Weddings, Break dancing and Caffeine - just another trip to Sydney

Every now and then, you find yourself doing something that deserves a momentary pause for thought, where you ask yourself, "how the hell did my life bring me to this?" You might think I am about to go into some sort of "how did I end up in Canberra?" speel, but no, not this time (although this thought does enter my mind pretty much on a daily basis - and I might add that this thought is not neccessarily a negative one). This particular event occurred in the wee hours of Sunday morning (aka Saturday night) when I found myself alone on a dance floor, break dancing to Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby", in a Chinese restaurant, harbour side in The Rocks district of Sydney. I was dancing alone, because, through some strange and unexplainable chain of events, my break dancing abilities seemed to be what my fellow dancers wanted at about 2am. This has some history, which I won't go into now, but lets just say that my unique brand of "pasty white guy" hip-hop seems to have found an audience among my new Canberra friends. Anyway, the question that remains is why Aff and I were in Sydney, at a Chinese restaurant, where one could dance while looking out a window at the Harbour bridge on the left, and the Opera house on the right. Only one thing - a wedding reception! And I must say, one of the classiest I have ever been to (second only to my sister Shelley's of course!).

I should say that while the location itself was impressive, the classiness of the reception was certainly not soley the product of this impressive, high risk terrorist target location. Rather, the happy newly weds - Lee-Fay and Tim (though not as new as most marital couples at a wedding reception, given they eloped in Rome about 5 or 6 weeks beforehand), were themselves a class act. They were particularly conscious of the fact that friends and family had missed out on their wedding ceremony, and so went to extraordinary lengths to make up for this by lathering the night with romance and fun. You might think this sounds a little mushy, but at *no* point did I think, "get a room guys!". They provided a slide show of their wedding ceremony, with accompanying music which was very well done. However, it was the bridal dance (for want of a better label) that had brought about many watery eyes in the room (though it may have also been the chilly prawns eaten just beforehand). They danced to a Ben Fold's song that I unfortunately do not know the name of. The dance was amazingly well rehearsed, and certainly was not a bridal waltz. At that point I got the sense that everyone in the room was very glad to be there!

The speeches were A grade as well, and for someone like me who has not known Tim or Lee-Fay that long, the speeches were most informative (all I will say is, never let Tim near a nuclear power plant!) Other entertainment included belly dancers, and an MC, Chris (not me) with all the wit, charisma and self deprecating charm that you could ask for in a master of ceremonies. Indeed, as Tim put it when thanking Chris: "our ceremonies were indeed mastered". Chris also has the most professional radio voice you could imagine, which is not surprising given he and Tim have both been involved in Sydney community radio (Tim is now a regular on Canberra public radio).

So the question still remains, how did I end up break dancing to Vanilla Ice at 2am - well, its a simple mix of a couple of things: take one all inclusive bar tab, add four encouraging friends who have seen you do it before, stir in a pinch of anonymity, some cheesy eighties and nineties hits, and top it off with a bucket load of self confidence, and there you have it - a tragic, pasty white, break dancing machine. I should say that this performance came after Tim's Russian dancing, and a number of other solo performances from other guests. It was a great night!

Like all great nights, they inevitably are followed by very dodgy mornings. However, I worked out later that I must not have drank that much at the wedding reception, because I had solid memories of everything, and did not feel particularly bad on Sunday morning. Even if Aff and I did feel dodgy, we had the perfect cure for this on Sunday. I suspect the great wedding reception God's were smiling on Tim and Lee-Fay's reception because on the Sunday, in the very same area of Sydney (The Rocks), Australia's largest coffee festival was being held. Could there be any better way to nurse a hangover than to sit on the grass, with a view of the Harbour, drinking copious amounts of fantastic coffee, at only $1 a pop. I THINK NOT!

Needless to say, I was wired! Aff and I met up with some other friends (who had also come up for the wedding), and drank coffee all afternoon before collecting our car, and driving back to Canberra. With seven caffeine hits under my belt, I can tell you that the drive back to Canberra, which is normally not a particularly interesting journey, was one of the most exciting (and amazingly quick) drives I have ever had, and i don't even know why. That night I stayed up until 3am watching cricket (despite it being largely washed out due to rain) and the Tour de France, and still didn't feel tired when I went to bed.

So anyway, it was a great trip to Sydney. I would also like to use my blog to wish Tim and Lee-Fay a very happy life together.

And to anyone else planning a wedding reception ...

I urge you to consider Sydney harbour ..or at the very least .. include some Vanilla Ice in your music selection :)