The last few weeks

We got back from holiday at the end of august mid-way through a very busy 3 month period in which absolutely no weekend was not booked up and scant evenings, lunchtimes, breaks, even drive-homes were calm oases of rest.

So finally on the horison appears a weekend where we have no official plans and I can gather my thoughts and fill you all in on what's being going on.

3 weekends in a row I had a wedding to attend, so that was a bit crazy! Fristly Fiona and Cos got married in Oxfordshire on the farm he, James, grew up on (who knew he was a country lad?). They had a lovely evening, in a marquee that made me think a lot of the film '4 weddings'... complete with fireworks, a first dance and a free bar!

Alex has played football with James (Cos, or Cosmic to his friends) and the Moseley Town team for 4 years, and all the team practically were there that night.

The next wedding was a BioCare reunion and a great chance to go out with Laura for a dance, since on holiday we sadly missed out on having a girly night. The bride was the lovely Kim Nation, who is BioCare's Despatch department manager and a really nice lady. She was getting hitched to Fiona's brother, Fiona also worked at BioCare when I did, and so did Kim's daughter Claire, so all in all the wedding was a bit of a work do... It was great to meet up with Linda, Chris, Mary and even seeing my old manager Karen was lovely, just to make sure there was no weirdness or anything.

After this came the 3rd wedding and the fifth of the summer, Richard and Katie's wedding. Richard and Katie's wedding was due to take place in June I think, well I can't remember the exact date but if you can think back to the height of the flooding then you've got it pretty much pinned down. Poor darlings! So it was only right and proper that they got a beautiful, sunny september day and a dry evening and night. It couldn't have gone any better and they couldn't have looked happier with it all. We stayed at a sort of b&b. When I tried to book our stay before the wedding got called off everything was fully booked so I was told to call Denise Blanchard who keeps a bungalow for private lodgers. So we conversed quite a lot in the end what with the flooding and when we arrived I felt like we were nearly old friends. The plus sides of this arrangement were we stayed in the BEAUTIFUL cotswold village of Bredon, a few villages along from Beckford where the wedding took place. Both Cos and Fi and Rich and Katie all encouraged their guests to camp in the fields alongside their venue. But me and Al don't seem to be of the camping ilk, plus neither of us owns a tent. We took a walk through Bredon and took in the sights before going for a pint at the local pub. Then, back home, we had some trouble booking a taxi as we were in the wilds of the cotswolds, so Denise's friend and neighbour (who she's still feeding daily since the flooding destroyed the downstairs of his house - who says there's no Blitz spirit?) gave us a lift both there and back home at midnight!!! God bless Richard, I hope your house gets rebuilt very soon.