A wedding and a funeral

Well actually, it was a funeral then a wedding.

First of all the funeral. We cremated my nan last Thursday, my mum's mum. I didn't post about it before now, or about when she died, because I thought it inappropriate and not for blogging knowledge... but a few days have passed now, so I'm more comfortable letting you all know. She died at home, at the grand old age of 89. The funeral went fine (as fine as these things can go) and she had a lovely send off I think she would have appreciated - understated, simple, but very nice. R.I.P Nan.

The wedding - and it was JUST what I needed after the funeral on Thursday. The two mentalist lucky people who tied the knot are friends of my wife. The got married down near Exeter, so after dropping #1 son and the mutt with my parents on Friday night, we left at the crack of 7.45 Saturday morning and drove down there, and it was such a nice drive. We had a tiny shower at one point, but apart from that, sunshine all the way. And the views! I don't know if you've ever been to that part of the world, but there's so much country and green stuff it's lovely.
(Oh, we passed Stone Henge, which I've never seen before... underwhelmed. Not as big as I thought it'd be).
We were staying at a guest house called Moorstone run by a couple called John and Serge (with a french bulldog called Louie). Yes, it IS how it sounds. We didn't get to meet Serge (who was French) but John was an absolute perfect Dutch host, even though he stood at about 6'9! Camp as Butlins but charming with it. The guest house was really nice and our room (the best in the place - luck of the draw) was perfect. (If you look at the site, the room "Kennick" was our one).
The only thing that is a shame is that the owners are moving to the West Indies in a few weeks! So unless you book up and get down there soon, you won't experience it the way we did, which I have to say really made the weekend.
The wedding was... a wedding. So it's the normal list of things:

• The bride looked stunning
• The groom looked ready to shit himself then faint
• The food was nice. (I've had better, but I've also had a lot worse)
• The speeches were funny if you knew the in-jokes, otherwise just... pleasant
• The wine was free and flowing
• The DJ was a wedding DJ
• Old people danced, when old people REALLY shouldn't
• I wanted to dance, but as usual, didn't have enough wine in me

The exceptions to the usual rules? The place they got married was an old converted 15th century barn, which was stunning, and the weather was perfect.
The happy couple were bladdered by 22.00 (which was good to see) and I'm sure they had a great day.

The only downside for the weekend for me was that we had to be up and on our way home by 08.00 the next day (ouch!) because Jake had his football club presentation that afternoon, so we had to get back for that. And it was a shame because I would have loved to spend the rest of the day, and maybe even another night, at the guest house because it really was THAT GOOD.

So we bombed back, driving at ... some... miles an hour, so we made good time. Jake's presentation day went really well, and then we had a quiet Sunday evening full of stretches and yawns and tiredness.

And now it's Monday, and a new week to get through. No plans so we'll see what happens.

Soundtrack of the day: "Dear Science" by TV On The Radio (again).