Medan, Singapore, Doha, London, Glasgow… Yep, five flights to get to
Scotland, my destination of choice for a three week holiday. Phew! I can
definitely state that I was knackered for a while after that. And
luckily, I didn’t have any trouble with my ear on the plane – perforated
or not – which meant I had plenty of time to find the perfect dress to
wear while in Medan with five hours of waiting for my next plane.
The
main reason for going to Scotland: my friends’ wedding. Steph and Jon
are two fabulous friends who worked on Simeulue with me. At first I
wasn’t really sure why they’d chosen such a chilly place to hold their
big day. I arrived at Taychreggan around 8pm on Thursday, after a few
hours on the train heading west from Glasgow (oh yeah add a 3 hour train
ride to my flight tally), just in time to join the early arrivals for
dinner. It was great to see Jon and Steph again – they’d left Simeulue
in the middle of the year, but it felt like I’d seen them only
yesterday.
The next day revealed exactly why they had
chosen this place. Taychreggan is the location of a 300-year-old hotel
situated right on the edge of Loch Awe, a gorgeously serene, misty and
mysterious lake with perfect reflections of the reds, greys and browns
of the countryside around it. And to top it all off, behind the Loch
were some lofty hills with a sprinkling of snow. It may have been
freezing – especially coming from balmy Indonesia – but it was such a
gorgeous location and I could see immediately why they had fallen in
love with it.
‘The girls’ spent Friday pampering Steph.
Steph’s mum Sue, Lucy, Kari, Fritha, Lindsay and myself took her to the
nearby town of Oban, on the west coast, for a manicure and pedicure,
while sipping champagne of course. We took off for a bit of looking
around the beautiful town and some last minute make-up purchases, while
Steph and Kari (childhood best friend and Maid of Honour) got pampered. I
was sharing a room in the hotel with Lucy, an English girl who had
studied in Australia with Steph. We hit it off straight away and were
the only two single girls at the wedding! Friday night the arrived
guests shared dinner and drinks around the bar. The boys became quite
involved in Scotch whisky tasting with the encouragement of David, the
‘everywhere man’ waiter-barman-“I do everything guy” who was a champion
the whole weekend, at our beck and call and delivering everything that
everyone asked. He really made life easy for everyone.
Saturday
morning was spent busily helping to help Steph get ready (and calm her
nerves with champagne and chocolate), decorate the hotel, wrap up the
confetti and a whole bunch of other girly things. The boys, of course,
went clay pigeon shooting near the Loch – a very manly but appropriate
thing to do on the morning of the wedding!
The wedding
itself was simple, elegant and beautiful. A string quartet played ‘all
you need is love’ as a very nervous Steph almost sprinted down the aisle
towards the equally nervous Jon at the altar! Steph’s dress was
gorgeous; a white lace halterneck with a flowing silk gown, and a cute,
almost 1920’s inspired lace hairpiece that partly covered her face. The
marriage celebrant got down to details and it was over almost as soon as
it began, the happy couple moving back down the aisle to the applause
of the smiling crowd.
At the reception dinner, Kari’s
Maid of Honour speech was so lovely that it brought a tear to the eye of
everyone in the room (and I’m glad to say her partner Aaron proposed to
her shortly after the wedding when they went to Edinburgh. I think his
already formed plan, plus her tear-jerking speech, and lots of
encouragement from us in the wee hours of the morning convinced him it
was a good idea!), and Gareth – Jon’s best man – played the clown in
his. Jon’s speech was great because he couldn’t stop referring to Steph
as “my wife”. I love love.
After dinner, we all joined
in the Ceilidh – traditional Scottish group dancing – which was loads of
fun! Half the time we spent just trying to work out what the hell we
were doing, and it was hilarious. A number of the guests cracked out
their traditional family tartan kilts (even a Frenchman – maybe not so
traditional…). There were a lot more drinks at the bar, plus a spot of
snooker on a regulation-size table, which took forever but was fun with a
couple of whiskies under the belt (sneakily supplied by Gareth in his
water bottle) or wearing masks of Jon’s face, which Gareth had made up
and distributed for all the boys to wear. Gold!
What I
loved most about the wedding was the ‘big family’ atmosphere. I don’t
know how many members of the two families and various friends had all
met before, but everyone just clicked. Everyone was so lovely, welcoming
and easy to get along with and I felt like one of the family. Both
Steph and Jon’s relatives were gorgeous. It was also quite a
multicultural wedding; Steph’s family being Canadian/Australian, with a
number of other family members coming from other countries like France
and Russia; Jon’s very traditional English family; plus the group of
friends who came from Australia, Canada and England.
Sunday
involved some refreshing and much-needed walking around the loch to get
to the pub for lunch with the crew who were on their way out. It was
great to have the chance to catch up with Jon, Steph and Sue about the
wedding and life in general, and to share dinner that night with the
remaining family who had so willingly adopted me!
So,
by Monday, part one of the adventure was over when Lucy and I reached
Glasgow. I was a bit sad to leave, but it had been so awesome to be
invited halfway around the world for a wedding, plus I got to meet some
great new people. Lucy was a champ and invited me to her place for
Christmas, which I gladly accepted! Plus, I had the next instalment of
the adventure to look forward to: London.
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