Fit for a king…and us
Posted 31 May 2006 06:18:11 by Michelle
Filed under: Living Overseas | Travel
A major highlight of last weekend’s trip to the Normandy region of France was staying in a real medieval Castle, La Ducrie – complete with moat. Built in the 15th century, it was constructed for the heir apparent to the throne who later became Louis XI of France. The British owners had done well to make the castle comfortable to live in without sacrificing too much of its authenticity and history.
Taking advantage of a long weekend in Britain, Ben and I teamed up with our South African mates, Brad and Jackie, to get the car ferry across to France. Normandy is dotted with lovely, historic towns and beautiful green rolling hills.
You can’t visit Normandy without at least taking a moment to consider the area’s military history. For anyone who’s not up on the details and hasn’t seen Saving Private Ryan, D-Day was June 6, 1944 when the allied forces of Britain, Canada and the US launched an unprecedented attack on the coast of France to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during WWII.
It still remains the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops, 7000 ships, 4000 landing craft and 12000 aircraft crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy.
You could spend weeks visiting the landing beaches and various museums, cemeteries and monuments. It’s all fascinating. But with our limited time we just took in a few highlights.
The first was Sainte-Mère-Église, which was considered the French first town liberated in the WWII Battle of Normandy. A famous incident in the town involved paratrooper John Steele (a famous rellie perhaps?!), whose parachute caught on the spire of the town church, and could only observe the fighting going on below. Bizarely, a dummy paratrooper now hangs from the church spire, commemorating the story.
We also spent some time at Omaha Beach, the most heavily fought after and bloody site, which claimed thousands of American lives. The battleground here was, not surprisingly, rather haunting, as was the American Cemetery, where more than 9000 soldiers were laid to rest, marked by rows of perfectly aligned white crosses as far as the eye can see. Another 14,000 deceased soliders were repatriated to the US.
Mont St Michel is reportedly to be Europe’s most visited tourist attraction and it’s little wonder. I guess the pics speak for themselves but just to explain, it’s a tiny tidal island off the coast, which is home to a Benedictine abbey. I can’t recall a more magnificent scene than when it appears on the horizon as you drive closer. Well worth a visit.
On the drive back to the ferry, we stopped by a few gorgeous seaside towns (Deauville, Honfleur) before arriving at Etretat which is famous for it’s seaside cliffs.
We had a fantastic weekend in an interesting and beautiful area. All topped off with great company and some truly divine local seafood!
Check out some more photies here
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Thailand Honeymooners
Posted 30 May 2006 07:13:07 by Ben
Filed under: Living Overseas
After a hectic 2 weeks in Brisbane running around visiting friends and preparing for our wedding, Michelle and I were glad to have nearly 2 weeks to relax in Thailand.
Our first stop was Bangkok where we enjoyed two and half days exploring the sites and enjoying the local cuisine. After a long flight, and arriving to the hotel at 3am we were more than pleased with the luxuriousness, quality and exceptional service of the hotel and its staff. The hotel is centrally located and I would say it has to be the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in, especially with its very affordable price.
After a good nights rest, Michelle and I spent the first day out and about, shopping. Taking Gerrod and Kristy’s advice we headed out to MBK a huge multi-level shopping mall. You could spend about 7 weeks in this building and still not cover every store. I think there would be at least 52 millions stores with the majority of them selling clothes or shoes. Michelle and I tired ourselves out inspecting everything and buying a few things. In between the shopping we stopped by their food court and enjoyed some yummy Thai dishes.
The next day we headed out on an organized day trip to an elephant park and a historic tour by the River Kwai. While I enjoyed seeing the sites and learning a little bit about Australia’s POW’s I didn’t appreciate the “Elephant Dancing” show that we received. It was quite sad to see these animals doing these circus tricks.
The next day we flew out to Koh Samui. An island about 1 hours flight south from Bangkok. We spent 8 nights here. The first 4 nights we spent at the Imperial Samui and the next 4 nights at the Amari Palm resorts. Both hotels were of exceptional quality, but we enjoyed the Amari a little more as it was centrally located on Chaweng Beach – the main drag, where all the street markets, restaurants and other resorts are located.
With 8 days to utilize in Koh Samui, we spent most of our time just lazing. This means, we ate delicious Thai food, spent hours wading in the pools, and spent quite a bit of time browsing the street markets. Sometimes, when we got too tense from all our lazing we enjoyed a ridiculously cheap full-body massage.
We had the most relaxing time and enjoyed experiencing some time in an Asian country. Koh Samui is a bit commercial – it has a McDonalds – and you’ll find that the main tourist type there is German. For some reason I was expecting to see heaps of Aussies there but no, mainly Germans, a few local Thai people, and a pat-load of dogs. I think there is one Thai person per 2 dogs.
One day, we took a boat trip out to Anthong National Marine Park for some snorkling, kyaking and sight seeing. The marine park is a series of wonderful islands, and the location where the movie “The Beach” starring Leo DeCaprio.
It was very sad, having to end our wonderful holiday. I think we’ll have to have a 2nd honemoon there again soon.
Check out some more photos here.
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Our Wedding – Michelle’s Day
Posted 24 May 2006 06:40:58 by Michelle
Filed under: Living Overseas | Weddings
Great idea Benj. I’m not one to regularly write my thoughts down, but I know we’ll be glad we committed it to paper before our memories start fading.
My day started, as funnily enough it often does, with breakfast! Ang, Jaimee and I shared a few quiet moments before the chaos of the wedding day began. I appreciated the fact that we just chatted about everyday stuff. I’m not sure whether this was a deliberate move by the girls but it succeeded in getting my mind off what lay ahead.
I was particularly touched to receive a few well-wishing text messages and phone calls that morning. Dave in London gave me a laugh, ordering me to “party like it’s 1999″.
The hair and make-up team arrived about 10.30 and got straight into it. I was attended to last, and with time on my hands I found a few silly things to worry about. Would the flowers turn up? Would the photographer get there on time? That sort of stuff. I like to think I was pretty chilled out with the wedding preparations in the lead-up but you wouldn’t have known that on the big day!
I started feeling pretty petrified in the car on the way. We killed time with a few laps around the local area and I’m not sure if it was the tightness of my dress, or merely sheer panic, but I really felt the need to take a few deep breaths.
Walking down the ‘aisle’ was the most incredible moment. I’m pretty sure Dad was bursting with pride (and nerves) and I was too. I felt overjoyed and I’m told it reflected on my face. It was one of those moments you dream about. I was walking alongside one of the most important men in my life and about to be standing beside the other, with all of our precious friends and family there to watch.
The ceremony was perfect, with just the essentials, nothing flowery or yawn-inducing. I was so excited to see Ben and couldn’t wait til we had a moment alone together to share our emotions and thoughts.
We managed to get the official photos over fairly quickly and get back to our guests - for loads more photos.
I remember feeling really excitable the whole time. I was marrying Ben, and at home in Brisbane with all of our precious family and friends. The speeches were perfect, our MC a natural (thanks Gerry), and the wine was flowing!
Just as everyone had warned us, we found the reception whizzed by. I remember at one point taking a look around the restaurant and thinking ‘am I doing what I’m meant to be doing?’! It was impossible to completely relax, but I had a great time.
I regret the fact that we hadn’t managed to see some of our guests prior to the wedding during the two short weeks we were in Australia. It’s hard to have a proper catch-up when you have 85 other people to talk to in one evening!
Saying goodbye at the end was a little heartbreaking as we weren’t just saying ‘see you in a couple of weeks’. I hadn’t thought about that until it was happening.
We had the most incredible time in Australia and enjoyed every bit of it. Thanks to everyone for making it happen.
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Our Wedding – Ben’s Day
Posted 21 May 2006 19:26:58 by Ben
Filed under: Living Overseas | Weddings
Where can you start when trying to describe the immense emotions and happenings of your wedding day. I can’t really speak for Michelle but I can give you an insight into my day and what better place to start then with breakfast.
After starting to feel the enormity of the day it was great to slowly edge my way into it by having breakfast at Racecourse Road. Micah, Gerrod and I enjoyed a few lattes and some eggs benedict while doing some people watching out on the sidewalk. After this indulgence, it was straight to work, with G-pants and I finishing off last minute preparations to our speeches for the evening. A quick bite to eat at mum’s and then it was all on – time to get into our suits and do some family photos. This is when it really started to hit me – I was about to get married.
It was here that I started withdrawing from conversation, a sure sign of my nervousness. My mate, Steve, picked us boys up in a 7 series and we made our way to Eves on the River. While I probably didn’t contribute anything meaningful to the car conversation I did manage to remember some sage advice from my fortune teller friend Jaimee. A few weeks back she had a dream where something terrible happened to us on our wedding day on Kelvin Grove Road. So she made Michelle and I promise not to drive down that road. I’d forgotten all about this dream until I noticed Steve was making his way in that direction. Just in time, I shouted out, “don’t go down that road, turn left” and the tragedy was avoided :)
Arriving at Eves, I managed to finalize all the last minute details and waited down by the river with Gerrod and David as the guests started to arrive. I was so nervous here and struggled to think of anything else but my pending vows. I am sure I was terribly rude to all the well-wishers saying hello and offering kind words before the big event.
It wasn’t long, however, before the beautiful bridesmaids were walking down toward us. They looked absolutely stunning and seeing their smiles put me at ease straight away. I then started peaking out over them looking for my girl. Michelle and her daddy came into view and I was blown away, Michelle was stunning, the girl of my dreams. I was so proud to have her coming down the aisle, wanting to be my wife.
The ceremony flew past so quickly and it’s hard to remember everything that happened, but I do remember just oozing with excitement and being so happy to be marrying Michelle. And to do it in such a lovely area with the sun setting over the Brisbane river and all our friends and family there to witness our day was a once and lifetime feeling.
The aftermath is a bit of a blur too – the whole evening just whizzed by like the F1-11 jetting over the Brisbane river at the annual Brisbane Riverfire event.
We started with the professional photos around the venue. Hopefully we’ll have some awesome shots of us with the Brisbane river and sunset as our backdrop. As we were photographing the guests enjoyed drinks and canapes. Before long it was time to be introduced and start the dinner reception. From here, Michelle and I spent the evening navigating between tables trying to get a few precious minutes with all our guests.
In between all the catchups we managed to enjoy some seriously yummy food. I thought the food was excellent. During this time, I still couldn’t quite relax as I knew I had to make my speech and I generally don’t get too excited about public speaking. I tried a few light beers to ease the nerves but I never managed to get more than about two sips in before a waiter was taking my glass away. I guess I was talking too much.
It wasn’t long however until the speeches came upon us. Up until this point, my best man, had been doing a awesome job of MC’ing the evening. Gerrod is someone you can always rely on. He just rocks and it was a real honour to have him bear witness to our marriage and to also provide a wonderful account of our lives as he MC’d the evening. His ease with it all helped me to relax a little (only a little though) and I’m sure he put Ray and Wendy at ease too as they did their heartfelt speeches. We all made our way through them and I was touched by the beautiful words Ray, Wendy and Gerrod said about us.
I can only hope my speech went ok too. I didn’t hear anyone laughing at me and Michelle didn’t walk away so it can’t have gone to bad :)
After the speeches, I could finally let loose. I downed a XXXX and got to dancing with “the wife of the party”. We bumbled our way through a truly aweful display that can be called anything but dancing but we didn’t care. We were happy to be married and with so many great friends.
A big thankyou to everyone who came and made our day so special, and also a big thankyou to those who couldn’t be there with us but sent us their best wishes. It really made us feel so special.
As it stands, I only have a few photos that I managed to get off people before we left Australia so I haven’t put up an online album just yet, but don’t worry I’ll have a decent album up soon enough. If you have photos from the wedding that you wouldn’t mind sharing with me, I’d love it if you could put them on a cd and send over to us. Shoot me an email, if you need my address.
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We’re Married
Posted 7 May 2006 21:50:13 by Ben
Filed under: Living Overseas | Travel | Weddings
Happiness beems out from our faces as Michelle and I got married on Saturday at Eves on the River.
It’s hard to sum up the best day of your life into a 200 word blog article so I’m not going to try too hard other to say that my wife is beautiful, my friends and family are wonderful and the sunshine was great.
As I am short for time right now, I’m going to leave it to our friends to share with you how our magical day went.
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