Flower Girls and Palm

My mobile rang for quite a while before I finally answered the call. It was my aunty on the other end.

“How old is your little girl?” she asked.

“Err…Nissa is going to be eight in March.” I replied. “Napa aunty?”

“Tak de lah….I’d like to make her as one of the flower girls for Along’s wedding,” she further rendered.

Kek lapis - one of the hantaran at my cousin's engagement last Dec.

A few more questions followed suit and when the conversation ended, I have somehow given my consent to be one of the coordinators at her son, my cousin’s wedding this March. My task (as at now, I’m sure when the day draws closer, there will be other assignments) is to oversee the flower girls – three of them, Nissa, TM’s girl Alina and another cousin’s daughter, Baby (can’t recall what’s her actual name, sorry lah babe, aunty ni dah tua, pelupa sangat these days).

My uncle, in pinkish reddish baju melayu during the merisik-meminang act

Errr…what have I done??? Ni lah, main selamba je agree and now ada portfolio pulak dah. I tell myself, tak pe lah, what are families for kan? If none other than to extend a helping hand.

The first assigned task is to look into the tailoring of the flower girls’ dresses. My aunt, Datin R, has given me a sketch of how the dress is to look like, to be sent for tailoring, using the lace and satin silk materials she got for the three girls. Okay, that would be easy, I thought as I’d just need to get the girls’ measurements and send the kains, plus the design to my tailor. Then I remembered, it will be Chinese New Year in about 9 days. Gosh…the kains and what nots have to go out to Tay, the tailor a.s.a.p, like this weekend for sure!!

The next question put to me when I collected the materials from her house last week was, “Can you do the beading for the girls’ dresses?”

A couple of “errrr…”, “ahhhh…” of unconvincing sounds of refusal, and responding as if cat got my tongue, I ended up giving an affirmative answer.

‘Err…boleh, boleh lah kot,” I responded. Again, I just didn’t have the heart to say no, and this was the least I could do for her. Tapi dalam hati dok berkata-kata…hai when am I ever going to find time to do this beading work?? Well, I guess if there is a will there’s always a way.

With my schedule already going topsy turvy (and not to mention the procrastinator that I am), I’d better get myself organized in getting this task done. It may seem trivial, but with all that’s going to happen in these weeks to come, I don’t want to end up juling-juling doing the beading on the very last minute.

So, last night while waiting for my girls at Kumon, after a good hearty curry laksa at a kopitiam in SA Mall, I set a timeline in my PDA, siap letak alarm lagi to remind me of the important check points to this task. Fuhh…ini baru cousin’s wedding, I can’t imagine what my PDA would be like, when the time comes for me to handle the planning and preparations of my children’s weddings. I bet you this old and faithful aide of mine would be filled with to do tasks, arranged in the order of importance and urgency, colour coded differently representing the different check points and timelines, and alarms set to go off at frantic and frenzied intervals.

OMG…will you, Palm be able to take the exertion??? Most of all, would Kay herself be able to endure the stress??? Err…think I’ll cross the bridge when the time comes.