02/09/05 Ding Dong!

It's the day of my sister Janie's wedding to Max. It's a glorious
sunny day.
I'm on ushering duty and manage to cope well with the tricky tasks of issuing hymn sheets and directing the punters to the Bride or Groom side of the Church.
Max and his best man Miguel are piped in, ie they are led in by a
bagpiper, not fed in through the church plumbing.
My Dad then leads Janie up the aisle. Janie is looking radiantly
beautiful in a stunning green velvet dress.
Father Mike leads a jolly, informal service and has the assembled
masses chuckling along merrily.
The vows are taken and the rings are installed on fingers.
Outside, adhering to Italian tradition, large sugar almond sweets are thrown at the happy couple, as well as confetti. There's definitely a potential for injury here, but fortunately both are unscathed by the missiles hurled at them.
There are also a few handfuls of coins scattered for the local kids to
chase. I resist the urge to compete for the cash.
I could justify it as an understandable reaction, bearing in mind my upcoming roof repair bill. Did I mention that already? Yes I probably did.
It's then back on a chartered bus to Orocco Pier in South Queensferry.
The speeches came before the meal. A good idea in my book. It lets everyone enjoy the meal leisurely rather than shitting themselves thinking about their upcoming speech.
It was a great ,happy occasion, but there was an underlying sadness that my mum wasn't there to see it. She'd have been singing a solo in the Church, and lapping up everything about the day.
At one point, Max hesitated and choked slightly in his speech, and I knew instinctively that he was going to pay tribute to the mums, (His mum also suffered an untimely death.)
He just mentioned that "everyone thinks their mum is special" but that he had no doubt that his mum and Buddy were genuinely special people and that it was to his and everyone's great regret that they weren't there today to be part of the occasion.
That was it for me, I buckled and shed a few tears. Time really isn't a great healer. You get used to dealing with things, but when your emotions get stretched, it still all seems very raw.
He got back on a humorous track though as he wound things up.
All the speeches from Max, my Dad and Miguel were great though. A really nice balance of humour and moving sentiments.
The meal was a bit of a marathon, but extremely delicious. 8 separate courses and a continuous topping up of the ole wine glasses.
A lot of prancing around to ceilidh music followed, as well as smoking an expensive cigar. Although not inhaling. Obviously.
Back into town on the hired bus, and adhering once again to the motto "if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing", we decide to have a last drink in the Argus Hotel on Coates Gardens, often referred to as a "Royston Vasey Theme Bar".
All in all, a top day...!