With no reason to be up
early we had a bit of a lie-in, and then I got out my shears and gave
my head the once-over before having a bit of brekkie. I noticed the
room was dark, so I opened the curtains. Or that is I tried to open
the curtains: I couldn't get to the window because of all the clutter
in the way. Much of which was other people's clutter. Amongst the
clutter there is a tent which has been under my window for a couple
of years now. It's not my tent: we seem to have brought it home from
one of our camping trips, and someone or other seems to be content
that I'm looking after it. If anyone thinks I'm looking after their
tent could they please reclaim it as it is seriously in my way.
I had the Saturday
morning weigh-in. What with the holidays I've put on three pounds
this week. I suppose that's only to be expected, but I must admit
that I was rather disappointed about it.
We then turned on the
telly and spent a few hours watching episodes of "Come Dine
With Me" which we'd recorded onto the Sky-Plus box over the
last few weeks and months. If you've never seen the program, it's
well worth giving a go: the show takes four or five random people all
of which (over the course of a week) have to put on a dinner
party for the others. Some of the people are decent bods, others are
complete planks, others are utterly arrogant. Sometimes they all get
on really well, sometimes it's arguments all the way. I suspect that
like most reality TV it's all rather staged, but it passes the time
whilst we play on-line scrabble.
With time passed we
collected "My Boy TM" and his
entourage (minus Fudge) and set off to Westfield for my
sister-in-law's wedding. I say "wedding" - the
actual wedding was during the morning: we were going to a blessing of
the wedding in the local church. It seemed somewhat odd to me that a
wedding be done in a registry office, and then blessed in church. Why
not just have it done in the church in the first place? (But what
do I know?)
The service was somewhat
"Typical Church of England" in that it was rather
unique. When you go to a Catholic or a Methodist or a Baptist church,
generally you know what you are going to get. With the C of E these
days you seem to get anything from several hours of hypocrisy in sub
zero temperatures through to false bonhomie happy clappy, and
everything in between. I can;t help but feel that the C of E needs to
choose which area of the religion market it is aiming for, and stop
trying to cover all of the bases.
But the service passed
off rather well, I thought. There was a dodgy five minutes when the
vicar seemed to imply that she was unaware that both protagonists had
been married before, but I think that we got away with it, and after
half an hour we set off to the bunfight.
The wedding reception was
at the rather posh Leeford Place, and after half an hour of mingling
we sat down for dinner. In a novel break with tradition speeches were
made before we ate, and were well received. The food was good - I
shouldn't have gone for a second helping of the curry; it didn't sit
well and gave me gyp for the rest of the evening.
And then torment - a
disco. I hate, loathe and despise discos. They are far too loud,
noisy and intrusive. But everyone else seems to like them (so what
do I know?). The assorted children and teenagers seemed to like
the disco, and after meeting one of my loyal readers (hello Dickie
- good to meet you!) midnight came oh-so-quickly. Auld Lang Syne
was swiftly followed by fireworks. And then I realised that I am
getting old when I found myself grumbling about how tiresome drunk
teenagers are. I stopped myself whinging, put on a smile, and
consoled myself with the thought of the copious amounts of vom said
children would be generating on their journeys home. (That would
be nice for someone...)
And talking of journeys
home, we then made ours. I wasn't entirely sure of the quickest way
home, but I was sure that it wasn't the way my sat-nav would have me
believe. So "er indoors TM"
activated her sat-nav which generated different (but equally
implausible) instructions. But having found Broad Oak I knew the
way home from there, even if sat-nav did keep trying to send us many
miles out of our way to Rye.
Having dropped off the
family, we eventually got home shortly after 2am, and then spent a
while mucking about on the computer.
I must admit I quite
missed our traditional New Year celebration, (we usually do a
Spanish New Year), but as family events go, tonight was rather
good There's
photos of what happened here.. Must do the family thing more
often...
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