What a truly incredible experience these past few weeks have been for Sharon & I. We are now married! This alone is very special, however something else rather special also happened. Friends and family came together for the first time, not just for one day, but for some it was more than a week. During this time there was much fun, games, drinking, driving dirt roads, flat tyres, Zulu singing and dancing, Giraffe, Hippopotamus, Boerewors, Billtong, Braai’s, cricket, tears, exhaustion, happiness, hangovers, black eyes, roaring fires, fog, rain, sunshine and Fred the dog! It really is quite overwhelming looking back on it all. So to ensure the memories are not lost, and also for the benefit of the many friends and family who were unable to make it to South Africa, Sharon and I will now attempt to report on the highlights of these recent events…
The Lead-up
Sunday 16 Sept
Marine Parde, on Durbans beach front.
We arrived in Durban with a somewhat naive pre-conception that we might spend the week before the festival relaxing on the beach. Oh no, how very wrong we were! So much still to do. The smallest tasks on paper would turn into to a full day of frustration dealing with various third-world quirks such as trying to perform double-sided photocopy, buying an international phone card, or hiring safari suite costumes (the latter unfortunately ended in defeat). Suffice to say, we were run off our feet. However with great persistence most of the loose ends were tied up by the time friends and family started to arrive in Durban in the later part of the week.
Thursday 20 Sept
This brings us to the first big milestone - the meeting of our parents! In the afternoon, Joy, Steve and Janet Ferreira had lunch with Bob and Wendy Skitch. Despite the four years Sharon & I have been dating, our families had never met in person! We had lunch and everyone was getting on well when Sharon and I announced that we needed to shoot off to do some further wedding preparations. You should have seen the look of horror on our parents faces, it was that of a small child being left at school on their first day! Well by the time we returned a few hours later they were just as one might expect - having a woo of a time telling stories and laughing! I guess that given the chemistry between Sharon and I, some of it must be inherited from our oldies/ballies, so it stands to reason that they would all get on.
Sunset over Kingsmead
That night, Sharon and I took our Dads along with our mates Jo Mayes, and Len & Jo McCarthy to the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup match between South Africa and India at Kingsmead oval. The ground was only a short walk from where we were staying on the Durban beachfront giving us the opportunity to have a beer or two. In fact the popular means to consume the amber nectar at Kingsmead was via a 5L Tupperware jug! If you have never been to a T20 match live then I can definitely recommend it. Especially with all the dancing girls and boys, DJ and fireworks, there’s enough going on to keep even the most adamant cricket detractor entertained. That said, the bulk of the atmosphere was generated by sell-out crowd who appeared to be evenly split between SA and Indian supporters. Not surprising given Durban’s long established large Indian community. In the end, the Indian supporters went home happy winning by 37 runs.
We all enjoyed the night so much that it was back for more on the Saturday to see India play again, this time in the Semi-final against Australia! Some of our mates had moved onto various game reserves so for this match my brother Rob (an avid cricket fan who had just arrived from Australia) and Joy and Janet joined us along with our Dads. The semi final saw a huge number of boundaries, but unfortunately for the Aussies they could not repeat the same number of big hits as India made during their final overs and subsequently lost by just 15 runs. Rob & I gave it our best with cheering Australia on, and despite our loss we went home singing arm in arm (partly helped by those Tupperware jugs!). In fact we later received word from Oz that Rob, Sharon and I appeared in close up on the TV coverage! The brush with celebrity was not to end there. Rob and I decided to party on into the night (well he is my best man and my brother and I hadn’t seen him in ages!). It was 2am when we were finally leaving Jo Cools beach club when who should walk in, but some of the Aussie cricket team! Robbo had had a few JD’s by that stage so did not hesitate in introducing himself. However the Aussies appeared to be more interested in talking to the young ladies, so Robbo took this snobbing as an invitation to tell them all why they lost the game! Good work big bro!
Monday 24 Sept
Today was the official start of the Wombok Festivities! We headed inland from Durban and up into the mountainous regions of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands to a beautiful old country house - The Bend. Set in a picturesque valley with a winding river running though it, The Bend was to become home for all our guests for the next 4 or 5 days. When Sharon and I first visited the previous week the weather was hot, with blue sunny skies. It was truly spectacular! However come the day of everyone’s arrival, clouds and fog had set in and with some light rain about, it became quiet chilly. Not to worry, The Bend catered well for such conditions with many large open fireplaces and a cosy little pub.
The Bend Country House
I’m sure others who attended the festival would agree when I say The Bend is a very special place. I found it hard to hold back tears of joy when I first saw it. The homely atmosphere, gorgeous bedrooms, dining room, library, lounge, pub, patios and the spectacular setting made it the perfect place for our close friends and family to come together and celebrate with us. The staff too, from Sheila the very accommodating owner of the property, to the African housemaids in their cute French styled outfits. All were all very friendly and made us all feel right at home. We will always hold a special place in my heart for The Bend.
The LC Classic
Tuesday 25 Sept
I hear on the grapevine that a number of our guests were praying to the porcelain god this morning, and it wasn’t from the delicious Bobotie or Karoo Lamb Bredie from the night before! It seems everyone was so happy to see each other Monday night, and together with big distances travelled that day (in fact at last count there were two flat tyres, and three replaced hire cars!) there was quite some celebrating to do. I want to mention too the very special silver christening goblet that my Mum presented to Sharon & I at the dinner. Mum told everyone a lovely story that I would like to share with you but I think it best come from her as I cannot recall all the details. Mum, if you have a chance you could post a comment below?
Lenno sledging Skitchy as he warms-up coming into bat
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Carn Team Skitch!
And so another milestone today - The Inaugural South African LC Classic! Second only in importance to the wedding day itself. When planning our wedding, we knew that one day would not be enough (given the distance everyone was travelling and also that many might never meet again) it became obvious what was required. Something we and all our friends love and enjoy - a spot of backyard cricket! At first our hosts at The Bend weren’t to sure about the whole idea, however after some explanation they took to in in great spirit. In fact a full sized pitch was mowed into a large paddock for us to play on. The events started with a light picnic, washed down with a couple of mini kegs of beer from a local microbrewer
Next was the traditional opening ceremony! The evening before, after the Welcome Dinner, we had all gathered around the piano with Dave Young playing so we could rehearse the national anthems of Australia and South Africa. We were right with the Australian anthem, but the South African one needed a lot of work. Even with the assistance of some of the African kitchen staff we failed to sing anything that resembled their anthem. It seems that it is made up of five languages so even the locals struggle with it! And so with the Aussie contingent far outnumbering all others, the opening ceremony commenced with the Advance Australia Fair being sung with great gusto and passion. During the course of the singing, quite an amazing spectacle took place. On the hillside looking up from the cricket ground toward the house, two fairies mesmerised everyone as they morphed from gum tree to flag pole to jumping kangaroo to rock. Liz Skitch and Heidi Volk very creatively performed an impromptu interpretive dance piece to our singing! With that the game commenced! I won’t give a blow by blow account of the match, however a scorebook was kept which I publish here for your interest:
South African LC Classic Scoresheet.PDF
You will note that Team McCarthy won by a whisker, however as is often the case with scores, they do not always reflect the true nature of the game. Team McCarthy tactics where similar to that of the Australian cricket team - sledging and aggression. Whereas Team Skitch played a more English gentlemanly sporting fashion of cricket. Regardless of scores and styles of play, I heard many comments afterwards that this was the best LC Classic ever! I for one most certainly agree! After the match we all retired indoors to the pub while a traditional South Africa Braai was cooked for us outside. Steak, Pork neck and Boerewors! We were to eat on the patio however the weather was still a little on the chilly side so it was indoors by the fireplace for us. During the dinner, prizes courtesy of the Rawdons microbrewery down the road, were awarded as follows:
- Winning Team: McCarthy - a block of Beer Cheese
- Man of the Match: Bob Skitch - a t-shirt featuring a warthog drinking beer
The Wedding (and Sharon’s turn to write)
Wednesday 26 Sept
The newleyweds
The chapel at Providence
Janet and I had our egg omelettes sent up to to our room, couldn’t risk seeing the groom before the wedding! 9.30 soon rolled round and the bridesmaids and I drove round to the local salon to have our hair and make-up done. Luckily Clair had thought to bring a couple bottles of bubbly to calm our nerves! We even had a bit of luck as it turned out that there was another bride in the salon, most unusual for a Wednesday, who left a substantial twig of baby’s breath behind …perfect for adding that extra touch to the bridesmaids hairstyles! Back to the bend to get the dresses on and pose for the camera! Our vintage cars arrived at 2.15, only just after the bus with all our guests had left … the old cars needed that extra bit of time to negotiate the dirt roads to Providence! The bridesmaid were most pleased to be riding in the only 1939 Cadillac on South African roads (a car which has only had three owners and retains it’s original registration number!) I was so excited to finally arrive at Providence. We were all nervously waited outside the closed doors to the chapel. I was so excited to see Chris, so excited that when I finally got down the isle, Bishop Brian informed me that I was the first bride ever to arrive early, the scandal! I LOVE YOU CHRIS!! The ceremony was a blur, but Chris and I were so excited and happy to be finally married…how wonderful to have a husband! I think the Bishop must have been quite excited to as he managed to miss out poor Liz’s reading during the ceremony.
So the celebrating could now commence! The bridal party went off for the photo-shoot while the guests were to be entertained by the African School Choir. On seeing my mate Nicola, I asked how the choir was… she replied ‘fantastic, they are singing and dancing’. I thought…hmm, ‘dancing’ was not part of the spec? I was later told that the choir was wearing catering uniforms…very strange? After some investigation, it turns out that only a few choir members turned up, so the kitchen staff at Providence had to fill in with an impromptu dance and sing-a-long! good on them - guests didn’t even realise anything was amiss!!
All flowers at the wedding were indigenous to South Africa, with the only exception being the odd rose. The table settings featured pincushion protea’s and Barberton daisy’s as their centrepiece. We really wanted to give our wedding as much African flavour as possible. We even had napkin rings hand carved as African animals at each table for our guests to take home as a memento. Another fun little thing we did was instead of numbering each table, we named them after different locations around London that are special to Chris and I.
The first dance was particularly nerve-wracking. We were taking lessons and had practised in London for a decidedly larger dance floor than we later encountered at Providence. No matter, despite lots of hiccups we kind of pulled it off! Hooray, the serious drinking could begin and begin it did. We were later informed that two bottles of Jageirmeister were downed among our 40 guests ….excellent effort guys! The four-piece Durban band ‘Afritude’, helped warm up the dance floor with a great live set featuring some of their own music plus plenty of classic covers including Paul Simon and to everyone’s surprise – ‘Beds are Burning’ by Aussie rock band Mightnight Oil! With all the dancing, the reception hall became rather hot…too hot!! In fact it seems those Jager bottles inspired a contest of ‘how large can we get the flames in the fireplace’ as I caught Jon Penman chucking a sizeable log onto the fire, ably assisted by henchmen, Nuge and Bitossi!
After an impromptu limbo contest, ‘snow’ angels on the dance floor and black eyes caused by mis-communication of a ‘jump and catch’ dance move, it was time to go home. The bus got us all safely back to The Bend ..singing and swinging all the way home! We hear there was an after-party going on in one of the cottages at The Bend? Chris and I had other plans, so perhaps someone else might care to elaborate on the after-party by posting their stories in the comments below?
Our Honeymoon (and back to Chris)
Noble plans were made for the day after the wedding - trout fishing and exploring the local district, however it seemed everyone had a little too much fun the night before. Plus the weather had not improved, so many opted to spend the day indoors. Perhaps too everyone was a little sad it was all over. Sharon and I certainly were. On Thursday, those guests that remained at The Bend, enjoyed a Cape Malay curry night with us, followed by early bed for an early start the next morning. It is difficult to write about Friday morning and saying goodbye to everyone. It all seemed to end much too quickly. Sharon and I drove off to Durban to fly back to London before setting off on our honeymoon.
Sunday 30 Sept to Monday 8 October
The MSC Musica (Click to explore!)
Exhausted from the craziness of the previous weeks, Sharon and I arrived in Genoa Italy, after an overnight in London, to board the MSC Musica for a 7 night cruise around the Western Mediterranean. What an incredible ship she was! Capacity for 3000 guests, 5 restaurants, 1,500 seat west end style theatre with two shows a night, casino, discothèque, many bars and lounges, library, etc, etc. And being an Italian cruise ship, the food was excellent, especially their pasta’s and seafood. We had thought by early October that summer would have been over in the Med however we were very happy to find we were wrong. Blue sunny skies, 20C overnight and mid to high 20’s during the day. Perfect for drinking, eating, sleeping, and swimming! Each day the ship would arrive at a new port with an option for shore excursions. We decided to take it pretty easy so stayed aboard relaxing by the pool most days. This was partly due to me coming down with a cold on our first day. I didn’t want it to hang around the whole cruise so I visited the ships doctor. He instructed his rather plump bleach blonde Russian nurse to stick a needle in my buttocks! As I yelped she told me with her stern Russian accent “you a very strong man”. I promptly passed out only to awake the next day feeling 100% better. In the end we did manage one excursion -a fascinating tour around Pompeii (the city was far larger than we ever imagined). We also went to an evening dinner show extravaganza in Mallorca where I managed to cause a little bit of a scene after the main show. The crowds where gathering in silence outside the venue to watch the finale - a water show spectacular, when a bottle of champagne I had smuggled off the table decided to prematurely ejected it’s cork inside my dinner jacket! Fortunately there was enough bubbly left for the bus trip back to the ship! The next day we arrived in Barcelona where we nursed our hangovers swimming in the sea and relaxing on the beach.
Sharon in Springbok colours
Well and truly relaxed and refreshed, and full of pasta, we disembarked the cruise a day early (as planned)in Marseille. This was not the end of our honeymoon just yet, we still had the Rugby World Cup quarter finals! We had bought tickets to two games in Marseille almost a year ago so had been looking forward to this weekend for a very long time. Up until the previous weekend we did not know who would be playing, but had a pretty good idea we might see SA and Oz play. As it turn out, on the Saturday we saw England defeat Australia (12-10) in an extremely frustrating match. I won’t bore you with my rant! On Sunday we saw South Africa defeat Fiji (37-20). This was a far more exciting game, not just because South Africa won, but also because there were lots of tries and the game swung several times, at one point Fiji even looked like they stood a chance of winning! It was made even more special by the incredible seats we had managed to get. Just a few rows behind the players bench on the half-way line! We could talk to them and give them encouragement! Sharon found herself quite the celebrity after being featured on the stadiums big screens several times! She played up to the cameras who seemed to love her being decked out in full SA supporters kit including being covered head to toe in green and yellow floral wreaths (her attempts to say “two” in French to the sales lady ended up with us buying six!). After the match Sharon received dozens of txts from friends and family in Australia, South Africa and the UK all having seen us on TV a couple of times! And so the final milestone was reached. The honeymoon was over. And what a fantastic way to finish up! The weather in Marseille could not have been better. The whole town, from the marina and the old port to the beach front was full of excited rugby fans and locals caught up in the carnival like atmosphere, especially Saturday night with Frances surprise victory over The All Blacks. We had a great time in Marseille but unfortunately had to head back to London, however with 60,000 rugby fans trying to escape at the same time, we took our time and trained it to Nice on Monday morning before flying back in the evening. Here we end our account of the momentous events of the last few weeks! After much planning and preparation it has all come and gone. I don’t believe I have had enough time to fully reflect upon what has taken place, however I can say with certainty that we could not possibly have celebrated it any better! The wedding to end all weddings! Sharon and I will always treasure and remember these times as we now look forward to the future and long and happy life together.
Thank You!
There’s so many people to thank. As I said in my speech, I find that for the first time in my life I am completely lost for words to describe just how overwhelmed I am by the astonishing effort that so many people went to come to our wedding festival. It meant so much to both of us to have you all there and our only regret is that we could not spend more time with each of you. We knew one day was not enough, but in the end found 4 days was not enough either! We are just going to have to get married to each other more often! :) Also thanks to all of you that could not make it but sent best wishes. Most of your messages were read out by Len McCarthy at the reception. Very kind and generous words from so many people! I hope in the next day or so to publish as many as I can find to this blog. I have just looked into our “first home furniture and appliance fund” and found the total an incredibly generous £600+. We have also received some very lovely presents that we hope to use in our new house when that day finally arrives. I hope that when it does, I will be able to take photos of the various things we have purchased and gifts you have given us and post them to this blog. In the mean time, we will have thank-you cards in the post as soon as I have completed the DVD of the festival (perhaps a surprise with the thank-you card?). However don’t hold your breath, my video edits are notoriously time consuming. I have several hours of tape to go though. Thanks Chooka (Ryan Boucher) for your efforts with shooting the video. Sharon and I are extremely grateful for your time and expertise. I am hoping to have the completed DVD ready before Christmas (this year!).
Your Photos That’s all for now. Over the coming weeks and months I hope to post to the blog the following updates:
- Telegram/email messages
- Honeymoon Photos (including the Rugby World Cup Semi’s)
- Official online wedding photo album
- “Best of the rest” summary online album of all your photos (356 photos!)
- Video Hightlights (UPDATE 2 March 2011 - Finally Done!)
I am hoping in the coming weeks to put together an online album of the best of your photos. I also hope to include some of your photos in the official photo album I will be printing in the coming months. To archive this I need original full resolution copies of your photos. So if it’s not too much trouble, could I ask you to burn a CD-ROM and post to : If you have fast broadband and can ftp upload, then let me know and I will send you my details instead of posting a CD-ROM.
