The Craziest Weekend That Was...

Sooo I just got back from the greatest 28 hours I have had in a long long time :) My sister Zoe and I flew over to Sydney for our cousin Takeshi’s wedding to the beautiful Susie :)

So 3am on Saturday morning, I awoke from my slumber after only 3 hours of sleep, and made my way to the airport with the sis. After a relatively easy check in *I MADE IT THROUGH THE METAL DETECTORS WITHOUT GOING OFF!!! FIRST TIME EVERRRRRRR!!*, we boarded QF754 and made our way into our seats (54 J and K... that is, the second row from the back) and off we went. We were told to expect a bit of turbulence due to the bad weather in Sydney, butttt we really had nothing at all :)

The flight was actually really great. Breakfast was the typical aeroplane food; scrambled eggs, braised beans and a poor excuse for a slice of bacon and something that I think was supposed to resemble a hash brown... But that was ok. Topped it off with a little tub of yoghurt and some OJ, I wasn’t complaining :) Our movie was An Education, which is one I have wanted to see for a while now anyway. Brilliant movie, albeit censored for a “more suitable audience”. Following this, seeing as Zoe and I were on the same flight as our dad (who was sitting at the front of the plane), and we had 3 spare seats across the aisle from is, we thought we should go and bring dad up for a bit of Uno greatness. So, he came and sat across the aisle next to us, and the Harry Potter Uno begun. We had a really lovely flight attendant, who stood with us for the remaining hour of the flight, watching us play Uno and making funny remarks about the fact I was losing so terribly. She also gave me 5 packs of cookies. What a champion :D The crazy German woman behind us started complaining about the “noise” we were making (i.e. the flight attendant was talking a little loudly), so we started making more noise :P (note: she had been snoring the entire 3 hours before she woke up and decided to start bitching. You disturbed us with your hog-like noises emanating from your nose/mouth, so it’s only fair we were able to have a bit of “fun” and laugh every now and then :P) We touched down in to Sydney roughly 4ish hours after takeoff, which was about 1pm Sydney time on the Saturday afternoon. We caught a taxi to hotel (via the Harbour Bridge! Check out my photos on Facebook for a little taste :D), and after a looooong ride, we arrived at the Brookevale Travel Lodge a little after 2.30. We had time for a quick shower and change, met up with one of my uncles (from Darwin) and Grandma, and made our way to the wedding overlooking the beach by 4.

While waiting for the beautiful bride to arrive, we met up with more family, and made our way to the seats for family and close friends for a very special ceremony, which saw two of the most amazing people come together and pronounce their love for one another for life.

From here onwards, the celebrations really started to kick off. Dad bought a couple of bottles of champagne for our close family (mainly those from Perth/Darwin who flew over), and we all had a few glasses to celebrate, before making our way to the reception next door. Zoe and I were sat at a table with one of our cousins and some of Susie and Tak’s friends. We met some amazing people, and after a great dinner (entree: asparagus and prawns, mains: salmon on an incredible mash potato and greens, dessert: the BEST macadamia tart and a chocolate mousse/soufflé/cake that was SOOO good! ... for the record, me and some of the girls shared our desserts so we all tried a bit of both :D) it was time for the cutting of the cake and then some carving of the dance floor. The ONLY bad thing about the entire night was that it was SOOO SOOOOOOOOOO hot and humid! Plus as the reception began to get underway, it started to rain. Luckily it was after everyone was inside. But that meant that we couldn’t really go outside to cool off, which was evident for me... Let’s just say, grey shirts and me don’t go oh so well. You could say I sweat a little just THINKING about dancing, so carving it up for several hours straight did me no favours :P There are a few pictures circulating out there, but I won’t be the one to draw attention to them ;)

I suppose this is the time to tell you all that it was free drinks the entire night. So I went through QUITE a few champagne and guava concoctions... and I also got myself a beer. Which, I’m not gonna lie... Was absolutely amazing. If you know me, you know I can’t STAND beer. But this one hit the spot. A little bit of liquid courage, and that dance floor was mine :P “I’ve Had The Time Of My Life” never sounded so good... Unfortunately, it was the last song of the night... For part one, anyway ;)

After helping my aunty and uncle load up their car of the newlywed’s presents and contents of the wishing well, we made the decision we shouldn’t let the night end here. So we ordered a maxi taxi to take us back to the hotel to get changed quickly, before heading out to Manly to see the nightlife. Now this SOUNDED like a great plan, however, it was a bit of a mixed crowd heading out on the town. It included: Myself. My cousin (who is almost 30, but that doesn’t matter, she’s awesome, couldn’t tell her age if you didn’t know :) she carved up the d-floor with me the whole night), a new friend who we made at the wedding, and then... my dad :| yes, my 50 year old dad came out into Manly with us... Holy moly... there are times when I wish we didn’t look alike, and this was definitely one of them :P Nahhh, in all seriousness, he was great. He made sure I always had a drink in my hand, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing haha. We tried one bar, and it was closed (this is only at 12.30, remember!!), so went to another which was pretty good. The dj was pretty good, but the dance floor was a bit average. As the GREAT song once said; “Too many dicks on the dancefloor”, so me, dad and my cousin headed over to another pub/club. Unfortunately we lost our new friend, but we found her at the end of the night at the taxi rank :) This other club was great. Awesome dj, great people, free drinks (thanks to dad, of course). It was rather hilarious though, watching my dad dance up and close with a few of the local gays was easily one of the highlights :D

Unfortunately though, we realised that we had to be up early for my uncles birthday, and so decided at 2.30 that it was time for us to call it a night. So after waiting for a taxi for 15 minutes, we STARTED to head back to the hotel. That is until dad and the cousin got the munchies, so they got the taxi driver to drop us off at the local Maccas, and decided to WALK home in the POURING rain afterwards!! So they got their crispy chicken and bacon deluxe burgers, and we started to walk back to the hotel. My goodness, I felt like a primary school teacher taking the wild kids on a field trip. Trying NOT to get them run over was a task in itself, and then directing them to the hotel, gahh!! But eventually we got back there, and after taking them both to their respective rooms, I managed to get to my room about 3.30, where I flopped onto the bed ready to pass out. Before I could, however, I realised I needed to set my alarm. This is where my heart REALLY began to sink, because my phone does the wondrous thing of telling me how long I have until my alarm will go off. Telling me I had 4 hours and 15 minutes until I had to be up was not what I wanted to see :’( But it was well worth it.

And so before I knew it, it was time to get up and face the day. Surprisingly, I felt absolutely fine, and with a spring in my step, I awoke, showered, dressed, packed, and got ready to face the day! Heading downstairs to the lobby, the Mitchell clan walked down to the Brookevale Japanese Restaurant, where we indulged in the usual Mitchell tradition that is Yum Cha, to celebrate my uncle’s birthday. It was great to celebrate together with the whole family, since there were people from Darwin, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Following Yum Cha, we loaded our luggage into my uncle’s hire car, so he could carry it around with him until we met up in Hyde Park before going to the airport, so we could go exploring around the city. So we got in a taxi (with the funniest cabby EVER! He is actually a stand up comedian and a musician, and although he decided to tell us his life story, he was still a very nice man), and we jumped on a ferry and travelled from Manly to Circular Quay. This is where my tourist instinct kicked in, and I happy-snapped everything that looked even remotely interesting :P But soon enough, we made our way passed the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, which were incredible sights from far away, but as soon as we got off the ferry, we went right up to the Opera House, and took snaps from all sorts of angles. Unfortunately due to time restraints, we couldn’t make it over to The Rocks and the Bridge, but never fear Sydney, I will be back :)

So after more wandering around the city, we made our way to Hyde Park, where we got our luggage from my uncle, and then spent the next 40 minutes trying to hail a cab. Holy moly, it was the most IMPOSSIBLE thing EVER! Eventually though, we got possibly the dodgiest cab in the entire city, but it got us to the airport JUST in time for my dad to make his flight. However, just prior to him boarding, he took us into the Qantas Business Lounge. Well, where do I start?! The PERFECT way to finish the trip! Dad got us in because he’s a Platinum Qantas Frequent Flyer, but then he had to bail to catch his flight (which was an hour before ours), so Zoe and I got to chill with our free food and drinks for an hour. It was so so incredible :D Satay chicken pies, party pies, meatballs, pizza scrolls... ohhh my, so much amazing goodness!

But the time came for us to head on over to Gate 4 to catch the plane... But oh, what’s that?! Krispy Kreme is right next to Gate 4?! Well, you know what rhymes with “gate”? “Fate”. And fate it was, as we could hear Krispy Kreme call out to us. So we picked up 2 dozen donuts (note: 6 were for Zoe’s boyfriend, 6 were for the girls at work. Then we got stuck into the other 12 as soon as we got home... needless to say, there aren’t many left) and boarded the plane.

After waiting on the tarmac for a good 20 minutes, we finally had lift off! A bit of “clear air turbulence” and the worst movie of all time (Amelia... Richard Gere, Hillary Swank and Ewan McGregor... about as exciting as watching grass grow), and some “braised chicken and rice” dinner saw us through the flight (as well as my amazing iPod; Brick and Solitaire, you are amazing), until touch down at 7.42pm WST.

It was truly one of the best weekends of my life, with meeting SO many incredible people, dancing for 9 hours straight, carving up the streets of Manly, celebrating my uncles birthday with the entire family, and of course witnessing the beginning of my cousin and his wife’s marriage :) So thank you Sydney for showing me a great time, albeit for merely a day. I will most certainly be making my way back there as soon as I can, so get yourself ready :)