Sunday, February 13, 2011

Open house at Dalvey Estate

We were invited to an open house on Friday evening at Dalvey Estate. It was at the family home of one of Singapore's ex-presidents. The invitation was for 6.30 pm so we thought we'd drop in for about an hour or two after work, before picking Ryan up from his nanny's. We certainly were not prepared for what was to come!

It was not just any open house - it was a massive buffet dinner for about 400 people! We walked up to the (beautiful) house to find a huge platform outside the house. It had a tent roof with chandeliers and ceiling fans and there were about 30-40 round tables for the guests. All this fit in the driveway leading up to a 6-car garage.

Walking up to the bungalow.
The lighted balloons were put up specially for the occasion.

Pre-dinner entertainment included phototaking with mascots (photos printed on the spot), temporary tattoos, balloon sculpturing, Chinese finger painting, caricature drawing, wire name sculpturing - all for free. The queues for each were crazy.

Still a little stunned.
Just before dinner started, there was a lion dance.

The 4D number given by the lions - depending on how you look at it, it is 9618 or 8196.
Wine was served at every table plus Chinese New Year tidbits. Each table also had yee sang to kick the dinner off. Throughout the dinner, there was a three-piece strolling band walking among the tables serenading the guests and playing requested songs. A photographer went around taking photos of the guests at each table (a la Chinese wedding procedure) and everyone at the table got a copy of the photo on the spot.


The people at our table were humorous and friendly and conversation was non-stop. We had such a good time that we stayed till the end, about 9 plus. We left after thanking our host and we each received a bag of oranges as a parting gift.

Amazing experience. I hope I get to go again next year!

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