The last month of my life was one big, crazy hiatus which thankfully went well and ended up in smiles and yes, even some tears. The wedding was everything we wanted. While the week leading up to The Day was full of last-minutes hiccups which seemed like mountains of troubles, Saturday was calm and quite serene. I tried to sleep in as late as I could, but obviously couldn’t so by 8 I was having coffee with mum. My two closest aunts came over to our house and spent the day with us, first having cupful after cupful of coffee, and then helping us put everything in place and setting things up for the afternoon. At one in the afternoon, the hairdresser and make-up artist arrived, and they started working on us all. I had a small bridal party (a maid of honour, one bridesmaid and a flower girl), so we were in good time. We were giggling, laughing, panicking a bit at times (when I remembered that I had forgotten to try on the flower girls’s shoes – thank God they fit!), and suddenly too aware that time was closing in so fast!
I love this picture a friend took of me!
I had a late mass – it started at 6.30pm, so at 5pm the cameramen arrived and from then onwards the night just flew by! We opted for my village’s smaller church, since the parish one is too big and cold for me. And it was the best choice we could make, because it was fully packed, and the whole effect was one of coziness and warmth. Joseph Chetcuti dazzled us all with his violin, whilst Mons. Victor Grech reduced everyone to tears (including himself!) with his beautiful words during the sermon.
🙂
The reception was held on hotel grounds, and we were lucky to have a cool breeze all throughout the evening. We ate, chatted, took loads of photos, danced, mingled and overall had the best time of my life! I followed the advice I had read somewhere – to stop for a couple of minutes, look around you, and be happy that it all turned out exactly as you wanted. Seeing people enjoying themselves was gratifying in itself, and for us to have actually ‘lived’ the evening was the cherry on the cake.
We left for New Zealand the Monday after. We stopped for 2 nights in Dubai where we met up with an old school friend of mine, who actually lives there, and her husband and herself picked us up at our hotel and gave us a tour of Dubai themselves. I don’t think we could have done it otherwise, since the heat there is unbearable. We arrived at midnight and the temperature was 45 Celcius! Imagine having a heater blowing on full blast – it truly is suffocating!
After 13 hours from Dubai, we arrived in Melbourne, where the plane stopped for re-fuelling, and a further 3 hours took us to Auckland, NZ. The hours on board the plane are long ones, but the plane in itself is a luxurious one, and with over 200 movies, countless albums, games and TV shows, the hours were soon filled in. We had the extra bottle of wine to help us sleep, which thankfully it did, and the hours passed by more quickly than I had feared they would.
In NZ we rented a car, and we had an automatic one – and both of us had never driven one, so that was a new, and scary experience for us. A trusted me with driving on the first day, and at one moment I pressed on the brake thinking it was the clutch, and we went from 120km/hr to nil in 3 seconds!! I was boycotted from driving for the rest of the day, but I then had to help A, so after some other minor mishaps, I got used to the car, and off we went.
We spent nights in Auckland, Tairua, Rotorua and Napier and then drove back north to Auckland where we left for Malta again. The experience was a beautiful one. The scenery is amazing and jaw-dropping and it’s nature’s best show-case in my opinion. It took a while getting used to the 14-hour time difference (we once slept from 6 in the afternoon to 8 the following morning!), but it was worth everything and much more!
Now I’m back on the Rock. A left yesterday, and I follow him in three weeks’ time.
And I can’t wait 🙂
Cup of Crazy! 