Final Days of Summer

The season does officially last almost another month, but traditionally the end of August marks the end of the summer for many people. In Bermuda, where a lot of people study away, it means that people are getting ready to leave the island, and among my friends here (many of whom are locals) there is a feeling of finality. It is a much different feel than I experienced in Vancouver last summer.

I’ve been reminded more than once that I haven’t been updating my site with news. Normally that could indicate that there is no news. However, in this case there has been and I guess I will blame my alternative outlets as the culprit. I still do intend to integrate these other information sources into the site, but I’ve been having a lot of difficulty settling on certain aspects of the renovation. I guess it is a lot like building a new house, there are a lot of decisions to be made and I don’t want to rush it.

Since I’ve written last I’ve been off the island a couple of times. The first time was a quick trip up to visit my family in Nova Scotia. It was over the long Cup Match weekend in Bermuda and while only for a few days, it was a great trip. Unfortunately it coincided with my father’s trip to Malawi, so I didn’t get to see him, but Christmas isn’t too far away.

More recently, I took a quick trip to Europe. I flew into London where I stayed with my aunt and uncle for a few days. It was great to see them again, and came with the added bonus of getting to meet my new young cousins for the first time. Certainly a different experience compared to my previous stays with them, pre-children. No less enjoyable though and I just spent my days relaxing, with the occasional excursion and multiple trips to various food establishments that aren’t available to me in Bermuda. After a few days relaxing in London, I was off to Sweden for my primary reason for being in Europe, my friend Chris’s wedding.

I actually flew into Copenhagen, Denmark since it was the easiest to reach Malmö which is in southern Sweden. However Copenhagen was also the location of Tivoli, a decent sized inter-urban amusement park. So that was where Chris and I and most of the rest of the groomsmen went for the afternoon on the Thursday (20th Aug). It was a lot of fun, and after we were sufficiently dizzy and disoriented, we grabbed some dinner. We then took the train over into Malmö where we were all staying that night. Friday took us to Lund, and the wedding rehearsal. Saturday was the big day, and while the women went off for hair and makeup, the groomsmen had it a bit easier, enjoying a relaxing lunch out with Chris before returning to my hotel room to don the tuxes. It was a great ceremony, bilingual in English and Swedish. Lots of photos happened afterwards and then it was time for the reception. That was when I became the de facto wedding photograph. I’ve been uploading my photos from the event to my wedding Flickr collection. Sunday was spent exploring Lund a bit before returning to Malmö for a final night. The night was a short one as we were up at 3:30 to get out to the Copenhagen airport to catch our early morning flights.

It was a weekend I will remember for a long time, not everyday that you share in your best friend getting married. Congratulations Chris!