HK Wedding II

After a run-in with one of the less than friendly HK taxi drivers, for what we can only assume was the result of a too-short journey, resulting in a torrent of verbal abuse in cantonese (the few words I can understand) and a rollercoaster-like ride, we arrived in 1 piece (just about) at the Hong Kong Jockey Club in Happy Valley for the wedding dinner of our cousin Janet and her hubby Patrick.

On arrival, my eyes lit up as we were greeted with wedding favours on the dining tables that people might actually want to take home - an assortment of Phillips stocking fillers at each place setting (the groom being product manager at HK Phillips obviously has its perks). This was crowned later on, by a competition to find a tiny announcement congratulating the happy couple amongst a plethora of chinese newspapers on each table, with the prize being a brand new, Phillips 20" LCD TV. The lucky winner was an uncle on the head table, an ex-head of Police in HK who received the shiny prize on stage under the bright flashes of the wedding photographers - exquisite product placement. ;-)

Amongst the (what I now know to be) 12 standard wedding dishes in the gastric-satisfying banquet, halfway thru the meal, I was served a statistic that somewhat dampened my appetite.
There are 10 cousins in our generation on my Dads side of the family, comprising 7 girls and 3 boys. Out of these 10, only 2 remain unmarried, and yes, one of those particular statistics is muggins. It was a bit of a sobering thought to be honest and I don't know if it was a coincidence, but it just so happened I was sat next to the other "unspoken for" cousin. Maybe it was just easier to interrogate us that way! (I still didn't have a good answer to despatch the inevitable interrogations) So its just 2 horse race now then......a race I suspect I am going to lose. In the Chinese Zodiac, being born in 1975, I am represented by a hare, but i think this time, a tortoise will suit me just fine ;-)