Somewhere, somewhere in a field in Essex

I'm back at work now, after my few days off for the half term. Alison and I had a fun time camping down in Essex, apart from the rowdy army lads camping just near us on the first night. Singing their obscene songs at two in the morning... the fiends. The tent also got a metaphorical baptism of fire, involving a lot of water. How's that for an utterly inappropriate metaphor, huh? Anyway. The point is it's the first time we'd used the new tent (bought for us by Ali's mum for Christmas - nice) so we weren't sure how well it would hold up to the weather. After we'd put it up we nipped to Safeway to get some stuff and while there it rained so much that everyone just waited in the foyer of the shop instead of going into the car park and there was a trolley traffic jam while people waited for the rain and lightning to stop. Anyway. The tent survived, which was good.

On Saturday we went to Pete Myers' wedding. This meant getting changed into my kilt while stood in a tent, which was a new and interesting experience, but there we go. We arrived just barely on time, thanks to dodgy directions from both the AA (regarding where exactly to turn left) and Pete Myers (regarding when exactly to turn up). The service was rocking, and brought back a lot of memories of my own wedding just under 9 months ago - at least in part because we had one of the same readings and at least one of the same songs. They got married successfully, as one would hope, so that was all good.

The reception was good fun. Alison and I got put on a table with three other recently married couples and one couple who were trying to get married if only her dad would let them. We had a good laugh on our table, and the people were very interesting. It was something of another world as they were all arty types from London talking about sculpture and weird theatre shows and stuff. Living in London sounds busy and exciting and quite glamorous, though I don't think I could keep up with it. I'm sure it suits them down to the ground, but I don't think I could hack it and I suspect the romance of it would fade quite quickly for me. Anyway.

After the meal there was a Ceilidh which was good fun. Wearing a kilt to that kind of thing can be a risk as people make the mistake of thinking I must know what I'm doing, though in truth I'm a terrible dancer. Still, it was fun if a bit cramped in the hall we were dancing in. I danced once with Alison and once with Laura, and did one dance that involved swapping partners the whole time, so that was fun. After a few dances we left and went back to our tent as we were knackered.

I was really proud to see Pete get married. I've been out of touch with him for years since we went our separate ways uni-wise, so it's good to see that he's doing well and has become who he is today. It's interesting because he hasn't changed all that much. He's still really energetic and chaotic, but I think he's managed to focus that on his acting and music and stuff, which I hear have really blossomed; and also - more importantly - on his faith in God and work in that kinda region. It's cool because all the stuff that I kinda worried about with Pete has actually turned out to be for the best. I always thought "Man, he really needs to calm down." but it turns out he just needed some direction and something to channel all his energy into. Before he was just crazy. These days, it seems he's still crazy, but he's crazy with some kind of purpose. I find that quite enlightening, as it makes me realise that maybe some people who seem so messed up or out of place just need to find their niche where they can do their thing and apply their skills.

So... yeah. That was a pretty cool weekend. Good to see Pete get married, good to meet his wife Katy, good to see a whole bunch of friends from the Wirral again. Rocking.