Weddings

I had the (mis)fortune this weekend to go to a family wedding. Well first we had the awkward conversations with family members whom we haven’t seen in (what seems like) years. They are nice people and i wouldn’t change them for the world (well maybe a couple of them) but I have NOTHING in common with them.

I am generally quite a shy person and find talking to strangers difficult at the best of times, when you mix in the added complication that these people ARE strangers but seem in any event to know you, it becomes clear how difficult this situation can be. It can be unnerving to see cousins for whom your clearest memories are of them acting as petulant 12 year olds when you have been teasing them now appearing as drunken, verbose, young women who have no difficulty explaining why they are now sexually aggressive single women who use men yet are still being chatted by women and enjoy it. Now THATS awkward.

First we had the priest who ORDERED people to switch of their mobile phones and turn off their cameras in the church. then we had the information about where to find the facilities, the comfort room and a member of staff in an emergency all whilst waving his arms around like a decrepit trolley dolly wearing a bathrobe 2 sizes too big.

He indicated that we could follow the words of the service on 2 huge screens either side of the altar and then proceeded to change half of the words so that peoples heads were flicking up to the screens, down to their pamphlets and left and right to see what other people were doing – it looked like a posh Judas Priest gig.

On to the reception which wasn’t that bad. In the bar a couple of the chairs had had the arms ripped off so that there were nails sticking out to be used as an impromptu offensive weapon and there were several signs stating that there were security cameras in use for the benefit of the police BY COURT ORDER. I was concerned to say the least.

Then on to the reception breakfast, nice food even though it somehow reminded me of school dinners, being sat with strangers who were fervently discussing their recent births and even more fervently discussing the current Football games going on. This is a city where sport is a way of life so you can imagine their passion. Sadly Mrs S has an evangelical loathing of team sports and especially football (I know I know the therapy bills would be enormous though)

Then back to the bar whilst the room was prepared , by this time the bar had begum to fill with the local drinkers who were staring oddly at the garishly dressed people in their hats and drag queen makeup and the women were even worse.

Finally back to the main reception room to listen to an amatuer DJ (worse than you could imagine) and a fiddle and guitar duo (not actually as bad as you might think). The alcohol continues to be consumed in heroic quantities as relatives who I barely know and in some cases like even less come over and chat to Mrs S and I, breathe foul smelling cigarette smoke over us and get Mrs S name wrong at least twice in a row.

Finally we make our excuses and leave citing the “long-distance to get home” “collecting the little one” etc excuses .

I’m glad we had a relatively quiet wedding.

Poisoned Chalice

I’m feeling under stress at the moment – problems at work mostly. I’m coming to the conclusion that I have been given a poisoned chalice with the management of the implementaion for E-Diary. There are more and more problems coming to light as time goes on and the project leader is adamant that there is no budget available to make the necessary changes to fix these. I’m left to devise lengthy work-arounds for grumbling staff. The ’supposed’ benefits are not as beneficial as first described and in some cases are a detriment.

I feel used at work with little or no thanks and although i recently got a £200.00 bonus for implementing an information Intranet about 9 months ago it seems ‘too little too late’ – the wheels grind slowly in the civil service.

I’d love some time off just to relax but the project is in an important stage at the moment.

Emigration oooh emigration. Emigrations what you need.

I’m in a difficult position, I would like to emigrate to HoserLand , Canuckia , America Lite or Canada as it is more usually known.

Mrs S has Canadian citizenship and has family over there included her eldest child (my eldest stepson) who she misses a lot. The difficulty is that her youngest (my youngest stepson) lives here and has a great deal of contact with his father. Objectively i know that Canada would be really really good for him and it is a really good place for a child to grow up. The standard of living and types of opportunities open to him would be much better than here in the UK. However I know that his father would strongly object to losing day to day contact with him. I understand his position and sympathise with him but i don’t know if i could leave him.

I would miss the little guy if he stayed here and I know Mrs S would be heartbroken, so what can I do? I can’t see that any amount of persuasion would change his fathers mind. It wouldn’t be so bad but his dad hasn’t really moved on with his life. He hasn’t formed any new relationships with women (as far as we can tell – he plays his cards so close to his chest even he can’t see them, sometimes) and has invested most of his time and energy into his work or with the little ‘un . These are admirable in themselves but not any way to move on with his life. I mean at least he talks to me now. At first he didn’t even acknowledge my presence – ooh talk about feeling awkward!

any ideas on the back of a postcard please!