our wedding

 "Woodchip" my granddaughter..sheeps!!

 our young piper

 busy kitchen at the Black Bull in Straiton,Ayrshire,where we were married in the garden..the first actual wedding there.

 piping in

 Wilma,our registrar..when the Pirate was using the Ayrshire Cancer Support Transport to get to his Radiation therapy appointments,her husband was on them too,but didn't survive a brain tumour..but he always talked about the Pirate and enjoyed his company

We added the old Celtic tradition of Handfasting,using a gold ribbon as we had no cord..and the knot that ends up in the ribbon represents the knot we have tied

 done it!

 signed it

 our best men...The Carpenter,my youngest and Woodchip's dad...and Pirate's nephew, The Joiner !

 Rogues Gallery...five 80+ riders, and the Pirate...80 next year

 Hannah and Fred..good to have another potters' family there!

and the Carpenter's stepson..looks the spit of him at that age!

 for Mrs Boxes and Bellows..

 cake! complete with pave (cobbles) and riders and Llongyfarchiadau/Congratulations on the banner..made by son in law...

 Pirate's shelf of memorabilia

 and mine,including a photo of me riding a 2 up time trial with my dad

 cards

 the Saltire given to the Pirate after the Manchester Commonwealth Games, now signed by the 2018 Scottish track cycling team at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games

 the banner says it all...

and this is Arthur Goodall, absent friend.

Pirate's clubmate in the 60s, tandem partner, best man at his first wedding.
Since we've been together we've been visiting Kent a few times a year, and seeing Arthur. He had been seeing more of his cycling cronies too,for tea and gossip. He was well pleased to see Pirate happy and that I'd let him go to Australia for a month.

He died  while Pirate was in Brisbane and the call arrived on the phone we got in New Zealand a few years ago,as the uk phone locked him out.

On his return here, he unlocked the phone..two days before he died, Arthur left a message on it..."Hi,I'm still in the land of the living.Hope you're having a lovely time in Australia"

Thirty riders had a nine mile ride together in the morning, and after the ceremony and the food, about a dozen of us did Straight Line Sprints on the grass at the Recreation ground.

Then back to the pub where we were married, for supper from the cafe over the road... veggie curry and mostly veggie nibbles and some gluten free for our coeliac friends, and talking well past 11pm!!

Friends and rellies stayed for a long weekend and it was a change to be a tourist for a bit!.

We've been tidying up the house, sorting who gave us what..when taped on cards fell off...moral,write on the paper!!

We asked for no presents,just health and happiness.  We've had some lovely useful gifts, plus a LOT of cash..which as helped towards the cost of the pub...the bill was a lot more than we'd thought...and shop vouchers..which will help ease the bank balance after all the expense!!

Then after the high of the weekend..and three days of beautiful weather..we're back to cold wet and reality.

Next step, a Rixon family annual get together in North London and a Possee Party for those of the Pirate's family in Kent who couldn't come.