Married!

.....it's been rather a busy month - apologies for slacking on the blog :)


If I were to start at the end of the story, I'd say - we're married! But it's probably better if I start at the beginning and lead up to it....

...Mum and Dad arrived at Brisbane way way back on 6th October, and they were feeling fresher than we had dared to hope for. They had a fantastic flight, all the timings worked out, the overnight stopover in KL really broke up the journey for them. I can't really explain how excited we were to pick them up from the airport - it was very, very difficult to maintain my usual laidback cool while watching all the people coming through the doors, being tearfully greeted by loved ones.

We got stuck into the daytrips the following morning, taking them up to Mt Tamborine to have a wander through the rainforest a little. We also took them shopping, on a trip through the city, and to the botanic gardens at Mt Coot-Tha. Just as they were seeing out the last of the jetlag, we packed them off to Sydney for a couple of days. We worked a couple more days, then headed down to Sydney to join them. The aquarium at Darling Harbour is still excellent, I don't know whether the shark tank, the platypus tank or the coral tank with the guitar fish is the highlight - all very photogenic. We also hooked up with James and Jo for a night on the harbour. Again, can't really explain just how exciting it was to have old friends with us.

Then the heatwave in Sydney really hit, pushing 35 degrees - not great for wandering around a city. We took Mum and Dad over to Manly for lunch and to cool our heels in the ocean. The beach was jam-packed, but the water really cooled us off. We flew back up to Brisbane, then headed off first thing the next morning down to Byron Bay to pick up Naomi and Dave, who had just finished a week on a surfing safari travelling up the coast from Sydney. Nat and I joined them for a surf session at Tallow Beach, but by the time Naomi and I had managed to paddle out through the surf, we were half a mile down the beach from anybody else..... strong sweeping currents and a couple of head-height hollow waves later, and we were doing the walk of shame back up the sand :)

Spent the rest of the day relaxing in Bangalow, and walking around Cape Byron lighthouse looking (unsuccessfully....) for whales or dolphins. The next morning back in Brisbane, kicked back, relaxed, and picked up an 8 seater hirecar and Sam from the airport. Under overcast skies, we took the family north from Brisbane into the Glasshouse Mountains to picnic at Mary Caincross park in Maleny, and to visit the Australia Zoo. We just managed to get there in time to watch the crocodile feeding, which was as amazing to see as the last time Skye and I were there way back in 2001.

And then it was time to pack up, and move en masse down to Currumbin. With only a few days to go, we loaded up and shipped out hoping that we hadn't forgotten anything... The Sandcastles resort at Currumbin was a great place for us all to hole up, comfortable, affordable and literally right next door to the parkland that we used for the wedding ceremony. I surfed every morning with Nat and Dave - Naomi was dismayed that The Alley is a right-hander, but came out for a surf on the last morning there anyway. The first couple of days were slushy, but we got wet anyway. Notable highlights - Nat caught a huge wave, well over headheight, and rode it clean to Palm Beach, we watched whales breaching close in to the point, and I caught my best wave ever on the morning of my wedding :)

Our penthouse was a great spot, with lovely views over the ocean and everyone else's units :) More and more people arrived as the day got nearer, and on the evening before the big day we did a dry run rehearsal. We ironed out the niggles, then Skye and I went our seperate ways...

The girls had been very organised and had a table booked at an excellent Italian restaurant nearby, while us blokes went to the Tugun surf club, and made our way through quite a few jugs of beer... I had decided not to have more than a couple of beers, but foolishly had those couple of beers before we even went out. Still, no head shaving or being tied to lamp posts. Instead, we had exactly what was hoped for - a quiet evening to get to know each other. Despite the hangover, we were in the water the next morning at 6:30am - perfect for clearing out the cobwebs. It was around the time I was eating breakfast at The Deck (again...) that I realised it was high time I started to write my speech (!) It was very chilled hanging out at James and Jo's unit, and I managed to get a few ideas scribbled down before it was time to set up the gazebo and chairs in the park.

Throughout the final preparations, I felt very calm and relaxed. James did a fantastic job, even loading up his hip flask with Lagavulin (not that I needed it). Walking out into the park, feeling smooth in my tailored suit, to greet all the guests was a slightly surreal, but very pleasant, experience. The weather had been a hot topic for the preceding week, with thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon of the 21st - but we pulled it off nonetheless. The overcast skies meant we had a very pleasant temperature, and the photographer was happy with the even lighting.

And then, late of course, the signal came through to start the music ("Nearly Giant Ants" by Acoustic Groove) and Skye started her entrance. She came across a bridge with her mum and dad behind her, bridesmaids ahead of her, looking absolutely beautiful. The ceremony went off very smoothly, though we both were a little choked up through our lines. We had written the whole thing ourselves, so each part was directly meaningful to us. Before we knew it, the deed was done and James had "I feel good" by James Brown playing through the soundsystem :)

There followed what must have been hours, but felt like much less, of photos at various locations - we missed all of the canapes - and then a delicious meal at the Elephant Rock Cafe, followed by speeches and dancing to the band. I managed somehow to stumble through my speech completely disguising my poorly organised notes - I did forget to include the part where I tell Skye how much I love her, and was about to wrap it all up when I spotted the bridesmaids energetically waving their arms and pointing at Skye from behind her back :) without missing a beat I found my notes and did as all grooms must - made my bride blub :) James' speech had me cringing and laughing without mentioning anything too bad, and we loved hearing all the emails (I think there were 30 in total!) from absent friends that were read out by James and Nathan at intervals during the evening. Before we knew it, the day was all over....

[Note: there's not enough space to mention here all the details of the day, the week, the last 4 weeks - so apologies for missing things out]
[Note: there really are a lot of photos to sort through, so I haven't yet posted them on fatcat. I will publish a link here, and email the link around, once the albums are ready to be viewed. If you've got photos from the big day, we'd love to see them - please email or send us a CD :) ]

Visitors from home, working in the tropics, and prepping for the big day!

Such a lot has happened since I last wrote an entry - good to be busy!

First up - we had our first visitors from home, which was fantastic. Manch and Rachel spent 5 nights at our place as part of a spontaneous trip over here. It was a huge buzz for us to have them, and we made the most of the time we had with them. We barbied, went to Noosa (saw a koala!), took them for a breakfast in Currumbin, showed them where we'll be married, went sea kayakking in Byron Bay (saw plenty of dolphins), watched whales from the lighthouse and drank a whole bunch of my homebrew :) Manch even seemed to enjoy watching a podiatrist cut my ingrown toenail out! It was great to hang out with Manch's parents, and his brother Steve and his girlfriend Tina too. Skye and I were both very sad on our last day with them - we said goodbye as we left them in the house and we went off to work together. The place felt empty when we got home after work. So happy to have them here, so sad to not have them here once they'd gone. I'm sure it'll be the same through the wedding as people arrive, spend time with us, and then afterwards it'll be just us again. Still, I'd glad to have solid friends and the good times they bring, even if missing them when they're gone is part of the deal. A few photos are here.

...and then, with the wedding getting ever closer, work became hectic and I had to spend 4 days away from home in Mackay trying to complete the install of a wireless point to multipoint network at an Ergon Energy depot. These trips away for work are always long days, the motels are generally drab, and I tend to be on my own with a paperback as company over dinner. This time, the motel was pretty good (food was pants though), I had decent company with a guy from the Ops team accompanying me, and I managed to successfully complete the install of the network. To top it off, I got to be taken up in a cherry picker to around 20 metres above the ground - while I was up there, I watched a flock of Lorikeets screeching as they tried to escape from some kind of hawk that was chasing them! Way cool... The downside to the trip was that new regulations have been brought in that mean I have to wear a hi-vis shirt, full length cotton trousers and steel-capped safety boots whilst working at a depot. I have jackets thinner than those shirts, and the temperatures are tropical....

Preparations for the wedding are going well. We do have a lot to do, but we're getting through it. While we both want a non-traditional, non-religious wedding, that means that we have to author pretty much the whole ceremony. It means that it'll be as we want it to be, but it takes time to think it through and word it right. Well, we spent a few hours on the weekend pulling our ideas together and drafting what we'll say - and we're both happy with the results.

Mum and Dad arrive in less than a week! We're incredibly excited, and can't wait to pick them up from the airport. As I type this, they're either in the air or in the midst of a stopover in KL. Dad showed us over a Skype video call what he plans to wear on the big day :) Naomi and Dave have already left the UK, and should be somewhere in Malaysia by now.