Narnia?

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Photography

Next Saturday we have a wedding at All Saints the bride and groom decided that this week the church looked like something straight out of Narnia.  I think it is the lantern outside the door that gives it the finishing touch.

Here Comes The Bride

I know I said that there was going to be no blogging at present but I just couldn’t resist posting this after a friend sent it.

Elephants and Crocodiles

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Advent

A couple of days ago I received a text message from a number I didn’t recognise it read:-

‘Spent Wed at elephant village, and mini Siam, boys went to go-karting.  Thurs went to Pattaya crocodile farm and walked round market in Pattaya. Tday swim at hotel then into Jomtien to sit on a dif beach.’

It totally confused me and after reading it a couple of times, I decided that someone had sent a message to the wrong number, contemplated texting them back then decided against it just in case it was some kind of scam that would mean my reply would elicit more texts or some kind of hefty mysterious charge on my phone bill.

This morning I received another one, ‘Now in Phayao’ it began.  Then as I read the next words a light bulb suddenly clicked on – ‘for Wedding & Blessing.  It was from a parishioner who has travelled to Thailand for the wedding of her son, she is obviously using a different phone not her own. 

For those of you who are wondering the wedding was wonderful, they have been treated like celebrities and she has had a fabulous time.

This episode made me think of Advent and how easy it is to miss a message which comes from an unusual or unknown source.  Would John the Baptist in his camel hair, eating locus and honey be the kind of character we would expect to announce the coming of the Messiah?  Those of a Christian faith might hear and read his message now and comprehend it’s meaning and message, but would we have back then on the shores of the Jordan, would we have even travelled all the way to listen to it?

As Advent progresses we need to remember to keep our eyes and ears open, not just for the things we expect or hope to hear and see, in the places and from the people we expect or hope to hear and see them from, but open all the time, ready to receive from wherever and whoever God chooses to speak to us through.  Preparation is about more than being ready for the expected, but also about being ready and prepared for the unexpected.  We do not know the day or hour, and if we are not careful we might miss or dismiss it thinking it is something else!

Spanish Adventure – Part 5 – The Wedding

The guests had arrived:

The Pipers - Galacian style - were ready:

One of the Grooms nephews was waiting to ring the bell to announce the Bride was about to arrive and get everyone into the chapel:

The bridesmaid was waiting to scatter her rose petals, getting very hot along with the rest of us:

And it was past 6pm and still we waited.

I knew that both the Groom and Bride were here and finally decided to go and find out what the delay was.

It transpired that the Bride had been unable to leave the table plans and had spent an hour sorting them out, so was running behind schedule, but no one knew what the delay now was about.  So up the steep narrow stone steps I climbed and knocked on the door.  As I entered I saw the Bride struggling to lace up the back of her Maid of Honours dress, and as she wasn’t doing it tight enough and the dress was having to be held up instead of it holding itself up.  If this wedding was going to take place before midnight it was time to take over.  So firstly making sure the Bride had all her finishing touches on I dismissed her to start making her way down the stairs, and began to lace up the Maid of Honours dress from the beginning, it wasn’t a quick task, but when it was finished at least it wasn’t going to fall down mid way through the ceremony!  Finally everyone was ready, the bell was rung and the guests entered the cool of the chapel.

Then once they were all in and I had tried my first bit of public Spanish asking them all to please stand, the Groom entered with his mother as is the Spanish custom:

Followed shortly after by the Bridesmaid who could now scatter her petals and the Bride with her father; the Maid of Honour and Best Men along with other ‘special’ guests had entered the chapel just before after the rest of the congregation was in place.

If the Bride hadn’t gone around telling everyone, no one would have known that the dress she was now wearing had been hanging up in a shop 24 hours before!

The service itself went smoothly, mostly in English but with a degree of Spanish and a smattering of French thrown in too. 

Aunt E a member of St Mark’s congregation led the prayers in English and Spanish a touch which was greatly appreciated by the Grooms family who understood very little English.  Aunt J another member of St Mark’s read in English the same reading that the Grooms mother read in Spanish and E yet another member of St Mark’s read a shortened version of the famous Corinthians reading, which was then read in Spanish by one of the Grooms cousins in Spanish.  The couple kissed:

And we moved on to the Eucharist.  I was surprised by the number of the Grooms family from this highly Roman Catholic area who happily received, although there was a bit of confusion over whether children were to receive a blessing or the bread.  Then once more the bell was rung and everyone rushed outside so they could shower the happy couple with bird seed:

I was relieved, it was over, and I hadn’t totally messed up the bits in Spanish and French.  Everyone seemed happy and even those who hadn’t fully understood what was going commented on how much they had enjoyed it all.  We moved into the courtyard for drinks and appetizers. Smoked Salmon Spoons – done with cream cheese and a little caviar; Tuna Empanada - wonderfully fragrant; Shots of Melon with Ham Shavings – cool and refreshing these were my favourites; Seafood Croquettes – small and delicious; King Prawns Orly – which were pounced upon: and air dried ‘Iberico’ Ham carved in front of us:

The Bride gathered together all those females who were unmarried and then went up onto the balcony and threw her bouquet:

Then with 9pm having come and gone it was time to make our way into the Banqueting Hall for the dinner:

J, yet another member of St Mark’s who was present had made a cake, well two cakes this one and a full sized version of the one shown on the table here:

The menu was sublime Steamed Norway Lobsters – which I know as Langoustines; Grilled Turbot – which was served with potatoes and vegetables cooked with the juices; Lemon Sherbet; Sirloin Medallions in Red Wine Sauce; and Raspberry Mousse with Vanilla ice Cream on a Chocolate Shell.  The Raspberry Mousse is the traditonal Spanish Wedding cake:

It was near midnight by the time the speeches came around, but as it is not the Spanish custom to have speeches at all they were very brief and then coffee and liqueurs were served before we moved downstairs for the rest of the party.

The wedding had been a wonderful mixture of the two traditions and cultures, which actually have much in common with this area of Spain having proud Celtic roots.

At just past 4am we finally got back to our hotel room and fell into bed!

Spanish Adventure – Part 4 – The Day Of The Wedding

As we stepped out of the hotel it was cooler and rather than blue sky that had been ever present up till now there was a mist.  We paused on our way to the cafe we had chosen the night before for breakfast to buy some local bread for the Eucharist later, still hot from the oven it smelt wonderful and wetted our appetite for breakfast.  By the time we had eaten delicious crème analgise croissants and drunk the strong Spanish coffee the sun was once more shinning in the brilliant blue sky.  We wandered over to the square and sat under the shade of the full size weeping fig trees watching the world go by.  Trees in Melide have this peculiar habit; leaves don’t flutter down and land softly on you or the ground, no.  The tree silently takes aim and then throws a leaf at you making you think some child somewhere near has thrown a chewed up bit of paper at you.  It is not a painful experience but a strange behaviour for a tree! 

The time drifted by pleasantly sitting on that bench in the shade watching the tractors race along the main street, Galician tractors don’t appear to be limited to 15 mph, either that or they are driven by taxi drivers!  We soon found we could easily detect those who weren’t local by the way they stopped at the crossing points, we had previously learned ourselves that if you waited for cars to stop you would be waiting forever, the set procedure was to just walk onto the crossing and trust the car all had brakes in full working order!  All too soon it was time to head back out to the wedding venue.

The bride had thankfully agreed not to help set up and was resting after spending half the night putting together orders of service with hastily bought ribbon as the whole booklet thing had completely defeated the printers – I made a mental note that if I was ever to agree to a wedding outside the country again I would insist on doing the orders of service myself back home.  The groom however was still coming as he would be needed for translation and was taking some items up to the castle for the evenings festivities.  The brides dress hadn’t arrived but they had managed to get one the night before and two local seamstresses had worked till 10pm to ensure it fitted just right.Arriving at the castle those who were ushering and were not there the day before were given their instructions, firstly in English by me then in Spanish by the groom, then in French by one of the Best Men and finally in Italian by the wife of one of the ushers who only spoke Italian! 

Chairs were arranged and re-arranged 80 people were attending and the chapel is small so we finally decided that around 20 would just have to stand.  In the brides absence I was charged with organising the seating of the family, she had said she wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it, talk about pressure, I didn’t know who didn’t speak to who, who would feel offended if they ended up sitting beside Uncle Frank, I didn’t even know from the list of first names I was given who was related to who!  With the chapel finally sorted and everything else done which could be done the seating plan for the meal was left, I hoped not to be revisited.  It is the Spanish custom that you allocate tables but then let people choose themselves where to sit at the table, a good plan in my book; arranging seating plans are one the most stressful time for a couple getting married.  We headed back to our hotel to grab something to eat and get freshened up and changed for the evening. 

Spanish Adventure – Part 1 – Our Arrival

The weekend of the Spanish wedding came upon us and for the last four days we have been travelling to, from and around Galicia in north western Spain.  And what an adventure it turned out to be, when agreeing to the plan I had no idea what would come to pass!

Up before the crack of dawn and off to a very busy Glasgow airport for the first surprise.  It was like crossing the road, look and look again, but it made no difference the flight we were booked on was not showing anywhere on the departure boards, however another airline was also flying to London Heathrow with the same departure time, so using some common sense we decided that must be it and made our way to check in.  After a lot of keyboard bashing it was discovered that yes we were on that flight and with a sigh of relief we dispatched our suitcase for the duration and went to get a cup of coffee.  As we waited for our flight we kept an eye on son’s flight from Kos which was due to arrive before we left, however soon his clicked over to being delayed while ours was on time, so any chance of seeing him, if only fleetingly at the airport was missed.  We were travelling BA and I must say they do a fine breakfast – I didn’t have the scrambled eggs or mushrooms.  Heathrow directs onward passengers well and soon we were in the international departures doing a bit of shopping and eating caviar and drinking champagne, well if such things are on offer it would be silly to refuse them, wouldn’t it!  Our flight to La Coruna was slightly delayed but not significantly, however the fact that we were relaxing in one part of Heathrow when the board changed from delayed to last call did mean a mad dash was needed!  But soon we were on board I was dozing as we flew over the edge of the Atlantic.  La Coruna itself is a very small provincial airport more akin to arriving at a bus station than an airport, immigration was a guy waving us through down a flight of stairs to almost fall over the reclaimed luggage belt, were we waited watching the variety of cases move round and be claimed, we waited some more as the other passengers started to drift away, a lone case went around and around, while we and some passengers from Edinburgh looked and realised our luggage wasn’t going to appear!  However the joy of a small airport meant that quickly someone had traced it as still being in Heathrow and booked it on a flight via Madrid to arrive later that evening – well that was easy we thought!

People comment about how the Italians drive, those people should take a taxi in Galicia!  There seems to be four rules, firstly the 120 speed limit is to be ignored – 150kpm along twisting hill roads is complusary.  Secondly anything further than 10 feet is too far away from the car in front.  Thirdly don’t brake if the car in front does, only do that if the car actually stops and then brake hard and swerve a little if necessary.  And finally, overtake on bends, blind summits and only when other vehicles are coming towards you at similar fast speeds!  It was a good job that the scenery was stunning enough to distract, the area has forests of eucalyptus trees and small fields of corn grown by individuals.  In places it was very reminiscent of Scotland, with rocky outcrops purple with heather.

We were staying in the small town/large village of Meilde in one of their two hotels.  Although they were used to pilgrims on their way Santiago de Compostela they were not used to tourists, and we soon discovered we were going to be greatly challenged by our lack of Spanish!  The hotel however was comfortable and beautifully cool with its marble floors and metal shutters – in this area air conditioning is unusual but the shutters are very effective at keeping the heat out while allowing the breeze in.  Without any luggage we were soon settled in and decided it was time to explore!

A Perk!

In this profession the hours might be long, the demands great, and when you retire you end up homeless but there are some perks. This years major one will be a wedding.

Surely that is just part of the job you are probably thinking?

Well yes usually – an extremely enjoyable part, but yes. However in this case it is most definitely a perk.

Maybe I should explain.

Spain and France have a system were all weddings are civil but then if people want to they can have a religious service afterwards. This year a niece of two of my parishioners is getting married in Spain – and I get to fly out there to conduct a service for them after the civil bit is over. The Wedding will take place at Pazo villa de ferreiros, which is just down the road from Santiago de Compostela, somewhere I have long wanted to visit.

It might not rank up there with the city cats million pound bonuses but what would I do with a million pounds?

Okay don’t answer that it was a stupid question!

The Wedding

Well the wedding on Saturday finally went off without a hitch. I say finally as the bride, true to form was late and then just before the service there was the sudden realisation that the music to accompany the singer was still in someone’s car. But we got there, 30 minutes late, but as they say better late than never, and in this particular case he had already waited 13 years, so I suppose another 30minutes didn’t seem very long at all.

The reception was held in a marquee, boy have they come on in the past years! It was less like a tent, and more like a large room with removable walls to allow the cooling evening air in.

Horses escaping from a nearby field during the speeches added to the excitement of the day, as was the sight of the bride, still in her wedding dress, playing football!

Quote of the day:
Bride to Groom as we came back from signing the register
‘Hold on while I pull my dress back down!’

The Rehersal

Well last night saw the most chaotic wedding rehearsal ever!

Started with the bride turning up 20 minutes late – hope that wasn’t a rehearsal as the groom was in a right state about it – then once she arrived the groom disappeared to find a loo – when he returned the father of the bride had vanished – off for a fly smoke. Finally 35 minutes after the rehearsal was supposed to start, it began.
Now usually a wedding rehearsal takes around 20 minutes max, but not this one, it was 50 minutes later before I was finally chasing them out of the church; it would have been quicker just doing the actually ceremony! However from past experience I have noticed one thing, the more chaos that reigns at the rehearsal the less there seems to be on the day.

Unusually the official photographer turned up for the rehearsal as well. He wanted to find out about the place and also took some shots of the rehearsal which will be nice for the couple to have. I didn’t know he was going to be doing that though, if I had, I would have worn nicer shoes!