Wedding Bells pounding on my head

Wedding dinners are supposed to be a time of celebrations and well-wishing, a time for old friends to meet, and old national service platoon mates to slap each other on the backs and make fun of each other’s growing tummies. Well tonight, it all but gave me a splitting headache.

First of all, it was held at Raffles Town Club, which although was smack in the upper-class area, is a rather far journey from my place. Taxi there cost me about $12, and the speed at which the driver drove was a little too hair-raising for my taste. I was there slightly after 7:30pm, which I thought would be late since it was stated on the card, in bold and italic, that dinner was to start at 7:30pm sharp. Nothing like the good ‘ol Chinese tradition of starting only when most of the guests have arrived, and I was the first among my ex-army camp-mates to arrive. It was a surprise considering three of them are in the teaching profession now. Says a lot about our education system!

Anyway, there was a live band playing and the volume of the sound system was turned on a little loud. Most of us were shouting above the dine, even when talking to those beside us. Conversation hovered around the usual, such as our careers, wives or girlfriends or kids. We talked about old camp-mates who either went overseas to work or did not turn up for various reasons. It eventually came to the number of unmarried guys among us and of course I was one of those under that category. That was not so bad because guys tend not to elaborate on the obvious and we simply take it in as a matter of fact – unlike parents or women.

Then an old geezer, fully dressed in Elvis-lookalike clothes, started to “entertain” the guest by singing a full-album of Elvis oldies. It was not bad, until an old fat lady started boogie-ing to the tune of good ‘ol rock-and-roll. After a couple of songs, and a intensifying throbbing headache, I decided that enough was enough. I threw in the towel and took another cab home – $9.80.

Price of the evening – some may say “Priceless”, but for me it was about $121.80, 5 hours and a splitting headache. Worst fact of the evening – there was not a single good-looking young female guest in sight.