on sunday, my wife and i attended her cousin’s wedding in penampang. i had to leave my son at home, cuz he was having fever, my parents came over and took care of him.

during the wedding in the hall, i took some pictures using my phone, so they are all fuzzy. the wedding is more or less a typical kadazan wedding in a hall, lots of sumazau, food and drinking.

the nice blue and white backdrop

if there’s one thing i’m not comfortable with when attending a kadazan wedding is the dreaded “forced” sumazau dance! this phobia started even when i was young.

what happens is a few aunties will go around passing a thingy (called senandang.. think so hehe) which they place on your shoulder. Once you get this, it means you have to do the sumazau. so when you go and dance in the middle of the hall, most of the aunties and uncles will observe the way you dance. i can recall when i was a teenager, my auntie nearly choked on her food when she saw me mixing the sumazau with movements copied from the Vanilla Ice video with hairstyle based on the New Kids on the Block (now u know the song i listen to when i was in my teens).

it’s bad enough one auntie will dance beside a horrified me, showing me the “correct” way to do it in front of an amused crowd. after that, another auntie will dance in front me even after i’m seated.

the worse part is, after i’ve memorised the dance from the live demo (read : public embarassment) and apply it when the next wedding function comes, i will still be corrected but this time by a different auntie. it’s either the auntie is from a different area (so they do it slightly different) or its just their personal preferences.

everything will be observed, from the way you swing your hands to the way you spring your legs up and down.

but don’t worry, if you are a visitor they’ll not correct you though they’ll laugh at you.

everybody do the sumazau

anyway, that was my teenage years. for me, i’m less self-concious now. besides i’m married, no need to look cool every second already haha. but still nowadays when the aunties are going around looking for “victims”, my heart will skip a beat or two - guess past experiences left a deep scar hehe. So usually i’ll eat very, very slow so they wont ask me seeing im still eating *heehee*.

Flower girls

The newlyweds and family making an entrance

Those with cameras has license to display their asses

Open champagne

i’m no drinker. beer feels like sewer water down my throat. so when i saw a young kid offering drinks in Milo cups, i call for her to give me. i took one and was pleasantly surprised, it was BEER! man.. i hope she didn’t give any of those cups to children. for sure they’ll feel stronger (minum milo anda jadi sihat dan kuat!).

so what to do. minum ja la sikit. i even used it during the “yam seng” session (yes, we imported this from the chinese.. probably the kadazans should changed it to “aramai tii”).

yam senggg…

everyone minum… eh the groom mau tahan kencing ka tu?

can’t get enough of sumazau.

after most of the faces of the guests turned red and the band started a joget number, people from the golden age came out in force and display their dance moves. for younger ones like me (at least compared to those on the floor), it was like an entertainment show. there’s even one guy who dance like he was trying to kill red ants by stepping and twisting his legs frantically on the floor.

mati kamu semut! mati kamu semuaa!

then we left after a while cuz our thoughts were for our son and we want to give him lots of TLC (tender loving care), so he’ll get well soon.