Matthew's Journal

Today I am mostly tired. Why? lots of weddings, and very little sleep, that's why!

On Friday we drove to Cheltenham to see antinomy and p_a_r_a get married. I was glad we'd got the aircon fixed :) We made pretty good time, checked in to the hotel (pleasant), and found lunch at a nearby Weatherspoons (curry OK, beer too damned cold and not at its best). The staff were wearing "all our beer is guarunteed to be served between 1 and 3 degrees centigrade" t-shirts, which I should have realised was a bad sign. Still, it was food, not too expensive, and cheap. That left us plenty of time to get ready. We drove lusercop to the church, but he sat on the sun-cream bottle, which added a little delay. Nevertheless, we arrived in good time, and I was able to acquire my Bible, a text to read, and antinomy's camera. The results of me using the latter can be found here (following a little editing).

It was a lovely wedding, even if the celebrant couldn't pronounce antinomy's name. I liked the typesetting of the hymn tunes, as it meant I could sing the bass line :) p_a_r_a looked very smart, and antinomy's outfit was stunning, even with the modesty-wrap in place! We acquired senji and claroscuro for the trip back to the hotel, at which point I was *very* glad the aircon was working! I dressed a little more smartly for the black-tie reception, and we walked (to a bit of chav-heckling from passing cars) to CLC. There was much drink (Kir Royales are clearly a good thing :), plenteous food, and many happy people. The speeches were all good, and the dancing nearly all bad :)

The following morning we dragged ourselves out of bed, grabbed a quick breakfast and were on the road by about 7.30 to head back to Cambridge. This was so we could go to Alex and Rachael's wedding at Emma (which started at noon). The groom looked very dashing in a white morning suit, and Rachel looked lovely, if at times like she couldn't quite believe it was actually happening! Several parts of the service were lead by people from City Church, which meant they weren't quite to my liturgical tastes, but Alex and Rachael were obviously very pleased that people from their church could be involved.

The reception was held at City Church, on an industrial estate East of the city center, and a medium-sized walk from Emma. We had puzzles on the tables to keep us occupied, which was a very "Alex" thing, and a lovely touch. Dinner was lovely, and the speeches were entertaining, if a little quiet. There was then a ceilidh, which is always a good thing.

Today at LSM was good - Amy, the LPA was preaching (as it's her last Sunday), and lots of people I knew but hadn't seen in ages were there, which was nice. Some of us went for the traditional post-LSM gin, and then to the Eraina for lunch.

I think I'm not about caught up on the 600-odd emails!