A VERY overdue Waffle - 28/9/26

It's been over a month since I've blogged - I didn't even really touch my laptop so I'm also way behind catching up with what's been going on in Blogland so forgive me if I've missed any exciting news or major events wherever you happen to be.

There was a lot going on and I really got out of the blogging habit.

Firstly I've been extra busy with the Foodbank.   On top of my regular Monday evenings, Thursdays and Saturday mornings I've also taken on co-ordinating the drivers for Wednesday evening pick ups.  In theory this shouldn't be too taxing - just a case of making sure there are drivers available and accepting the donations on an app - so all done from home or wherever else I might be.  Until of course a driver drops out and no one volunteers very quickly or a regular driver forgets to confirm that they're ok for collecting.  I do have a back up if I'm busy and so far it's been fairly ok.

On top of all that I've also been going in early on a Tuesday morning while two of the key volunteers have been on holiday.  We're getting big deliveries at the moment from Amazon and it's often a race against the clock to get everything inside and set up before we open the doors to our beneficiaries.  It's meant missing my keep fit class but I have been able to meet up with my friends afterwards for coffee and quite honestly volunteering at the Foodbank is more of a work out lol.

And then the guy who collects the food donated in the crates at our local Tesco had an operation on his eye so I've also done a couple of pick ups from there.  Still I like to be busy!

Prior to all this we had our annual family get together in Kent.  We had between 35 - 45 people there on various days so it's not what I would call a relaxing holiday but it is lovely to spend time with everyone and although we had a couple of spells of rain it was generally good weather all week.

Two weeks ago we travelled to France and Belgium for our nephew's wedding.

My husband's sister lives in Dunkerque and it was her youngest son that was getting married.  Well, having a wedding party - the couple were legally married over a year ago.

We'd booked a hotel for the Friday and Saturday nights in the town where the wedding was to be held - Poperinge in Belgium but we travelled via Dunkerque on the Friday as my SIL had been in Glasgow that week for work and there had been travel disruption with flights and trains so she opted to come in the car with us.  We also took my daughter with us - it was an adult only event so her wife stayed at home with the children.  

It was probably just as well because we ended up helping put up a very large gazebo in SILs garden - without proper instructions!  It took a while.

This was before we attempted to put the canvas on.  At the second attempt we got it on - (first time it was inside out) only to find that the pole arrangement wasn't right.  We needed all the seven people that were there to lift it up and get the legs in place too.  Being octagonal we could really have done with one more person.  And then we later discovered that one of their other sons had the instructions on his phone!  We were not amused lol.

Poperinge is a nice little town near Ypres in Belgium and only about a 40 minute drive from Dunkerque.

Thought I'd try out the new Google widget but I actually took some photos!

The Town Hall

Town Square

Town Hall at night

The town has a big market square with lots of cafes/restaurants around it.  We met up with other family members for coffee in the morning and then it was just a 10 minute walk from our hotel to the venue.

The venue was a guest house that had a large function room and lots of outdoor space.  The ceremony which consisted of speeches by the groom's brothers and the brother of the bride and friends followed by the couple exchanging vows, was held outside.  There was a drinks reception followed by dinner which was a hog roast meal and then of course dancing until late into the night.  The youngsters were still in full flow when we headed back to the hotel around 1 am.

One of the things that made it special for us was that our son Michael  and his wife Elizabeth travelled over from the US to attend the wedding!  They came on the Thursday and although Elizabeth had to travel home on the Monday Michael stayed with us until the following Sunday.  We didn't see much of either of them really because of the wedding and then they were trying to catch up with friends as much as possible but it was lovely to see them both.

Front left is our niece Olivia who took this photo with our daughter Rebecca next to her and then behind are our other son Matthew, his wife Amy, Elizabeth and Michael.

This one is of the bride Alexia, groom Felix and all their English cousins and partners.  There were a few missing but lots of them had made the trip.

This was a photo booth shot of us.

The Happy Couple

On the Sunday many of us travelled home via Dunkerque, including my SILs French relatives (her husband is French and one of 8 like her) so a lot of people.  We were glad of the gazebo as there was a bit of rain during the afternoon but it certainly didn't dampen our spirits.

                                

Last weekend was quiet but this weekend Nick's sister Helen turned 70 on Friday so we were at a party for her at her son's house on Saturday which was nice.  After we got home we got the lovely news that our niece Emma had given birth to a little girl.  We knew she was in labour while we were at the party and were all hoping the baby would come before midnight - Saturday would have been Nick's Mum's 98th birthday if she was still alive.  Well baby Freya did arrive before midnight and Mum and baby are doing well.  Grandma would be so proud.

I think that's a good point to wrap up this very long and overdue post!