Wedding and Derby Day

*This blog is dedicated to my uncle, Clarence Esau, who passed away after a short battle with leukemia. He was my biggest blog fan and a wonderful human being. He will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him. His illness was mercifully short, but his life should have been longer.*

As many of you know, I was just in Canada for about a week, spending time with family in the wake of the death of my uncle and organizing meetings in Toronto for Stratic. Before I left, though, I attended the wedding of a Canadian friend, Shannon, here in London. It was on a Tuesday; since most of the guests were from out of town it didn't need to be on a weekend and it is much less expensive that way. The wedding was simple, the bride was beautiful and the groom was handsome. After the ceremony, we all got onto a vintage double-decker bus for a tour around London all afternoon. Fortunately it was a sunny day! Everyone had a fanstastic time. The tour ended in Belgravia where we went to a very historic pub called the Grenadier and then to Mossiman's for dinner. Mossiman's is a very posh restaurant and the food was amazing. The groom, Patrick, has apprenticed there as a chef for the last year, so they treated him well! It was such a fantastic day and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even though I broke the heel off my shoe halfway through the day!

I returned from Canada on Wednesday, tired and jet lagged. The following Saturday was Derby Day! Barry and I went to the Epsom Derby, just called The Derby, which is the other major horse racing event besides Ascot. It was a stunningly beautiful day - the sun was out and the sky was blue. We went with the Sergeant's Mess Club at the base where Barry works, as invited guests, and were in the Household Division enclosure, which was specially given to the Household Division in perpetuity by Queen Victoria. (The Household Division are the soldiers that guard the palaces and the royal family.)

There were seven races in all, with the fifth race being the main race, called the Derby. There were an amazing amount of people there, so I was glad we had our own enclosure with seats and all, even though it was a little ways away from the track itself. The Quartermaster of the base, is an avid racing follower, so he initiated us into the mysteries of betting and racing and strategy. We placed a few small bets, and I even won a little bit of money on an offspring of Northern Dancer, a very famouse Canadian racehorse.

We were expected to dress appropriately for the enclosure, so Barry wore a jacket and tie, and I wore a dress and a hat. It was really good fun! We sipped Pimm's and had a lovely luncheon of seafood and salads. It was all very civilized and lovely. Everyone looked so nice, with all the men in their jackets and ties (which, incidentally, they couldn't take off while then were in the enclosure so the poor things were roasting all day!) The women were expected to wear pantsuits at the very least, so most women were in dresses and heels, as I was. It is very tiring walking around on grass in heels because you are basically walking around on tiptoes so your heels don't sink into the grass, so I grabbed a chair early on and guarded it!

We all went by coach to the Derby, so it was nice and comfortable and someone else could do the driving! After the Derby, there was a BBQ at the Sergeant's Mess, which was a nice way to finish off the day. I was knackered!

Barry and I are now looking into holidays for the end of June. We're thinking Portugal or Spain or Turkey or Greece, but the current favourite is Portugal. Then my Uncle Jac is coming over from Australia on his summer European tour. He will be in London for a few days and then he and I are heading off to Prague for about 5 days. We're back on the 7th of July and then on the 8th I am a course marshall for the Tour de France, which is starting in London this year! It's all very exciting!! In the meantime, I have a lot of work to get done!

Ciao for now!!