nijikai

When you get married, the idea is to milk the celebrations like a heiffer on speed. So it came to be that 40 of our gorgeous buddies descended upon Piccolo Mondo on Lygon Street for some old fashioned East meets West post-wedding-wedding shenanigans, also known as an infamous "nijikai" or "second party".

The night started with a princess-tantrum (I forgot the battery to my digital camera again) and ended with a princess-tantrum (3.30 a.m and I was sure I was going to die of hypothermia and/or a post-bevvy aneurysm waiting for a cab) but everything in between was sublime:

* Nick (our super-super-superstar Showcase Host) nailed his speech after grilling us on Friday night about our relationship;
* Everyone was stuffed full of fantastic italian food (kudos to Tony and Laura at Piccolo Mondo who took such good care of us - we couldn't have asked for a better venue or hosts);
* Our Ni-Ji-Keiki, a ten-tonne white chocolate profiterole monolith was easy on the eye and the palate;
* Taz won our "How many days have Kinki and McG been together" comp (only 4 days off with a guess of 1872); and
* no-one even minded being lined up and having their mugs trapped onto polaroid paper.
* (oh, and "Receiving a gazillion red roses from my beautiful husband" !!!! definitely the biggest highlight of the night.)

The piece-de-resistance however, was undoubtedly the post Ni-Ji-Kai (the "San-Ji-Kai"?) at Hollywood Karaoke on Bourke Street.

We knew it was the place to be when we walked in and 30 drunk Asians were lolling around the main karaoke stage. Ah, takes me back! For the more confidence-weary first-timers, we had a private booth. The menu was entirely in Chinese, the songs were a weird mish-mash (really different to the selections we were used to in Japan) and they served real alcohol - like Lemon Ruskis and Crownies, not that watery lemon-shu piss or Asahi Super-Crap.

"No, no, no - not succubus - succulents!

And it was a pretty good deal - $28 each for all you could sing karaoke (for us, that meant a 3 and a half hour marathon) and $28 worth of drinks. Granted, the drinks were expensive but we were already three sheets after the bevvies at the restaurant.

The best part of the night though, was realising how lucky we are to have such fantastic friends. My beautiful girlfriend Roz, even tore herself away from her newborn for a couple of hours to be there.

Discovering that half of these friends were latent rock-stars was just the bonus.

Ni Ji Kai Photo Gallery (c/- emergency disposable camera)