I can’t swear that that is exactly how it is spelt in Ulster Scots dialect but that’s kind of what it sounds like. I remember when growing up hearing people saying ‘how was the waddin’? It’s wedding of course… And yes, we went to a wedding! The long awaited wedding of my niece Katherine, and since we got back from our trip, our minds were focussed on the next trip, ie Belfast for the “wedding”. I was easy to kit out, Sarah (Canadian house guest) spotted a long green dress in H&M and that was it, job done. My other half took a bit longer to make himself look “sharp” as Sarah would say. Two trips to El Corte Ingles in Granada and an online delivery from ECI too. He looked great in his Leeds United colours tie…. So this day last week, we arrived in Belfast. It was great for me to be a tourist in Belfast as I will explain in my next blog, I was a child of the Troubles, and if you had any sense, you didn’t go to Belfast. So we got to the hotel, Dukes at Queen’s, which is just by the University, and checked in, then headed down town to find M&S, and the Crown bar where we planned to have a Guinness. Well, after a bit of retail therapy, we hit the Crown bar. It was packed. It had not escaped our attention that Belfast was full of tourists, every language under the sun, and lots of Americans. So the famous Crown bar got abandoned and we went to Robinsons just along the street. Robinson’s bar is pretty famous too, and the Guinness and Irish stew was wonderful. We sat near a couple of American tourists and two local lads who were watching the horse racing on TV and nipping next door (literally) to put a bet on. We headed happy but weary, back to the hotel where we met Rachel (who lives in Belfast) that I met in our pueblo a few years ago and we have kept in touch since. Saturday, the day of the wedding, I headed to the hairdressers across the street, we got all dressed up and went to the allocated place in the city centre to catch the bus to the church, which was about 15 miles away. At first the noise of the demonstrators outside City Hall was loud yes, but not threatening. But as time approached 12 midday we sensed that things were not going according to plan. A whole heap of police Land Rovers turned up, lots of policemen got out and then we saw the counter march meet the demonstrators already there. Then a smoke bomb went off. I have to confess to feeling a little uncomfortable by this stage. To cut this long story short, we had to catch the bus a few streets back as the street the bus should have gone along, was blocked off. I had started thinking what is plan B… we weren’t on our own, so it all worked out but that sense of fear came back. The wedding, well, it was great, as all weddings should be. A photo of the happy couple is below of course. My niece looked beautiful, and the service wasn’t too long! We decanted to Belfast Castle for the reception, which I have to confess I hadn’t been to before, but it’s a beautiful location. Luckily we got a lift to the venue with my brother David, and sister in law Deborah, so no more bus incidents for us… The whole day was a great success from what I could see, no fighting, haha. The band who’d come up from “down south” were really good, if not a tad expensive, and we went home not too late, no stamina us oldies but Sunday, we had plans! I just want to end this blog with a wee (my goodness me is that word over used in NIR) tribute to my sister Rosemary, who worked very hard to make the wedding day a great success, and it went very well, and she looked lovely. Photos are the happy couple of course, Jack’s famous tie and my brother, and a bit of a demonstration, Belfast style.