Work over the past week has been a bit testing. The server at one of the company's office in regional northern-New South Wales failed, which has involved us totally replacing the thing, and honestly it hasn't gone too smoothly. I also did the monthly network maintenance on the weekend as well, so i'm a little worked-out at the moment (but the IT Manager was the one who had to drive down there and physically replace the server!(poor him))
On Sunday we had the wedding of some friends who have been going out for the past 10+ years, so most of us were like 'finally!' when they actually got engaged last year.
The ceremony itself was interesting for many reasons. The bride is a daughter of a Serbian priest, so there were actually four priests partaking in the service which was the first with that many i've seen. Also, because of the mix of Greek and Serbian priests it meant that the ceremony was actually performed in a combination of Greek, English and Serbian.
The Serbian was especially interesting, and hearing the 'Christos Anesti' (Christ is Risen) sung in Serbian was a treat. The ceremony itself felt like a priest tag-team as each took their turn and the microphone was swapped around.
The reception was at Custom's House that night in the City. To my great surprise it was a really small affair (only about 80 people at my count, which left me wondering how Des and I actually scored an invite, but appreciated nonetheless). It was actually quite refreshing; i don't think i've been to a reception with such few people.
Honestly, i've got to say that it's one of the best reception's i've been to for a wedding. If i could use two words to describe it: intimate and classy. The food was amazing, but the highlight for me was the music. There was no DJ, no band; the only music for much of the reception was solely a string trio.
As a bit of background, i love a bit of classical music, and the string trio at the reception whilst eating the great food in the wonderful setting of the 100+ year old Custom's House building was absolutely heavenly. There were several times where i felt like exclaiming to the other people at our table 'Would you please shut the heck up so i can listen to this wonderful music?!!'.
Thankfully i restrained myself, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable night. There was Serbian and Greek dancing later on in the night (it was quite a transition from classical strings to Serbian dance), and the shots of a home-made Balkan drink, Rakia, that was offered to all the guests by the Serbian parents is a story in itself. At our table we called the stuff 'Rocket Fuel', mainly because i swear it had a alcoholic content of at least 60%. I think my stomach lining is still healing.
The only downer was that as it was on a Sunday night, because of work the next day we couldn't stay out as late as we would have liked to and had to leave a bit early.
Rakija is good like that. Once you've finished drinking, you can clean the glass with it.
hehe, i suspect it would probably do a good job of removing paint too!