On a hot summer day, my brother Marvin, my mother and I made our way into town to the Department of Immigration for our Australian citizenship interview. Marvin and I were nonchalant about it, having memorised the responsibilities (4) and privileges of citizenship (6). Mom fretted about like all mothers do, asking us to recite what we’d learnt, telling us to look presentable etc.
In the end, it was anti-climatic. Mom and I had our interview first because we had arrived earlier. The official looked through our papers and application forms, and made us each recite 2 and 3 of the responsibilities and privileges respectively. She then processed our payment (A$120 each) and congratulated us – our applications have been approved and we will receive notification when to attend a citizenship ceremony at our local city hall.
Marvin had it even easier. His interviewer has a Malaysian wife and they chit-chatted about food and KL amongst other things. And the interviewer *told* him what were the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship were. Nice one, brother.
Anyway, from a soon-to-be official Australian, Happy Australia Day mate!
A few more photos to finish off the series. These were taken by my uncle Chris, father of the groom.
Nice, aren’t they?
And because I’m always taking photos of other people, places and things, I’m hardly ever in my own photos. So here’s one of me taken by uncle Chris. The pram is Jayden’s, my cousins Damien and Linda’s baby boy.
There’s still a few sets of photos to be shown: our day out to Cabramatta, a.k.a “Little Vietnam” to pay our respects to my maternal grandparents whose ashes are interred at a temple there; and my two nights out with my best friends from Perth. So watch out for those!
A brief note to all of you who stumble here via Blinkymummy’s blog: don’t worry, she’s alive. For some reason Blogger has deemed her blog to be a spam blog and she couldn’t log into her account since the beginning of last week. And yes she has tried emailing them but she’s not getting any responses.
She’s currently weighing up her options about how to move forward. You might see her on “Blinkymummy.sg” sometime soon.
On the second day of Shane’s wedding, we got to sleep in a little. Family and guests, excluding the bridal party were to meet at Darling Harbour at 2pm for a 30-minute cruise to McKell Park at Darling Point for the wedding ceremony.
We couldn’t ask for more perfect weather.
Shots taken on the boat – ’twas a river cruise with a difference.
This was the view upon arrival at McKell Park. Wah.
The ceremony itself was short and sweet. There were a few touching moments when both Shane and Kirsten teared up whilst reciting their vows.
At the completion of the ceremony, the crowd headed back to the boat for the return trip.
On the way back, the boat made two separate stops at Luna Park and the Opera House for photos. Each time, the guests remained on the boat as we went round and round the area. This is what we saw.
At the end of the cruise, we headed to the Dockside restaurant at Darling Harbour for the reception.
Shane, his brother Damien, dad Chris, Kirsten, her sister Lauren and dad Warren each made a speech and they were all excellent. Out of the 6 above, everyone cried except for the dads. I almost did too. Shhh, don’t tell anyone.
And that was the second day of the wedding. Both days went off without a hitch. After 6 months (?) of planning, it seemed almost anti-climatic for the parties concerned. The entire extended family and friends had a great time though. And to prove it, my uncle lost his voice.
“Getting the Bride”. The gist of this day was explained in a previous post. Here are the photos and a video to flesh out the story.
So here we are at Shane and Kirsten’s apartment building. The first “gate” was the lobby.
One of the challenges was for the groom to shout out “I love you” 3 times to the bride from the busy street in front of the apartments.
The second “gate” was outside their bedroom window.
Where the challenges and questions continued.
The prize at last.
After getting the bride, we headed back to Uncle Chris’ place for the tea ceremony. Here’s the proud parents, my uncle Chris and aunty Nora. My cousin EP was the coordinator of this part – he’s an old hand at it.
Getting the family jewels.
Shane and Kirsten being served tea by younger cousins and siblings.
After the tea ceremony, everyone adjourned to the backyard for lunch where friends and family from both sides mingled.
So ends the first day, a very relaxed affair. The next day would be a bit more hectic. More photos in my Flickr set.
And here’s a video of the “getting the bride” ritual that morning.
Have landed back in Perth. Time flies when you are having a blast.
Firstly, the reasons for not posting regularly as I normally do:
Hectic schedules and too much fun catching up with family and friends made sitting in front of the computer seem like a big waste of time,
Tiring myself out and in the process killing my creativity and will to post,
Erratic Internet connection at my uncle’s place – cable modems, yeesh.
I have plenty of photos to show and a story or two to tell. These will come up in the next week.
Slightly off on a tangent this – remember how I said I could see myself living and working in Singapore? Well after this most recent trip, I think I can live and work in Sydney too. I think my subconscious is telling me that I need a change. Hmm.
Alrighty, sleep beckons. My body is still on Sydney time.
The past three days went by in a blur of activities. In a nutshell, the wedding was great and was split into two days. Kirsten, my new cousin-in-law is a true blue Aussie blonde and the wedding rituals was a mix of cultures and traditions.
On the first day, Saturday, we did the traditional Chinese wedding practice of getting the bride from her maiden home to go to the groom’s parents’ house for the tea ceremony.
The maiden home is this case was actually Shane and Kirsten’s apartment – her parents home is a 2-hour drive away in country NSW. This part of the day involved the bridal party posing questions about the relationship and tasks for the groomsmen and friends to perform to get through from the front door of the house to the room in the house where the bride would be. If the groom’s party cannot answer any of the questions, or not willing to do some of the tasks (such as eating garlic, or raw pieces of onions), the groom has to fork out money in the form of red packets.
For us, there were three “gates” – the front of the apartment building, outside the window of the apartment, and the door to the apartment. This took us about half and hour or so, and about 13 red packets.
Once that was done, close friends and relatives of Kirsten all got into their cars and we headed back to my uncle’s house. Here we did the tea ceremony – the bride and groom presented tea to the family elders and cousins/siblings who are older, and in return they get jewelery or money. Younger siblings and cousins do the opposite, and they get money from the bride and groom.
This took up about an hour or so and all of us then adjourned to the backyard for lunch. The first day thus ended on a very relaxed note and I liked that it was split into two days.
I will follow up with more photos and possibly a video.
