Pre wedding meet and greet was an enjoyable event at the Garden Bar up the road from where we were staying and we all passed muster I am pleased to say.  Meeting Becky’s family and friends was very enjoyable and it seems that we are all on the same level for conversation and humor and, of course, nice French Champagne and canapés always helps that!  Saturday was wedding day at Millbrook Vineyard in Jaradale about an hour from Perth so we were taken on a coach – a rip roaring coach with the music pumped up to the max by a lady guest who started the party the minute she boarded the coach!  She was onto it and “louder, louder” she was screaming out from the back of ze bus while we were almost digging into the small handbag for the Paracetamol and the event hadn’t even started!  I might add that into this tiny purse I had prepared for almost any medical event!  After driving on the freeway for some time we turned off toward Jaradale and drove through the rural countryside.  The farmland was sad to see with not a green blade of grass to be seen anywhere and sheep and underweight cattle with their noses to the ground searching for food.  The drought here has been devastating and farmers are needing to cull their cattle.  The abattoirs cannot cope with the numbers and the outcome for these struggling farmers will not be good.  It must be very tough being a farmer right now in these parts where unless they have enough food to feed the stock they will perish and you can clearly see the evidence as you drive through this barren landscape.  Thirty per cent of the water that Perth needs is from desalinated plants but unless farmers are lucky enough to have a bore on their land they cannot irrigate their paddocks.

Onto the venue where the grapevines are in good shape and the surroundings are beautiful with the main venue built out over the small lake in front.  The ceremony takes place outside overlooking the lake but no photos allowed of the wedding party who all look amazing – six bridesmaids in different bright pink outfits, four groomsmen and two very tiny shy little flower girls sprinkling white petals in front of the bride as she walks down the grass.  The family photos with this clan are often a circus rounding up the right ones to come forward at the right time and stand in the right place and not act like clowns and today one sister-in-law has wandered off down the path into the venue and gone AWOL!  Not to worry – eventually after getting pinched on our backsides by husbands and bros to make us jump or squeal the ones in charge of the phones to get the photos take about 20 so that we just may get one where all are behaving!  Well that will be a miracle!  Anyway, much fun was had by all with nice food, nice speeches, lovely people and lots of dancing and we all behaved.  Now the dancing was good because it was my hope (and judging by how sore my knees were the next day it worked) that the exercise would help the shrinking clothes which always happen when we travel.  I know this is common – it must be the washing water!  So back on the bus we all climb – a few needed help and one guy boarded holding pink high heel shoes and a pink handbag and I don’t think he was sure if he had been to a wedding or a party or what but let’s just say he needed help to find his seat.  The lady who was in charge of the music on the way lost the job for the return journey (we were not sad about that!) However, she still had enough energy to want ze music turned up louder louder – didn’t happen! We suggested that the new recruit should perhaps play lullabies quietly over the sound system and then perhaps this hour long trip might be somewhat easier to endure now that one or two have sore heads!

Sunday morning was a slowwwww start on account of the fact that we are not used to getting to bed at 1 am and it has already taken us four days to slightly adjust to the four hour time difference from home.  Never mind – we have a post wedding get together at a bar on a Marina in Fremantle so Margaret and I have to endure another journey with Vern and Kerry in charge of getting us there which actually worked out well and just goes to show that practice makes perfect!!  These two have taken themselves off in the car a few times to explore the place and have come back with hilarious stories of how it all went while us girls have occupied ourselves in other ways!  A rowdy bar was probably good to wake us all up!

Dear Jenny then decides we should go and see a few things to keep us awake till dinner as apparently a little tiredness is evident so we 10 are divided into the two vehicles.  It is certainly a lot of fun being with four elderly brothers I can tell you for sure.  Getting into a vehicle driven by Kerry and navigated by Vern is one thing but me (for my sins) being the chosen female to get into a car with the four brothers is quite another.  I do not know why I got selected but perhaps my sisters-in-law thought I could be the one to control this undisciplined lot but that is one impossible task.  Firstly, I sat in the back seat between Vern and Aidan who immediately asked for the air conditioning to be turned up full and the temperature to be turned down.  Next minute I have a full blast of cold air between the legs which was much worse than the blimmin massage chair at the nail bar!!!  Talk about navigation – there were three navigators on this run to the market and the cenotaph turning left, right, twice around roundabouts and so much hilarity in the vehicle that it was like an episode of The Simpsons.  Just doing up the seatbelts with three of us in the back seat was an utter fiasco and I will leave that to your imagination!  I have had more than 60 years with this lot and they didn’t hold back in telling me I should be used to it!  However, I have been utterly blessed to have such amazing bros and sisters-in-law so count myself very fortunate. Onto the cenotaph we go with magnificent views over Fremantle and Rottnest Island – another photo but, as usual, disagreements over where to take it, sit, stand, smile, frown – just blimmin get it over with I am thinking! Then onto the Fremantle Market where all of the population gathers on a Sunday and I can tell you for sure they were there! Now can you imagine four disinterested bros trying to find the passengers from the other car amongst every type of food stall you can imagine, bangles, beads, gypsy outfits, hats, kids, music – you name it – it’s here! Miraculously we bang into each other by the Billtong stand but Jenny can see by the look on the bros faces that they would rather be anywhere but here! Heaven forbid – so we try and navigate back to the car but which way did we come in and which way do we go out and how do we get out and so it goes on!

Righty now we are flying across the Nullibor on our way to Sydney having farewelled the family after a simple and enjoyable dinner at a little Italian restaurant last night.  We now join Georgia, Hannah and Matt for the next week so the bag has the requested recipe folder and I have a feeling I will be donning the apron to get through the requested list which will be fun.  Perth is a beautiful clean and well organized city and we have loved going back there.  It is 16 years since we spent time here when Brendan was doing his surgical fellowship and Oliver was a tiny baby.  We loved it then and we loved it again this time.  The one in charge of the B’s has fallen asleep beside me in his very comfy seat on this Virgin Australia plane after a busy and fun week with his three brothers and the extended nieces and nephews and their kids too.