Thursday, December 30, 2021

Further Adventures of a middle-aged bride

 

Final plans and preparation – but was it all for nothing?

 

Saturday 11th December: Schrodinger’s Wedding

Well, as the final week before The Big Day begins, we are in a state of suspense, wondering whether we will be able to go ahead with our plans after all. If Boris decides to shut down entertainment venues from Saturday, the Reception at least will have to be postponed, which means several guests will lose train fares and the cost of hotel rooms. If Boris would make his announcement sooner rather than later, we could make sure the florist and cake-maker and car hire and venue decorators know in enough time for them to postpone their work.

If we do have to cancel the Reception, P and I still intend to get married on 21 December 2021 if possible because we really want that date. It’s an easy date to remember, for anniversary purposes (21/12/21), and is also the Winter Solstice. So, it might end up with just P and me, plus two witnesses, in the ceremony suite, and the party postponed for several months – by which time, of course, the Christmas theme will no longer be relevant. There are carols on the playlist and crackers for the table and the venue decorators are putting up Christmassy trimmings, but that won’t have the same impact in April!

              Anyway, at this moment in time, I’m hoping for the best. Everyone at the wedding will be fully vaccinated (except for the seven year old) and will have done a lateral-flow test the day before, so I think the risk of the event becoming a ‘super-spreader’ is limited.

              Our top bedroom, where the Best Woman will be sleeping in a week’s time, looks like this at the moment:

 

 

The Best Woman reassures me that she doesn’t mind ‘a bit of mess’, but I think she’d draw the line at stepping over pictures, pushing boxes and packaging out of bed, and clambering over the hoover and half-wrapped Christmas presents when she wants to use the toilet.

              Due to my ‘fad’ for acrylic painting, I decided to paint individual pictures for each guest and make them into place-settings for the table. This has turned out to be much more time-consuming and complicated than anticipated. The pictures themselves took ages to paint, and I still haven’t painted them for one or two of the guests. There are others whose paintings aren’t as good as they might have been because they were completed early in the process when I’d had less practice, so I was hoping I’d have time to do new ones for those people. Then, actually making them into name-cards involved several false starts. The pictures were mostly but not always small, but it soon became obvious that the original paintings weren’t going to work so I ended up photographing them and printing off electronic copies. The card I’d bought wasn’t strong enough, even with two cards fastened together with blingy decorative tape, so I had to make them smaller and add some thicker card between the two outer sheets. Then I had problems with the glue not setting quickly and decorative elements such as sequins sliding down the picture, and then the little ‘crystal’ stands wouldn’t hold the cards so I had to put two on every card (and some still won’t stand up!). A few days ago, I realized I didn’t have enough of these ‘crystal’ feet, so I ordered some more from Amazon – they arrived two days later but I’d ordered the wrong size and they were only half the size of the ones I needed!

I also had the idea of using the images to decorate gift tags for favour bags, crackers and the thank you gifts we had bought for the two witnesses, Best Woman and MC , and making these was also far more difficult than they are worth. I have enjoyed the bling-y tape, however – but it is so sticky that it adheres viciously to your fingers and you just can’t get it off without losing bits of skin!

 


 

I had the over-ambitious idea of filling favour bags with miniature bottles of home-made flavoured alcohol – sloe gin, pomegranate whisky, blackberry vodka, etc. Then I realized I needed an alternative for teetollers so I made blueberry jam, and bought chocolates, and a few small toys for the seven-year-old. At this moment in time, I haven’t finished the place-settings, favour bags or gift tags, and it is getting more stressful as the Big Day looms ever closer.

 

Sunday 12 December: The Master expresses concerns!

The Master of Ceremonies (hereinafter referred to as The Master) paid us a visit this morning so he could try out the route from West Yorkshire to South Yorkshire ahead of the Big Day itself. He normally travels here by train. P had given him his old satnav and The Master kept ringing us to tell us it wasn’t working. Naturally, we assumed it was simply his advancing years and technophobic tendencies that were the problem, but it turned out it was actually the satnav. The Master was right – it was buggered, as they say in West Yorkshire.

              Anyway, he got here without mishap. However, his first question was whether we had decided whether the whole shebang was going ahead or not. Boris has ramped up the nation’s paranoia about Covid while offering no mandatory solutions – just suggestions for behaviours which will help to stop the spread if people follow them.  The Master’s cousins, with whom he normally spends Christmas, have cancelled their annual in-the-flesh get-together and they are doing it by Zoom now, which has made The Master jittery.

              Up to this moment, I hadn’t seriously considered the idea that we might really postpone anything. However, I said I would ask every guest what each of them thought.

 

Monday 13 December: More Covid concerns!

Devon guests emailed to say that, after giving it a lot of serious thought and discussion, they had decided it wasn’t worth the risk. They felt that a five hour train journey was bound to expose them to the virus which they might then bring to the wedding and the other guests, and they were also concerned about infecting their families and ruining Christmas. Kentish guests followed close behind with very similar concerns – one is spending Christmas with her new-born great-grandson (she is planning on spending the whole time staring devotedly into his gorgeous little face) and didn’t want to pass on the virus to him and his parents.

              By the end of the day, a further six or seven potential guests had advised us to postpone the reception party and two more out-of-town guests had decided not to risk it. Everyone seemed to feel that the wedding ceremony itself would be no risk as it wouldn’t last long, people would be wearing masks at least outside the ceremony suite, and it was all well-ventilated, whereas the reception would last for several hours, involve dancing and possibly singing, people getting close to each other to shout over the noise of the music, some people would be drinking alcohol, the relatively small room wouldn’t be well-ventilated in winter, and there would be venue staff and people like the cake-maker, taxi drivers, the venue decorators etc who might potentially bring the virus with them. There was also concern about long train journeys.

 

Tuesday 14 December: Reception postponed!

We decided to postpone the Reception. 

Most guests have greeted the news with either relief, agreement, sympathy or resignation, except the two witnesses whose main reaction was indignation and outrage. I think they just really wanted an opportunity to get drunk and have a dance.

The people at the venue were fantastic, immediately offering us a full refund and booking the postponed Reception in for a provisional date next year. The venue decorators have also been great, and are prepared to change the Christmassy décor we had decided on, if necessary, with no extra charge, if we end up holding the delayed reception earlier in the year. The cake maker had already made the bottom, fruit-cake, tier of the wedding cake so she only gave us half our money back, making this the most expensive fruit cake I have ever bought. She did put marzipan and icing on it and a few icing snowflakes, however, and it was a nice-tasting cake with LOTS of brandy in it. The car-hire company didn’t offer us a refund even though we would require the car for less time than originally specified, but we were past caring by this stage.

I still have to complete the place-settings because I need to clear up the top room as the Best Woman will be sleeping in there this time next week. She is coming up from London. Working on them now feels like a chore rather than a pleasure.

Here is one completed place setting:

 

 



 

 

Friday 17 December: Hair!

Hairdresser coloured my hair and practiced a couple of up-dos. I have spent thirty years avoiding hairdressers but this is the third time I’ve visited one in past six months! It still feels faintly like going to the dentist, but there is no doubt she knows what she’s doing.

              The first pic below shows the front and back of her efforts (and also reveals how much weight I’ve put on over past few months as my face looks really chunky – and this is one of the more flattering pics!!!). Still, you can see the hair, pearl earrings and necklace, and pearl and gold-leaves hair-vine. The second pic is a cropped version of a photo that shows the back of the hair-do with the hair-vine twisted through it:


 

     



Sunday 19 December: Wedding Cake and party favours (or lack-of-party-favours)

P and I spent all afternoon driving round ‘local’ guests’ houses delivering pieces of wedding cake and favour bags, as we couldn’t take them to the Town Hall with us. We drove as far afield as Chesterfield and Penistone, Sheffield and Barnsley and Rotherham, mostly in a thick fog, and we were exhausted by the end. [We later gave pieces to hairdresser, florist and car-driver].

Here are a selection of the paintings I did for guests (I have removed guest names):

 

 



  
  

  



  


  


  






 
          


  

    

 At least the delaying of the reception gives me time to paint some new images to replace the worst of these!

Monday 20 December: flowers, cards, presents, Best Woman’s arrival!

P and I are growing very nervous about tomorrow, although it also feels weirdly unreal. After living together since 1993, it seems almost inconceivable that by this time tomorrow we’ll be a married couple. I also felt quite down for most of the day about having to postpone the reception.

Sis and partner dropped by on way to stay at Niece’s house, and she gave me this card she’s made (it looks like a box and when you take off the lid the sides open out to reveal a tiny cake decorated with pearl beads – she runs a small business called Nic’s Crafty Corner - https://www.facebook.com/nicscraftroom):

 

 

               



 

 She was just in time to collect her buttonholes as the florist had just delivered them, plus my bouquet (pic below) and a flower arrangement for mum which we were going to give her at the Reception but which we will now have to take round for her.




Best Woman arrived a little later and P cooked us a nice meal. Best Woman made us feel much more relaxed. She was really positive and practical – it felt like a grown-up was taking charge, which was fantastic!

              We didn’t really expect anyone to buy us presents for the wedding, as we’ve been together for so long anyway, but in fact we have received some lovely presents – a whole new set of high quality saucepans, a sandwich toaster, three gorgeous vases, money, gift cards, the professional photographer, a photo album, etc.

 

SO THANK YOU TO EVERYONE!


Tuesday 21 December: THE BIG DAY!

When I got back from the hairdresser’s with my hair up and the hair-vine threaded through, the Best Woman and The Master were in the front room, which was handy as I couldn’t decide whether to wear the ivory or the navy blue jacket – the unanimous decision was the ivory one.

              I had to re-do my make-up twice as I stupidly decided to try out a new eyeshadow and ended up looking as if I had two black eyes (I mean, who decides to experiment on the morning of her wedding?), and then I poked myself in the eye with my mascara wand and made my eye water, and smudged my lipstick, so I just washed it all off and started again. I rarely wear make-up these days but I have put it on thousands of times in the past, so I think it was just pre-wedding jitters. I got my top caught up in my up-do, as well, and it was only the admirable foresight of the hairdresser – who had sprayed on so much heavy-duty hair-spray that it set like concrete – that saved me from looking like Bellatrix Lestrange. Instead I looked like a short, fat, middle-aged beachball with a nice hair-style. In the absence of hair that would cover me from head to toe all the way round, like a Wookie or Dougal from The Magic Roundabout, I figured the bridal bouquet would be the next best thing to help cover some of my fatness.

 

P, The Best Woman, The Master                               Me, in our living room

 

Some people might think that drinking a bottle of Cava between us before the wedding-car arrived was a mistake, particularly as our next door neighbours on both sides turned up with further bottles of fizz and gifts and congratulations, but in fact it helped us relax.

We had hired a Nissan Elgrande (with blue ribbons on the front, of course), simply because it was a reasonable price and could seat four people comfortably. It turned up promptly and the driver was absolutely lovely. He did take a peculiar route to the town hall however – we expected him to drive the five mins up to the M1, up one junction, and then take what is essentially one main road into the centre of town, but instead he picked his way down some very tricky meandering country lanes, narrowly avoiding oncoming vehicles, then down some small and windy residential roads, narrowly avoiding parked cars. He obviously enjoyed mixing things up and giving us our money’s-worth of scenery, as he took us home via another unlikely route. When he dropped us off, he gave us yet another bottle of fizz – our fridge looks like it belongs to two real party-animals! Fortunately, The Master gave the driver a generous tip after P and I realised we had no money on us at all – we had left the house relying on the kindness of strangers, like Blanche Dubois and the Queen.

              I was wearing high heels for the first time in twenty years, and at first I was happily surprised by how easily I could walk in them. It’s like riding a bike, I thought to myself, smugly. You never lose the knack. True, I needed help climbing into the Elgrande – hey, it’s not easy being short and fat and wearing heels! Try it before you roll your eyes! But it wasn’t until about halfway through the ceremony that my toes began to complain. By the time we strolled (hobbled, in my case) out of the ceremony suite, I felt like ballet dancers must feel every day of their professional careers – as if my toes were broken. I fully expected to find them twisted into hideous deformities when I removed the shoes, though actually they  looked completely normal later with no sign of maltreatment, despite the agony. When I was young and wore high heels all day at work, and danced in them in night clubs, my feet weren’t holding up so much excess fat, and my muscles were stronger. I remember walking home in the early hours in heavy snow as a teenager, with my friends, while wearing stilettos. Now I can barely stand in them. I should have drunk more Cava before we set off!

              It was a freezing cold day but there was no rain. Some guests were waiting on the steps of the town hall, in masks. To be honest, I kept forgetting to put my mask on, though we were supposed to wear them inside the town hall, except for in the actual ceremony suite. My problem was my bloody bag. It was a champagne-coloured glittery clutch-bag that matched the shoes, but I didn’t want to have to hold it in my hands along with the bouquet so I was using the chain-link strap that came with it. However, the strap would not stay on my shoulder – maybe I have unnaturally sloping shoulders or my clothes were particularly slippery, but that bag was determined to fall off my shoulder literally every few minutes. My mobile with its camera was inside the bag, but every time I tried to get it out I found myself getting bouquet, bag and phone entwined in a clumsy, comical fashion, and actually taking a photo was more or less impossible. My mask was in there too, so every time I took it off for a photo and tried to stuff it back into my bag, one-handed, as I was carrying the bouquet in the other, I looked like I was performing an extremely poor-quality juggling act. 

Immediately after the ceremony, the bag’s strap fell into a floral display in front of the registrar’s table and became instantaneously entangled with the foliage. It took three of us to untangle it, one being the assistant registrar. That was my main Norman Wisdom moment. It was soon after that incident that, with a resigned expression, the Best Woman patiently but forcibly took the bag off me and carried it round, herself, for the rest of the time we were there.

We had been told to arrive fifteen minutes before the ceremony began but we were waiting a long time outside the ceremony suite, and then the guests were confused by an announcement that referred to me as ‘Tracey’ – I am called Tracey Louise Wilford but I have never been known as ‘Tracey’. Apparently, my father put that name on my birth certificate while my mother was still in hospital recovering from a difficult labour, but she hadn’t actually wanted me to be called ‘Tracey’ so she always called me ‘Louise’. Most of the guests had no idea who this mysterious ‘Tracey’ was and they thought there must be a mistake.

I had told the registrar about my name when we gave notice of our intention to marry, but she obviously hadn’t taken the information in or written it down. The registrar was a pleasant woman, very good-looking, but she was wearing a weird outfit – a kind of ‘Where’s Wally?’ t-shirt top with a black smock-thing which buttoned across her chest, over the top. It looked like the kind of outfit I might have worn to university lectures in the 1980s, or maybe how Audrey Hepburn in bohemian mode might have dressed in a film, while lounging about in a mock-up of an artist’s studio. She looked very attractive in it but it didn’t seem quite appropriate for her role as registrar. She did jer job very competently, however.

Our Best Woman had paid for a professional photographer as our wedding present and I’m glad she did because most of the photos taken by friends and family weren’t all that good. We haven’t yet seen the professional pics – the few I’ve put on here were taken by us or by other guests. There were actually a good number of guests at the wedding, despite the out-of-towners who had decided not to travel up north due to Covid. Two of P’s schoolfriends and two of my schoolfriends were there, with their partners; three of P’s work friends, plus four of his friends from university; my mum, sister and her partner, niece and her partner, and seven year old great-nephew; several other mutual friends. P’s mum had decided not to come for various reasons including worrying about Covid, other health issues, a large dose of Covid-related agoraphobia and paralysing shyness. I haven’t included photos of guests beyond the central wedding party as I haven’t had time to get their permission.

 

              

 
                        P and me, immediately after ceremony             My niece, Vanessa, and my sister, Nicola - the two witnesses
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

After the ceremony, there were photos inside, and then outside, in front of the coloured fountains. P had a momentary shock when he saw a young boy wearing a suit, running in and out of the fountains as we came outside, and he thought it was my nephew – ‘Good grief!’ he said (or words to that effect), ‘His mum is going to have a fit! He’ll catch his death!’. My great-nephew recovered from Covid only a few weeks ago. Anyway, it turned out not to be him at all but some other negligent parent’s child!

The photos seemed to go on and on until hypothermia was setting in, even though most of the guests were wearing coats. Oddly, I was wearing only two layers of flimsy chiffon-type stuff but I felt perfectly ok. I think the agony in my toes was distracting me from the frosty weather conditions. One of my friends has hurt her back and was using a walking stick, and I felt a strong inclination to rip it from her hands and let her take her chances while I hobbled off with it, but I resisted.

              I hate having my photo taken. This was actually the thing I’d been dreading most. I cannot smile naturally when someone wants me to, and I usually look like I’m gurning, pissed off, deeply depressed or giving an evil smirk, like Voldemort, in photos. I am just hoping that the professional photographer got some better pics, because in all the photos guests have sent me so far, I either look like the proverbial back end of a bus or I am wearing an expression suggesting I am rethinking my decision to get married.

 

 



Great-nephew, looking like Jacob Rees-Mogg (he actually looked lovely in his suit, though Niece 

forgot the buttonholes we’d paid for and sent over to her the night before!

 

 

The car dropped us off back at the house, where I immediately changed into more comfy clothes and particularly more comfy shoes.  The original plan had been that we would go to the reception straight after the wedding, and then The Master and The Best Woman would sleep in our house while P and I spent the night in a local hotel. Even though we weren’t going to have a reception, the Best Woman would still have to stay at ours as she lives in London, so we had decided to book a table at a local Indian restaurant called Thaal, which meant that The Master would also stay at ours overnight as originally planned so he could drink but not have to drive a long journey home afterwards.

We were all so hyped up on adrenaline that we drank a further three bottles of fizz, including one bottle of actual champagne – neither Philip nor I really likes fizzy white wine, and I can’t honestly say that I would be able to tell the proper champagne from the Prosecco or Cava, but it’s surprising how quickly bubbles make you tipsy. By the time we set off for the Indian restaurant, the Master, the Best Woman and I had reached that loud and giggly stage when you feel as if you love everyone. None of us had eaten any lunch, which didn’t help. P was driving so he couldn’t drink much, and we must have been quite wearing for him. We arrived at Thaal in a state of giddy inebriation and it was great, for once, to be the sort of people who get on other people’s nerves! The restaurant wasn’t as full as it normally would be, but there were a good number of people there, and we had an absolutely lovely meal which The Master paid for which made it even more enjoyable!

              Philip dropped The Master and The Best Woman off at our house and we went on to the hotel we’d booked, which is only fifteen minutes away from our house. It was peculiar staying in a hotel so close to our house while other people stayed in our house, but the room was non-refundable so we thought we might as well make use of it. Originally, I had booked it because I knew I would find it irritating, after the reception, when I was tired and consequently grumpy and anti-social, to have to keep remembering to pull on a dressing gown every time I went on one of my frequent nocturnal trips to the loo, in case I bumped into The Master or the Best Woman on the landing – I usually sleep naked and I wouldn’t wish to give them nightmares.


P with his Badger cuddly toy


The hotel is a four-star Mercure Hotel with a pool and spa, but we had booked an ordinary room and didn’t stay long-enough to make use of these facilities (we didn’t even eat breakfast there, but joined The Master and Best Woman for a hearty cooked breakfast in a local garden centre) – the room was spacious with a huge TV and an excellent shower, however. P had to help me dig out the hair grips from my hair and I washed my hair twice but failed to remove all the hair-spray! I was awake all night, and not because of the usual reason newly-weds stay awake all night. I think it was all the alcohol I’d consumed. I felt completely sober by the time I went to bed, and P fell asleep quite quickly, but I just couldn’t sleep at all.

 

Thursday 30 December 2021: After Effects!

The sleeplessness has persisted over the past few weeks – both before the wedding and since – so I am now walking around like a zombie with eyes like poached eggs and a head that feels like it’s stuffed with bubble-wrap. I thought marriage was supposed to improve your health, but both P and I have been excessively tired, aching and lethargic since the 21st. We have done several lateral-flow tests which have all been negative, so I am assuming it is just the stress of the months of preparation, the actual wedding, and then Christmas. The fact that we have both been eating virtually continuously since the wedding day and doing very little exercise isn’t helping!

              There is a degree of anti-climax, of course, not least because we weren’t able to have the reception as planned. However, to our knowledge, no one has contracted Covid as a result of the wedding ceremony. Ironically, several of the out-of-town guests who decided not to risk the journey have ended up having to isolate themselves over Christmas after members of their families contracted the virus, but people who were there all seem fine. It is just the way the cards fall, I guess, and I believe we all made the right call. 

Our Best Woman told me that she felt different when she married her husband (they had lived together prior to getting married, though not for thirty years like us!), and she is right. We both feel a little different, though it is very difficult to describe or explain. This has actually taken us both by surprise as we didn’t expect to feel any different after the ceremony than we did before, having been together for so long.

              Neither of us is used to wearing rings of any kind and we are both finding it slightly irritating. We have both had mini-scares when we have taken our rings off in order to wash the pots or take a shower, then forgotten where we put them!

              I am considering changing my name by Deed Poll to get rid of the vestigial ‘Tracey’ and keep ‘Wilford’ as my official middle name, but I can’t face the bureaucratic hassle at the moment.

              P’s mum viewed our attendance at the Town Hall as being on a similar level of terror-inducing danger as an extreme sport such as snowboarding in polar-bear territory or walking a tight-rope over a tank of piranhas. Her response when P rang her after the deed was done was to say ‘Oh, thank goodness it’s over!’. This wasn’t quite the response we were hoping for, but there you go. She did send us a Christmas card to ‘Mr and Mrs Badger, from The Old Mrs Badger’ however, which was sweet.

My own mum sent us a card after the ceremony congratulating us on being married. She wrote: 'Your wedding ceremony was lovely and Louise looked beautiful especially her head'.  I suspect she meant ‘her hair’, but ‘her head’ is so much better, don’t you think?


So, from me – and my head:

HAPPY 2022!

And I promise not to mention the wedding again until we have the postponed reception, if and when that happens!

               


 

Playlist:

The playlist is finished. It took me weeks to decide on the final list of tracks, and I had many fabulous suggestions from people in the OU Write Club and several other groups I belong to on Facebook, plus ideas from family and friends. So, thanks, guys! We are saving it for whenever the reception does take place.

The final list is massively long and I doubt that anyone will stay at the reception long enough to hear it all – the songs become increasingly random towards the end! We start with an hour of gentle romantic 1950s songs, including ‘True Love Ways’, ‘La Mer’ and ‘All The Way’ – they aren’t all 1950s performers, however, though Sinatra and Holly feature. This segues into a range of songs from 1960s to present day, mostly slow romantic ones during the meal and then becoming more lively and danceable. I’ve tried to include tracks that I know different guests might like. For instance, there is some Adele for my mum, some Nickelback for my seven-year-old great-nephew, some Pink and Shania Twain for my sister, Mary Hopkins singing a Christmas carol in Welsh for the Welsh guest, etc. Everything is something that either myself, P or both of us like, except maybe Abba as neither of us are fans but we don’t hate them either and they are always a crowd-pleaser! My guilty pleasure (‘Witchita Lineman’ by Glen Campbell) and my favourite romantic song (‘You do something to me’ by Paul Weller) are both there. I have snuck in Elvis Costello, The Jam, The Clash – but all quite mainstream tracks. There’s some Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel for P, and a smattering of our favourite Christmas tracks – ‘Stop The Cavalry’, ‘Fairytale of New York’, Mahalia Jackson singing ‘O Holy Night’.

In case you want to see the entire playlist, here it is:

             

No of track on playlist

SONG

ARTIST

TIME

CUMULATIVE TIME

NOTES

1

True Love Ways

Buddy Holly

2.53

 

Start at 5:00 [ish]

Milling-about music – background – mostly 50s songs, some sung by modern artists

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Segueing into 60s stuff – trying to represent our favourite artists and musical genres but saving more lively dance numbers for later

 

 

 

A few more lively ones here and there to change pace

2

La Mer

Tatiana Eva-Marie and the Avalon Jazz Band (from album April in Paris)

3.29

6.22

3

All The Way – remastered

Frank Sinatra (from Ultimate Sinatra album)

2.52

9.14

4

It had to be you (Big Band and Vocals)

Harry Connick Junior (from music for When Harry Met Sally album)

2.38

11.52

5

At Last

Etta James

3.00

14.52

6

Let It Be Me (remastered)

The Everly Brothers

2.38

17.30

7

La Vie En Rose

Emily Watts (or the version by Jolie Mome, or by Zaz)

2.38

20.8

8

The Way You Look Tonight

Michael Buble

4.40

24.48

9

The Best Is Yet To Come

James Darren (from This One’s From The Heart album)

2.28

25.16

10

They can’t take that away from me

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

4.40

29.56

11

Here Comes The Sun (remastered)

The Beatles (from remastered version of Abbey Road)

3.06

33.4

12

Waterloo Sunset

The Kinks

3.19

36.23

13

All My Loving (remastered)

The Beatles (from remastered With The Beatles album)

2.08

38.31

14

You Never Can Tell

Chuck Berry (From St Louis To Liverpool album)

2.42

41.13

15

Rescue Me

Fontella Bass

2.51

44.6

16

Delilah

Tom Jones

3.24

47.30

17

I only want to be with you

Dusty Springfield

2.38

50.8

18

Ain’t No Sunshine

Bill Withers

2.05

52.13

19

Dedicated To The One I Love

Mamas and Papas

2.58

55.11

20

Wichita Lineman

Glen Campbell

3.07

58.18

Approx. 6:00

Meal served about this time

 

 

 

 

Move through different eras and genres, but generally slow-ish songs to form background to meal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Approx. 7.00

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Approx 7.30

SPEECHES ROUND THIS POINT – HALF AN HOUR?

21

Handle With Care

Travelling Wilburys

3.19

61.34

22

Love Is The Drug

Roxy Music

4.11

65.45

23

She Makes My Day

Robert Palmer

4.22

70.7

[1 hour 17 mins]

24

You do something to me

Paul Weller

3.38

73.45

25

Late In The Evening

Paul Simon

4.02

77,57

26

The angels (wear my red shoes)

Elvis Costello

2.47

80.44

27

Somewhere only we know

Lily Allen version

3.28

84.12

28

Make You Feel My Love

Adele

3.32

87.44

29

English Rose

The Jam

2.49

90.33

30

Use Somebody

Kings Of Leon

3.51

94.24

31

One Day Like This

Elbow

6.34

100.58

[1 hour, 41 mins]

32

Cloudbusting

Kate Bush

5.10

106.8

33

Bright Side of the Road

Van Morrison

3.46

109,54

34

London Calling

The Clash

3.20

113.14

35

Scarborough Fair/Canticle

Simon and Garfunkel

3.10

116.24

36

Come up and see me (make me smile)

Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel

3.59

120.23

37

O Holy Night

Mahalia Jackson

3.32

123.55

[2 hours, 4 mins

38

The First Time That Ever I Saw Your Face

Roberta Flack

4.20

128.154

39

I’ll Stand By You

The Pretenders

3.59

132.1

40

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

Marc Almond, Jools Holland

4.34

136.35

41

Heroes

David Bowie (2017 remaster)

6.11

142.46

42

Mad World

Tears For Fears

3.35

146.21

43

Stop The Cavalry

Jonah Lewie

3.01

149.22

[2 hours, 29 mins

44

Get It On

T.Rex

4.23

153.45

8:00 roughly

Start with some upbeat, feelgood stuff

45

A Message To You Rudy

The Specials

2.53

174.38

46

Planet Earth (2010 remastered)

Duran Duran86

4.03

178.41

47

The Tide Is High (remastered)

Blondie

4.40

183.21

48

Groove is in the heart

Deelite

3.52

187.13

49

Rockstar

Nickelback

4.12

191.25

50

So What?

Pink

3.35

195

51

Dancing In The Streets

Martha Reeves  and the Vandellas

2.45

197.45

52

Valerie

Amy Winehouse/Mark Ronson

3.39

201.24

53

Take me out

Franz Ferdinand

3.57

205.21

54

Ruby

Kaiser Chiefs

3.24

208.45

55

I bet you look good on the dancefloor

Arctic Monkeys

2.57

211.42

56

Mr Brightside

The Killers

3.43

215.25

57

Common People

Pulp

5.52

321.17

58

Park Life

Blur

3.07

324.24

59

Wonderwall (remastered)

Oasis

4.19

328.43

60

It must be love

Madness

3.20

332.3

61

Love Shack

B52s

2.12

334.15

9.00 roughly

62

Time Warp

 

 

 

 

63

That don’t impress me much

Shania Twain

3.39

337.54

 

64

All Over The World

ELO

4.03

341,57

 

65

You Sexy Thing

Hot Chocolate

4.05

346.2

 

66

Cecilia

Simon and Garfunkel

2.55

348.57

 

67

I’m a Believer

The Monkees

2.47

351.44

 

68

Twist and Shout [2009 remastered]

The Beatles

2.35

354.19

 

69

Happy Hour

The Housemartins

2.25

356.44

 

70

Tubthumping

Chumbawumba

4.39

361.23

 

71

Fairytale of New York

The Pogues

4.32

365,55

 

72

Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard

Paul Simon

2.55

368.50

9.30 roughly

73

Come on Eileen

Dexy’s Midnight Runners

4.47

373.37

 

74

You Make Me Feel

Bronski Beat

3.56

377.33

 

75

A Little Respect

Erasure

3.28

381.1

 

76

Dancing Queen

Abba

3.50

384.51

 

77

Praise You

Fatboy Slim

5.24

390.15

 

78

Disco Inferno

The Trammps

3.34

393.49

 

79

Hey Ya

Outkast

3.55

397.44

10.00 roughly

80

Vogue

Madonna

5.17

402.1

 

81

Billy Jean

Michael Jackson

4.54

406.55

 

82

Girls just wanna have fun

Cyndi Lauper

3.45

410.40

 

83

Come as you are

Nirvana

3.39

414.19

 

84

U can’t touch this

MCHammer

4.17

418.36

 

85

You’re my best friend

Queen

2.51

421.27

 

86

Shake It Off

Taylor Swift

3.39

425.6

 

87

You can’t hurry love

The Supremes

2.46

427.52

10.30 roughly

88

River Deep, Mountain High

Ike and Tina Turner

3.35

431.27

 

89

Tears Of A Clown

Smokey Robinson

3.02

434.29

 

90

Whisky in the jar

Thin Lizzie, Derek Varnals

5.45

440.14

 

91

Jailhouse Rock

Elvis Presley

2.26

442.40

 

92

Handbags & Gladrags

Rod Stewart

4.25

447.5

 

93

Subterranean Homesick Blues

Bob Dylan

2.21

449.26

 

94

Pump It Up

Elvis Costello and The Attractions

3.18

452.44

 

95

I fought the law

The Clash

2.43

455.27

 

96

The Eton Rifles

The Jam

3.58

459.25

11.00 roughly

97

Shipbuilding

Elvis Costello and The Attractions

4.53

464.18

 

98

Ziggy Stardust

David Bowie

3.13

467.31

 

99

The Sound of Silence

Simon and Garfunkel

3.05

470.36

 

100

All along the watchtower

Jimi Hendrix

4.01

474.37

 

101

A Change is gonna come

Sam Cooke

3.11

477.48

 

102

Silent Night

Annie Lennox

3.49

481.37

 

103

Joy To The World

Celtic Woman

3.30

485.7

11.30 roughly