Q: What do you get if you take some urbane Germans, add a large contingent of Irish (Dolans at that!), numerous comedians, old friends, new friends, families, Salzburg, mist, mountains and a band called Jason und der Argonauten?

A: A kick-ass wedding that's what!



Last weekend was an unrelenting good time. I was in Salzburg for the wedding of one Mark Dolan to one Maria-Rosa Kramer and the torrential rain on Friday night and all day Saturday could do nothing to dampen the spirits. Staying at the charming Schloss Leopoldskron didn't do any harm either. This was used as a location for the Sound of Music . It's probably a site of special significance to film lovers around the world. The sort of people who might consider the place defiled if they were ever to hear about Dom's tribute to Paris down by the lake at about 6am...


The wedding ceremony was in Bad Durrnberg about 45 minutes from Salzburg, up a winding road into the mountains. The church itself was wreathed in cloud and had the most stunning baroque interior. You don't get that in the Church of England I thought. And you don't get "He's got the whole world in his hands" in German either. The order of service thoughtfully provided words in English as well but I wasn't going to pass up the chance of giving the German version what-for. Next up was "Morning has broken" and while Damien wasn't pointing out what looked like rude words I tried my best there as well. You can't beat a sing song.

We headed back to Salzburg in a long cavalcade of cars but hadn't got far before we all came to a stop. Moments later the groom came running downhill back into the village. It didn't look like an auspicious start to married life but in fact all was well.



The reception was in the Schloss, in an elegant baroque ballroom with high ceilings, enormous chandeliers and gigantic paintings. It's probably the closest Mark will ever get to living like his idol, Elton John. The meal was delicious and the speeches were outstanding. Mark entertained the troops in English and German, winning my eternal respect in the process. And Maria said a wonderful thing when explaining that she knew when she was away from Mark for too long - her face wasn't aching from smiling and laughing. There was a lot of that going on and the whole event had a marvellous atmosphere.

The party kicked off downstairs in the schloss once we had finished with dinner. Thats when Jason und der Argonauten took over. They were an excellent wedding band. Not a glittery sequined waist coat to be seen. And an eclectic range of material that seemed to suit everyone. There is however no excuse for DJ Otzi. If Austrian content is required the polite option is surely "Rock me Amadeus" by Falco. My particular favourite moment came during "The Lion sleeps tonight" when I distinctly heard the singer explaining that "in the Willage, the peaceful Willage, the lion sleeps tonight". Bless him! Anyhow the dancing was vigorous and a good time was being had by all. The room was also awash with stunning lady architects from all over Europe, on whom I managed to make no impression what so ever. Ha! The old magic's still there.

Now I am a notorious lightweight but by thunder these boys had stamina, the Argonauten I mean. And I was just having so much fun that I could scarcely believe it was 3am when they finished. But that wasn't the end of the fun because the hyper-talented Susy Kane took to the piano and finally brought some much needed Elton John to the proceedings. But soon time had caught up with me and I took off to bed. But the carousing carried on till daybreak I believe. Well done everyone concerned.

True to form the day after the wedding dawned sunny and bright. People slowly emerged for breakfast and we went off to explore Salzburg, or should I say try to drink more coffee. It's a beautiful place and the coffee is very strong. I can offer no greater praise to say that it reminded me of Edinburgh. Without the Calvinism. And I'd particularly recommend the castle - I scored it at 9 out of 10 (just losing points for lack of turrets and a slightly domestic aspect from certain angles. But then I'm very harsh - Paula Abdul gave it 10.). Above all it gives a great view of the old town below it. Then round the other side it offers a stunning mountain panorama to which I have utterly failed to do justice below.


(Click to see a bigger version!)

After spending all winter in the Rockies, the Alps came as quite a surprise. There is something really primal and even sublime about their shape and the contrast with the urbane gentility of baroque Salzburg round the corner was quite something. The clouds and snow did help, lending the scene some extra romance!

Soon we had to be back at the airport. But even Ryanair were prompt in arriving, departing and getting the bags off the plane. Some enchanted evening eh?

More pics:
- Nice Schloss
- The Church
- German chassis, British name...
- Edinburgh pals
- The Parents
- Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Elton John!
- Francesca keeps time
- Sorry Macca!
- Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Neville Chamberlain
- Party Hard
- Groovy Bishop statue
- Sinister hot dog idol

Dramatic scenes down on the Isle of Wight this weekend. My own personal sporting history was made as for the first time a hockey team I play on actually won something! Look..


And the trophy even looks Stanley Cup shaped! Fantastic. So it's the name of the Westminster Statesmen that will be the first to be engraved on the Wight Dinos Anniversary cup. Woo Ha!

It was a great weekend of hockey and sunny seaside weather. Like Arsenal we proved to be unbeatable. First up on Saturday morning we played the Nationwide Knights from Swindon and skated away to an impressive 5-3 win. Then on Saturday afternoon we played the hosts, the Wight Dinos and stunned them with a 5-2 win. That meant that come what may we were in the final and the winner of Swindon / IOW on Sunday morning would be our opponent. Our one game on Sunday morning was against the Basingstoke Hyenas and after a slow start we pulled away to win 5-1. Swindon put out the hosts so it was a rematch at the end of the day with the Knights. This was an excellent game and for the first time all weekend we went behind to an early goal. But we got back into the game and soon pulled ahead. The final score was 6-3 and when the hooter went to end the game we piled onto the ice and leapt on Graham our goalie to celebrate. (Luckily I'd seen this done on the telly so I knew thats what you do when you win something in Ice Hockey). Graham was named the best Goalie of the tournament and I got the prize for best forward!

(thanks to Tash for this immortal image)

In the end I think I got 6 goals and 8 assists in our 4 games.

Here are some more pics:
- The Finalists
- Champio-nes
- Graham and his bling!
- John hoists the trophy
- Man in West Ham shirt lifts trophy (if only that happened more often)
- Me with my prize
- JW gone Cup crazy
- Michal hoists the cup aloft
- Chuffed supporters (Thanks for all the cheering!)
- JM with the silverware
- Graham's Atkins diet was a startling success
- Dawn's sunset

Thanks very much to Dawn for taking pics during the game. She even got one of my goals on video! So for the first time on aTeaButNoE - moving images!! Gol.zip(770Kb)

The other good news is that Dad is out of hospital and back at home. Go Dad!

Blimey - turns out working life doesn't give you much time for blogging. Or maybe it was just a busy week. To sum up the key points:

- I had a birthday
- Dad went into hospital
- Played some hockey - didn't play any cricket
- Saw a god-daughter

Birthday first. I was 34 on Friday. That's officially mid thirties. Hmmmm. I went out on Thursday night to be seranaded by the sounds of Jamie Reid's band the Coldshoulder. It was a top gig; they were sounding very good and I saw a lot of friends for the first time since comming home so that was great.

Unfortunately Thursday was the day dad was taken into hospital. It wasn't an emergency as such but it still came as a surprise to me. He scalded his foot a few weeks ago and the wound had got infected. The infection started to get worse rather than better so he was taken to the Acute Infections ward of the hospital. They hooked him up to some intravenous anti-biotics. We hope that has now done the trick as yesterday he had a skin graft to repair the infected area on his foot. And today is his 86th birthday - way to go pops!

I went home on Friday afternoon to see Dad and to sit with my ma while the carer takes a break. It was nice to see my folks on my birthday even it was hard seeing Dad rather helpless in hospital. On Saturday I managed to get Ma and the wheelchair into the car and I took her up for a visit. Dad was delighted and I was really touched by how close and affectionate they are after all these years together: they are a great endorsement for matrimony and I love them for it. Taking mum up there in the car was a great effort for her I believe but it really meant a lot to me. Just that short time in the car together and pushing her along in the wheel chair was wonderful because we were actually doing something together, even if it was under slightly unhappy circumstances.

On the Sunday I was meant to be playing both cricket and ice hockey! In the end the cricket was called off which allowed me to go and spend the afternoon with Jig and Tara and their gorgeous children, Lilly and Stella. Stella is my god-daughter and like all the best people her birthday is May 7th. I delivered some first-birthday loot and we feasted and played all afternoon. It was good!

Life goes on eh?

Today I went to work. It was strange to think that on May 4th this was my first day of work since December. Strange and good!

I found that its good to be back. The crew at Intapps are all still there and its just a nice place to work. I also found I had 13,000 emails in my inbox. Somebody was really desperate for me to buy something called V1agra...