I've Been To A Wedding

Saturday

At 4:30 in the morning on Saturday I caught a taxi to the airport so that I could head to Adelaide for my schoolfriend Damien's wedding. Saturday would be about the only chance to catch up with him for a while and the wedding was to be held on Sunday afternoon. Funny thing was that the girl next door was just returning from her school formal dance as I was leaving.

Qantas' E-Ticket is a brilliant setup, especially if you don't have any luggage to be checked in. Insert your frequent flyer card or credit card that purchased the ticket, choose your seat, collect your ticket. Excellent. No queueing.

Following x-raying of my carry-on luggage and passing through a metal detector I was asked if I wished to partake in a random trace explosive check. Sort of Hobson's Choice as if I didn't have myself or carry-on luggage checked then I wouldn't be allowed on the plane. I was justly found to be non-explosive and allowed to continue my journey.

Whilst waiting to be seated on the plane and listening to calls for passengers who hadn't boarded their plane and were being called for up to 15 mins after the flight had been closed only for them to turn up with far too much carry-on luggage and having to go downstairs to book it into the hold, I spent my time reading my mobile phone user manual. Yeah, I'm still a geek.

Graftti artists attacked the plane before I boarded. Nah, looks nice.

I actually got some sleep on the plane. Having tonsilitis helped. The terminal in Adelaide, whilst a bit staid, is an improvement to having to disembark on the tarmac. Damien picked me up within a few minutes of my arrival - the most amazing thing was that he was on time. This is the man who left me at West Lakes Shopping Centre for about an hour and a half when we were in high school and who, very recently, forgot to collect his father from the airport. Perhaps he was ready to get married after all.

We drove around a bit and grabbed some tucker for lunch to have in Belair National Park. It was a chance for the two families to get together before the wedding and to get to know each other a bit better. Damien's family didn't show which didn't matter so much as I hadn't met Wendy's family and a small group was maintained. We had a wander around the old Government House. Wendy's family are from Switzerland so there was a fair amount of Schweizer Deutsche spoken. Margrit, Wendy's mum, was talking about getting a fake tan, and, noticing how pale Damien was, I mentioned that he could do with one. She thought that I had been talking about her and so she just belted me! Fancy that, from the future mother-in-law of my mate, who has only known me for 15-20 mins. After our walk Damien drove me to my friend Ben's house.

Damien looking a little pensive. Are you sure that you're doing the right thing?

Old Government House in Belair National Park. It was the formal Vice Regal summer residence from 1860-1880.

We drove through the town looking for his street, asked for directions at a petrol station, and were given a bewildered answer that we were on the correct street already. Ben wasn't home so I wandered around Littlehampton. There was a racing track nearby for remote control cars and the ones that I saw got up to 100 km/h within two seconds. Talk about cold. And I had a long sleeve shirt, thick jumper and heavy jacket which served me well in -5 degrees in Korea, and I was still cold.

Model racing cars at Littlehampton. They have people from Victoria come regularly and even had the National Championships here recently.

Boys with their toys. The bigger the controller the better they must feel about themselves.

Willow Bank B&B which is situated a little way out of town.

For tea we went to the local pub and had an enjoyable soup following by a huge main. The decor was pretty strange with Aboriginal paintings on one wall, Victorian pictures on another, early Australian mining scenes on others and a Japanese doll on display. The food was nice and generous, just as you'd expect from a country pub. My chicken schnitzel was nearly half a chook.

Great Eastern Hotel in Littlehampton - Aboriginal paintings.

Great Eastern Hotel in Littlehampton - Victorian paintings.

Great Eastern Hotel in Littlehampton - Mining painting and Japanese doll.

After tea we watched "Keeping Mum" followed by me watching West Ham United lose the FA Cup Final to Liverpool on penalties after finishing 3-3 after extra time. Needless to say, I went to bed very late and disappointed.