor now. Its actually againsts my personal rule of not reading personal help books in an attempt to not brainwash myself. Those books sound really scary you know, seems like they can turn you into something completely different. I blame The Secrets to be exact.

But anyway, my colleague Barbie mentioned it to me. Barbie thought I was the one who recommended it last time, but no, it was my first time hearing it. I said to Barbie, I don't read those kind of books. Which Barbie replied, "That's a pity". This is 1 of the reason why I don't like Barbie. The i-know-everything-and-participate-in-anything act. Why should you pity me? I don't read those doesn't mean I don't do things they tell you to do in those books? I just read the early chapters, and you know what? I've done the first steps years ago. I can skip the first Barefoot Date yayy

I didn't plan to read this book really. But after going into library a couple of times last month and seeing the book for the 2nd time in Fast Loan section, I thought, alright, I will read it. The cheapskate/tightarse/thrifty/wanna-be-rich-and-retire-early part of me is a bit intrigued and want to know if there is something I can take out of it. Even if it makes me richer just by $50, it's still free money right? And it's actually written by an Australian, so it is relevant to me. And it's not thick, I should be able to finish it in a week. And, the way it's written is just like the way I write huahhahaha... Can get something unrelated tangled up to make a point lol XD

The first step is to make zero fee savings account and separate accounts for emergency and daily. Checked. Did that years ago and got all those free money for opening up accounts. Emergency... I do have an account, but it's really empty and I don't usually need it as I'm not the type who splurges or accidentally spends all my money in my daily account.

Second step, setting up high interests accounts. Did that years ago and now with a mortgage, my mortgage interests are higher than the highest savings account interests. So nope, not relevant anymore.

Third, superannuation. He's saying to ditch Self managed funds. But I haven't read all the chapters. We'll see.. I know I have investments going on there which is not bad at all, but I did think to change it to be more risky one. I will keep on reading.