<h3>Everything That Could Go Wrong DID Go Wrong</h3>

My cousin's engagement was supposed to be somewhat of a grand event. Apparently it was not to be. It was the worst, most kecoh-rable, unfortunate engagement ever in the history of the Al-Yahya family. Ok it wasn't that bad. At least the couple in question, Rashid and Mona Lisa did manage to get themselves engaged but so many things went wrong, it was a nightmare!!

When we first arrived on Friday night in Temerloh, I noted with disdain that most of the trays of gifts to be given to the girl's side were not ready. My cousin and I forced Rashid to drive us to Temerloh town the next day to get some decor stuff. He, like most men, doesn't have the slightest idea nor interest in the decor stuff and if it were up to him, I wun b surprised if he put the items in a plastic bag and place it on the tray. Uurrggh!!! MEN!!! Anyway I spent a bomb on all those ribbons and flowers and tray covers and since we were short of time and skill, I got the owner of the shop to do up some of the decor. It was at an exorbitant price but we didn't have much of a choice, given how last minute this all were. My other female cousins and I sacrificed sleep on that Saturday night preparing the 11 dulang hantaran (trays of gifts), all in resplendent, shimmery yellow and white. It wasn't fantastic but quite passable. We all made believed we were good enough to open up a wedding decor shop one day in the distant, distant unforseeable future. Hee hee.

One of the nicest was the sireh junjung, (an elaborate ornamental customary decoration made of betel nut leaves and fresh flowers) made to perfection by my aunt.


Since nobody except Rashid has been to this girl's family home before, we relied 100% on his information. He estimated it was an hour and a half drive from the Gombak toll and that the girl's house is in the Kuala Selangor area. So my uncle estimated that we would reach there about 1.30pm just in time for the majlis slated at 2. Apparently my cousin's estimation was way off. The house was nearer Sabak Bernam, a good 2 hours++ of driving, even for the Don who sped 140km/hr all the way. despite the road being narrow and extremely winding.


Needless to say we were late... very very late. And just when we reached the mosque near the bride's house, our 2nd meeting point, horror of horrors we realised we had forgotten to bring the sirih junjung!!! When we were about to leave Pahang, I remember my mother asking if the sireh junjung has been placed inside one of the cars. Somebody claimed they had. But now it was nowhere to be found. Now being the guy side and all, we had a reputation at stake. We didn't want to come without the sirih and risk ourselves being labelled as "tak ade adat". If his fiance-to-be were related to us, it wouldn't have mattered so much since it was all adat anyway and not exactly essential but we had no inkling as to the girl's family and how staunch they were in keeping to customary traditions. My uncle and aunt shoot off in a car to a nearby market in search of that elusive sirih to make an instant gubahan but the shops ran out of them. Having explained our sad (and pathetic) predicament, the shopowner directed us to his relative's house who apparently has a sirih plant in his backyard. And in true hindi fashion, the skies turned gray and rain started pouring. Some of my aunts remarked in jest that the skies were crying at our sad situation. On the contrary, I personally believed it laughed so hard at our stupidity that it cried. Truly this was turning out to be a disaster engagement.

Eventually within half an hour, my aunt managed to create something out of the rain soaked sirehs, something remotely similiar to a sirih junjung. Given the situation, I thot she did remarkably well but it was so sad the girl's side didn't get to see the actual one. By then it was close to 3pm (we were 2 hrs late) and everyone on our side were so hungry I swear we would have eaten the sirehs itself if we were delayed any longer.

The event itself was thankfully, without any hitches. Luckily the girl's side were very accomodating. The food they served was good but even if it weren't I dun think my side would have tasted the difference. We were too famished to care. The ride home was an even greater disaster. My aunt was bent-double almost all the way, vommitting due to gastric pains. In fact most of the people started being sick due to the long drive, exhaustion and the very late lunch. Lucky we have a cousin in Rawang, my Kak Ida and Abg Wan and that was our

In the end, out of exhaustion, we all decided to spend the night at my cousin's in Rawang and left for home respectively early Monday morning. Easy for The Don who is his own boss but the rest of us had to scramble to call office to either call in sick or come up with some excuse for urgent leave. Needless to say my cousin Rashid got a earful when we got back. And a stern warning to make sure during the wedding he didn't cause us all to have a panic attack with all his last minute antics come next year.