Ireland Part 2 – The Wedding

The big day had arrived and we got up early as we had to go to the hairdresser’s to get our hair done. Mum and my Auntie had theirs washed and blow dried, while I had mine washed, then went under the dryer, had it put in rollers then under the dryer again and then put up! It was well worth it as it looked pretty (even if I do say so myself.) We then went home and got into our outfits and set off for the church which was a 15minute drive away. We arrived to find loads of onlookers outside the church trying to get a glimpse of the bride and the wedding, the minister said this was the biggest wedding he had ever been involved in (there were around 200 people there).

The wedding lasted over an hour as the string quartet played, hymns were sung and the groom’s sister (who sang at my brother’s wedding) also did a solo. After the wedding the guests were invited over to the church hall for a light lunch, where the quartet also played again. All the guests then set off for the reception which was taking place at a hotel in a place called Newcastle which is a small seaside town at the foot of the Mourne Mountains. It was over an hour away (I slept for most of the car journey).

The reception was at the Slieve Donard Hotel and started at around 5 o’ clock. The speeches were great and the food was delicious, the tables were decorated beautifully and the attention to detail was superb! Instead of favours the bride and groom made a donation to a local charity called Riding for the Disabled which was a great idea. After the four course meal there was a chocolate fountain with strawberries, fudge, marshmallows etc and then a band and disco. There was a buffet served at around 11.00pm and the dancing went on till around 1 o’ clock, that’s when we left but apparently the chatting went on till 3am.

We stayed over in the hotel and woke up to an Ulster fry breakfast. I just had sausages and bacon and it was delicious (although I was to pay for it later.) After breakfast we went for a stroll in the hotel grounds and along the beach, there was even time for a paddle in the sea (it was absolutely freezing!) We then headed on home back to Armagh as I was too tired to spend the day in Newcastle which was a shame. The road home was not straight (that’s an understatement) it was so windy and twisty and about 30mins into the journey I could tell my stomach wasn’t feeling too happy. We pulled over to get a drink of water and I thought the sooner I get back in the car the sooner we get home but this was not one of my better ideas. About 20minutes later we had to pull over again, this time in a car park, I walked into the corner and was (as discreetly as possible) sick in some bushes, not so glamorous, I was trying so hard to not be sick on my own feet as I was wearing flip flops!!! I thought the sausages and bacon in the morning wasn’t such a good idea, ah well, I will learn my lesson one day!

So the rest of the day was spent taking it easy and sleeping as I had tired myself out! Then it was off to dialysis again which went fine and luckily no clotting this time. Yesterday we went to a local town called Portadown for a bit of souvenir buying and window shopping, and that’s my week in a nutshell really! We arrived back home last night about 11.30 and I had a lovely nights sleep back in my own bed!

I’m so glad I decided to go, I don’t know why I put it off for so long or why I was so nervous about it! The dialysis went fine, the nurses were great and I haven’t got a bad word to say about it at all, it almost felt like I didn’t dialyse at all, it was a real holiday and I will certainly go back in the future in fact… I can’t wait!!!