Hmm...just got back from Rochester, where we spent the weekend at the in-laws' house. We went down for a wedding between two people I don't know, so I wasn't very keen to go. I'm also very uneasy in religious surroundings, because I'm never sure what to do. I don't "belong" to any religion, so I feel bad about joining in with things because I feel like I'm not being honest, and I feel bad about not joining in, because I feel like I'm being rude by snubbing the people who do believe in this stuff. This was a Catholic ceremony, so I was really not looking forward to it, knowing that Catholics are more ceremonial than most. It was also blindingly hot. It wasn't taking place in a nice, old, cool stone church, because they don't have them here, so it was going to be physically uncomfortable too. Add to that the fact that my mysterious knee injury flared up, and I was in a very grumpy mood indeed.
It all went exceedingly well. It was a very informal ceremony, and despite the priest being an African chap, it came across like those bumbling comedic Church of England ceremonies. The priest kept on cracking jokes, including one that seemed to be about the groom masturbating alone in his room, and the happy couple were very happy indeed. They were so excited and joyful that their enthusiasm infected the entire room, and we all ignored how uncomfortable it all was. The reception was a bit of a chore though, as we decided to wait until the couple had had their first dance and got the important stuff (speeches, etc) out of the way before leaving, and it took them ages to get to that point. So we were sitting in a tiny room, with 200 people we didn't know for far too long.
Still, Meg said I did very well by not ruining the day for everyone, and I had a good time, in spite of myself. And, as I realised on the day, who cares if I was uncomfortable, because this was Carol and Tony's day.

Not many links today, as I really just wanted to explain to my regular readers (that's Bill and my wife Meg, if you're counting) where I've been (although Meg knows where I've been, because she was there too...). Here's a fun one about America's illegal/immoral/ill-conceived occupation of Iraq. Leaders of the free world and defenders of democracy indeed.

I bought a bunch of new comics which were all rather good, which was surprising in some cases. I may post my thoughts on the big release-Neil Gaiman's 1602-on here, but since everyone will probably do the same, I may just save my thoughts for the Comics International review. I will be adding a synopsis and brief review of the latest Avengers comic to the relevant parts of my website though.

Now, I'm off for more water to drink, and to make some more progress through my current reading. It's very readable, but not very exciting, and it tries too hard to be clever. The best bits, ironically, are the bits from "within" the Escapist comic.

Oh, by the way, Danny has informed me that his blog may yet return in some form, so I'm leaving the link on the right up until he tells me otherwise.