Preparing for the Big Day

Wednesday morning was the inorganic rubbish collection! The Waitakere City Council have been doing it differently now, requiring people to pay for their rubbish to be collected (with a maximum of one cubic metre), rather than just let everyone leave their rubbish on the curbside.

We dumped a few old computer monitors and some blinds on our front lawn for collection in the morning. My parents had put out a fridge and microwave on our neighbour's lawn (with her permission!) the night before, and not too long after our neighbour rang to say someone had already taken it!

On the morning of the collection we decided to add our old, broken 29" TV to the collection. We were wheeling it over to our neighbour's lawn as the truck was collecting the rubbish further down the street. One of the workers saw us putting the TV on the lawn and started shouting to us

"GO AWAY!!!"

He must've been thinking we were just random people dumping rubbish on someone else's lawn! Fortunately our neighbour came out to explain to the guy that we had her permission.

We also decided to dump one of our old couches, which was a last minute decision. Just as we got it to the curb, the truck had made it's way up to our house. We thought that they would be collecting our rubbish to restore and sell to someone else, but to my parents' horror, they just chucked all the stuff into the back of the truck, only for it to be crushed! My parents were really gutted, especially since we had so many memories of that couch. They've had it for many, many years and while it may be broken, it's one of our most comfortable couches! Hamish would often sleep on it during the day when he's bored. I don't know where he'll sleep now.

RIP OLD ORANGE COUCH

Later in the afternoon though we went over to the vineyard in Kumeu to check out the place where our cousin Jeremy will be getting married to his fiance Asumi this Sunday. It was quite a nice place. If it doesn't rain, they will be having their wedding outside, with the reception inside the nearby building which looks very much like a barn (which of course it actually isn't!). 

We just went through what they will be saying during the ceremony, who will be standing where, saying what. Aonghas had to figure out which camera angles he would be shooting while I was figuring out where all our music performances would fit in. 

We got everything confirmed. Now the only thing to do is practise, practise, practise!

One thing I am really freaked out about is that I have to play a violin solo (unaccompanied!) during the signing. Now there is a reason why I've never performed the violin solo before....because I'm not good! I sound terrible! I'm hoping we have the wedding outside so that hopefully the sound I make will get distorted or something so that people won't hear just how bad I am!