Pre-wedding pastrami
(Ying and I eating our pre-wedding lunch: Glasgow, Scotland)
My absence here speaks volumes; it has been another busy weekend in Glasgow. Ying arrived here from China on Friday night, two hours later than expected. It was rather late and he awoke the following morning, bright eyed and wide awake at around 5am. I found this very difficult to forgive at such an hour. Her attempted conversation, but I replied with an array of laboured grunts.
The wedding of our mutual friends, Graham and Laura was held on Saturday. It was one of those great affairs that involves a lot of old friends thrown together for a big event. It’s been a few years since I was at a wedding with this particular bunch of people; since Ian and Suzy were married in 2007. There was a sumptuous repast followed by a violent ceilidh; Scottish dancing galore. The band played some traditional ceilidh dances and a selection of more popular tunes that most people would recognise. There were so many people crammed onto the dancefloor for practically every number, and the last few ceilidh dances left all dancers hot, sweaty and with slight abrasions from the roughness of other dancers. I find I always get roughhoused at ceilidhs – one is thrown around, swung too quickly and slammed into other people. They are usually exhausting, hot activities and I always consider my clothing and footwear if I know I’ll be attending one. One should always be prepared for a ceilidh! I ceilidhed so hard that I have a pulled a muscle in my abdomen – it feels like a constant stitch. It was so bad that night that after we arrived home, I was convinced I might have a touch of appendicitis. Thankfully, although it is still painful, it hasn’t become worse.
As for the wedding itself, I took no photographs. For the first half of the service, I was attempting to get a handle on nerves as I was to do a reading during the service. Adding to my fear was the discovery that the ceremony would be filmed, not on a handheld camcorder, but a huge television camera with freestanding microphones. It was quite a lot of pressure, but I thankfully succeeded in my endeavours and made zero mistakes. I literally took one fuzzy image of the wedding shenanigans and it is so badly photographed that it is positively unusable. The bride and groom were not even in the frame. I meant to take many pictures and I had my camera with me (as ever), but I really never saw the opportunity, especially as Simon was sitting near me most of the night with a far superior camera and more intention of recording the event.
To explain this seemingly unrelated image of Ying and I, we had been out that morning for breakfast at a local café, Café Hula. We decided to order a takeaway sandwich as we would not have the chance to make any lunch before leaving for the wedding at 1:30pm. The aprons are so we don’t soil our smart wedding outfits before we even arrive. The café staff were shocked at our gluttony until we explained that we would be attending a mid afternoon wedding. In answer, they made up a celebratory sandwich – free of charge – for us to gift the happy couple from them. It was wrapped carefully with a message offering their congratulations. Apparently Graham tucked into it shortly after we handed it over.
– Today Rosie is working in a very rainy Glasgow, Scotland –
Haa…….