Sep 2011 a

Fri 02 Sep 2011
After work Steve was a trooper and got scrubbing to clean the rear decking.

Sat 03 Sep 2011
Steve continued his legendary scrubbing away at the back decking. Jen worked on the narrow walkway bit, using the little hand-held brush - ending up with large broken blisters on two knuckles. But the cleaning's all done now, yay us!

Wed 07 Sep 2011
So tonight Kiriel arrived and is staying with us, hurrah!

Thu 08 Sep 2011
After work, Steve picked up the hire car, since our own car is having reliability issues. Later in the afternoon, we helped Kiriel get a replacement for a laptop she'd bought earlier that day, as this one was faulty. Then onward to dinner at Frankie and Benny's.

Above: new couple Finn + Mary

Fri 09 Sep 2011
Up stupid-early this morning, and off to the nearby Billingsgate Market. This fish market has been going in London since 1327!  So we bought 2 x 3kg Salmon, then headed toward Chippenham where Edith and John's wedding would be taking place tomorrow. We handed over the fish, and the alcohol we had picked up at John's aunty's place on the way. Kiriel and Steve got to work helping out with wedding food preparations.
As agreed, Jen had 100m of bunting passed her way, as well as a couple of large rolls of blue gauze, and was set loose on making a very basic Village Hall look like a nice place to get married.
After some debate about table layout, Jen and helpers (such as Mary) got stuck in setting up the hall. We hid the noticeboards behind fabric, created a central isle for "walking down the aisle", hid the kitchen serving hatch, and added a central focus with swags of the bunting and gauze.

After the day's hard work, we all sat to dinner in the nearby pub with the bride and groom, who were happy to shout us all a drink.

Sat 10 Sep 2011
Kiriel showed us how to create and add nice gauze bows to the candelabras. She also suggested we fold the serviettes into decorative shapes since we had a couple of hours spare before guests would arrive... now that the hall was all nicely set up and ready to go. Various people pitched in throughout the day, with the food preparations. 

Above L-R: Steve, Kiriel, Paul and Soph - staunch workers all.

The groom had arrived 2 hours before Wedding Time, for a sound-check, then disappeared off-site to make himself presentable. Finally, running just a few minutes late, the Bride arrived!

And the rest of the day's festivities appeared to go ahead without a hitch. In the evening, the place was well and truly rocking, a very energetic party. The two of us were pretty exhausted and skipped off "home" (to Mary's place) early, at about 10.30pm.  

 

Above: John sang for his bride.

Our new hall table

Sun 11 Sep 2011
After a lovely breakfast of omelettes cooked up by Finnian, we packed our new 2nd-hand table into the back of the car, (thanks to Richard and Lena for picking it up for us, in the 1st place) then the two of us collected Kiriel from her B&B, and rendezvoused with Finn and Mary (and others) in Avebury. It was sunny but super-windy, as the remains of a hurricane headed toward the UK.  

Above: Kiriel at Avebury

Thu 15 Sep 2011
Steve's 44th birthday! Jen booked him a Carving course (food carvery, that is) which he'll attend late in November. After work we met up and saw the BP portrait prize at the National Portrait Gallery. Then we scoffed down succulent lamb kebabs at Leicester Square.

Above: the birthday boy!

Above: Jen let her hair down after it'd been scrunched up all day

Fri 16 Sep 2011
After work, Jen got busy putting the first coat on the remainder on the rear decking. The next morning she put a complete second coat on the whole lot. Job done and protected just in time for autumn and winter - the forecast is for a week or more of constant rain from tomorrow onwards. Boo hiss.