Phew!

What a week! It has been one long week of visiting. It has been fantastic to catch up with folks but I must admit to feeling rather tired and looking forward to some rest back home - well kind of as I rather suspect the weeds will have taken over in our veg patch. We have visited old church friends, an old colleague of Ian's, our daughter of course, other relatives up in the North East and not forgetting the primary reason for visiting in the first place was to see Ian's niece getting married. In all we have clocked up 1000 miles over two weeks.

The day of the wedding provided some entertainment, first of all one of our sons announced that he had forgotten to pack his smart trousers for the evening wedding do, he had got them out but somehow they hadn't made it to the suitcase. A discussion ensued about suitable attire for an evening do when Ian announced that he was going to wear his jeans in the evening!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. Jeans for a wedding????? Well I persuaded him that it was not suitable attire and so at five minutes to nine we were stood outside a retail outlet waiting for it to open. Whilst there I asked Ian which tie he had brought "the black one" was his reply! Nooooo..... you can't wear a black tie to a wedding, that is for funerals ie the last time he wore his suit. Oh boy! That's it, next time I check before we leave the house exactly what he is planning on wearing, mind you I don't think that I will get away with it as one of Ian's brothers was wearing jeans for the evening! Doh!

On the way to the wedding wasn't much better. Ian asked about the order of the day and I said that the wedding was at 1pm and we were eating at 4pm although there were canapés after the wedding ceremony. Well confusion ensued - I can't last until 4pm without food was Ian's thoughts and I said again that there were canapés only he thought I had said "canopies", I was in hysterics but since I was driving that wasn't very helpful and I nearly had to stop. Being up in the North East with the very distinctive accent and Ian and his brothers together made for a hilarious weekend. The one thing we agreed on as we were driving away about Ian's family is they have the capacity to make fun of everyone there is no favouritism, everyone is on the end of a joke somewhere along the line. It is a remarkable family and a very welcoming one, which is a good job because just about everyone takes a few days to adjust to the accent and keeping up with the jokes can be a nightmare until you are used to it.

Ian's family has taught me much about fun and laughter and loving acceptance. I ache as they don't know Jesus but they do know how to love. The family is not perfect - whose is? But they do have much to teach that Jesus would approve of.

Well I will finish there for the time being as I am completely full and I need a few hours sleep before heading to the airport. It was nice to finish the time in England with a wonderful meal compliments of our daughters boyfriend but I don't think I will even step on the weighing scales for at least a week, I think it will be far too frightening. There were lots of photos from the past week but I shall post a few tomorrow or maybe the day after.