Mr Shallot and I have recently returned from our quick trip to Australia. The main purpose was to see his brother get married.

I was lucky enough to be able to go a little earlier so I spent a few days with one of the Best Women on a drive around the Hunter Valley sampling some of that areas finest beverages (and some not so fine ones but that helps to appreciate the others more!). On top of that, we also were generous enough to assist with some fudge and also some cheese tasting. Heaven forbid that any of it would be poisonous and they would offer it to any other unsuspecting tourist so we thought we would assist by tasting it for them. In some instances, we needed to sample a few different variations just in case. What can I say, we like to be helpful.

I then flew to the Gold Coast to catch up with some family before the wedding.

Mr Shallot arrived on the Thursday so we decided to stock up on some supplies. As odd as it sounds, we bought some tennis rackets. Yes, they do sell them somewhere in HK but they seem to be hiding from us. The other must see on our list was the pet store. Now there are at least a billion of them in HK but they don’t seem to cater for pets that can’t fit in a handbag. For this reason, everything for anything larger than something that Paris Hilton is prepared to be seen with is ridiculously expensive.

Shopping completed, we prepared for the wedding. Mr Shallot’s brother’s best man pulled out at the last minute so it looked like Mr Shallot was going to be the emergency back up. Five minutes before the wedding was due to start, the former best man turned up! It was a bit unusual but I guess he had his reasons.

Saturday was then spent visiting the other Best Woman (and our God-children and her husband), one of the Best Men and then off to a family dinner.

Sunday morning we flew out after another whirl-wind visit. I highly recommend Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy – videos on demand, alcohol as soon as you board, non-stop service AND wider seats than economy for not a billion trillion extra!

Lucky for us, Monday was yet another public holiday in HK.

* Thanks to The Cruel Sea for the title to this post.