Danskcolin: Thursday August 25th 2022

18:00 Yikes - Lois and I have just spent another 3 hours in bed, and we're feeling really groggy. But what was it we were doing before we went to bed? Can I remember?

Oh yes, we were celebrating our Golden Wedding at the Buckland Manor Hotel near Broadway, but it's all a bit of a blur now. It was funny to be celebrating it there just the two of us, as if "secretly", but hopefully our daughter Sarah will be back in the UK next summer, after her family's 6 years down under, and then we can celebrate with both our daughters and their families, which will be nice.

we celebrate our Golden Wedding "secretly" at Buckland Manor Hotel,

near Broadway.

Fashion notes: Lois is wearing the red dress I bought her for her birthday in June, and I'm wearing my 1990's government "tropical suit", paid for by UK taxpayers, and what I call my "Amsterdam tie",

the one that Lois bought me when she was touring the city with some women friends about 10 years ago.

Do you know what one of my uppermost feelings was, as Lois and I approached this momentous milestone in our lives? It was "not to fall at the last fence".

Lots of couples don't reach their golden anniversary, and that's really sad of course, but even worse, arguably, is to just miss out on it, like Lois's parents did - her father died just a few short months before their 50th wedding anniversary - they had married in 1943, and Dennis died in November 1992.

And at our age, you never know what's waiting around the corner for you, do you - yikes !!!!!!

the lovely old Buckley Manor Hotel, near Broadway,

deep in the Cotswolds

It was supposed to be a "secret" rendezvous - we didn't mention our anniversary when we booked the table. But we were talking to another couple in the lounge after the meal, and we happened to let it slip that it was our anniversary, and what do you know - the French maitre d', who must have been skulking, like a fox, or like a "skulk of foxes" behind one of the sofas, happened to overhear us - and do you know, he got the kitchen staff to decorate the plate that we were served our after-meal titbits on, which was nice - bless his little cotton socks haha!

the French maitre d. must have overheard us talking about our "special day",

and he got the kitchen staff to decorate our after-meal plate with the words

"Happy Anniversary" - how sweet of him !!!!!

It was so nice to be back there at the hotel in the comfortably furnished 17th-century-style lounge and dining-room. We've been there several times over the years, and, for example, we were here for both our 45th and 46th wedding anniversaries in 2017 and 2018, all pre-pandemic of course.

If I remember rightly, it was Steve, our American brother-in-law, who originally recommended the restaurant here to us, maybe as long as 20 years ago maybe, when he was visiting with my late sister Kathy from the States. And it never disappoints, that's for sure.

And just what did we have to eat today, in case you're interested? [All right tell us if you must, but don't take too long over it! - Ed]

Lois perusing the aperitifs menu

For starters we both had apple and celeriac soup, and for the main course we both had the chicken breast with smoked potatoes, carrots and kale, or something of that sort.

the starter - apple and celeriac soup

main course - chicken breast, smoked potato and vegetables

For dessert, Lois had an apple tarte gratin with cinnamon ice-cream, and I had white chocolate cremeux, I think it's called, with poached plums and raspberries.

the desserts

And to think that 50 years have gone by since our wedding day in Oxford in 1972 - it hardly seems possible. Where did all those years go?

flashback to August 1972: us with our wedding cake....

..and later that day in our "going-away" clothes (in my case

the same as my "getting married" clothes, as I only had one suit)

After the reception, back in 1972, we drove up to a hotel at Horton-cum-Studley on Otmoor for our wedding night, and the next day we flew from East Midlands Airport to the Norwegian fjords for our honeymoon.

Here are some of our less glamorous honeymoon snaps:

"Sakte fart" means "low speed" in Norwegian, by the way, in case you're wondering - and the above notice was a warning sign for vessels approaching harbour - just a tip if you're ever sailing some boat or other in the region haha!

I didn't know it at the time, but I learned fairly recently that my father's DNA had a dash of Norwegian - 4% or so, I think - so in a sense by honeymooning in Norway, I was "coming home" [I think that's stretching things a bit! - Ed]

19:00 After our celebratory lunch at Buckland Manor, we're not hungry enough to have another meal tonight, so we just have a slice of our so-called "anniversary cake" on the sofa. It's really a birthday cake, but Sainsbury's Groceries Online didn't have an anniversary cake. It doesn't really matter, does it. It's the cake that counts!