2 sleeps...thank you Mike!

I woke up on Wednesday feeling no better, even after a solid night's sleep and yesterday's dip in the pool. Toni suggested a couple of masseurs who might be able to straighten me up a bit and I headed down Macrossan street to find either of them.

Michael Joseph at Deep Massage & Body Work was just opening the door when I arrived. He stood at about 6'6" and his friendly grin quickly turned upside down when he saw me try to sit down to arrange an appointment.

'So do you know what you want?'

'Well I'm getting married in 2 days and I can't stand up or sit down or even walk without feeling like a 90 year old' I blurted. He asked a couple more questions before declaring it was Quadratus Lomborum, and the good news is that it's easily treatable. Phew!
I headed across the road to pick up a couple of coffees from rehab. This place has the best reputation in town and I couldn't resist a pair of 'Outpatient' stubby holders. Like most places in QLD- you wouldn't want to be in a rush but the coffees were terrific and definitely worth the wait.

When I came back an hour later for the appointment Mike showed me the problem on the muscular chart and I learned about why it was starting to affect my legs and upper back. Generally if your lower back is sore, it means your thigh muscles are already tight as they've been carrying the weight. And as you try to brace yourself and distribute the weight away from your lower back, that's when your upper back starts to carry the extra, so it gets sore too. We started with 2 amazing but excruciating stretches that I was only allowed to use sparingly, before Mike got to work on a very strong 1 hour massage. It hurt. He knew. I winced and tried to bear it in the hope that I would improve faster. I have never felt that kind of power in knuckles or elbows ever before! I'd just try to brace myself as he repeated the movements. As an extra special treat, he put some hot stones under my back ('just because you're getting married').

When I stood up, I wasn't cured but I felt a lot better. I could even reach down and put my shoes on!

When I got back to our Villa Trav was content munching on his sandwich and as Michelle and Ryan had gone to Cairns for the night I persuaded Mum to join me for a bucket of prawns and bubbly on the decks of the Tin Shed. http://www.thetinshed-portdouglas.com.au/

Not to be confused with the Iron Bar, the Tin Shed is home to the Port Douglas Combined Club, and with a deck over the water, it's a lovely spot for a meal. Mum and I enjoyed our indulgent lunch - we'd been talking about fresh prawns for so long that it was about time we ate them! They were small but so sweet and juicy!

After the obligatory photos, we started making our way back home and I heard from Louise and Deborah that they had finally arrived. The first thing I did was knock on Deborah's door until Coral answered - explaining that Deborah was upstairs in bed, ill with a serious chest infection! Ooops. I retreated quietly and Mum, Trav and I prepared welcome drinks for the McIntosh's who would arrive soon. We greeted them with beer and bubbly (not that they hadn't already started on the way from Cairns of course!!).

It didn't take long for them to join us in the pool for the afternoon.



The skies greyed as we headed over to the beach for our first guest meet up - it started to drizzle! Spirits still high, we madly texted everyone we could think of, inviting them back to Coral Seas instead. Soon people started wandering up the driveway - there was Louise and Daniel, Eileen & Kim and Tracy and Dean! Dennis and Robyn - Kat and Matt and David and Andrea... more and more familiar faces appeared and  we all toasted the beginning of this exciting adventure with drinks and snacks.

As dusk approached, the rain cleared and we found ourselves at the beach afterall, the boys kicking the footy and Kate and I wandered off to check out a hidden path through the trees.

We met most guests at the Iron Bar again that night, this time with tickets to see the Cane Toad Races. Our friend Nick wasn't running them but it was still a hoot. Kat got up, as did Dean and Kate - I'll never forget when the MC coaxed Kate towards the bucket (again) to pick up her toad, then madly shook the bucket causing her to squeal!

We stayed around for the band and had a few dances but moved on soon after as they weren't taking our requests! Next stop - the Courthouse Hotel where an accoustic performer was playing downstairs...SOMEONE kept refreshing my glass after every sip and I quickly decided I'd had just about enough for one evening. On the way back home Trav and I did an awful practice of our dance in the Port Village courtyard.

3 sleeps... Michelle's Birthday

Everytime I tried to roll over last night I’d see another hour on the clock, finally finally it was time to get up. My dream hadn’t been quite as difficult as the night before, I think I was chasing someone on my bike.

I laid there for another minute or two, trying to feel if my back had miraculously improved, I really didn’t want to sit in cattle class for 3 hours as I was. No such luck, another smearing of Voltaren at least it’s not so stinky) and we were off.

Marian dropped us of at Tullamarine by about 5am – this was the time we had planned to leave originally! No sooner had we stepped out of the car than we heard ‘Hello Wendy’ and Leon, Kylie and Louise were at our side. This was it! It was all starting, just like I’d imagined for so long. We all lined up for check-in, I was mentally calculating how much extra we’d be charged as Anthony and his family walked up!

We got through check-in with a friendly warning and then held our breath as we approached the X-Ray for cabin baggage. We were nearly through…. Ahhhh sigh of relief, not an eyebrow was raised as all our bags, containing liquids, crystal glasses etc went through. It’s coffee time!

I was feeling kinda woozy at this stage, just nerves? I don’t mind flying, that wasn’t it… maybe its that ‘we’re getting away with this feeling’ – nothing wrong with that!

Finally we boarded our flight and the flight attendant asked to sneak a peek at my dress on the way out – Trav laid our clothes along the lockers as well as possibly, but there wasn’t much room. I got the window seat, with Trav in the middle and Mum on the aisle. 

As the sun rose in the east, we were able to enjoy the view from the left side of the plane. Mly about 20 minutes after take off the pilot announced that we should be arriving about 15 minues earlier that schedule – this was getting better and better! I read, did brainteasers, tried to sleep. Tried to stretch. Tried to sleep. 

We touched down at 9:10 – 25 minutes early and as we walked off the plane we got our first mouthful of that heavy, warm Cairns air. As we were finding our luggage on the carousels I handed out everyone’s welcome postcards – they were thrilled (I added Jason to Megan’s card before realizing I had spares, I just hadn’t had the time to rewrite his sans Alisha).

I waited with the bags while Trav and Mum picked up the hire car and soon we’d stopped off at 1^st choice and Coles and were finally on the Captain Cook Highway, paradise-bound.

It was amazing to be driving past all these familiar landmarks, the Sky Rail, go karts and crocodile farm – especially with Mum in the car too. I just kept turning to Travis in complete awe – we were actually doing this!

Rolling into Port Douglas we did a short tour before pulling into Coral Sea Villas. Bruno was out the front and I gave him a big hug. Our room was ready so we loaded everything in and also met their daughters Joni and Ella.

We wandered into town and dropped off the rest of the postcards, stopping to visit Shaun and show mum the Chapel on the way.

Finally, it was time to open a bottle of bubbly and celebrate! We took a dip in the pool (yes it was a cloudy day and I still went it) in the hope that it might relieve my back pain but once again, no luck.

By the time Michelle and Ryan pulled up Trav and I headed to Lure to go through a few things with Wayne and drop off all the supplies. Wayne talked us through where the tables might go, and a few other details and I was amazed at just how blasé I was about it all, nothing really bothered me and I couldn’t make a decision. His only bad news was that he couldn’t get any of our first preference wines – which also didn’t phase my in the slightest. We agreed we’d either meet him or Kylie on Thursday and Nick might come along too.

We raced back up to Coral Seas for a quick change and to pick the others up for dinner at the Iron Bar. With relief I heard Ryan grumbling that they’re always late in Charleville too, ha ha can’t blame me this time!

I marched down Macrossan st with Trav threatening to give me a ticket if I didn’t slow down to a meander. I guess I was still easing into Queensland time.

Leon, Kylie and Louise as well as Lara & Tennille were all out the front and we took our seats. Mmmm the scallops were good, if only I’d ordered two servings! As it turned out I got to polish off the chips so we were all happy. 

We all wished Michelle a happy birthday and then halfway through dinner a flustered waitress ducked under our table in pursuit of a cane toad! Leon had felt something wet on his leg but thought it might be a dog’s nose.

Needless to say we all squealed and pulled our knees up to our chins as the cane toad was caught and returned to his bucket. We saw the start of Nick’s cane toad show but everyone was exhausted so we called it a night.

Mum Michelle and Ryan joined us in our room and Michelle and Mum helped me with scroll ribbons while Trav and Ryan made the little lanterns… I went to bed hoping like crazy that I’d wake up feeling 29, not 99!

4 sleeps... crazy

Well I know I was feeling calm yesterday but after a shocking night's sleep and a couple of odd dreams, I woke up edgy, nervy and shaky.

In my first dream I got to hug Michael Buble (I know I know) but in the second dream I was trying to put our suitcases into our room though the upstairs window (which had a pool as a balcony so that didn't help at all).

I was so worried about forgetting all sorts of things and still had a few things to tie up - print the menus, get the wine list from Lure, send out running sheets to our dream team, print copies for us, make the reception music cd, do washing, change the sheets pack our toiletries and Trav still hadn't sorted out his shirt. 

It was lunchtime. All I did was lean over to grab a tea towel and BAM! A piercing pain went through my back and from then on I was walking like an 80 year old. For no apparent reason my old lower back pain returned – just as Trav’s neck improved. He gave it to my back from his neck he said…

After lunch I was feeling a bit more relaxed about our to-do list, but maybe that’s because my attention had moved to my back instead. We managed to get away by 3:30, and after a short stop at highpoint for some last minute essentials we were finally on our way to Sunbury.

We started shuffling our suitcases with Mum’s stuff, whatever way we looked at it we were about 4 kilos over our limit. Time to have dinner with the McIntosh’s before we reassess. It was such a lovely evening, Mum proposed a toast to how well we all get along (compared to some In-Law stories) and we all agreed that we’d had a great time planning it all. A delicious roast chicken and vegie dinner was the perfect comfort meal for our last Melbourne night!

My back was still holding me back, even after a few sprays of Deep Heat and more Voltaren…please please go away.

Back at Mum’s she and Trav maneuvered our holiday packing again while I took a nice warm shower. We agreed to be up by 4 and out the door by 4:30 and were in bed around 10.

I'm still feeling really panicky - just want to be as relaxed as I was yesterday - I hope it goes away soon...

5 sleeps... Rossi goes on holidays

On Sunday morning I woke up after a brilliant sleep. Long, warm and no noise to wake us up too early - just Rossi's gentle snoring.

He must have sensed something was going on because he didn't touch his breakfast at all. After a trip to officeworks and spotlight, we headed down to Grovedale to deliver him to Lynne, his breeder who was looking forward to having him stay. We went through his medicines and routine and Lynne promised to take a photo if he snuggled up with Bella.

Rossi was looking very confused as we kissed him goodbye and drove away.

I dropped in for a cocoa with Tamra on the way home and chatted to Louise after our delicious dinner of steak with caramelised onions and duck fat potatoes. Yummy!

6 sleeps... slow it down

I know I'm relaxing when I have a bowl of popcorn and a glass of wine next to me as I write this on Trav's latop in bed!

I had the best sleep last night, Rossi was snoring peacefully and we weren't woken up by the sound of a skip at 7am. But what a typical Melbourne winter, I took both my umbrella and sunglasses along when I wandered down to Waxed & Relaxed for a morning of beauty treatments, and I needed both!

We dropped into North Melbourne to pick up my shoes before heading to Essendon, nice and early for our massages. We ducked into a factory outlet while we were waiting and I sent Kate some pics of cute silver sandals - it's been so much fun helping lots of guests with their outfits - from going shopping with Mum, shopping with Deborah and joining Kat for her high-heel training!


The massage was just lovely, my mind was still busy but I did my very best to concentrate on nothing else but the music and the hands. Our neck, back, shoulders and legs were all massaged and I wondered how Trav was going with the foot massage - he later told me that they'd skipped that after all, how did she know??
At the end a steaming hot towel was put on my back to soak up the oil - bliss!

We walked out of there completely relaxed.

We spent the evening packing everything into our suitcases, and with the help of Kat's scales, found that there would be some shuffling to do at Mum's place - we were pretty close to our quota, even though I was sure the scales were adding a few extra kilos!

7 sleeps... running around town

What an action-packed day! It was one of those days that, when you climb into bed at the end of it all, you can't quite believe what you were doing at the beginning.

We woke up to the sound of construction works across the road, our sleep-in was shortlived - even though I was covering our ears with my hands.

We had a difficut start this morning, when Trav came downstairs in the morning he just caught Rossi having another seizure. We were both there together for the first time. I'm sure the last one was in April, which scares me because it's reoccured a lot faster than all the others. What else can we possibly try that might help our little man?

Once we'd all recovered from the rough morning, Trav and I headed into town where I met Kate at Brides of Melbourne for my FINAL try-on and dress pick-up. Once again I was so glad to have company. An overly smiley assistant named Cath helped me into the fitting room and all she could tell me was that it was all done. Hmmm, I asked to see Allison for my own peace of mind.

Before I even put the dress on I noticed just how nice it looked inside - they'd taken the cups and sewn them inside the lining, rather that leaving them tacked on as Wendy's team had. Bonus points!

This time I didn't even bother taking my leggings off and I stepped out of the fitting room to see Louisa for the very last time. She had no idea what had happened that week and as I took my final 'walk' she declared that my husband would run down the aisle to me!

Allison came out and confirmed that they'd fixed up the skirt without a problem and Kate and I could see with great relief that the skirt was very even, and the front lace panel had been moved up to match. Satisfied, I arranged to pick up the dress later that morning.

As Kate reluctantly returned up the hill to work, I met Trav at ADC and we wandered over to Laurent for a breakfast of croissants and lattes.

It was 11:30 by the time we arrived at Arthur Murray unannounced (for the first time today), the studio was closed and dark, we could hear the phone ringing and the answering machine kick in as we waited, deciding what to do. It was a bit surprising considering they advertised 10am to 10pm opening hours.

I returned to Brides of Melbourne with Travis, who graciously turned around as I inspected my gown to make sure it was indeed mine. He asked whether the puffy sleeves were being sent up directly, and quipped that he'd seen the road train carrying the rest of the dress leave this morning. 

Trav offered to carry it for the first couple of minutes, before deciding that it wasn't doing much for his image and promptly swapping it for the bag containing our dancing shoes. I suggested that any young lady would melt at the sight of him carrying a VID (very important dress) and he agreed that they would sigh with regret that another good man was about to be off the market - why else would Louise and Tamra be wearing black dresses??

Our day continued with a visit to the Collingwood Football Club, where I luckily rescued one of the groomsmen's gifts from the Australia Post bag, only to find that they'd packed the wrong size, talk about timing! Next up - Boyles dance shoe store in Prahan, after finding that all the heel grips were still too big for my heels, we took their advice and headed to a shoe repair store in North Melbourne who would replace the cheap plastic heels with rubber-absolutely-non-slip ones.

We scoffed our pork rolls at home on the couch before I headed up the highway to see mum. Without time to try on the dress, we laid it out and were happy to see that the semicircles matched up this time. Crisis officially over.

Mum showed me the finishing touches she'd put on our little project and then I spent the rest of the afternoon with Kimberly of Karma Hairdressing, we set a date for my PWC (Post Wedding Chop) and Kimberley almost had a tear in her eye as she recalled my wedding gown and wished us all the very best. My colour was finished in record time - apparently it does take a lot faster if the client has a lot going on at the time. Our carefully planned colouring hit a high - we were both really excited with the result and I walked out of there positively beaming.

Hitting the highway I hoped I'd make it in time to catch a few of Trav's workmates before their drinks wrapped up and their long weekend began....
On the way I got a fair ribbing from Louise about my 'to-the-minute' running sheet but have to say, it was load off my mind when I sent it out. I knew that it meant I wasn't the only one who knows what's going on next week and I'll be able to happily put down my memory stick and pick up a Mango Daiquiri as I resign from my wedding coordinator role and Trav steps down from his TRAVel agent role!

Arriving at VU about 7pm, there were a couple of guys left and we chuckled over a drink with Dan, Warren (the fijian-indian), Trish and Mick before making our way back to the car.

Walking down the hill, Trav said the words "I think if we knocked out 2 good practices at home, why don't we go into the city."

....it took me a few seconds to understant what he meant. I
d totally forgot that we'd originally been asked along to the social night to peform our wedding dance tonight...he actually wanted to do it. He'd originally written it ff because he thought he;d havve too many drinls and didn't even expect to ave the bus-stop under control let alone our routine!

'Are you sure???" I panicked... he confessed he'd been feeling really low about our last practice and wanted to really show Sim that we knew wht we were doing. "OK" I offered, unconvincingly.

t home we moved the couches >again< and practiced. and practiced. and practiced. Rossi was under our feet so Trav moved him and hi bed to the couch and we practiced aain. and AGAIN.

To be percetly honest, after the fist 4, I didn't think we were readyu at all to make the trip downtown, but we persisted and after knocking out 2 good ones, I changed and we were in the car headed for Bourke st.

I couldn't believe he was serious! My Trav doesnt dance until I beg him, i started to feel like the whole night was a deam, my Trav - draging me onto the dancefloor, on a night we'd already declined once. I started to feel like I was in the end of 'Shall we dance' when Mr Clark showed up unanounced at the going away party...

I was still aving trouble believing it as we drvove into town, I was thinking to myself, "this will either be a xomplete success or a complete flop, it's up to us".

We stepped into the elevator. pressed "M" for Mezzanine. We could hear the music as soon as the elevator door opened. We looked at each other. This was it. I pushed open the door, my bag got caught as Francesca looked up from her group class and said

OH
MY
GOD
This couple will be presenting their wedding routine to us tonight!!!


The next hour was all practice, and again, and again. We did really well only a few minor slips and were both feeling very confident....

We were both having a ball, and soon enough we were on. We completed the routine to applause and there was only one time when I'd skipped half a step so we'd finished about 2 seconds before the music. Sim was so proud of us and Francesca walked in just as we'd finished - after all that excitement!

It was about 9:15 by the time we headed over to the dumpling place for a late dinner. It was the same one we'd dined at after our very first lesson too!

Disclaimer: Any typos are due to the fact I was using Trav's Mac rather than a standard keyboard. live with it.

8 sleeps...I'm on holidays!

I was thrilled to be able to bring some cheese along when we visted Kate, it was her last night in a gorgeous little weatherboard house she was looking after for a friend.

We relaxed over a couple of beers and Kate, my city sister, presented me with a very familiar and exciting looking yellow paper bag. Anyone who knows me knows I have a thing for Lush! And Kate knows just how hard it is for me to visit the store now that I'm not working in town - inside was a 'Figs & Leaves' soap to use while we're away!

Oh Kate! You're a woman after my own heart! Big Hugs to you! We all marvelled at the fact that this time, in a week we'd be enjoying dinner on the balcony of the Courthouse Hotel after the rehearsal. Kate showed us her gorgeous dress and necklace she'd picked out and I decided she definitely needed to try out my silver sandals.

It's these casual, lingering catch ups that I love the most.

Soon it was time to head home, Travis whipped up some delicious chicken, avocado and punkin pies for us and I celebrated the start of my holidays by cracking a bottle of bubbly, (and finishing the whole thing!).

What a guy, can you see why I'm marrying him?

I had a little surprise in store for him later on that night...