Not that I'm complaining. Upon our arrival in Wakefield we were greeted by a rather delicious buffet, featuring ham, tuna pasta bake, salad, rolls, profiteroles, pavlova, and many other delicious treats.
And the hotel we were staying in - and indeed where the ceremony was being conducted the following day -wasn't too shabby either, especially since, as far as I was concerned, it was all expenses paid.
The first night was spent in bed watching Brassed Off on Film4. I received a text or two from my elder cousin Jonathan trying to coax me down to the hotel bar but this was roundly ignored.
The following morning my dad took me into Halifax to have a look 'round town. There wasn't much, although we did stumble upon the Halifax Piece Hall, the world's oldest remaining cloth hall and, coincidentally, the setting for one particular scene from Brassed Off .
The wedding, then. It was lovely (even given the slightly cheesy choices of music - Bryan Adams anyone?) and they had a very nice day for it. After nigh-on two hours (!) of wedding photography it was just about time to eat, and boy did I - I had the lasagne and the curry, followed by half of someone else's curry and some sticky toffee pudding. And yet even with all that food inside me, I still managed to get up and do a song or two with Jonathan's band. I was a bit out of practice on the drums, and I went into Mustang Sally on my horn in the wrong key (C# instead of C#m, what a fool!), but I'm pretty sure I managed not to ruin the wedding.
For Leg 2 of our trip we headed to Liverpool to visit my grandparents. Usually we would have stayed with them but this time we thought we'd mix it up a bit and stay in a flat in Toxtet, which, as Wikipedia puts it, "continues to suffer from poverty and urban degradation" as well as being "blighted" by "civil unrest" and "vehicle crime".
The flat was lovely. I was on an airbed in the living room, which sounds like I was slumming it but actually worked in my favour because I could watch American Pie and Burn After Reading from under my duvet.
We visited the many charity shops of both Widnes and Liverpool, and I picked up a couple of CDs for cheapz (Lene Marlin for £1 anyone?), but eventually was glad to come home.
Which is where I am now. Much has passed since I got back - parties, hoagies, Easter - but I've got a work day booked with Cliffey today (having decided it was about time I hit the essays) so I'd best get cracking on that.
Joel.
Bryan Adams is one of my favourites, so Fran has me to thank for introducing her to that particular artist. The cheesy track was the Lion King one! that one really isn't rock. Thought The Hype http://www.thehypeband.co.uk/ were great, shame Meredith decided not to play her Sax.
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