(no subject)
I've fallen in the habit of only posting either to communicate something specific, or to capture something that I want to remember.
This is one of the latter.
The weekend just gone was spent in Venice for the wedding of westernind & forbinproject
I gloss over the hideousness of the 8 hour journey of interconnecting flights via Frankfurt, and the surpassing horrendously of the 10 hour re-tracing of these footsteps on Sunday. I merely note that no-one should go via Frankfurt airport, to anywhere, ever. It is a horrible, confusing spread of gates and passport control areas and virtually no shops, and what makes it utterly, totally, ghastly is that every single restaurant and coffee shop, even Starbucks, is a total Smoking Zone.
ellistar & I have been avoiding going to Carnevale for several years now. Naturally I find the idea of having an incentive to make new and beautiful clothes extremely appealing (and have come home with my head full of ideas), but we had baulked because being a tourist magnet didn't appeal very much at all. We all have different ways of getting our ego fed, and this one didn't feel like the one for us. In this I think we were correct. Some people seem to feel that the tourists taking pictures are feeding them. We felt more that the ravening hordes with cameras were feeding upon us, and we didn't like it much. However, I did enjoy it when virtually the entire wedding party were lounging on the steps of Santa Maria della Salute waiting for the bride and groom to arrive for the official photos, and a huge horde of tourists gathered to take pictures. This was pleasurable because of the cameraderie, rather than the cameras.
The wedding itself was lovely. The bride and groom were waiting together outside to greet their guests as they arrived, which was sweetly informal and very nice. I've never seen either of them look happier. Their costumes were ....perfect. This is the only occasion in my adult life when I have admired a piece of dressmaking and had to admit to myself that I genuinely could not have achieved the same result. The civil ceremony was prettier than its English equivalent with many references to a life fully shared in all its aspects, and,although I can't remember the exact words, at the end the registrar said "I hope your lives are as bright(?) and vibrant(?) as they are right now", with a smile that encompassed a room full of people in peacock colours.
The atmosphere in the room lifted more and more as the ceremony progressed, and by the end I had a smile on my face that could not be contained, and could physically and spiritually feel the joy of the occasion as a tangible thing.
Thank you Roz & Simon for inviting me to share this day, and big thanks also to velvet_the_cat & Dan for putting us up for 2 days.
Next I have the scary job of transporting bits of the CovenWork to Brum on Friday ready for the party Saturday night.
This is one of the latter.
The weekend just gone was spent in Venice for the wedding of westernind & forbinproject
I gloss over the hideousness of the 8 hour journey of interconnecting flights via Frankfurt, and the surpassing horrendously of the 10 hour re-tracing of these footsteps on Sunday. I merely note that no-one should go via Frankfurt airport, to anywhere, ever. It is a horrible, confusing spread of gates and passport control areas and virtually no shops, and what makes it utterly, totally, ghastly is that every single restaurant and coffee shop, even Starbucks, is a total Smoking Zone.
ellistar & I have been avoiding going to Carnevale for several years now. Naturally I find the idea of having an incentive to make new and beautiful clothes extremely appealing (and have come home with my head full of ideas), but we had baulked because being a tourist magnet didn't appeal very much at all. We all have different ways of getting our ego fed, and this one didn't feel like the one for us. In this I think we were correct. Some people seem to feel that the tourists taking pictures are feeding them. We felt more that the ravening hordes with cameras were feeding upon us, and we didn't like it much. However, I did enjoy it when virtually the entire wedding party were lounging on the steps of Santa Maria della Salute waiting for the bride and groom to arrive for the official photos, and a huge horde of tourists gathered to take pictures. This was pleasurable because of the cameraderie, rather than the cameras.
The wedding itself was lovely. The bride and groom were waiting together outside to greet their guests as they arrived, which was sweetly informal and very nice. I've never seen either of them look happier. Their costumes were ....perfect. This is the only occasion in my adult life when I have admired a piece of dressmaking and had to admit to myself that I genuinely could not have achieved the same result. The civil ceremony was prettier than its English equivalent with many references to a life fully shared in all its aspects, and,although I can't remember the exact words, at the end the registrar said "I hope your lives are as bright(?) and vibrant(?) as they are right now", with a smile that encompassed a room full of people in peacock colours.
The atmosphere in the room lifted more and more as the ceremony progressed, and by the end I had a smile on my face that could not be contained, and could physically and spiritually feel the joy of the occasion as a tangible thing.
Thank you Roz & Simon for inviting me to share this day, and big thanks also to velvet_the_cat & Dan for putting us up for 2 days.
Next I have the scary job of transporting bits of the CovenWork to Brum on Friday ready for the party Saturday night.