Brave. So very brave.

Oh, and there was the Wedding.

Following on from the previous posts late, late appearance, here's another one.

I somehow managed to get right through the previous sheepish and late post without even remembering the wedding. “Wedding?!” I don't hear you cry. “Kiki?!” I do miraculously here some of you snigger away, despite being many thousands of miles away.

Alas for you (but definitely not for me), the lovely Kiki has yet to make her appearance here and the wedding was not mine. A couple I had met on the way down – Pamela, a Saint, and Andy – had come back to St. Helena to get married. I had got along well with them, and spent some time with them on the Island as well, and had been invited to the wedding. I joined the assortment of family and friends in helping to prepare (and clean up) the church and community centre which was hosting the reception, in a manner and as part of a collective help of a sort that you would rarely see in Europe.

The wedding and reception themselves were great. Glorious sun and seemingly half of the island out and about and involved in one way or another: It was also, apparently, very traditional and that added to the experience as well. If i hadn't felt it before, the whole experience really made me feel that I kind of belong here. Danged it, but i'll miss this place

The horseshoe on the wall is a local tradition. The Bride and Groom sit underneath it, and great the wedding guests with much hand shaking and smiling, before the guests drop envelopes with their offerings into the large well next to it