A wedding and almost a funeral

The past month was near madness. Rehearsals every other night and every weekend. But it was all well worth it cos Rhinoceros opened first week December and it went pretty well. The turnout wasn't that great, but the cast and crew had fun. More importantly, we felt we really grew as an ensemble. Next year, there's alot more to come. Exciting stuff. But I really have to start reassessing my priorities. Nearly killed myself from exhaustion. But more on that later.

The wedding

On 11 Dec, Phaik Cheng (my godsister) and Christie got married before God at Assumption Church. It was a nice simple wedding followed by a beautiful garden reception at Cafe Citron, overlooking the Twin Towers. Everybody had a good time that night. The MC was hilarious. The food was good. The bride looked gorgeous in her sari. Colin came back from UK for the wedding and her family came down from Ipoh... it was so nice to see them all again. Especially her nieces. Darren was kept busy all night playing Spiderman with the two little monsters.

I can say it's the nicest wedding I've been to so far. So happy for Phaik Cheng and Christie cos they've come a long way. And the journey wasn't an easy one either. But the fact that they're now husband and wife, with a relationship that's built on their love for God and a wonderful friendship, is very inspiring. May they always be blessed.

Near extinction

The following day was the last day of Rhinoceros' run. Had 2 shows that day. The last show was probably the best we had all week. It was followed by a cast party with fantastic food as usual by Sabeira and a briefing on what's to come by Chris. I drove home, met Darren half way and he tailed my car back. I guess I didn't realise how tired I was, with all the buzz and excitement of the week. As I turned into Subang, I fell asleep on the wheel and crashed my car.

I hit the curb on the left quite hard. The front left tyre exploded and threw my car into a spin smack into the divider on the other side. The collision woke me and when I realised what happened, I was strangely calm. Survival mode took over and I checked myself. Okay. Nothing broken. No blood. But @#$%!! The car's screwed.

Darren ran over and I guess I was still in shock - couldn't understand why he was so alarmed and making such a big fuss of things. All I wanted to do was see how badly damaged my car was while he struggled to pull me away from it. He brought me to a safer place in his car while I called AAM for the tow truck.

How bad was it? The front left side of the car smashed all the way into the left passenger side. The front left door looked like a crumpled aluminium ball. The roof on the left side twisted. The bonnet and engine area collapsed. The windscreen shattered. All tyres went out of alignment and stuck out at weird angles. It seemed the only place unaffected was the right side. If there was anyone on the left side of the car, the person would be dead. I got out of it with a little whiplash (thank God for the safety belt though) and some very small superficial scratches from broken glass. For that, I'm truly thankful (thank you God). Moral of the story - don't sleep and drive. Microsleeps are extremely dangerous, no matter how 'OK' you think you are. With drunk driving, you're still somewhat conscious. But blacking out on the road even when sober is suicide.

Through this, I really must thank Darren for keeping a clear head. Like stopping me from beating up annoying workshop vultures who hung around at the scene, hoping to make a buck outta me. And for taking me around to make the police report and stuff. But we must be really jinxed this week cos just 2 days later, his car got stolen. Geeezz. Funny we could still laugh about it. Really, what next?

And I must also thank Li Yen for lending me her other car for the time being until I get mine fixed (if it's salvagable) and that would probably take a few weeks. Or until Darren gets another car which will take a while. Sigh. What a way to end the year. Guess it's just another reminder about how vulnerable we really are. And how we shouldn't take our lives for granted. Lesson learnt. Glad to be alive.