Wedding!
28 March 2005, 10:26
Our dear friends J&H (they are one, now) got hitched out at Montsalvat yesterday afternoon. Beautiful, casual & intimate, with H mc’ing the whole thing, given their celebrant was apparently a bit of a nutter…
When we first discovered that the wedding was going to be “dry” (and I don’t mean ginger ale), I was a little concerned. How were any of us (read: me) going to have any fun without alcohol, particularly as I didn’t know anyone bar Husband and one other guest?
Post ceremony, most of their friends headed straight to the bar at Montsalvat to down a champers or two, pre-reception. At our table at the reception there were ambiguous whispers of “what does “dry” mean? Can we buy drinks ourselves or are we not supposed to drink? Would it be that bad? Couldn’t we stash a couple of beers under the table and swig silently through the night? What does this all mean????” We started to sound like a bunch of useless alcoholics who couldn’t survive a night without the demon brew. In the end, we decided not to drink out of respect for H’s parents, even though none of us knew them.
I soon discovered that drinking around 2 litres of Coke has roughly the same effect as drinking a bottle of wine anyway.
The shebang turned out to be great fun - we had a middle eastern banquet washed down with lemonade (I woke up sans hangover - v. cool), there were quizzes and fill-in-the-gaps games, both of which our table really should have won, but family politics were victorious in the end (not that we’re sore losers or anything…)
All up, a very unyeeeewshul wedding, but then J&H are certainly not eeeewshul people, which is precisely why we love them! Thanks guys, for a top-shelf party - we do love a good marriage!!!
Permanent Link | Comments [1]Happy Easter!
27 March 2005, 14:30
... from a v. strange little Easter Bunny!
How's the Serenity?
27 March 2005, 11:14
There’s always one. Always one muthalovin’ selfish arsehole who finds it imperative to fill the silence of mutha nature with doof doof music…
DOOF DOOF DOOF DOOF doofdoofdoof DOOF DOOF DOOF
We thought it would only be a brief segue into the lingering sounds of nature by night, but noooooo, 4 hours later we could still hear it and I was getting madder and madder. I was so furious I went hunting around our campsite for the offender but the noise was coming from the next campsite over. What mystified me was that there must have been 15 separate camping families in the next campsite and no-one complained??? It finally stopped about an hour later and I finally got to sleep (after having a minor tantie in the tent which Husband was very pleased about…)
Apart from this indiscretion, the camp trip was absolutely stunning - we drove up Thursday afternoon, and came back yesterday evening. In spite of it being Easter Weekend, there were only a smattering of campers at the site. Our Canuck mates had never experienced such an isolated part of Australia and we spent our days very busily eating, preparing to eat and thinking about what we’d eat next.
The wildlife (apart from abundant roadkills and 2 hysterical Canadians (funny hysterical, that is)) was mainly of the avian kind, although we did have a close encounter with a black snake curled up in foot-high grass, which apparently, wasn’t the kind of wildlife the Canadians were hoping for. After minor panic and visions of red-bellied coronaries we made it to safe ground and had something to eat. Just to add some variety to the trip.
We so didn’t want to leave. Husband was devising ways we could spend an extra night, but with no water left, little food, bar a couple of bananas, marshmallows and chocolate, and a wedding to come back to, it couldn’t be done.
So, we finally packed up around 3pm yesterday, stopping off in Echuca for a steam-boat ride in Echuca, a darling little town. V. old-world romantic. Sigh. End of vacation.
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I so had to get out of Melbourne - in fact, the moment we hit the ring road into Melbourne yesterday, a massive headache hit, and I noticed how tight my lungs were. I crave wilderness and isolation and places where you don’t have to think about anything and pretend that everyday 9-5 working pressures simply don’t exist…
Click here for more Barmah SP pics
Permanent Link | Comments? [4]I heart DMB
22 March 2005, 21:21
Dave Matthews. Sigh. Undoubtedly one of the most amazing male singers today. And undoubtedly one of the most antipodean-avoidant singers, having made exactly zero trips to Australia before last Sunday.
Husband had waited 8 years to see them live. I’d waited around 5, being a fairly late-bloomer in the Dave Matthews field of dreams. Tickets to last night’s gig sold out in roughly half-an-hour the day they went on sale. We may have been located in the arse-hole of the Palais, but the vista from said arse-hole was v. fine (although, from that distance, the keyboardist looked disturbingly like the lovechild of David Hasselhof & Kamahl and the drummer like Ice T).
The main problem with the Palais is that you can’t really have a decent boogie - it’s all seating, and they sure are nazi about you getting up into the aisles and dancing. “It’s a fire hazard” they whined to us (a few times, as Husband and I have a tendency toward ADD). Didn’t stop us from trying, but we did get into trouble a few times.
It was a great concert, but there were a few extenuating circumstances that stops me from quite raving about it…..
Firstly, I was knackered and had foul headache (which actually got heaps better as the concert wore on - oh the soothing elixir that is DMB). Secondly, the song mix was strange - I have a real soft spot for one of their CDs and they only played one song from it. In fact, I didn’t even know half the songs. I swear I have listened to all their CDs and DM’s solo CD, but I couldn’t really get into the unknown songs.
The highlight of the 2 and a half-hour set was undoubtedly “Cry Freedom” - an absolutely beautiful ballad. They really fucking know their music - there was jamming, sax solos, fiddle solos, an impromptu scat (have been summarily informed that it wasn’t a beatbox rap - ah the ignorance of the vocabularily-challenged!) and the melancholy, but gutsy crooning of DM himself.
The other highlight of the concert was the audience. About half an hour before DMB came on stage, the crowd went certifiably nuts with absolutely no respect for how old that theatre was. I had no clue DMB were so massive here. You never see them on the charts or on Video Hits or anything so it was pretty ^&*(ing awesome to be surrounded by thousands of people with good musical taste (as deemed by moi).
Today I feel chotto crap. And blue. I get the blues every 6 months or so - the black funk I used to call it. Today’s is a little purple, with pink on the inside. At least it’s colourful…
Auction blues
20 March 2005, 08:09
Got v. drunk last night and have dastardly hangover. I hate getting drunk - I go all “honest” on people’s arses and now I’m worried I’ve upset my friends, including v. great Husband. Not v. good start to the day, let me say.
The party was in honour of our Friend J, who is flying the coop for the States, erm… when he manages to get a visa. We’ll miss the lad - a good mate and fellow Hitler-child (we have to stick together, you know).
Missed out on a gorgeo house yesterday at Auction, by $2,500. We’re being strong - we have a limit and we’re sticking to it. This other dude wanted the place baaaaaad, and would have pipped us no matter how high he went, so good on him.
It was funny, there were probably 30 people there at auction and really only two serious bidders, us and the other dude. 10 of the onlookers were actually guests at a Hen’s Party going on in the very house being auctioned. There were probably 100 massive pics of David Hasselhof (“The Hof”) in various poses lining the corridor and living room walls for bidders to see. Am sure the agents were v. happy about the interior decoration - in fact, it could have hiked the price up.
In other news, good friends of ours in Japan got engaged! They are v. secretive, so can’t reveal any names, but we’re v. happy for them (they know who they are) - I do love a good East meets West Romance story.
I think that’s enough for me - must go and down a few Beroccas.
