Wednesday August 4th, 2010

The exercise:

Your topic today: a night to remember.

Got back from Naramata this afternoon after a lovely honeymoon with my new wife and have been trying to catch up on what I've missed ever since :)

We're back to work in the garden already, with a restaurant delivery tomorrow morning and a daunting army of weeds arrayed against us. Unfortunately my comments on the last few days worth of writing will have to wait until tomorrow - but I will get to them.

The wedding was excellent, and definitely memorable for all involved. The ceremony, though delayed by the marriage commissioner's late arrival, was perfect. The pictures with the wedding party in the garden, amongst the sunflowers, and in the orchard were great fun. The food was looking fantastic when...

Mine:

Dinner had been served,
Each plate held a full load,
Then the wind arrived
And rain soon followed.

The sides of the tent
Were pulled tight together,
And the party stopped
To observe the weather.

Lightning flashed
And thunder rolled;
The desert became
Rather cold.

The tent began to sway
From side to side;
I just had to laugh,
Though I nearly cried.

Just when all seemed lost,
The danger just too great,
The storm died at last -
We stood tall in its wake.

The guests gave a cheer,
For we had survived,
And I have no doubt
That so shall you and I.

Bonus ramblings:

Osoyoos probably hasn't seen a storm like that in years - usually they pass on very quickly, but this one lingered for over an hour and things were looking grim. But the guests took it all in stride, and most were having fun with it, which was a huge relief. And then, at last, at last, it blew itself out.

By the end of the night we'd opened up one side of the tent and it was like it had never rained (other than the carpet underneath the tent was a little wet in places). Apparently the rental company has three tents, but only one with sides - the two other events (both weddings I think, but I'm not totally sure) that night both ended early because of the storm.

I'll leave you with a picture my dad took, under much brighter conditions earlier in the day:

7 comments:

Greg said...

Your dad takes a good picture! You look slightly sheepish though, I guess you prefer to be on the other side of the lens :) And Kat looks even more gorgeous than I'd imagined she would -- that dress is perfect for her!

The storm sounds fantastic, adding a little drama to the reception without turning into a disaster. And it gives you a great little story to tell about the wedding too :)

I love the way you worked the poem into the narrative of the post, it's always nice to have a poem tell a story in a straight-forward fashion now and then. Tiny typo for you: you've got observer in the last line of the second verse where I think you meant observe.

A night to remember

James yawned and stretched, feeling the sun's warmth on his face. It must be morning already. Reflexively he reached for his phone and brought it up to eye-level, a little surprised to see three messages waiting overnight from his friends.

"Oh God, the clown's giving birth now! I didn't bring enough tequila" read Amy's text.

"You can play golf with meatballs!!!" was the text from Geoff, making James snigger.

"I need duct tape and chopsticks, stat" read the text from Jean, who was allergic to chinese food as far as James knew.

He rolled over, thinking that his friends must all have had nights to remember, and fell off the ground. When he'd recovered from the shock and sat up, he discovered that he'd fallen off a row of hard, plastic seats onto a wiry, industrial grade carpet, and the floor seemed to be moving. As he made his unsteady, hungover way to the windows to find out he was on a ferry, he wondered if he'd ever remember what had happened to himself last night.

Unknown said...

lovely piccy x

morganna said...

Great picture and congratulations on your marriage!

Zhongming said...

A night to remember:

I remember last year during our national day all of us went to marine parade hoping to see some great firework in the dark blue sky around early evening. That place is a large field and river beyond it. The celebration and all other performance are held in the stadium which is just beside the river. That day itself will always remind its people about everything you’ve got today at this small little country in the world’s large landscape. We are all part and pieces of this never alone contribution all these years, we’ve got to be happy and contented with what we’ve got today.

We were rather late but luckily we did not miss the show and managed to get through a pretty slow moving traffic and arrived at around 8pm which was half an hour earlier! That field is filled with loud echo music and I think that it was emitted from the stadium. Immediately the people are in-tune, same frequency with the song, they were singing as if Singapore were living in them, (we are Singapore, we are Singapore, and we live a nation strong and free forever more…) Many of them were wearing shirts that is in red with Singapore flag imprinted in front of their chest, some of them even had the flag painted or tattooed on their skin. I’ve got to tell you that it is unbelievable that the people of the nation loved the country like their home, like they own it.

Loud explosion and colorful lights brighten up the completely dark sky, that mixture of color is splendid! That sudden spark of lights and sounds woke up my silent heart and soul, that moment I was fully awaken to witness that dark sky turned into a colorful rainbow, like it never ever existed. That was truly exciting, eye-catching and mind-burning!

Heather said...

Marc- Great bit of writing (welcome back!) and fabulous picture. The picture is also fabulous! You both look very happy.

Greg- Funny! I'll leave my reminisces for another time perhaps.

Zhongming- I see that picture painted beautifully. There is a similar celebration in my city and it is always a night to remember.
----
My entry is an oldie, but goody. It came to mind as shortly after I read the prompt and since I am bogged down with a couple of other projects, I thought I would submit it instead. Of course, it is too lenghty to fit so....

Marc, could you do me a favor and leave a comment here (if you choose)? The direct link is below:

Scheme

Marc said...

Greg - thanks for the very kind words :)

And thanks for the typo catch!

Those text messages are fantastic :D

Kirstyb - thanks very much :)

Morganna - thank you!

Zhongming - that sounds totally awesome. Wish I could have been there :)

Heather - thanks :D

And I shall read that link of yours momentarily!

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