Michael and Katrina’s Wedding

At the end of a beautiful week, we all started gathering at the wonderful, and historic Gorton Monastery http://www.themonastery.co.uk/ ready for Michael,( my nephew  ) and Katrina’s wedding.

As I stepped through the doors from the car park, into the wonderful space of the old church, I was reminded of the days when I , as a child used to come here, on various festivities, as my sister Kathleen (who was the head girl), and brother Sean (who never would be!), went to the attached school. I well remember walking along the streets of Gorton, towards this wonderful church, and unbeknown to me at the time, this area was the stomping ground of the Moors Murderers’ Brady and Hindley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors_murders , of course they would have had to contend with my Mum and Dad – so I was safe !

Amazingly we were early, and so took advantage of being able to have a private viewing of the vast area, as my mind wandered, and related my stories to David and Kate

So, to the main event…the wedding of Michael and Katrina, who I probably first met when she fell over in my garden at my 50th Birthday party (it was an unseen step, that fooled her!) ,when she had recently met Michael at University, and saved him from starvation !

As the happy couple stood in front of the main altar for pictures, it was a great, and lovely sight, as we all clapped and waved

Then, a lovely meal, and speeches seemingly quickly followed by the dancing, out early onto the floor, beckoned (dragged !)  by my eldest sister Letitia, with those immortal words…’This tune’s got your name on it’…and I was off, straight into my impressive array of dance moves… they’ve still not guessed – I’ve been going to Dance classes in Modern Jive http://www.blitzjive.com/…although most of my relatives couldn’t understand the delicate moves I was doing ! Then, the first dance…and all the moves were straight from my classes…Jotown first..the rest later, although I must say they were a lot more polished than me ! Clearly though, the word had got out, as I had all the women dancing with me !

The evening flew along in the fabulous setting , until all too soon it was 1 a.m...and time to beat a hasty retreat home…with lots to do later that day…and a willing driver (Thanks Kate) to get me home safely, and cheaply…

 

Thanks to Michael and Katrina, for a great occasion,

Health,Wealth and Happiness be yours in your new married life together..…starting with the Honeymoon in India !

It’s a Bouncing Baby Boy !!

Great News from the ‘Big Apple’…

At 3-08 p.m. New York Time, a lovely looking boy –         Thomas Samuel 6 lbs 8 ozs arrived into the world, accompanied by his delighted parents Joseph and Nicola…and ……..transcendentally Grandad Jotown !

What will be his first Football shirt…anyone guess ?

So, that’s five Grandson’s…

wonder what the next will be…..

Kate ?

We’ll all find out in July !

You Don’t Always Need to go Far…!

Young Lawrence was up for the weekend, and although the glorious weather of the last few days had changed to miserable rain ,after a hearty breakfast we set off for Buxton http://www.visitbuxton.co.uk/, although not actually stopping in the centre of the town, we went to Poole’s Cavern http://www.poolescavern.co.uk/, a great limestone cavern, under the hills of Buxton.

I had not been here before, although had been to several of the ‘show caves’ in the area… I now wonder ‘Why Not’ ?

I bought tickets for us both, to find out that the tickets were valid for the next 12 months…so a few return visits can be expected !

Very soon we were led to the Cave entrance, and soon inside the great cavern seeing the spikes marking the archeological digs that had taken place over the last few years.

I was very impressed, the lighting showed the various structures in the caves to their best effect, and the small group we were in (4 /6!) had an almost ‘private tour’, with tales told by our guide

We went deeper into the complext, dropping down as we went, with the caves opening up in front of us, and the sounds of the River ‘Wye’ crashing though the cave…although it was only really a small trickle, what the sound is like when it’s raining I hesitate to guess. As we came alongside the ‘side of Bacon’ stalactitie we we able to see the bottom of it was missing, although it had since been lcated buried in the woods outside ( mystery !), and then down to the final area, where marks indicated that ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ had visited here…had she ?

With Lawrence touching the stalagmite reputedly containing the ‘Bubonic plage’ we were out of the caves, and onto the hillside above, and up towards Solomon’s temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon's_Temple,_Buxton as we arrived at the top a hailstorm rode across the hills encompassing us,although after passing over us the sun resumed it’s posture giving us some great views of the Rainbows over the hills beneath us… and the prospects of a ‘Pot of Gold’… so then it was a run back to ‘Wally’ and a return home

It just shows…..

You don’t always need to go far…to see great things