And so we are off....

This afternoon Hazel, her sister Gloria and I are travelling up to Swindon in readiness for the Wedding so this morning we had some last minute preparations before picking up Gloria.  Our prep included playing around with Hazel's hair and fascinator.  The fascinator is beautiful so we decided that it would look better if Hazel sported some sort of 'up-do' so I remembered how Mum used to wear her hair in a French pleat and we gave that a go and it worked and Haze looked fabulous so this is going to be one of my jobs tomorrow!!

Hazel has one dress to wear as Mother of the Groom at the Church and she has a different dress to wear at the reception when she will let her hair down - literally!!!

All ready and all packed we set off to pick up Gloria from Tintinhull which we did without problem and joined the A303 ready to rock and roll and had only been travelling for about a mile when we got stuck in a jam - good old A303 and half term and the Bath and West Show and the sheer volume of traffic which always gets bottled up at the Podimore Roundabout.  My SatNav wanted me to go one way and Hazel's SatNav was suggesting another so we nearly had a SatNav stand off before we had gone anywhere.

We encountered heavy traffic on and off all the way to our destination.  This added about an hour onto our trip and I was concerned that Hazel would start to get stressed out and that she would miss the rehearsal which was scheduled for later this afternoon.  Fortunately we made it on time and checked in to what was a nice hotel - The Hilton near Swindon on the edge of the M4.

The Hotel Chain was celebrating something and so we were greeted with a glass of bubbly on arrival along with a hot chocolate cookie and a mystery envelope which may or may not have contained a prize.  I got a big fat nothing but most of our party received something and Haze's brother Steve and his partner got a voucher for a free meal for two with wine which they were more than happy to redeem!

Rehearsal done we gathered for a family meal - I had kindly been adopted by the Ford family for the evening and we had a surprisingly good meal, tasty, well presented and reasonably priced - not that it really mattered because by the time we ate Gloria and I were four gins in!

I am sharing my room with Hazel's sister Gloria and I blooming well hope she doesn't snore like Hazel - although she might well after four gins!

Hazel's extended family are fabulous and we were also joined by best man John who was fabulous, such a gentleman even when he was regaled with the RAF equivalent of salty sea dog tales by Hazel's brother Steve who served in Cyprus many many years ago.  Steve's partner Karen and I thought that we ought to rescue John before his ears started bleeding but we were enjoying the spectacle so much we decided to leave the two of them to it!

It as so lovely to have a special hug from Jordan because we had given him and Abi some money which we told them was to be spend on something wild and frivolous because shortly they will have to be very sensible.

Camera and phone put away this evening - resting before taking loads of photos tomorrow!!