The Wedding, and the Aftermath

Wherein Ted and Yvy are joined in holy matrimony by GOD ALMIGHTY HIMSELF, and on the honeymoon Ted gets to munch on Yvy's la-la's.

Well, the ceremony itself was pretty painless, and all the nerves I had been feeling beforehand evaporated once we were there before the altar. The reception was damn fine too, indeed a good time was had by all. (You'll pardon me if I keep this brief, I've been on a beach in Penang for much of the day and am quite burnt, as well as sleepy and fluey). The Hotel (Sunway) where we had the reception and spent the wedding night was damn good, though it is hard to distinguish exactly what constituted the 'bridal' element of the suite. But I am nit-picking, the service was good and the event was fabulous. This hotel, btw, got shaken up in the tsunami earthquake, but didn't actually get drenched despite facing the ocean: spending part of today overlooking the ocean-facing section of Penang, made me think about the tsunami and how the rest of the planet has moved on, but not, perhaps, the untold thousands of families affected. O well, enough maudalinity. Have a pic.

I gave a nervous speech, not helped by the fact no one was listening (Yvy afterward mentioned that I was speaking too fast - a common newbie mistake, one I should have known better than to commit after my stint as a member of the Friars Preachers (where we trained against just such things), you'll notice Endarire falls into it occasionally with the Ronald voice though it doesn't detract from the quality). Although pretty much all non-Malay Malaysians (ie Indians, Chinese etc - about 40% of the populace) and a lot of the indigenous folk all seem to be fluent in English, they still struggle to understand my Oz accent. I pretty kwickly fell into a sort of psuedo-malay accent when I first met Yvy, easiest way to make myself understood, though when people hear me on the phone with her they look at me like I have gone insane. Anyways, the speech was made, the bridal waltz was shuffled (I wanted Jimi Hendrix' Manic Depression - easily the finest waltz ever penned - Yvy instead chose something by Anne Murray), much fine food was eaten (though the bridal table was invaded by ants at one point, now THAT was bizarre!) and my best man managed to both get hammered AND fulfill his duties with meritorious valour. I discovered just last night the locals were still speaking of him in awe, walking aruond with a glass in one hand, a jug in the other and a happy grin. We all just wished the band could have played some Zeppelin... but they did do a Santana segment that was damn fine.

Anyways, next day and off we went to Pangkor. I had my first extended drive among the lunatics and suicidal death-seekers who make up the Malaysian road populace, and it went pretty smoothly. We arrived in the afternoon, the pace was quite lovely, here's a pic.

I wanted to go to Pangkor Laut, the best beach resort in the world (which is on Pangkor Island) but Yvy found this place on the mainland facing the island which has everything you could want - golf course, sailing, beach, jacuzzi, pool, this that and the other - and was a LOT cheaper, so we went here. Pretty place, the setting didn't disappoint, and the room was lovely, here is what greeted us when we walked in.

Unfortunately a lot of the rest of the stay wasn't up to the standard of the surroundings. The pool was shut for maintenance the next 2 1/2 days (ie our entire stay), the western food, such as there was, was VERY ordinary (we tried fish and chips, hamburgers and spaghetti - all disappointed, being made of what seemed to be frozen ingredients! - though the Asian food was very nice), every request to room service for various things had to be repeated and invariably involved them ringing back to check a couple times, our sunset cruise was cancelled, our candlelit dinner was in a room with the air/con on the fritz and a set menu, not all of which was available, and basically the quality of service was not what such a nice resort should have had. O, and Yvy had a cold on the way down, and within a day or two, I had it too - go figure ;-) It wasn't a disaster by any means, we had some quality time together, (the jacuzzi was nice) but unlike some of the other hotels Yvy and I have stayed at (and we have stayed at some really nice resorts I might add, like Tanjung Aru in Sabah, cause with the exchange rate I can afford to stay at places in Malaysia I could never afford to stay at in Oz) I most definitely do NOT recommend this place (Swiss Garden Resort & Spa, Damai Laut). There are better places in Malaysia for sure.

Anyways, we came back Wed for the registry wedding thing Thursday (Catholic priests not automatically being official celebrants in an Islamic country like Malaysia, you gotta do both) but that is a story for another day. Sufficed it to say in the eyes of God (the ceremony that matters ;-) we're married, and so far it is a mighty nice ride 8^D Thanks to everyone for their well-wishes. Heading home on Wed (2 days from now), looking forward to getting back into KotB. Haven't even checked the Co8 site in over a week, hope everything is ticking along and there isn't some game-breaking thing in the moathouse respawn people are tearing their hair out over. Time will tell :-)

O yeah, and Yvy's la-la's? Damn they were mighty fine, lemme show you a pic.

In Oz we would call these 'pippies', little shell-fish that were in huge amounts on the beach, we went down early on the final day and picked a horde of em. Quite tasty.

So is Yvy ;-) Here is a pic of the two of us on our honeymoon, at least she is photogenic!

Note my Eels gear, they won again, 9 on the trot. I'll be there on Sunday, woohoooo!!