Weddings and Beauty Pageants

What a weekend...just got back from judging my first ever beauty pageant! It was fun. The girls were beautiful and talented! Made me proud to be Sierra Leonean! The winner...I didn't like that Evening Gown (at all) and scored it low, but she made up for it in other categories (casual, African wear, talent and interview)

Even though i didn't know what the other 7 judges scored, I successfully guessed the top 5!

The winner, Miss Kono, Binta Bah, was tall, beautiful, well poised, had charisma and her talent was a fictional speech as the first Sierra Leone woman president in the year 2020. It pandered to the audience b/c it was an hopeful, and idealistic speech where all the major and numerous current plagues of the small poor country were fixed! I bumped into a childhood friend I hadn't seen in years (see above).

the wedding was phenomenal. i think, next to mine, the best I've ever been to. highlights included:

• the wedding was in a beautiful church, started on time and was an overall beautiful ceremony

• 1 1/2 hour cocktail hour with phenomenal food including roast turkey, red snapper, pasta, stuffed mushroom, mussels, eggplant, smoked sausages. yummy!

• elegant location in a wedding catering hall called Riviera located in Coney Island

• wait staff of at least 20 who kept your glass filled (tho mine was filled with virgin drinks and diet coke)

• the dinner was served over a three hour time span (fruit plate, salad, sherbet palate cleanser, main course, wedding cake) and in between we did the cha cha, dollar wine, conga line and boogied to reggae, soca and R&B. Before you could get too full, you were on the dance floor burning off what you ate

• a "we are family" icebreaker where you were forced to introduce yourself to someone you didn't know at the wedding while "We are Family" played overhead

• excellent DJ who came complete with a singer who performed in amega afro wig and hype girls who had the best job in town. To wine to soca music all night and excite the crowd. I wish they had that job around when i was a kid!

• the main meal was presented over the tune "Hot Hot Hot" and featured waiters bringing out flaming duck (which was one of 12 items on the menu to select from)

• there were 12 main course menu items to select from ( i didn't love my lemon sole and I heard the shrimp and veal were both bland as well, but everyone who had the lamb and duck tore up their meals down to the bone. I didn't hear any reviews of the other offerings.

A few pics including some of me (looking quite preggers) in the Isabella Oliver dress I bragged about in an earlier post.
Dave and his brother Roger.Boy do I feel old looking at this pic, nearly 8 years ago, the one on the left was my flower girl and the one on the right my junior bridesmaid at my wedding. The one in the middle was a boy-crazy teenager! Wow!