Monday 3rd May

It's late - the clock on the computer says 21.22 so it'll be another short entry.

No photos of the wedding or the barbecue here, I'm afraid!

I pulled my camera out of my bag when we arrived at the church only for it to tell me that the battery was dead! Why? It had been fine the last time I'd look at it!

Sowhat about the wedding?

Well, they had a little candle ceremony during the service.
The mothers of the bride and groom walked up to the altar - different sides, and lit the candles that had been placed there for them. Then they lit a bigger thicker candle together.
This, it said in the little wedding booklet, symbolised the union of the two into one!

I told Gill King about this today when we were driving to the swimming and she said that they had done something similar at her son's wedding.
It transpires that Geeta, Howard's wife, is Latvian and the 'candle thing' is part of their traditional wedding ceremony!

I never thought to ask Sri if it was traditional in Indonesia too. I must do that the next time I see her - I'll let you know!

They had also printed the names of everybody who had a part to play in the wedding on the back page - I thought that was quite useful.

The other little touch I liked was the napkin at the meal.
It had a sprig of rosemary and a sprig of thyme folded in it and little books of flower seeds.

Oh and there was a quiz on each table - 'How well do you know Maya and Rav?' It was fun - lots of people didn't know answers and wrote down daft things.

And getting the answers at the end meant that we all learned something - like they're going to the Philippines for their honeymoon!

It was a lovely meal I especially liked the Morrocan lamb. Oh and here's something they did different as well. . . they had the speeches after the main course - before the dessert which by the way was individual little pavlovas with passion fruit - yummy.

This little section is called. . . .

CRYSTAL COVE
(our holiday to America continued. . .)

Ian outside the restaurant on the beach. . . which is as close as we got!
It was very atmospheric with its fifties' music surrounding it!

And these two photos show you the derelict chalets on the beach which are gradually being renovated for holiday homes to rent!
The tiny wee figures in the photo immediately above are Lucy and Braeden :)