3 x M - update take 2

Mikaela & Julien = sant

The civil marriage took place in the castle of Martigny, Valais, which was a real beautiful surrounding for such a happy day. The only warm and sunny day in two weeks of rain, it was a great day, starting at 8 a.m. with the marriage among close family and the two witnesses, Jean-Baptise (see picture) and I, continuing with breakfast in the castle next to an open fire, then lots of pictures and climbing the castle for the breathtaking view, and finishing with a 4h long lunch up in the mountains at 1400m. Then back to Geneva for me to finish off the day with Anki and some other friends at the Lake Parade, while the newly wed went to a close friend's wedding dinner to continue celebrations with yet another wedding :)

And the final M day, the biggest day and most incredible day took place a week later on Saturday 14 July in a castle in Tuscany not far from Florence. A very busy day for the wedding party, running around in every direction, getting hair fixed, helping the bride into her dress, and then off to church for a beautiful ceremony in Italian (perhaps that's what made it so beautiful for a non-believer like myself) putting tears into most the guests eyes. Singing by an opera singer with a beautiful voice and the bridesmaid of 4 years old (M's little sister) climbing on me and being sooo cute in her beautiful dress did only add to the magic of the moment.

And then back to this magnificent castle for a drink and huge table of anti-pasti, followed by a 4 course dinner in the garden under the stars. Finishing of the night with a few hours dancing, we were happy to all lie down next to the pool the next day for some well deserved rest.

Magnificent! Tack Mikaela

3 x M - update

3 x M as in 3 times celebrating Mikaela - her hen party in Geneva, civil marriage in Martigny and wedding in Tuscany. A lot of fun and quite a lot of work for me who had the great pleasure to be her maid of honor and witness and to share this big event with my oldest friend met in Geneva. From the choice of the wedding dress, and then shoes with multiple trips to Annecy (including quite a bit of non-wedding related shopping as well) to the big d-day it has been an eventful spring and summer. For me, the most work went into organising the hen party which with some help from the weather goods and luck as to timing went really well and was a great day and a good memory for all the gals i hope :)

The day started with a kidnapping of M in bed, still half asleep it took her a while to understand what was going on. With a small nibbling of breakfast in the cars, we headed of to an hour of cowboy imitation through horse riding in the forest between Messery (where M lives) and Excenevex, France. A cool hour which we all enjoyed, though some might have found it a bit more scary than others. It was ended by a gallop by M in the closed-in area.

Next came a few hours of playing tarzan, jane and cheeta - though without any tarzan present ;) Adventure forest meant a lot of climbing, some tricky parts, quite a lot of screams and much laughter. M as Jane was a great hit!

After all this excitement and activities it was time for a well deserved lunch at the one sand beach of Lac Leman which happens to be right there in Excenevex. A delicious lunch prepared by Mikaela's older sister and almost extra mother, Heidi. A dip in the lake later and we were off back to Geneva for some rafting canoe on the Arve which, though we do not have any photos, was a very impressive experience and frankly quite scary sometimes giving us a real adrenalin chock :) But the day was not over with this. Back at Aude's place where we then spend the evening and night, M got changed into an old dress her mother used to wear in the 50's, her rollerblades, some accessories and the task to ask people down at la terrasse (one of the busiest places in Geneva on a beautiful saturday apero time) for their love recipes which were gathered in a book then handed over to her at the wedding. She was impressive, really taking her task serious and we advanced approx 5 m in 20 minutes while she asked any interesting persons or group of people around for their thoughts - going up to people us others girls considered staying clear off and getting advices from them.


After a bottle of rosé as ammunition it was then time to head back to Aude's for some well deserved dinner and drinks - two of M's favorites sushi and capirinha - and some dancing, singing, laughing and good times. though the plan was to head out afterwards, once we finished dinner at 2 a.m. and after a day full of activities we were all happy to climb into bed and sleep like babies.

A REAL COOL DAY :))

I chose the sea...

it has been quite some time since i last wrote anything here, more than a month actually, reason being that i have been first too busy at work, then sick, and finally off on vacation and not wanting to use a computer in the heat more than for a few minutes at a time... however, forced by circumstances to stay two extra days at my father's place in slovenia and seeming that it is raining i thought it was time to fill in some missing information.

first however, why am i here? well, following on my father's notorious lateness we left portorož where he lives and i spent the last week an hour later than planned, meaning that we lost our extra hour of precaution. then the actual drive took about 20-30 minutes longer than what stated on viamichelin, and finally and worst when arriving at the right exit in venice there was a choice between two roads - one going to aeroporto and the other to some city we have never heard of and not the city where the right airport was supposed to be situated - hence we followed the signs to the "airport". only arriving at it did it say the name which was not the right. a lost 30 minutes, the exact time needed for me to arrive in time for my flight to stockholm so hence i missed it as they refused to let me through even though the airport was tiny and there were almost 30 minutes left to take-off grrrr. on top of that, the next flight is only tomorrow and it is fully booked as are all their flight out of venice until 1 august. so now, i'll have to go down there, an almost 3h drive one-way, tomorrow to wait and see if by chance someone does not turn up and then can fit me in.... so, not sure how i will get out of here nor when, and in the meantime, after having looked on all possible flight out of venice, milan etc and realised that no good options existed, i decided to try my chances on wednesday and enjoy my extra day at the beach - but for some reason the bad luck keeps following me and today, after a week of not one cloud, it is raining :((

oh, well, enough of the negativism- at least i got to see venice for the first time in my life. the plan was in fact to go there for a few hours during the day before hitting the airport, but then i chose the sea over the city and decided to go for a last swim in the most lovely water in the world. finally i guess i got both ;)


so, please keep your fingers crossed tomorrow that i get a seat on the plane to stockholm!