Start your engines...

In a few days, I will start working again.
I have the feeling I will start living again. I have been stuck in the house, taking care of things around here, but I feel I need to get out now. And I am. I am flying out to Melbourne on monday to start preperation for the shoot. For 2 weeks, I will be working my ass off for this production, and I will love every minute of it.

Ah, somehow, it is such a relief.
And I m getting so excited.

14 hours and counting

I really don't get it.

Last night, I was in bed at 11pm. I was really tired, had a long day and I had gone for a run early in the morning. But the thing is, when Allen left for work at 8h30, I was almost wide awake.
Went to the bathroom.
Had a drink of water.
Went back to bed. It was raining outside.
I fell back asleep...and woke up at 1pm. 1pm!!!! woah!!! And I still felt like I could go back to sleep. What is my problem?? Ok, so I had nothing officially planned today, although I knew I really needed to get cracking on my 'thank you' notes for the wedding. But still, isn't that weird? Sleeping 14 hours and knowing you could still go on for another couple at least?
Oh well.
I almost wrote all my notes today, I ll send them tomorrow, if Allen can finally get all the adresses together....

That's all the excitement that happened today. Just a regular rainy wednesday.
Except for that very tasty double episode of Oliver's Twist with the lovely
Naked Chef.

Footy Fever

Aussies are out of control.

Today is the Grand Final of the AFL Australian Football League. The thing is, this sport is nothing like the NFL football, and even further away from what we call Soccer. It s a weird sport of kicking and running and getting a weird long-melon-looking bouncy ball between a set of 4 hugely tall poles. The field they play on is round, and there are 18 players of each team on the field at once. Hard to follow, not too exciting, and the players wear sleeveless silky tops and stripped knee high socks. They look stupid. Anyway, lots of people here love that sport. And today, it s the final of finals. And it's quite disturbing. People get over-excited.

I woke up this morning at my friend Charlie's house. We are having a big bbq today and the guys are watching the game...kinda like Superbowl Sunday. But the thing is, the final is at 3pm, and when we turned on the tv this morning, there was this thing on called the Grand Final Breakfast. Thousands of people, celebrities and political figues were all dressed up and were having breakfast in this huge convention center, and there was commentators and shows and stuff. Last night, there was a 3 and a half hour special pre-game show. 3 and a half hours!!! And it was 7am this morning and they were already at it!!! We could see people already sitting in the stands!!
Hello!!! the game starts in like 6 hours!!!!!Everybody's got tickets!! No need to come down early to get good seats!!
Man, I just don't get it. Even the americans are not so crazy on superbowl sunday. And at least, on the Superbowl, you get a good show, with a killer half time. Here, we'll have the ultimate pleasure of seeing the top 12 of Australian Idol perform. woohoo.

Anyway. I think they are just nuts.

Et la poussière retombe.

Mes parents sont repartis.
Dave est reparti aussi.

J'ai finalement officiellement déposé ma demande de résidence permanente au gouvernement. Allen et moi avons eu une entrevue avec un de leur agents.
Il faudra encore quelques semaines avant d'avoir une réponse.

Alors voilà.
Tout est fait. Les gros morceaux sont passés.

La vie redevient doucement à la normale.
Je recommence à travailler bientôt.

Allen et moi commençons à recevoir par internet des photos que nos invités ont pris avec leur camera digitale durant notre mariage. Certaines sont pas mal bonnes.
Je les regarde, et je me dis que cette journée a passé tellement vite.

Je me souviens avoir eu besoin de toutes mes forces pour ne pas pleurer durant la cérémonie. Parce que je savais que si je laissais tomber une larme, j'allais brailler comme une madeleine.
Et quand la femme a dit: I pronounce you, Allen and Marie-Pier, husband and wife,
Il y a eu un moment. Allen m'a regardé. On s'est souris. Et il s'est approché pour m'embrasser. Je me demande si toutes les mariées se sentent si légères et profondément heureuse lorsqu'elles regardent leur mari pour la première fois.

I fell in love with him all over again. I know it sounds corny, but it's true.

Ensuite, quand tout a été fini, je suis allée embrasser ma maman. Et c'est là que j'ai pleuré. J'étais tellement contente qu'elle soit là. Et que mon papa m'ait conduit jusqu'à Allen dans le parc. Et j'ai pleuré parce que j'aurais aimé que ma famille soit là. J'aurais voulu pouvoir prendre ma soeur dans mes bras, mon frère, mes cousines. Voir ma grand-maman, mes tantes, mes oncles. Et mes amis. J'aurais voulu que tout ceux que j'aime soient là...Parce que c'était tellement une belle journée.

Vous m'avez manqué, tous.
On se donne rendez-vous l'an prochain au Canada.
On aura une plus belle journée encore.

x x x

The Pictures

We were so lucky to have a nice day. It was supposed to hale and rain and be 16 degrees. But it was beautiful, and my future husband, although very nervous, looked absolutely gorgeous, waiting for my down our 'aisle' people created for us near the river. Ok, I have got to say these are a few pictures my parents took. Although I love them to bits, I have to say they are not the best photographers. I cropped a few pictures because they were crooked and stuff. And sometimes, I have to say I think I look chubby in my dress although I have lost 10 pounds. Go figure. It must be the light or the angle or the reflection on the dress fabric or something...Oh well, maybe some other people's pictures will be better. I have 6 36 pose black and white rolls my cinematographer took for us as our 'real' photographer. I will scan a few of them when I get them develloped and put them on this blog.
So for now, these are just a few of them.

I missed lots of people that day, my family and friends, but I do have to say that everything I was nervous about (which was pretty much everything) turned out perfectly. So the day was a great day.

Looking into Allen's eyes while he was reading me his vows made it the most moving day of my life. I looked at them and saw my husband. It was very powerful.


Thank you all for your kind wishes.

The Plunge

I am getting married tomorrow.

Woah. That's a scary thought. I don't even realize it yet.
There is so much to do I have forgotten what tomorrow will really be about.
I am not nervous. I know he is the one.

Just wanted to tell you guys, oh Canadian friends and family, that I wish you could all be here to spend our special day with us. We will miss you tremendously.
But we will see you next year for our Canadian wedding.

My parents are arriving in a few hours. I think reality will hit me when I see them.
Somehow, through all the wedding plans and preperations, I realized how much my mother is a kind of barometer for me. When I'm not sure what I want or what to do, I really do seek her advice. I guess a daughter needs her mother on her wedding day.

Love you all, wish me luck and good weather.
x x x

Just a few days to go...

Everything is happening so fast.

I barely have time to realize I will be a married woman in 4 days.
My God. 4 days!!!
I am so nervous and tense about getting the wedding organized and getting all the immigration stuff together. I ve been running back and forth, and worring way too much.
I ve been sick to my stomac for 2 days. A gastro brought on by stress. Thing is, I don t know what to do to calm down, I thought I was pretty good at managing everything. I didn't feel THAT stressed out....

But now, I m worried, because this gastro has to be gone by tomorrow night, the girls have organized me a nice big Batchelorette party (no, no stippers allowed.) 10 of us are going out for dinner and then hitting the town's best cocktail lounges. It will be so much fun, I just want to be feeling on top of my game to be able to apreciate it and not spend one half of the evening bent over by stomac pains and the other half in the bathroom.....

I want to drink, dance and have a blast with the girls.

And celebrate one of my last night as a single, unmarried woman.

Oh man.

HSA

This morning, I had to go and have a medical exam at Health South Australia. Had to do it for immigration purposes. I had to fill out all these forms that asked all sorts of questions. I actually had to write down every single time I ever went to the hospital in my life. Like I remembered that on the spot. 'Oh yeah, I remember this time when I was 4, I had a fever.' Yeah right. My God.

Anyway. When I called in for my appointment, they didn't tell me I had to take a eye exam, urine test and a blood test on top of every thing else. What a nice surprise.
I thought it would be a :'ok, open your mouth and say aaaaahhhh' kind of thing. Apparently not.

Anyway, apparently, my veins were shy today so the nice lady had to stick the needle twice in my right arm, and then had to switch to the other arm to finally get some blood out... how fun.
Then a full medical exam, two forms, passeport pictures an a chest x-ray later and I was on my way. Ouf.

Ah, the things I do for my man.

Well, Hello Dave!

So we picked up Dave from the fabulous Adelaide Airport yesterday afternoon. He will spend the next two very hectic weeks with us.

It's so funny to see a person from one world (Montréal) enter your other world (Adelaide). I can't wait for my parents to be here. It's going to be deliciously weird.

Last night, me and the boys went to a nice little place called the Royal Oak. A restaurant slash pub where there was a great jazz band playing all night long. There was people dancing swing, and the atmosphere was relaxed and fun.
We made friends with the bartenders and the manager. We stayed up late. Very late.

It was so nice to see the boys together again. A nice blast from the past. See them have fun together reminded me of all the good times we had. It's good to have him here, even if we are pretty cramped up in our more than cosy appartment.

It's all good.