Lights, Camera, Action!

Posted on February 20, 2008 by Sarah Bernhardi

Our wedding photographer, Helen Bankers, has put a selection of some of our best shots from the big day on her website for you all to browse.  Check them out at http://www.sarahandscott.com/wpg2?g2_itemId=15415 .  We’ve also now added a new gallery which includes all her original shots – some stunners!  We’ve resized these images for ease of loading and viewing on our website.  If ther are any that you would like for yourselves then please just email us at photos@harman.tv with the image number(s) and we’ll send you the hi-res versions which will be better for printing.

Please don’t forget to email us any great shots you have from any of the events (sailing, Goldwater BBQ and Mudbrick).  Email them to photos@harman.tv and we’ll get them posted.

Love from sunkissed New Zealand with only days to go until we jet back to England.  Poooh!

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Was it all a dream?

Posted on February 16, 2008 by Sarah Bernhardi

Well if it was … it’s by far the best dream I’ve ever had!

Just 24 hours ago Scott and I uttered our “I Do’s” to the backdrop of an Auckland sunset at the lovely Mudbrick Vineyard on Waiheke Island.  The day was a whirlwhind but every second was pure delight.  We both woke up at 5am – so excited we couldnt sleep and decided to watch the sun rise over Auckland from our stunning bedroom on the top floor of Matiatia Olive Estates beautiful harbour view house. 

We started the day with coffee and a walk on the beach at Oneroa and then dashed back to the villa to start the festivities of make-up, hair, flowers, dresses and the usual wedding day stresses and delights.  To say we were blessed with the weather would be a gross understatement.  A more perfect, windless, blue skied day could not have been possible.  The photos are evidence of this.  I’d love to take you through every waking minute of the entire day but … at the risk of boring you to death … I’ll let you browse the photos to get a sense of it.   I had tears streaming down my face from the minute I walked up the aisle to Marks comments as he stood in as father of the bride and then of course Scotty doing me so proud with his Grooms Speech … which was so special and very touching (despite his reference to our last “eight LONG years”).  Tears of joy and sheer appreciation.  Never before in my life have I ever felt so fortunate.  The best family, best husband and best family-in-law.  I’m a very lucky girl.  And, despite Craig and Aarons protestations and suggestions that Milo is “just a dog”.. the guests even managed to slip in a toast to Milo.  It was wonderful :-)

We left Waiheke and headed up to Hahei and Cathedral Cove (Coromandel) with Mom, Mark, Kerry and Eleanor.  It was beautiful.  We dug our own hot pool on hot water beach and enjoyed the magnicifent beaches before heading down to Papamoa for tearful farewells.  Scott and I are now spending 24 hours at the beach house in Papamoa before meeting up with family and friends on their travels around New Zealand in Taupo for a few days.  Some have threatened to throw themselves out of a plane … they call it skydiving.  Scott and I are more inclined to lounging in the hot spring pools.  We’ll post photos of our adventures shortly.

Love from two very, very happilly married people.  Mr & Mrs Harman.

 

 

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It’s the big day!

Posted on February 12, 2008 by Scott Harman

Gidday from Sunny (and rainy, and windy, and then sunny again) New Ziland

had a fantastic day out yachting yesterday – boys versus girls -
we won the race fair and square but apparently it had to be called off for safety reasons

the girls won the second race after the 40 knot winds and torrential rains had stopped

a fantastic day after that – a bbq at goldwater estate with all the friends and family who will be at the wedding today
just listening to waiheke spring to life – cicadas and crickets with a tui singing in the tree outside our window
couldn’t be more perfect!

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Wedding Blog Post #1 – Halfway there

Posted on February 3, 2008 by Scott Harman

After emotional goodbyes to Milo, we’re now halfway around the world on the way to sunny New Zealand
Sat up here in the front of the plane- life is decidedly more pleasant ;)
We’re about 2 hours out from Hong Kong, where we’ll be able to perform the ritual sacrifice to the twin gods of Visa and American Express

We’re feeling terribly guilty about not bringing Milo along, but that’s ok – she’ll see NZ one day

Caught up with Alan at the airport. He’s clearly so nervous about the best man’s speech, he’d rather go to hospital.

He feels awful about it, but not his fault – the scary thing is that I could see exactly the same thing happening to me – so we’re working on a masterplan to deliver his speech via the wonders of VOIP and Webcam – will let you know how that develops

So currently I’m without best man – there’s always the possibility Al will make it over, but if he doesn’t – then so be it.
He’ll have six months to prepare the all-singing and all-dancing show that he will have to perform and choreograph for our summer garden party in July

Looking forward to seeing everyone in a couple of days – only 13 hours from Auckland shores now!
Ooooh how’s this for dinky co-inki-dinks!
Wedding on the 13th – flew on a plane that left from gate 13 – and here I am sat in seat 13!

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Happy 2008!

Posted on January 19, 2008 by Scott Harman

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family around the world!  We couldn’t have started it any better than we did – in the company of family, chaos, kids, muddy paws and lots of country and cityside adventures.

We played host to Mark, Kerry, Leo and baby Katie for three weeks over Christmas and we’ll never be able to describe the deafening silence of our house when we returned from Heathrow that sad Sunday night they left for Singapore.  A few pics from our adventures in the gallery. 

We’ve sold the flat in Chilton and it’s all systems to to find mom a pad in the countryside … although I’m more inclined towards the South of France!  No, not to get rid of her you nasty people … just simply to ensure we have a pad to escape to when Berkshire life becomes dull.

Look forward to seeing you all in sunny New Zealand as we kick this milestone year off to a stonking start with our wedding festivities and many, many, many nights shared drinking fine New Zealand wine and … as we always do … putting the world to right.

All our love always.

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The Stork Has Landed!

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Sarah Bernhardi

We are delighted to announce the arrival of our niece, Kate Emma Bernhardi. She arrived in Singapore today at 4am (UK time) weighing in at a reasonable 8 pounds something. She was delicately described as “just like Leo, less round in the face with brown hair!”. It was a super quick labour / delivery and Kerry is doing very, very well.Mark has promised to send photos through later this morning which I’ll post as soon as they arrive.

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Bonjour!

Posted on September 15, 2007 by Sarah Bernhardi

What a week.  Rugby, sunshine, great wine, smelly cheese and a 1,200 km roadtrip of south France!

We started our adventrue in Marseilles and, courtesy of the All Blacks, were privelleged to watch the All Blacks thrash Italy 76 v 14.  A very memorable experience.  From there we jumped in the car, navigated ourselves away from the Cote d’Azur towards Carcassonne … a spectacular medievel walled town.  Our hotel had a lovely outlook over the city so we took full advantage of the view …. from the pool.  Bliss.  We then joined the Harman family at their stunning holiday villa in Brantome (about an hour out of Bordeaux).  A spectacular French farmhouse conversion with a beautiful pool and nestled on the cool banks of a lovely river too.  We managed to explore the neighbouring chateauxs, foie gras farms, stunning villages and markets … whilst enjoying fine bbq’d food and french wine in the evenings.  We spent the entire day lazying around the pool area yesterday having the odd dip inbetween chapters … and then settled in to watch the Boks thrash England 36 v 0 …. yip … read that again …. “nil point sur Allemagne”.

We’re now at Bordeaux airport … watching the All Blacks give Portugal a bit of a hiding in Lyon.  Quite embarressing really.  Score is presently 59 v 10 and we’ve just come back for the second half.  Blush.

Will be back in touch once we’ve settled in on the little mud island again … and survived a Milo welcome home! 

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Hello!

Posted on July 3, 2007 by Sarah Bernhardi

Well its been a long while since our last update which means we’ve got a lot to tell!

Life in sleepy Bucklebury continues to suit us perfectly. The garden landscaping kicked off this week and – although I am away from home for a few days – I believe its starting to take shape beautifully. So exciting. We’ve still not had the time or creative inclination to do any picture hanging so the place still looks a little shell-like. Mom is in Singapore for the month with “the other lot” and seems to be surviving the heat (just). They had a three day adventure to Cambodia which sounded wonderful – albeit hot and sweaty and Leo seems to be warming to his Gran Gran more and more each day. Just before mom left for Singapore she secured herself a part time role with a relocation agency she has worked with in the past who are based in Goring (just 15 minutes from Upper Bucklebury). We’ve now put the flat in Walton On Thames on the market with a view to selling it and buying mom a nice pad in the countryside closer to Scott and I. Very exciting. Mark has done us all proud and has been accepted to INSEAD for their fulltime MBA programme. He’ll be based out of their Singapore campus but hoping to spend at least one semester (with the family) at the campus in Fontainbleau, France. Scotts folks, Bev & Brent, are in the UK now for summer and it’s been a real treat having them back. Unfortunatley we’ve had miserable wet weather for the last few weeks so not many bbqs to speak of. Craig, Scotts brother, has officially branched out on his own and is now a freelance cameraman and doing remarkably well in such a short space of time. Susie has had her first event volunteering for the Media Trust and that appears to have been a resounding success too!Scott and I have got a busy summer planned. Mom and I are off to Birte Deutschewitzs’ (my Rotary Exchange Berlin Host Parents daughters) wedding in Berlin for an extended long weekend in August and are hoping to a mini-roadtrip down to Dresden afterwards. Scott and I have booked ourselves a weeks holiday in France to co-incide with a rugby world cup game in Marseilles (Italy vs NZ) and then we’re going to drive across to Bordeaux to join Bev & Brent who have rented a lovely villa for the week.I’ve accepted a role as Head Of Service Operations with Miele, the appliances company. They’re a privately owned German company with offices worldwide. Their UK offices are based in Abingdon which is a 25 minute drive from Upper Bucklebury – just outside Oxford. I’ve met a number of people on the team – both in the UK and Germany – and they’ve all been so welcoming and supportive that I’m genuinely excited about getting started. 

Wedding plans are all going well. If you’ve not yet RSVP’d – please make sure you do as soon as possible. For those of you who have, we hope you’re enjoying the fun of planning your great adventure to New Zealand. Please feel free to call on us if you need any advice in doing so. Milo sends her love. She’s still in her element in the countryside and – with the recent continuous rain – loving the muddy puddle bathing opportunities she’s getting daily!

 

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Has The World Gone Mad?

Posted on May 31, 2007 by Sarah Bernhardi

BBC News reports that over 6.2 million people tuned in to watch the first episode of the eighth series of UK Big Brother which started last night!! 6.2 Million?? 6.2 Million people decided to waste an hour of their life watching a group of random people enter a house they’re going to confine themselves to for 13 weeks. I just don’t get it. I know for certain that if I really couldnt find anything more interesting to do than watch tv on a beautiful English summers evening, I would have personally tuned in to Springwatch (broadcast at the same time daily) – an award winning documentary series run by the BBC every year for a period of … wait for it…. 13 weeks (there is a God!). Springwatch secretly films and monitors the daily activity of wildlife all around the country. Last night we had a surprise otter appearance, watched some tawny owls sort out a domestic, saw wonderful live pictures of a Golden Eagle feeding her chick and we get to monitor the journey of a swallow all the way from South Africa to Scotland. If you really chose to invest 13 weeks of your live into watching a television series – exactly which one of these would be most rewarding? Clearly 6.2 million people think otherwise. Shudder.

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Watch Those Mailboxes!

Posted on May 15, 2007 by Sarah Bernhardi

Wedding invites were posted yesterday which means – for those of you lucky enough to benefit from Royal Mails superb first class service – the first envelopes will be falling into postboxes around England, Ireland and Scotland this morning. Those of you living further afield have the benefit of anticipation to add to the event.

Accomodation availability on Waiheke Island for the period is starting to become a challenge so the sooner you book yourself a room for the two or three nights the better.

We’re looking forward to receiving all your RSVPs over the coming weeks.

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