of a wedding and three birthdays

The clocks have gone forward, without me noticing until I got into the car and noticed its clock was suddenly an hour slow. Every other clock (I should add, our oven doesn't have one) updates itself automatically these days. 

So spring is here, at last. The snowdrops are pretty much done, bluebells are out and daffodils threatening. Trees have blossomed and shed and catkins presage the imminent budding of leaves. There is even a hint of warmth in the sun, when it isn't raining.

It's been a busy season so far. On Saturday, my son Ben married his lovely Hannah. I really enjoyed the wedding, despite not being a fan of crowds or social occasions in general. The venue was delightful, and the bride's family fantastic company, warm and welcoming and very easy to spend time with. 

My band played on the evening. Evidently, I forgot half a verse to their choice of first dance, which is hilarious as it's a song I've been performing for the best part of eighteen years. But nobody noticed, except the bride and groom, who had apparently choreographed their dance to the lyrics, but they covered it elegantly and live music is, after all, all about spontaneity.

Monday I had a birthday. I've had a few of them by now, so I didn't really mind Ben and Hannah upstaging me with their weekend's festivities. Nonetheless, I had a pleasant day; the high point being lunch in town with my wife Nikki and the kids.

Tuesday was the second birthday of the month, as my favourite furry idiot Lottie turned two. I'm not sure she understood the reason, but she was certainly grateful for the extra treats and fuss. 

With the clocks having finally leapt forward, Wednesday evening racing has started up again at the lake. The plan for this season is to race the Albacore with Amanda, as I'm expecting my Sundays this year to be quite distracted and disrupted by Petrella. However, Amanda's come down with a bug of some sort, so I dug the Laser out from the weeds and rigged that.

I haven't sailed the Laser since late last year, and we performed appallingly, not quite coming last, but close. I didn't really care, as I'd only gone out to have some fun, but was a little perplexed that both the other Lasers out on the water pretty much left me for dust. It wasn't until about halfway through that I noticed that I'd actually rigged my old Mk1 sail, which is old and blown and of not much more use than rigging a dishcloth might have been.

It's not been out of its back since I replaced it with a Mk2 some eight years ago, and I'm on my second Mk2 since then. I can't in all honesty lay the entire blame for my socking performance on that old rag of a sail, there were plenty of other unforced errors, including some penalty turns from hitting a mark of the course, despite there being no other boats close. But it won't have helped.

This coming weekend I have gigs Friday and Saturday, and then, to make it a hat trick, Nikki's birthday is on Sunday. Another excuse to head out for lunch somewhere I think, especially as there's not a hope I'll have any chance to go sailing. Which is fine, the wind is supposed to be gusting close to 40 knots by Sunday lunchtime, so the afternoon will be much better spent in a pub or restaurant somewhere.