Finally we were there, in Karen’s wedding. From the preparation, the big about 7 hours of exciting driving (which is another shocking story), beautiful view of farm, wedding’s guests and bride & groom’s parents, to formal reception and dinner food, there is just too much to say about the whole course of this wedding and the trip to wedding’s venue “Fairview”. It was a long big day, and I really can not make my writing as full as what we have really experienced in the reality. I was so exhausted after we got back home at 11:30pm close to midnight. I was so glad that we got back safely.

I did enjoy:
- The little play-out opportunity of driving that far to the Tumbarumba, which was the first long trip since early of this year. We were kind of expecting a chance to drive out a little far like 2-3 hours’ one-way driving, but the trip was a bit longer than what we initially expected. The view on the road was so great and I love the lavenders growing along the highway;

- The short break at Gundagai and the wooden historic bridge built in 1872, which has been abandoned long time ago but still looks grand and marvellous;

- The beautiful landscape of Fairview which also consists of lots of oriental elements in its garden design. The mountain around the Fairview is fantastic and the setting of wedding was so lovely;

- The appearance and look of priest, whose facial expression and speaking tone exactly looks and sounds like the brother of the priest in the movie “Bachelor” except that he has grey hair. His clarification on “love” was profound. He said to love is not just “love” but also “be together”. He has been separated with his wife for three years since his wife is now living in a nursing home, so he deeply meant it by “together” since he can no longer stay with his wife in this life;

- My choice on my clothes (which concludes a dress with silky ribbon, and a matching silking wrap for the cold night, also the little party hand bag I knitted myself to match my clothes;

- Greetings and chats with guests there. Some of them have recently been to China and apparently showed their friendly attitude to us, the only Chinese guests for this wedding;

- The song sung by Adam and Carolyn who are a lovely couple and very alternative. Adam was also a photographer for the wedding. Carolyn sang a Chinese song “The moon represents my heart” for all the guests, which was absolutely stunning. She and her husband all have beautiful voices. Importantly and impressively, they are very serious about what they do. You can see the passion when they do it. They are the only couple who danced in the hall with the music. Others are just too boring;

- The talk with Louise, my next chair neighbour on the dinner table. She tried to learn the four tones of Chinese. A very brave and keen learner and her daughter is lovely, a very independent girl;

- The talk with groom’s parents, June and Mervyn, who were the first brave Australians been to China in 1972 and 1977 despite the possibility of losing a job in the Australian department when they come back, and know their little family history with China and their son’s; We also had a lovely chat with June’s bridesmaid;

Didn’t enjoy:
- Nearly one hour’s unsealed road driving close to farm, where we had a little car little accident on the way to the Fairview. We nearly hit the tree on the other side of the road. The brake didn’t work and as the road surface was so slippery and we lost the control when turning. The car rushed up to the little hill on the other side of the road and got into part of the big tree’s trunks before it fully stopped. I thought the car was going to turn over at that time, but luckily it didn’t and the tree trunks helped to slow down the car speed. Two big scratches have been left on the car due to the tree trunks. We have to fix it later. Anyway I am glad the scratches are not on my face

- Apart from bride, bride’s parents, there were only two Chinese guests presenting in the wedding, that’s me and my husband. It seemed a very lack of support for bride’s side. She did invited lots of Chinese guests, but they didn’t come for this or that kind of reason. I guess mostly because it’s a long trip, costing money, time and energy. Chinese people more likely take account of their cost and gain in this regard. Where are you, Chinese when they need you? I am very sorry for that;

- A headache afterwards. I think wedding is worth us going because it was fun and gave a good opportunity to experience some social events in Australia. But after one month’s busy coping with social events arranged in our schedules, I feel so drained out. I need to have some weekends totally free of my mind and body, just relax and do nothing.