shaunism

Saturday, 18 July 2015

[The Life of Shaun #514] The Big Day

Wow, what an amazing day! In my mind, I had pictured a little bureaucratic necessity followed by a party, but it turned out to be so much more than that.

The wedding festivities started two weeks before, when Sushil came over for our pre-wedding-moon, and to finish getting everything sorted for the fourth. We had a quick two-night trip up to Edinburgh, to see a new UK city, and to visit my friend Tomek, who kept us well fed and wined.

Then it was back down to London to buy suits (Sushil's first!) and take care of the last bits and bobs. The first guest to arrive was my cousin Jodi, who came from Florida on Wednesday for her first trip outside North America. Thursday the New Yorkers started to make their presence known, then family and the continentals arrived on Friday, and finally Saturday, Fern, my friend from fifth grade, who left her husband and son in Texas for her first extra-North American adventure.

The ceremony was very intimate, just my family, plus best woman Mary and groom of honour Marco, at Camden Town Hall. The ceremony was brief, about 15 minutes in all, but very lovely. We chose from a set of texts the one that best captured our spirit, and it sat just right with all we were feeling that day. We didn't want a big ceremony, but it was perfect having my family, Mary and Marco there to share it with us.

Sushil pinning on my boutonnière

Sushil with his about-to-be-family-in-law, outside Camden Town Hall

Finally! My name in lights!

The wedding party

I will.

First a ring...

...then the signing...

...and it's done!

Then it was off in the searing London heat (no, seriously) to the Prospect of Whitby, a classic English pub from 1520 on the banks of the Thames in Wapping. It's one of my favourite spots in London, and the first place I ever took Sushil in London. Jan, Kimb'uh and Garrett had kindly arrived early to make sure everything was set up and to take the worry of any last-minute snags or questions off our shoulders, so we arrived into a budding party and white wine waiting for us. As the day went on, more and more people arrived and we were swept up in a whirlwind of well wishes and joy. The last of us stayed until closing time for the terrace level, when Sushil and I were whisked off to our surprise honeymoon suite at a luxury hotel in the City.

In retrospect it sounds silly, but I was really taken back by how much the day meant to me. Of course I was excited about starting a life with Sushil, but the ceremony and the reception, surrounded by so many friends and family, with so much goodwill and love all around us, it really was an amazing start to matrimony; it just felt like starting off on the right foot, if that makes any sense.

On the way to the reception at the Prospect of Whitby, with an icepack on my neck

The Coley kids

The Coley men

In a rainbow of amazinators

And a sea of Cassians

Mary really outdid herself as best woman with a surprise toast by her and my sister, Lara...

...and even Russ (and Rachel and Aunt Judy) made an appearance by telecast.

Cutting the wedding cakes (black forest for Sushil, Nutella cheesecake for me), handmade by my friend Ian. Basically what people have said about the day has been "I had a great time at your reception, oh my god that cheesecake was amazing!"

A half-Greek, an Indian, a Spaniard and an American walk into a bar...

Now Sushil has returned to Mumbai, and we're back to WhatsApp and Skype dates. We're pretty much done amalgamating all the materials for his settlement visa application, so we'll be filing that this week. It can take as short as three weeks to process, or as long as many months, but we're hoping Sushil will be back for Autumn. We'll be alright - we've done this many times before. But I'm very glad this will be the last time.

Cheers,

Shaun & Sushil

The happy couple :-)

Shaun H. Coley ~ Kentish Town ~ Camden ~ London NW5 ~ UK ~ shaunism.blogspot.co.uk

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Saturday, 20 June 2015

[The Life of Shaun #513] Stagcastle

In the UK, "stag" and "hen" dos are hugely popular. The dos are weekends away with your best mates a couple of weeks before your Big Day, where you drink, wear fancy dress, go out and...actually, that's about it. The British are loathed in many popular stag/hen locations across the continent, as their town centres have become overrun with hordes of drunk men in tutus and women carrying around giant inflatable penises. Having fully embraced British culture, I was not about to miss out on this right of passage. So my best (wo)man, Mary Keany, packed up a few bags of accoutrements, eleven sashes, and put us on a train headed North.

No city has embraced the stag/hen do like Newcastle. Always known as a destination for a party, Newcastle, having lost all its other industry, has made a cottage industry out of them. When you leave the train station, enterprising Geordies are waiting outside to make sure you are sorted for party spots and stripper shows. Most every bar has signage promoting its stag/hen drink specials, and by night the city centre streets are filled with merry men and women decked out in their fancy dress finest, laughing, dancing, singing, vomiting, and getting the most out of their last hurrahs - it's the British at their finest!

There is a lot more story to Newcastle, of course, but that's for another visit. This was about all about the three Bs: booze, boys and bars.

Almost recovered,

Shaun

Ian and Jan, bright and perky on the way up.

Mary, me and the old ball and chain.

Newcastle's very own Times Square.

In the North, having a pint whilst pregnant is considered part of your five-a-day.

Kenny and Ronny lock horns.

Dinner with the fiancé.

And another dinner - how much did we eat?

Oh wait, Ian and I were fine on our liquid diets, thankyouverymuch!

Streets of Newcastle.

Alexi and me, checking out the local scene.

We even had a local tour guide in Sean David Usher.

Even Cheryl Cole was out!

This will always be remembered as the weekend that we broke Jan.

But Mary Keany had prepared for everything!

The before shot. No stag/hen do would be complete without a stripper show, so Mary Keany booked us in at Adonis, Newcastle's finest.

Waiting for strippers!

You just can't keep Jan from getting his cock out.

Woo hoo! The strippers have arrived!

Ian even had a little dance with the man of the hour.

The man of the hour, and our drag hostess.

My new bride-to-be bestie.

And the after shot!

Shaun H. Coley ~ Kentish Town ~ Camden ~ London NW5 ~ UK ~ shaunism.blogspot.co.uk

Sunday, 24 May 2015

[The Life of Shaun #512] Baarle

Being a geography geek, I've wanted to visit the twin villages of Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau since I learned of them. They are, as the sign says when entering, "30 Enclaves, Two Countries, One Village". So a few weeks ago, I popped over to visit my friends Lottie and Rob, and to meet their newest son, Flip, with a side overnight trip to the "most remarkable village in the world"™.

Baarle lies a few kilometres inside the Dutch border from Belgium, but several tracts of land, varying in size from a single house to many city blocks, are Belgian. Nested within some of these blocks of Belgium are further blocks of The Netherlands. The story of how this came to be is, unsurprisingly, very complicated. The essence is that various blocks of land belonged to two separate aristocrats, and when The Netherlands and Belgium separated, the aristocrats did as well, and their lands became Dutch or Belgian with them. The village now lives a double life: two police forces, two post offices, two churches, two school systems, two of every municipal service.

This has allowed the village what must be called a rather robust tourist trade, considering that, outwardly, the village is not so different from any other small town in this corner of Europe. The enterprising towns have done a solid job dressing up the village for visitors. The border is demarcated throughout the town, and every house number is done on a plate including the appropriate tricolour so you are always aware of which country you're in.

I knew that, once we'd taken photos straddling countries and of borders winding through the town, we'd pretty quickly exhaust our options in Baarle. Fortunately, Lottie and I have quite a lot of fun doing very little together. And so it was: town explored, photos taken, outdoor cafe selected, wine ordered -- it was a fantastic weekend.

Cheers,

Shaun

Baarle's high street, with the border dividing it between The Netherlands and Belgium.

Lottie and I, both being foreigners.

Tax law states that a household pays taxes based on which country the front door is in. Not sure how this family does it...

The border even cuts through the church - er, liquor shop.

We wondered why our chosen cafe had plenty of seats, whereas many of the others were packed, and then we noticed the sun.

However, our seats came with a vastly superior view.

Eventually we gave in, though.

For the evening, Lottie booked us into an amazing hotel. Here we are waiting for The Four Man Band to come on stage to sing some of their repertoire of "nearly 80 songs". This was followed by drinks with a dozen Bulgarian migrant workers who reside in the hotel, as one does. Well, as we do, at least.

On the way out, we went to look for enclave H12. Per satnav, this is it!

Map of Baarle, showing the nested enclaves.

Shaun H. Coley ~ Kentish Town ~ Camden ~ London NW5 ~ UK ~ shaunism.blogspot.co.uk