Our Big OE: 2008 for the Huangs in a Nutshell

Well 2008 has been a fairly eventful year for us! The New Year started fairly quietly down in Cork with Rebecca’s extended family but the year soon picked up pace as invitations were sent out, RSVPs were received, and details were finalised in the lead up to the biggest day of our lives.

On March 28th 2008, we were married at St. Mary’s Church in Auckland, New Zealand. It was a lovely sunny day which reflected the overall mood of the day. Surrounded by a lot of our closest family and friends we said “I do” and proceeded to celebrate that evening in Settler’s Lodge. It was a brilliant day and one we will remember forever. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came, especially those who travelled long distances to celebrate with us that day.

Although we were only home in New Zealand for just over two weeks we also managed to buy a house there! Through the help of a family friend we had a look at a few houses and were lucky enough to find a home that we fell in love with - a 3-bedroom house in Birkdale, only a short 5 minute or so drive from our parents' places. We settled on it in May and are currently renting it out to a young family. Perhaps one day we will return to live in it!

And of course then there was the honeymoon which was a trip around Johnny’s birthplace, Taiwan. This country is gorgeous and we enjoyed exploring it by rail on a 5 day tour, especially when we were treated like royalty and upgraded to the honeymoon suite a few times! I think every time we go on holiday from now on we should try the “We are on honeymoon” trick! :-)

If we expected a lull after the excitement of the wedding we were wrong. We found a new place to live within a day of being back in Ireland and moved in that weekend. A lovely two-bed apartment in Raheny with lots of space for visitors! Lucky for that as we have had a few visitors over the last year: Danielle, Katie and Ant, Clodagh and Shannon, Cass and Judy, Paul and Marnie, Chris, the Walshs, Anna, Loren and Andre and of course our friends Craig and Andy have made use of the spare room on more than one occasion!

A week after we got back from honeymoon Johnny was off to Mexico for two weeks with work. When he came back from that there was a bit of a lull over the Summer but since September he has hardly been in the country for very long. Two months in Cape Town and a week in Montreal with much more on the cards for 2009. Not ideal being so away from home for so long but at least he is getting to see some interesting sights!

Meanwhile Rebecca threw herself into all sorts of sports over the Summer: her usual netball as well as swimming, ballroom dancing and of course tag rugby. Running took precedence over it all and after many, many hours of training she completed her first marathon in Dublin on 27th October in 4 hours, 33 minutes and 55 seconds. She hopes to run at least one more in 2009 so the training will continue.

So now it is that as we type this we are far above the Atlantic Ocean, on our way to the big U.S. of A where we will be celebrating our first Christmas and New Years as a married couple. First stop for us will be Philadelphia to visit our friends Jill and Eoin, then a romantic Christmas by ourselves in Washington D.C., followed by a fun 5 days over New Years in New York where we will be joined by a few other friends – we can’t wait!

Of course you’ll have to wait for that update though as we want to get this out to you all in time to wish you and your families a very: