/karen/

30/09/05: In which we go to a wedding without a wedding

Thursday, 29 December, 2005

Our last full day in California. I woke up early and decided to do what I'd been meaning to do all week—walk to the coast. Uncle Joe gave me directions, told me to take a water bottle and then I set off. It was stinking hot and it was a good thing I had my hat. The road was fairly flat and there was hardly any room between the houses (mostly obscured by their big scary looking fences and their big scary looking security systems) and the road to walk but I managed okay, even if it was a little disconcerting to have cars driving on the wrong side of the road coming straight at me.

I took a wrong turn and had to come back but eventually I ended up at the coast and followed the path down to the stairs which led to the beach. It was filled with rocks and there were a bunch of guys fishing. LA smog seemed to make everything hazy. I didn't stay long (got overly paranoid being a lone female out and about with all these males everywhere) and so walked back.

The rest of the morning was pretty relaxing. Helena and Auntie Ruth had gone to the hairdressers'. My dad went to run a few errands and pick up some Melatonin for me for my mum (it resets your body clock. Pilots use it to get over jet lag). I had a nice shower but then had major problems with the taps. In Australia you turn both the hot water and the cold water taps anticlockwise to turn them on and then clockwise to turn them off. The cold tap is on the right, the hot tap is on the left. In Canada most places just had a lever which you lift to get water and then twist left or right to make it hotter or colder. But in LA the cold tap is on the left and the hot tap is on the right and you turn the hot tap anticlockwise to turn it on (and then clockwise to turn it off) and you turn the cold tap clockwise to turn it on (and then anti-clockwise to turn it off). You can see why I had trouble. I had been turning the cold tap anticlockwise but there must have been something wrong with the plumbing or the washer or something because, instead of resisting, it would actually turn on for me. Turning it off was a different matter and I would have to do this complicated thing where I turned it clockwise and then anti-clockwise to get it to stop. Anyway, on this particular morning I must have fiddled with it too much because the whole tap came off and sprayed cold water all over the bathroom floor. I had to call to Ben for help and we cut off the water supply to the vanity by turning off the taps in the vanity cupboard.

Then I had to tell Uncle Joe who was not very pleased (because he was feeling a bit stressed, what with the wedding and everything) and he told us to use the bathroom next door. Which we did—Ben had his shower in there—but I found the same problem was starting to occur with the taps.

We had lunch before leaving. I think my dad went and got us some food and we sat around the kitchen eating it. And then everyone got dressed and ready to go—Ben borrowing a tie from Uncle Joe because of the California Club's dress regulations which go like this:

In order to preserve the customs and traditions at The California Club, all the Members, Privilege Holders and their Guests are requested to conduct themselves with decorum and in keeping with the Club's traditional concepts of dignity and mutual respect. Gentlemen are asked to wear coats and ties and Ladies to wear dresses, suits or skirts (with blouses, sweaters or jackets) or appropriate dress pant suits in keeping with the above standards.

(I forgot to mention in my last entry that my cousin Alec arrived the day before—my dad had gone to pick him up. His wife, Carmen, couldn't make it as she had to work.)

Kenneth, Alec, Helena and my dad went off together; Ben and I went with Uncle Joe and Auntie Ruth. Uncle Joe was pretty stressed and Auntie Ruth was fretting about her dress. I fell asleep in the car again and only woke up when Uncle Joe accidentally backed into a wall.

At the California Club, the car was parked by valets and we went inside and up to the third floor where there were all these people I didn't know. I suppose I ought to be used to that by now—I'm always being thrown into those sorts of situations around my father—but it's still unsettling. Cyrus and his wife, Akiko, were busy having family and wedding party photographs done in one of the formal lounge areas. Remember they had already gotten married in August so all of this was really just the trimmings to their “wedding”. All the girls were in formal gear; all the boys were in kimonos. They looked pretty cool too:

We also had a family photo together:

My brother laughed at me and told me that my watch didn't match my other jewellery.

In the other room there was a light buffet where you could get nibbles and drinks. There was also a black grand piano. Helena urged Ben to sit down and play it and he did so for a while to humour her.

After a while the photographs stopped. Ben and I went walking and explored the club a little. Then Ben got bored and we walked out of the club and down the street. I wasn't sure if we were allowed to just wander off like that but Ben didn't much care—he was really bored. He took some pictures of me as we walked so here's another of me with short hair:

We walked for a couple of blocks until we found a shopping mall and then went in (Ben was, once again, looking for CD shops). There was a bookshop there and I found a free Korean manga sampler. Then I suggested to Ben that we ought to go back.

When we got back in, we found that no one had minded that we had wandered off and that we probably should have stayed away longer because dinner wasn't for a while. Pre-dinner drinks were starting soon, however, so everyone went down. Ben and I lingered for a little while in the room where all the photographs were taken before going downstairs ourselves.

The California Club had all this original art on the wall—boring art done by people I didn't know, not particularly good stuff. The room where they were serving pre-dinner drinks was massive and had a fire place at either end. I could imagine all these businessmen, lounging around on the leather couches, reading newspapers and smoking cigars.

More strange people I didn't know drifted in. These must have been the family and friends who were invited for the actual wedding feast as opposed to the family and friends who had come earlier for the photos. I got introduced to a lot of people who looked very important but were of no significance to me. I was feeling rather uncomfortable and didn't strike up conversation with any of them.

We were waiting for ages so I went about taking pictures. Here's Ben on what I thought was a candy-striped couch:

Here's the reception hall without any people in it (also massive—bigger than the other room):

And this is what the ceiling of the reception hall looked like:

We were finally called in and found our seats according to the seating chart. Ben and I were seated with Alec, Kenneth and a bunch of other young people whose names I didn't know and who were probably friends with Akiko. On the table there were these cute little plastic Chinese takeaway boxes with chopsticks on top:

Inside they contained fortune cookies which Ben promptly ate because he was so hungry.

The M.C. welcomed in the wedding party who took their seats at the high table. Cyrus and Akiko were donned up in traditional Chinese and Japanese dress respectively. They had the tea ceremony in the centre of the dance floor where Cyrus and Akiko knelt on cushions in front of their relatives who sat on chairs, with attendants bringing cups of tea and silently removing the gifts the couple were given to put them in a safe place.

Then the Rich Eames Jazz Quartet kicked off with their set while the tables on either side of the room queued up for the seafood buffet which surrounded the pretty ice sculptures.

As I went up to get food, I daringly said to the keyboard player, “Can you do, ‘These are a Few of My Favourite Things’?” He nodded, had a chat with the rest of his quartet and, what do you know, they did it!! And it was brilliant too. I gave him a huge thumbs up as I went back to my seat.

The seafood buffet was so yummy I went back for seconds which was a big mistake because the next course was filet mignon which I only barely got through. Then there were the speechesÔby the father of the bride (which I think had to be translated into English because he spoke in Japanese), Uncle Joe (who did not do what my dad did and say that he “lost” his speech when he fact he didn't write one in the first place), the chief bridesmaid, the best man and then the couple themselves who thanked everyone—especially all their Australian relatives who had come such a long way to be part of this.

They cut the cake and then the dessert buffet was open (Ben had been particularly enthusiastic ever since Cyrus mentioned that there would be “a room full of dessert”. There was a room full of dessert but it was not full of dessert! Nevertheless Ben ate a lot of dessert!) Cyrus and Akiko did the bridal waltz:

and then the dancing began. Cyrus told us that we had to dance at least one number so Ben and I (who don't dance) got up and shuffled around the dance floor for a while. And then spent the rest of the evening just watching everyone else dance until it was time to go home with Uncle Joe and Auntie Ruth (who were carrying flowers because they had been told to take them home as they were already paid for) and go to bed ... well, finish packing first and then go to bed.

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