Wedding DVD
After 10 and a half months of waiting, the DVD of our wedding finally arrived!
We're going to settle in tonight and watch it.
Wed, 12 Oct 2005
Sat, 22 Jan 2005
More Photos - This Time From The Pros
Our photographer finally has photos available for public viewing. The password is the date of our wedding - '020105'.
So if you were able to be there on the day and wanted to relive the memories, or couldn't make it and wanted to find out how it all went, here's your chance!
Tales From The Honeymoon
It was nice to have two weeks away, but after almost a month away from home, it's good to be back and settled into a normal routine. So what did we get up to on the honeymoon? Bloody heaps.
We went sightseeing at the old French settlement of Akaroa near Christchurch, took a helicopter flight to the top of Fox Glacier, went skydiving and paragliding at Queenstown, spelunked in a glow worm cavern at Te Anau, and took a boat cruise on Milford Sound.
And the driving! New Zealand is an incredible country for just driving around. Check out some of the areas we passed through:
- the Canterbury plains, green farm paddocks with the New Zealand alps in the far distance
- the winding mountain roads through Arthurs Pass
- a rain forest stretch down the west coast through Franz Josef Glacier to Fox Glacier
- the straight roads through the high arid Mckenzie Country from Queenstown to Mt Cook
We saw more campervans and caravans than you can poke a stick at, usually on stretches of road that made it almost impossible to overtake them. We have found that it is obligatory for campervans to drive at 70kph in a 100kph zone.
There were lots of Japanese tourists, too, for me to embarrass myself by engaging my pathetic Japanese language skills. In one infamous scene at Mt Cook, we passed 15 Japanese women on a hiking trip dressed almost identically in white hats, white gloves, long-sleeved tops, khaki pants and boots and a backpack.
In fact, there's so much to write about, it'd take weeks to put down on paper everything we did.
So instead, I'll just write about the biggest adventure we had - skydiving.
Since we organised the honeymoon to New Zealand, taking in the adventure capital Queenstown, Kathleen has always wanted to go skydiving. To me, that's a pretty crazy idea - falling out of a plane and hoping that the parachute works, especially when you read so many stories in the news of people that haven't survived a 'parachute malfunction'. Granted, the media never tell you about the many jumps that go according to plan, but it's not an adventure/adrenelin sport for nothing, is it?
So on our second day in Queenstown, and given the weather was forecast to be clear, blue skies, and a balmy mid-20s celsius, it seemed like a good idea to go in and book. After much arm-twisting, it was agreed that I'd go as well, and not merely wave from the ground.
We started out hyping each other up at a cafe in town. Where the wheels started to fall off for Kathleen.
"Oh God, I don't know if I can do it. I'm starting to freak out about this," she began.
"Uh huh," said Mr Cool-As-A-Cucumber. "Don't worry, you'll be right once you get up there."
But first, we had to find a company to jump with. And luckily, on nearby Shotover Street, Queenstown's main drag, we found nzone, whose slogan was, ironically enough, "Embrace the fear".
"We want to organise a jump for tomorrow," we told the young woman behind the counter.
"Well, it's such a clear day today, and tomorrow might not be as good," she said. "Why don't you book in for today?"
Kathleen looked at me hesitently. If this was what she was like now, imagine how freaked out she was going to be with an additional 24 hours of stressing under her belt.
And, dammit, she was right. What if it clouded over? What if it defied all metereological laws and suddenly started raining? Going today sounded like a much better idea. So we changed our plans.
"How high do you want to go?" she asked.
We could start at 9,000 feet for $245, 12,000 feet for $295 or 15,000 feet for $395. The major difference is the time spent in freefall, which is 60 seconds at 15,000 feet and only 30 seconds at 9,000.
Given we were weak, we were scared, we were both big, fat babies, we told her we'd jump at 9.
"No, no, no," she exclaimed, horrified. "That won't last long at all! It's your first jump, you want it to last as long as possible! If you do only 9,000 feet, it'll be over before you know it! And 12,000 is only another $100."
She had a point. Falling and hitting the ground at 9,000 was probably no different from that of 12,000 feet. And we were getting caught up in her excitement.
"Ah, what the hell, make it 12," I said with the air of a man who does this sort of thing every day. She was a good saleswoman.
We were asked to come back at 1pm (only 3 hours for Kathleen to stress herself into a frenzy!), and when we did, we were ushered into a small room, where the smell of our fear was not able to reach and deter potential customers in the front room. Turns out that every other single person in our group, all 12, had taken 12,000. Gee, we would have looked soft if we were the only ones from 9!
We were asked to sign a waiver form. The following lines immediately jumped out:
"Parachute equipment even when operated, packed and assembled correctly can mulfunction possibly causing injury and death."
and
"Under New Zealand law it is extremely unlikely you will be able to sue anyone if injured."
Hmmm. Luckily we had another twenty minutes of waiting for these two phrases to really seep into our minds. Everything else that was mentioned in the promotional brochures, about how we'd love it, it'd be the best thing we'd ever do, we'd want to do it again and again and again, yada yada yada, faded.Malfunction.
Injury.
Death.
I wondered whether it was too late to ask for a refund.
nzone's jump zone is about twenty minutes out of town, at the foot of Queenstown's Remarkables. These mountains are incredible. They just dominate the landscape here, and are almost 7,000 feet high, at 2,300m. For our jump, we were going to fall from a height that was twice as high as the mountains.
Since the plane we were to jump from took only three jumpers and their instructors at once, there was quite a wait. Lots of time for things to really think about what we were going to do.
Eventually we were called into the hanger to suit up. After a brief demonstration of what we needed to do - "When the door opens, just sit on the ledge, hold on to these straps, then when the parachute opens hold your hands out like this" - we headed to the plane.
Or should I say, Kathleen and her instructor headed to the plane.
My instructor, Scott, was nowhere to be seen.
Maybe they saw my potential, my obvious ease and decided I didn't need an instructor. Nor, for that matter, a parachute.
Eventually he came running, straight from the bathroom apparently, and tossed me his helmet as he quickly donned his jumpsuit. I wasn't sure that such haste was a good thing - if it was me, I'd be triple and quadruple checking everything! - but he seemed comfortable, a bit too comfortable.
The plane was incredibly cramped. It's a hollowed out Cessna with no seats, just sufficient space for a few people to sit on the floor. The three pairs of instructor/students, and two blokes who'd normally shoot the video if we had purchased it. We took off down a bumpy grass paddock runway, sheep moving nonchanently around. And then we were in the air!
New Zealand is absolutely incredible from the air. Words fail to express how beautiful the landscape is, with tall mountains covered in snow - even in summer - extending as far as the eye can see. And here and there lakes glimmered blue in the bright sunshine. I could have left without doing the jump, having had these views!
Unbeknownst to me, Kathleen's instructor told her they'd be jumping from 15,000 feet, not the 12,000 that we had booked. I was blissfully unaware, but just wondering why we were taking so long to get to 12! And when the oxygen masks came out, to counter the unpressurised cabin, I was a little confused.
I was also a little worried about the fact that I wasn't attached to Scott yet. Surely the whole point of a tandem jump was that we were going out as a team.
In my head, like an unwanted movie, scenes from the impending jump played over and over. I imagined we'd be ready to go, I'd fall out as instructed, and Scott - and the parachute - would be left behind in the plane, staring at my rapidly descending form. "Damn," he'd say. "I knew I forgot something!"
But it was all right. He just waits until the last minute.
Talk about casual.
So we're harnessed together, tightly, and I don't particularly want to dwell too much on the process of harnessing. Let's just say that it's not something that two straight male men should be seen to be doing. And the Remarkables are far, far below. We're obviously quite high. I'm not nervous or scared, just wanting to get started.
The door slides open, and there's nothing really between me and falling out of the plane. The two video blokes jump out simultaneously. One minute they're there in the plane, the next they're shuffling to the edge, and then they're gone.
Holy crap.
Now it's us moving to the edge. I swing my legs out, and immediately the wind starts to whip against them.
I am sitting on the edge of a plane. I look down to get a feel for just how high we are...
... and find myself tumbling through the air.
The bloody instructor has just launched us out without so much as a bloody countdown.
And I realise that I have never been more terrified than I am right at this point.
We are tumbling through the air, with up and down, left and right indistinguishable. I want to grab on to something to orient myself, but there's nothing but air.
Scott somehow manages to get us in the traditional skydiving pose, falling face-down towards the ground. And, bloody hell, is it cold. I have this frigid air taking strips off my cheeks, my eyes are starting to water a little and I am freezing cold.
And all I can think of is, only 60 seconds of freefall. Only 60 seconds of freefall.
I shut my eyes for a fraction of a second before realising how much money I have paid for the experience. Dammit, I need to at least see this!
The ground doesn't look as though it is getting any closer, though.
Suddenly the harness digs deep, which, given that it is pretty tight down around my groin, is not a particularly welcome occurance. Scott has deployed the parachute, and suddenly, skydiving is actually pretty nice. Where the wind was buffeting my ears with noise and my face with cold, now there's just blessed silence.
Gliding down to earth feels pretty serene, and I think, "I could get used to this!"
"We just have to make some turns to get over to where we need to land," says the instructor. I look down to the paddock and can just make out the small white dots. Sheep.
The final hurdle is landing.
Which I have a little bit of a problem with, given that I have seen the video recording of an old workmate landing awkwardly and breaking his ankle. Seen it many times, in fact. On repeat cycle. Whenever the topic of skydiving comes up, I always bring up that old anecdote.
But it's nothing like I expected. We hover a foot above the ground for a second and gently touch down.
Thank christ.
As we walk back through the reception on the way to the van, we pass by the instructor profile wall, where they keep a photo and brief blurb of all the instructors. Turns out Scott has done over 2,000 jumps. No wonder he seemed casual!
They say that once you've jumped once, you want to do it again. I think I can say categorically that having done it once, I have no need to ever repeat the experience. I hated the freefalling bit, but loved the rest.
One good thing is that I beat the best man - he never got to 15,000 feet, so that's something I'll be able to whip him with next time I see him!
Tue, 18 Jan 2005
Back From The Honeymoon
We finally got back home yesterday, after 11 fun-packed days in New Zealand.
And there's even more photos of the wedding from our keen amateur (?) photographer friends Steph, Denzil, Kim, and Cam. Who'd ever have thought we'd have so many people's interpretations of the day?
We had a great time at the wedding and reception, and from the sounds of things, all of our guests did as well. It was awesome to have people who'd never travelled to Hobart before (the shame!) enjoy it so much.
Tue, 04 Jan 2005
Honeymoon
We're off on our honeymoon to the south island of New Zealand. See you all when we get back!
Wedding Photos
We have some photos of our wedding up for viewing!
We didn't get many on our camera, but have been promised a whole bunch from the keen photographers who were there with us on the day (especially Denzil!).
Married!
As of two days ago, on January 2, 2005, at 3.30pm in Hobart, we're now officially married!
Thanks to everyone who came and made it a day to remember for us!
Tue, 28 Dec 2004
Showers Clearing
The BOM have put the nervousness back into the wedding preparations with the forecast for Sunday:
Showers clearing.
Which isn't as bad as rain, and the 'clearing' part would indicate that by mid- to late-afternoon the rain should have stopped.
Fingers crossed.
The only consolation is that we're still a few days away, time for the forecast to change.
We are now sitting inside at my mum's place in Hobart, with jumpers on and the heating going. Today was 14 degrees. Celsius. If I told you how cold it was, you wouldn't believe me.
The worst bit is, all our interstate guests are going to smile knowingly. Ah yes, Tassie summer, they'll say. It's hard to try and change the image of Tasmania's summer when there's snow on the mountain!
Wedding Preparations
...are going well now that we're in Hobart and getting all the last little bits sorted.
Wed, 22 Dec 2004
What You Don't Want To Hear
The following is not the conversation you want to be having with the hotel where you're staying on your wedding night, 10 nights away from the date:
Hi, I'm just calling to confirm an accommodation reservation for early January.
I'm sorry, we're not taking bookings.
No, I want to confirm an existing booking.
We're not taking bookings since early July.
We had a booking.
We've called all our guests to cancel.
You haven't called me.
Maybe two or three guests we haven't called because we don't have their phone number.
I see. And this has been since July?
That's right. We're renovating.
Luckily, we were able to make other arrangements, but after six months of urging all our guests to book early, it was a bit of a wake-up call!
Fri, 17 Dec 2004
Rings
With Kathleen picking up her wedding ring from the jewellers last night, we now have all three rings. The wedding is less than three weeks away! Everyone at work is starting to head off on holidays, wishing me a happy Christmas and New Years. And a happy honeymoon!
Fri, 10 Dec 2004
You Should Be Dancing, Yeah
We went to dancing lessons last night for the wedding. Hopefully we won't look too uncoordinated on the night. Picking up the steps is relatively easy, and once your muscles can 'remember' the movements, it gets even easier. Kathleen got pretty hyper about how well its going, I think she thought I was going to be an unimprovable, uncoordinated, rhythmless IT dork or something!
Sun, 05 Dec 2004
Music
We finally settled on the pieces we'll get the quartet to play at the wedding, after having found a website that offers sample MP3s of commonly-chosen wedding pieces. Nice.
We spent a couple of hours this afternoon going through all my MP3 CDs, trying to find good songs for the reception. The key criteria being either danceability or cool-in-a-retro-kind-of-way. Greta and Darise both have an amazingly diverse taste in music, so it will be interesting to see whether what we've come up with passes muster.
Tue, 30 Nov 2004
Classical
Last night we went through all the classical music CDs we have in the house, trying to find some pieces for the string quartet to play at the wedding.
It's a lot harder than it would seem. When we first met with the quartet, we were given a list of pieces that they could play. Unfortunately, none of the names mean anything to us. "We want the one that goes 'dum da da de dum... you know? That one...?"
Everyone knows the tunes, but not the names, especially when the names are something along the lines of Concerto No. 18 in E Minor. And I'm sure 'tune' isn't the right word when referring to classical music, but I'm struggling to think of a more high-brow word.
Anyway, we managed to find a few that we liked and that hopefully the quartet won't turn up their noses at. I hope the stuff we picked isn't the Khe Sanh of classical music.
"I can't believe you picked THAT! Everyone picks that!"
Tue, 09 Nov 2004
Wedding Rings
I bought my wedding band. It's taken a while to find something that I feel comfortable wearing. I don't wear rings, so to have something on my finger all day will take some getting used to, so I wanted something that was pretty unobtrusive. The gold domed band I bought looks good, too.
I have a bit of a phobia about not being able to get the ring off - I have visions of ripping my knuckle with a tight ring, so I hope Kathleen appreciates what I'm going through for her!
She ordered hers a fortnight ago, and it will be ready in mid-December - and hopefully not a second later!
Hero
We went and saw Hero on the weekend with Steph and Eva.
It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful movie I have ever seen in my life. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was phenomenal, but Hero is in another league altogether. It's even a better Jet Li movie than Once Upon A Time In China.
Can't believe it took over two years to get to Australia. Now I only have Totoro to look forward to.
Broadway was also showing previews for Team America, which went down phenomenally well with the audience.
Tue, 02 Nov 2004
Invites
After three days, we've finally finished making the wedding invitations. Ah, it's been fun but stressful (mostly for Kathleen), and we almost had a blue after I came home from the stationary shop five cards short - the shop was sold out. That was my excuse, and I'm sticking with it.
Now to get them mailed out...
Sat, 07 Aug 2004
Latest Wedding News
We've just booked our honeymoon in New Zealand with Flight Centre, Kathleen tried on her dress this morning, we booked the car she'll arrive at the Botanical Gardens in yesterday, and we have organised the flights and accommodation for the video bloke. It's really starting to happen! Thank God we've saved a fair whack, because now the expenses are really starting!
Wed, 30 Jun 2004
Budget Cutbacks
Since we're now in full-on saving mode for the wedding, with the intention of banking two grand a month - EACH - the focus is on cutting back on needless expenditures. Obviously, some expenses are sacrosanct, such as the groceries, the train fare, and the broadband (hey, going back to dial-up would actually be more expensive, given the cost of phone calls to the ISP). Some things, though, are prime candidates for the chop.
Such as my coffee.
Back when I was in Hobart, I used to get up early enough to dawdle over coffee and the paper at the Retro with a friend of ours, Darise. Which of course became a habit, to the point where something doesn't feel quite right if I'm not wired up on caffeine and reading by 8.30am. Reading the news on the internet and drinking filtered coffee, or worse, instant, at my desk at work is no substitute. And of course, there's nothing like being able to walk into a place and not even need to order, with the staff knowing you by name and by coffee.
There's one place I go to in North Sydney that has everything - not many patrons so you never feel like you're imposing, all the papers: the SMH, the Australian, the AFR and the Daily Telegraph, and a pretty decent coffee.
Plus one of the blokes I work with does a coffee run about 10.30 every day. So kicking this habit is proving to be a little bit more difficult than first anticipated. It's not the caffeine, it's the process - the papers, the music, the relaxing - that I miss if I don't get.
Classical Music
Nara from the string quartet gave us a songlist of classical music that we can choose from for the wedding.
The only problem is that we don't know classical music by the name of the symphony - and in fact, don't really know classical music.
So, I've got a classical music compilation currently playing on my Discman to and from work, listening out for pieces that I recognise. I still can't remember the names of the pieces, but at least I'm a lot more calmer during the commute - classical music can be very soothing.
