A Great Wedding Speech!

While AstroBanana were having dinner with DGT last Friday, Eric Banana managed to obtain a hard copy of DGT's draft speech during their wedding dinner. They felt that it was a sincere, wonderful and humourous speech and decided to share it with the readers of this blog. Although DGT said he improvised during the actual delivery, the draft captured the essence of the content. An improvised line that was not in the draft went something along these lines... "I don't know whether it is my bow-tie or my jacket but some of you mistook me for one of the hotel's staff. I would like to clarify that I am not part of the hotel's staff!" Poor DGT - it was a newly-tailored jacket too.

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What a wonderful evening! There is absolutely nowhere else in the world I'd rather be tonight than here in this moment with all of you. I have the honour - as Eric insists it is - of giving a speech tonight. I have had the privilege of spending some time with them - this speech is my report.

Let me start briefly with Eric. Eric gained notoriety in The University for: (1) his unique collection of dragon and skull rings which are always on display on him; (2) his infamy as a fearsome critic - he has an unnatural talent for poking holes in any presentation or document and driving said author to tears; and (3) his incurable sense of corniness. But whatever you say about Eric, he is a loyal and well-meaning friend. He is unstinting in his concern for his friends in need and has been a great help to me, together with Astro, when I started my own company. I have come to realise that Eric thinks in binary when it comes to friends - you are either a friend, or on what he affectionately calls his "hit list".

I remember the pre-Astro Eric as he struggled through so much personal difficulty with his family in coping with the loss of someone very dear to them. I vicariously felt his loss, frustration and uncertainty as he also struggled to find his professional direction at first. I did not sense a personal peace in Eric, not even after he was offered by The Corporation and sped through its ranks - not until he met Astro. I have never seen a more content, radiant and sure Eric than when he is with Astro.

Enough on Eric - Vincent would have spent enough time blowing Eric's horn (probably under duress). And so I will speak of Astro. I must confess that I wasn't sure what to make of Astro when I first met her because we spoke little. But I found myself liking her more and more every time I met her. My admiration for her (and my admiration for Eric, for that matter) has grown over the time that I've known her.

Astro is at once beautiful, unassuming and gentle. She is always dignified, kind, generous and thoughtful. Astro also has an amazing achievement none of us can ever put on our resumes - taming that deranged madman we call Eric. And to her credit, she has put up with Eric's strange cast of friends (self-deprecating gesture to self) with an uncommon grace. She is in every sense of the word, to me, a lady. They say that a man marries a woman for who she is and that a woman marries a man for who he can be, or rather, who she wants him to become. I'm sure Astro has some grand future value in store for Eric.

With the two of them, 1 + 1 > 2. They are beautiful as a unit. They have a quiet and subtle understanding between them. And tonight, we - we happy few - have the great privilege of starting the two of them on a special journey.

I want to close with a wish and a toast. I wish, deeply and truly, that everyone of us here tonight has found - or will find - the unity, understanding, affection and love that Eric and Astro have for each other. A toast - let us with all trueness and sincerity, toast a long and happy life to Eric and Astro. God bless you both.