Days 135 and 136

This weekend we went away to the countryside, in order to introduce Goth Girl to the yokel side of the family and announce our news to them. We ended up staying in a B&B owned by a couple who knew my great uncles very well and who also remembered my mother, her siblings and indeed my grandparents. I'm glad that we don't live in such a small community, otherwise keeping this partiular secret would have been impossible no matter what we did.

Mother Skiver committed two blunders over the weekend. The first was to spring us upon her brother without telling him that Goth Girl existed or indeed that I was no longer with First Wife. I think they might get over the shock some time within the next six months. The second was to invite the assembled crowd to our wedding. Fortunately, I think they all know well enough not to take anything for granted as we are by no means certain how many there will be room for.

The issue of whether to take your husband's name is one every bride has to consider. I have an idea what Goth Girl intends to do; First Wife, for reasons I entirely understood, never took my name. But in the newspaper this weekend was a girl who must have been desperate to lose her maiden name. Now that the wedding has taken place, I hope that Mrs Dempster gets a lot less writer's cramp than she did as Miss van Bergenhenegouwen.