The Wedding -

My youngest son got married yesterday -

I am blogging this now because Mr M said, and I quote - "You should get rambling on there so that I will know what I've been doing." so for the benefit of Mr M
 My youngest son got married yesterday to a beautiful woman with a keen sense of humour and a wicked giggle. I took loads of pictures and at one stage I was in charge of two cameras! My own precious Lumix, with the Leica lens (apparently I have to say that every time I mention the camera) and my youngest son's Nikon DSLR with all sorts of whistles and bells. I put it on auto and pointed it.
I have never been to a bi-lingual wedding before and the Registrar rose to the occasion and ensured that the translators had enough time to make sure everyone understood what was happening

Anyhooooooo, I thought a few pictures would show what a wonderful day was had by everyone.
Starting with a team photograph. Mr M wearing a tie. That only happens at weddings and funerals. He chose the hand-painted silk one because it was pink and summery. Next to him we have the Groom, doing his best Blues Brothers impression and trying to convince us that he wasn't stressed, yes Mark we'll believe that.
Next is the Best Man, my eldest grandchild who said he would love to be best man for his uncle when his own Dad wasn't able to be there.
Next is my eldest granddaughter's partner, Rory, who is a really lovely young man. The sort of young man you hope your daughter will find and fall in love with. He is caring and attentive, loves his children and looks after them and will do anything he can for us.

After signing the register we had the chance to take a few more pictures and in this one you can see that the stress has gone from my son and his shoulders have dropped. You can also see just how beautiful my new daughter is!

There has to be a picture of the Bride and groom with the parents. This was taken by  Rory with my camera. Everyone else was taking a picture of Rory because he had the greatest difficulty working out where the zoom was. Joanna's parents knew there was something going on but until it was translated into Polish they had no idea why we were all laughing so much. I bet they wondered what sort of a madhouse their daughter was letting herself in for.

 The wedding breakfast was outside in the communal gardens of the Centre. We were in a shady spot and everything just flowed. This is one of the happiest weddings I have ever been to. No one seemed harassed or upset. Everyone mingled, my daughter amazed us with her ability to say "lovely to meet you" three different ways in Polish in the same sentence. We were hugged and kissed then hugged some more.

Seeing my boy so happy after the long and difficult time he had on leaving the army has meant so much.

There ya go Mr M, now you know what we've been doing, you can relax too

New Meds, New Life - and a ZIZO

I have to say that even though I disagreed with the doctor in the hospital at the time. I will be eternally grateful to her for giving me back my life.
Does that sound like Hyperbole? well it's not. It took something like four days for my body to get used to the new meds and to allow me to stay awake through the day. Then we went out in the car and we drove along a piece of country road that I really dislike. Narrow lane, high hedges, trees meeting over the top. All the things that have caused panic attacks in the past - in fact that very lane has caused me to be hysterical on one occasion. I was prepared for it.
It didn't happen.
When we got to the end I told Mr M that I hadn't even felt slightly breathless. He said "Perhaps the change in tablets was a good thing"
And that's when everything fell into place
Ten years ago I was put on the tablets for my blood pressure. Ten years ago I suddenly could not go out of the house on my own. As my parents had gone to live in the nursing home around this time I put my anxiety down to the relief from stress and tried to overcome it.
It didn't get better.
Now it is so clear that the betablockers were causing the anxiety and yet not once did my GP say anything about it. Not once did anyone query when it had started. I am totally relieved to feel normal again but at the same time I feel cheated out of time I could have been - I don't know, doing craft fairs, taking my granddaughter to the swimming pool for lessons, visiting my great grandchildren and doing ordinary stuff like walking into town to get my eyes tested. I am intending to do all sorts of things now.
In the mean time Mr M and I went out for a little ride the other day and we saw the sign that said Hedge Pussle Maze. "We'll stop there one day" I said "Do you want to?" he asked "yes please" I replied so we turned off and followed the sign and they had a butterfly Sanctuary and a tea shop and a miniature golf and a paintball thingy. It was raining so we scurried through the maze, which was wonderful and we were entranced by the butterfly sancturary and while I am not taking part in the ZIZO meme I couldn't resist doing this

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig.

12 days in hospital getting my leg fixed seems to have worked. They have beaten back the eczema and this has shown that the worst looking bit is actually something called Lymph oedema. "they" have referred me to the appropriate clinic. So now I should be fighting fit and raring to go, right?
Well, the doctor on the ward was worried about my slow pulse. I explained that I inherited this from my father, but she thought it was caused by the blood pressure tablets.
"You get dizzy, yes?"
"no, never get dizzy"
"you have chest pains?"
Nope, never get those"
"You feel nausea, get headaches?"
"Nope, never"

In spite of this she stopped one of my tablets to see if my pulse would get faster and when it didn't she started talking about a pacemaker. I once again explained that it is genetic. but she has now changed my tablets for the ones that caused nausea, headaches and dizzyness last time, and were the reason I was on the other ones. She has also referred me to the cardiac unit because "you shouldn't have the dizzyness and nausea."
So now I am taking the tablets that also cause drowsyness so I sleep. When I wake up I feel sick. When I stand up I get dizzy and feel like I am walking through treacle. I will ring my GP if I can stay awake that long and get an appointment to review the tablets.
~sigh~
Thank goodness my leg is fine, and with all the sleeping I am keeping my legs elevated so no swelling now either.

Naked Cyclists in the 'Diff

This is my daughter's story but she rarely has time to breathe these days let alone sit at a computer.

She went to Cardiff (The Diff, as it seems to be called here in The Port) on Saturday with Miss Boo, to buy Bridesmaid shoes. Boo is to be a bridesmaid for her Uncle Mark and it is such an exciting thing for her... but I digress.
They had toiled around the shoe shops and decided to stop for refreshment. They found somewhere with outside seating and settled down to watch the people as they drank their drinks and ate their cakes.

There was a strange noise from somewhere along the street so Boo Stood up on her chair to see what it was. I don't know the collective noun for cyclists but I am assured there were a lot.
Boo shrieked "Mummy! they've got no clothes!"
and they hadn't.

A huge bunch of naked cyclists pedalling like mad whisked through the centre of Cardiff and off to who knows where. Such excitement.

As everyone settled back down in their seats the man behind my daughter muttered to his table companion "I am so glad I didn't have the hotdog!"

My daughter said it was a very close thing but she didn't spit her drink across the table or snort it down her nose. Such admirable control. I am proud

The Man in the Yellow Shirt

Yesterday we went out with Admiral Lord Bluefunnel and his Lady wife. You can read about that expedition here

The Bish entering the Cathedral for his Installation

While we were sitting enjoying the sun outside Wells Cathedral - we maintained our record of going to unusual places and finding them shut as we couldn't go into the Cathedral because they were installing the Bishop of Bath and Wells.
Now, I'll digress here for a second because that phrase always conjures up an image of a couple of men in High Viz jackets with the Bishop on a sack truck, just like the men who installed my new stove.... It's the way I think, OK?

Where was I? oh yes, sitting in the sun outside the Cathedral hoping quietly to myself that my cuz, who was doing the driving, would want to go straight home because my knees were hurting from my fall and my left shoulder had begun to ache and I didn't remember hurting that, when Mr M said "The man in the yellow shirt". I looked, I grinned, I pointed my camera, zoomed and clicked happily over the next five minutes or so.

I just love that he could be there on the Cathedral Green where just a few minutes previously we had seen the beginnings of a ceremony and no one - and I mean no one bothered this man at all.

He was almost continuously talking to someone that we couldn't see. By the way he shook hands with the invisible person it was obviously someone important, I suspect it was Royalty by the way he did some things.

In spite of the importance of the occasion he was allowed to continue. To me this says that he must be well known to the cathedral staff and probably is well known throughout Wells. I just think it is so typically British that he wasn't tidied away, he was able to contribute to the events of the day.

Eventually he picked up his jacket and his umbrella and after symbolically firing one round from his umbrella he symbolically broke it across his knee then bowed to the invisible person and strolled off into the afternoon sunshine, mission accomplished

Scones! who would have thought?

I suddenly had a bit of a craving for a scone. Not something I usually crave, not being one to eat jam. However, I pulled the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book (circa 196? and inherited from my Mum) off the shelf and opened it at the page for oven scones

Aaah, measurements I can relate to! lovely Imperial measurements, not those nasty metric things that don't mean anything and don't conjure up a picture of exactly what 225g looks like. Now tell me it's 8oz and I know just how much to tip onto the scale before I have to be careful and make it balance.

Anyhoooo, just 30 minutes later this is what I had

Currant scones on the left and Cranberry scones on the right. As I made them I realised that I could make them for Mr M as treats because they do not contain sugar - nor sweetener.

I have now tested them with just a scrape of butter and they are delicious. I had quite forgotten how good I am at scones.

OH oh, you will see that my scones are wedge shaped. This is simply because I was taught at Agricultural College and so I don't use a rolling pin I just pat out a circle with the dough and then cut it in wedges so I don't have to wash a cutter either because I use the knife I cut the butter with when making them. They taste better in wedge-shapes too.

Simply a Moment - May

It's 6.45am on Friday 16th.

Suddenly I am wide awake and the noises outside tell me I am late. Oh no! I have to take Miss Boo to school and she will be here any moment.

I scrabble for my glasses and swing my legs out of bed, sitting up at the same time. Mr M continues to snore gently beside me. Now I remember to be quiet and careful as he is on afternoon shift so won't appreciate a morning wake-up call.

Still in a state of controlled panic I turn and peer at the alarm clock to see exactly how late I am......... 6.45am? quarter to seven! Oh for goodness sake! I thought it was 8.45 and I was late. Now I am awake and out of bed and I could have slept another hour at least!

I get dressed and go downstairs and out into the back yard to let the chickens out. They will appreciate an early start to their day of dust baths and insect pecking. I go back in and put the kettle on. Time to read for a while I think.

This meme was invented by Alexa at Trimming the sails why not pop over there and read the other momentous stories. This is the last time you will be able to do this as Alexa has decided to retire the meme and we will have to find something else to write about.