Friday night was our Celebration Dinner...the culmination of several month's efforts. The Boy, The Cat and Namesake were all there to help out, and earn £20 into the bargain for serving the wine. They may yet have a career ahead of them.... All went well, although we had two unexpected guests arrive, so there was a rapid reshuffling to fit them in...it was kind of inevitable I guess...not much more to say other than everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and my back is sore from all the pats on the back and votes of thanks for organising it. Really rather pleased that it went well, and of course for not letting my Boy down! The Cat's Mother is pleased because our table drank more wine than any other. I didn't know it was a competition.
Saturday was another celebration, and an altogether stranger one for me. It was Young Muffin's First Holy Communion, and the service was conducted at the Muffin Mansion by a friendly priest. I'm quite clear on my own religious views these days, although it's taken me nearly fifty years to get there. I believe in God, but organised religion is not for me. Beyond that, I worry about children being indoctrinated at such a young age...but I understand, that if you don't get them young, you probably won't get them at all. As I sat there listening to the service, I was delighted to see Young Muffin beaming from ear to ear, whilst at the same time, couldn't restrain the thought in my head that his was all mumbo jumbo. The Cat's Mother and her family are all very firmly committed Catholics, so as with every relationship we all have to make compromises...and this is one that I do. Quite happily.
We're not Star Trek fans by any stretch of the imagination but on Sunday night we went to see the new one...Into Darkness. We've developed an emotional bond with the current series which comes out our trip to Jordan last year. We'd been travelling all day in the hot, dusty desert, and arrived at the Dead Sea, exhausted, well dead on our feet really. So we had our evening meal sent up to our room...The Cat and The Boy with us. We ate our food, and then all four of us climbed into bed to watch a DVD of the rebooted Star Trek. There was something about the evening...a warm breeze, some nice wine, and a lovely family feeling...it was fabulous. The film was terrific. So of course we had to see this one, and it was a great romp. I've read the reviews, which essentially say 'good effort, not as good as the last one', but actually for us it was a marvellous adventure. One word of advice to myself though, don't drink 24 fluid ounces of coffee just before it starts.
And to cap it all, this was in the foyer...we can't wait!
