Weddings

 Finally, a non-virtual event.

A "Virtual" Wedding

In what seems to be the accepted norm, events are moving online. Everything from virtual graduations (more to come), to virtual dates, to virtual conferences, and now, virtual weddings. My living room, TV and laptop are becoming common place items in a sequence of virtual events. 2020, as somebody looking in, seems to be a great excuse to do things. By things I mean, we've seen the announcement of expecting parents, engagements and marriages. 

The couple who were planning to get married next year in Bali decided to move ahead and tie the knot virtually. Despite being all around the world, there was an element of celebration and seeing familiar faces in different timezones still made for a special occasion.

Currently reading: "The Happiness Hypothesis" 

Siem Reap

The final guy on the High school friends group to get married. Everybody is so grown up.

Beautiful wedding. Sometimes it's weird, my memories of these boys are frozen in time. From year 7 to year 12, which is over 17 years ago. It's unusual seeing them doing adult things. Getting married, having families, it feels like I'm a spectator watching a film.

Supposed to come back on Sunday, whole wedding party leaving for Phnom Penh. I've done zero sightseeing this trip. Hotel, pool, read, sleep. One more day of chilling out before another midterm exam ...

Boracay: Contender for Wedding of the year

If I'm being completely honest, the Philippines does not rank highly on my travel list. To be fair, I've only been to Manila, and that was back in 2013. Based on this I figured Manila is to the Philippines what Cairo is to Egypt, or Athens to Greece. Put simply a capital or hub, where majority of the traffic represents those on transit. Or, alternatively, it could be like Canberra for Australia; a bit of a non-event city. Anyway, the point of this is not to bad mouth those countries, but to set the scene of what would be an amazing trip.

Cue the third wedding of the year. The groom, a few years my junior also an Earlwood Public School product who I used to know back in the Earlwood Quadrangle. We parted ways after primary school and were re-introduced in adulthood much to our surprise. I still remember meeting him again. I stood there looking at this 6'3 man, thinking to myself "there was a time, he used to be smaller than me". That time was of course when I was a few growth spurts ahead of him. Due to common friends and social groups we reconnected and spent most of our young adult lives hanging out, either at his epic house parties or summer day-festivals. It would be his wedding in Boracay.

I was excited for the trip and my anticipation was a combination of the wedding but also the wedding guests expected to attend. It was a melange of close friends, family and basically everybody that I had met in my 20s. The trip from Hong Kong, to Manila, to Caticlan to Boracay, was a sample of almost all mode of modern transport. Door to door, it was a 12 hour affair consisting of planes, buses, boats, taxis and golf carts, each with the same familiar Americanised greeting "Hello, Sir!". We stayed at the amazing Asya Premier Suites in Boracay and spent the days drinking Mango Mojitos, eating club sandwiches and avoiding the vicious sun. Highlights include: The wedding, island hopping, food poisoning, catching up with friends and being obliterated by the sun (my precious skin is still susceptible to sunburn). Amazing trip.

Currently reading: "The Power of Positive Destruction"

Phuket Wedding

Phuket. A small gathering, family, close friends of the Bride and Groom. To be honest, I'm not sure why I was extended an invite. Perhaps it was because due to my association with friends. "You can't invite such-and-such without inviting Derek". Which, when I read it out aloud sounds absurd. In any case, I was thrilled that I had made the cut. 

Back to the wedding, an intimate affair, I had met most of the blokes on the trip at the stag party last month and it was good to catch up with them again. The ceremony was held in a lovely chapel reachable by land and water, and it was the water entrance that the bride made. Gorgeous ceremony topped off by a reception that featured a samurai sword to cut the cake.

Our last evening was an all-nighter, we stayed up and consumed everything in the mini bar. I am shattered.

Sydney 2016 (Part 1)

It has been 16 years since we finished high school and it still feels like yesterday we were running around the Canterbury Boys' High School quadrangle. The memories from that period of my life are the most fondness and memorable. Most of the boys have gotten married and started their own families with some of their kids about to embark upon their own high school memories. It's a surreal feeling, it feels like I'm a spectator watching from the side lines. Despite this, there are still a handful that aren't married so when one does decide to tie the knot, it's always a 'drop everything' event.

So with that in mind I headed to Sydney for what would be part 1 of an enjoyable December back home. I flew out of Hong Kong on the Friday night and arrived in home on Saturday morning for a short return. I can't speak more about being at home with family, if there's anything that remains constant it's returning home to Earlwood and having family time. In my eyes, things don't age but I know that each time I go back, there are subtleties that change.

The weekend was relaxing, I slept early on the Saturday evening and rose early to run errands before the wedding. I checked my calendar to confirm the Sunday wedding time, 2 pm. It seemed a little late for a wedding but I took the open morning to head out and pick up a Wedding Card before a family lunch and onward to the ceremony.

Embarrassingly, it turns out that Google Calendar stores the event as the local time of where the event  entry was created. Now, what that means is, when I received the invitation in Hong Kong, and entered the event that was at 11 am, it registered the Wedding at 11 am, Hong Kong Time. Read that carefully. So of course when I head to Sydney, it re-adjusted the event, factoring in a change in timezone and readjusted my calendar to 2 pm Sydney time, or 11 am Hong Kong time. Yes, that's what happened, I flew into Sydney for the wedding and still managed to be 3 hours late. Read that carefully.

I pulled up into the car park 30 minutes early (or 150 mins late, interpret that as you want) at Mosman and it was full, unusual that everybody was on time, but again I still didn't know that I was late. It was only until I found the wedding crowd. They were all standing and had champagne glasses, while listening to the groom give his thank you speech. He saw me walk in from the corner of his eye and made a special mention of my tardiness in his speech. Despite this, given the nature of the high school group, this unfortunate event would probably not surprise anybody. Beautiful afternoon, catching up with friends like we were still running around the grounds of Highschool. Time is fleeting.

Currently Reading: "Superforecasting"

All you need is love, and sunshine, oh and daily massages

Between now and the 12th of September I have a four day vacation, a four day final working week topped off by a one week transition period. I can't help but wish  I had timed my resignation a little better, but with all things it comes down to timing and lets just saying timing is not one of my strong points. Irrespective, the point of this post is not to bitch about my unfavourable annual leave situation but to celebrate the wedding of one of my favourite Hong Kong couples. The August wedding was more of a formality as the couple had previously signed the papers to be married earlier this year (it was a Chinese Fortune teller who advised that the couple be wed in the year of the Sheep, not the year of the Monkey). In any case, who doesn't like a destination wedding?

We arrived into Bali, Ngurah Rai International Airport just after 2 am and due to some skilful inception somebody had managed to convince the group that we needed KFC to be our first meal. It probably should have come to no surprise that KFC was closed and we were forced to have Mc Donalds. The same McDonalds I have eaten at in all previous Bali visits.

The crowd in the restaurant was best described as Antipodean, it was as if I had been transported to George Street Sydney, "Maccas" on a Saturday night circa 12 am. A cacophony of "OHH YEAH" and "HOWZZIT GOING" bombarded our weary ears. It would take us 40 minutes to consume the food. The hot plate was not working and they weren't able to accommodate anything with a beef patty.  We switched our order to Mc Chickens and Mc Nuggets and reluctantly gobbled down the food . We arrived in Seseh just before 4 am and promptly drifted into sleep.

Clear skies and warm weather greeted us the next morning as did the bride. There was something different about her today, she was on crutches and each step winced her with discomfort. Those crutches are new, I thought to myself. Turns out she had (re) dislocated her knee and was now confined to limited movement. How would she walk down the isle? How, indeed...

The wedding had been setup in the main villa and family and guests were assigned adjacent villas. We had a nearby villa where breakfast was provided and our days consisted of swimming, chilling, massages, and the odd 1 hour car ride into Seminyak - Who would have thought sitting in an air conditioned car be so tiring?

So back to the wedding. Due to previous destination weddings held in sweltering heat, the bride and groom decided that suit and tie for men was not going to be very comfortable for anybody; Not for the guy sweating profusely, and not for the person talking to the guy sweating profusely. A large proportion of the guests had flown in from America and Europe and were not handling the warmer temps and higher humidity. Our wardrobe consisted of shorts and warmer weather attire and boy what a difference it made. So what happened to the bride? Well, it's obvious. She was "walked" down the isle on a Balinese Palanquin manned by four Balinese ushers.

Great weekend trip in South East Asia. Managed to avoid the mosquitos. Caught up with a lot of familiar faces. However the highlight was of course the beautiful wedding, punctuated by a touching wedding video, a fireworks display, a raucous after party and two dislocated knees. That's right, she dislocated the second knee later that night during the after party.

Linda and Adam: The wedding

Each step taken causes every tendon and muscle in my lower body to scream. The trauma that my body is experiencing from the past few days hike is exceptional. The fact that my agenda for the next few days is to sit by the pool and sleep is not surprisingly the only thing within my current capabilities.

It feels like everybody is getting married, there's been a shift in the attendance demographic. There used to be a time when weddings would be the gathering of friends; single friends. There has been a shift, it's couples, families, kids. Another amazing wedding. Familiar faces, high temperatures and great times.

Easter: Wedding

A wet Thursday evening, the ceremony was scheduled to start at 5 pm. I had just climbed into an Uber, it was already 5:30. The rain teamed down and not surprisingly the wet weather wreaked havoc on the roads. There's something calming about rain, except in Hong Kong. Rain brings a heightened sense of anxiety, the additional umbrellas, the lack of taxis and the congested roads coupled with the formidable T8 and Black Rain storms add to the the already humid climate. This evening felt different. The blaring of the horns, the stagnant traffic jamming the Aberdeen tunnel adding to my already late arrival had me calm. Work has been busy, but productive and it was a nice end to the week. I had the Easter long weekend to look forward to and a trip to Malaysia scheduled and it all started with a Easter wedding in Hong Kong.

This would be my second Hong Kong wedding, my first was a huge production and this was billed as an intimate casual affair with close friends and around 60 people who had made the trip over from Australia. Anthony and Sylvie get married at The Verandah in Repulse Bay, followed by a late night romp in Mahalo, Wan Chai and late night ramen in Ichi Ran, Causeway Bay. Happy Easter!

A&W

It's definitely the season for weddings, and this time the destination of choice is Koh Samui. It has been almost ten years since I last traveled to this part of the world and other than the upgrade in accommodation, the island of Koh Samui still has all the charm from the last visit. Cheap street food, suit peddlers, massage stores and the constant Muay Thai advertising.

The weather threatened all weekend and despite being the wettest wedding that I've attended it did little to dampen the festivities. 

Malaysia: The Wedding

The Ceremony - Bali

I always enjoy writing about friend's weddings. The highlights are always different and the ceremonies all unique. Each incomparable and each special in their own way. The redeeming factor of the wedding was the Groom's inability to understand the thick Balinese accent of the celebrant, mispronunciations and pardons ensued but after much faltering they finally got to the most important part "I now declare you husband and wife".

They say a picture speaks a thousand words - here's a couple thousand for you.

The Stag Party - Macao

You can always count on engagement announcements to tug the proverbial heart strings. For friends and family of the couple, it usually comes as no surprise with news of romantic proposals nothing but a formality. Once the wedding date has been cemented the last thing to be decided upon is the Stag, Bachelor, Buck Party. I often wonder who conceived the idea of the Stag. Was it the single man clinging on to his last moments of freedom or the friends standing at the departure hall of single life. It's been over 5 years since I had the pleasure of partaking in my first Stag party, and I can honestly say, that they only get bolder and more reckless as we get older. The entertainment become more outrageous, the costumes more demeaning. and the duration longer. However, this all correlates to more fun and more memories.

This trip would be no exception - the playground would be Macao, the theme would be Australian 80's sport stars and the highlight, the groom leaping off the world's tallest bungee. 5000 HKD would finance accommodation, travel, jacuzzi boozing, dinner, table at Cubic and group headbands. The ferry on the way home was not kind, provoking my already brittle stomach. Thank goodness for the "sea sickness" bag.

"Chan! Chan! Chan!" - Stag Party

Australia

It's safe to say that weddings usually dictate my Australian visits. Given that this is the period in our lives where people are tying the knot, you can almost always expect a handful of invites throughout the course of the year. The hard part is deciding which to attend, obviously you want to attend them all, but this isn't feasible. The upside of these ceremonies is that it makes it easier to catch up with people. Lots of people in one place always makes reacquainting easier.

The groom, a close friend from University, who now when I think back has been through a lot with me. He was kind enough to let me stay with his family in Vietnam during our "End of University" South East Asia trip,  during this trip we discussed our interests to move to Europe and surely enough a few years later we were both living in London. He moved back after his Working Holiday expired to be with his now wife. It was a no-brainer that I would return for his Wedding. It was my first "Westie" wedding, held in Crystal Palace which was a massive affair. With over 500 attendees and with enough food and alcohol to host an awards night it was a spectacular night.

It had been a good six months since I was back and decided to make a trip out of it. Headed up to Queensland's Great Barrier Reef where I spent a few days unwinding and taking my mind off the mess of living in Hong Kong. Introduced to my first Scuba Diving experience (Loved it, will have to get my open water some time). This trip also coincided with my 30th Birthday, secretly I was happy to be escaping the craziness of Hong Kong, as I know how a birthday party ends up in LKF. Albert kindly arranged a surprised birthday down in the city. I was suspicious but the turn out genuinely shocked me. Uni friends, family friends, cousins, parents, couldn't have asked for a better 30th!

Great trip, really enjoyed my time back home. Home cooked food, familiar faces, great weather and fresh air. The house is so quiet without Sam kind of eerie in a sense. This was one of the first times I thought about returning back home to Sydney.