2011 Bramham horse show

 These international trials are quite the thing in the horsey world.  http://www.bramham-horse.co.uk/ They are also an annual event that occurs in the village next to Wetherby.  About 60,000 people go every year and this year we decided, since it was such a nice day, we'd go too.

 Bramham Park house and grounds also host the Leeds Festival music thing every year which follows the horse show in July/August. http://www.leedsmusicfestival.com/ The Music thing is like the Glastonbury of the North, sort of in the Woodstock tradition but more structured.  The horsey people are a bit more civilised.
 In truth its sort of a retail fair for horse stuff with some eventing and judging and horses doing things.  Not that that makes it boring.  There is much about horsey fashion and stuff that is interesting, and lots of beautiful people and gorgeous horses.

 so there was dressage and jumping and really good commentary but pathetic phototaking as it turns out.

 the locals were friendly, we met a horse trader who spent a pint of beer and a bacon bap telling us about his work and life trading horses between Rep.Ireland and the UK.  We now know stuff about horses. And understand the impact of the recession and government cutbacks in yet another part of the local economy.

 This final shot gives an idea of the scope of the day, these are just two of the six judging arenas and the steeplechase and cross country course covers another 60 acres with view points and water jumps as well as forest runs.  If we were more into horse stuff it would be a fantastic long weekend.  As it was we sat in the sun and under the shade and drank Pimms, ate pizza and munched pork rolls all the time relaxing and enjoying despite the horse stuff.

A short walk on the top of the peninnes - Saddleworth bridge

It wasn't the best of days to go but it was a great day none the less.  Gail has for four years wanted to drive over her favourite bridge.  She sees it every time she drives to Manchester, which she does a lot along the M62.  It is the highest point on the Pennines and the M62 is britian's highest motorway.

 This is from the top of the bridge looking towards Manchester which is over the hill, the reservoir you see on the right has a road to the right of it and to the right of that is the Turnpike pub where we had a really nice lunch and a pleasant pint.

 the harsh windswept hills we walked through

 spot the mini and me. Obviously if you have the highest point on the Pennines then you put a comms tower there.

 But the bog wildflowers still grow.



The Wedding - Richer and Hood

It is only right that having had to listen to Kylie talk for twelve months about the planning, decisions and organisational nightmare that is a wedding, we eventually went to it.   It was Jon's wish that regardless of all the details the night had to be a great party.  It was.  We really enjoyed ourselves and it is also only right that I record some of the memories here on the blog for perpetuity.

They both looked loverly 

 They managed to exchange vows without choking up.

 The best man and best girl ensured everything was top class

 Kylie's dad, Mark was justifiably proud and delivered a wonderful speech Regis had written for him,

 The dress, it's all about the dress, was stunning. As were the shoes.

 The celebrant introduced them as Mr and Mrs Richer, a fact that was as unrehearsed as it was uncomfortable.  The brits don't seem to comprehend the Aussie/Canadian preference for retaining surnames...... The Mr and Mrs gaff was repeated throughout the night to increasing humorous results..

 The couple with the bride's folk, Regis and Mark

 And Jon's mum and dad  Josie and Andre`

 I read out a piece I wrote for the couple, and nearly didn't choke up. http://grailnotes.blogspot.com/2011/05/wedding-words.html which the couple also graciously had printed on the order of service.

 Gail tried to learn how to do Richards dance steps, not easy.

 The gathered masses had drinks and photos outside, I was surrounded by beautiful women, I like weddings.

The wedding cake was a cup cake de force.

 The speech Jon gave which his wife wrote ( its a family tradition obviously) was superb, all encompassing and most enlightening.

 But was if anything exceeded in humour and disclosed secrets by the speeches delivered by the "Best Babes" Trish and Amy, true friends and housemates of the couple.

 There was the mandatory Wedding cigar break where Gail and I took the bridal party aside and provided them twenty minutes of respite, and a good chuckle over some fine handrolled single leaf cuban examples. 

And then there was the dancing which went on through the night.

 and through the night

 and through the night

with occasional breaks outside to catch our breath

 And shoot the breeze.

 the flowers were nice

 And I still fit into my tux which is almost as old as the bride.

It was a great wedding and I have been to quite enough of them to be a good judge of that.  There were thousands of photos taken by guests which flooded facebook but I am quite looking forward to the professional photographer's shots because, as you will notice, I took no shots of Gail's fantastic dress and she looked wonderful and was really happy.

Kylie and Jon's stag and hen night

The Beginning of May.  A great way to start a month is a Stag and Hens do.  Kylie and Jon are getting married on the 29th and a month was considered enough time to recover from such an event.

The Grail household owns but one camera and Gail kept it for the night to take girly pictures, which in all events was probably just as well as the boys night out involved lots of boring places where drinks were sold, and a pub with good food and wine, and places where drinks were sold.

The girls had actually organised an evening.  It started with a home cleansing and make over experience involving road base tar. 

 And wine guessing games

 and snacks

 before going to a class cocktail bar with a fancy aquarium as the bar.

 and some nice food in a Thai fashion

 And then the boys met the girls on a corner somewhere and we all went on a further rampage through the hotels and streets of Manchester. 

 Before we all ended up back at Jon and Kylie's flat in Didsbury by pre booked cabs and continued to party, drink some of Jon's lethal cocktails, finish off the girl's wine tasting bottles and generally have lots of meaningless chat and a little bit more of fun.

 Until it was all too much and the bride-to-be collapsed on the over here if you've had enough sofa.

 I apologise if the details of the evening are scarce and the information on events of the night somewhat less than expansive.  We did have a really good time, stayed in a nice room in the hotel next door to their flat which had a spa bath, and which I recall we took late night advantage of, just Gail and I not the whole party.  It is the earlier detail of the night I am rather shy on, not because it was raunchy or illicit, not at all, very grown up in fact, I was fine right up until the double margharitas, the sambucca and the irish whiskeys, trouble is, I can't quite recall what order they happened in either.... must have been the ale and wine that did that to me.

Anyway a good time and a fitting and enjoyable Stag night with nothing to be ashamed about . That I can remember.
We headed home the next day after a slow awakenning and a big hotel breakfast with ordinary coffee.

Gail took this shot of a van travelling with us on the motorway, thought it cute.  In a northern sort of way.

More Party Pirates and Royal Wedding

You may well be wondering who the raven haired wench is carrying champagne into our kitchen . 

Yes it's Gail in full pirate wig and regalia as we were off to a deferred Pirate and Wench party over in Meanwood, near Headingly, Leeds at the home of Kirsty and Clyde.  Kirsty works with Gail as a mobile MRI rad. 

It was quite a good night out, everyone got into the swing of the theme and while many photos were taken not many can be put up here.  Pirates and wenches are notoriously badly behaved.  And we were fuelled by some pretty strong rotgut, or cocktails as Kirsty liked to call them. 

 I was less attractive and got uglier as the night went on.

 Gail found someones hat and was caught mixing her drinks.

 A little sabre rattling and poking went on

 A bit of flirting,

 And quite a lot of chat and nonsense was spoken.

Corny attempts at pirate roles were enacted

 The Host (Clyde) and Hostess (Kirsty) set the theme and the mood

 And Gail had a deadly cosmopolitan,

 

 While others sang bawdy ballads and sultry sea shanties, I think.

It was all a bit of a change of pace to the previous weekend when David and Carolyn invited us to their place to watch the Kate and Willie royal wedding. 

Gail decided, after a bit of royal meal research,  that Beetroot and smoked salmon blinis with creme-fresh were very appropriate royal snacks to make and we enjoyed them during the tv show before tucking into a fabulous roast beef lunch prepared by Carolyn.  Sorry no shots of that, it was remiss of us not to take the camera I suppose. I have it on good authority photos of the wedding do exist though.

The flags in the hair were a bit OTT I thought.