Saturday, October 10, 2009

Penguins, Pink Tongues and ATMs - a great wedding all round

Not surprisingly I survived the wedding. Not only survived, but actually enjoyed it. I mean hey, it was a week long holiday to one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in the company of all my boys. Ideal almost!

It was Q’s first time south of the equator and he kept obsessing about figuring out whether water goes down the drain in the opposite direction from the northern hemisphere. In the end I don’t think it was ever figured out. We were too busy having a blast.

We stayed in a bunch of amazingly trendy flats in an area of Cape Town called De Waterkant (Afrikaans, and absolutely rude when pronounced properly (duh vah ter kuhnt) to us English speakers!)
Q had a field day with that one! Their website lists the properties as ideal for ‘gay stay’ which was quite far from our agenda, but nonetheless, we found out the area had other ideas… The area used to be quite rough, but has been cleaned up recently and lots of cafes, cute shops and boutique hotels line the streets. The owners are a friendly enough gay couple, who have an array of gay focused brochures and newspapers, and while we sat in the office on a serious note, discussing a potential theft of camera SD cards, I couldn’t help but pick up a copy of the Pink Tongue!!

But I definitely digress.

We went for a wedding and it was a great one. It was all a bit last minute and why not?! Stress shouldn’t be part of the party to unite two souls in my opinion. The day before the nuptials, we were huddled around an ATM en mass, trying to draw enough cash to pay the stubborn wedding planners who told us just then that thy didn’t take credit cards…

On the morning of the wedding, the ceremony was e-mailed to the officiating friend to read and remember, and on the way to the venue with our bride in tow, she let us know she’d forgotten a cake. No worries! We pulled over at a bakery in Simonstown and picked up a cute little chocolate lemon cake, which the wedding venue decorated with flowers and which came in handy later, for bride and groom to cut symbolically together and smear in each other’s faces. All in good fun.



The ceremony itself, at Boulder’s Beach, with the penguins and other visitors to the park as the background audience, was blessed with the best weather in Cape Town one could ever hope for. No wind, lots of sun…

It looked like a movie scene… Our bride looked beautiful. The whole backdrop was surreal. I don't think you could have asked for better.

I volunteered as photographer while JW and our boy's mom sat upfront to proudly ‘give away’ their son. I saved my hugs and pride for later, and wiped away the happy tears from behind my lense…

And the after party put all family differences in the bin, while we bonded and danced and drank and danced some more until it was midnight and the DJ called it a night… I think we could have gone on for hours.

The best part of this trip was seeing all the boys bond. In step-families it can go wrong so easily. It can make life uneasy and put all the relationships on edge. In our case however it has always gone well. Everyone gets along. Everyone accepts and gets on with life. And on this trip everyone had the chance to hang out (which isn't often now that the big boys are scattered across North America and we are here on the dark continent), to support each other, to be proud and to feel the love that family represents. I felt something shift. We’d all become closer. We’d all grown and we’d gained even more respect for each other. And that is good enough for me!
Thanks For Making This Possible! Kindly Bookmark and Share it.

Technorati Digg This Stumble Stumble Facebook Twitter

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

It does sound like a lovely experience. So pleasing to see a posting which isn't just venting on frustating experiences - glad it all went well for you.

Welcome back to normality!

Moooooog35 said...

Thank you for swinging by...and for the link!

Glad you found a blog that made you laugh.

It IS awesome.

But then again, I'm biased.

FYI - might want to search my blog for the term 'Ghana'...there, you'll get a lovely story about my daughter's 3rd grade African Dance festival.

Did I mention I live in New Hampshire?

Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you had a divine week in sunny SA, Hols. And the wedding sounds perfect.

When are you going to pop over to Abuja for a weekend? :)

xxx
M

Lorelei said...

Welcome back! I'm glad all went well and that you had a great time!

Brittany at Mommy Words said...

What a beautiful wedding and story! What I would have given to get married with that backdrop! I'm excited to read about more of your adventures and I am now following! So nice to meet you!

Jan Halvarson said...

Sounds so lovely, and a really nice story. You sound like a cool stepmom, not one to be sitting on a back seat.

Anonymous said...

Oh wow....I knew you would have had a memorable time there.

Families who put aside the issues that divide and embrace the love and the time together lasts a lifetime.

Thanks for sharing.

Sahildeki Ev said...

Sounds lovely.. I enjoyed your post..

ladytruth said...

It was so funny to see how you explained Waterkant in English. My English friends say Afrikaans people are really rude when it comes to pronunciation: we laugh until it hurts when you try to speak it or merely attempt a word ;)

Sounds like you just caught the good weather; things are windy and chilly here now and there's a cold front creeping our way. Glad it turned out well :)

Alison from Cape town said...

Looks like a fun wedding. I love the 'I forgot a cake' story! You are right, why obsess about details and bury the occasion in stress? If I got married again I would do a lot less planning :)

Dutch Sugar Babe said...

Looks and sounds like a great wedding. Beautiful dress, btw.

The pale observer said...

Thanks Alison and Donut girl!!! It was great and I learned some lessons about over-plannning too! :)

Miss Angie said...

Beautiful! Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Raven said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog. The wedding sounds just delightful. I'm glad you had such a good time. :-)

The pale observer said...

Thanks Angie and Raven - heading over again now! :)

Anonymous said...

I'm the kind of guy who passions to taste different things. Presently I'm making my personal pv panels. I'm managing it all by myself without the assistance of my men. I'm utilizing the internet as the only path to acheive this. I discovered a truly amazing website that explains how to build photovoltaic panels and wind generators. The internet site explains all the steps needed for photovoltaic panel building.

I am not sure bout how precise the information given there iz. If some people over here who had xp with these works can have a peak and give your feedback in the site it will be grand and I would really appreciate it, because I truly like solar panel construction.

Tnx for reading this. U people rock.

Anonymous said...

Amiable fill someone in on and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you on your information.

Anonymous said...

Well I assent to but I about the collection should secure more info then it has.

Holiday in South Africa said...

You are really in a good time.

Viswa said...

Looking Fun Wedding,really awesome..

Blog Widget by LinkWithin

Say something! Ramble a bit...

Visitor counter from June 5th, 2008


website counter
Writing Community