[Magdalen] Emotionally shattered

[Roger Stokes]

The past couple of days have really convinced me that I have strong 
intravert characteristics.  I do enjoy meeting people, including listren 
I have met in the past and may meeti in the future, but enough is 
enough.  My eldest niece got married yesterday in a civil ceremony after 
which I conducted a short blessing in the garden.  It was a grand 
occasion and my son and daughter-in-law were there with their adopted 
son and nearly-adopted daughter who turns 1 tomorrow. (Her blood brother 
is 11 months older than she is so he will be 2 next month.)

A fair few of us were staying at the same hotel and when I wandered into 
the bar early Sunday evening, thinking I would have a nice bar snack, I 
found a group planning to go out for a meal so I joined them at a nearby 
pub-restaurant.  Since I knew there was a decent pub in the area that I 
wanted to try out I asked who fancied going there and was surprisedc to 
find that Claire (the bride) knew of it having driven past it numerous 
times when in the area with her work.  She also wanted to have a chat 
with me so she, her (then still) fiance and one sister accompanied me to 
a pub whose name might well descibe some clergy we may have met who are 
too heavenly-minded to be any earthly use  - the Holy Inadequate.  The 
beer was worth the trip and Claire and I walked back together for a 
useful chat.

Yesterday after a (too big but I knew I would miss out on lunch) 
breakfast we gathered in the lounge area before getting on the chartered 
Routemaster bus to the wedding venue.  Earlier I had been acting as 
unofficial information centre telling enquirers who I had seen and where 
they had gone while my son and his family used my room to change in as 
they had not yet been able to check in.

The weather was moderately kind - dry but cool - so we had the blessing 
outside rather than in the converted barn where the legal marriage had 
been solemnised.  Claire didn't realise how I could projust my voice 
until I started :-)  Altogether it was a grand occasion but | realized 
afterwards that I had been engaged in social interaction for most of the 
day, even allowing for the fact that mu brother and I adjourned to the 
bar for a relatively quiet drink or two once the speeches and the first 
dance were over.

This morning my sister-in-law's brother, confusingly another Roger, 
remarked that I looked rather wearied, which was an accurate comment.  
It was not lack of sleep so much as the stress of so much social 
interaction.  After the final farewells (including to a bride and groom 
who looked a lot better than I reckon they had any right to look) I was 
glad to hit the road to come home.

Roger