An English/French lesson

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

Couture:
noun
1. the occupation of a couturier; dressmaking and designing.
2. fashion designers or couturiers collectively.
3. the clothes and related articles designed by such designers.
4. the business establishments of such designers, esp. where clothes are made to order.

adjective
5. created or produced by a fashion designer: couture clothes.
6. being, having, or suggesting the style, quality, etc., of a fashion designer; very fashionable: the couture look.

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[Origin: 1905–10; < F: lit., sewing, seam < VL *cō(n)sūtūra, equiv. to L consūt(us) ptp. of consuere to sew together


American Heritage Dictionary

cou·ture (kōō-tŏŏr', -tür')
n.
1. The business of designing, making, and selling highly fashionable, usually custom-made clothing for women.
2. Dressmakers and fashion designers considered as a group.
3. The high-fashion clothing created by designers.

[French, sewing, from Old French cousture, from Vulgar Latin *cōnsūtūra, from Latin cōnsuere, cōnsūt-, to sew together : com-, com- + suere, to sew; see syū- in Indo-European roots.]

The begining before 8 - 11 - 8

8 – 11 – 8

Seems symmetrical and incidentally a Saturday.
Maybe I should say, a Saturday and incidentally a nice looking date
The time is right, the finances are right
It is the right time to tie the knot.

Been 7 years since I first met teh, 6 years together.
Meeting for the first time outside the bookshop in NYJC during the lunch break from Elementz

Well I didn’t know she was my classmate as most of the orientation period, I was involved in this foreign student organization committee to set up a bazaar. Not that I am very proactive to join these kind of stuff, but basically all foreign students were “strongly encouraged” to do so. Everyone had to cook something from our home country and sell it. Duh….what you can find in Malaysia is about the same as that as Singapore…I’ll leave out the debate of whose tastes better. So I was missing the first few classes, and apparently I was grouped with Cynthia and dunno who else for a GP assignment. I only remember Cynthia because teh was to inform me of my group members, and yeah she only remembered Cynthia, and only then I knew she was my classmate.

Besides talking about GP and Elementz, we began crapping – eventhough we have never met in class or anywhere before, together with her friend Nina and my friend Pak Hang. Seemed comfortable to talk to her…….

So 3 months went by, having a close knit friendship with people like Terence, Shawn, Sean, Feng Ling, Moses, Qiu Ling, Yan Xiang, Jie Han, Guo Jin, Kevin (a.k.a Superskyhawk) etc.. always hanging out on weekends and after school – favorite places, bowling alley and pool & snooker in Lavender. Well, the girls seem to like to hang out with guys that can play pool better (so that they can learn, not flirt…)……not as if I can play well, but only OK…..Well somehow I began to kinda help teh as her shots were quite miserable and of course because she was more vertically challenged..haha(sorry dear)

Well, after a few sessions, less and less girls turn up as they were probably bored with their slow progress in learning, only teh was determined to learn….so usual people that hang out – Jie Han, Terence, teh, Shawn and me. Probably, with the so many outings and crapping, both of us seem to have a closer relationship – more like being very comfortable with each other’s company.

Remember our first F-maths test, almost everyone failed except for Jiaming I think. Then there was this AO level pass ~40 - 45% – so Shawn proclaimed: “I have an AO level pass leh” Ms yau shaking her head, these idiots just happy to get 40 – 45% for tests.

The first 3 months has ended, time for O’ Level results. Most of our classmates were very comfortable with each other that we all wanted to remain in NYJC for the rest of our A’ Level education, only a few have other pursuits. So confident that I will get NYJC again with my results, so I put in NYJC as my first choice, and the rest are the top JCs. Well, wouldn’t be surprised if I failed to get my first choice, I’ll something crappy. True enough, I got my 11th choice. So I had to appeal……I dunno why I felt that I must get back into NYJC, even if I had to resort to only take 3 main subjects instead of 4. So I went for help, looking for a few tutors.

One day then, Ms Queenie Wong, HOD of science called me, asking me about my Elementz project and saying that my appeal was approved. Even more surprising is that I get to take the 4 subjects I requested for. So it seemed that Mr Sim had strongly recommended me. The way God had blessed me, first to sign up for Elementz for the first 3 months and then this. How amazing.

Well, since I got back the same subjects, I have a 50% chance of being in the same class as my friends – some got in the 9A (terence etc), some 9B (teh etc). So teh was very happy when she saw my name in the class list…..So only 2 of us from our “clique“ was in 9B. So when we hang out with our new classmates, we stuck together, to bitch about the others of their indecisiveness and fickleness during outings. So there she was, my bitching partner. throughout the year we began to settle well with our classmates.

Somehow, for a GP project (ICPW) both of us and Pei Qi and Jia hao formed a group. Because we were all man united fans, I suggested doing a stupid project thesis. Even though we dun know a shit about business models, sociology or etc, our project objective is to study the man untied branding – lalala….we looked stupid during our presentation because our presentation has almost zero substance.

Still close, and she wanted me to be her elder brother for some reasons she later admitted……and for at least 5 months I played that role, and she my little sister. Never had one before as I am the youngest child in my family, and she never had any older sibling.

The final promo exams passed, and it is the year end holidays. Had a chalet right after teh came back from a school trip in Thailand. She rushed down to the chalet, despite having stomach runs and ……. as well. There again, we were bitching partners. Somehow, on our more personal chats, I began to know her and her family background better. It seems we developed a more intimate friendship, confiding in each other…..

We never really met until our OGL camp where both of us were teamed up together, Zhiwei and huiwen the other. Each class had to send 4. We had a great time together during the camp as well as the orientation for the freshies as well. I guess she really cared about me, as she asked someone to help me out when she was sick on one of the days…..I still feel very touched when I think about it.

There it goes…..love blossomed, and one day I decided to ask her out for dinner – JUST THE TWO OF US, after the S3 Seminar. Popped the “boyfriend, girlfriend” question on our way to the seminar………went to bugis junction to eat yoshinoya, then to white sand for a walk and taking a long trip back on bus 88………

I love you my dear and thank you for loving me these years. I thank God for you and how He brought us together and kept us together. That we are taking a step further, to be soul mates till death do us part………..

Aftermath

So much has happened since I watched the wretched 300. Well, my work seems promising, career path laid before me, so much more to learn. Well the good thing is there is no end to learning for this path that I am taking. The many small talks with clients and contractors alike, as long as you are below 40, i.e. about 35, you are considered young and inexperience in this field of work. No one below 30 is really in this line…. At 40 to 50, maybe they will make the cut as experience and seasoned people, beyond that, their names are known in the market, not to exaggerate, all over the world. Some made it at their mid forties.


So it seems that I have quite a head start, not even reaching my mid 20s yet.


Well, these recent weeks have been very eventful. Planning for our wedding has intensified much more. We started with banquets. Initially we intended to just gather information through quotations – more like to compare prices and items in the packages, not to waste the coordinators time to entertain us with our visit.


As much as possible, we would try to get it online without requesting for proposal (RFP) to do our homework. However, some hotels do not place their packages in their websites, so we had to submit online RFPs or just e-mail the coordinators for it – so we have to indicate our wedding date. It turns out that one of the hotels in our top 3 shortlist was tentatively booked on the day that we wanted, so the coordinator wanted to make an earlier appointment to let us see the facilities and discuss the package. From there, another hotel we short-listed was already booked, so have to look at alternative dates. So that actually jolted us and increased our sense of urgency.


So we made a couple of appointments with the first 2 hotels. The first one was a four star hotel. We intended to hold our wedding in only 5 star hotels so we wanted to see one four star to make us feel better in paying way more for a 5 star hotel. As it turns out, the hotel was not up to our standard. We kind of expected that it won’t be good, but not as bad as what we actually saw. That type for around $850 per table……

So on the same day, we had an evening appointment with another hotel. Price is good, coordinator is good, ballroom looks good because of the high ceiling and rustic look, deco looks perfect, cards and favors looks good, downside the suite. I actually liked the ballroom (but have some reservations over the other side of the ballroom, which has low ceilings) and teh was very impressed with the chandeliers and deco and the coziness of that place. Everything was wow wow until teh stepped into the suite…..just like any other room. Ok, I admit that I am not so particular about the suite – don’t look fantastic, but acceptable, so I was ok for this package, but teh was more cautious. Why would a 5 star hotel with so many good points charge about the same as a 4 star hotel? Reputation redemption or what? Moreover, they will have a wedding show soon, and signing up on that day entitles us to more discounts and freebies……….This actually intensified our search even more. We have to look at the remaining hotels in our short list before the show.


So we brought forward one appointment. Well the final one was superb, needless to say, forget about the wedding show. We will take this if they waiver one particular item we wanted badly. So negotiation is ongoing, and we don’t mind paying so much more for a 5 star. A five star truly is a 5 star for some reason.


Tired we feel after these few days of searching………so I wonder what will be the aftermath of house searching and wedding itself……………….