england and all its glory. and disasters.

so this past weekend was eventful to say the least. we left friday night for manchester, england for a mate's wedding. but not before stopping in new york.

which was our first mistake.

i hate connecting flights. and for very good reason. you are either rushing from one gate to the next, or waiting several hours for the next flight. but in order for us to get this free ticket for me and upgrade for both of us (tim went first class there, we both went first class back, which was nice obviously. it's the only way to travel. if only i had an extra $8000 hanging around), we had to book the trip thusly, stopping at jfk on the way to manchester though it was direct coming back (thank god).
so naturally our flight was extremely late getting to jfk, leaving us with a few minutes to leg it to the next gate. as we're running along, having heard the final boarding call, we pass a guy strolling along at a leisurely pace, who asks if we're heading to the manchester flight. as we reply affirmative, he says, "don't rush, i'm the captain, and they're not going anywhere without me." harumph.
so we made it on the flight. apparently our luggage didn't.
there's nothing worse (well, ok, there are several things, but this still sucks) than having been on a very long transatlantic flight in coach only to be waiting at the baggage claim and seeing the same three pieces go round and round after everyone else has gone. especially when you have a wedding to go to the next day. oh and gone are the days when they used to give you even an apology, let alone financial compensation, for loosing your bloody belongings. no money until said luggage has been lost for 24 hours... which reminds me, i need to get in touch with a certain airline. because, of course, we didn't get our luggage until late the next day. after the wedding.
the wedding day itself was actually brilliant. an old scout friend of mine chip (though nowadays apparently the nickname is gone and he's actually going by dave, his christian name) has a wonderful, resourceful (though she just said she overpacked) girlfriend, katie, who had an entire spare outfit (shoes, clutch, cardigan, everything) in my size. madness! tim got to borrow a shirt from james, and everyone was very forgiving of his jeans, under the circumstances. the day was drizzly from the get-go, which is pretty bloody typical for english weddings. but pretty annoying considering the day before and the week after had glorious sunshine. but it's good luck to have rain on your wedding (we did!) - symbolizes fertility apparently, though we're not in any hurry to have babies. chris and ruth (the couple getting married) though, well, i don't know about them. i've known chris since i was five and he's one of the few friends from england i've really stayed in touch with.

here's the crowd just before the wedding, in typical english style.


and the three best men - the aforementioned dave (chip, left) and james (right), and kevin (middle).


and here i am (middle) with my best mate catherine (who some might recall as my bridesmaid) and her sister, sarah (left).


and of course, chris (groom) getting some help with his boutonnière from best man kevin.

after that the ceremony is basically quickly descended into this...


and then this...

yup that's us all in arms singing queen's "bohemian rhapsody," the unofficial theme tune to every scout trip and basically my pre-teen years. after all that head-banging and dancing, there was plenty of aching to be had. i literally only just recovered yesterday (tuesday) and the wedding was sunday. good times.

i might put up more pics later, maybe in a slide doc or something. but i'll leave you with this:

tim even got into the party spirit, with crazy streamer action! tim suffers from a condition where he is automatically put to snooze when british people start talking. at least this is what he tells me. hence this pic, from the night before the wedding, in the hotel lounge:

bless.

uh-oh, looks like catherine has caught it!

ha!