Marcus & Esther 20.09.2009

It was indeed an auspicious day with the date the couple chose and though some trials did leave a mark on that day, it went well and the couple looked happy even after so little sleep and so many hours of smiles.

The heavy downpour during the portrait shoot didn't dampen their spirits. The incident with the auto gate which scratched the BMW wedding car didn't caused extended anger. The super busy and rushed Chinese traditions didn't hinder them from stealing glances at each other throughout the day. Such high spirits and the cameras loved them!

Here's a slideshow of some moments from my camera:

Congrats to the happy couple!

TGIF Fun turns Sour

I bet everyone of you know that TGIF is well-known for its rowdy, loud yet fun birthday wishes and tricks. Well, it ended badly tonite at my friend's bash in the Curve outlet as this was what happened.

As usual, a whole group of more than 10 staffs would gather around the birthday boy / girl's table, in my case, my friend's a 'he' - they did the usual tricks tonite like every other birthday celebrant in that restaurant - made him stand on a chair, make him say a speech, make him stick out his tongue and pretend they were gonna pour chili sauce on him, sang him 3 TGIF songs which no one can make out what's being sung (thank God coz I think I heard some bad humour in the lyrics) and finally, make him blow out his candle.

Tonite's fun and games ended differently however for my poor friend. After he blew his candle from a distance of 2 feet, the guys all crowded round him and asked to be taken a picture. However, these same guys also made him hold the ceramic cake plate and then they did the unexpected.... all of them shouted Happy Birthday at the top of their lungs into his ears! I was shocked and my friend was struggling to close his ears but he wasn't able to coz he didn't want to break the plate he was holding.

His ears rang for more than 20 minutes after that and am not sure how long after as we all went our separate ways after that.

When I brought this up to the manager before we left, he only apologized twice. Is this how an injured customer should be treated?

Worse still, my friend is in the hospital now for an ear infection due to this today.

SO, DON'T EVER GO TO TGIF for your birthday as it may end sour and you may just loose a limb or an ear!

UPDATE: 6 Oct 2009 - After writing in to TGIF nternational and TGIF Malaysia and speaking to the secretary of TGIF owner, my friend managed to get his complaint across and a simple compensation from them plus a warning letter to the employees involved.

So, you can still celebrate your birthday in TGIF but get a good friend to be on his toes at all time in case any such thing happens so he / she can rescue you instantly. :)