Last Monday, we had the biggest Crossroads social event ever in the form of the much anticipated wedding of DJ and Liz (affectionately known as Deeje and Whiz). Aside from the fact that they had it on the first of October which happens to be my birthday, it was a truly memorable day and I think worthy of a detailed report. As it is our newsletter writing day this coming Friday, I thought I might save the story and for that. I was asked to take photos on the day along with 2 other girls and am currently working my way through some 5 gigs worth (that’s a lot for those who aren’t so technically minded) - compiling, culling, cropping and colour correcting. I have managed to get the collection down to a mere 500 photos and am not quite half way through making sure each one is up to standard! When the photos are ready I’ll upload some to my web album. If you want to see DJ & Whiz’s website that I helped to work on have a look here. You’ll find some of the photos that Carine took there too. Here's one I took of the beautiful bride...
Of course anyone who is anyone was there, including Miss Dally who came donning a gorgeous Indian number belonging to the wife of Kamal (Australian singer)...
Pre wedding of course there was a bucks night (for the guys, obviously) and a hen’s night (for the chickies of course) and several other celebratory events such as a dessert night and a henna night. The henna night was for the girls and we painted each others hands and feet with intricate patterns using henna dye which lasts for about 2 weeks – (hence it was exactly 2 weeks before the wedding). Riba and I shared the privilege of painting the bride’s hands back and front… here is the result:
The hen’s night was great time of getting to know Whiz better and encouraging her in her bride-to-be-ness. One of the things we did was split into groups to create a ‘wedding dress’ from newspaper for various appointed 'brides'. There were some stunning designs as you can see…!
On to a more personal event that has been pre-occupying me the past few weeks and that is moving into a single flat on my own. I began to feel that at my age and stage and after many many years of share flatting, it might just be time to spread my wings and move out on my own. It so happened that when I voiced this desire to Maria who oversees who lives where, that there was in fact a single flat being renovated and as yet no one in line to live in it. I was SO her man! It had been suffering from The Damp and needed a roof repair as well as ceilings and walls scraped, sealed and painted. I watched over the weeks as each stage was completed by a variety of volunteer teams including some from the US Navy, the British Consulate and the Doulos mission ship all headed up by Kenny who was here at Crossroads for 5 weeks and who I know from my time living in Berowra.
When everything was pretty much in place, Riba, Jes, Pablo and Helen came over (on a random public holiday we had in the middle of the week) and helped to scrape the old contact off the windows (Riba, Jes & Helen) and drill holes in the walls (Pablo) for shelves and hooks and things like that. What a difference we made in one afternoon! Now the place is looking fab and just needs some pictures on the walls to decorate it a little. The Harrisons joined us for a little house-warming cheese cake that Pablo made to celebrate. Sharing flats can be great and I’ve made some of my best friends from my share-living experiences, but there’s something about having a little plot of space that is my own that is really sitting very well with me!
For a weather update, the pollution has reached ‘health hazard’ levels which isn’t surprising since there’s a visibility of pretty much zero out to sea. I’ve bunked down at home with air-con and air-purifier in the hopes of sparing my lungs from the filth as much as possible. Hopefully it will pass soon, It’s already been 3 days and apart from anything else is not a pretty sight!
We have had a lot of visitors and people coming and going from Crossroads lately, what with The Wedding and all, so I decided to bite the bullet and join the People Movers team – those who have been here less than a year (so can drive legally on their home license) or have a Hong Kong drivers license and are thus able, and hopefully willing, to do airport runs for pickings up and droppings off. After doing 2 runs with the help and guidance of other people, I dropped a lady off this morning under my own sense of direction and on a wing and a prayer made it there and back. It’s actually a fairly straight forward drive and takes less than half an hour, but I know that one wrong ‘veer to the left’ could mean ending up on the freeway to Kowloon and I’m not emotionally prepared for that just yet, so my concentration levels have been quite intense!
For my birthday, my department gave me a gift voucher to Ikea (very thoughtful!) which I happily went off to ‘spend’ yesterday. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Ikea, but I’m pretty sure this one is a particularly large version of the store. It’s more of an EXPERIENCE than a shop. For one, it’s nearly endless. The top floor (which is huge) is all displays so you can see how all the lovely things work together and dream on (and on)… and then downstairs, which has the same floor space as upstairs, are all the items (and more), only packaged and ready to go. By the time I got to the checkout, I felt like a different person. My eyes had been opened to the world of (serious and deliberate) home making. And I had a trolley of exciting little additions to my new home, so I was pleased-as-punch even though I was thoroughly ready to go home and put my feet up on one of the cool poofs (pouffes?) I got from our Furniture Department. He he!
I've put up some more photos of the girls henna and hen's nights as well as my new flat here.
