Originally Posted by
Bubba
My summary will be brief(ish) as I spent roughly 11 hours with my EOFFers… enjoyed every minute though! Here are some of my (occasionally hazy) recollections.
The end of my working week and the eve of BoB and Danielle’s wedding. My friend Chris and I were fortunate enough to have been invited to their evening reception to join the celebrations. There were still a couple of hours before my train up to Glasgow in Scotland. I was enjoying a well-earned pint of flat, lukewarm lager in a bar in Manchester Piccadilly station. I was quietly mulling over some of life’s great unanswered questions when I received a slightly panicked message from one Daniel Towns. There had been some unfortunate late cancellations which left two open spaces for the wedding and afternoon dinner. Obviously, the prospect of a beautiful wedding, five-star meal and free wine was not in the least bit appealing… but we decided to help BoB out of his little dilemma and rushed off to procure some suits for the big day.
Our journey to the gorgeous Abden House for the wedding was not without incident. To save money for the reception, Chris thought it would be a splendid idea to get the bus over (from Glasgow) to Edinburgh. I had forgotten what a truly horrifying experience the bus can be. Funny smells, deranged faces and unnecessary aggression… and that was just the driver. Luckily, we didn’t feel out of place at all in our full wedding suits.
I was decidedly nervous when we arrived at Abden House. Mainly due to the fact that I didn’t know what most of the EOFFers looked like... nor had I met any of them. There was only BoB, Shorty and Rantz that I’d seen pictures of. Chris and I stood awkwardly at the entrance being appraised by two (Lev and Paul) very sharply dressed young men. I had no idea who these two were but thankfully Paul recognised me and stepped forward to make introductions. Being used to Paul’s cutting wit on the forum I was surprised at how pleasant he was on first meet! He didn’t even rise to my dig at his love for Liverpool FC. We were then led to a room to leave our luggage by Lev (such a lovely guy) and we then ventured into the garden. A familiar face in Mr. Towns greeted us on the steps looking very dapper. Obviously he was quite busy with it being 30 minutes before getting hitched, he quickly directed us to the circle (or was it oval?) of EOFFers that had congregated in the garden.
More first meetings, this time with Sarah, Pontus, Shauna, Matt, Marion, DC and Ashley. I was unsure of the correct first-greet etiquette but Sarah pulled me into a full-on hug. Pontus followed suit as did most of the others. What a fantastic group of people! We were made to feel so welcome (especially Chris who wasn’t part of the EOFF crowd) and it was an absolute delight to be around everyone.
Next came the main event. Now it must be said, I’ve never met Daniel Towns before but I’ve never seen anyone look so incredibly happy. Whenever I picture him now, it’s always in that constant state of elation. I imagine people in the street giving him strange looks and a very wide berth as they pass his grinning face. The reason for his manic delight became clear when the gorgeous Danielle walked towards him looking absolutely stunning. The ceremony itself was just beautiful. My favourite moment was the vows that the happy couple had written for each other. It made it so much more personal and they were just lovely to hear.
After the pictures had all been taken, our group jumped a couple of taxis to the outstanding Scotsman Hotel in the centre of Edinburgh. Upon arrival, we were delighted to be offered a free glass of prosecco/cocktail. There was the standard one glass per guest rule in place. Matt nonchalantly ignored this to procure a second glass for him and Shauna. This may have contributed towards his slightly demonic dancing at the end of the night! Chris’ attempt at obtaining a second glass of prosecco was rebuffed immediately to no-one’s surprise.
Sarah found a lovely outdoor area with a huge table which seemed to have been placed there just for us. This was such a nice time finally getting to know everyone. I’d chatted to Sarah a lot on the forum but it was great to have a proper conversation with her. She’s just such a warm person with a highly infectious laugh! Matt, Shauna and Chris (all hailing from the Glasgow area) were discussing Scotland with equal amounts of pride and deprecation but with great hilarity. Pontus and Lev are ridiculously cool and great to chat to. I seem to remember Marion trying (and failing) to avoid DC’s relentless picture taking. Not sure why as she looks fabulous in them. The photos are great in general and I’m glad DC persevered. I remember me and Ashley chatting about Ice Hockey in which my home town of Manchester is not particularly well represented!
The evening meal was stand-out and made me love Mr. Towns even more for inviting me along. It all started with the speeches of course which were stellar. Danielle’s father had me in stitches with Danielle’s borderline animal abuse! I hope no-one from the RSPCA was in attendance. Daniel did an excellent job with his speech/singing (not a bad voice!) which was always going to be topped by Paul. You couldn’t tell he was nervous at all and he ripped it… and BoB! Nicky’s speech was amazing too as I hadn’t been expecting that at all. I’m just glad BoB wasn’t around when the topic of soup came up again while we were at the table! After that the food arrived which was exquisite. This was again a lovely time chatting about really random stuff with everyone. I remember us all being baffled by the tiny gifts that were on our table. I may have gone a little heavy on the white wine as I completely forgot to take mine with me. What was it in the end? Fudge? It was great to be visited by members of the family notably Jordan, Josh and of course the lovely Nikki who became an honorary member of our group before the end of the night!
After dinner came the dancing along with the quite excellent band. First dance between the happy couple was always going to be lovely... and it was. More entertaining though was the one that followed. Paul was understandably nervous when he discovered he would be dancing with the lovely maid of honour. Pontus and I took great delight in his pre-dance nerves! He was actually fine and did a really good job. However, this dance was far outstripped by his dance to The Killers with Sarah. All inhibitions gone, they literally went bat-trout crazy; throwing their bodies around the dance floor with reckless abandon. It was like observing a couple of deranged children after drinking four litres of coke… truly a sight to behold. I was up dancing for a few but was royally upstaged by Matt with his Queen tribute! Towards the end, Marion and I danced to a song then were immediately disgusted with ourselves for doing so. We promised to never reveal this song to anyone and I will keep my word!
The final stages of the night were probably my favourite of all. We had all abandoned the dance floor and one-by-one found ourselves a little EOFF den in the back of the hotel. There was probably enough seating for about 6 people but we all squashed up together and proceeded to talk the most random bollocks. I was contentedly sat between Paul and Sarah while we all drifted from one random topic to another. It’d be nice to have a transcript of that whole conversation so we could remember some of the daft things that came up. From passive-aggressive unicorns to the now infamous Handicapped Elevator Ghost. If anyone overheard us they would probably have thought we were all insane. Well, if that’s how conversations go in a nuthouse then I’ll happily be committed right now.
This highlight unfortunately marked the end of proceedings as we decided it was late enough in the evening to say our goodbyes. We all exchanged hugs and I definitely felt huge pangs of sadness at seeing everyone leave. Chris did his best to cheer me up by taking me to a live music bar round the corner. It was probably not the smartest move considering our early get-up the next day but hey-ho. We rolled into our guesthouse at around 3am and thought it would be a good idea to watch Monty Python on my iPhone… again sleep would have been the better option!
All in all, it was one of my favourite ever days. One of my few regrets is that I didn’t get to spend much time with Mr. and Mrs Towns. I think it’s fair to say though… they did have rather a lot on their plate! Regardless, it will give me an excuse to pop up there again so I can get to know them properly. Finally meeting the people I’ve been chatting to for the last couple of years couldn’t have gone any better. The EOFF crowd were the most warm, friendly, funny, beautiful, and crazy people I’ve ever met.
I think the possibility of a two-year reunion has already been mentioned by those involved. If that’s the case, then time can not pass quickly enough.
If I had known that, I would have been up much sooner. We spent atleast a good hour in the Waverly cafeteria center eating and fashioning names and words out of fries. (sorry, Nicky, I am a bad friend ;___________; ) DC, Lev, Pontus and I headed upstairs to get some coffee (I was the only one who chose an iced drink, which was a bad idea considering we were all already wearing coats and jackets). Soon, Daniel and Danielle showed up! We were not expecting them, I do not think, as I thought their plan was to remain holed up in their Scotsman suite all day. We sat around and spoke for a bit longer, until we all just started getting up to leave. I was under the impression that we were going to walk around town a bit or perhaps go back to the flat, as I had not really had a chance to hear what the plan was at the other end of the table where it was being discussed.
A hillside! I was not prepared for this, not in the slightest. As we are all getting a workout going up these stairs, Daniel says something along the lines of "I'm sure it won't rain!" or "I'm sure the weather will be fine!" or "I'm sure nothing terrible will happen within the next five minutes!". Something assuring us of good-natured weather. He was wrong. Oh, how he was so wrong. In fact, I am beginning to suspect he made such a comment on purpose after having looked up the weather prior to visiting us at Waverly and intended on dragging us up that hill just as hurricane-league storms came chasing in purely to spite the lot of us. Right as we reached the top of the hill, the rain came in. The flash of weather change was ridiculous! I'm not certain how poor Marion wasn't entirely blown away, the winds were so harsh. It was around this time that DC's poor umbrella gave way, and the mangled thing didn't work properly after that. We made our way to some ruins to get on the other side of where the wind was blowing and took some great group photos, and somehow found ourselves in a big knotted hug to get even better photos. The wind was still blowing something fierce as we came around the corner of the ruins, and Pontus was kind enough to offer to be a buffer against the wind for me because he is a giant (as you all can clearly see). As we headed back toward the stairs, we came across an exhibit of an ancient cannon that Matt decided to pretend was his penis. The photographic evidence is exactly as you might imagine it. Right around this time, the weather decided to clear up! Couldn't have just put off it's troutty attitude for fifteen minutes!
I think we can do something earlier than two years for those of us that are living in the UK, don't you? ;D I mean, that's still a lot of us - Danielle, Bubba, Chris, Shauna, Matt, Psy, Faris, DC and myself makes nine already!
