The Escapade!

Hello again, been a bit busy as we got married on July 30 in the wood panelled, very ancient Tiverton Registry Office. The only slot available was at 9.30, a touch early but we made it on time accompanied by The Sons, Tom, Alex, Joshua, Kyle and their partners, Matt, Rhiannon, Carmel and Britney. What to wear was a problem but in the end, after consultation with said Sons and Chas, ignored all advice and found buried in the wardrobe a Christian Lacroix silk tulip skirt that I had never worn. It wouldn’t do up in the past but does now and I teamed it with a black lace blouse. I think we were all a bit nervous buit it all went swimmingly, I didn’t cry, laugh or swear, hurrah. After a brief photo session in the garden we shot home for Eggs Benedict prepared by Tom’s unbelievably hard working friends Jo and Andy. They had to make it for 16 as there were already party goers in residence. We did have a little champagne of course.

Back into jeans and onwards with the preparations for the barn party as we were anticipating about 170 people. Gawd, I’ve never catered for that many before but there were lots of willing helpers. The barn looked fabulous, dressed in purple, with an absurd MALPACA many headed alpaca shrine n the corner. The illuminated palm tree was flashing away and was very green as Chas had given it a good power washing.

The frock for the party was even more of a problem – I paraded the various options and the consensus was that the Halston Heritage purple number, to match the barn, was not too short and should be worn. Our neighbours counted the tents and said there were 24 in the field behind the house and more on the lawn – good thing we had acquired industrial quantities of loo paper and breakfast.

There were not many problems – a last minute rush on ice that weekend meant that Morrisons and Tesco had run out, what? However our ice collectors thought about this and concluded that the Co-op was bound to have some as you can’t park your car right outside – correct. Order restored and loads of ice for the god knows how many bottles of fizz. All was drunk along with two barrels of home made beer transported from London, two local barrels, cider, red wine, white wine, orange juice, coke, apple juice. All that was left in the morning was tap water. Food all went too but to my chagrin we discovered that two rolled and boned turkeys, beautifully carved up by Joshua, were STILL in the fridge. I still feel ill about that but the large numbers of guests staying over demolished that lot pretty quickly. Oh yes we also made Cornonation Rabbit, the spoils of my shooting sprees. Matt made a two tier wedding cake, very impressive indeed and delicious. We forgot to cut that too. This could have been because we were bowled over by the entertainment – an unforgettable speech made in the style of a Southern preacher by Steve Carruthers inviting everyone to marry something or someone they loved. One person married himself – there must be many people we know for whom that seems apt – someone else chose his bicycle, umm no comment. We also had a choreographer in our midst and so there was an amazing dance routine featuring the Sons and friends that involved firing those big confetti cannons every so often and the waving of a Barbara Striesand portrait.

Tom and Matt invited Holly, a lecturer in photography, and we set up a dark room for her which had a queue of people visiting it until 4 in the morning. She specialises in long exposure pictures, a minute or more, and she waves this light about to give a mysterious effect. Can’t wait to see the pictures of Val in her amazing red sparkly number and me sat on a straw bale giggling foolishly at each other.

It was a great party and the barn started to look vaguely normal by the end of Sunday. On Monday we had to take Joshua to Heathrow to go to Madagascar on a three month internship with C3 Community Conservation. His Canadian girlfriend Britney, on her first trip to the UK, who Joshua had met whilst catching caimans in the Amazon in Peru, stayed with us. The three of us had a lot of fun doing the Times crossword every day and seeing who could answer the most questions correctly on University Challenge, not that we are competitive of course, but Joshua and I tied at nine each and Britney was on five. Joshua’s flight was delayed twice so new connecting flights had to be booked and we both burst into tears at the airport. Britney, who was flying to Ireland, and Chas remained calm.

On Tuesday Leo and Marieke came back to the farm – they had been at the party – and unfortunately Chas got out the whisky. Oh well who needs a liver. The next day they set off with some export alpacas bound for Belgium and we got ready for the Honiton Show on Thursday. That went well as we got eight firsts, four championships, four reserves, and my lovely beige girl Flora was Show Champion. Every year my cousin Nick who farms close by at Street Farm at Windwhistle rocks up at the alpaca tent and we have a long family catch up session.

I have taken two boot loads of bottles for recycling – there are many more – but at least all the rubbish has gone. The rubbish has to go up to Robin’s Post for collection as apparently the council can’t be arsed to come down the lane so up I go with a fully loaded mule on Friday morning. We both feel a little tired and keep falling asleep on the sofa – must be married life.