Sam and Stu´s wedding

The modern world is quite amazing. Friday evening we set off on this crazy metal tube 20 metres underground, that hurtled across Madrid and deposited us at Barajas airport. Then, with Kate clutching her little bottle of Valium, we climbed into another metal tube thing which whisked us up into the sky at 500 miles per hour back to Bristol for the weekend and the wedding of our good friends Samantha and Stuart. It's amazing what you can do these days!!

As the soon to be wed couple had met and befriended my sister Hermione and her betrothed Richard at Kate and I's stag and hen dos, we were going to have company at the wedding and the comforts of their hospitality over the weekend. Richard was meant to be chauffeuring the bride to the ceremony and the freshly married couple afterwards in his newly valetted BMW (Valerie). However, Stu had managed to flood the engine the night before and the AA went to the wrong address, so Sam was slightly surprised to have a hired Merecedes and driver turn up instead.

Still all was more than well. It was a lovely wedding, full of tears and laughter. A civil ceremony at the Bristol registry office, which brought back floods of memories for Kate and I, and then a short bus ride to the beautiful Circomedia building in St Paul´s square. (We felt slightly sheepish at this – Kate and I had just left people to make their own way to the reception!) My sister Hermione´s fingerprints where everywhere, from the bridal jewellery to the floral arrangements, and she and Richard got a special, tearful thankyou from the bride and groom. We ate, danced, chatted, blew bubbles, drank absolutely nothing (Kate´s pregnant and I was on antibiotics) and, best of all, played air guitar! A lovely weekend!