Well, it's arrived, the day of my niece Maria's wedding to Tom, and you can't IMAGINE what a different day it's been for Lois and me after over 2 years of lockdowns and restrictions, to drive 150 miles to a wedding attended by about 100 guests and to chat with other people (i.e. not just with each other - which is our everyday norm) at a "do" lasting from 2 pm till we leave at 8:30 pm - my god! You would not BELIEVE haha!!!!!
Many more days like this and we'll start to feel normal again perhaps - who knows? And following the rule that disasters, or at least mini-disasters, always choose to happen on the big occasions, Lois's shoes disintegrate as we leave the car to go into the wedding venue. Luckily she had some trainers in the car, and they let us in, even though it said in the dress code "no jeans and no trainers". Oh dear!
Lois's "wedding guest" shoes disintegrate as we leave the car to go
into the wedding venue - what are the chances of that happening, eh?!!!!
After that, however, everything goes okay and we find that the wedding has been planned meticulously by Tom and Maria, resulting in a perfect day.
We escape at 8:30 pm, even though the "party", i.e. the disco, was due to go on till midnight. Lois usually likes to have a dance before leaving, but tonight the volume of the music is just too high - by about 5 miles. Oh dear! Still this bit of the day isn't supposed to be for the crinklies on the guest list is it haha!
Luckily Lois and I find we've been seated on a table with some of the "mature" guests, including Peter's mother Pat, who is absolutely amazing for her age - she's in her 90's and still driving.
And it's very nice for me to find myself seated next to Helen, Jill's friend from student days - Jill and Helen have been friends for 40 years. And I remember I was seated opposite Helen at Jill and Peter's wedding in May 1985 - my sister Kathy, her husband-to-be Steve and I had flown over from the US to attend the wedding.
I haven't got much time, so I'll just put some of the pictures in now, below, from the wedding. The day starts quietly with a zoom chat in our Newmarket hotel bedroom with our daughter Sarah in Perth, Australia, and with her and Francis's 9-year-old twins, Lily and Jessica.
we talk from our hotel bedroom with Sarah, our daughter,
and our twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica, in Perth, Australia
Lois (right) with Maria's sister Zoe and her partner Chris
me (left) with Maria and Zoe
my sister Jill (Maria's mother) with Lois and me
the wedding breakfast room as people file in
at the high table (back, centre) Tom's parents, Maria, Tom (not shown),
my sister Jill, and Jill's husband Peter
Lois with Pat, Peter's nonagenarian mother
(in the background) Jill and Peter's other daughter Lucy
and a friend talking to Lucy's father, Peter, at the high table
the disco floor being made ready
Tom and Maria cutting the cake
Tom and Maria leading off the dance
some plucky guests join in!
22:00 Lois and I, back in our hotel bedroom, feeling too exhausted to do anything but zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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