Wedding Weekend

I had an interesting weekend. On Friday, I wrote a very distraught post about the final freak-out over the confirmation and unkind (or at least unhelpful) words coming my way. I took some time to calm down, get some advice and then made the final edits to my document. I sent it off at 4.20pm, spending the next hour and 40 minutes chatting to the girls in my pod. It was indeed a relief. It was out of my hands and I was looking forward to dinner that night.

We went to the Purple Olive to celebrate Damien's dad's birthday. We were there 4 weeks earlier for my own birthday and I am still not tired of the place. I do quite enjoy a meal there. I bought a bottle of sauvignon blanc from Waipara Hills, the winery that Dom, Cheryl and I visited on our New Zealand trip. I had the intention of sharing it with everyone at the table but it ended up just mostly me and Damien's mum drinking the whole thing. I was a bit hammered by the end of the night. Good wine. Strongly recommend.

Saturday, I had to drag my ass out of bed early in the morning to make myself beautiful enough to go to a wedding. I was a bit cranky over still feeling very tired, but when I was done with the hair, the makeup, the clothes, shoes and accessories, I stepped out and heard Damien go "Wow!" The wedding ceremony took place at the Rainforest Garden of Mount Cotton. I have some pictures but have left my camera at home, so will upload them tomorrow. It was quite a beautiful location. There were so many flowers and the place was just colourful and bright. I didn't cry, which was an achievement and I must admit that I was quite happy for Jack and Hanh. It was probably the first wedding I'd been to where I knew the couple quite well and I do like them.

After the ceremony, a group of us went to the Sirromet Winery for lunch which was just down the road. Damien had been there before for lunch with some clients and said it was very good, although expensive. It was quite a beautiful place. I had a glass of pinot gris (yum!) and the Black Angus special, which was probably the biggest slab of meat I'd ever had in my life. The meals were a little expensive (in the 30s), but the portions were generous (unlike that damn Marco Polo restaurant where I got baby food for $35). I recommend having a meal there. I still prefer the Waipara Hills wine though. But pino gris is indeed the next best thing.

We went home after lunch for a nap which was way too short and I was awake again in an hour to redo my hair and makeup. The wedding reception was at Michael's Oriental restaurant at Eight Mile Plains. The food was different! It was a Chinese-Vietnamese wedding, so on the menu was shark's fin soup, coral trout, lobster and abalone among other things. I probably enjoyed the lobster the most, but the entire meal was so tasty.

It was an interesting day because the conversation expectedly revolved around weddings. Natache and Adrian are next to get married next year, so we talked about that throughout the day. What surprised me was the amount of talk about our wedding! There was some talk about which venues would be nice, how many people we would expect and what sort of food we would have. It was very strange indeed.

Sunday wasn't frightfully eventful as I spent the day doing housework, napping and just trying to get some rest. It was great that Damien's parents invited us over for dinner and I had roast lamb, pumpkin, potatoes and broccoli. Yum...

All in all, it was a good weekend. I am unfortunately back in the office but thankfully without having to deal with confirmation document anymore. There's still the presentation to stress about and teaching tomorrow. But... I am in a good place. For now.