All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous, unpremeditated act without benefit of experience. I've had Henry Miller on my mind quite a bit recently, I wondered if he had a plan at all and threw it by the wayside as it suited him. Small coincidences in life seem to lead to large outcomes.
Sonja texted me saturday morning for breakfast, and as I was only on my second cup of morning tea I went to Amnesty to meet her for my first cup of coffee. Afterwards she showed me around to several second hand stores in town, hoping I could find something to wear to the wedding that was affordable. Obviously in my light & disposable packing for the bike trip, formal wear was not something i had brought. Who knows, maybe it would have a dual use if I stuck around a couple more days to drop a CV or two in town.
I found a quality white shirt that was just slightly bigger than my size, but acceptable. I split from Sonja to relax at the Hostel for a bit and found my new topshop shirt had been stolen or taken with the bedsheets. So I went out shopping later in the week to rebuy it, but for today all I got was a new belt from Topshop, shoes from Dunnes, and a remarkably nice pair of pants despite them being from Penney's.
I was really nervous for the wedding. Here I am, a foreigner, in a foreign land, going out into the midlands.. where on my bike trip I could hardly understand them in the southern midlands, and going to have to meet someone's family at a wedding. What would they think, having some transient american biker showing up to their wedding? Luckily, they were very hospitable and when Susan was off talking to people, her sisters (Linda & Tara) and cousins (Keith & another fellow that i forget) kept me busy chatting away. I even got pulled into dancing with their mother, who was known to be quite a dancer. I learned, ok maybe not learned, i tried to mimic her mom (Mary) doing a traditional irish dance called 'Jive' (pictured). I danced like I had a pegleg and a club foot, but no one seemed to mind except me and it was fun none-the-less. The wedding ended fairly late, and i was surprised to see that the afterparty was to go on until near sunrise, though we all left slightly prior to that.
Sunday through Tuesday were mostly nothing new in terms of who to see & what settings. Sunday I spent the afternoon with the French family, having dinner and bottle of wine with them which they drank out of something like shot glasses, mind you the daughters are 17 & 15 but that didn't stop them from having wine with dinner. It was comfortable for me though, since I was able to relax a bit more being the third time I had eaten with them and now with a little wine I was able to talk in French & mess-up talking in French with relative comfort. Wrong tenses, having to say one or two words here and there in english? No sweat, it was a good time and I could tell the girls had eased up speaking english to me as well. That night I watched Milk & just relaxed inside during the thunderstorm.
Monday I did some shopping, and spent the night out with a nice fish pie for dinner and creme brulee for desert, my favorite. Afterwards I went to the Front Door for the first time since I'd been at the end of august last year with Petra, it was still the same packed, loud, hot, and at the same time fun establishment.
Tuesday, I was invited to a dinner with the Whyte's (susan's family) that her youngest sister, Tara had stirred up plans for during the wedding. I took the shot (pictured above) as we drove there. I was a bit nervous hanging out with someones family again but once again they were super to be around and very welcoming. There was a three course meal, goat cheese bread appetizer, baked pesto salmon entree, and followed with dessert that I had bought from my favorite tart company here. I had missed having those since last year and was happy to have an excuse to get them (pictured in my Hostel window).
The courses had finally ended and I was stuffed! Having a bit too much of just about everything, including the wine which I'm not really use to drinking, I was sitting back relaxing when they surprised me with a Scooby-Doo cake for my thirty second birthday, card & all! I think my jaw must have dropped when I saw that, totally didn't expect it from people I had just recently met, and two days before my birthday even.
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