Wedding Reception at Promenade Hotel

Do you know what i like best about attending a wedding reception ? No. It's not because i am a hotel buff and the fact that i always enjoy eating at a fancy restaurant. It's the once in a blue moon chance that we get to meet our relatives from all over the world, some relatives that we do not even know of their existence until we are introduced to them.

I attended one such wedding reception last year around September which also happened to be held at the same hotel - Promenade Hotel. It was only then that i know just how many Sino/Kadazan-Dusun relatives i have. Almost the whole banquet hall was filled with people that hardly look like Chinese. My cousins and i are probably the very few ones look like Chinese inside the banquet hall and that made us felt like total outcasts. The fact that Bruneian Malay is not our primary language doesn't help much either.

The old female folks were all wearing the traditional wears that look almost the same as those of the Nyonyas in the Peninsular. Everyone inside the banquet hall was speaking Bruneian Malay, a language that my mom is so familiar with as she too, was raised speaking Bruneian Malay. It is the tradition of a mixed-parentage family from the Kuala Penyu, Beaufort, Weston, Sipitang, Membakut and Papar region to speak solely Bruneian Malay at home, a tradition that none of my mom's eight siblings including my mom carry on but one.

The wedding reception i attended just now was no different either. It was good catching up with relatives we have not seen in moons as well as meeting relatives that we have never met.

By the way, guess what ? I saw an old friend there ! Anyway, we'll get into that later on.

So, we got the invitation from the bride's side because we're relatives. Something i have mentioned earlier on. The newlyweds are Keeven Juksuan ( 黄 伟 文 ) and Jaclyn Tan ( 陈 秀 燕 ). Do not ask me why the groom doesn't have a Chinese surname in his Latinized name because i do not know why either. One thing for sure is that he is definitely not adopted. Both the groom and bride are of Sino/Kadazan-Dusun heritage.

Both of them just finished their undergraduate studies at UKM (or was it UPM ??) this year. So yes. Both of them are still very young. I believe they are only 22 because both of them came out from Labuan Matriculation College.

Do you know who's the guy circled in the picture above ?

It is our old friend - HOW YEN JET !!!!

Speaking of How Yen Jet (in picture 13th & 14th). No. He is not a relative of the groom or the bride. He was invited to perform a few shows by the groom's cousin. That's all.

**Pardon the quality of all the photos. All was taken using my cellphone camera. Should have brought my SONY digital camera with me.