Fion and Edward's Wedding

Fion and Edward

Weddings are always special occasions, especially when it is a special friend getting married. Today we were privileged to attend Fion and Edward's wedding. Fion was Queenie's colleague when she worked at American Express and has continued to be a super supportive friend over the years. Edward and Fion have been dating for a couple of years and today was their big day. It was a wonderful wedding and we are glad the couple could be sent off into married life in such a way. As can be expected, Fion looked stunning on her day and well, lets admit it, Edward didn't look to bad either heh heh heh....

Fion walks in with her Mom.


Fion Thanks her Mom


Us with Fion and Edward


Edward with us before Proceedings


The Happy Couple

We wish them all the best for their future and hope that their future is filled with immense joy and happiness and of course tons of fun.

Our Wish for the Happy Couple

Apart from being able to celebrate with Fion and Edward, Queenie also got the chance to catch up with many of her ex-colleagues from American Express and I got to meet some of them for the first time. Hopefully Queenie can establish more regular contact with them. They are a fun group of people. Some of them have moved on in different directions, and others have stayed at American Express. All in all though, I am sure they are all a little wiser than before.

Queenie at the Wedding


Lawrence and Queenie


Fred, Angela, Ellen, Queenie & Lawrence


Lawrence doing his thing

The wedding it self was held at the Banquet Hall in the Miramar Complex in Neihu. In my estimation its a great venue. Excellent food, easy to get too and good service. it was a good choice of venue for them. When we walked in each table had an elaborate centerpiece which was quickly removed once the food started to arrive. Most of the food was traditional Taiwanese wedding food. Starts off with cold meats (chicken, duck etc.) then chicken soup, shrimps and fish with the black chicken soup too. But this wedding was amazing for the rack of ribs that was served. Anyway, a sampling of the food is below. To be honest, the food was so damn good, I had to stop eating before the end and never got to tast the last couple of dishes as I was so stuffed. Wish I had saved more room for the ribs. It was really yummy.

Beautiful Centerpiece


The Menu


Chicken, Duck and Other Goodies


Chicken Soup


Have no idea!!!


Shrimp


Garlic Bread


Fish


Rack of Pork Ribs


Fish


Squid


Dumplings


Black Chicken Soup


Mwajee

It was a fantastic wedding and we were certainly privileged to attend. Today must be one of the greatest day sof their lives, but we hope and wish that they have even greater days that lie ahead together. Good luck Fion and Edward. Today was the first step in what we know is going to be an amazing journey for you both. God Bless.

More Pictures @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/durbanbay/sets/72157623988641125/

Its Been a While

Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park

Hey everyone its been a while since we posted. Couple of months to be precise. Since then a lot of things have happened. We have been looking for a house (so far unsuccessfully) been back to South Africa, celebrated our 8-year anniversary and been fairly busy in our jobs. Added to the fact that we are always tied up behind computers everyday which reduces the appeal of blogging when we get home. Anyway, we will start blogging with more regularity in the future.

We still need to do some updates on our trip to Uzbekistan last year (wow time really flies), the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong and South Africa. It was all great and we really look forward to providing updates in the next few days, weeks, months and years.

This post is just to check in and say hi. The picture above was taken at the Hilltop Hotel in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park in South Africa earlier this year. We had a great day driving around the reserve and a wonderful time in St Lucia and in South Africa. We will update more soon.

Anyway take care and please do feel free to comment. Until the next post in the not too distant future, ciao.

2009 Christmas Show

Queenie and Charlene - Christmas 2009

On Sunday, 20 December 2009, we all went to the Ta An Presbytarian Church to watch our beautiful nieces, Rochelle and Charlene, in their Christmas show. They both looked great in their Christmas outfits and they both did an outstanding job in their performances. We were happy to be a part of it and hope to go to many more of their Christmas shows. Some of their pictures are below

Rochelle and Esther - Christmas 2009

Mom and Charlene - Christmas 2009

Of course, wathing the video is better than the pictures of the performance so the video is below too. Enjoy!

You can see more pictures of our 2009 Christmas @ Christmas 2009.

Hope you enjoyed - Merry Christmas all.

Riis Turns 3, Andrea Turns 1

Birthday Party Crowd

Yesterday our friends Andrew and Juvel invite a bunch of us to go up to Tamsui to celebrate their daughters' birthdays. Fortunately for them the kids were born close together so both girls get to celebrate together. Riis, turning 3, was very excited and enjoyed receiving all the gifts. I think her favorite on was the one arm giraffe that she got to ride. Andrea received the same gift but Riis pretty much commandeered both.

Aunty Queenie and Riis

Riis and the Giraffes

Riis also, to the delight of her parents, received a recorder. So she was stomping around in her party dress, sunglasses and birthday hat blowing on the recorder like a rock star. It was great and she enjoyed all the attention.

Rock Star Riis

As we were celebrating Andrea and Riis's birthday, we were also celebrating Phoebe's birthday too. Phoebe is one of the members of the Worship Team at Grace Baptist Church. She wouldn't tell us how old she was but she had a great time too

Phoebe's Birthday Too

Andrea was pretty much a passive observer with regard to all the events that were going on around her. She seemed to enjoy the people but being only 1 was a little restless. She was fun too and enjoyed getting passed around from one guest to another.

Andrea Turns One

One of the big highlights for Riis was her chocolate birthday cake. It was an awesome cake. We didn't really see her eat anything else but, being the birthday girl, she was allowed the extravagence.

Riis Likes Her Birthday Cake

The food that was put out was also delicious. I believe most of the cooking was done by Juvel but the boys (Andrew and Josh) did pitch in and make the salsa sauce. I never tried it so cannot tell you if it was good or not. All the food I did eat was delicious and went down well.

Delicious Pasta

Spring Rolls

Salsa Sauce

After the festivities, blowing out candles, eating lunch and then dinner, and riding the giraffe it was time for the adults to settle down and have some laughs and a few drinks.

After Party

I think in the end a great time was had by all and at 9:00pm we decided to call it quits. A couple of us went down to the waterfront in Tamsui, got some take out Starbucks and enjoyed the nightview of Bali. After that it was hometime, especially after the excitement of the day. Big thanks to Juvel, Andrew, Riis and Andrew for having us over. It was a great time.

The Porters

We are all looking forward to the next big party.

More pictures @ Riis and Andrea's Birthday

Jing Shan Beach (金山海灘) and Dented Shins

Queenie, Paul and Mark - Three Boogie Boarders

Early one Saturday morning we phoned our friend Mark to see if he was interested in watching rugby at the Brass Monkey later in the day. Of course he was interested but at that time he was preparing to go boogie boarding at Jing Shan Beach (金山海灘) on the North Coast of Taiwan. Its been a while since we went to the beach in Taiwan and an even longer time since either of us boogie boarded so we decided to go.

Getting there was easy. Mark has a car so he drove us. It took us about 40 minutes, not too long. If you tried doing via public transport it would need at least an hour and a half, maybe more. The drive up there was beautiful and the weather was perfect for the beach, i.e. hot and sunny.

Jing Shan Beach (金山海灘)

We arrived at the beach and went to rent some boogie boards, only NTD250 per board for the day. Not bad at all. Mark and Queenie have never boogie boarded before so they received a quick lesson on the ground and then we had to choose the boards. We chose small ones to start with as I had never used a large one and I think Queenie and Mark decided just to try and see how it went. After all, we could always come back and change the board.

The beach itself was a surfing beach with a surfing club. There were quite a lot of surfers in the water already and there seemed to be some decent waves. So the sun was out, the sand hot (and burning our feet) and we were all equipped with boogie boards. There was nothing left to do but jump into the water.

Searching for the Waves

Mark Catches a Wave

The sea was fairly rough and proved to be difficult to negotiate on the boards. Queenie decided to stay in the shallow water while Mark and I tried to get out past the break line to where we could catch some decent waves. However, every time we tried we were pushed back making the task of getting out a ver tiring one. The surface of the ocean was covered in rocks too so even though the water was shallow, it was painful to walk through the Ocean.

Driftwood

After being bashed around a bit, and Mark losing his board (the wrist leash snapped), I managed to catch a small wave, but that was about it. It was at the point, when I was standing in the shallow water, that I felt something crash into my shins. I looked down and there was a huge piece of driftwood in the water. And then I noticed the driftwood was everywhere. The driftwood comprised of huge pieces of wood and there were even some trees floating around the water. We were really impressed. Added to this was the need to dodge surfers, cutting our feet on the rocks on the surface we decided the pain was too much and we should move further down the beach.

Mark Looks for a better Spot

Mark and I first went and exchanged our boards for bigger ones and then we went to a different spot that Mark said didn't have rocks on the surface, only sand. We went over to try it but honestly the big boards were just way too clumsy. I soon gave up on the effort. The good part about this part of the beach was that there was very little driftwood although we did notice a tree in the water.

Queenie Gets Ready to Boogie

Ocean Trees

After giving up on the boogie boards we all decided to just swim in the water. It seemed far more sensibled. I body surfed on a few waves and that was enough fun for me. We did spend sometime just lounging about on the beach (we were tired from all the swimming, walking, lumberjacking and the sapping heat of the sun). We carried on for another hour or so but then decided enough was enough.

Swimming Free

Too tired to move

We left the ocean, cleaned ourselves up and went in search of food. So although we had cut feet and dented shins from the driftwood, we had had a lot of fun in the water. Honestly cannot wait to get back.

You can see more pictures @ Jing Shan Beach (金山海灘)