Reception photos

Here are some photos of the reception. Well, actually, they were all taken outside the mosque after the reception. But you know what I mean. : )

Here are Alana and Ismail looking smashing. The cool thing about splitting the wedding up into three parts is that the bride gets to wear three different gorgeous dresses!

Here is Nyron and I, looking mighty spiffy ourselves:

Nyron and Alana's parents look like the dignified in-laws they now are:

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Alana's Wedding part 3: the reception

Yesterday was the final stage of Alana's wedding. Since the wedding ceremony was organized and set up by Alana's family, Ismail's family took care of the reception. It took place at a different mosque than the wedding, too, one with a bigger central area to accomidate the tables and large numbers of people. Again, it was segregated.

Everyone was dressed to the nines, including me in my sari which I eventually got together after about 4 tries. I still wasn't entirely convinced it looked right, some pieces still need to be tailored so that next time it'll fit perfectly. I think I was the only person there who wrapped my sari myself, most of the young women who wore them got them wrapped by an aunt or had them wrapped and sewn together so they just have to be pulled on like a skirt. I think that's a mighty good idea. : )

The reception was just a big banquet at the mosque, with samosas, curries and rice for dinner and lots of yummy desserts. Alana and Ismail posed for some pictures at the beginning and then seperated to their own special tables on wither side of the dividing wall. (One of Nyron's cousins sitting at my table actually caught her mother peeking through the curtain into the men's side).

I'd meant to include a picture of Nyron and I all dressed up, but I just realized I left my camera in Nyron's car, so it will have to wait unti lhe gets here.

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Pre-reception blues

I'm sitting here in a sari that I'm pretty sure isn't put on right, my hair half curled and a rather timid attampe at make-up. Sometimes, I really suck at being a girl.

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Alana's Wedding part 2: The wedding

Last night was Alana's wedding. She looked absolutely beautiful, as you can see here:

Here is Alana with her proud mother:

Alana and her groom, Ismail, are very traditional Muslims and wanted a very traditional wedding. This meant that the ceremony was segregated, with the women upstairs in the women's prayer room...

...and them men all the way downstairs:

The tradition is that the bride is asked and must accept three times. The first is the initial engagement. Later, the bride's father and the Imam ask her again if she thinks that marrying this man is a good life decision for her. The third happens at the wedding, when the fathers of the bride and groom bring her a gift from the groom. This gift is hers to keep forever; no matter what happens in the future the gift is hers to keep and she can do with it whatever she likes.

Of course, she accepted and the men returned downstairs for the remainder of the ceremony. The Imam spent some time talking about marriage and it should come as no surprise that the sentiments were pretty universal. He spoke about the important aspects of a successful marriage: respect, love, affection, loyalty, unity, compromise. Then, Ismail signed the wedding certificate and Alana's father brought it upstairs for her to sign. And there were married.

We all went downstairs for the immediate reception (there will be another larger reception tomorrow). The bride and groom cut the cake...

...and fed it to each other:

Pictures were taken with Ismail's family...

...and Alana's family:

The couple sat on special chairs at the head of the room like a king and queen presiding over the festivites:

Rings, of course, were exchanged:

Here's the happy couple:

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My inner European

Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous! You drink everyone under the table.

Who's" Your Inner European?

Irish. This is actually pretty accurate, since I am part Irish. My last name even has an Irish crest. Love that sexy highland dancer skirt, too. ; )

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My henna

I totally want to get this done at my wedding!

The woman who did this does it professionaly (we all had to pay her) and she does a really good job. She just freestyled everyone's designs. It was amazing to watch her work. Even the little kids who got it done sat perfectly still for her and were very careful not to smudge the work afterwards.

The henna was stored in long, thin triangular pyramids like the kind used to decorate with icing. She held the thin end a few inches away from the tip as if she was simply drawing with a pencil.

Alana's Wedding part 1: Mhendi Party

Last night I went to Alana's Mhendi party (am I spelling that right, Nyron?). Nyron picked me up after work and we first went to buy bangles to wear with my sari for the reception, then he dropped me off at his place and left, because the Mhendi party is for women only! It's like a bachelorette party, except there are no strippers.

Before we left, I asked Nyron if what I was wearing was ok or if I should change. I've been relying quite heavily on Nyron's advice for this sort of thing lately because I don't know the customs for a Muslim wedding or the extent to his parents' conservativeness, so when he said "you might get henna on it, so just put on a t-shirt" I had no reason to doubt his judgement. However, when we arrived and his mother opened the door in a lovely creamy yellow pants suit I started to wonder. When I saw his sister in a gorgeous green dress talking about how she just got her hair professionaly styled, I knew I was officially under dressed. As soon as the door shut behind Nyron his mom turned to me and said, "let's get you something to wear". Luckily we're about the same size and this is what I ended up in:


These suits are really very comfortable.

All of his aunts said how lovely I looked, even though most of them wore Western dresses.

I was a little akward at first since I didn't know many people there, but soon there were so many people that it didn't matter. So many people! The house was full of women and a few children. The groom, Ismail's, family soon showed up and I was no longer the only person who didn't know anyone, so I got to mingle, see some of the women dance, and watch henna being done. Of course, I got henna done, too (see above picture, I'm having a hard time getting this uploading software to work).

The party was fun, and a small sneak preview of what the reception will be like (the reception will be segregated, so it'll be me and all the women-folk once more).

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Some possible good news

Joe (my parents' real estate agent) just called to say that the people he showed the house to less than a week ago want to come and see it again today. Apparently they were quite happy with the house and even gave Joe their own address so that he could look it up and see if they're likely to get enough for it to buy this one. They'll be coming by today - in an hour in fact. Hopefully, I'll know in a few days time what my future living situation will be. I don't really care at this point, I just want something stable.

I had a job interview yesterday for a tele-promotions job. Basically I'll be calling people up and telling them what vacation option they are eligible for. It's all people who have specifically given the company information for the purposes of receiving exactly this call (not phone numbers from a raffle draw or anything like that) so it's not like telemarketing. It doesn't really sound like a lot of phone, but I could stand to make more money than I ever have at a job before. Although it's still a pitifully small amount of money, it would actually be enough to pay my pills. I'm supposed to hear from them sometime today.

Yesterday was Nyron's and my anniversary. We got dressed up and went out to the same restraunt we went to on our first date, The Senator. Unfortunately, it's under new management and they changed the menu around so they didn't have what we got last time. What we did get was a little too salty. Now we have to find a new restraunt. Then we went to the movies and saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which was really fun but I think it's the kind of movie that I'll like more the second time I watch it.

So that's the news in the world of me.

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Mmmm, convertable red...

I got a new cell phone today (that's a mobile for my friends across the pond). It's a flip phone and the cover is this really cool chade of red that you can imagine being on a convertable or nail polish or something really glossy and fashionable like that. I've been having fun the last few hours trying to get it to do all the things that the user's manual claims it to be capable of. Ostensibly, I can even check my email from it (I'd love to set it up so that it tells me every time I receive a release alert from bookcrossing!). Someday I might splurge on call display so that I can assign ringtones to specific incoming phone numbers. Feel free to start making requests now. : )

Unpacking is going very slowly. It's hard to stay motivated when all I keep wondering is how long before all this stuff has to go back in boxes. Oh well. I managed to get all my books unpacked and organized into a semblance of categories on my floor. Somehow, I think I'm going to need more bookshelves.

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Tales of living in an open house.

I arrived home from England on Sunday, thoroughly looking forward to putting my house together, determined to make it feel more like a home than last time I lived here. Which is why I was so shocked when, within hours of arriving at my house, a real estate agent came knocking on my door to inform me that he had an appointment to show my house that afternoon. Wha-wha-whaaat?! I informed him that I was living here now and that I believe the house is no longer going to be for sale. When I called my mom, however, I was proven wrong. Apparently they still plan on showing the house and selling it to the highest interested party, with or without me living in it. I hoped this wouldn't effect my life much, but I was proven wrong again yesterday morning when a couple knocked on the door at a rather...ahem...inconvenient time, causing me to run downstairs in my house coat and tell them that, no, they can't see the house today. I'm having my parents\ agent put a "by appointment only"sticker on the for sale sign.

So what it all comes down to is this: at any time this house could be sold right out from underneath me and I'll have to move again, likely this time to a condo which will be way too small for all of my stuff (especially since I recently inherited some pieces of my great grandmother's furniture upon her recent move into an old age home). I'm trying to unpak and I really don't know how to go about it. Do I go through all the trouble of unpacking my salt and pepper collection, just to maybe have to pack it all up again?

Oh, and we had a kitchen fire this morning trying to make tea for breakfast. Welcome home.

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Hard hats must be worn in this area.

Sorry folks, this blog is still under construction. It will be open for your reading pleasure later this month (once I get back to Canada and get internet set up in my house).

The management and staff thank you for your patience and hope this does not cause any inconvenience.

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