Well, dear reader, here I go again! I know I said I probably wouldn’t blog during my time at home, but Laura (shout out to you!) made the point that she, and maybe some other people from Argentina, would like to know what I’m up to whilst home! And requested that I please carry on. So if you’re bored of reading about my escapades, why are you reading this post and you may jolly well take it up with her! Haha.
In my last blog post I mentioned how I keep nearly replying to people in Spanish. The other thing I keep nearly doing is kissing people on the cheek to say bye! Went for a walk with Nolz and mum the other day and mum turned back half way through and it felt so weird not giving her a lil kiss on the cheek, like, mum?! I’m not going to see you for 20 mins! I must say goodbye to you properly! Noly kept getting the same thing and often after we’ve said goodbye to someone I would hear him mutter “must remember not to give them a kiss on the cheek.. must remember..” 😂
It is, of course, very nice to be home! For me it’s very cold as I’ve just come from weather in the mid thirties, but apparently it’s very mild for January! People keep apologising to me about the weather here which is kinda funny. Classic British behaviour!
Been having quite a few fairly chilled days since getting back and am stocking up on hot chocolates and cups of tea. Hot chocolates in Arg are a little disappointing as they’re about 95% milk and 2% chocolate. The other 3% is a mystery! And despite taking English tea bags, the tea doesn’t taste the same! I suppose because the milk is different. So I’m cracking on with getting my fill of hot chocolates and tea for the year!
The main thing that’s happened since being back is my cousin’s wedding, but before I get to that a few little bits I’ve done first!
On the Tuesday we arrived and got into London at 2.30 in the morning. We made our way through passport control in our seperate lines and soon we were shivering in the cold of English winter weather in the very early hours. Eventually the train set off and we made our way home. Mum came to pick us up and we chatted away before sleepiness overcame us. In the afternoon we went off to the cafe up the road which was a delight!
The next day we headed into Wokingham in the afternoon to go to brown bag (my favourite coffee shop from my yoof) and met up with Ellie! Which was really nice!
The following day we went off to dad’s gym for a swim before Amy came home in the eve and again we chatted and chilled all together.
Then the Friday before the wedding. us girls went into Wokingham to have a little pamper and so got our nails painted! Rather difficult to choose a colour since wasn’t sure what I’d be wearing for the wedding, which greatly alarmed the lady who was painting my nails who involuntarily pulled an “oh dear” face when I was telling her! And then with great caution of our nails Amy and I headed into town for a dress hunt. I did an exceptionally bad job and couldn’t find diddlysquat. In fact I didn’t even buy any shoes or any layers as I realised what I already had at home would suffice for my back up options! Yet Amy made up for my bad progress and bought not one, but two dresses! After shopping we headed straight to the reception venue and helped with some of the set up for the following day. Me and Nolz busied ourselves with helping Auntie Jacqui in the kitchen before helping to put all the chair covers on the seats. Tried to make this fun with racing Noly and Amy but soon got tired and rather lost the competition!
Once finished we went home for dinner. I had another occasion where my mouth spoke quicker than my brain (this happened before when I wrote Noly a card fairly on to our relationship and looked down and saw that I had signed off as “Nadsaroozle”) and referred to my Granny as “Grannydog” which took a bit of explanation and think she may have been mildly offended by this/ had no idea what I was talking about! (Pals in Argentina – if you add “dog” onto the end of someone’s name it makes it quite gangster and cool. Supposedly.) Soon Tim rocked up and so we had a very full house ready for the wedding the following day…
Well, what a day! Weddings here are a little different from in Argentina so I shall give a little commentary on what happened during the day and point out some of the differences.
Before the entry of the bride, there was, of course, the usual British health and safety announcements and practical matters. Couldn’t possibly start the wedding without telling us where the fire escapes and toilets are, and an announcement to not take photos during the wedding as per the wishes of the bride and groom. I have only been to one wedding in Argentina though from what Noly tells me it’s fairly representative of the main customs of Argentina. Can’t imagine having a health and safety announcement in Arg!
It started at 12 and not too surprisingly for England, the bride (my cousin Hannah), was bang on time. I would say it’s usual to have at least a few bridesmaids for every British wedding (they don’t always have bridesmaids and groomsmen in Argentina) and my cousin didn’t disappoint! The six bridesmaids made their way down the aisle followed, finally, by Hannah. In the past I never used to understand people who cried at weddings, but now I have done a full 180 and had to try very hard to keep it together! Thankfully I managed not to weep during the service on this occasion!
The service followed with songs, as requested by the bride and groom, prayers, a small preach and the signing of the register. (In Arg there’s no songs, nor people who pray for the bride and groom and the signing of the register sometimes happens the day before or later on in the day.) There was also a reading from the Bible, read by yours truly. (Also not something that happens in Arg). It was such an honour to be included in the wedding! And as I stood at the front, reading in front of a church full of people, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little nervous! By the end my hand was shaking mildly and my leg was wobbling about a little too, but only I could tell apparently. I got through the reading without any trip ups (literally – no falling and also from a reading point of view) and didn’t do anything hugely embarassing, which was a big relief!
Whilst the signing of the register happened there were two songs performed, one by the sister and father of the bride. The bridal party then left to go outside and shortly we all followed, our hands laden with confetti which we chucked at them as they made their way through the confetti tunnel. There was then, of course, the group photos outside the church with various different groups of people, the brides close family, the grooms, then extended family, then a big group photo with everyone. Once photo duties were done it was time to head back inside where we found a huge spread of cakes and teas and coffees. This isn’t the norm for an English wedding! There’s usually a cake at the reception and a big deal about the couple cutting the cake together. There’s definitely not tea and cakes in a wedding in Arg! Following this everyone milled around, chatting and eating cake and Hannah & Ryan circulated the room. It was so nice, being able to have a little chat with Hannah as she joined the cousins and granny who were all sitting together. Sometimes at weddings you barely see the bride and groom as they’re so busy with all the things they have to do! I think this was also a testimony to the hard work of their families, bridesmaids and groomsmen who were working hard to make sure everything went like clockwork.
After a quick trip to costa it was time to head off to the reception. The reception was in a village hall in Hurst which we’d helped set up the night before. It was decorated really beautifully! And fairly quickly, it was time to get some food. As the groom, Ryan, has Asian roots, we had Thai food. It was soo good!! Whilst I did attempt using the chopsticks for a while, I soon had to give in and use the knives and forks. I mean, how is it even possible to eat rice with chopsticks?! Pudding soon circulated and we had the choice between brownie and sticky toffee pudding. Bethany, my cousin & sister of the bride, had made all the puddings herself and they were simply gorgeous!!
After pudding had been gobbled up, it was time for the speeches. The custom is usually to have the father of the bride, the best man and the groom make hilarious yet heartfelt speeches, but we also had a speech from the maid of honour, Bethany, and Ryan’s brother. Noly and I also got a shout out in one of the speeches! I always find the speeches emosh!! (Speeches aren’t a tradition in Argentina though apparently sometimes they do happen).
Soon after the speeches were over, the tables were cleared and we found ourselves with a dance floor. Hannah & Ryan had their first dance and were soon whizzing around the dance floor together! Then we all joined too. After being at a few occassions of dancing in Argentina recently, it was nice to instinctively know the rhythm and how to dance to it!! Also a thing about English dancing, at least in my circles, is that you take apart the lyrics and put dance moves to them. I can’t quite do this in Argentina and don’t think people do! But it’s about 10 times more fun dancing in this way haha.
A cool thing that Hannah & Ryan had, (which I have always wanted to have!), was to have polaroid cameras and a guestbook for people to stick in their photos and write their congratulations.
At 9.20 the dancing came to a finish (I know from an Argentinian point of view this is very early but it just depends on the couple! Sometimes it’s later) and we were all instructed to go outside with sparklers and form a tunnel for them to walk through. Magical! And off they went!
Those of us who were left started helping with clearing up the hall and within minutes the tables were down, chairs away and things were looking tidy!
All in all it was such a lovely day! First time at a winter wedding and was so glad to be able to make it, and also have Noly with me as he misses out on most of my big family events and is not often in England so meant a lot to have him with me. Plus he has now met all of my family on my mums side bar a few cousins here and there.
The following day we went off into town to have lunch out. We ended up coming in three different cars as we were all coming from different directions and as me, mum and Nolz were making our way into town, who did we see but my uncle and auntie and cousins across the river! We flagged them down and talked them into coming into pizza express with us and it was really nice to have dinner all together! Meant we had a chance to talk about all things wedding and also a proper catch up, since you don’t really get to chat much with the key people at a wedding.
We soon got back home and it wasn’t long before my pal Chloe came along and whisked us away and out to the Sedero lounge we went! Between us we probably had the weirdest dinner to ever be seen in the Sedero Lounge. I had poached eggs on a muffin (classic brunch!) with sweet potato fries, Noly had one solo tapas and a cocktail and Chloe had a bowl of broccoli and sweet potato fries. Classic combination that really. Anyways, twas a really nice evening and catch up!
The next day we woke up slowly and made our way to the ice rink down the way from me. I haven’t been ice skating for years! But it’s funny how it comes back to you. In fact this is something that probably a lot of people don’t know about me. I used to have ice skating lessons! So was a little taken aback to find myself feeling somewhat wobbly and nervous on the ice rink as I first stepped onto it. But within a coupla mins I could remember and slowly built up my confidence and was soon whizzing around the ice rink. It was really fun being there with Noly as, for once, I was better than him at something!! (Definitely comes with the years of practise I had whilst I had lessons). With most activities we’ve done together he’s been way superior to me and I’ve been the one learning how to do it with varying success. It was quite fun giving him tips and then seeing him improve as he’s a very fast learner. I must confess that it was also quite amusing seeing him wobble a little! This makes me sound like a horrible person but he never actually fell and the concentration on his face was not something I often see! He said afterwards that he’d be skating round perfectly, absolutely smashing it and then he’d hear me coming up behind him and me call out something, “how’s it going?” or “looking good” or something like that and immediately he’d start wobbling all over the place hehe.
After our fill of ice skating we went off to Bracknell and spent what felt like an eternity in “Game” as Noly was trying to pick what switch game to buy with some Christmas money. I now have some sympathy with him when I’m trying to pick between two items of clothes to buy… And then we had a quick hot chocolate in brown bag and back home we went!
Yesterday, Tuesday, was Noly’s final day in England. We headed over to my Granny & Auntie’s house and had a nice chinwag with them both for a bit before going off for food supplies (Greggs sausage rolls of course. Noly also got the pink sprinkley doughnut and was really quite unsure why this was amusing myself and Auntie Ray so much haha) and a nice walk in Sonning. This was such a good shout! Usually on the day when either Noly or I are going back to our respective homes it’s a day of just waiting around and we get quite sad but this day we were nicely distracted until fairly late on in the day.
As I’m just finishing this post off, Noly’s currently in the air. Was quite sad to see him go. I thought I’d be pretty much fine seeing him off since I’ll see him in a month’s time but it’s still hard. Psychologically my brain kicks in with unhelpful comments “He’s going to be across the other side of the world again now!” which isn’t particularly helpful so I have to turn my brain off. But anyhow, we’re trying to remember to be grateful for the big and small blessings we have and personally, I’m enjoying being home with the chance to see all of my family and friends as well as being in my home where I get a chance to rest and don’t have to be on the go all the time looking after myself. I actually really enjoy being back home and getting a bit coodgied!
Well there we are! Shall post again soon. Love to all xxx
Nadia's Adventures 