Larkwood Life: July 2014

When we knew who in the family were coming to stay with us for the wedding weekend, I, in my usual excited state suddenly had a head full of ideas to make the time together something really special. It is so rare that we have so many of us in one place at any given time, that I wanted to make the most of it.

One idea I had was to celebrate Matthew's birthday - a special one this year....Even though he turned 30 at the beginning of May, he didn't have a huge party to mark the move into the next decade of his life, and that I wanted to change. The last time we had a birthday together was when he turned 21!!!!! It was the first year we moved up here, 2005, and just a few months after leaving him on his own. I hadn't seen him since the end of February and messaging him every day just wasn't enough to close the huge hole I felt in my heart. Johan had recently gone down to PMB and came back the day before my birthday. My surprise, joy and pure delight when Matthew stepped out of the car was too much for me as I burst into tears. He was here for my birthday as well as his 21st, the day after mine. That was the last time we spent our birthdays together. So having him here now, just 2 months after his 30th, was just what the doctor ordered.

With so little time to put something together and with finances on a budget, I googled ideas and decided on a 'dirty 30' theme....but with a twist. Not your usual idea for a thirty year old but rather going back to childhood days of 'slugs and snails and puppy dog tails'. I made a list, actually more than one list, of decorating tips and food ideas - the internet is full of things to show you. I made up invitations and sent them out to everyone in our families - even though I realized that the'wedding party' may not be able to make it. What was nice about the timing, was that Johan's sister and family returned from Canada just a couple of days earlier. Sadly not everyone replied...sniff sniff...but initially we expected 20 family members to arrive. (On the day we ended up with 14, as some were sick and others had other problems preventing them from coming)

Jess was going with Matthew to meet up with her best friend who lives up this way on the Sunday morning, so I decided to have the party in the afternoon. Once they left, it was all systems go as everyone helped set up and I started baking. The end result was pleasing thanks to a joint effort by all. I loved to be able to do this for Matthew and I think he enjoyed himself. Seeing Elmarie, Marco and Vian for the first time in almost 2 years was super and we were all keen to hear what they had to say. They are here for a while now, maybe they will stay but I think Elmarie will apply to go overseas again to another foreign affairs post.

Saturday, July the 5th dawned as any other, the only difference being the prospect of travelling to just outside Parys for Samantha and Pieter's wedding....

During the morning I had sombre moments thinking of our dear friend, Edwin who passed away earlier in the week. A memorial service was planned for the same morning and as much as I would have loved to attend, it just wasn't possible. The service was to be held in Midrand at 10am, which would have meant we would have to travel to the wedding directly from the service and with my family all staying with us, it would have been unfair to expect them to travel separately from us. If I had any doubts at all, the decision was made easier by Johan discovering - by sheer chance mind you - a water leak in the middle of the field, between the pump and the water tank. What was meant to be a calm morning of getting ready, turned into a morning of digging down to find the leak to fix it. Matthew and Johan spent hours working on that before jumping in the bath and getting dressed. With the change in the mornings plans, our initial idea to leave at 11.30 was postponed to 12 midday with calculations in our mind that we would still have plenty of time to arrive before 3pm. At 12.00 I called out to everyone that it was time to go and Matthew was still getting dressed!!!!! Finally we pulled away at 12.20 and headed off. Sara had made us sandwiches to eat along the way while I was running around feeing our animals. We took two cars - Matthew and Jess's new Toyota and Kyle's fairly new Kia...

The drive went well, no accidents on the highway to slow us down and once we hit Parys we made our way further out of town to the wedding venue. We were cutting it fine but we felt confident we could still slip in just before the bride walked down the aisle - that was before we hit the 'dirt' road. 12km of 4x4, rough and ready, rocks and rubble that neither of the cars we were travelling in were suitable for driving on. The invitation did warn us that the turnoff to the venue was dirt road, and we had been told to leave in plenty of time, but as I said to both Simon and Elize, we live on dirt roads, we are used to travelling them on a daily basis, but this road is definitely not in the same category. Matthew was so frustrated trying to negotiate the boulders in the road that he stopped the car, got out and asked Johan to continue driving. The result - it took us about 40 minutes to negotiate 12km of road meaning we were late for the wedding. By the time we arrived we were all miffed and needing the loo and on top of that could not find the chapel as there were no signposts from the parking to any of the buildings. We ended up following our noses and finally right down at the bottom, near the river was a teeny tiny little chapel. The ceremony was almost over and with no space to sit without having to walk past the rest of the guests to the one open bench, we opted to sit on the benches at the side of the chapel, which had open walls so we could see inside. We crunched our way as quietly as we could over the stone - not a good idea for late comers - and made ourselves comfortable. Poor Simon made his way outside to come and greet us and we did see the last part of the ceremony. Sadly it was too dark inside to get any good photos from where we were positioned, but we did manage some nice ones afterwards.

The reception was lovely and Samantha looked extremely happy, which is what was most important. The food was divine....really really good to eat and plenty of choice. However, never again will I tell the story of people arriving late to Matthew and Jess's wedding, as now I know the feeling of doing the same myself...it wasn't intentional but certainly is in the category of 'rudeness'...

The day didn't end there though...our journey home was lengthened somewhat by about an hour, when we all fell asleep car leaving Matthew and Kyle awake and driving. Matthew being from KZN doesn't know the roads, tried to find his own way back and ended up taking the same wrong turn 3x at Buccleugh, driving the outer ring road of Jo'burg. Kyle, who was following behind - and does know the roads, continued to follow, not saying a word. Finally when Matthew realized he had passed certain landmarks more than once, he turned the radio up so loud we all woke with a start. It took a while for both Johan and I to realize we were on the wrong road, but in the end we finally made it home... It certainly was a day to remember, what with a burst pipe, leaving later than expected, travelling an awful stretch of road and taking the scenic route home, but remember it we will - and in my mind it ended up being an extremely happy day....

windmills along the bank toward the chapel

statue and pond next to the chapel

'signing' the register - apparantly they signed the register officially the Thursday before because of a change in maarying officer who did not have legal signing authority