Had a very productive week this week. I should warn you though that on Tuesday Half Life 2 arrived and installed itself on my computer, and so any spare time i have seems to be consumed in the task of ferrying Dr Freeman around City 17 while trying not to get eaten by weird monster thingies (it's a computer game). Hopefully it'll all be over in a week or two and i can get back to making more regular blogs and getting more sleep.
Anyway, Saturday was food and drink day. We travelled up to my parents in Norfolk in order to test out some pies and salads made by the Walsingham Shrine confectory (my mum runs the place and is able to swing such things - and has just pointed out that in fact it should be "refectory", as in a place to eat rather than say a KitKat). If you haven't read the earlier parts of this blog then the quick version is that we're having pie and salad at the wedding. Maria's mum and dad also arrived with the wine to test out - made for a perfect lunch. After a glass of bubbly we were swaying a bit and so got stuck into moundfulls of pie. There were three pies to try, all vegetarian - now we had initially gone with the idea of vege food as i have many friends who choose not to eat meat and if its all vege then you don't have to worry about labelling it - and the carnivorous will eat anything if they are hungry enough. However, i thought that Walsingham wouldnt be able to come up with vege food and was fully expecting a couple of meat pies, so they were a pleasent surprise. Although, of course, the salmon and brockly pie isn't actually vegetarian at all, but then some of my vegetarian friends aren't either really... ummmmm.... anyway, ignoring the feelings of fish it was all vegetarian. Everyone loved the salmon one except me as i though it tasted funny/burnt, whereas i really liked the mushroom and pepper one and no one else did. We all agreed on the cheeze and onion one though. They were definately verging on being quiche rather than pie but that's cool with me. On the salad side there was potato (lovely) and a curry rice (unexpected) and a pasta one (expected) and also a sloshy mushroom thing that wouldn't travel well at all. It was all good though and all 6 of us hardly made a dent in it - completely stuffed - a good sign i think.
The wines were excellent. Chilleon (from Chile, if that's the right word) which is one of my favourite wine regions (like i know what im talking about). Both white and red were perfectly drinkable and went down very well. Lots of talk about the screw top lids, almost as if to say we're mature enough to know it doesnt matter that it doesnt have a cork, but just we need to convince ourselves :)
Dessert - mother had put some of the most delicious chocolate stuff into a posh glass/bowl, in an individual serving kind of way. Great idea, but impossible to move 150 of the things down to Penge from Norfolk, unless it was done on site. We really didnt want people to be making food on the day of the wedding. The easiest thing we can see for desert is to follow the pie theme through. I had thought of triffle or tiramasu or some other great big bowl of yummy slop but its all quite hard. We could ask 20 people to make a triffle each but its a lot of work and hassle. So, we've decided to go the wholehog with pie and go for a teacle tart and an apple tart and just have stacks of pourable cream on the side. Again easy to make in huge sizes and easy to transport - done! It might be a bit of a pastry overload but we are ahving dancing between the buffet and dessert so most people will forget, or be too drunk or having too much fun to care.
Foods sorted then. Coffee could yet be a point of contention..... I was trying to avoid the whole coffee experience as we were hoping to be out of there by the time people started considering it. It also tends to bring in cups, saucers, spoons, sugar, milk jugs, boiling water, after eight mints which is a whole load of work that no one really needs right at the end of the evening. We're still thinking about it. The church does have a kettle and mugs and stuff so people could make their own if they are desperate.
Wedding rings. So, back to Hatton Gardens then. Decided to take the day off work on Tuesday to look at rings and also find a suit (more later). So we arrived at the aptly named "Wedding Ring Shop" at the crack of dawn (10ish) to see if we could find what we're looking for. Nice lady helped us out and brought out things to match our loose descriptions. Now, a band of gold, what's that all about then? A little bit of research has revealed that no one can really agree on what the wedding ring is for or where it came from. There's talk of the iron age, of Greeks, Romans and Egyptions, it's almost as if it's just kind of happened and no one really gave it much thought. For instance, why gold?
Here's my favourite piece on wedding rings from www.our-wedding-plans.co.uk:
In England the early records tell of wedding rings made of iron, steel, silver, copper, brass, leather and rush. The easy availability of rushes, the belief by simple maidens in the legally binding nature of a ring placed on the ‘wedding’ finger and the cunning of lusty young men combined to bring forth an official warning from the Church in the person of Richard Poore, bishop of Salisbury. He published a constitution in 1217 forbidding such wicked young men from having their way with trusting virgins by plating a ring of rush and saying “why not, we’re married.” “Let no man,” thundered the bishop, “put a ring or rush, or of any other material, upon the hands of young girls, by way of mock celebration, for the purpose of easily seducing them, that, while believing he is only pertaining a jest, he may not in reality find himself bound irrevocably to the connubial yoke.”
If the young man had placed the ring on the girl’s finger in the presence of witnesses and had publicly declared that he was taking her for his wife, then the law and the church could regard the marriage as binding!
Following England's civil war, the Puritans preached against the use of a wedding ring because of it's 'Heathenish origin' and prohibited its use during weddings. The ring was too obviously a piece of jewellery and therefore an object of Satan. Indeed one Puritan minister referred to it as being “a Relique of Popery and a Diabolical Circle for the Devil to Dance and, to this day, the giving of a ring is still quite optional in a civil marriage.
Fantastic! Well i'm into the idea of a wearing a wedding ring. Regardless of what it's supposed to or not supposed to mean, to me it's an outward sign to the world that i'm married, off the market, attached, happy and sorted out thanks very much - breaking hearts everywhere i go obviously. It's also a reminder, a mark, a brand almost, an old school tie, it denotes my membership of a club in which i'm very proud to be. So yeah, cool i reckon.
Should it be gold, should it be yellow, should it be plain? In my usual annoyingly exasperating manner i find any usage of the word "should" to be highly objectionable and so automatically find that the ring could be gold, could be yellow and could be plain, but it ain't necessarily so. Myself and Maria found ourselves looking at quite different rings. Maria went initially for plain yellow gold - simple, does the job and you know where you are with it. I wanted something slightly different, and this was the only shop we'd seen it in which makes you think you're a bit of an individual (hurrah). Then i offered Maria a couple of alternatives that she was quite unexpectedly taken by. Nice lady was then able to throw a nice big bucket of water over us in the form of the price list. My choice of ring, which i thought was a bit of old tin foil turned out to be hand crafted from gold rescued from an evil dragon and had a price tag to match. Maria's had a similar tale of fabulous expense. We both began to look on the gold bands with much more sympathy. Stray from the band of yellow gold and you will certainly pay for it in this town. We've decided to think about it :)
Suit shopping then. Met up with Simon (best man) after the ring incident with the intention of finding a suit. So like a couple of old queens we ponced off to posh suit type shops for a bit of a fiddle in a trinny and suzanna fashion. First shop, first suit, it's a winner. Hadn't even had lunch yet and we 'd found the thing. Got fabulous service from nice man in Ted Bakers who fussed around us and brought me different shirts to try and pinned the ends of me trousers. Changing rooms were a cube of mirrors with a TV screen showing yourself changing - not a little bit odd that. Anyway, almost bought the suit but decided that we owed it to ourselves to look elsewhere first as it couldnt possibly be this easy. So we trooped off round Paul Smith, Ozwald Boateng, Selfridges, Armani, Vivian Westwood, and even back to Saville Row but never came across anything to match this first suit. Had a good time looking and enjoyed the service and attention of the odd sales assistant in many a nice shop. Eventually left empty handed but pretty certain about the first suit. Today, i met Maria at the shop and modelled the suit for her delight and it's definately a winner. Still got to find a tie and some shoes but the suit is found - fabulous. I've never paid 60 quid for a shirt before! In case you're wondering, the suit was a third the price of the William Hunt i'd tried on before.
So what happens next? Must get back to Half Life - bye for now.
