21st of July, 2003 ANTE·MERIDIEM 08:43

We went to a wedding this weekend; my first cousin Ellen married John, a dentist and radiographer and all-round nice guy. The reception was in a beautiful hotel, with excellent food, service, opening hours and views of the town; the bride was stunning, the groom seemed to hit all the right notes all the right places, and everyone got happily hammered until dawn. With the main exception of Ellen’s sister Marie, who tripped on her bridesmaid’s dress while getting into the whole Irish dancing thing, landed badly on her hand, and broke her forearm in several places. She soldiered on well—the doctor present said they’d have to get an X-ray, and thus there was no immediate need to go to the hospital—but that’s very much a downer. She’s currently [Sunday evening] in Waterford hospital getting it set. But, the wedding was great. Get married, everyone, and if at all possible, get middle class enough to afford a good wedding first.

I will be much more comfortable talking about email in French (in Europe) if “courriel” takes off there, as Scott Martens seems fairly confident it will; there are few things that make you feel as ridiculous as imitating a French person’s English accent for a single word while speaking French.

Bertie Ahern and Celia Larkin apparently broke up, and I only heard about this today. I think that any social progress in the Scandinavian direction is a good thing (exception; we don’t need Sweden’s attitude to alcohol, we need Germany’s), and thus the comparative media silence on the subject is a good sign. I am a little bemused that it has taken this much time for the information to get to me, because I had this delusion that I was vaguely clued-in :-) .