The penultimate day

The wedding process on Lorraine's organiser down to its penultimate day of preparation. Up and scarfing Quorn sausage and egg sandwiches with Lorraine and Betty to fuel the day.

Lorraine showed me the box of memories that her friends had assembled. An old tin with a Japanese-style design, which, like the tins in The Basketmakers, was full of messages: all lovely things about Lorraine: poems, old coins, memories from the past of times with her girlfriends, and heart chocolates and so on which Lorraine obviously loved.

After breakfast Lorraine and Betty powered off, while I relished an hour trying to keep calm and smoothing the cats on the gold sofa. The ladies returned with the wedding dress, my wedding clothes, and Beth had bought me some wedding socks.  They had also picked up flowers for the table decorations. I was banned from Beth's bedroom due to Lorraine's wedding dress hanging in there.

Spent hours struggling with iTunes on my temperamental desktop. Lorraine came and sat with me when I wanted to punch the screens, then Beth and I downloaded tunes to to freshen up my old playlists, then adjust all the volume levels on the songs and so on.

Pat and Maureen arrived for supper, then formed a cottage industry with Betty and Lorraine arranging the table decoration vases, keeping the gypsophila from entangling by covering them with plastic shopping bags. Lorraine also showed Maureen her shoes, which after Maureen had said, I hope they're not the colour of your nails, then gasped with shock then delight when she saw them.

Lorraine and I then returned Pat and Maureen to Old Ship Hotel where they are staying for the wedding, and went to the station to collect Sam and Jade who had travelled down from Leeds.

It was the first time Beth and I had met Jade, and Lorraine had only met her once. I liked her right away, and she and Sam seem very well matched, down to bantering about philosophy in a way that mystified everyone else. We all stayed up for a while drinking and chatting with them. With Lorraine taking Jade off to see the dress and the amazing shoes.

Midnight, and it was time to go to bed. A big day, in fact THE big day, tomorrow.

Below one of Lorraine's shoes pictured in the shop when she first saw them, now waiting to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world.




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