ChrisMerriman.com

Seb and Joanne got married last week. A few readers might be asking “who” or “yawn!” already, but for reasons about to become apparent, this happy event is very important to me. You could not ask for a better friend than Seb. We met many moons ago and quickly discovered not only a shared enjoyment of clubbing until you drop, but also quite a few similar philosophies on life.
Oh before I forget, I still don’t know whether Joanne prefers to be called Joanne, Jo Jo, Jordie or even Joanna, as we haven’t yet met in real life, and her facebook timeline has all four used!
Anyway, back to Seb for now… Through the years we stayed pretty close, even when I moved to Kazakhstan, and we tried to meet up in real life (vs online) whenever we were in the same country. Seb eventually moved out to Australia, following in the footsteps of his brother (Con), AlexC and George. Later on Pip also escaped Britain to spend some time over there. All this time I have wanted to go and visit them, but never had the budget or justification for going solo. Well now I have both. This blog has been a better income source than the last couple of years (all the other sites pay a few digital bills, but have become too neglected to do much else), and Seb getting married obviously means there is a new major player in his life that I have yet to meet. So, if all goes well (Australian tourist visa approval), I should be heading to Sydney (to see AlexC and “her” Mat) and Brisbane (to see Seb, Joanne, Con and Pip) this October.
Although I wanted to get over there as soon as possible, attempting to fit in with Kazakh commitments, friend’s free-time and (pretty steep!) budget constraints mean that 25th of October to 14th November I will be away from Astana. The actual trip will be an experience in itself, as the cheapest (by about £300 !) route is to hop around a couple of Chinese airports (via Almaty) before arriving in Sydney. The route starts from Almaty, meaning I am looking at about 44 hours between leaving our flat here in Astana, and arriving at Alex and Mat’s place. Irina and I have made sure my passport has enough months left in it (just) to satisfy any picky immigration officials, that I will be in Astana for Tim’s first birthday, and there is even a (small) chance we will be able to get to Britain (as a family) for our winter trip before Dad’s birthday in mid-November. It depends on which days the cheapest Kazakhstan>UK flights are, and might mean just one or two days between me arriving in Kazakhstan and returning to the airport, but fingers crossed!
Right, on to the photos. The last three are taken from facebook, however please note that the first six are all subject to copyright. I have deliberately used low resolutions of the originals, and linked each image to the company that took the wedding photos. Please click any of these six photos to be taken to the proper page containing a lot more photos of the event. It took place in a rain forest, with the bare minimum of participants, meaning the day was all about just the happy couples’ feelings for each other, and didn’t require years of planning, or months of wages!

That last photo has Mat, AlexC, Con, Seb and Joanne in it. If for any reason one of them would prefer not to be out in general public in this post, leave a comment/msg me and I’ll obscure your face 🙂