sydney journals :: january 2009
Following on from my blimey, my London journals, and strewth, my original Australian travel blog, I'm back in Sydney. Far out!
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Tuesday, January 20 2009, 23:25
A Sydney wedding
John hadn't been back in Sydney for twenty-four hours before we were off for our first social engagement of the new year - the wedding of Emma and James. January here would be right up there in my least favourite moments to wear a suit, but luckily I'd bought a nice lightweight thing (that only gets aired for weddings as it happens) and I managed to briefly stop sweating in the sublimely air-conditioned taxi to Circular Quay, but this was promptly undone by my mild panic to get to the quayside on time and the stifling heat.
What better venue for a Sydney wedding than one of the islands in the harbour? Emma and James had picked tiny Shark Island in the centre of the silvered blue waves, halfway between Rose Bay on the south shore, and Taylors Bay on the north, with a jaw-dropping prospect back towards the Bridge. Boarding a brisk yellow water taxi that darted over the water and raising spray to right and left, we flew past Bennelong Point, swarmed over by tourists snapping the Opera House on a day with colours so vivid they might just have been sponsored by Kodak. Once on the island, the cool sea breeze stole the strength of the heat, and the view took our breath.
A small group of no more than thirty people, we gathered informally in twos and threes and fours, leaving space for Emma and her father to cross the sandy grass down the slope to where James and his best man waited. I think we expected Emma might make her appearance clutching bravely at her windswept veil, but instead the cool wind that might have proved a bride's nightmare only lifted it lightly. It's not often I get to stand right at the front of a wedding, but this time it was easy, and I managed to take some great pictures which I've finally managed to upload here. After the ceremony, we strolled down to the beach for the official photos, before returning to the gazebo for champagne. Emma and James had brought three bottles round to our place for dinner with Sunny and Ryan in December to enlist our help choosing the bubbles for the big day (admittedly I'm no connoisseur and couldn't really taste much difference between the three of them, but the more sensitive palates in the room chose Sir James).
We skimmed once more by water taxi over the waves to Circular Quay, this time disembarking on the west side, in front of the art deco-style Museum of Contemporary Art, our venue for the evening. Upstairs, on the sixth floor terrace, we nibbled on mouthwatering canapes, heard the speeches, munched down cake, maybe even boogied a little. All the while we sipped glasses of wine, relishing the golden view over the harbour as afternoon gave way to dusk, and dusk to darkness.
John spent the entire day enveloped in a light blanket of codeine, jabbing the jetlag away with caffeine throughout the afternoon and evening. It wasn't until the following day that we had our first suspicions that he'd brought back not just clothes and shoes from London's Christmas sales, but also mumps.
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