/karen/

The 21st day of May

Monday, 23 May, 2005

Saturday. I got up at 5:40 and walked to Jannali station. It's all uphill and you have to climb three or four flights of stairs at this one particular junction where two roads almost meet. The sun was just coming up but of course I couldn't see it. I arrived with plenty of time to spare for my train and I was hot and sweaty to boot.

The number of people on the train surprised me. I think I must have dozed most of the way to Town Hall. It was a lovely morning as I walked down to Darling Harbour and it took less time than I thought. I had misplanned—I was a good twenty minutes early. It was freezing cold. I thought of passengers on the Titanic sitting on their deck chairs in the chilly afternoon sunlight, thick tartan rugs on their knees, drinking gin and reading books. I had my not-so-thick blue and purple rug across my knees and I knitted and waited for Elsie.

She tried to sneak up on me—taking photos of me. I got a shock because she'd cut off all her hair and I haven't been very up-to-date with reading her blog. (See photos.) We both had the traditional breakfast (I love going out for breakfast! I eat so much more and such different things than what I'd usually eat for breakfast): chunky toast, bacon, eggs and fried tomato with a steaming cup of tea to keep us warm. It was lovely catching up with her. But then I had to go get changed (I wore burgundy velvet and black Colorados—great look!) and meet people from church for eQuip.

The problem with conferences like eQuip is that you keep running into stacks and stacks of people you know (not just women—men too; Guan and Simon were there taking care of sound things). In retrospect, perhaps I should have just given my ticket away because I could only stay for the first session. But I was very encouraged by Di's talk on James 1 and the way she talked about perseverance through suffering and even shared some of her own life with us. I was able to say hi to Miriam and wish her luck (she was the third speaker). I saw others fleetingly and managed to have 2-minute conversations with a range of old friends I hadn't seen for a long time. All of which made me wish I wasn't leaving.

Morning tea with 2,000 women is a bit of a jungle and there was not nearly enough morning tea. I think some women were a bit cross at that. Anyways, with morning tea over and me not wanting to interrupt the next session with me leaving, I walked back to Town Hall, hopped on a train and went to Hurstville. I had to buy a card and lunch so Westfield was the logical place to go. I haven't been there in years. I ate sushi and changed my shoes so I looked more respectable for the wedding. Now I just had to lose the oversized crazy backpack I had been lugging around.

I had a vague idea where the church was and I walked up just in time to see my mum and Peter on the other side of the intersection. They let me put my bag in their car. The wedding was about the begin. I had forgotten that it was going to be in a Chinese church until the wedding program was placed in my hand and I noticed it was half in Chinese and half in English. The church was packed out with Asians—including many of my relatives who had flown in from around the world plus a couple on my mum's side I hadn't seen for a while. The service was conducted half in Mandarin and half in English so I have to admit I tuned out a bit. I got my mum to translate bits of the sermon which was on Ecclesiastes but I still missed most of it and I have no idea what the pastor's main point was. There were also some songs that were sung entirely in Mandarin but there was at least one that Ben and I knew.

After the service and the bride and groom going out, they came back in again and they did photos up the front of the church with both sides of the family, friends, youth group, church friends, etc. I got a chance to say hi to my American and Hong Kong relatives properly. Then everyone was leaving and Ben was hungry because he hadn't had lunch so we went back to my mum's and talked about this trip to North America in September (my LA cousin is getting married and my dad wants to fly us over; however my mum and Peter will be in Canada around the same time and they want us to go and meet them there so that we can stay with some old friends and say hi to them).

At 5 there was a tea ceremony at my aunt's place (our place, except it looked so much less like our place now that she's gone through it and tidied things up). I don't think anyone really knows what the tea ceremony is about—everyone just does it for the sake of tradition. We had more photos with all the cousins. My stepmother wanted me and Ben to come for more photos at my stepsister's place but we had already promised to pick up my aunt's friend and drive her and her husband to the reception.

The reception was in Lilyfield and we made good time but arrived heaps heaps early—way before everyone else. All the guests (plus their kids) began to arrive. It seemed to take ages before everyone was seated and we could finally start dinner. The menu was absolutely insane and went a bit like this:

Apertif

Pre-dinner drinks served on arrival.

Entrée

Roulade of smoked salmon accompanied by fresh crispy greens, horseradish spread, bocconcini wrap and crispy lavosh bread.

Platter

Gourmet antipastor delicacies consisting of prosciutto, double smoked ham, grilled asparagus, eggplant, lettuce, banana capsicum, whole roasted tomatoes, grilled corn, baby onions and bocconcini accompanied with woodfired bread. Freshly shucked oysters.

Refreshment

Lemon sorbet drizzled with Malibu served in a balloon wine glass.

Main

Marinated grilled chicken breast filled with mushroom served on a bed of sundried tomato risotto accompanied by asparagus spears, topped with an onion and a tomato and oregano ragout.

Alternate

Marinated grilled fillet of fish served on mushroom risotto accompanied by fresh asparagus spears topped with citrus beurre blanc surrounded by a tomato and basil salsa.

Dessert

Chocolate heart filled with a creamy chocolate gelato accompanied by a berry coulis.

Main course wasn't until 9 pm. And there were speeches (mostly in Mandarin but bits were translated into English) and a short video of my cousin and his bride and games with the bridal party and the bridal waltz and dancing and by 10:30 I was really really tired and discovering all sorts of hitherto unknown features on our digital camera and really really wanted to go home.

When the dancing began, we politely excused ourselves and drove home. I think I slept for ten hours after that and developed a 24-hour cold which kept me from church the next day.

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