Gemma Pardo's wedding

 Click on the photo to see the album from our weekend in Barcelona/ Haz click en la foto para ver el álbum de nuestro finde en Barcelona

ahora en español...

Mi primita Gemma Pardo Cruxent. La primera vez que nos conocimos tenia cinco anos y ella unos cuatro. Fuimos a jugar y desde entonces se veía que era una chica con corazón de ángel. Es paciente, hermosa, leal y calmada. Esto fue su día.

Llegamos a su casa por la mañana y la esperamos. Su papa estaba muy orgulloso y llevaba un traje muy elegante. Cuando llegaron Gemma estaba radiante y su vestido era preciosa. Nos saludamos, que bonita era verla!, y empezaron las fotos. Parece ser que en España es tradicional que el padre de bodas dese a la novia el ramo de flores y la lea una poema. La poema que la leí fue muy bonita y muy emocional y espero encontrarla y ponerla aquí. Fue bonito poder estar parte de esta tradición, aunque creo que para Gemma hubiera sido mas bonito al ser algo privada, pero quien puede contradecir las tradiciones..? Fuimos caminando a la basílica que estaba casi alrededor de su casa con los otros miembros de la familia, los tíos y tías de Gemma, y la esperábamos con paciencia. Cosas diferentes a la boda Inglesa; pues el marido entra con su madre y hace una entrada casi como la de la novia, acompañada por música, vaya! Los padres pasa toda la ceremonia mirado el uno al otro de parte de la zona elevada enfrente de los novios, o sea a ambos lados del cura. La ceremonia fue católica, claro, pero siendo un Cristiana pudo observar la mayoría de los costumbres, rezas y promesas que intercambian. No hubo canciones, claro, pero básicamente era lo mismo que cualquier ceremonia del mundo, cosa que nos une a través del globo. La ahijada, hija de amiga de Gemma, Cristina, les trajeron los anillos y un niño de la familia de Fran trajo monedas para indicar que todo que tenia Fran se lo daba a Gemma y vice versa. La ceremonia fue en Castellano, y me hizo reír que tuvo mas catalán en mi ceremonia que en suyo (mi prima Laura leyó 1 Corinteo) , pero claro habían mucho mas Castellano hablantes que Catalanes allí. Pero Gemma y Fran habían escogido la misma lectura que nosotros, algo que me hizo sonreír porque es mi favorito parte de toda la biblia. Y bueno y esta, cosa hecha, no? Parecían tan felices al salir de la iglesia y tenia unos flores espectaculares a la entrada. En fin; todo muy bello.

De allí fuimos en coche siguiendo los primos de Perpignan, (otra Gemma (!!) y Oriol) hasta Gava. Había una recepción muy buena, muy profesional todo, y comimos y bebimos esperando la comida. Cuando nos llamaros nos sentamos al lado de la mesa de los novios con Gemma y Oriol y creo que comí mi propio peso en comida, dios mio... Todo fue delicioso. Había un disk jockey que llamo la atención cada vez que entraron los camareros, fue muy guay he hizo un ambiente muy festivo. Aun mas por que los padres de Fran son muy animados. Gritamos "Los Novios" y "Que se besen" unos mil veces hasta que reí tanto que mi cara dolía!!! Hubo un momento cuando os sentamos por primera vez en la mesa que me hizo pensar en mi prima Laura, que no pudo estar debido a tener un bebe suyo, el guapísimo Eric. Todos teniamos estas targetas con nuestros nombres escritos. El mio esta escrita Gemma Richards, pero desde casar soy Gemma Harris ya que en Inglaterra cambiamos los apellidos. Fue un momento casi casi de ja vu porque el mismo paso a Laura en reves en nuestra boda. O sea su targeta leí Laura Rodriguez aunque su nombre es y siempre sera Laura Tomas Avellana. Por eso la foto, por que me entreteno mucho! Después de todo el pastel se elevo por arriba desde el suelo acompañado por música llamativa y la pareja se lo corto con una espada!!! Imagínate! Osea que hubo un gran fiesta. Después nos trasladaron a una habitación con aire acondicionado (gracias a dios) y bailamos allí hasta el fin de la fiesta. Las cosas terminaron a las 8 de la tarde, que me sorprendió, pero Gemma estaba feliz así que yo también. Yo, mis padres y tíos volvimos al Paseo de Gracia en Barcelona para sentar y tomar el aire, ya un poco mas fresco, y bebimos una clara (o champú).

Estuvimos muy felices poder ser parte de su gran día. Esperemos que tengan todo la suerte y les envían nuestro amor desde Inglaterra!

Life since the play

It's been a bit hectic since the play. So what I hear you cry. Or I would if anyone posted any comments for me to respond to... grrrr. Sorry, I know some of you do. I digress.

It's been a bit hectic so to summarise:
June 13th (the night after I last updated the blog) me and Hannah went on our trial hen do night out! We basically didn't know the area too well that our apartment was in so we had an excuse to party in preparation for the big night out on July 10th. It was fab. We eat very well in Pasta di Piazza of St Paul's square - the only criticism being Hannah's 'the tomatoes aren't special'. We went out to 4 bars and repeated all of them on the actual hen do so that was a success! I'd printed a map and we tottered between venues following our map, giggling as we went. It was the same night as England's opening world cup match but it was the only night we both had free. At the start of the night as I sat and waited for Hannah to turn up the match was just about to start - she was late as usual - I felt slightly bad to miss it. But considering the dire performances throughout the cup I'm glad we went out and had fun instead!

We've also had hospital appointments, Al's had to work the odd weekend and it's his busy period so he's a bit tired at the moment, we've had dentist appointments, and at work we've had the culmination of a super busy 4 month-long project that began in April. At last things in the office are a bit more 'normal'. Whatever that is. The one subject that is only conspicuous by it's absense is the topic of babies. Ours, not other people's, they of course are everywhere! Let me just say that it is on my mind probably 50% of the time, making my mind a very boring place to be right now. But at Al's request, and quite sensibly, this is a baby-free zone. At least until there is something official to report.

Then on 19 June me Alison Keizer Amie Wiberley and Gemma Morris from school all got together for Amie's 30th in Leamington. It was lovely. We went to Leamington Peace Festival which was marvellous. There was live music and lots of stalls. There was a mexican hammock company - man did I want one! I had to phone Alex cause I knew he'd be sensible and remind me we have no space for one... Later that evening we had some food and went out for drinks and it was lovely to catch up again. It was a very chilled and peaceful atmosphere at the festival. Most of the stalls sold organic and fresh produce and one had even made it's own freezer from mdf and straw! Remarkable!
It's very cool that the three of us have had very separate lives and then, through the miracle of Facebook, have renewed our friendship. We were so nervous when we got together for the first time on my birthday in April!

On the 26th June the new Doctor Who series ended and life has been a tiny bit duller since. Well at least televisually... It was a brilliant finale and even though I did take a while to warm to the new combo I had fallen in love by the end. And then, just like that it's gone and I'm forced to wait for the Christmas special. Thank goodness we're back to the series format though, I don't think I could have taken another year of those awful specials, as much as I loved DT.

On the 2nd July me and teresa drove to Cov and met up with Lisa and Danielle to go to the Godiva Festival on the memorial park. We saw some live music and hung out and bumped into people and eat possibly the worst crepes ever made and went home. It was cool! The Christians were very good. The next night we went out for LC's birthday, just a quiet one in Brindley place with me, Alex, Nathan and Claire. Claire drove us back home so we all got to have a sensible night!

The next week was Pete's 30th which Alex went to and Hannah's hen do which I went to. Alex, bless him, was my chauffeur for the day... He took me out for lunch then we bought breakfast ingredients for the next morning (getting exasperated with Tesco's in the process - NEVER shop at the one on New St...), drove me to the apartment reception to collect the keys then dropped me off at the apartment where I waited for the girls. They arrived in small groups, my mobile going off every few minutes from different hen girls saying 'I'm at the train station, do you need anything', 'where are you again?... I'm lost!', 'where do we park the car?',  'what floor is it' and finally 'we're here!' Hectic hectic hectic. But finally the hen and her chics were all gathered and we began this raucous party with... a cup of tea! Of course, me Sarah Hannah and Susie and Emily (Emily sadly couldn't make it) started off university with so many cups of tea and dunking of biscuits that we nearly missed Freshers week! We did however ditch the mugs for glasses after the first cup. I gave Hannah the memories book I'd made with all the photos the girls had given me and we got ready to go out.

What fun! My photos are absolutely rubbish unfotunately but here's an idea of what we did. We went to the Jekyl & Hyde, a funky pub near Colmore Row, for a burlesque class with the marvellous Danny de Milo (think along the lines of the Venus de Milo, not as in Danny de Vito, got it?)  Then we went to the Pasta di Piazza for a lovely Italian meal, then to some Jewellery quarter bars (the Rectory and the Vault) followed by some very cheesy dancing at Meechu on Summer Row. We walked everywhere and got free entry everywhere we went which was really hassle free and excellent. Everyone had a good giggle, especially in the burlesque class, and it was really nice to have the apartment to all be together again. In the morning I made evryone their cups of tea and we sat down to breakfast at the table, the 7 of us scoffing pancakes, berries, syrup and glasses of juice thanks to Alex's brainwave the day before. I'm so pleased Hannah had a good time, it meant a lot to be able to do that for her!

The Play - for real now

Ok, so you've had birds eye view, now here it was from ground level. The play that last week took on a life of it's own. We rehearsed every night in the theatre. I loved walking from Colmore Row to the Theatre District (all of 10 minutes) after work every day and mooching about in the theatre. It's one of life's great pleasures. There is a green room and dressing rooms and toilets upstairs. The green room has a kitchenette area and it started to feel like home after a week as we were generally there from 6-11pm each night. I got home and saw Alex in bed, usually half asleep, we'd exchange some tiny bit of information and then be fast asleep.
It was marred fundamentally by the ongoing nonsense of a major member of the cast and while there is expected to be a certain amount of last minute panicking the stress she gave us all on Tuesday night was entirely un-called for. But hey, we carried on through and did ourselves proud, even without her there on the one night. People were still learning their lines and there was a lot of nervousness back stage. But also a growing excitement that we might actually pull it off!
There are at least 2 floors above the stage and one below as well as the wings for people to get lost in and lose track of time. You have to be on the ball not to miss an entrance and there was one occasion when I had to go scurrying off to find Mike and grab him from under the stage with only mili-second to spare before we were on. My costume changes were pretty fast so behind the scenes I was throwing clothes on and off with no dignity intact whatsoever. I suppose it's a relief to many actresses that many actors are gay... The first time I changed I made a vague effort to hide behind some thing but pretty soon I was stood in my bra for all the world to see without a second thought! Fortunately everyone else was so busy there was no time for embarrassment. In the dress rehearsal I missed an entrance because I was desperately trying to get Sam's zip up and failing. Also mine and Anna's nurse's dresses were altered wrongly and we had a bit of a time working out how we were going to wear them. In the end I wore Anna's and she wore mine. Mine was too big for her but it at least covered her bum when she danced and was picked up by Iain. Anna is a size 10, I am a 14 - so to say her dress was tight on me was an understatement! I had to wear leggings otherwise I wasn't going on stage - but in the end it only managed to make more of a comedy of the situation...
On the Friday night we took our bows after the first performance and Leon and I gave each other the most squeezable hug ever. So very proud of us all. That night we went for a quick drink with Lisa and Danielle for some self congratulating and I felt great. On a huge high. By Saturday night my pervading emotion was of being exhausted.  But looking back at it now I can really enjoy the memory.
Girls from work came to see it and said it was really good, as did all my friends and family, but I can quite understand why some actors are a bit needy or get insecure. It makes you insecure; you feel very exposed. You know in your head how you want it to look, how you think you look and sound, but there's no way of knowing. You end up asking everyone if it was ok and then 'was it really?' and again...
On the Saturday night Al, me, Sam, Claire, Iain, Amanda and Jo and Carl and Catherine all went to the Victoria and ended up staying until 2.30. Al's opinion is one I value very highly because he's the least likely to say it was good when it wasn't. So the fact he said 'It was the best of the three I'd seen, and you did very well... that Mike was excellent' was high praise indeed! We broke down the set at 10am the next morning and quite frankly I was a little tired... but we chilled that evening and fortunately it was a bank holiday so I had an extra day to get myself together again for work that week. All that week I was so tired that the soles of my feet hurt - as though I'd gone on a hike - I think I need some time off!

The limelight

Our dressing room's really did have those bulbs around the mirrors

Where I spent the majority of the play - centre stage

Mike coming out from hiding - at the last minute

The view from the stage at dress rehearsal

bloody relief

Baby Shower

Ok so that was how the play was received, but I thought I should give you a performer's eye view of the production. First though, the week before the play, I had one last little surprise to throw.
I had been organising Laura's baby shower since February, more or less, and the Saturday before the play Laura was intended to arrive at 2pm and get a surprise 'shower'. For the uninitiated a baby shower is a party where the mum to be gets showered with presents and traditionally get a hamper of baby goodies. Here is how it went down...
On Friday night I cooked sultana squares, a semi-healthy cake for people to nibble... Laura was diagnosed as diabetic during pregnancy so I tried to find a sweet recipe that wasn't loaded with sugar. This used a purée of dried apricots as a sweetener and was very nice. I also made guacamole. Me and Al hung out and I cooked intermittently; it was a really hot summer night, one where normally I'd have done anything possible to avoid the cooker and stay in the garden. I reorganised the layout of the kitchen dining room and tidied up the downstairs. I started to realise how much work, cooking in particular, I'd given myself to do - I'd been off work in the week with some kind of bug and was just getting my energy levels back (i'd felt really wiped out), but there was enough time I thought. I did take a short cut and chose not to make my own ginger beer, opting instead for shop bought... booo.
The saturday morning kicked off at 8am when cooking began in earnest. I made bacon koftas, patatas bravas, soda bread, little mini pizzas and sorted out the treasure hunt for Emma to play. Everything I cooked later went down very well and I got asked for the recipes. In fact they got munched so quickly that I didn't get photos of the blighters, but never mind! Emma, Laura's friend, arrived at 11am ish, although now I think there was some heavy traffic and she was late but as so was everyone else that morning it all worked out. Emma had brought a baby shower and streamers and balloons and began decorating and helping out. I was still cooking furiously when Cath and Teresa arrived (and brought their own chairs, bless them - good move, too). Between them and Emma they got the Baby Photo Gallery up on the wall, mounting each photo on some blue card on the wall in the extension. They also helped wrap presents. Claire arrived with her beautiful cake. All that was left was for me to sort out Emma's Treasure Hunt - I got in a pickle with the order of things. Bernadette (Nath's mum) arrived, and god love her had been the Mum in the situation bringing salad which she duly set about preparing and napkins and she'd brought coleslaw and all kinds of dip. If ever there is an emergency I reckon Bernadette is a good woman to have around, she strikes me as very capable!!!
At the last minute Vanessa (Lau's sister) and all of the rest of Nath's family; LC, Leah, Pippa, and Anne got held up by a combination of buses and bad traffic and husbands so when Nathan phoned he interpreted my squeaky voice correctly and calmly said "OK so we'll see you at half past 2 then, yeah?" - with Laura standing next to him on the phone we'd managed to delay proceedings without causing any suspicion. It even allowed Bernadette time to collect the family and park the car off our rd so that Laura wouldn't see her personalised number plate! Everything was set and we waited.
Alex, who'd been roped into blowing up balloons and who hadn't allowed in/near his own kitchen for the last 12 hours was getting hot and narky. Everyone was waiting. And it was boiling. Brad from next door was going from a drink with Al and Nath as he's on the same football team shouted down from the window - 'are you ready yet?'. It was 2.45. It was 3 o'clock. Are they coming? Perhaps something's come up... can anyone see their car?
Finally Al shouted that he could see them, they were walking down the road and Emma was on her scooter, so they were walking slowly... Finally Al let them in, there was a delay then Laura's 'Oh my God!' and we all shouted 'SURPRISE!!!!!' as loudly as possible from the garden. Laura, bless her cottons, promptly burst into tears. After greeting everyone and cuddling Emma they boys made themselves scarse.
The afternoon followed in a swirl of heat and food and games and chatter. The food went down well, as I said. The games were fun too. We had to guess the number of Smarties in the baby's bottle (no one came close) and predictably Emma got to eat all the Smarties. We all played Guess the Baby's Name, as a kind of reverse sweepstake - my favourite was Kermit. And we played Smell the Nappy. Yes, you read that correctly. I had four nappies and filled them with monstrous looking fillings that people had to guess at by smelling and licking if necessary! The fillings were guacamole, marmite, mustard and peanut butter and excited plenty of yuks and euurghs and the like as you can imagine. Much fun!
We moved into the extension where it took the combined forces of Laura and Emma a good ten minutes to open the 3 hampers and bags of goodies! Then some more chilling and the photo gallery where we all got to giggle at our baby selves. Then LC and Leah went home and suddenly, like an idiot, I realised I'd not taken any photos... So here we all are, minus LC and Leah unfortunately. Next post is the play, I promise...

Baby Shower

Recipes

Rosemary and olive soda bread

Mix sifted flour (200g, self raising) with bicarbonate of soda (1/2 tsp) and stir in chopped olives (30g) and chopped rosemary. Stir in 100g natural plain yoghurt with a knife to make a clean ball - add a little water if necessary. Mark into wedges with a knife and press some olive spigs into these score lines. Bake in a preheated oven at gas mark 7 for 20-25 minutes or until it sounds hollow when you tap it from underneath. Yum.

Bacon Koftas

Place 225g rindless back bacon into the food processor (if it isn't large you might need to do this in batches) with 75g breadcrumbs, 2 chopped spring onions, some parsley,, lemon rind of 1 lemon, an egg white and black pepper. Process until it is finely chooped but not pureed, it just needs to bind together. Divide the mixture into 8 evenly sized portions then shape around bamboo/wooden skewers. Sprinkle with paprika. Cook under the grill or on the bbq for 8-10 mins, turning occasionally.

Patatas bravas

Not a family recipe this is from a book so this might not be everyone's way of cooking them...

Heat 2tbs olive oil and add a finely chopped onion. Cook on a medium heat, stirring, until softened. Add 2 garlic cloves, crushed then after 30 seconds add 50ml sherry or white wine (I used sherry) and bring to the boil. Add 400g chopped tomatoes, 2 tsp red wine vinegar 2tsp crushed chillies, and paprika and simmer until it forms a thick sauce. Blend with a hand held blender once cool. Then fry your potatoes and voilà!