Renouncing Satan (and all his little wizards)

Sunday dawned and it was actually raining here in Sydney! The gall of it! What it actually meant is that it became quite muggy ready for our nice walk down to the church to see the immaculately behaved Jessica Headen Barson be christened in the local Catholic church, with Uncle Boz being one of the two godparents:

you come to me, on this my nieces christening day…

The church was lovely though, and the priest was brilliant, as he knew that keeping small kiddies in a warm church and droning on for hours may not be for the best, so he kept it short and sweet, and was really good

Lee managed to make it through the service reasonably intact, which is amazing considering that his inner demons must have been screaming at him and that he was monster hung over following the party last night (he even had to run to the bathroom this morning to pray down the great white telephone!)

Jessica, as always, was beautifully well behaved, even when she was being anointed or having water poured over herSo having completed all of the Lee / Jane / Jessica stuff, we’re off to have a look around the place now!

Lee & Jane Wedding Paaaart-ie!

Friday and Saturday morning saw Lee and I prepping the house for the upcoming nuptial party that both Lee and Jane were throwing (with naff all help from the very hung over Boz!)

whilst both sets of parents were doing a great job of getting food prepped. They had allocated 6 beers per person (!) but what that actually amounted to was an entire wheelie bin full of beer! Brilliant fun!

It was a full on shin dig that then slowed down as most of the crowd left over time to leave the core drinkers / partiers

Suffice to say that Lee carried on that Barson tradition of making me a cocktail that had little to do with actual taste, but rather had way too many shots of various other alcohols which tipped me over the edge, ready for a nice hangover first thing on Sunday morning!

Wedding day

What a day! The sun was shining and by the time that Lee and I got out to Elkington Park, the rest of the team had decorated the rotunda brilliantly with balloons and ribbons and everything, before having to dive back home to get changed:

The park is right by the sea, with an avenue of palms for Jane to make her dramatic entrance down, which made for the perfect backdrop, Lee even scrubbed up okay!

Jane looked as gorgeous as always, and the ceremony was fantastic with the celebrant Elizabeth rocking through as the Aussies don’t hang about!

Then it was down to the peninsula to have the photographs taken, and don’t they make a brilliant family unit?

After getting burnt to a crisp in the lovely Sydney sunshine we moved on to the restaurant ‘Sepia’ for another round of degustation with the whole wedding party, and once again they didn’t disappoint, with nine courses of perfectly packaged delight, matched by our sommelier with brilliant wine, which allowed Roger (the Barson patriarch), Lee and myself to discuss the wines and their qualities as if we were experts (which of course we are!)

The speeches were short and seemed to be well received, with Vincent (the O’Doherty patriarch) giving a great sending off for his daughter, and myself giving Lee the abuse he so thoroughly deserved, but everyone seemed entertained, so job done!

All we have to do now therefore is a) recover, b) party & c) the christening! Talk about non-stop!

Wedding day [morning]

What a stunning day, apparently Suz and I brought the sun with us, as for weeks the days have been dawning a bit overcast, but this morning it’s beautiful and sunny – perfect for a wedding in the park!

Jane & Jenny therefore decided that we all needed a wedding type breakfast, Bellinis and croissants!

perfect!

As we had a couple of hours to kill until we go into full on wedding set up panic, the brothers Barson went for a dip in the pool, though it may have been a bit chill -

though I think may be a little too chilled for today being his wedding!

Back down under

Boy that flight takes a long time! Suz and I got to Heathrow in plenty of time, then set about the long boring wait for the gate to be called for our flight to Abu Dhabi, then had the long boring flight out there, followed by a boring wait in the airport (their control tower there is great though!)

Our flight to Sydney was okay though, just long, but being mostly at night we kept trying to grab at least a tiny bit of shut-eye, though unfortunately there was a small child in the row in front who had other ideas, oh well…

I’d already done a virtual tour of the neighbourhood through Google’s Streetmap, so was impressed with myself when I managed to direct the taxi driver when he took the wrong road!

Lee & Jane’s house is lovely though – really modern, but with the old parts of the house neatly incorporated, and there’s a pool:

But there’s no time to laze about, Lee had Roger, Boz, & me scheduled for a final fitting at ‘Man About Town’ for our suits. The place didn’t disappoint, they had a mannequin in the entrance wearing a suit and a cape! I sooooo want a cape!

I think Bruv may want to be called Mr. Pink from now on though.

So we’ve done that, been fitted up, eaten a nice lunch at Darling harbour, and are now back chilling at Chez Barson, so as a parting picture, here’s a tree at the top of their road, v. odd!

why doesn’t Oz love me?

So Suz’s visa application was turned around and accepted in 30 seconds, mine on the other hand has been received for processing, but not yet actually confirmed as ok!

Anyone got any idea what I’ve got in my past that the Aussies don’t like about me? Suzie thinks it being ginger, but I’m grey now!

…..and we’re back!

Welcome back to the blogosphere Blogtrotters! Well, less than a year later and we’re jetting off back down under! This time heading directly for the Land of Oz, as Lee and the lovely Jane are getting hitched, and have invited Suz and I to come on down and join in! We’re therefore going to set sail on the good ship Etihad on the 21st Feb to go visit the new family:

This time we’re getting visas and stuff all sorted before turning up at Heathrow, as that was waay to panicky last time!

So stay tuned, more stuff to follow!