(Today, 28.2.14, Hubby & I celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary. And I went to browse our wedding website and thought I should "export" the stories to my personal blog!)
Once upon a time...
There were 2 singles - a most eligible bachelor, and an evenly eligible bachelorette. They didn't know who their significant other would be, but they're searching... Finally, on 1st July, 2006, Saturday, at the (now historical) Fruity Cake House in Taman Chi Liung, Klang, they met up with each other. It was not coincidental; it was actually an arranged lunch appointment, 相亲 (in mandarin), initiated by Mark's church members, with special permission from Ai Leng's Mom.
~*~*~*~*~
AI LENG says:
On one fine day, Auntie Lay Leng called me and asked whether I'd be free for lunch. She wanted to introduce me to a guy from her church. When I was being informed about this meeting, I did not think twice and agreed to go because there is always no harm in meeting new people :)
On that day, I went to the restaurant right after work. When I reached the restaurant, I couldn't see them there. I thought I was early so I sat at a table near to the entrance and was actually quite nervous. 10 minutes later, I could see Auntie Lay Leng, approaching the restaurant, with a middle-aged man (later I knew that Uncle Chee Beng is the Elder of Mark's church) and a young man. He looked like a Mr Nice Guy, properly dressed up.
Then, after the brief introduction by Auntie Lay Leng, we ordered lunch and started to chat. Initially, all 4 of us were chatting together, but Uncle Chee Beng & Auntie Lay Leng slowly pulled out from the 4-way chat and left both of us to chat on our own. I remembered we were chatting about ourselves-from family background, education, hobbies, work & World Cup during that time. Then, I got to know he is from Klang as well, staying in Berkeley but working in Kulim, Kedah. (I had no idea where is Kulim previously!) Actually, I was already thinking, what if we both ended up in a relationship, but he is not in Klang all the time, it might be a problem here. But I am really grateful to God for everything He has prepared for me, for blessing me with a lovely life partner. Our God will always provide the best for His children.
2 weeks after the meetup, Mark SMS'ed me, asking for my MSN Messenger ID. Thanks to the technology advancement, though we were far apart from each other, both of us chatted regularly during the night, and also sometimes during office hours. I wanted to chat with him, to get to know him better, in terms of his character, personality, interests, thinking etc, to see whether we both actually can 'click' together.
Our relationship continued to blossom. We met up several times, during his weekend trip back in Klang. We got to know each other deeper and that is where the seeds of love started to grow!
~*~*~*~*~
MARK says:
I was first informed about the possibility of meeting up with Ai Leng during a church retreat in Frasier's Hill earlier in 2006. It all started off with a casual chat between myself, Uncle Chee Beng, and Auntie Lay Leng (FYI, they're both well respected and loved members of my church - Klang Gospel Hall). As usual, I was complaining about my singlehood, and how challenging it was nowadays to find a good Christian lady who's compatible. Somewhere along the conversation, Auntie Lay Leng mentioned about her ex-baby sitter's daughter who's still single, and she's trying to introduce someone suitable to her. Naturally, she looked at me - I just smiled, and said I'm open to meeting new people. Thereafter, I didn't think much about it, and went on with my single's life.
Couple months later, much to my surprise, Auntie Lay Leng called me and asked if I'd be free on a Saturday. She wanted to introduce me to her ex-baby sitter's daughter. Being the sporting person that I am, I agreed without much hesitation.
To be honest, I didn't know what to expect, and there are at least a thousand things going through my mind during the days leading towards the meeting - "How would she look like", "Would we 'click'", "Would we progress to the next level", "What are we to talk about", "Do we have common interests", "Would I be willing to give it a try if we somehow 'clicked'", etc.
On that day, the moment I entered the restaurant with Uncle Chee Beng and Auntie Lay Leng, my eyes were frantically searching the restaurant, eager to see who this lady that I was supposed to meet. There she was, sitting alone at a table, waiting patiently for us (we're actually running late that day, 'paiseh' to say), in her blue jeans and T-shirt. I thought to myself, she looked like a nice Christian lady, hopefully we'd be able to have a nice conversation later, else time would pass by in an agonizingly slow pace.
Thank God, we're able to start our conversation by finding out what each other was doing, our interests, World Cup, visits to Doulos ship (a Christian managed ship that goes around the world doing missionary works and selling books), etc. I found out that she's faithful in serving and holds many leadership positions in her Church - which is good, but I did feel a little intimidated as I wasn't serving as actively as I should've been. =P
What captivated me throughout the whole conversation was her sweet and gentle voice, though she did seem a little serious (come to think of it, I think it was probably just my own perception, because I knew that she's an active leader in church, and as such, I thought she had to be some "iron lady" who's strict, serious, and direct - guess this is what we would refer to as being bias, or looking at people through our own paradigm).
The whole meeting lasted for about 1.5 hours, we couldn't prolong it because she had to attend a church meeting. I remembered that throughout the meeting, she'd received at least 2 phone calls - this helped convinced me even more that she's an "iron lady" who's very busy with life.
Nonetheless, I thank God for giving me the courage and guidance to SMS her after the meeting to ask for her MSN ID so that I could get to know her better. I always thought that I could get to know someone better by chatting with them over a period of time. I'm really glad that I did that, because through the many hours that we chatted, I got to know her much better personally, and my perception of her being an "iron lady" was slowly dissolved.
I remembered that one night, I spent about 5 hours reading her blog, starting from the most recent entry and going back as far as 1.5 years. From the hours I spent reading her blog, I felt like I've traveled through time and got to know her in person - the things that had happened to her, her thoughts, her personality, her character, and many more. That experience really helped pull me closer to her (I may not have realized that then, but come to think of it, that's really a key turning point in our relationship).
We continued to keep in touch with one another for several months through internet chats, snail mails, cards, phone calls, face to face meetings, etc. And they say, the rest is history...
~*~*~*~*~
After about 7 months of friendship, Mark decided to confess his love for Ai Leng on 31st January, 2007 (Wednesday), and they officially became a couple. The story continues...
There were 2 singles - a most eligible bachelor, and an evenly eligible bachelorette. They didn't know who their significant other would be, but they're searching... Finally, on 1st July, 2006, Saturday, at the (now historical) Fruity Cake House in Taman Chi Liung, Klang, they met up with each other. It was not coincidental; it was actually an arranged lunch appointment, 相亲 (in mandarin), initiated by Mark's church members, with special permission from Ai Leng's Mom.
~*~*~*~*~
AI LENG says:
On one fine day, Auntie Lay Leng called me and asked whether I'd be free for lunch. She wanted to introduce me to a guy from her church. When I was being informed about this meeting, I did not think twice and agreed to go because there is always no harm in meeting new people :)
On that day, I went to the restaurant right after work. When I reached the restaurant, I couldn't see them there. I thought I was early so I sat at a table near to the entrance and was actually quite nervous. 10 minutes later, I could see Auntie Lay Leng, approaching the restaurant, with a middle-aged man (later I knew that Uncle Chee Beng is the Elder of Mark's church) and a young man. He looked like a Mr Nice Guy, properly dressed up.
Then, after the brief introduction by Auntie Lay Leng, we ordered lunch and started to chat. Initially, all 4 of us were chatting together, but Uncle Chee Beng & Auntie Lay Leng slowly pulled out from the 4-way chat and left both of us to chat on our own. I remembered we were chatting about ourselves-from family background, education, hobbies, work & World Cup during that time. Then, I got to know he is from Klang as well, staying in Berkeley but working in Kulim, Kedah. (I had no idea where is Kulim previously!) Actually, I was already thinking, what if we both ended up in a relationship, but he is not in Klang all the time, it might be a problem here. But I am really grateful to God for everything He has prepared for me, for blessing me with a lovely life partner. Our God will always provide the best for His children.
2 weeks after the meetup, Mark SMS'ed me, asking for my MSN Messenger ID. Thanks to the technology advancement, though we were far apart from each other, both of us chatted regularly during the night, and also sometimes during office hours. I wanted to chat with him, to get to know him better, in terms of his character, personality, interests, thinking etc, to see whether we both actually can 'click' together.
Our relationship continued to blossom. We met up several times, during his weekend trip back in Klang. We got to know each other deeper and that is where the seeds of love started to grow!
~*~*~*~*~
MARK says:
I was first informed about the possibility of meeting up with Ai Leng during a church retreat in Frasier's Hill earlier in 2006. It all started off with a casual chat between myself, Uncle Chee Beng, and Auntie Lay Leng (FYI, they're both well respected and loved members of my church - Klang Gospel Hall). As usual, I was complaining about my singlehood, and how challenging it was nowadays to find a good Christian lady who's compatible. Somewhere along the conversation, Auntie Lay Leng mentioned about her ex-baby sitter's daughter who's still single, and she's trying to introduce someone suitable to her. Naturally, she looked at me - I just smiled, and said I'm open to meeting new people. Thereafter, I didn't think much about it, and went on with my single's life.
Couple months later, much to my surprise, Auntie Lay Leng called me and asked if I'd be free on a Saturday. She wanted to introduce me to her ex-baby sitter's daughter. Being the sporting person that I am, I agreed without much hesitation.
To be honest, I didn't know what to expect, and there are at least a thousand things going through my mind during the days leading towards the meeting - "How would she look like", "Would we 'click'", "Would we progress to the next level", "What are we to talk about", "Do we have common interests", "Would I be willing to give it a try if we somehow 'clicked'", etc.
On that day, the moment I entered the restaurant with Uncle Chee Beng and Auntie Lay Leng, my eyes were frantically searching the restaurant, eager to see who this lady that I was supposed to meet. There she was, sitting alone at a table, waiting patiently for us (we're actually running late that day, 'paiseh' to say), in her blue jeans and T-shirt. I thought to myself, she looked like a nice Christian lady, hopefully we'd be able to have a nice conversation later, else time would pass by in an agonizingly slow pace.
Thank God, we're able to start our conversation by finding out what each other was doing, our interests, World Cup, visits to Doulos ship (a Christian managed ship that goes around the world doing missionary works and selling books), etc. I found out that she's faithful in serving and holds many leadership positions in her Church - which is good, but I did feel a little intimidated as I wasn't serving as actively as I should've been. =P
What captivated me throughout the whole conversation was her sweet and gentle voice, though she did seem a little serious (come to think of it, I think it was probably just my own perception, because I knew that she's an active leader in church, and as such, I thought she had to be some "iron lady" who's strict, serious, and direct - guess this is what we would refer to as being bias, or looking at people through our own paradigm).
The whole meeting lasted for about 1.5 hours, we couldn't prolong it because she had to attend a church meeting. I remembered that throughout the meeting, she'd received at least 2 phone calls - this helped convinced me even more that she's an "iron lady" who's very busy with life.
Nonetheless, I thank God for giving me the courage and guidance to SMS her after the meeting to ask for her MSN ID so that I could get to know her better. I always thought that I could get to know someone better by chatting with them over a period of time. I'm really glad that I did that, because through the many hours that we chatted, I got to know her much better personally, and my perception of her being an "iron lady" was slowly dissolved.
I remembered that one night, I spent about 5 hours reading her blog, starting from the most recent entry and going back as far as 1.5 years. From the hours I spent reading her blog, I felt like I've traveled through time and got to know her in person - the things that had happened to her, her thoughts, her personality, her character, and many more. That experience really helped pull me closer to her (I may not have realized that then, but come to think of it, that's really a key turning point in our relationship).
We continued to keep in touch with one another for several months through internet chats, snail mails, cards, phone calls, face to face meetings, etc. And they say, the rest is history...
~*~*~*~*~
After about 7 months of friendship, Mark decided to confess his love for Ai Leng on 31st January, 2007 (Wednesday), and they officially became a couple. The story continues...
Ai Leng,
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice story.... Mark did not tell me all of these stuff even thought we work in Kulim. :p
I should get him out for more story telling :p.
Wong
That's why he is called Mr Dak Dak Dei (得得地)!
ReplyDelete