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Some friends of ours got married on Saturday afternoon, down at Portarlington. Or as one of their relatives from Adelaide called it "Arlington." They were very organised, planning their "big day" to coincide with that most bizarre of Australian holidays, Melbourne cup day. (Which is on a Tuesday for those from not around here. Most people take the monday off work and make a really long weekend of it.)
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evildoom_bunny and I made our way down to a place called the Portarlington Cedar lodge, a B&B which appeared to be surrounded on two sides by a golf course. But its main claim to fame was the Spa in every room. evildoom_bunny hopped into Fuji the Wonder Car, and headed down the coast relatively early, and at relatively leisurely pace. Stopped off in Geelong at the only place in the whole town worth visiting - Barwon Books, a really, really great second hand book shop. I set myself a spending limit of $10, but didn't end up buying anything. Despite being tempted by a book about Krazy Kat, a number of political tomes, and a book about the making of Blade Runner. Note to self: time to join a library.
Where was I? Ah yes, the spa. We got to the B&B several hours early, and immediately jumped into said spa. Man, they are a bizarre device - a bath that thinks it's a ranging storm, or something. The jets of water I found ticklish, and hence giggled a great deal - much toevildoom_bunny's amusement. But all good things must pass, and we had a wedding to attend.
Shaun and Lindsay (or Lindsay and Shaun) were married by a celebrant in the garden of another B&B - any relatively pretty area with in an hours drive of Melbourne appears to be infested with them. I had brought my camera with me, but I left it back at the ranch because I figured, rightly, that there would already be hundreds of photos taken before, during and after the ceremony. In fact, I thinkevildoom_bunny and I were in a number of shots.
We had some time to kill before the reception, so we went for a walk down to the Portarlington pier. Where we saw a penguin, swimming in the shallows around the pier. He seemed quite happy, just doing his penguin thing. We assumed it was a he, and called it "Pete."
What else is traditional at a wedding? Eating too much and listening to speeches! The food was great - nice work, Lindsay, finding the venue - and the speeches were in some ways more emotional than the ceremony.
Oh, I forgot to mention the painfully cute flower girl. One of Lindsay's nieces, she made a spectacular entrance by upending her basket full of rose petals on her own head. Then, in one part of the ceremony where each member of the party held the rings before giving them to the couple, she wanted a turn, and squeezed them tight while pulling a look of intense concentration. Later, during the reception, she insisted on hugging everyone who was speaking. And her final claim to fame was dancing the Macarana, to the great amusement of the whole place.
We sat next to Brendan and his partner Alice, which was cool, haven't chatted to them in ages. They're another of my friends who are cooking a baby... If you know what I mean. Assembling? Carrying internally?
Brendan and I got special place name things. I was "Jojo Zep" - Lindsay's nickname for me, based simply on my surname. Brendan is "Flexo" for some reason, and the couple across from us, the swing dancing Aimee and Matt had place labels which said "May contain traces of spice weasel". Futurama references...
Sunday morning we had to check out of the place what got the spa, unfortunately. Not before finding a Simpsons marathon on Foxtel! We came in about two thirds of the way through the episode where Bart and Lisa are on competing Ice Hockey teams. Sadly, I identified this within two seconds of switching on the telly. This is why I don't watch television any more! We saw the whole of the "Gummi Di Milo" episode, and part of the "Maggy Baby Photo's" episode before we had to check out. They B&B gave us a basket full of breakfasty stuff - crumpets, cereal, fruit salad. Basically a whole bunch of stuff which I don't regularly eat. But I made a point of making sureevildoom_bunny ate every scarp of breakfast! Damn it, that room wasn't cheap, I was going to make the most of it :-) We even read the Herald-Scum they provided for us.
Before heading back to the big smoke, we stopped off at a BBQ on the foreshore for the happy couple. I stood there in the sun, in my long black coat. Saying to anyone who'd listen that I was probably getting sunburnt. Guess what? I got sunburnt! Damn it, I need a hat. Or a less receding hairline...
Then we headed up the coast, visited my Mom in Geelong, looked at her Wollimi Pine, and went back to Melbourne. Then I had to go to a meeting, and finally we had take away curry withok_i_give_in to celebrate her birthday. Then I got to sleep again in my bed! Yay!
BTW, I put on a kilogram over the weekend! Too much wedding cake :-)
evildoom_bunny and I made our way down to a place called the Portarlington Cedar lodge, a B&B which appeared to be surrounded on two sides by a golf course. But its main claim to fame was the Spa in every room. evildoom_bunny hopped into Fuji the Wonder Car, and headed down the coast relatively early, and at relatively leisurely pace. Stopped off in Geelong at the only place in the whole town worth visiting - Barwon Books, a really, really great second hand book shop. I set myself a spending limit of $10, but didn't end up buying anything. Despite being tempted by a book about Krazy Kat, a number of political tomes, and a book about the making of Blade Runner. Note to self: time to join a library.Where was I? Ah yes, the spa. We got to the B&B several hours early, and immediately jumped into said spa. Man, they are a bizarre device - a bath that thinks it's a ranging storm, or something. The jets of water I found ticklish, and hence giggled a great deal - much to
evildoom_bunny's amusement. But all good things must pass, and we had a wedding to attend.Shaun and Lindsay (or Lindsay and Shaun) were married by a celebrant in the garden of another B&B - any relatively pretty area with in an hours drive of Melbourne appears to be infested with them. I had brought my camera with me, but I left it back at the ranch because I figured, rightly, that there would already be hundreds of photos taken before, during and after the ceremony. In fact, I think
evildoom_bunny and I were in a number of shots.We had some time to kill before the reception, so we went for a walk down to the Portarlington pier. Where we saw a penguin, swimming in the shallows around the pier. He seemed quite happy, just doing his penguin thing. We assumed it was a he, and called it "Pete."
What else is traditional at a wedding? Eating too much and listening to speeches! The food was great - nice work, Lindsay, finding the venue - and the speeches were in some ways more emotional than the ceremony.
Oh, I forgot to mention the painfully cute flower girl. One of Lindsay's nieces, she made a spectacular entrance by upending her basket full of rose petals on her own head. Then, in one part of the ceremony where each member of the party held the rings before giving them to the couple, she wanted a turn, and squeezed them tight while pulling a look of intense concentration. Later, during the reception, she insisted on hugging everyone who was speaking. And her final claim to fame was dancing the Macarana, to the great amusement of the whole place.
We sat next to Brendan and his partner Alice, which was cool, haven't chatted to them in ages. They're another of my friends who are cooking a baby... If you know what I mean. Assembling? Carrying internally?
Brendan and I got special place name things. I was "Jojo Zep" - Lindsay's nickname for me, based simply on my surname. Brendan is "Flexo" for some reason, and the couple across from us, the swing dancing Aimee and Matt had place labels which said "May contain traces of spice weasel". Futurama references...
Sunday morning we had to check out of the place what got the spa, unfortunately. Not before finding a Simpsons marathon on Foxtel! We came in about two thirds of the way through the episode where Bart and Lisa are on competing Ice Hockey teams. Sadly, I identified this within two seconds of switching on the telly. This is why I don't watch television any more! We saw the whole of the "Gummi Di Milo" episode, and part of the "Maggy Baby Photo's" episode before we had to check out. They B&B gave us a basket full of breakfasty stuff - crumpets, cereal, fruit salad. Basically a whole bunch of stuff which I don't regularly eat. But I made a point of making sure
evildoom_bunny ate every scarp of breakfast! Damn it, that room wasn't cheap, I was going to make the most of it :-) We even read the Herald-Scum they provided for us.Before heading back to the big smoke, we stopped off at a BBQ on the foreshore for the happy couple. I stood there in the sun, in my long black coat. Saying to anyone who'd listen that I was probably getting sunburnt. Guess what? I got sunburnt! Damn it, I need a hat. Or a less receding hairline...
Then we headed up the coast, visited my Mom in Geelong, looked at her Wollimi Pine, and went back to Melbourne. Then I had to go to a meeting, and finally we had take away curry with
ok_i_give_in to celebrate her birthday. Then I got to sleep again in my bed! Yay!BTW, I put on a kilogram over the weekend! Too much wedding cake :-)
