Wet Weekend Wedding

Phew, what a busy weekend. Alison and I had to attend quite a few functions including a funeral, an engagement party and a wedding so we're pretty knackered now. Any time we had to spare on the weekend we used to recuperate by playing lots of Mario Kart against each other on our DS (fantastic stuff by the way) and watching old West Wing episodes in our pajamas.

The wedding was certainly a memorable experience. Kieran and Michelle, who are old friends of ours from uni, had been going out for ages so we were really hoping they would have a nice day to tie the knot. As we were getting ready to head up to the botanical gardens to meet everyone Alison spotted a few storm clouds rolling in which didn't seem like a very good sign. I had planned on bringing my camera to take a few pictures for them but boy am I glad I didn't.

When we arrived at the wedding lawn the sky looked pretty grey but most of us were optimistic. The best man even informed all the guests that he had just looked up the satellite images before coming and that this was a thin band of storm clouds that would blow over shortly. Well the rain started falling heavily so everyone without an umbrella huddled under the gazebo while the bride remained waiting in the car for the weather to pass.



I of course had an umbrella so I gallantly gave my spot under cover so that others could remain dry. Shame the useless $10 hunk of junk I had over my head reached saturation point in 5 minutes and started dripping on me anyway. You know you've been had when you have to water proof your umbrella.

The raindrops stopped falling on my head after about 15 minutes so we proceeded with the wedding. During that brief respite it really was a wonderful day for the two of them and we could see that everyone involved put a lot of effort into it. There were two musicians in period dress playing Bach, the boys and girls looked great and Michelle's entrance was framed by an arch of soap bubbles blown from the crowd. I think that was just about all the luck they could afford as the minute they finished their vows we all felt the now familiar pelt of precipitation.

Once again we huddled under the gazebo for what cover it provided, which wasn't much as this was a torrential downpour. The rain was actually hitting us sideways and was punctuated by flashes of lightning and thunder right overhead. Then it started to hail...



We got another 15 odd minutes of that before it all stopped and we rushed to the car to head home for a hot shower and coco. Congratulations to Kieran and Michelle, it can only go up from here for the two of you. :)

Ikea fever

A downside of the original vision for our apartment decor is that we can't really cater for formal dining due to the lack of... well... a dining table. Pigging out on the coffee table while watching TV is all fine until the rare guest pops around for a bite. In anticipation of the steamboat dinner that mum has planned for us come Chinese New Year we decided it was probably time to get a little set for the other room.

After a little hunting around the Ikea show floor we spotted a little utility table that served our purposes. It's nice because we get to fold it away when we don't need it and it even has three drawers on each side. Ideal to be converted into the games table when we replace it with a real dining table at some point.



Assembling the darn thing would prove to be rather challenging...



But we succeeded in the end with much blisters, cursing and WAY more tools than I believe should be necessary for self assembled furniture. And this was after putting together six flat packed chairs to go with it. That's about as close to being a handyman as I'm ever going to get.

A soul singing with six strings

Well that cuts it. I always use to say that my first pay check in the work force would go towards paying for a solid wood acoustic. Practicality and real life necessities have delayed the purchase but I've finally gone and bought my first 'decent' guitar.



Here she is in all her glory. A Cole Clark Fat Lady 2 cutaway with acoustic pickups, bunya top and Queensland maple back and sides. I was going to go for the spruce top but they only had one made from bunya which didn't bother me as I liked the look and sound I got from it. Hard to believe what a difference it is compared to my Washburn. The sustain is pretty darn amazing and she's so easy to play it's hard to put her down. This is one case where you don't want it to be over when the fat lady sings. :)

We heard from a few friends that Billie Hyde in the valley were having a crazy sale so we checked the prices there first. Good thing too as the model I wanted to get ended up being about 300 bucks cheaper than what I was prepared to pay for it. Can't complain really.

Another concert

So excited about this as I haven't been able to talk about it for weeks for fear that Alison might actually read this blog. About two weeks ago I picked up a couple of tickets to the Ben Lee concert we were so eager to see but couldn't find anywhere. Managed to 'hunt then down' without Alison's knowledge so I could surprise her and it was well worth it. :P



Heheh, sitting here writing this post while I get a nice dinner cooked for me. Nothing better than getting pampered if you ask me.

It's going to be great! The concert looks like it's going to go on pretty late with Ben starting his set at 11 and finishing up at around 1 in the morning. Not what we'd normally do on a Sunday evening so I may have to see if I can convince Dan to let me have the day off to sleep...

Road trippin'

Had my first driving lesson today. I know it's been a while since I've driven a manual but heck the instructor didn't trust me at ALL. The guy kept hitting my brake and clutch even when we had AMPLE room. Must say he wouldn't last two minutes driving in Malaysia.

Seems like they didn't put up too much of a fuss when I showed them my Malaysian license so I should be able to go straight on to my open license (no probationary period) once I've passed my test. I'm currently booked in for another lesson on the 10th of December and the test on the 13th so I guess I'd better start practicing.

I've been trying to curb my spending what with the expensive holiday season coming up but I do have something new to add to my lust list. Alison and I went on a death march around the CBD looking for music stores so I could check out prices on a Maton CW80. I've been drooling for one of these for about three years now. Another six string I've recently started considering as an alternative is the Cole Clark Fat Lady 2. It feels pretty similar to the CW80 and the luthier has apparently been making Maton guitars for over 40 years and just recently started his own brand. Much cheaper too so it's real tempting.

Outdoorsy stuff and cleanliness

Forgot to mention that Alison picked up a bike on Sunday on an impulse buy. It's a standard 21 speed GT mountain bike with some slick tyres slapped on so in theory we both have similar setups though I swear mine goes downhill faster. Could just be that I'm an overweight lazy bum and gravity is on my side for once. :P

I think we cycled close to 10K on the first day just around the neighbourhood and discovering little bike lanes we'd ignored till now. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera out that day but I did manage to take a few snaps when we substituted a gym visit for a quick ride on Tuesday.



Threats to push me off my seat while I tried to take pictures one handed pretty much forced me to settling for a snap from behind. I'm just surprised she didn't brake suddenly so I'd swerve and crash.

It's been pretty busy at work lately with lots of releases and pressure to reduce turn around time on our issues. Somehow managed to get guilted into cleaning up my desk to 'improve productivity' so I thought it would be a good idea to catalogue the rare occasion.



Yeah I know it still looks cluttered but trust me when I say that's an improvement.