Geoff and Amy get hitched

Thursday Midnight
Get through new fingerprint and eyeball camera shot stuff at airport, find shuttle to car rental, breathe in warm air and smile about leaving cold England.
Fire up in car mobile phone sat navigation system and gasp at paying $3.00 toll to LEAVE airport...This must be how they are still paying for the 'Big Dig'.
Get hopelessly lost at roadworks following sat nav instructions and having to press reroute button, yell at each other (cos that always make things better - yeah - right!), turn off sat nav, pull out paper instructions and get there in 10 minutes. M collapses into bed and I pull out lap-top to finish ghastly uncompleted work. Pad downstairs to fax stuff to UK at 4:00am and make friends with night manager whilst waiting. Crawl into bed too wired to fall asleep easily.
Friday
Lovely sunny day (27 degrees) and Boston is having autumn while UK missed it entirely. Go to cafe for breakfast (spinach/mushroom/feta omelette - definitely not the full English), wander into town after checking with stressed bridal party for tonight's arrangements and spend morning puttering around Quincy Square and Fanueil hall behaving like tourists (well we are!)

M has to buy shorts and polo shirt it's so hot..Soak up the sun and head to the Prudential Tower to look at the view...360 degrees of Boston and very entertaining audio tour, favorite part being the tidal wave of treacle that killed 13 people (you'd think they'd be able to get away from a wave of TREACLE)
Catch Ross about to quality assess 'house of cheesecake' product though he denies this and says he's only buying a coffee to get a seat whilst waiting for us.
Go home, nap and watch TV marveling at advertising standards...You can actually advertise a drug by slagging off what a similar drug can't do!
Catch up with Sara, meet new in-laws and reassure stressed bridal couple that everything will be alright on the day...Feel small amount of satisfaction that stress is not own from own wedding.
Out to dinner at nice Italian restaurant in the middle of renovation with very not-so-calm bridegroom, ply him with wine and all head home under strict instructions not to be late. Remind brother to iron his new shirt or be disowned.
Saturday
Go to scary old lady hair salon in basement of hotel, get crispy curls put in, learn Massachusetts is home of Dunkin Donuts when making suggestion that Krispy Kreme were the best donuts in the world when Husband comes by to flaunt breakfast in face before proceeding to room. Smile nicely when older salon owner suggests that I get a 'set' next time as the curls will last longer, whilst thinking how much i will miss my glamorous UK hairdresser.
Scare husband with large hair, gulp down donuts and go off to do The Duck (amphibious vehicle) tour of Boston. Can highly recommend this, very entertaining, fun to be out on the water and even more fun making 'quack quack' noises to every small child who quacks at us. Even more fun making 'silent quacking' sounds with hands in the posh neighborhoods.
Scary curls have settled down now thanks to surprisingly fast amphibious vehicle, get glammed up and attempt to use sat nav to ceremony (it works this time)
The ceremony
Amy has just sent a link with some photo's from the wedding
pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pluton74/album?.dir=/8872&.src=ph&.tok=phxOA5BBMdElIbDc
She had quite an unusual dress in that it was quite classical and she looked very cute in it. it had 3 diamond shaped cutouts in a vertical row down the back, with a bow joining each one together. Sara stepped down a step funny an hour before the ceremony and twisted her ankle, but 2 ibuprofen, an ice pack and an elastic bandage later she managed to carefully walk up the aisle, slip her shoes off under her long dress (thank goodness) and discretely walk back down the aisle with bare feet...no one noticed as everyone was looking at Amy and Geoff, until we had to retrieve her shoes and prop her foot up.
It was a very informal and personal wedding and very suited to both of them. I read out a message from Yvonne and Allen (Geoff's mum and dad), and phoned them after the ceremony to let them know their baby boy was married.
The reserve was lovely and the house very grand, but in need of a family to love it, I think it's now just used as a meeting space etc. We then drove back to the hotel (Geoff and Amy wanted us to bring back some stuff from the ceremony), had a wee bit of a nap and then went to the Chinese restaurant for dinner. Amy changed into this beautiful pink/gold brocade gown made from fabric that had belonged to her grandmother...a real mix of cultures as we were all going'''ohhhh, that's a lovely idea', and to the Chinese, to use something old like that is a sign of being poor!, She wanted to wear something of her grandmothers, so i think her western side won out.
We managed to be at the vegetarian table, which meant some interesting things to eat, they even had one dish where the noodles were tied into knots like skeins of wool, no idea how they did that. Had some wonderful dishes though, got to see the tea ceremony where the bride and groom serve tea to all the older relatives and they give gifts of money, and listen to Geoff give a speech in cantonese...having been coached by his father in law. There were some strange expressions on the Chinese people when he said the words, so hopefully he didn't call his mother-in-law a fat red horse or anything.
We all went to a club for dancing afterwards (and a much needed cocktail) and crawled home at 1:30...ready to get up to take Sarah to the airport at 5:30...Sunday seemed like a very long day after that (had brunch with Geoff and Amy, Ross and Geoff's friend Greg from NZ) and I think I was still tired when we crawled off the plane at 6:00am.