In The Rapids

Well, as you can guess from my lack of blog posts, my busy summer schedule has been continuing rapidly. It's now less than two weeks until I fly back to the Czech Republic and I am reunited with my Sweet Princess....but not before a certain Kevin Jacquemain's wedding is attended by me!

In the meantime, let me see, what has happened since last post. Okay, first of all the weekend following Chris Sherry's bachelor party was Chris and Lisa's actual wedding. The wedding was terrific, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves at what appeared to be a perfect ceremony and reception. They couldn't have ordered better weather for the outdoor wedding: blue skies, no clouds, and about 20 degrees celsius (with just a slight breeze)...it was perfect. The bride and bridesmaids all looked beautiful, and the groom and groomsmen were looking pretty dapper themselves. Chris and Lisa honoured me with the Master of Ceremonies duties at their reception, and I'm happy to say that I got a lot of compliments from various wedding guests, some who I knew and some who I didn't. So my worst fear of screwing up the reception was put to rest (I actually had a nightmare about this situation about two nights before their wedding!). Now some photos:

This is me wearing a suit

Lisa and her Dad, walking down the aisle

The ceremony

The head table in the reception hall (Barrie's South Shore Centre)

Cutting the cake

Barrie at dusk

The first dance (Fall Into You-Mazzy Starr)

Ian Cadman and Ty Kelcey (the best man)

And then the day after Chris's wedding in Barrie, Bob, his girlfriend Katelin, and myself all hopped into Bob's car (aka: "the Great One"), and headed on a five and a half hour drive down to Youngsville, Ohio, to attend another wedding: that of our university friend, Rahul Mehta. I originally didn't think that I would be able to attend this wedding because it was so close to Chris's wedding, but when Bob told me that he planned on going down anyway, I couldn't resist. We missed the actual ceremony, but the reception was a great reunion of some of our old university friends (some of whom I haven't seen in about four years): Steve, Angela, Miragh, Ross, Conor, Jeff, Darren, Kari, Gav, Steph, Adrian (aka: Sherm), Jamie, Girish (aka: Gopedog), Jeremy, Carla, Kevin, and of course Rahul and his new bride Sangeeta (and I really hope I didn't forget anyone!). Great times were had by all of us, and it was like we didn't miss a beat. Kevin Rodrigues, my close close friend from university, the lead singer and guitar player of our band, announced his OWN engagement later on in the evening. He was afraid of taking away from Rahul's night, but K-Rod, I think you only added to it bud! Here are some photos from Rahul's wedding (stolen directly from Steve Johns's camera by the way):

Rahul entering on a white horse (I wasn't here for this)

Jamie, Jeff, me, and Sherm

Ross, Miragh, and Angela

Rahul and Sangeeta, entering into public for the first time

The first dance (Lost Together-Blue Rodeo)

I'm on the left, then clockwise it's Katelin, Bob, Miragh, Steve-o, and Ross

Okay, now I don't know if this was Jeff's fault or my own, but we got a little ridiculous with the Johnny Walker Black Label Scotch whisky, and this didn't hit my mouth at all!

And then last weekend was Kevin Jacquemain's bachelor party, which was at Bob's cottage near Sprucedale in Northern Ontario. It was actually a combined bachelor/bachelorette party, and again, lots and lots of fun was had by all. Here are some photos:

Bob's cottage

The lake in front of Bob's cottage

More lake

The fun begins at nightfall

Around the campfire

Kevin (left) and his brother Sean (right) battle intensely for the poker championship, while the eldest brother Mark (centre) looks on.

The exact moment of Kevin's victory

Some fun on the bus into Huntsville

Luke, Amy, and Jessie all try to sober Kevin up a bit

Cadman with Mary, our bus driver (Born to Run baby!)

Now, this weekend I am a paddler in the Barrie Dragon Boat Races. I'm paddling on the ALS team in support of my friend Derek Walton who was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) about 4 years ago, less than one year into his retirement. I haven't been able to make any of the practices though, so this could be total disaster! And then the weekend after is Kevin J.'s wedding, followed by an abrupt exit of myself from Canada. Niky is on vacation in Croatia right now, the lucky girl. So she'll probably have a nice beach tan when I get back, and I'll have the silliest looking meter reader sock and shirt tan going on :P Ah well, c'est la vie. Vratim se brzo zlaticko. Uvidime se!!