Our Anniversary

Well, as of Thursday, it has been four years since Daniel and I became Husband and Wife. That's right, on the 16th of November, we celebrated our "Fruit and Flowers" Anniversary. We really can't believe it's been four years...
Daniel had a beautiful bunch of flowers sent to me at work and I got Daniel (I know unconventional, but... he LOVES it) a little green turtle. THAT'S RIGHT!!!!! We have a pet. An ADORABLE little striped Chinese Turtle. DANIEL LOVES HIM!!!! We call him "Turtle". We are happy. It's been four years of wedded bliss and we have come further than we EVER imagined we would, all those years ago when we took vows in the Hunter Valley.
For those of you who don't know that story (seeing as most of you were there when we did the big white do), here it is...
Daniel and I were sharing a house with my Best friend, Esmae, in Bronte at the time. Daniel and I had been working really hard to get his short film, Journal, made and we'd been shooting all week. On Friday night we bumped out and went out with the cast and crew for drinks to celebrate. Then, on Saturday morning, I went to work (because I always worked Saturdays) but had to leave a little early (at lunch) so that I could join Daniel, Esmae and Tristan (Daniel's oldest friend), who had already piled into our car, on the drive up to the Hunter Valley.
We drove up to the Hunter Valley, where we were booked in to stay at (and be married at) The Seble of Polkobin. We arrived at about 3pm and checked into our rooms. I joined Esmae in her room to get ready as Daniel and Tristan chose where on the Hotel Grounds and Gardens we would have the ceremony (There was a willow tree by the lake in the valley at the bottom of the grounds, there was a beautiful rose garden and a Lilly Pond Garden looking over the valley to choose from), I told him to tell the front desk and I would go there, so I'd be surprised.
As I got dressed and Esmae helped me with my something Old, New, Borrowed and Blue (my christening skirt and shoes, my beaded top, the earrings I wore, and my hair clip with the blue jewels, respectively), I was so excited and filled with such joy that nothing in the world could have brought me down.
Once we were both ready, Esmae and I walked up to reception where the VERY sweet gay concierge told me I looked radiant and asked if I had flowers and then said "You can't get married without flowers!!!! OK, do you want some of those (pointing to the MASSIVE arrangement in the Hotel Foyer) or some of the Gardenias from the front drive?” Scared by the Huge arrangement in front of me, I said the Gardenias (not remembering that they were the ones that smelled of Heaven). He rushed out front, with us following, and cut me four flowers and actually arranged them into a beautiful posy. He handed them to me, said "Perfect" and led the way to the Lilly Pond Garden where Daniel, Tristan, and our Minister were waiting. The ceremony was over in about 10 minutes and all I remember was grinning so much that as we were walking out of the garden to sign papers, Daniel and I both laughed at how much our cheeks hurt. They seriously HURT because we were smiling so hard.
All of us went inside where the Hotel gave us a bottle of Champagne to celebrate as we signed our marriage license. We took photos around the Hotel as the sun started to go down and then we went out for Dinner. Esmae and Tristan took us out for dinner to celebrate and we had a BEAUTIFUL authentic Australian feast, splendidly made from regional Aussie ingredients. It was spectacular. Honestly, the happiest night of my life. And I remember every moment.... The drinks, the food, the dessert, the pool and spa at the Hotel where we all went swimming after dinner. I was so happy, there with my New Husband, and our two best friends, in the most beautiful location that New South Wales has to offer. It was perfect.
The next day, we had breakfast in bed and then got up and checked out. The four of us stopped at one winery on the way home and tasted a little wine and cheese, and enjoy the view of the valley.
By 6pm, we were home, less than a day and a half later, married. Monday morning, we both went off to work, like nothing had happened. But, it had. Our two best friends had witnessed (and signed a legal document to that effect) our lives changing forever. Daniel and I became Husband and Wife and we have never been happier. We had never been happier. It was the first day of the rest of our life, and now, four years later and on the other side of the world it feels at the same time like it was a lifetime ago and like it was just yesterday.
We've been through a lot in the last 4 years of marriage and I know we'll go through a lot more in the next 60 or 70, but I gotta let you all know, so far so good.
We are happy and healthy... Making dreams come true and living in The Big Apple!!!!
YAY.
Love and miss you all, as always.
Taliesen and Daniel.

Never get sick in the U.S. of A.... EVER!!!!!!

Taliesen Here...
I need to apologize for not writing in a while, guys, I'm sorry. I've actually been in the wars a little bit. Well, I had one thing go wrong and it all went dowhill from there. Here's the short version (and yes, you all know me well enough to know that even the short version will be way too detailed and long... hehehe):
About 2 weeks ago I started having bad abdominal pain (no, I'm not pregnant) and it wouldn't go away after about 3 days, getting so bad I had to leave work early. Daniel (after putting me on his medical insurance) came to pick me up and take me to the doctor.
The doctor then sent me to the Emergency Room (Yes, you're right, Daniel and I do spend too much time there).
Ignoring the note from my doctor saying "give her a CatScan, I think she has Appendicitis", every doctor and resident and student in the ER at NYU Downtown Hospital - A teaching Hospital and one of the best in NY, supposedly - proceeded to examine me. They all got very excited when I made the - well, it wasn't a mistake, but it sure felt like a mistake - of telling them about my "pre-existing Condition" of polycystic ovaries. So, hours of poking and prodding and painful ultrasounds, they finally gave me the catscan at 11:30PM (We went to the ER at about 3:30pm).
Of course at 11:30pm, the hospitals radiologist is at home, sleeping, so my catscan was sent where to be analyzed??? AUSTRALIA!!!! That's right, I waited in the ER being poked for EIGHT HOURS only to have my CatScan sent HOME to be looked at by a radiologist who WASN'T asleep!!!!!
Of course, being the Autralian radiologist that he was, his "analysis" was simply "she doesn't have appendicitis. She'll be right. No worries"... BUT I WAS STILL IN PAIN!!!!!!
So, what was the next step?? Well, exploratory surgery, OF COURSE!!!!!! "Let's cut into her and have a look at her insides and SEE if anything's wrong". So, at 3AM, I went under general anesthetic to have a camera poked through my belly-button and an incision made in my side so tools could poke around... FUN, HUH???? (what happened to the good old days, when the only thing that knocked me out at 3am was the copious amounts of alcohol I'd been consuming since sundown...).
So, I woke up at 5:30AM to be told that they couldn't see anything wrong so they were discharging me... Their guess was that I must have had an abdominal infection. So, home I went with painkillers (for the pain from the surgery... the other wasn't bothering me any more, then again, I was doped up, what did I know?).
Since the ER discharged me, I was told they thought I had Chrone's Disease (which is what the Radiologist - the one that had been sleeping - said when he came into work that day and looked at my CatScan) so I went to a Gastroenterologist, who yesterday performed a colonoscopy on me (more general anesthetic), and if you don't know what that is, YOU DON'T WANT TO!!!!
We'll know more when the results from the biopsy he took come back, but he said I looked normal and he's leaning toward the gastro infection, too.
So, after ALL that (and a couple of hundred dollars paid to specialists - even after insurance) it looks like I'm fine!!!!
Oh... almost forgot...
We got the bill from the Hospital yesterday, if Daniel hadn't put me on his insurance that morning, we would have to find some way of paying that good Hospital $8,882.60 on top of the doctors fees. That's right... EIGHT THOUSAND, EIGHT HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-TWO DOLLARS!!!!!!! Can you believe it??? I was in the Emergency Room for a mere 14 hours, I wasn't even admitted!!!!
So, I reiterate, Never get sick in the USA, EVER!!!!
Thank you, those who knew, for your well-wishes. They worked, it looks like I will be right as rain!!!!
Love to you all, As always.
Missing you,
Taliesen.

Photos from AGES Ago!!!!

Here are some pics of our GOOD friends... Geoff and Yaz, and Therese: The ones who have already made the treck to come see us all the way over here in the Big Apple (O.K. so none of them were actually here to see us and they all had their tickets booked before I did to get here, but ANYWAY!!!!)


This one is of Daniel and Geoff. While here seeing family, Geoff and Yasmine (I hope I spelt that right) made apoint of coming out with us a couple of times. Being the Aussies that we are, we just went out for drinks after work (well, after Daniel and I got off work... they were on holiday... hehehe) and we found a couple of really nice bars. One downtown that we later found out was a gay bar with Cabaret upstairs, and the other was a dodgy little dive on 23rd St.




This is Me with Geoff and Yas at the cool little place downtown where we were "accousted" by a man selling AIDS ribbons. He trapped us into a conversation by just casually commenting on all the crazies in the street and then proceeded to be one of them and wouldn't go away... even AFTER we all bought ribbons...


And, lastly the pics of us and Therese (at the cute dive on 23rd). She announced her engagement to us that night. She is SSOOOOOO happy and we talked weddings most of the evening... It was SSOOOOOOO great to be out with a bunch of our friends from Sydney... Not to mention that this was only 3 days before Daniel's birthday, Perfect Timing, and a LOVELY night out!!!!!!


For the rest of you, Just LOOK at what you're missing by not visiting us here in New York... What are you THINKING??? You'd LOVE it!!!!!!! What are you waiting for???? Go out and sell a kidney, do what you have to do, just GET OVER HERE!!!!! We miss you all and wish you all love and joy in this coming Holiday Season.

Love to you all, as always,
Taliesen.