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When first my brave Johnie lad came to this town,
He had a blue bonnet that wanted the crown;
But now he has gotten a hat and a feather,
Hey, brave Johnie lad, cock up your beaver!

Cock up your beaver, and cock it fu’ sprush,
We’ll over the border, and gie them a brush;
There’s somebody there we’ll teach better behaviour,
Hey, brave Johnie lad, cock up your beaver!

Robert Burns, 1791

Said good-bye to David and Jacqueline on Saturday morning and headed out to Great Offley for John and Andrew’s Civil Partnership. The ceremony and reception were held at Offley Place, which is a newly renovated, very smart hotel. The hotel is so newly renovated that the doors had bits of paper on them with the room numbers. The dress code for the ceremony was informal and colourful: so I wore my kilt with a t-shirt. I sent a picture message to my sister and she thought I looked like a ‘Scottish Thug’. I can’t see it myself. I rather liked the look (and it’s way too camp to be thug!)

The ceremony was mostly attended by family and was held in one of the lovely rooms in the ground floor. John and Andrew made a grand entrance dressed in top hats and tails, carrying canes and wearing cravats. Very nice! The registrar and her assistant made a good job of the ceremony: Andrew and John exchanged neck chains, and lit a unity candle. John’s daughter, Louise, was one of the witnesses and Michael did a good job of looking after one of her sons, Rory. Michael looked great in his red waistcoat, and it was very romantic to be there with him, remembering our own civil partnership 18 months ago.

After the ceremony we had Bucks Fizz and some photo opportunities. Some of the photo’s are on my Flickr set. We had a relaxing and very nice buffet meal in the conservatory at the side of the building, including some wicked mini eclairs with a dark chocolate dipping sauce, then spent the evening chatting in the front drawing room. About 11pm, Michael and I ventured out for a stroll and some fresh air, but the weather was so damp and windy that we only lasted 5 minutes before slinking back inside.

The rooms at Offley Place are lovely, I particularly liked the stylish bathrooms (so I took loads of photos’ for inspiration for our bathroom at home). We were woken up at 2.30 in the morning by two of the waitresses who wanted to borrow our key to see if they could get into one of the other rooms! A Very strange thing to happen and quite annoying at that time in the morning. It also disturbed Andrew’s sister and family who were in the room opposite. We mentioned it to the Manger when we checked out and he was speechless.

We joined Andrew and John, and Andrews family for breakfast in the morning, after a leisurely lie in bed, an extra hour because of the clocks changing!

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Went with Michael, David and Jacqueline to see Nineteen Eighty Four at the ADC Theatre. It was an ambitious production by the Amateur Dramatic Club which worked very well. Ed Rice was super as Winston Smith, as was David F. Walton and O’Brien. The play followed the books well, and I had forgotten how bleak the ending is… The first half ended with the lovers being discovered by Big Brother, which was very dramatic and shocking after all the celebration of their ‘freedom’.

We went over for some nice Deuchars IPA at the Burleigh Arms

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Tried some of the green tea that I got from the Laoshe Tea House on my recent trip to Beijing. This tea comes in little dried pellets, that unfold into a tea sculpture in the tea pot! Very nice looking, fantastic smell (of jasmine) and tasted very nice too.

This particular tea is with globe amaranth flower and jasmine.

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Spent the afternoon showing David and Jacqueline through some of the Cambridge colleges. King’s (and the chapel), Trinity and St John’s. The CAM Card was fantastic as the three of us got in for free everywhere. David and Jaqueline were very impressed.

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David and Jacqueline arrived about 6 after a pretty awful drive from Scotland (David left Glasgow at 7am!) It’s my first time to meet Jacqueline and she was good fun! We went out to The Peking Restaurant, in Burleigh Street for a great meal, sharing dishes and chatting to the owners. One of the owners had lived in Glasgow for a few years. The food was lovely, and came in the usual large portions! At the next table were a couple who proposed to one-another 27 years ago in the restaurant, which was very good fun. Michael arrived about 9.20, after his Spanish evening class and he was able to eat what we had left with some fresh rice and tea, so that worked out very efficiently. One of the dishes was pork with schezuan vegetables, which used the pickled schezuan roots that we normally munch as pickles on the side: it worked very well included in a cooked dish. The restaurant was filled with the smell of chillies frying at high temperatures and occasional clouds of chilli oil! Very atmospheric.

We went around to the Free Press for drinks afterwards and Chris guessed David and I were about the same age! (He finally guessed David’s age as 10 years older than he really is!), very amusing!