Older, But None the Wiser.
This month Anna, my wife, and I celebrate our thirtieth wedding anniversary (pearl). Was it thirty years ago I was staggering around the wedding venue with £900 in my jacket pocket to pay the bar bill? It was a small affair (my mum was disappointed it wasn't a bigger do, with a marquee in the garden, ice sculptures, a firework display and a guest list to rival one of the Queen's garden parties). But the service at my family church, followed by a knees up at the Tudor Arms, Watford, suited us fine. It was perfect and we wouldn't have had it any other way. I was quite nervous on the day for several reasons other than the £900 (I think some people must have thought I was having heart palpitations the way I kept gripping my chest). My speech was a concern. My reputation for drinking too much at social functions preceded me, so I vowed to abstain until after the speech, when I made up for lost time. Both my mother and my Scottish father-in-law were/are larger than life charact...