Une vraie touriste!

Where have we been, you might ask. Well, I've been really tired, but obviously Jason and my mothers have been very well as you can see in this photo. Note excellent WA pinot noir and lovely stemless glasses. After the wedding, the real trip began! With wine and an excellent lunch at Bella Vedere in Coldstream, in wine country. Jason, alas, was only with us in spirit as he was WORKING. Local produce, good wine, the promise of a kangaroo in the afternoon! To see, not to eat.

And here it is:

And so will follow more photos in the 'great Australian tour' vein. Unfortunately I don't have one of Francesca holding a koala, but there's still a week... Here, meanwhile, is Francesca reliving that scene in 'The Birds'. The scary one. Khim obviously thinks it's very funny.

The next day we went to Cafe Di Stasio (no relation to Josee, I think) for a divine Italian dinner.

And Francesca went out the next day for a Corona!

And then we went to the Great Ocean Road. Here are some beautiful pictures.

Sydney on the weekend!!

More wedding photos...

OK, I'll chuck a whole lot of photos on now that I've regained a small fraction of my brain - I promise there will be more later. But for now, here are some photos to start of the family banquet on Thursday night, and the tea ceremony which followed. Firstly, the immediate family looking radiant.

The lovely mothers, plus Kheng!


There are many, many photos of the tea ceremony, almost all of them exactly the same except for the people sitting in the chairs. Here is a representative selection which illustrates the general atmosphere of the whole shebang. Perhaps it wasn't technically brilliant, but it sure was fun. Thank goodness for Aunty Sally - if not for her it would have been a complete shambles, so thank you Aunty Sally! At least someone knew what we were supposed to be doing.

And finally, the big day. Here is the wedding party - Jason, Mel, best man Leong, bridesmaids Grace, Sara, Anusha and Felicity.

The lovely bride and groom...


The vows...


The best man pretending he's lost the ring...

The cake and its cutting...

The picnic...


And of course, here's everyone (minus the photographer)

So here he is...

a taste of things to come

More later, when less tired...




xxx melanie & jason

Sleeeeepy

OK, it's very late on Wednesday night, the insanity commences for real tomorrow, but I know you're all dying to see what we were up to the last few days, so here you go. Unfortunately for you all, we mostly just ate, shopped and Jason and I got really tired and stressed. Yesterday we hiked all the way out to Prahran Market to go to Donnellys to get plastic containers and paper bags, only to find they were shut till the 12th, which is a bit late. So it was a bit of a damp squib, the day in the end. But we got to go to my parents' place and eat some top-notch food! Here is a picture of Jason appreciating Aunty Sally's outstanding chicken curry...

And here is a photo of all of us about to dig in!


Here are some delicious photos of food! Aunty Sally outdid herself in delicious vittles - chicken curry, aubergines, the most divine egged prawns. My mother contributed with a fine steamed fish and some succulent gai lan, and a soup.











Here is my mother, master barista...


Here we are looking tired.


Here is Hamish being pampered by Francesca and for once, ignoring Jason completely.

Finally, today we... picked up the chocolates at Cacao in St Kilda, had a terrible 'roast beef' sandwich on Acland Street (better described as a 'mustard and chopped pickle' sandwich, albeit a pretty good mustard and chopped pickle sandwich, if that's what butters your toast), drove to Templestowe to pick up our deli goods at the lovely people at the Pines Deli, bought things for dinner, bought stuff for my cousin's delicious olive tapenade, printed out wedding programs, did the menu draft, got money for the ang pow at the tea ceremony, bought all the water and juice for the wedding, did the basket tags, boxed all the chocolates (etc. etc. etc. - it goes on).

The best bit of the day was when Lyn and Idris (in the Welsh sense, as opposed to the Islamic sense) came over for dinner bearing the wedding cake that Lyn had many moons ago promised my mother she would make ("sure I'll make your daughter's wedding cake" she rashly said, when I was 7) and it is STUNNING. Photos will follow later, but it is in a box covered in cling film at the moment, and not at its best for photography. In the meantime, here is a photo of all of us at dinner, following Francesca's beautiful caprifiore and veal.

Shopping

Nous sommes alles au cafe Segovia pour commencer la journee ou nous avons pris un petit dejeuner. Puis, ce qui deva arrive arriva...la folie du magasinage!

Francesca enverra cette photo a Visa Royale lors de son prochain paiement.
Nous avons termine la journee en tres bonne compagnie. Felicity et ses parents nous avaient invites pour souper et nous avons bien ris. La cousine Sally etait aussi presente, elle qui venait tout juste d'arriver de Perth et qui a cuisine le bon souper.












La fin de soiree...

Frank, Ann et Francesca

Rainy day

Un jour de pluie ou nous avions tous la "mouchie". Mais ca fait tout de meme du bien apres le 42 degres de la journee d'avant. La journee s'est termine avec le visionnement d'un petit film quetaine. Quel bonheur!

Bonne annee!

BONNE ANNEE!!

Bonne annee tout le monde! On est 1er janvier aujourd'hui a Melbourne (et Jason parle a la famille Pelletier sur telephone au moment - a Ste Julie, c'est encore 2005...) Des photos d'hier soir pour vous...

Nos amies (et Andy, un ami!) sont venues chez nous pour le nouvel an. Il y avais beaucoup de vin, de biere, de bouffe... mais il faisait chaud chaud chaud.

It reached 42 degrees as promised (which made everyone on the beach yesterday say to each other - my god, it's going to be 42 degrees tomorrow!) and was steamy hot and our little evaporative cooler (Anusha and Felicity lifting their skirts to it above - cheeky monkeys!) didn't really manage to alleviate the heat, but we all enjoyed ourselves anyway!

Andy trying to fit in with the girls...
... but he can't resist the gorgeousness that is Felicity when she's hot and sticky

Some dancing afterwards... I'll try and see if I can post the video of Andy rocking out to a-Ha. But in the meantime, here is hula lady Francesca, the sultry dancing partnership that is Felicity and Grace, and air guitar god, Jason Smith.

Then we watched the fireworks from the bedroom window and drank champagne and welcomed 2006 - may it be as full as beautiful people as our new year's eve night!!