Monday, May 01, 2006

It's Big. It's a Merino.

I'm back, from the wilds of Canberra! We had a lovely trip, if anything it was too short.

If I told you that we went to a wedding where during the reception the groom stabbed the bride in the hand, would that make it sound like they were white trash? Like the wedding was in a trailer park? (Actually it was a lovely wedding, at a lovely home, and the bride and groom are anything but white trash, but in terms of blog material you almost couldn't make this up if you tried.)

At the end of the evening the bride and groom were opening their gifts, when there was an accident involving a kitchen knife, the recalcitrant tape on one of the gifts, some alcohol and a slip of the hand. Fortunately there was a nurse in attendance as a guest, but the evening ended with the wedding party heading off to the Emergency Room for the bride to have some stitches, as we headed back to our hotel. Apparently they returned an hour or so later and finished opening the gifts, so it wasn't too bad.

We stopped at Goulburn on the way through to Canberra to visit the great Aussie icon, The Big Merino. During the '70s and '80s Australian country towns were obsessed with building Big Things to attract passing tourists. The Big Pineapple, the Big Banana, the Big Prawn... the list is almost endless.


It's Big. It's a Merino.
Originally uploaded by Other Andrew.



As always, I took a lot of photos. Canberra is quite a bit cooler than Sydney at this time of year, and has a lot of European and American trees, so has a much more spectacular Autumn than we are used to. The colours were absolutely stunning, and so Morgan and I couldn't help but stop and take lots of photos. I'm still in the process of putting pics up on Flickr, but if you have a look at my photostream you'll see some of the Goulburn and Canberra pics that I have put up already.


Canberra Colours
Originally uploaded by Other Andrew.




Autumn Golds
Originally uploaded by Other Andrew.



Before heading home on Sunday we visited the National Gallery of Australia and spent a few hours touring a wonderful exhibition of Islamic art from South East Asia, wandering through parts of the general collection, and exploring the sculpture garden. Then we met up with a lovely friend of Morgan's, and fellow blogger, Zoe for a late lunch of yummy Turkish food.

It was a very relaxing weekend, the perfect antidote to a busy and stressful week. The wedding was beautiful, even with the reception bloodbath, and it was really nice to see friends I hadn't seen for a while and catch up with what has been happening in their lives. Morgan and I are just enjoying spending time together more and more, and so spending the weekend together was a joy.

Morgan has also posted a blog entry about the weekend.

11 comments:

The Other Andrew said...

::crickets::

Helloooooo! Is this thing on? I'm boring now, right? Too happy = too boring... Shit. I'm sure I can work up some unhappiness if I try. Maybe.

LOVE ME, GODDAMMIT!

::hello?::

Anonymous said...

Hellooo! Too happy? Well that makes two of us, but I'm not sure that it's something you can have too much of.

The Other Andrew said...

That's why I added the "maybe", because I'm not sure I could do a convincing "unhappy" right now. :)

Anonymous said...

You can do a cute pout, I've noticed. But maybe I should stop - maybe we're just too much for your commenters now?

Michael Guy said...

Of course we all still love you, Andrew. Maybe just toss in a few 'Morgan beats me' and we'll all hover like flys on..well, you get my drift. Who needs more drama? The 'cut and run' wedding sounded memorable. How was the cake? I always judge a wedding by how much cake I can eat.

.: loves butter cream frosting :.

BTW: that merino thing needs a coat of paint or something. It's scary.

Michael said...

No, no, not too much. For me, anyway. I roared through Kathy G's standup last night and then promptly fell asleep.

ALTHOUGH, Morgan, I'm glad you cleared up some confusion for me. I always thought I lived in America's heartland, but apparently it's the heartLESS land. ;-) Can't argue too strongly.

Miss Eudoxia said...

We love you honey...just some of us are just having melt downs for various reasons.
As wellas being busy trying not to get any sicker than we already are!!!
P.S. I have an assignemnet question I desperately need help from you boys on...let me know if you can post a question for me on your blog.

The Other Andrew said...

Oh, the cake was divoon! The bride is a superb cook and made it herself. 3 layers: 1 gooey chocolate, 2 Gluten free hazelnut sort of goodness, 3 moist fruit cake. I ate from all three layers! Each layer surrounded in chocolate and applied gold leaf. Spectacular.

Good suggestion on the sheep painting, I'm thinking something from the Martha Stewart range. Duck egg blue stizz.

Michael, anywhere you are is the heart of things! Centre of he universe even.

Miss E, sorry to hear your not on top form. Ask any question!

Miss Eudoxia said...

Thanks TOA. Not sure if you could do it as a seperate blog entry or what..here it is.......i figured nonoe would read it on mine :-)

For my law assignment there is a section on vulnerable people. Homosexuals and transgender are a sub group of this.

What i need to know is what problems arise between this subgroup and the police today.
Do you feel you as a group are vulnerable and/or have trouble with dealing with the police? Why do these problems exist?? Any thoughts from anyone on this (or associated thoughts) greatly appreciated. Will set up an email if anyone wants to vent off line :-)

Ta hon.

Miss Eudoxia said...

OK I have an address....

miss_e_assignment@yahoo.co.uk

no idea why it sent me to the UK but that is life! Thansk to anyone who will help.
Miss E

Zoe Brain said...

It was great seeing you both, I just wish we could have had more time.

As for the Big Merino - see pictures of Norstrilia.

More at Wikipedia of course.

Any resemblance between JORN and Mother Hitton's Farm is purely coincidental.