Copious amounts of smushiness - bucket may be necessary

How did it feel getting married? I hear you ask

Being terrified, shaking like mad walking up the church, dad at my side, calming me down by whispering "they're all looking at you"

The weirdness of seeing himself at the top of the aisle, after not seeing him since 8pm the previous night - felt like a life time.

The weirdness of not having a chance to talk really, or say hi properly, and him telling me he noticed the french manicure by holding up his hand during the first reading.

The bridesmaid after the service putting her heel through her dress, and it not mattering at all. The fashion show of all the friends and family walking out past us, shaking hands and hugging, and me saying "congratulations" to some of them cos it seemed like the thing to say - what everyone was saying.

The flower girl coming in the car with us back to the hotel, catching us having our first kiss since marriage, telling us we were allowed now, it was ok.

The feeling that we were lucky and blessed when the sun came out for every photograph.

The not eating dinner, and unholy terror when the gong went for speech time. The gush of smushiness on hearing all the nice things all the nice people had to say about me. The nearly crying as I returned the favour with an emotional few words.

The letting hair down dancing, singing a duet with himself, cheered on by the girls dressed as ABBA. The dancing to REM at the DJ bit, with my 97 year old grand aunt dancing away. (I have to switch to drinking bourbon - she's seriously amazing).

The other bridesmaid having a radiator "explode" on her dress, and it not mattering at all.

All the chats, feeling famous, and feeling such warmth and love etc etc.

The last bridesmaid leaving with her dress in perfect shape, and it not mattering at all. (I'm sure it has probably been covered in mud or set on fire by now)

Was it the best day of my life?

Nope - the best day was the one I met him.

Told ya it was smooshy... (hope you had the bucket handy)

In Summary - in summer

So, so far this summer, have got married, won a prize for my blog thanks to TFE (still a little unsure how to pick up/ display said prize, or when the presentation of prizes will be), volunteered at the Ottawa Tulip festival (which simply involved free admission to some live shows, including poetry, jazz, Klezmer, hypnotism, some undefinable but awe inspiring stuff as well- see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjrK2VGCoqs&feature=related) , visited the hippiest hippy town called Wakefield, then montreal, then boston, then niagara, then kingston - a little town on a lake that looks like the sea. I might some time expand a bit more on these adventures once I readjust to sunny dublin, but here in the meantime is a sneak peak at some of the cushions that made my last few weeks so memorable, (not in order of appearance)... I didn't have a cushions fetish before this blog - any of my friends will tell ya... actually I still don't

John Spillane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CpYELATeiI&feature=related


There was a Man

There was a man who took a wife
To walk beside him through his life
They walked through sunshine and through rain
They walked through pleasure and through pain
She wore a dress of yellow gold
She was a wonder to behold
And underneath a purple sky
She was the apple of his eye
And when the moon arose in flight
And stars went blazing in the night
They crept into each other’s dream
And slept beside a silver stream

They flew together through the air
And landed on a distant shore
They walked along a golden strand
They walked together hand in hand
She was not the easiest woman in the world
To get along with if you understand
But then again on the other hand
He may not have been the easiest man
But when the moon arose in fright
And stars went blazing in the night
They crept into each other’s dream
And slept beside a silver stream

The world will turn and the rivers flow
The sun will shine and the winds will blow
While angles in the afterglow
Will light their candles in the snow
There was a man who took a wife
To walk beside him through his life
They walked through sunshine and through rain
They walked through pleasure and through pain
She wore a dress of yellow gold
She was a wonder to behold
And underneath a purple sky
She was the apple of his eye

BH Revisited

"It's getting exciting now" has been the constant catchphrase of my mother, since the first engagement card rolled in, when we ordered the dress, when we booked the date, when relatives started announcing travelling plans, sometimes it varied to "It's getting really exciting now", but the progress of levels of excitement has been constantly re-evaluated, restated and announced, as the whole process has gone on.

I have to admit - now that I'm finally finished up work for three weeks, beginning to think about walking down the aisle, trying frantically to write a speech, thinking about what I need to pack - it is in fact getting exciting precisely ..... Now.

Some Pair of Tulips

Check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrNpI0r7fa8&feature=related

Christian Bok is just one of the acts we've got free tickets into, as a result of our choice of honeymoon destination and I can't wait to see him! We're after volunteering to help out at the Canadian Tulip festival in Ottowa, so will be on hand to point out Tulips, or something, get free into some brilliant events, and hopefully meet lots of friendly locals, and get tips from them on where to go next.

If you happen to be a friendly local reading this, please feel free to leave a message here offering us accomodation, since we've only booked the first 4 nights. We'll take ye along to some of the concerts in return maybe? We've two tickets each, so there's an offer for ya anyway.

Drama Schmama

So last night we went to see Sive, a heart warming romantic comedy by John B Keane, all about a young girl who doesn't want to get married so much that she kills herself. Alot of hilarious insights into the fact that girls, just before they marry, have no clue what they're thinkin, and that romance is only a waste of time, Mr VCTB nodding along heartily beside me (only kiddin he's all romance - only the other day he turned to me and lovingly said "We don't have to get each other presents now, just cos we're getting married, do we?" ). There was a very funny performance of Sean Dota (the old man she doesn't want to marry) by John Carabini, and overall the whole cast did very well with it on their opening night - congrats to all at Lucan Drama group.
So then we went home for our last night, alone, in the house, as an unmarried couple, - my folks are moving in with us tonight - we made the most of our last real crazy night of freedom, stayed up as late as we wanted, ate coco pops for dinner etc etc - sweet sweet freedom...

So Here's a Game

To occupy you while I'm away...

Take a book, any book - write down the first 10 nouns that appear in the book, and the last 10 adjectives.

Match em up at random - see if you can make an interesting poem, or if any other ideas strike you from the unusual combinations.

Here's what happened this morning when I tried this out with "My name is Red"

I call it

"My meaningless poem inspired by nouns and adjectives from My name is Red"

He had a worse heart,

beating black with a convincing midriff,

gave him a harder edge.

I admired,

his prettier breath, absent from the elegant body,

the sand rough bottom of the absentminded corpse.

A delightful wretch, deep in the night -

a bleary eared, smeared murderer.

Feel free to post up the results in the comment box - and remember this can be repeated as often as you like with lots of different books - so should keep ye entertained for awhile...

The First Three Letters

So - the first 3 letters of his surname are MAN (and what a man!), and the first 3 letters of mine are BAG (say nothing). We have a decision to make -

If we are to combine our names we have to go with either MANBAG, or BAGMAN for our new surname.

Manbag is not without it's attractions - evocative of long walks among trendy cafés in town, strong colours, gimmicky pockets, and tiny laptops. Plus it would have the added advantage of placing my surname some where around the middle of the alphabet. Supposedly a good place to be, in fiction terms, (I once heard Colin Bateman complaining about being a B surname for this reason).

However - Bagman is a bit more meaningful. Notwithstanding my reputation for poor relations with plastic bags, I love the way Bagman would fit at the end of a "NANA NANA NANA NANA NANA NANA NANA NANA .......BAGMAN!" Plus it could be like our own special super human skill, like to be honest Mr VCTB is very good at remembering to bring plastic bags to the supermarket anyway, as am I - but I usually leave them in the car, so that I still have to buy a bag when I'm in there, maybe I secretly always knew someday I'd be a Bagman, and therefore was building up the stocks. It could be like Bicycle repair man - always ready - Bagman is there with a bag at the ready...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U01xasUtlvw

But as always I'll defer to the popular vote - or should I keep my old name - so that my "Fans of the future" can trace me back to my early stuff - ie my one published poem?

In case you were wondering...

The new smushy pink background is, in fact, in honour of the smushy pink wedding coming up once 7 more sleeps have passed...
It will be a sunny day, no matter what the weather is like, I've informed John Spillane that we're using his music, so he may well decide to gatecrash (John you'd be most welcome only if you have the guitar with you), and we have almost finished deciding who is sitting with whom - no one yet has expressed any enthusiasm for the idea that they should all change places between courses. anyway, i'm experiencing technical difficulties again today - blogging from rosland, which means i have to hold down the mouse while typing... not that there's actually a mouse here, not even a computer mouse, since it's a laptop - but you get the idea...
have a lovely bank holiday monday y'all

Page 190 - Shamelessly thieved

Where I shamelessly take Radge's mysterious post idea, and shamelessly adapt it for myself, I don't know what his means but it doesn't matter since he never reads this - but here anyway - here's a section of page 190 of a book I'm currently reading...

Feel free to do the same yourself (my advice is to pick a book with large font though!) and if you are first to correctly guess what book my post is from, I'll give you a loan of the book when I've finished it...

A cloudburst. Rain. Buckets of it. Dick ran. Perry ran too, but he could not run as fast; his legs were shorter and he was lugging the suitcase. Dick reached shelter - a barn near the highway - long before him. On leaving Omaha, after a night spent in a Salvation Army dormitory, a truck driver had given them a ride across the Nebraska border into Iowa. The past several hours, however, had found them afoot. The rain came when they were sixteen miles north of an Iowa settlement called Tenville Junction.

The barn was dark.

"Dick?" Perry said.

"Over here," Dick said. He was sprawled on a bed of hay.

Perry, drenched and shaking, dropped beside him. "I'm so cold," he said, burrowing in the hay, "I'm so cold I





A confession here - I actually had typed out two other paragraphs as well, but somehow deleted them by accident - they were boring anyway

How Writers get their kicks

I get my kicks by including the word "Writer" in the title of my blog post and sitting back watching for all the writery types to come rushing in from other blogs for a look - Bwa hahahahah haaa. (tee hee)

Other than that I suppose there'll be big kicks to be had tomorrow week, which is scheduled to be the "happiest day of my life", no pressure now, all down hill from there etc etc... sure it's bound to be better than today, a day when even "Rich, creamy, melted, slightly acidic butter flavouring" doesn't do it for me.

I am excited alright though - just need to call the hotel and check if they've ordered in the extra lemsip for my cousins from Mexico.

Oh yeah - and another kick getting method I favour - leaving comments on more popular blogs than mine, and imagining I have friends as the emails with cleverer comments than mine roll in...