![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Wales Part Two
Mar. 28th, 2013 01:46 pmThe wedding itself was held in the Adelina Patti theatre. I had expected there to be many more on the groom's side than on the bride's side, but the opposite was the case.
Mr Nye, father of the bride, dressed in full Scottish regalia. Katherine chose to walk down the aisle to the sound of the Ride of the Valkyries, AKA the helicopter attack scene in Apocalypse Now. It would have been absoutely brilliant at full volume, but unfortunately the sound system in the Adelina Patti theatre was not up to brain-bashing decibalization. Still, it was a nice change from the standards (not that I go to many weddings these days).
Brian the groom choked up a bit during the ceremony. He apologized for this profusely afterwards, although I don't think that anyone saw it as a problem.
At the wedding meal the tables were named after exotic pets, some of which Brian and Kate already own, some of which they want to own.
The food was nice, the wedding cake (made by Brian) was excellent. I was sitting next to Craig, who gave a short speech. Everything went well.
The evening approached and I crashed out for a couple of hours. By the time I awoke, several people had gone to bed, several were happily drunk. The wifi collapsed at about 4pm, but it was just a matter of turning the router off and on again.
By now it was starting to snow, which was a bit of a concern for the following day.
As Sunday dawned, the snow turned out to be a false alarm. There was a light dusting, but nothing serious. I checked out and headed for the nearest Tesco garage, because I had a 5p a litre discount that expired that day and I WAS GOING TO USE IT!!!!
This might have been a mistake. The satnav got me to the garage without problem, but after I pressed "Home", it came up with some dubious directions, once of which I distinctly didn't trust. That probably delayed me by about 20 minutes, and I think that I used up as much petrol as I saved by diverting to the Tesco. I found this all rather humorous, for some strange reason. I decided to follow my guess at the route back whence I came (although heading down to Swansea rather than via Merthyr Tydfil might have been quicker).
On my trip back my ignorance of the ways of the road once again were made manifest. As I've often stated, I don't particularly like driving; I certainly don't consider myself a particularly good driver (mainly through lack of practice, partly through lack of ability). Satnav has made what was impossible (driving anywhere strange to me, on my own) merely difficult and unpleasant. My ignorance this time related to my steady driving within the speed limit down an A road. A car coming in the opposite direction flashed his lights at me and made a push-down motion. I was puzzled. Ten minutes or so later a man on the side of the road, walking towards me, made a similar motion. I wondered if my bonnet was about to fly up and hit me in the face, and that I needed to get out. I stopped the car, wound down my window, and reversed, so that I could ask said man what was wrong. Perhaps the road was flooded? Anyway, now I know. But I still don't like driving.
The trip down the M4 was remarkably smooth. The trip for the last eight miles through London was horrible.
And that was the end of an excellent weekend. I'm getting happier and happier staying at home, I am afraid, a fault that is clearly all mine. There's nothing I can do about my lack of connection with most other people in the world; hell I've spent 40 years trying. I'm fed up with smiling and nodding non-committally when people tell me how great Nigel Farage is, or other boolocks that I don't care about. Let other people think what they think. I shall think what I think, and withdraw from their world. With luck, they will also withdraw from mine, having found my interests and views equally abhorrent/uninteresting/mockable. Everyone will then be happier.
And now I can get back to Cyprus, the eurozone, macro-economics and, to me, the interesting stuff.
But it was a lovely weekend and I am glad that I went. Brian and Kate had a great time (or so they assure us!) and Craig was a very proud father of the bride. And all of that made it worthwhile.
________________________
Mr Nye, father of the bride, dressed in full Scottish regalia. Katherine chose to walk down the aisle to the sound of the Ride of the Valkyries, AKA the helicopter attack scene in Apocalypse Now. It would have been absoutely brilliant at full volume, but unfortunately the sound system in the Adelina Patti theatre was not up to brain-bashing decibalization. Still, it was a nice change from the standards (not that I go to many weddings these days).
Brian the groom choked up a bit during the ceremony. He apologized for this profusely afterwards, although I don't think that anyone saw it as a problem.
At the wedding meal the tables were named after exotic pets, some of which Brian and Kate already own, some of which they want to own.
The food was nice, the wedding cake (made by Brian) was excellent. I was sitting next to Craig, who gave a short speech. Everything went well.
The evening approached and I crashed out for a couple of hours. By the time I awoke, several people had gone to bed, several were happily drunk. The wifi collapsed at about 4pm, but it was just a matter of turning the router off and on again.
By now it was starting to snow, which was a bit of a concern for the following day.
As Sunday dawned, the snow turned out to be a false alarm. There was a light dusting, but nothing serious. I checked out and headed for the nearest Tesco garage, because I had a 5p a litre discount that expired that day and I WAS GOING TO USE IT!!!!
This might have been a mistake. The satnav got me to the garage without problem, but after I pressed "Home", it came up with some dubious directions, once of which I distinctly didn't trust. That probably delayed me by about 20 minutes, and I think that I used up as much petrol as I saved by diverting to the Tesco. I found this all rather humorous, for some strange reason. I decided to follow my guess at the route back whence I came (although heading down to Swansea rather than via Merthyr Tydfil might have been quicker).
On my trip back my ignorance of the ways of the road once again were made manifest. As I've often stated, I don't particularly like driving; I certainly don't consider myself a particularly good driver (mainly through lack of practice, partly through lack of ability). Satnav has made what was impossible (driving anywhere strange to me, on my own) merely difficult and unpleasant. My ignorance this time related to my steady driving within the speed limit down an A road. A car coming in the opposite direction flashed his lights at me and made a push-down motion. I was puzzled. Ten minutes or so later a man on the side of the road, walking towards me, made a similar motion. I wondered if my bonnet was about to fly up and hit me in the face, and that I needed to get out. I stopped the car, wound down my window, and reversed, so that I could ask said man what was wrong. Perhaps the road was flooded? Anyway, now I know. But I still don't like driving.
The trip down the M4 was remarkably smooth. The trip for the last eight miles through London was horrible.
And that was the end of an excellent weekend. I'm getting happier and happier staying at home, I am afraid, a fault that is clearly all mine. There's nothing I can do about my lack of connection with most other people in the world; hell I've spent 40 years trying. I'm fed up with smiling and nodding non-committally when people tell me how great Nigel Farage is, or other boolocks that I don't care about. Let other people think what they think. I shall think what I think, and withdraw from their world. With luck, they will also withdraw from mine, having found my interests and views equally abhorrent/uninteresting/mockable. Everyone will then be happier.
And now I can get back to Cyprus, the eurozone, macro-economics and, to me, the interesting stuff.
But it was a lovely weekend and I am glad that I went. Brian and Kate had a great time (or so they assure us!) and Craig was a very proud father of the bride. And all of that made it worthwhile.
________________________
