Three weekends ago now (I am slow to type) I was privy to a celebration of the marriage between an old school friend and her dutch love. It was funny to reflect that the predictions (dare I say it prophesies) we made all those years ago, despite much protest, about her marraige (and others too) to a dutch import came to life that very day. It was a joyous day nethertheless. Catching up with past friends is a delight when accompanied with suitable refreshments and entertainment. The night disappeared and like Cinderella I slipped away before midnight to find, as she did, that feet were the way home. Instead of bed, scanning was my greeter at home. The next week was filled with late nights a plenty. After all that scanning I now had to prepare them in a presentable format. Due to my lack of foresight, or perhaps time-wise decision, the photos were not high enough resolution to run as a slide show from Windows Explorer. The only solution was to put them into a Powerpoint presentation. Slowly over a couple of evenings I entered the 450+ photos into 250ish slides. I also attempted to develop a skit for the evening as my brothers and sisters didn't seem to have any ideas on that front. Friday came and I picked up my Dunedin family from the airport as planned and set course for Masterton. My plan had held together thus far. Mum and Dad didn't seem to have any idea that Christie and Matthew were indeed coming up for the weekend. Just before home I dropped them off to sneak around the side of the house. Anne-marie and I came into the house with our luggage and played it cool. After 10 mins of catching up, Anne-marie continued to distract my parents as I helped Matthew and Christie through Anne-maire’s bedroom window very quietly. They took cover in under the covers of Anne-maries bed. After 5 mins Anne-marie tired from a long day at work headed for bed. She questioned Mum whether our boarder was sleeping in her bed. "Nonesense" replied Mum, "he is in his own bed." "But then who is in my bed?" questioned Anne-marie. Mum sure that the duvet was just ruffled a bit came close to the bed when out popped Matthew and Christie with a surprise. She didn't know what was going on. Father was surprised in a similar way. Mwhahaha our plans were a success even with Anne-marie spreading the secret far and wide in Dunedin. Saturday was busy with organising and decorations. The afternoon arrived and the wonderful home-job photo portraits of the kids were passed onto the parents. I had taken the idea from the old portraits my Nana has of her children in her lounge. Good idea me reckons. After some family time it was time to head to the hall to finish preparations and to run through the skit we had finally written up that afternoon. The people began to arrive after our second run through, so it was straight of to the kitchen to get the food ready. The chaos began and took a while to settle. After waiting for a reasonable amount of time for everyone to arrive I began the formal part of the evening with my speech. I was rather nervous. I had planned to write my whole speech out but had run out of time. I had some basic notes down in my book which allowed me to keep it together without running off into verbal brickwalls. I basically thanked my parents for being who they were and gave a short list of attributes I am thankful for. I managed to get a few laughs along the way which helped settle the nerves and before I knew it I was at the end. I rate that as my best speech yet. Dad then gave a speech that was a bit more serious than mine. He was followed with a few words from Nana and Uncle Errol, representing the Jackson and Baird clans respectively. Dad returned once more but this time to sing a song that he sung at their wedding reception 25 years ago. This time was in pants instead of sporting a kilt. To end the formal part of the evening we preformed skit. No major stuff ups occurred and most people understood what we were getting at. However, I was informed latter that I wasn't loud enough when being my Dad watching the rugby. In my defence, I believe that only Dad can make that much noise watching rugby.
The rest of the night was filled with mingling, eating and drinking. Everyone slowly drifted off leaving us a hall to clean. An hour later we were home and I was shattered. All in all I think that was the best Saturday evening I have had in a very long time.
