Speech about my best-friend at her Wedding Reception.
When Sonia asked me to say a few words at the wedding, I was hysterically happy. Then it dawned upon me that I would be MCeeing the wedding as well. I should not also be giving the speech. I conveyed this feeling of discomfort to Sonia, and her response was, “Why can’t you do both?”
I explained that it would appear to people as if I was hogging the limelight and attention, by trying to do both. I didn’t want people to think that I “shiok sendiri”. Her answer was a straight-forward, “Yes you can do both.. It doesn’t matter what people think!”
I’ve been friends with Sonia for almost 13 years now, and that’s what I love about her. She doesn’t care what people think as long as she know’s its right. And she knows I love attention and encourages it!
Seriously. Sonia left Singapore to study in Australia at 17. Before she left for Sydney, Sonia was a, this is the truth- you know it Son so don’t hate me!, a scatter-brain. I think she spent more time day-dreaming and in fantasies rather than making sure she knows how to get to point A to point B. Sonia was a notoriously bad navigator. She’d get lost at Takashimaya without someone to guide her! I used to make endless fun of her regarding this ‘quality’ of hers! And she’d get back at me for it.
Once when we were planning a design of a cruise-liner, don’t ask me why we did that, it was one of the things we did when we made up our minds that A Math was too difficult and didn’t deserve our undivided attention, she assigned us all positions like captain, crewman. I made a strong point that there was no way she could be the navigator. Sonia laughed it off, as if it didn’t matter at all how I was being so mean to her. But quietly as she finished her plan, she drew a tiny cabin, at the lowest rungs of the ship for me, next to the waste collection, which she designed to fuel the ship- and I was assigned to shovel that biological waste to keep the ship running. That was poetic justice for her.
I’ve never told her this I think, but the thing I loved and admired most about her was her sense of imagination, the fantasies that she paints in her head and sometimes articulates on paper. If you are one of the lucky few, and I think I am- Sonia could bring you to the ends of the earth, to see a palate of colours no man could ever describe, and launch you into delirious bouts of giggles when she opens your heart to the endless happy endings that you could encounter in one life.
Now Daniel. I’ve known Daniel now for, I dunno- I can’t recall when I first met him. Most of you probably don’t know him very well. I’ve spent, well not much time, but enough. We’ve played a round of silly golf together in Sydney, we’ve spent an afternoon at an amusement park, we’ve had brunch together. You know when I guy is a great guy, when he brings you to a golf course and never makes a face when you miss golf ball five times in a row after you’ve claimed to play golf since u were seven. You also know when a guy is great, when he beats 5 other seven year old at a funfair game so that his girlfriend’s friend could bring home a gorilla you named Eshay.
Actually, I’ve always been afraid of Daniel. Look at him. He’s a tall and looks so serious. And even when he’s trying to be funny, you’re not sure if he’s joking or being sarcastic, or scolding you. Daniel also comes in a package- you don’t get just Daniel but the entire Family of Pedemonts too. Which is probably the best part of the deal!
Anyway. Returning to my story. Sonia left after we did our O levels with another good friend of ours to study in Australia. When she left, a lot of us felt the loss of a great friend. I certainly felt completely hopeless. My best friend had left.
There were many times I wished that she had never left. But today, I’m happy. If she hadn’t left for Australia, she wouldn’t have met Daniel. And what a pair they make. Daniel is serious and meticulous enough a person to make sure Sonia the scatter brain keeps her act together. I know for a fact that Daniel is a capable navigator, so Sonia won’t get lost in another shopping centre again. And Sonia’s infectious passion for life injects the little giggle that our serious Daniel needs to colour his life (urmmm I think).
To the both of you, I’m deliriously happy for you. Thank you Sonia for the priviledge of being your friend, for staying in touch all these years, for always inviting me into your home in Sydney. Thank you for US4, for Bono and U2, for Mirabella, Night Shade and god- knows-what, for Les Mis, for always being a phone call away, for understanding that my crying over a burnt pecan pie was a symptom of a broken heart and not a culinary disaster, for never judging and for being a friend!
To Daniel, thank you for sharing your family with me, and for loving my friend. For she deserves all the love in the world.
