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This update is dedicated to Hannah Gatland. Hanzy, thanks for showing me how cool a blog can really be (errr you suck!!).

Abridged International Kauai Competition Uno Rules

Patrick Gatland
2006-04-05 10:04:02

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This update is dedicated to Hannah Gatland. Hanzy, thanks for showing me how cool a blog can really be (errr you suck!!).

I'm worried for newspaper columnists of the future. Worried, when, if they ever have to comment on the reason for Australia's remarkably close relationship with the US they will get the answer wrong. Some will say that it's because of the 'Free/Fair Trade Agreement' that came into force last year. Others may argue that it's due to a long legacy of military cooperation deriving from the ANZUS Alliance. The third (and slightly more accurate) columnist may comment that it's due to both nations' love for reality television programs involving morbidly obese folk being tortured until they lose weight. Alas, they'd all be wrong. I can now proclaim that years into the future the real reason for our close relationship is the wedding of Santiago and Andee in Kauai in December 2005.

Nobody ever warned me that in Hawaii they actually buy into the whole Hawaiian Island culture. So everywhere you go it's Hawaiian shirts, leis and ukulele solos - and we thought we were being so ironic wearing our leis and whatnot on our flight to Honolulu.

Hawaii, and in particular the island of Kauai, is everything you'd expect and more. Beautiful weather, amazing beaches and more Hawaiian reggae than you can poke a freshly shucked coconut at. The island was the location for Jurassic Park and Lord of the Flies so if you are uninterested in a more accurate picture of our time on the island then check these films out.

We rented out 'condos' by the beach and after settling in and meeting the other wedding guests we quickly named our unit 'Alpha Pine Gamma' in tribute to all of the American sorority girls Santi had forsaken to marry Andee.

As part of the pre-wedding madness we spent our first morning in Kauai taking surfing lessons. The surfing instructors were ...