Gunno’s Guest Blog: Just in Case you were in any doubt

OK, I know I’ve titled my honorary online epistle with a bad joke (and sorry Australians, you’re going to have to get used to my verbose language and peculiarly English sense of humour), but there is a serious point to it. In fact, two serious points. From our ten-day stay in Australia – a week in Sydney and then a subsequent recuperating break in the Blue Mountains, a couple of things were unambiguously clear. Not only is Sydney a pretty amazing city, but more importantly, Mark and Gill (whose wedding was the reason for our journey to the Antipodes) make an absolutely superb couple, and one who will have many happy years ahead of them.

The eight-hour overnight flight from Bangkok was immediately forgotten on landing in Sydney and descending from the plane the old fashioned way (by steps onto the tarmac rather than straight into an air-conditioned room), we were welcomed to warm sunshine, in the mid-teens, even at 6 in the morning. Having showered and readied ourselves, it only got better with a walk from Pott’s Point round the coast, across the Botanical Gardens and down towards Circular Quay, with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in sight. However iconic this vista may be, seeing it for real – the second time for me and the first for Julie – one can’t but help be impressed. We found a pleasant cafe in the Circular Quay area, took in the view, and the comforting food accompanied by Aboriginal techno (yes, I know, but it does work, really) only made things even better.

I won’t bore readers with a minute-by-minute account of our trip, but there were a number of highlights. Foremost would be the wedding itself. I do not think I have ever enjoyed a more spectacular location for a ceremony – from the top of Observatory Hill, looking across Sydney on another sun-filled afternoon – and it would be fair to say that there was barely a dry eye in the congregation (and certainly not Mark’s) during the event. Beyond this, we had a wonderful opportunity to spend time with Mark and Gill, meet their Australian friends and the extended Asbury family, all of whom were most welcoming. I thought I was an experienced drinker, but after a five-day marathon of stag-do, pre-wedding gathering, wedding, post-wedding gathering and dinner with the newly married Cases, we certainly benefited from the subsequent cleansing air of the Blue Mountains. The scenery in the latter was also well worth the journey, and the hiking as good as anything we have enjoyed elsewhere in the world.

As I wrote in a small piece I penned for my work [which Mark may care to attach], one can certainly understand why Australia merits the moniker, ‘the lucky country.’ People undoubtedly know how to have a good time and spend their money, the weather and the scenery is amazing, as was the food and drink (being the consummate gastronomic tourist, I partook in kangaroo twice and emu once). Whether the country’s economic success and hence sense of self-assurance is sustainable remains to be seen, but is hardly the subject for this piece. Indeed, wanting to end on a positive note, it was a superb trip, a wonderful insight into a fascinating country and, most importantly, a delight to see one of my oldest friends happily married.

Gunno, 13 October 2013