Back to business

Dammit! I wrote a long, erudite and amusing blog yesterday which I then lost completely when the computer crashed. Now I have to be witty all over again.

So. The day after the wedding we enjoyed a late breakfast. I was entertained by Maureen the landlady who asked Fiona what the bride's dress had been like 'because there's no point asking the boys'. Fi politely revealed that it had been white. Then Maureen went on to complain about the football season restarting and not knowing 'what the men see in it' while Fi rolled her eyes.

We were invited to a barbeque at the Leeman family farm. The weather had broken and it was absolutely tipping it down, so it was a good job Helen and Colin hadn't been able to get married on the Saturday as they originally preferred. Instead they had arranged a great bash in a barn. We chatted and met the horses and Helen's sister's Romanian boyfriend carved up an entire cow and put it on the barbeque. Al and Barry proceeded to eat it all. We had chance to see some of the first photos of the events and eventually headed off replete.

We headed back on the Sunday, back to the ferry, where again someone had lost a small child. What is it about ferries that makes parents abandon their children? We stopped at the smokehouse hoping for a late lunch but they had just stopped serving, it being all of 3 o'clock. We belatedly remembered that they had done the same thing to us the last time we went there. So much for the customer being king - they lost our custom (10 people!) and that of the couple that followed us in. Instead we eventually tracked down the Cream of Galloway ice cream place, no thanks to the smokehouse woman's instructions. Here we tucked into the best commercial ice cream I have ever tasted: I had double chocolate and lemon curd. Al and Barry went back for seconds. Since Al had been going on about buying a landrover ever since he went off-roading with Fiona and Ailsa (in much the same fashion as I go on about getting a dog, I imagine), I bought him a toy Defender. Surely almost as good as the real thing!

Then it was a steady drive back up. Mo and I discussed starting swing dances in September, something Al had been quite keen on when I first mentioned it. But now, sitting in the back of the car with Ray, they formed some sort of anti-dance alliance.

'What day is it on?' asked Ray. 'I have some evening classes to teach...'
'I'm not sure,' says Morag.
'I think I'm busy that day,' counters Al.

But! To no avail. Morag is going to sign us all up.

So it was back to the flat and my parents who had been having a good but predictably exhausting time at the festival. With great wisdom, I had booked Monday off work and was able to catch up with them and enjoy a sample festival day myself. We went to The Early Edition - a sort of daily Have I Got News For You with free coffee and croissants (gallingly, we got there before they wheeled out the doughnuts). Then we saw Romeo And Juliet - A Rock and Roll Love Story. This was, predictably since it was put on by the University of West Connecticut, very earnest and amateurish.

I had a rehearsal in the evening and we had dinner on Tuesday night, after which Al and I went to a late-night stand up show called Stick Your Job Up Your Arse. This appealed to me for obvious reasons, and was also very funny, being the true life story of a guy who ditched his pharmaceutical sales job to become a comedian.

I've also seen the excellent Bacchae and a play called Long Time Dead. This was about climbers and very interesting staged with great lighting, as well as being quite emotional. Not sure if I'll get to see much more of the festival, despite people showing flyers at me when I'm clearly destined for work. But hopefully we'll fit a film in too.