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Monthly Archives: October 2011

in terms of intensity, the past ten days rank right up at the top of my time in sydney. right at the point when work was at its most intense, a bunch of my high school friends from switzerland descended upon sydney for justin and peta’s wedding. they arrived a week before the wedding and we started burning the midnight oil right away. and never stopped. don’t get me wrong – its been an awesome, awesome time. but i will say that is was very hard to get out of bed this morning 🙂 even nayou’s magic kiss and cuddle was unable to rouse me, and that usually does the trick right away. i’m still a zombie now, so excuse any incoherent ramblings.

the festivities started officially last tuesday, when we all went to manly for justin’s stag night. in true stag fashion, thomas brought a sheep suit all the way from london, which justin was required to wear until he saw peta again the next day.

i love that its just that little bit too small for him. just to add to the humiliation factor. it was interesting walking behind him and watching peoples’ reactions. especially the kids.

the guys got a very swanky apartment overlooking manly beach. definitely a good choice of venue for hanging out. we even got a chance to see some whales!

i love hanging out with these guys. we’ve known each other since we were 15, although i only became good friends with some of them after we graduated from high school. we don’t see each other often, but its always a good time when we do. we decided to do some promo shots for our upcoming boyband. the guy in the sheep suit wasn’t invited.

mmm lamb korma.

the three of us headed down to kiama on friday afternoon. after getting lost and watching a lady ding our rental car in a mall parking lot, we made it safe and sound to the campground. the sign at the front of the campground claims its 4.5 star camping, and they were not exaggerating. we had a site with an ensuite bathroom which was cleaner than ours. the wedding party rented a cabin which had a jacuzzi, 55 inch tv and a washer/dryer! plus there was a playground and a pool, not to mention the beach a couple of minutes away. very cool. nayou had the time of his life down there 🙂

some kayakers gave nayou the biggest sea urchin, possibly ever.

thomas is one of the chosen few that nayou took to immediately. when thomas brought him ice cream on our first night in kiama, the friendship was sealed forever.

the wedding ceremony was at peta’s parents’ place, about ten minutes out of kiama. the weather was gorgeous all weekend, and the ceremony was truly a pleasure to be part of. you know its a good wedding when the bride and groom can’t wipe the silly grins from their faces the whole time. it was one of those unions that felt very genuine, and i’m so happy to have lost justin to someone so cool (just kidding. about the losing part. ahem.).

nayou made fast friends with the kids at the wedding and spent the evening running around like a madman with them. he even scored a lollipop which he devoured in record time.

and the once the wedding cake came out, that was all he could think about. his one track mindedness was exaggerated by the fact that he was exhausted. nayou tried so hard to stay awake for the cake cutting, but in the end he fell asleep before it.

the advantage to him pointing out which piece of cake he wanted was that i was able to get it and save it for him. the first words out of his mouth the next day was “did you get my cake?”. of course i did! parenting win! then he proceeded to have it for breakfast. parenting fail.

we went back to peta’s parents’ house for a late brunch before heading home. not sure when i’m going to see justin next…. perhaps in bali?!? the rest of the crew have scattered across australia, but i will get a chance to see them again briefly before they head back to their respective countries. by then i’ll be done with work so i fully expect some debauchery 🙂

and a happy and exhausted nayou conked out in the car. definitely the sign of a good weekend!

 

we escaped north today up to stockton beach, which is about 2.5 hours north of sydney, near newcastle. a bunch of friends from work were going quad-biking up on the sand dunes there, so we tagged along and hung out on the beach. it was a gorgeous sunny day with just the right amount of cloud cover in between. for me it was heaven just hanging out on the beach. you kind of forget that there’s a whole world out there when you’re staring at digital penguins for 70+ hours a week!

on friday we also got a chance to hang out with an old friend dave mahfet from seattle. we hadn’t seen each other since we left seattle back in 2004, but we’ve all become addicted to surfing since then so there was plenty to catch up on!

 

 

we’ve got three more weeks to go, and i am so ready to put these 13 hour days behind me. various front end departments are wrapping up, but for me its going to be busy right up until the end. at least i’m going to have a weekend off on the 21st for justin and peta’s wedding. that is going to be so much fun! and you know what else is fun? matt damon and brad pitt and two (un)ambiguously gay krill. our final trailer came out today and here it is in all its glory.

here is the ragtag crew that is my family at work. technically we are the Final Layout department, but we are known in the elite circles simply as “flo”. they are a really nice group of people and i actually will miss them when we go our separate ways in three weeks!