Impossible wedding, with rabbits and dogs...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Skylandblack (WIP)
Various - Current Top 50 LPs (Shuffleplay)

To the gym first thing, soundtracked by the possible new LP in its embryonic state, then home for breakfast with Anne...

Updated the diary fully, apart from individual pics to supplement the collages currently illustrating the Bratislava trip...

In the afternoon, gladrags were donned...



...and it was off to a very sunny Abercorn for the wedding of chums John and Ali, aka Impossible Songs, in this beautiful old church (although the service itself was non-religious, including music by The Ramones and champagne toasts)...



Norman Lamont's peaceful waveforms welcomed us into the church but there was an anxious wait for John as Ali's limousine had trouble accessing the narrow country lanes leading to the church...



But there was nothing to worry about and the beautiful singing of nieces Robyn and Sorcha announced the walk down the aisle of Ali and the service was underway...

It included a very moving reading by Ali's daughter, Emma from Margery Williams' 1922 children's classic, "The Velveteen Rabbit"...



The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces.

He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else.

For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.

Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit.

And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive.

But the Skin Horse only smiled...

It brought a tear to my eye...

The ceremony over and toasts drunk, it was out into the sunshine...







..and to the marquee for the reception...

Coco the Dog was on hand to sing "Happy Birthday" to coincidental birthday-celebrating German guest Heike, whose comrades Martin and Siggy had sung during the ceremony - as had Fraser Drummond accompanied by John Farrell...



Post meal and speeches and cutting of the cake, there was the romantic first dance...



..and much ceilidhing around...







...and eating of Ice Cream, the antique van being a big draw for the many young children in attendance...



Later on, we all made our way outside into the dark to release Chinese Fire Lanterns into the black sky...













Then it was back inside for one final fling, including "Auld Lang Syne", "Loch Lomond" and "Addicted to Love"...

This last will be the soundtrack to the Maryoke recorded earlier in the evening, which found your correspondent assaulting his drummer with a blow-up guitar and even the Exec Producer playing a saxophone (also of the blow-up variety)...











Off home at midnight after a most enjoyable day indeed...





Highlight of the Day : The wedding of two good friends...