Home again!

Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights slept in a tent somewhere in a field near Glastonbury. Anyone who points out that I was a week early for the big music festival should be aware that it wasn't THAT field, and it wasn't THAT music that I was down those parts to perform.

I was there for the very special occasion of my sister's wedding. I and a friend of my sister's made sure we were well rehearsed for our part, playing an entirely new piece of music composed especially for the bridal procession at the start - my sister asked (nay, commissioned!) me to write the music and I was very happy to oblige.

The music performance certainly had the desired effect: I am told that after just the first few bars my mother was in tears (she freely acknowledges her tendency to high emotion). The happy couple were both effusive in their thanks - it will forever be their song (music) now, and I am very pleased for that to be the case! I am superhappy that it worked and was what was wanted and everything.

It was also a blesséd relief not to plan anything - all I had to be sure of was of getting to the right train station on Thursday and after that I could relax, let people steer me to where I was needed or things were going on, and Not Worry About Anything. My tent and guitar were in someone else's care, a schedule for when we could rehearse the music was sorted out, Sis and Beau had got everything working smoothly and that was that.

After the ceremony there was a ceilidh in the evening, lots of family and friends on both sides are very folk dance people (Beau is even a Morris dancer) so it was natural for us to have one. Those who didn't know the dances were quick to try it, and fits of giggles were the very best outcome when things went wonky (as they so often do in these situations). It was fun. Although I was a little disappointed because I missed out on my chance to be the lady in the folk dances: at the start I was whisked off my feet by Sis' friend Lady Eddie (not her real name!) in the first dance: a waltz (folk waltzes are different from ballroom, I quickly discovered - the tempo seemed more like a Viennese but anyway). Lady Eddie is used to taking the male lead role (she and her wife SV (also not a real name!) are sooo beautiful together, btw). For a long long time I have wanted to take the female role in folk dances because when I was younger at folk camp, it would typically be that more women than men were eager to dance; thus, they would team up as couples and then if a man (or boy, such as me) later decided he wanted a dance there would be no available partners; Patriarchal homophobia rules being what they are, I was probably the only male willing to take the obvious step of having guys dancing the female roles. So ever since I have wanted to try it. Dancing the female role with a lesbian partner being the man would also have been delightfully gender-bending! But Lady Eddie was a popular dancer that night and that meant I was out of luck. It's probably best: I was totally off my face by that stage, after drinking three glasses of wine. It was cool: we had taxis.

After the ceilidh band were done there was some party music. I noticed that of the 8 or so people who bopped, danced, and similar to the music I was the only male. I don't know if this is another example of my not performing gender properly or just down to the fact that those who danced where the ones who most closely shared Sis' tastes in party music.

I was only a little surprised that Sis took Beau's surname, although it obviously didn't sit that well with feminist me's attitudes to the whole thing. There was, as it happened, long debate over this between them but in the end Sis was very happy to have a new name.

The day after the wedding, there was a morris dancing display by Beau's team. This also includes a long sword dance into which Sis was inserted as the maiden at the centre of a 6-pointed star made from the long swords. Apparently, the maiden is NOT supposed to wear the star as a fashion accessory, stamping along to the music; Sis, however, is not the timid waif of old and did not know this. She went to her symbolic beheading with smile, chirpy grin and bright face in the hot summer sun. Then at the end of the dance she gave a most convincing gurgle and stage-death! Such an enthusiastic victim I have never seen!

I like that my family seems to allow a good weekend for any big family festival or celebration, and have things to fill the weekend with. We declared that the wedding was still going on throughout the second day - the legal bit may have been done the day before, with the fancy dress (which was absolutely fabulous, btw) and the registrar and all that, but we partied in various ways and celebrated in various ways, for the whole weekend.

I loved the whole weekend, but undoubtedly what made it was just how happy Sis was the whole way through. It was definitely her show, along with Beau, and all of us friends and family were there to make it the best it could be and, from what I gather from her enthusiasm throughout, we did.

It's been a great holiday.

Two words: Job done.