The "First Ladies"

As with any ceremony concerning life bonding, there have to be close stalwart friends to not only keep you on the straight (are you joking?) and narrow but to ensure you actually turn up on the day.

In truth it was a great pleasure that two of our dearest and closest friends bravely accepted the roles of "First Ladies".

Introducing Lady Scott - my former landlady, spiritual guru, dietary wizard, cake professor par excellence and maker of named jams and marmalade's.

(at this point I became seriously fucked off as blogger went down twice and didn't save a thing in draft so its third time lucky)

We have been lucky, indeed blessed, in joining Lady Scott and her husband Sir Knackers on their annual sojourn to Africa (completely untrue however it sounds fun and we have been on holiday together on two occasions which has been truly wonderful)

As one can see from the photograph above, Lady Scott takes great care in dressing and drinking like the locals. Her choice of the 1 litre gin glass with hints of tonic of course harks back to another age and the damp patches on her top I can assure you are from wrestling lion cubs away from Virginia McKenna (alleged great aunt "once removed" of my beloved) to ensure the cubs at least have a small chance of life expectancy.

Below is the real Lady Scott (of course not her real name but more related to her other life as international jet-setter and Antarctic Explorer) in more formal dress however not wearing the correct hat in London, much to the distress of the South African Raffia Hat Weavers Association for which Lady Scott was asked to be Patron. Unfortunately she could not accept due to not being able to get into her office while wearing the hat.

Introducing the Dark Empress (DE) aka "H" - provider of futons, medicinal alcohol and dancing, spiritual guru, siren of sea and shore and mother of our beloved goddaugher "JJ Bean" (good name for a company if somebody wants to buy the copyright)

caught eating a non-ecological shrimp at her own wedding!!

So few have been so afflicted as the Dark Empress with one's self landing on her doorstep (emotional trauma and cheating boyfriend!) however once embedded on the futon in Camden therapy began. If anybody ever wondered what life is like in London all I can say is "The Black Cap". Of course times change but in the early 'noughties' the only person to see was Her Resplendantness Regina Fong http://www.reginafong.com/ I cannot recall half the therapy session however I do feel it made us both better people.

However the good life never last forever and for Her Darkness it got better! Not only did she manage to marry my boyfriends dream lover (well what other reason at H and Lozzer's wedding reception would he scream to the entire ensemble "I love you Lozzer, I love you, it should have been ME!") but life realised in rural Cornwall with daughter (our godddaughter, and I am so proud), dog (lovely if it was even vaguely trained :) and a lovely cottage with our own bespoke bedroom suite (when other people aren't using it! how very dare they). We are privileged to be part of their lives.

I love this photograph, the serenity is merely covering the fact that H has just caught Daisy after 15 minutes of scampering over the sands, devouring sandwiches from Northern folk who have the adventurous spirit to picnic on a wild Cornish beach in March, disobeying all instructions, weeing when any new BIG dog came and sniffed! How Daisy coped with H doing this I will never know but it shows a deep trust and understanding with pup and owner.