Changing Places No 119 W/C 25th May 2008

‘Here comes the Sun’ was the music that accompanied the bride’s procession in our families wedding of the year. Kind readers may remember a story I told last year of when Charlie proposed to Claire on one knee in the Hotel Esplendido on the sea front in the Port of Soller. He produced a diamond ring and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. A very romantic start to the year of wedding preparations which ended last Friday with a wonderful celebration. Claire and Jay go back as far as it is possible. They knew each other from being tiny babies. She is a talented lady who studied, played the violin, travelled and has developed a career in the BBC as a producer. Her expertise was much in evidence for the wedding of the year was a wonderful production. Kate and Emma were bridesmaids, Jay was a witness and the sun shone on everyone in a beautiful rural location near Epping Forest. We all sang ‘Love me Tender’ courtesy of Elvis and the tears flowed. What started as a romantic proposal in the beauty of Soller went on to be a wedding we will never forget.

A weekend in London for us all after the excitement of the wedding and my grandchildren became London tourists and Trev ‘did’ the British Museum. A red double decker bus ride to Trafalgar Square, watching the Changing of the Guard at Horse Guards Parade. The South Bank and the newly refurbished Festival Hall, walking along the River Thames, all these treats were the rewards for being such excellent bridesmaids. The trip was concluded by time at the Science and Natural History museums and then it was time to come home. When these two little girls were born in a North London hospital there was no thought that a few years later they wouldn’t know their own city other than as a tourist – one of the many considerations of relocation.

‘Hair Spray’ was my theatre experience of this trip and one that was a real coup to get tickets for. I tried to get them online a week ago but they were sold out. We walked past the theatre on Saturday morning and went in to ask if they had any tickets returned and got two perfect seats in the circle for cost price – no booking fee! These were seats that were kept for the cast and VIP’s and if the allocation isn’t used they go on sale on the day. David Baddiel and his family were sitting behind us with their three year old who was making his first visit to the theatre. So when you go to the theatre look out for the first two rows on the left in the circle because that’s where the celebs sit – and us. Matthew had his own cultural experience as he was whisked off to the Paul Weller concert in Hammersmith with the ‘lads’. He tolerates the music of his brother’s generation and grudgingly admitted that the concert was as good as the revues in the papers the next day.

The rain of Majorca welcomed us back home after our very busy weekend. The central heating switched on and the grass a mile high because of the deluge. The night sky was full of lightening and explosions of thunder, nature was having a party. The sun doesn’t always shine in Majorca but sometimes the lightening on the mountains gives us our very own fantastic laser show. Our neighbours have the pumps going to drain their flooded cellars and the dry out begins. The torrent that rushes through town into the sea is raging and looks suitable for white water rafting. The tourists arriving for the English half term week look very fed up as they walk around in their plastic Macs. Our mountain home is very dark and forbidding when the rain settles for days and not at all what visitors expect. What they all need to hear is the words ‘Hear comes the Sun’ they really won’t mind if it’s sung in tune or not and then they will get what they came to Majorca for.
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