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After an extended long weekend, one might assume that the trip back to work today would be done in peace and relaxation: fully rested and re-charged, ready to take on the challenges of the upcoming second quarter. The trip was done with some sense of relief, but purely because we were heading in to do a full day's work rather than various combinations of carousing, conversing and conviviality followed by cooking, cleaning and collecting thoughts (I must admit I was doing more of the former set and Cass doing more of the latter during the last five days!)
Marcus and Annie were already married, but the registry office gig was just never going to cut it with the bride's family, no matter how determined Marcus was for it be a tiny event! His dreams of a restaurant meal for just a few close friends blew out into a Taiwanese extravaganza of biblical proportions, 130 friends and family attending the big evening reception at a local dedicated wedding venue, complete with three full dress changes for Annie, buffet dinner, drinks and chats and even a balloon-animal making clown at one stage.
The celebrations started early when the shy bearded fellow himself made a surprise appearance on the Wednesday afternoon. Sworn to secrecy, I was lucky enough to entice Marcus down to Uli's with a minimum of questions, despite the fact that his parents and older brother had just arrived from Australia. To say we had a rip-roaring time is the understatement of the century, attested to by the state of our heads and bodies at school the next day. Gurecki had made the trip to fit in a number of little jobs he needed to do, but the trip from Nagasaki was primarily to catch up "pre-wedding" with our fellow member of the Polish Nation Intellectual Forum. It was wonderful to see him again, if ever so briefly, and it certainly set the scene for what was to come over the following few days.
After struggling through a day of pain on Thursday, Thursday afternoon loomed large, again down to Ulis where Gurecki reprised his role and we were joined by traveller from Singapore, Josh, along with his host for the couple of days, Shaun. I stayed and sipped a couple of beers, before excusing myself to go home and collapse in anticipation of the following day's visitor arrival. We'd said that we'd host Wal's good friend, Morgs, who was travelling from Shanghai, as Marcus had his parents staying at his relatively small unit and couldn't really squeeze anyone else in there. Morgs was "Danieled" from the local Sung Shan airport in fine style and we got him settled in. The cats had to give up their room for the duration so we had a military operation to get them re-housed and the room to be cleaned and transformed into what approximated a guest room. Cass worked a bit of interior decorating magic and it looked very comfortable.
Only a few hours after Morgs arrived we were off to the big day. It really was a triumph for both of them as I don't think it was their first, second or even third choice of ceremony, it really crept up on them. It was Taiwanese style (we walked past Cinderella carriages and around underlit artificial lakes on boardwalks on the way in), but really sweet and nice. Marcus had insisted on a few touches from home, including tubs of ice cold beer surrounding the outside milling areas. One of the big problems was an incessant rain bucketing, necessitating a rushed change to an indoor venue. It too, ended up being perfect, as it forced the two groups (the locals and the foreigners) to really mingle and get together more than they might have done if nature hadn't intervened.
Marcus was keen for us all to get on down to an after party at a KTV venue downtown, so I dropped Cass off and met a big group of people down there till the early hours in the morning. The choice of songs was shocking, the execution abysmal, yet the fun was immense. Every song selected was absolutely murdered: there is some video evidence which I'll keep in case I ever need any blackmail material to use against any of the participants! Shield your eyes, cover your ears and get a tiny taste here if you dare!
Morgsy has just had his second child, so any time away from screaming babies and not needing to get up and attend to them was a bonus. This meant that each morning, he was as keen as us to have a big sleep-in. Upon waking, Cass spun the spatulas and whipped up delicious piles of scrambled eggs on toast to make the hangover cure of champions. As we went out again for lunch on Saturday with Josh, Shaun, Marcus and Morgs (at Jakes), then met for tea at Ulis before moving to Patio 84 on Saturday night/early Sunday morning for one last big hurrah, you can probably sense how we felt come Sunday afternoon!
When we finally farewelled Morgs mid afternoon on Sunday, we were just about completely out, yet managed to rally enough to see the middling "Gone Girl" at the cinema before eating at Chili's. It was great to have a debrief and a catch-up: it's so rare for us to be apart for that length of time, even though we did see each other briefly in between assignments! I'm so grateful to my super wife to be so supportive when she should have been enjoying a lovely relaxing four days off from work: she worked even harder here at home, I think.
Cass and I monstered the "steps" on Monday early arvo, ripping up the 1400 bad boys with a huff and a puff before enjoying the cool and serene ambiance of the mountain-top path amongst the monkeys. After showering off when we got home, we wandered down to Din Tai Feng and had our usual feast. After a little specialty shopping at City Super and the quirky Japanese store, Hands Tailung, we went home to relax, chill out and get prepared for our week back at school. Marcus, old mate, don't ever do this again!!
Photo album link here.