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!

Coromandel Panoramic

See! Told you I’d be posting more up! Here’s the beautiful view that we came across on the Coromandel Peninsula, driving up from Thames…

 

Panorama of Coromandel Panorama on CleVR.com

Ooh, Panoramic!

Ok, so I may be posting a few of these, as Suz asked me to stitch a couple of the panoramic photos together, and I found a really nice little on-line app called CleVR which I have to say, is amazing! I simply drop the panoramic photos on line and it joins them all up!

So…first up for you viewing pleasure, Lake Mattheson in all it’s glory!