I've never been a 'Spring clean' kind of person, more of the 'Is that the colour that is meant to be...let's give it a wipe and find out' kind.
This carefree attitude came back to bite me big time this week as I reached in to the back of my kitchen cupboard and pulled out a packet of linseed, only to find an unwelcome maggot attached to the bottom by,what I imagine to be a conglomerate of insect poops, that resembled white poppy seeds, when examined closely.
I decided the time had come to clean out the cupboard and as I donned my Marigolds I started to pull out all the packets of obscure foodstuffs from behind the regularly used pastas and rices. Out came the wild rice that we got from our neighbours, the Bollands, when they left to go to New Zealand over 5 years ago, the packet of Polish noodles that my friend gave me and I could never quite work out what to put them in and there, at the back , were more droppings with maggots embedded.
It got worse.....as I cleared out the lower shelves where the bread maker lay, undisturbed for the last 2 years beside the pile of side plates that we aquired seven years ago, just in case they might come in handy and never did as we like using paper plates when we entertain, I discovered a complete family of spiders had taken up residence....and I can promise you these were sizable arachnids, at least ten of them despairing that their cover had been blown and world domination was pretty much a long and distant memory, but I can tell you, they had given it a pretty good go.
I'm not always slow on the uptake, especially when it comes to love. When Robin and I met, we started to go out after three weeks and nine days later he asked me to marry him...I mean, when you know something is right, why not just grab it with both hands?
We spent last weekend at the Norwood hotel in Aberdeen in the lap of luxury, enjoying Matthew and Jenna's wedding on the Friday and Stephen and Natalie's on the Sunday with a relaxing day off in between. We had booked a room for a couple of nights and were pleasantly surprised to find, when we arrived for check in, that we had been upgraded to an Executive suite with a complimentary cream tea included, very nice indeed.
Matthew and Jenna had waited nine years since they met to get to the altar, carefully planning everything, knowing it was all well worth waiting for. Stephen and Natalie on the other hand had decided on the fast track option, a bit like Robin and myself. Stephen's Mum, Christina told us their story.....
Both Natalie and Stephen had been in relationships previous to getting together, though Natalie had been a good friend of Stephen's sister and had been on the family radar for a while. Christina had told us that she had actually told Natalie, years before, how happy she would have been to have her as a daughter-in-law, not realising that she would one day get her way.
The opportunity came for a spot of match making when Stephen returned home, newly single and looking for a place to live. Christina pointed out that Natalie was also looking for somewhere and suggested that as he would be away so much, working in the oil industry, that he and Natalie get a two bedroomed house together and share. Initially Stephen wasn't too keen, but they talked about it and decided it made sense financially and so they moved in together. It didn't take long before Christina's dream came true and they clicked in more ways than one, realising how they felt about each other...well done Mum!
To everyone's surprise, Natalie fell pregnant, something they were told couldn't happen for medical reasons. The fairytale gets better and better and this one includes a miracle...when Natalie went in to labour her placenta ruptured and she went in to a diabetic coma, having to have an emergency section with both her and baby Cara in intensive care for 12 hours after the birth, Stephen left not knowing if he was going to lose them both.
Thankfully they recovered and we had the joy of spending their special day with them all on Sunday.
So there you have it, two couples, both in love as much as the other. One a slow languorous burn and the other faster and more furious but both as intense and both making the same vows. Now if that isn't a great excuse for not spring cleaning, I don't know what is....x
