Re: A Canadian wedding

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 11:05:16 +0100, "Robert Peffers."
<peffers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"The Highlander" <micheil@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5c5ra3l6qoroastvb853c1l52b0vec1tri@xxxxxxxxxx
On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 22:17:55 +0100, Ian Smith
<ianinhoose@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 20:54:48 +0000, The Highlander wrote:

Yesterday afternoon I went to a wedding I hadn't particularly wanted
to attend as it was some distance away and the groom, who invited me,
is not well off and I didn't feel I wanted to impose any unnecessary
strain on their financial reources.

However, I finally decided that that as I had been given an official
invitation, the least I could do was attend and give them a present of
cash in an envelope, which I did - $100.

The bridegroom is originally from Newfoundland, propably the most
friendly and hospitable ethnic group you could ever hope to meet and
famous for their Irish origins and like Nova Scotia, their love of
music and dancing.

The bride's family is from a remote village in the far north of Quebec
and speak an near -medieval version of French.

I think it was probably one of the best weddings I've ever been to.
When the host told everyone that I was a Highlander, I was swamped
with women wanting to meet me, and one in particular, a slender, very
attractive 28-year old blonde, clung to me for most of the evening.

At one point she pulled out a cellphone and in my and in everyone
else's hearing, spent five minutes talking to a friend about me and to
my utter astonishment, describing me as "a real hottie!" (young
people's slang for someone who is a hot bit of stuff!!) while grinning
at me. Several of the Newfies dug me in the ribs with their elbows and
said " BeJaysus, bye (boy) ye've scored for tonoight, ye locky (lucky)
dawg!"

As the evening grew wilder and the drinks got stiffer, I found myself
dancing constantly with the Hottie Lady, while the male onlookers
leered hideously and gave me thumbs up signs. The French contingent
dragged me away for a while to translate various matters for them,
while the HL stood guard over me in case one of the French ladies
decided to make a play for me, I presume!

I also had several long chats with the Newfies about our preferred
music, with some singing to demonstrate various differences between
versions of the same songs, some separated by more than a hundred
years. Like a dip into an historical music archive.

Eventually I said that I had to go home as I had taken a bus to get
there and didn't want to miss the last one home. The HL promptly
offered to drive me home and did so. She thoughtfully scrawled her
phone number, in lipstick, on my bathroom mirror before she finally
left.

What the hell do I do now, considering that we're separated by half a
century? I called my eldest daughter, who said, "Wallow while you can
- you and I both know you will anyway!" The HL has already called to
see how I'm doing. I told her I felt like a young stud and she
giggled.

God moves in mysterious ways... Maybe He decided it was time I had a
bit of fun...

The Highlander
Tilgibh smucaid air do làmhan,
togaibh a' bhratach dhubh agus
toisichibh a' geàrradh na sgòrnanan!

What a story, and what a night! Sounds like you struck it lucky there.
Obviously the age gap doesn't appear to bother this young lady. Sometimes
I say to people who take things a bit too seriously, "Act your shoe size,
not your age!". Sometimes I should take my own advice. ;-)

I can assure you that I'm not planning to turn down any Newfie wedding
invitations in future! The amount of food for the wedding dinner was
overwhelming and when I was leaving, the bridegroom gave me a whole,
baked sockeye salmon to take home! It was one of those evenings where
whatever I did, I couldn't lose!

I spent some time playing with a tiny girl suffering from Down's
Syndrome (formerly called Mongolism.) At the wedding itself, instead
of confetti, there were little bottles of a soap mixture along with a
small loop on a handle, and we spent some time blowing bubbles from a
balcony over the dancers as she squealed with happy laughter while her
mother got a couple of dances in at my suggestion.

Children with Down's Syndrome are always happy and ready to laugh, so
she and I had a good time - she was only five years old and probably
won't live as long as an unimpaired child.

It's quite a rare condition, but always a problem for older parents,
who obviously worry about what will happen to their child when they
die. This little one has siblings who understand that their baby
sister has problems, and I agreed that they would be very unlikely to
abandon their little sister, and that worrying about it now was
unproductive, as by the time they were all grown up, she, the mother,
would be in a much better position to decide how to protect her should
she and her husband not outlive her.

The mother was determined that her daughter should have as normal a
life as possible; an aim which I thoroughly agreed with and pointed to
our bubble-blowing as a very satisfying experience for the wee one. I
even got a wet kiss from the wee one when they left for home!

The little one was pretty intelligent and ready for anything, I
thought and quite definite about who we should blow the bubbles at,
her mummy of course! I was very impressed by her speed at
understanding me and at catching on about how to blow bubbles! Before
they left I managed to collect a dozen bottles for her, so that should
hold her for while!

Sometimes we forget how lucky we are to be healthy and unimpaired by
our genetic heritage. I love kids and I have no problem with diving
right in and getting them involved in something that will keep them
laughing and having fun - a born grandad!

The Highlander
Tilgibh smucaid air do làmhan,
togaibh a' bhratach dhubh agus
toisichibh a' geàrradh na sgòrnanan!
What a coincidence!
Yesterday I finally finished my trailer project. This trailer is to take my
mobility buggy so that I don't have it in the living area when I go
motor-homing.
I sometimes need the electric buggy when I'm having a bad time with the
disabilities.
The trailer contains, among other things, a little generator so I can charge
the buggies batteries if I'm on a camp site without electric hook-ups.

Anyway, I took a test drive to see how the trailer behaved on the road and
to check that the, quite complex, electrics of the trailer worked properly.
I ended up at Lochearnhead in a car park often used by caravanners, campers
and motor-homers as there are toilets, a café, hotels and so on.

The trailer was well admired and while speaking to a young couple, (with a
car load of children and a caravan in tow), one of their kids came to tell
them the kids were getting rather restive. This young girl was a Downs child
and she was a little wary of my wee dog.

That was until I told her the wee dog was, "Special", as she was trained to
be a hospital and hospice visitor.
To my great surprise the young lady was in no way educationally handicapped
and when told the dog's name was, "Petit Fleur", she knew this was French
for little flower.

In further conversation I learned the young lady was actually older than I
had first though and was a Uni graduate.
It seems that her Down's Syndrome did not affect her learning skills or her
intelligence but she did have the Downs personality thing.
As you say she was very gentle, happy and loving by nature and more than a
little timid and shy on first introduction.
She was really a very nice and entertaining person when she came out of her
shell.

That's a neat story. especially the fact that the young lady was a Uni
graduate. So many people are nervous around those who are different
and yet here was one who had pulled herself up by her bootstraps, so
to speak. Ther's something haunting about these stories; human beings
filled with life and determined to participate in it as fully as
possible.

The first Down's Syndrome child I ever met was in France in a rural
area south of Chartres. He was called Guy ("Gie" in French, like the
Scots word for "give") and was 14, I discovered. I didn't really know
how to react to him. but he solved that problem by leading me to the
local bakery, where the baker gave us each a tart!

I thought he was a pretty neat kid after that and he indicated that I
mustn't eat mine and took me to a lazy-running river where we waited
on our stomachs for a while, tossing small pieces of tart into the
water until a very large carp appeared and slurped down the fragments!

"Mon ami!" (my friend) he kept saying, and it was true in a way, as
the carp was so large and quite well-known locally that nobody ever
tried to catch him/her and thus he/she had become quite tame and
unafraid of humans..

Poor kid, he spent most of his time alone and had never been to
school, France being no more progressive than most other countries at
that time, especially in rural areas where special needs teachers must
have been rare to the point of non-existent.

The Highlander
Tilgibh smucaid air do làmhan,
togaibh a' bhratach dhubh agus
toisichibh a' geàrradh na sgòrnanan!
.

Quantcast