Fradam

I’ve heard that it is the bride’s perogative really, but clearly, Tom Hanks was having none of it. I am impressed!

And it was alright! Josh and Binh’s wedding … phenomenal. First of all, I have never seen so many people gathered in one spot at 6 am. The fact that so many people were willing to do so, some travelling from other parts of the country, and some from other parts of the world.. wow. The location was the Coast Gold Course, in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, the aim was to have the sun rising between the two of them, surrounded by amazing greenery, sand and waves not far off at all. There was a minor hiccup with rain deciding to spit in our general direction right around the time we were due to setup outside, but as evidenced by Elisha’s (thanks!) photo above, it had long subsided by the time the action started.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I love weddings. Someone asked me the other day if I got tired of them. What?! In all honesty, I have only been to a few and feel compelled to talk incessantly about them. Sure, there are similarities between them - I mean, one of my favourite parts are the vows, which tend to feature in a lot of weddings. That doesn’t in anyway diminish from them though. Hearing people declare their love is such a beautiful act.. I don’t think I’ll tire of it. I can’t wait to be writing my own one day!
So aside from starting at 6am, this union also carried cultural bearing — the bridal party was garbed in traditional Vietnamese fare, which was certainly something new for me to witness. I guess I’m used to the groomsmen obsessing over the groom’s hair in the lead up to a wedding (particularly where my brother is involved). Between Josh’s head-full of long luxurious locks and the traditional headpiece he wore, there was a sense of participating in something long steeped in tradition (of which Western weddings naturally do too), but something just a little bigger.

For example, there was a part of the ceremony in which the couple served their parents tea. A simple gesture, but laden with great respect. I recognise that often, the reception speeches acknowledge and thank parents for the immense role they played in an individuals life, but I found this little part of the ceremony really resonated with me.

The rest of the morning passed quite smoothly - a bit of singing, dancing, someone almost getting knocked out by a golf ball, music and the speeches which as always are a delight to enjoy.The bridal party eventually left to take photos on their bridal (golf) cart, and suddenly, the entire hall needed to be cleaned and shaken up in half an hour. The Golf Club were opening for business that morning and we had to leave no trace of ourselves in their facilities. This was probably one of the most amazing parts of the morning: seeing literally everyone that was able, stepping up, lending a hand and working hard to return things to the state were in. I was so encouraged by that

Huzzah for weddings!

It was a scorching morning. The mercury exceeded 40 in some parts of Sydney, and the prospect of a beach wedding in the afternoon seemed quite appealing providing there’d be a swim involved. I contemplated bringing an umbrella along to shield me from the sun. However, soaring temperatures are generally chased by storms, and yesterday’s wild weather was no different…

A memorable wedding. That is what David and Ula’s wedding will forever remain to me. It wasn’t that it rained. It was how it rained. The first drops landed as Ula first came into sight of the ceremony. A thunderclap signaled her first step onto the aisle. By the time she took her place, the little ceremony was awash with water. Words were indistinct from that point onward; Hannah, Tara, Claire and I huddled under a tiny umbrella and deduced the order of the ceremony by watching where the microphone went. It was possibly the shortest ceremony in history - topped only by Spaceball’s “short short version”; the celebrant was somewhat aware that the crowd was getting soaked. The key words did ring out however - “I now pronounce you..”. I wish I got to hear their vows though.. sniff.

Hannah, Claire and I went back to Claire’s place to dry off a little before the reception. Apparently the rain cloud had been centralised to the ceremony; two suburbs over was reasonably dry. Almost like Claire for the reception: she had a whole new outfit! Hannah blow-dried a lot of herself off. I tipped out the puddles that had formed in my shoes, and proceeded to blow-dry my socks and shoes for the next 20 minutes. After watching this process, Claire suggested borrowing a pair of her dad’s socks. Hannah followed this up by suggesting putting them in the dryer for a while. Sigh, why do all the best ideas come after my patient blow-dryer efforts! Thanks to Hannah for the photo:

The reception was close to home; North Curl Curl SLSC. Many memories of that beach.. and it was all round an awesome night. The speeches hit interesting notes - the father of the bride at one point questioning if the couple had done the right thing in deciding to get married, David speaking Polish and of course, a reference to that infamous party at Lena’s. So incredible seeing how far we’ve all come as people who were once little people.

All in all, a wonderful evening was had. I truly love weddings, and the fact that it rained in this one only served to highlight it in my memory of great moments of life. Yey for love!

The eagerly anticipated wedding of Megan & Josh took place a short while back (yes, this is the Josh of paintball fame) in the beautiful Chinese Gardens of Friendship in Darling Harbour.

The weather of the past week reminded me of the weather in the days leading up the wedding: it was quite wet. Not quite as wet as losing-parts-of-the-road, but it was pretty wet. Amazingly, the Saturday turned out spectacular:

This is the first Western wedding I’ve been at where I’ve been rather conscious of what was going on around me, and details were being soaked up at every turn. From the first step to the first dance, it seemed like the entire day was just one event to the next.

The bridal party looked gorgeous with Megan leading the way. Josh betrayed none of the warfare from the previous week in his tuxedo, looking very smart. Apparently he had spent the morning preparing for the wedding by watching Terminator 2 (!)… However, he was a figure of calm repose there that afternoon. Along with the others in the party, it was quite the good looking group of people.

The ceremony was beautiful. Ted Paull of Macquarie led, and chose some very relevant verses to speak upon. What was perhaps even more compelling was what Megan and Josh had to say — both in terms of the verses they had selected which they personally found touched their wedding, and the vows they had written. Quite the teary affair :’(

Josephine had tied ribbons to go around little bottles of bubbly champagne bottles, and as the ceremony was sealed with a kiss (although when that was meant to occur, appeared to be a cause for some confusion), the air was littered with bubbles floating everywhere! Definitely added to the somewhat magical atmosphere, and was complemented nicely by the three-piece string trio who had been working the crowd earlier in the afternoon.

All in all, it was quite the splendid wedding — and this was only added to by the experience of being able to serve as an usher too! Woohoo for some responsibility.

It didn’t stop there either, as I was given the privilege of serving in the reception as the MC (!). Whoa It was a little overwhelming at first, but such an awesome honour to have — to be the second person in the world (after Ted), to officially announce them as Mr and Mrs Josh and Megan Storer.

The reception seemed to vanish in a blur; between the meal and speeches and dancing… I don’t know where it all went! I know I was talking at one point, and that I heard some touching speeches at others. Dave, the best man, possibly had one of the funniest stories to share — which could make you question whether Josh should be marrying Megan or Dave Josh made the right choice though, and I couldn’t be happier for either of them!

Congratulations to you both

UPDATED 19/5: See below #10!

My friend Josh recently held a bucks party at Action Paintball, one of the larger paintball fields in the Rouse Hill area. With only one prior paintball experience under my belt, I was keen to see if the experience would be any different… and with a buck on the loose, it would be likely that a slow + large target like myself would not be the main target, especially with Josh’s target sign. Yes, that lovely lady is his bride to be, whom he would have to defend for the day.

On one particular map, where I essentially had to stay alive to win (i.e. was quite hidden and keeping a wary eye out for those who hunted me), it occurred to me that one of lifes many mysteries suddenly lay bare and solved for me (and hence, the rest of the world), to see: Paintball really is a lot better than watching paint dry. Here’s why:

1. Accoutrement: people don’t usually dress up to watch paint dry.

2. Creativity: in paintball, there is some leeway for expression; you can paint people, trees and other random objects with a myriad of colours. Watching the paint dry presents little to no opportunity to engage in such artistry.

3. Physical health: the fumes of paint can cause greater problems (headaches, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue) than paintball (red welts)

4. Patience: waiting for an expected opponent to come by a well-laid trap is a greater test of patience than watching paint dry.

5. Pragmatism: paintball can teach the realities of life (e.g. people who shoot you in the head once may well shoot you six more times before they realise! *cough* Scotty *cough*) in a far more effective way than watching paint dry (e.g. that paint dries) can.

6. Ocular benefits: watching paint dry can cause eye strain, whereas in paintball, your eyes are well protected.

7. Independence: whilst watching the paint dry will inevitably cause your demise via the aforementioned health effects (see #3), paintball grants you the power to be the master of your own destiny, i.e. kill or be killed.

8. Survival of your progeny: whilst no published studies have been undertaken, watching the paint dry whilst pregnant could cause malformations or miscarriage, whereas with
standard precautions paintball is a much better route to a happy and healthy child.

9. Economic: professional paintball can pay better than watching paint dry.

10. Fun: the last albeit most important one, yet is also the most subjective one! Having experimented with both, I found paintball better for fun purposes than watching paint dry. I will be willing to concede others may disagree.

UPDATED 19/5: I was granted permission to mention another reason that I was going to have on this list:

11. Love: Whilst watching paint dry may not present the greatest opportunity for a casual affection to develop into more, something about fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with another seems to bring people together, such that one of our participants *cough* Andi *cough* ended up spending most of his day chatting up a girl who chose to celebrate her 21st there! Who knows what future opportunities may bring

So, there you have it, 10 11 simple reasons why paintball is better than watching paint dry. Tune in next week when we look at more of lifes mysteries, like why apples really are better than oranges.