The final wedding of 2010

Soon after the Crewe experience, I must say that the temperatures started to seriously plunge closer to freezing and, in a few days, also went down below freezing. I am not one who usually complains of the cold, but the past 2-3 weeks were really cold! And I also got a cold. And it soon started snowing. After 2.5 years in the UK, this was not the first time I saw snow but I was still excited to see the usual London streetscapes being transformed to one uniform shade of white. But there was more distress than pleasure to this particular snow fall...

The unusually heavy snow meant that many airports across the UK had to close down, including Gatwick Airport. And it happened that we had to make one rare use of Gatwick to fly down to Malta for the wedding of 2 of our good mates! The flight was scheduled on the Saturday at 7.30am and Gatwick was meant to be closed till the Friday at 6.00am. It did open on the Friday but 80% of the flights were cancelled. So we spent all Friday checking the train company, airport and airline webpages for constant updates. Come Friday midnight, all was scheduled to work, except that the earliest train was leaving Victoria at 6am and the gate closed at 7am. Tight. We slept and got up at 3.30am, hoping for the best.

Remembering that morning brings fresh pains. It is already hard waking up so early, but even harder venturing in a temperature of -2 or so and in the rain. To cut a long story short, we made it to Victoria (2 buses worth of travel) and hoped that we get our booked train (the 5am one). Alas, we had to get the 6am train, which got to Gatwick at 6.35am, took the shuttle to the North Terminal and got there at 6.50am and impatiently passed through security at 7.00am and arrived at the gate at 7.03am after one frantic run. Just in time! All buckled and breathless, the plane took off and 3 hours later landed in Malta, where a temperature of 18 degrees awaited.

And now for the big day, the purpose of our trip: Daphne's and Vince's wedding. It was a splendid Sunday morning, sunny and crisp. We headed off to Naxxar church and all was punctual and well-organised (what else would you expect from the bride?) and again it was a good time to recall that fateful day in March, almost 9 months ago...once all was done in church, we crossed the road into the Palazzo Parisio and the fun began. Good food, good drink, good music, dancing, repeated carrying of the bride and groom on shoulders by different groups of friends (I thought this was to be done only once at the end, but I was clearly mistaken!) and lots of catching up. The final carrying on shoulders was done by "our" party, down the elaborate marble staircase, which was a tricky task, but all was done safely and surprisingly efficiently, given the levels of alcohol consumed by that time.

Once the newly weds headed off to their honeymoon suite, the rest of us headed off for a coffee and organised a Secret Santa for our annual Christmas dinner. Oh yes, by the way, in 4 days we head back to Malta and this trip will invariably be characterised by, not one, but many Christmas dinners!