A WEDDING - AND A SURPRISE

First, the Surprise

Happy Couple #1

 It’s now Friday 5^th August. All the rest of the Kayemob crew rolled in from their own inter-wedding trips.  Tom via Scotland, Sweden, Venice and London; Simon from Edinburgh, where he had been working setting up a Festival Fringe venue: and Robin, Ayla and her brother Tye, from Helsinki and Wales as I recall.  We are all in last minute cleaning, preening and preparations mode for the wedding of nephew Andrew Wheble and soon to be wife, Kate Barber, in Westbourne, Hampshire on Saturday.

We are all staying at Judy and Nigel's house at Rooks Hill near Bramley, a few miles east of Guildford.  Judy and Nigel have already left for Westbourne to prepare for the wedding so it's just the Kaye's plus Curtis' at the house.

Diamond and Sapphire twin set!

As we gathered around the dinner table excitedly telling stories of our travels, Robin and Ayla appeared looking too happy.  They explained that the day before, whist trying to find a mountain in Wales that wasn't totally lost in low clouds, Robin had proposed to Ayla, and she had said yes.

So they ARE ENGAGED!!  Woot woot.

Robin had been carrying the engagement ring around in his backpack for the entire holiday, trying to find the right time and place. Sweden - no, Finland, - no ..... Wales.... YES!  It is a beautiful, newly made piece that he commissioned from a jeweller in Edmund.  It includes a diamond from Jane's old engagement ring and a new sapphire.

Jane and I are so happy for them.  No date for a wedding yet, probably not for a year or two. Given that it took Robin 5 years to work out that he wanted to be engaged who knows how long the engagement will be!

Then The Wedding

Great hat Jane, and Simon still unable to resist the silly pose, at 27!

Saturday 6th arrives and we are powdered and ready to go at 11am. A swift drive to Westbourne and the whole families Kaye, Campbell and Whebles are gathered in the local pub for pre-wedding drinks.

John, Robin and Pippa in the pub garden.

Judy and Ayla. What a great hat Judy!

 Its was great party, and the first time that all the cousins had been in one place at the same time for many years, probably 15?  The last time would have been the holidays at Elie that Betty and Jimmy used to organise for the grandchildren when they were all young kids.  The sun was shining, the beer was warm, and all was right in the world.

Rob, Catharine and Nigel, looking good in the sun!

The church was a 5 minute walk away, and at the appointed hour we crossed the road and witnessed the happy union of Kate and Andy.  After a walk down the church path after the service for the rose petal confetti thing, the happy couple performed sabrage on a bottle of champagne and then we all walked two minutes to the adjacent house where there was a marquee for the reception in the garden.  Talk about convenient!

Careful with that sabre Andy, that's a newly made bride!

And so followed one of the most joyful and loving wedding receptions I have been to.  The food was straightforward and excellent.  The deserts were just up my street, a deconstructed Eaton Mess, Cheese and Pork Pie - yes pork pie!!

Jane carving the lunch! 

The speeches were spot on, and there was not a dry eye in the house when Andy spoke about Kate.  Such love, -  its frightening, and wonderful.

The afternoon flew by with many conversations with family of old and a few new friends and potential in-law relations on Kate's side. Dad is ex-Navy office now involved in what sounds like a pretty interesting series of consultancies and assignments since retiring from the Services.

The Reception marquee set-up - really pretty!

Cousins in kilts, Andy, George and Tom.

The weather was kind, being sunny and warm and the garden contained many entertainments (hitting nails into a tree trunk, one blow at a time for instance...) for guests as well as plentiful space to sit and take it all in.  The pictures below hopefully capture some of the vibe of the day.  We danced into the night to a very good live band, until around midnight when Jane gathered us all up and Robin drove us back to Rooks Hill.

Too good not to include - Jane and brother John!

The next day we were invited to a post-wedding BBQ at Kate's parents house in Havant, not far from the previous days celebrations.  We set off  from Rooks Hill, driving south again after a slow breakfast and arrived in time for a very tasty BBQ lunch and the left over beers and wines from the Reception.  Even the champagne still had bubbles, it was so happy to still be there!  Again a great time was had by all.

What's left of HMS Victory.

As I had worked in Portsmouth years ago, 1970's,  and Robin had stayed there as a medical student a few years ago there were a few things there that we wanted to show the rest of the family.  So at about 3pm we left to go into the city and visit two special places. The first was the Navel Heritage Dockyard, the second was the Still and West, a favourite waterfront pub.

The Heritage Dockyard contains a great collection of British navel history, in both museum settings and in the old ships now safely set up in dry docks.  The include the first iron hulled warship HMS Warrior, the Nelsons flagship from the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Victory, and Henry VIII flagship, the Mary Rose.  I remember the oak hull of the  Mary Rose being lifted from the mud on the bottom of the sea in the Solent, just outside the entry to Portsmouth harbour back in 1982, when my mum still lived nearby in Stubbington.

The hull of the Mary Rose - sank 1508! Fascinating and complex preservation.

Well they now have the hull and all the items that were in the ship when it sank in a new display hall built over the old dry dock it was taken to back in 1982.  It was only finally preserved and able to be put on full display earlier this year, 2016.  It was well worth the effort going to view it.  Magnificent effort.  Rob and Ayla also managed to see around the Victory in the two hours we had in the Dockyard.

Then quick drive to Old Portsmouth and a few good ales at the Still and West.  Not now quite as attractive as I remember it 35 years ago, its now a real tourist trap on the waterfront, but it was still serving a few good ales and it was a great end to the family holiday.  Tomorrow were were all off and away.

The Kayemob at the Still and West.   A few beers later.....

We drove back to Rooks Hill and on the way we ordered a big Thai takeaway for dinner with Judy, Nigel and Pippa.  Then as we were gathered around the table Robin and Ayla told the rest of the families about their engagement.  They had not said anything at the wedding (even took off the ring)  as that was Kate and Andy's day, but now was time to fully celebrate! So we did - again.  And why not, such happy news.

Late to bed, but the next day Tom, Rob and Ayla all flew back to Oz for work, and Simon flew up to Edinburgh to do another 3 weeks at the Edinburgh Festival.  As for Jane and I, well we piled into the trusty Renault Espace and headed north to Rosyth.  But what we did for our last two weeks

in the UK is for the next Post.