A Wedding in Warwickshire

Our God daughter got married on 19 March 2022.  Her home church, where her father is the vicar, is in a little village in Warwickshire.  Not too far away is Chesford Grange, where the reception was held.  We travelled up the night before, the journey is about 120 miles.  We took the ICE car (range >350 miles) as for the EV (range 100 miles) was not up to the task of getting us there in a reasonable time.  The journey was uneventful, if a little slow in places, until we got near the M45 junction, where Google Maps on my phone decided to stop working.  So, we missed the junction and left at the next one.  After a short while we were in a multi-diversion system and almost totally lost.  We seemed to be on the right road, but the restarted phone was now telling us to go in, apparently, the wrong direction.  When we arrived, and the total distance we'd covered was over 130 miles.  There was a charge point in the car park, only one, and it was out of service.

Booking had been painful, different options and different rules and rates for each night and a cut-off phone line, so I was hoping for a better experience. We queued for a short time for check-in.  That's not really a problem, our room was the last down, one of the corridors.  I, quite deliberately, chose not to set up an account at the hotel.  We unpacked, and prepared for dinner.  It was booked for 6:15, but at check-in we were told the restaurant didn't open until 6:30.  Again, not a problem.  It looks like a very nice restaurant and the prices reflect that.  I started with the soup, which was delivered reasonably quickly, but without a spoon.  I had to ask for that.  Jo had her 2 courses as main and dessert.  Her dessert was delivered without a spoon, I had to ask for that.  I asked if we could charge it to the room, we couldn't, which was exactly what I hope I would hear.

The bed was comfortable, the shower was good, and the breakfast buffet was adequate, but not really worth the £15 you would have been charged if you didn't have the B&B deal.  Several things were not working, or not available.
After breakfast, we took a stroll around the grounds and off down a footpath along the banks of the river Avon.  Through some woods and out to a road.

The Avon

A Celandine

The wood we walked through was carpeted with celandine, and not too muddy for the time of year - we had not bought walking boots. Returning to the hotel, we did our best to remove the mud, and Jo took her shoes off, just to be sure we wouldn't make a mess.

Now it was time to get ready for the wedding.  Here we are suitable attired, with me trying to take a selfie and smile. I'll master it one day, but for now, this is as good as it gets.

The wedding itself was lovely, and the prayers I had prepared (stolen and edited) went down very well. The sermon was also very good, with a very clever illustration of married life - a pair of shears.  I'll let you work it out. Our congratulations to Helen and Adam, and we hope they have a marvellous life together.  We had a lovely evening catching up with friends and meeting a few new people.

The reception was also very good, and for all the little problems we had experienced, there was nothing wrong with the service they provided here, at all.  Another night in a comfortable bed followed, and another breakfast.  Then to check out.  It's a good thing we didn't use the fast check-out.  Apparently, we had used the spa the previous afternoon.  The receptionist could not explain it, nor how there could be a charge on our room when there was no account.  She did assure us that we would not be charged, so far we haven't been.  The hotel seems to be trying to be something that it isn't quite able to be, I hope they can improve their services.

We then attended the service at the Church, and spent a while chatting with the bride's parents (our friends), before making the journey home.

A very nice weekend away.

The Big Promise

30 couples gathered in St. Marys, Billericay to renew their wedding vows and take part in "The Big Promise", an attempt at the world record for the number of people renewing their wedding vows at a single time. On arrival at the church we were registered and had our identity checked, and also our marriage certificate. We were given a number, ours was 11. Then we were photographed. It's the first time I've ever had my picture taken holding a number. Tea was served, and we walked around, chatting, looking at the cake, and eating biscuits. We were interviewed by a reporter, and had our picture taken again. The constant picture taking certainly reminded me of the great day in 1983, it was the worst part of the day then. Today, though we were on a schedule and had to say the words at precisely 5:15. The service started at 5pm and in good wedding tradition we had practiced the words and knew what to do and say.
Renewing my vows is not something I need to do, a vow is a vow (Matthew 5:37), it does not wear out like a carpet or get old and tired, like the people who make it. It is there and remains. Nevertheless, it is a good thing to do to remind yourself and you spouse what started your life together and that you still love each other.
This was part of a world record attempt, I don't know when the results will be announced, but I do know that neither Jo nor I have ever taken part in any world record attemts before, so today will count towards our 25 Things.

The cake was delicious and someone also had put a wedding dress on display.

Here we are at the registration point, after we had completed the 'convict' photo, we still seem quite happy don't we?

Update 17 Feb.

We got the world record!!
Here we are on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcyLStYOfW8&feature=youtu.be 

A wedding and a visit to Killhope

For the August Bank Holiday we travelled north, further north than we've been for quite some time. On the Friday I drove the almost 7 hour journey to County Durham. The traffic was slow almost all the way. We arrived in time for an evening meal. The Foresters Guest House seems to be the village pub and restaurant as well as a B&B. I can definitely recommend this place, the food is good, the room was lovely and the views are outstanding. The wedding of our God son was a lovely service even if Brancepeth church, in the grounds of the castle, was quite hard to find. The church looks lovely, not just because of the wedding but because it has been partly re-built after a fire. The brides mother presided at the wedding service and the grooms father preached the sermon. The bride and groom assisted with the cups at communion - a lovely meaningful act demonstrating the service that they are both committed to in Christ. I had never seen that before, but would love to again. 

Jo ready to go underground

On Sunday we visited Killhope lead mine.  What a name!  Lead mining was undoubtedly difficult and this mine is certainly out of the way, but Killhope - surely not that bad.  Well not now anyway, we were shown round the mine - loaned wellies as the paths in the mine are under water. Its only enough to cover shoes in most places, but without wellington boots you'd get very wet feet. I won't tell you their little underground secret.  After the underground tour finished we spent some time watching the water wheel and looking at all the ancient machinery - most of it still working- well moving anyway.

What a shame they don't put the water wheel to good use and generate some electricity!

They have a woodland surrounding the mine where they are planting Juniper trees and turning the habitat back to a native English environment.  See the panel below for more details.  We set out for a walk through the woods, the paths are carefully marked because of the work that has been done in the hills to channel water down to the reservoirs. 

Killhope Site and Wildlife Information

There are also natural sink holes that exist because of the geology and have nothing to do with human mining activity.  You could easily be forgiven for thinking that the holes are caused by us and the channels are natural, as some of them are not very straight.

There are Red Surirrel in the wood also.  They have a hide set up, it is surrounded by all manner of nut dispensers, so the squirrels should never go hungry.  We were told in the shop that they had been active so were looking forward to seeing one.  I had never seen a red squirrel.  We sat in the hide watching various birds eat the nuts and a solitary rabbit pretend to be a statue.  It was warm and I was tired.  I began to doze.  Two or three times I woke and tried to pay attention, to keep the camera pointing at the most likely location for action. Then there it was my first red squirrel.  First I watched it, then I got my camera and it started to run.  I didn't know they were camera shy.  I snapped and hoped.  Here's the image, cropped and 'fixed' so that the animal is more visible:

There is just enough evidence to tell it is a squirrel - look at the ears.  My career as David Attenborough's successor has got off to a poor start, but we had a fantastic weekend and completed another of the 25 things project.

Wedding Blessing

It's like the answer to the question "When is a wedding not a wedding?".  All the preparation is the same. The bride wears her wedding dress - because she couldn't when she was at the marriage service, it was 4000 miles away.  There is a church service.  There is a reception.  There is a rehearsal dinner, because this is an Anglo-American wedding and both traditions must be accommodated.  People come from great distances, at least 4000 miles and rooms have to be found for them to stay in.  Invites had already been sent, but for a wedding, so they had been overtaken by events. The service is about the only place where you would see a real difference.  Even then you'd have to look quite hard.  The vows are not said, instead a prayer is prayed together.
The whole process was unconventional.  At the reception there was food and speeches, but no 'best-man' running the show.  After that there was dancing.

The most important thing is that Karen and Robert had their day in front of their (and our) friends and families.

Will they have two wedding anniversaries?

It was a really good couple of days.

On New Years Day we travelled to Cherish End (a B&B in Dunstable) with the whole family (except Karen, obviously).  On the way Brody was dropped off at one of Andrew's friends houses.  He looked so unhappy, but he came back happy and with way too much energy. We arrived in time to get unpacked and changed before the rehearsal.  Once that was complete we visited the Halfway House for the Rehearsal Dinner.  We had a reserved area, they did a very good job of looking after us and the food was good too.  There were supposed to be speeches there but by the time we had finished eating it was too late, so we made our way back to the guest house, leaving the boys to continue at the party.  They were rather noisy when they returned and then spent a considerable time talking.  I could hear enough to keep me awake so went to ask for quiet - reminds me of when they were young children.

Sunday started with an English Breakfast.  I then played chauffeur for a while, moving people and things to and from church and other places.  I had time to get the car washed (so that's done for the year now). 
The wedding itself went very well.  Everyone remembered what they had rehearsed.  Various pictures and videos were taken and will be posted in various places.  The speeches followed.  I had been rehearsing my speech in my head for hours after leaving my notes at the B&B.  I remembered most of it, nothing too significant was left out.  The partying did not go on too long and the members of St Hugh's are really efficient at tidying up.

It was great to see so many friends and family come from various places to be with us.  My thanks go to all who travelled, and my thoughts and prayers are with those who could not come due to illness. It was also great to have some of Robert's friends and some of his family.  They are really friendly people and we look forward to meeting them again.

Monday started with an English Breakfast.  Then we packed up and travelled home.  The rest of the day was restful - as it needed to be.

So Karen and Robert have made their vows before God and a small congregation and have promised to keep them before God and a larger congregation.  They are well and truly married.

We are pleased to welcome Robert into our family.

Our first Family Wedding

Our first family wedding took place last Wednesday.  All very sudden. I can explain that (sort of) - here's what happened.
On Thursday during the afternoon tea break, while I was on my SQL 2000 to 2008 upgrade course, I received a phone call from Karen. Robert's fiancée visa had been turned down, so they were going to get married in Georgia next Tuesday.  This led to a few frantic phone calls and a few frantic people.  Could I get time off work? Could Jo get to the show she had tickets for on Monday evening. Could we get flights and visa approval?
More discussions on Friday moved the big day back to Wednesday.
Work said I could go - indeed they were very good about it. Jo could get to her show.
I set about buying tickets.  Booking late is a bad idea.  Ticket prices are not only very expensive but they change every few minutes.  After a number of attempts on Opodo.co.uk I gave up - I could not get as far as the payment screen before it timed out.  I tried Expedia, but by the time I got there the return flight had sold out.  Even there I could not get through the web screens.  I phoned them on different flights to the ones I wanted. I was finally able to book flights, but the return trip was over night.  I've done over night's west to east before, they are the worst for jet lag. The ESTAs went OK, I bought train tickets at work on Monday - something I hate doing.
Early Tuesday morning we set out for Atlanta.  I still hadn't managed to get to the 'check-in' site for the flight so I was not expecting that we would be able to sit together.  We arrived at Heathrow almost four hours before departure, only to be told I was too early for baggage-drop (is baggage drop a prediction or a promise?) .  We again tried check-in, and needed help to complete it.  It had to be on the Delta flight number (which Expedia didn't give me), not on the KLM flight number I had booked. Anyway we got the last two seats together on the plane.  Then it timed out while I tried to find the address or the hotel where we would stay (Robert had booked it for us).  Back to the desk, where they seemed oblivious of the ESTA requirement to log the first nights address with the airline.  Delta check-in at Heathrow is a mess.  Still the flight was uneventful, and the extra hour to get out of Atlanta Airport was similarly uneventful.  You get your bags from baggage claim, go through customs, give up your bags to security, go all the way to the opposite side of the airport to pick the up again.  We walked because the signage is unclear - its a loooong way.  We had also arrived 20 minutes early after boarding 45 minutes late, so we had to phone Robert - who came and picked us up and took us for a meal.

Wednesday morning I found that the nice white shirt I had picked up belonged to my son and was 2 sizes too small.  That was the only problem with the day.  The rest of it went very well.  We travelled to Lithia Springs Baptist Church via Robert's mother's house, where we picked her up. The service at the church was attended by Robert's family and friends. We then went to a local restaurant for lunch.  After lunch we went to the Douglasville Court House where the registration of the wedding was completed and they were legally married.
After returning to the hotel to change into less formal cloths we visited Robert's Aunt Pat for an evening reception where more of the family arrived to wish the happy couple well. They had a proper wedding cake, which was amazing given the short time there was to make it.

The following day we had a quiet morning - I was trying to prepare a sermon for Sunday, and in the afternoon Robert took us into Atlanta to visit a mall and later to the Aquarium.  Unfortunately it had closed early because of some special event happening in the evening, so we visited the World of Coca-Cola instead.  It was an interesting exhibition but they could have done so much more - where were all the TV adverts?
After a meal in the CNN centre - which reminded me of a Bond film - it was time to return to the UK.

We again arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare.  The security leaving is nothing like the security coming and we soon found ourselves bored at the gate waiting for the plane. It was the most uncomfortable Atlantic crossing I had ever experienced.  The seat belt signs were on the whole way.  There were children being sick.  Serving of food was stopped as the flight crew had to strap themselves in.  I was very glad that we were all in one piece when we landed at Heathrow.

A big thank you to Robert and his family for looking after us while we were there.

Best wishes to Karen and Robert for a long and happy life together.
There will be a number of things to add to the 25-things list from our little adventure, I'll work those out later.

St John the Divine

Today I was leading and preaching at St Johns Outward Common.  The congregation is smaller than Christ Church, but they are very friendly and welcoming.  Sermons are not recorded there so the only way you will have any idea what was said is to read the script. The videoed rehearsal was better, but still not good. I enjoyed the service, except for missing out a hymn, and had some good conversations with people afterwards. I'm looking forward to going back there later in the year.  I found out just before I left home that I was supposed to be on serving duty at Christ Church.  Thankfully Liz stood in for me.  I haven't received the bill yet!

This afternoon, after watching Jensen Button just missing out on a win at Monza, I spent nearly an hour on a Skype video conversation with Karen.  The conversation was mostly about her forthcoming wedding.  The man she is marrying is an American and she was trying to work out the best time for his relatives to come over.  Hopefully the date will be confirmed soon.

After that we took a drive to Willingale.

View Larger Map

We parked under the cherry tree in the 'Street view' picture (its not in bloom now though).  We soon lost the track that was described and ended on the road at the wrong place. I wonder if that was due to the field I think we were supposed to cross just having been ploughed.  I will probably never know.  The outline map we had indicated that another path existed so we followed that as best we could.  We did get back to the original route, and returned to the village at about the right time.
Its a very nice walk, in a village that has two churches next to each other.

Julie and Pauls Wedding

Saturday morning was an early start.  Off to Christ Church and hope the hired mini-bus has survived it's stay in the car park over night.  We arrived at 7:45.  They were all there already.  They must be getting used to me.  16 of us left the car park shortly after 8am for the long drive round the M25 (south to avoid the roadworks) and down the M4.  On the journey the weather couldn't make up its mind - rain or cloud.  We had a long way to go and a reasonable amount of time to get there.  After a hiccup with the Sat-Nav we picked Karen up in Swindon. We arrived in Highworth about 11am and easily found St Michael's Church.  Parking was harder.  I found the recommended car parks but they were both too full for a 17-seater.  We soon found a place on the road.  Then it was up to the church where they were serving refreshments for the visitors.  There were people there we hadn't seen for a very long time.  Plenty of time to chat before the main event started.

2010_0821 Paul & Julie's Wedding

We had waited a long time for this wedding.  Even Howard said so in his sermon.  The wedding went very well.  The pictures afterwards were a bit chaotic, but that often happens.  There was a reception in the church hall and a not-very-strictly observed no-speeches rule.

Congratulations Paul and Julie! May you have a long and happy life together.
 
About 3:30pm we set off for home - the mini-bus being due back at it's base by 6pm.  Somewhere nearing the M25 in a hot humid mini-bus one of our number feinted.  Not knowing what was going on, and being quite worried at having an unconscious person in the bus we stopped.  We had just called the Ambulance when the Motorway Patrol arrived.  They coned off our section of the hard shoulder to protect us from the speeding traffic and put the Motorway warning signs on.  They also called the Ambulance service to get an ETA.  The police arrived and took next of kin details and tried to contact the family.  Two ambulances arrived about 2 minutes apart.  Slowly our patient was recovering.  The paramedics carried out as thorough an examination as they could and recommended that a hospital visit should occur.  I had already arrange for someone to accompany our patient if required.  The free trip to the local hospital was forcibly declined, and a window seat found for the patient. The Motorway patrol even cleared the nearside lane for us to get back on the Motorway.

The emergency services in the county are truly amazing.

The mini-bus finally returned to base about two hours late.  It was OK, I had been given the keys and instructions just in case.

They day ended with mixed emotions remembering the happy occasion but concerned for the health of a friend.  There was also quite a bit of expectation for the day to come.

A wedding and an AGM

Wedding
Mandy and Rob were married at Christ Church on Saturday.  The church had been tidied up the previous week and looked good as did the extra decoration for the occasion. This is the first wedding of a regular member of the congregation for quite a while.  We were therefore all looking forward to it. Personally I have known Mandy for a long time - from youth groups, through to the visit to Tanzania in 2002, and to her recent role as worship leader.  Our ex-vicar Paul gave an excellent talk.  The service ran very smoothly and the bride and groom performed their vows loudly enough to be heard.  There are pictures of the wedding on Facebook, so if you're reading this on Facebook, take a look.
Then off to Five Lakes, a local(ish) golf club for the reception. 
The speeches were very good, very entertaining without getting nasty or abusive, as I have heard sometimes.  The meal was very nice, but I did get a little shock.  Trying to cut a piece of butter and pick it up on the end of the knife with my right arm extended to its maximum reach proved to be both painful and near impossible.  That shows the limits of the healing process much better than digging the garden, which went without incident. Then on to the cake cutting - see the picture for that - it was an unusual cake. 
Altogether a very good day for us, but more importantly a life changing day for Mandy and Rob. We wish them rich blessing as they live out their married life.

Annual General Meeting
For a few years now the Christ Church AGM has taken place after a shortened communion service.  Today's meeting was convened at the end of the service, but unlike others we have had recently was inconclusive.  A number of the people who volunteer to server the church had gone away for Easter holidays and had not returned due to the problems with flying through volcanic ash.  So more posts than usual are unfilled and we will require a special meeting later to agree the final appointments, as is the legal requirement.