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was jubilated to see daddy and ah-ma at the arrival hall. as usual, ah-ma is at the front, waving once she caught sight of us, while daddy, as usual, with arms crossed, will be waiting a meter or two behind ah-ma and going into all smiles once he sees us walking out. so dad drove his g-g-gigornomous GL500 to fetch us and we finally saw the damage that jason did to the side of the car. hur hur. headed home to rest while jason was out meeting some girl for afternoon tea. that girl was someone my parents wanted my brother to meet. quite a good girl we heard, and jason found her pleasant. he wanted to just know her better since my family approves of her and all. met him afterwards to roam around causeway bay as he updated me about his life. haven't really got time to catch up with him since he came back from the states and thus it was really comforting to hear that he is learning tonnes from his course (:

met up w daddy and wilson at macau jockey club for family dinner (well, almost since mummy was ABSENT). mummy was being excited about the wedding and had hopped to find all her sisters who had arrived to catch up. haha i could imagine her face as she narrates all her exaggerating stories. basically all of us (from Indonesia, Malaysis, Thailand, Singapore, HK) have all come together for my eldest aunt's son's wedding. it's kinda rare that all my mum's siblings are gathered at one place unless it's for a really special occasion. i met cousins whom i haven't seen for years, and aunties or uncles whom i have not seen since i was a child. got q blabberish as i didn't even know what to address them as without knowing how i am related to them.

daddy held a pre-wedding dinner to host all of ah-yee's guests and relatives and we had a feast of teochew food. stuffed ourselves silly but the food was oh-so-nostalgic-and-oh-so-good. had been patronizing the restaurant since i was a baby apparently, and 2 of the waitresses even saw how we grew up. every year we go there to eat our annual dinner and they will just lament about how time has passed them so quickly and we are all grown up and all. i somehow find them really endearing. i don't really know KNOW them, but there's just this sense of familiarity everytime i see them.

the wedding day passed by like a whirlwind really. we missed the morning tea ceremony as we were running late. (mummy was dolling herself up to look her best) OWELL. so we just joined them for some potluck brunch at ah-yee's place with all my mum's siblings and our cousins. quite cosy to be around everyone and sharing snippets of our lives. however, most of the conversations were rather skin-deep i felt. mostly about education, career accomplishments and achievements and what not. more about how they are 'successful' in their own ways and how their status is like in the society or even how rich their other halves are. and not exactly the type of conversations close family members or friends share.

headed to the church thereafter for the church ceremony, and headed home to rest before the dinner at night. was feeling super tired so i napped for 2 hours before preparing for the night wedding dinner. wedding dinners in HK are usually chinese cuisine, and my cousin's was of no exception. we were told that our distant cousin, who won the Miss Asia Pacific Pageant in HK was going to be there. and when we arrived, that pageant queen (PQ)'s mum kept signaling for us to go over and take photos with her daughter. honestly, as much as she's the PQ, i don't really care and aren't hard up to have a snapshot moment with her. as much as she's my distant cousin, we have not talked before and i really don't see a need to. the vibes i got from the PQ family was that of showiness and boastful pride. that kinda irked us but we just let them be.

it was great seeing my cousin finally stepping into another phase of his life, being a married man and all, and i must say that among all the cousins, we are closest to them as we visit them whenever we were in HK. and i also strongly believe that brides always are the prettiest on their wedding day! the bride looked gorgeous and there was just this glow about her on that day that no-one can take away from her. the food was great during the wedding and we took tons of photos. mummy especially wanted more photos of herself and her siblings as it is really darn rare for them to be together in the same dimensions. be it physically or mentally. (they do have much unresolved disagreements among themselves.eeks)

many things came to me during this trip, and the more apparent one is that of ties. how we are connected to people around us seem to be getting easier and faster and more effective. however, why are there still relatives whom i have not seen since i was a kid and they are related to me by blood and i am expected to greet them and interact with them like i have known them all my life?i much rather pay attention to people im actively interacting with and who know KNOW me for who i am. of course, family ties are unexplainable ties which i respect and thus entertained all their burning questions about our education achievements and future career prospects and what-nots. but it just occurred to me that how much these ties mean to us is no longer about how we are related by blood. it's more of how much i have interacted with them, and how much they know about me and how much i know about them. if all these dimensions measure low for this particular person but he/she is related to me closely by blood, i will still give them the due respect that any junior should have for their seniors in the chinese cultural norms of behavior. but don't expect me to be all chummy with them and act like we are the closet of friends overnight.

i guess this applies to all sorts of ties, be it family, friends, colleagues, whoever. i feel that it is important to know which are the ties that really matter and prioritize duly. and as much as i know some ties are important, others may still override them since we only have 24 hours a day and that is an unchangeable factor. but if we can all be clear and aware of the ties around us, we can be more effective in managing and maintaining them. then the theory of 'the rich gets richer, the poor gets poorer' will hold since we will end up being closer to those whom we feel we are already close to and shift ourselves away from those whom we feel are less significant to us. HOWEVER, as much as these weak ties are less significant, we cannot LOSE them or CUT them off completely because weak ties are an important source of information and resources. as pragmatic as it sounds, we often find ourselves digging up our dusty phonebooks or contact lists to find people whom we had remotely known once upon a time who may be able to help us in one way or another. that, i have learnt, is how the world goes round since the beginning of time. from all these, inevitably, humans are selfish by nature and will seek benefits (which they feel are practical) for themselves or loved ones whom they hold dear.

so i guess i shouldn't lament about the behavior of the PQ family anymore, for what they are doing are merely, from their point of view, for their own emotional benefits in terms of an ego boost for themselves and their loved ones.

haha.