May I present Mr and Mrs Briggs

My sister Chloé got married and the wedding was absolutely spectacular. She has worked so hard, pretty much all by herself for the past year to have the perfect day, and save for a slight hiccup on the Groom's Team (Best Man forgot the Rings, which only caused a 5 minute delay, no biggie), the whole day went off without a hitch (although Chloé and Wayne did get "hitched" so...).

Up to here.

We checked into Whalley Abbey, where the wedding reception will be. Paul and I, sharing a room. I get the wifi password and Paul is back into his ipad with an exasperated "thank god!". His head might as well be up his ass. I don't want to sit around so I head to the pub. I was going to tell Paul where I was going but then didn't so as to avoid the possibility that he might come with me. I think I'm just over tired and stressed to the max, but the wedding will be over soon and I would be better off to just stop being pissy and enjoy my time with my family.

The bartender sees me eyeing the taps and asks if I'm looking for a bitter. England is all about the ales. It isn't bad although I didn't catch the name.
Chloe's bridesmaids show up asking about my dad and Chloe's dress. I know nothing about either but apparently my dad is staying above this pub, which I suppose makes it an Inn.

I'm guessing I can meet him here if I wait around long enough. I order the chicken curry.
It's taking forever. Maybe it has to fly from India.
of course it arrives just after i type. I'm hungry but its too hot to consume. None of the food in England has been awe-inspiring and the curry in no exception.

The whole family shows up, we have pints at some of the fine pubs Whalley has to offer. At last-call, Paul takes off to check out the small town club scene, while Marc and I stay at the bar to finish out pints. We go outside so Marc can have a smoke and the bartender tells him it's against the law to have our drinks outside, but if we want to re-enter the bar we can smoke inside. It was a lock-in! We got to stay and order a few more pints before running into Paul on our way back to the abbey. As the sun rose we 3 brothers had a great moment together exploring the ruins of the old Abbey.

Shite Day

What a shitty day.

We take a cab from the Avalon Hostel to the airport that costs me 28€.

I try and sleep a little on the 40 minute flight back to Manchester but it doesn't really happen.

We catch a commuter train from the airport to Chloé's town which costs £28 for both of us. This was stupid since it took 2+ hours and a cab would have been £12 more.

We need sleep. I grab a few hours on the sofa before tensions boiled over between Chloé and our cousin Laura. Two forces of nature in a small house it was bound to happen. Laura's upset for many reasons, none of which have anything to do with Chloé excepte the fact that it seems "like everything is about her!"(It is. It's Chloé's wedding). She also fails to see the imposition her unexpected tenancy is creating at this stressful time. I am elected to mediate, which I feel I was somewhat successful at since the next day they were both talking.

an annoying tick

Wake up! Chloé found some fleas on George, which is stress she doesn't need with less than two weeks left till her wedding day. This means we must all tread lightly. If I can survive her wrath I will be flying to Ireland tonight with Marc, otherwise spread my ashes over Black Rock City.

Sheepish Sheep and Slags Scrapping

I woke up to Chloe's dog George in my face, licking me mercilessly. Marc and I booked a flight to Ireland for Monday, along with a hostel. It's going to be a great adventure.

We took a walk uphill, through farmers fields. The sheep would run away when they noticed us. We got to the top of a hill that had a beautiful view, but the grey skies made the photographic results underwhelming.

George is a Patterdale Terrier 

Sheep, Bahhhhhhhh.

George digging for moles 

Me on a hill in Great Harwood Lancashire

Elderly People Fisting Sign

Chloe got some great news, her application for British citizenship has been approved! She made a great pasta dish for Tea (Apparently "Tea" means "Dinner", making a "brew" means "Tea", and they call it English).

After "Tea" we went on a family pub crawl to celebrate Chloé becoming a loyal British subject. The first pub Walmesley Arms, had a guy playing Wonderwall on acoustic guitar. I guess Oaisis is still a respected bunch of wankers band here in England.

Marc and I

Me and Chloé

The second pub, Cross Axes, had more lasers than one would expect. The fog machine was excessive for such a small place. They even had a pole on stage, which I'm sure has seen some nasty nights.

Me and Marky at yet another pub

We closed out the night at Baggy's Wine Bar. A full on cat-fight broke out between two slags, complete with hair pulling and rolling on the floor. When the lights came up and the girls were pulled apart one called out "Where's me Ma!?!". I offered Marc a broken heel as a souvenir. Some old dude wanted to show Chloé his muscles, causing Marc to flex his own. She later told us that he had pulled her hair. Marc said he would have fought the ol' bastard had he known. We had seen enough violence for one night.
 

Chloé and Marc at Baggy's Wine Bar

Rain? In England?

We spent the rainy day in the house. Chloe says it's usually not like this, I don't believe her.

George nipped a bird in the backyard and was then obsessed with getting back outside to finish the job.

We watched a tv show called 8 out of 10 cats, where British comedians discuss the news of the week. It was a nice lazy day.

Tea Time

I landed in Manchester at 10am, cleared customs and took a commuter train to Chloe's place. She had a cab waiting for me at the station. The cabbie assumed I was American, on account of my accent. He' also erroneously supposed my sister was English on account of hers. 0 for 2 cabbie.

It's so nice to see Chloe and Marc after such a long time (more than a year!).

We went to walk Chloe's cute puppy George, then went to the pub for a nice room temperature beer. It's like drinking in someones house.

So tired. I find myself falling asleep while chloe rhymes off a list of wedding songs. Time for bed.

Banana Baker

I'm in a Starbucks in a bookstore. Enjoying the air conditioned sweetness but running short on power. Coffee shops seem to have less and less power outlets, maybe hoping you will move on when the battery gets low.

Is it cheating to go back and make up a post for yesterday? It was a busy day and by the end of it I was much too tired to write about it.

I leave for my sister Chloe's wedding in England tomorrow night. I have tons to do still. Laundry and packing, is all really.

So this is what happened yesterday:

Yesterday I went to the bank to get Euros and Pounds. I'm not sure which I will need more of but I'm glad I won't have to try and find an international bank machine or pay insane service fees. The bank tried to sell me on a service package that I pointed out would end up costing me more over the long run. I did end up starting a tax free savings account. We will see how that goes.


I picked up a birthday gift for my brother Marc. I haven't seen him since last April and I can't wait to have a pint with him in (fingers crossed) Dublin.

I made banana bread, maybe not the smartest thing to do on a hot day but I wanted to use up my over-ripe bananas instead of tossing them. I bought a nice loaf pan for a birthday gift I never ended up giving so I used that. I used a basic recipe I found on the internet and it turned out pretty good.

I said goodbye to my best friend Ian. He's going to Hollywood to work for some big movie Director (yeah, Seriously). We went for a drive and chatted about what the future may hold, which neither of us know. I'm looking forward to visiting him in LA at some point. How exciting. I'm really happy for him but I'm sad because I will miss him so much.

Claude Hooper Bukowski

I booked my flight to the UK for my sister Chloe's wedding. I booked through A Canadian Affair. I normally fly Air Canada but it was way more expensive. I will be flying on Air Transat, it was 200$ cheaper booking on A Canadian Affair than the Air Transat website. My direct/return flight to Manchester, taxes in, was 818$.



I get in on June 21st, a Thursday. Pear Jam will be playing, I've never seen them play but I did see them in person at the Tiff11 screening of their eponymous Cameron Crowe directed doc. It would be cool to go with Marc and Chloe and Wayne if they are interested.

I was very apprehensive about making the booking because without a job I can't really afford the trip, but I can't miss my sisters wedding and the aeroplan points on my credit card will bring me one step closer to another trip to Japan (which I also can't yet afford).