This site has now been retired. I've moved to my new site Silverknife, where you'll find new blog posts and all my latest projects and photos. These pages will remain for at least a while, as I know some of you are still looking through the archives, but I'm reposting my travel journals and many other articles on the new site. Come and check it out.
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So, the camping having gone well I came back into town on Friday to meet my brother Chris, and join in the wedding preparations. We had wedding rehearsal (very smooth, with a minimum of complication) and a fine carvery dinner for both families on Friday night, and I crashed in my brother's flat for the evening to rework my packing lists based on my new experience and get some much-needed sleep.
The wedding on Saturday went like a dream, with no noteable screwups or panics. A friend of my brother's provided the car: A beautiful Morris Minor with wood trim, and naturally the bride was beautiful, the groom handsome etc. They were both amazingly self-possessed and calm throughout, and everyone remembered their words, rings and other necessities.
The reception afterwards was a really nice relaxed affair with a fantastic hog roast and a bouncy castle outside (ostensibly for the children but most of the bridal party also got out on it after dinner). While everyone else went up for pudding I managed to buttonhole the hog roast team and learned some interesting pig-cookery tips as well. It wound up with a ceilidh and pretty much everyone got out on the floor at some point - excellent day all round.
I've got photos, but I think they're really a family/friends thing so I'm going to make them a Private gallery. If you are family or a friend and don't have the password, let me know and I'll get you on there.
Sunday and Monday passed in blissful mellowness - me and my brother wandered around town, walked in the Botanical Gardens with our cousin and her husband, and spent a sizeable chunk of Sunday in a wonderful unpretentious Italian deli/cafe called Bragazzi, chatting and reading while various of his mates came and went. It made for a wonderful relaxed and refreshing weekend.
On Monday we wandered into town for coffee and a bit of shopping, said goodbye at the Winter Gardens and I made my way down to the station, already planning what I would do with the evening when I got in, and fantasising about my own bed and being shot of my rucksack after four days dragging it around. Of course, my planning and anticipation turned out to be premature...
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