gnatweds

Yesterday was perhaps the longest day at work ever. Was trying to complete everything I needed to before the month long break (yippeeee!)
It was pouring like crazy, with lightnight no less. Am hoping that there will be a break in the bad weather - so the laundry will dry!! Yep, falling behind in the laundry... AGAIN.
But there was a bit of drama last night: Couldn't find my wallet - and I needed the IC in the wallet for this morning's verification of documents at the ROM...
Drove back like a madwoman to the office in the middle of the night - enlisted the help of the guards.

Anyways, to cut a long story short. I eventually found the wallet but was so hyped up that I only fell asleep at 4 am in the morning.

Had to wake up tres early - 8 am: (Eugene had been at work the entire night) he came back at about 9 and we had to go to the Registry at Fort Canning.

Here in Singapore, it's a very convoluted process - not quite the quickies available in Las Vegas.
First you have to tell em you're getting married and book your date three months in advance. (you can read about it in a previous post).
You pay $26 online and you get a date to show in in person with the relevant documents. The Registry than scans all the records to make sure that neither of you are comitting bigamy.

Of course, they ask you to turn up at an impossible time - they give you two options. 8.30 to 11 am on two weekdays. Sheesh.

So, this morning, we dragged ourselves - extremely zonked cos neither of us had enough sleep - to the Registry. And Lo and Behold, there were something like 40 couples in front of us in the queue doing the same thing.

So we did the natural. Had ciggies and coffee at this make-shift cafe on the grounds of the ROM. Those guys running it are making a killing. Bored couples + interminable wait + expensive coffee = good business sense.



Eugene at the Cafe looking very smug because he brought reading material (yes, he anticipated the long wait). Check out the title.... hehehehhe. Prepping for Africa!

We finally went into this waiting room... and I think the lack of sleep plus copius amounts of coffee just made my brain fizzle. I couldn't stop laughing - hysterically. There was this big plasma screen and all the the other couples there were staring at it fixatedly. Me? I was giggling my head off.


They were screening on a continuous loop these cheesy and surreal govt-mesg type vids about the things to do to be happily married. This includes "Talk to your in laws"/"Find out about your partner's sexual needs"/"your family environment influences how you act". I couldn't help it, I just kept giggling and giggling. I laughed so hard I started to choke. Check out how that lady was paying SOOOOO much attention to it. Chortle.

Then, when our turn finally came, we had to present our documents and raise our right hands to make a statutory declaration that all the information we were presenting was accurate and yes, we would be jailed if it wasn't. I was still giggly, so I could hardly keep a straight face.
Eugene read his declaration so fast that he even read "signature" at the bottom - we had to gently tell him that ahahhahah, that was not part of declaration, but an indication about where he should actually sign the darned thing.

After the hullabaloo, we went for a HUGE Japanese lunch buffet.
We ate so much we resembled shishamos.

But wait. That was just the MORNING of an extremely interesting day.
We had an appointment at NUH's travel clinic for our vaccinations... yes, going to some bits of Africa means injections.
So Eugene had a bright idea. He would get the anaesthesia they use on KIDDIES to numb the pain of jabs.




"Come, Come... let me help you... eh, don't run away lah''
Eugene putting on his earnest doctor look.



Eugene administering the kiddie pain killer on Nat's arm



Eugene D-I-Ying his EMLA patch.



Tah dah. EMLA on the skin. Yes, we're wimps.

And and hour or so later, we went for our shots - which did not hurt, thanks to the EMLA patches.



But it didn't stop someone from feeling extremely apprehensive anyway. Heheheheh.



eeekkks. Snigger.


BUT man, it hurt later - felt as if we'd been lifting way too heavy weights. The arm muscles were yowling man.

We had Hep A and Typhoid. They should keep us fairly immunised against some of the nasties there. Of course, the papers are now filled with doomsday predictions about Bird Flu in Africa and it being the next big hot spot because of the annual bird migrations from Europe. Read one article here .

In the evening, we met Arti and Kim for a little pow wow about the wedding: Think the first glimmers of understanding about what kind of a logistical nightmare the wedding is is finally beginning to dawn on the groom.