Monday, October 15, 2012

Marriage

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Tonight we had the third wedding of 2012, on the third continent. This was also the coldest place we've been for a wedding this year, down by the Firth of Forth in Queensferry. Still, the abundant rain that had fallen on us as we took the coach there from Edinburgh abated by the time of the service, leaving us with a beautiful clear view of the sea and the bridge.

It was a very nice service: I felt honoured that we were mentioned (for doing nothing more difficult than getting on a plane and flying over from Singapore) and we had an incredible piper play. He seemed to be a cross between a drill sergeant and a walrus, wrapped up in red tartan like a particularly threatening, noisy box of shortbread.

The speeches were good; funny, without any repulsive details about the groom. After that we had a fairly boozy dinner, and by six pm I was feeling ready for bed; the sky was dimming a little and I was no longer at full mental capacity. Somehow though we carried on all the way until 1 in the morning. I was drunk enough to dance (it turns out that it is much easier to dance to Chas and Dave unselfconsciously than it is to contemporary music, which suggests I've fallen through a time hole or something.) and sober enough to carry on ordering more booze. We were even doing shots at one point. What sort of wedding was this? I never do shots (and I hardly ever get married) so perhaps this was out of character. I should have been asleep.

Perhaps I shouldn't have had my camera out. I've got a selection of out of focus or underexposed photos to work my way through when we get back to Singapore, but I suppose that's my own fault for being drunk in charge of a Canon.

I did wonder what we were doing in Singapore. Scotland, full of drunks, seems somehow more normal than Singapore. Maybe it's distance that makes Singapore seem so strange, or perhaps it's just the comparison with the other places we've lived. It doesn't feel like we've put down any roots there, whereas Hong Kong was somewhere we were integrated with much more quickly. One we love, the other we just live in.

Then I stopped wondering and danced to Madness. There's nothing like ska that's more than a quarter of a century old, when you're dressed in the most expensive suit you've ever owned and you're hammered on gin and apple-flavoured liqueurs. Ah, boisterous weddings. When I was young, I didn't enjoy weddings very much. But now I understand about booze.

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