The Eclectic Interweb

Actually, for a change, there’s really not a lot to say about the day itself. It may not have actually been ‘the wedding of the year’ but for us it’s probably the only one we’ll be going to this year… or next year… til whenever! 🙂

So, following on from the previous post, the son-in-law-to-be (SIL) eventually becomes coherent enough to drive and off we go… far later than intended. I’m dressed ready to go in my best trousers and shirt. I even have a tie on… and the temperatures are 37ºC. It looked the bride and groom would have the sun shining down on their union after all. In all that heat it was hard to believe it wouldn’t last.

We leave, we get to the petrol station, we realise they don’t have their passports, we go home, we collect passports, I smother myself in deodorant (well it was hot and I was… perspiring a little) I spray cologne on… forgetting I’m allergic to it.

We get back in the cars, and we drive off… me sneezing like it’s going out of style.

We get to town, we park at the Queen Victoria Building (QVB), we start to walk. I explain it’s quite a long way to the Registry Office across Darling Harbour etc and *again* explain the plan re the Powerhouse Museum which I outlined in the previous post (no I am *not* going to rewrite it here). We get through Darling Harbour dragging the kids away from the climbing frames, paddle boats, McDonald’s etc and make it to the ramp leading up towards the Museum.

The wife rings. Her meeting finished early… she’s on our way. Hooray! Something is going right.

The daughter starts to get a bit concerned. Yet again she has mistaken my suggestion about going to the Museum and thinks (a) they have to pay to get in, and (b) the kids won’t have time to look round and/or play. I explain *again* we’re members so we can go in, get changed, and get out all free of charge. Ahhh… I see. Ok.

We get there, I explain to the security person what was going on… and all go off to get ready leaving me with the task of standing around quietly waiting for the wife. Something I’ve never minded doing.

The wife arrives we go to meet and get the others who are changing in one of the toilet blocks. The kids and guests appear, we say hi etc and tell them how nice they look. The daughter appears wearing a very nice brownish patterned dress. We tell *her* how nice she looks… well she did! The groom appears. Everyone looks a little taken aback.

The groom is wearing a shirt and tie… and black shorts. Errr…. ok. We all ask him where his trousers are and discover this these are his ‘formal’ shorts.

Away we march down Harris Street towards the Registry Office. Stragglers get left behind, then catch up… you know the drill… and we get there. What a dump!!

For the only government building in Sydney where people register happy events like births, and marriages…. and deaths (well ok not all happy) this place looks dire!!! It’s all bar next door to a clinic for ‘interesting diseases’ and has clearly seen better days… long since past.

Still, we’re there.

After some confusion over their ID sorted out quickly using the passports they’d almost forgotten, we sat down to wait.

In some ways the ‘ceremony’ was a bit of an anticlimax with the ‘celebrant’ who looked a bit like Lurch as drawn by L S. Lowry belting through the vows at a rate of knots.

You may be asking where the photos are. Well it was *just* before the ceremony I discovered I’d left both the still camera *and* my small video camera on the front seat of the car back at the QVB. There are times I really worry myself about myself. How on earth could I have forgotten to pick up the camera when I was carrying so much other junk around *and* I carry the small video camera with me *everywhere* usually??

Luckily there are photos. The niece took her camera and the eldest of the youngest daughters used the camera of the eldest daughters… oh dear that’s convoluted… to take some as well. I took some on my PDA… but I’m yet to see how they turned out.

Ceremony over, we walked out of the door,  and into the rain. Yup… yet again.. rain. This has to have been the worst Xmas for wet weather in 10 years!!! And it had to happen now. What was more amazing was that it happened after such a hot day!! Not a clound in the sky to begin, baking searing heat… and then, there we are a little later in the afternoon running for cover with not a single umbrella between us… except for the wife’s that is and she was keeping that one. 🙂

This of course put paid to our plans of walking through Chinatown, Hyde Park etc and we were forced under cover back to Centrepoint where we arrived an hour and a half early. Not a good idea as it turned out.

For the next instalment… stay tune4! 🙂