Blog
An eventful day out
Sunday 2nd November 2014
That's it for another year! The cars went out yesterday for the last weddings of 2015 and the diary is now empty until next March. Now I have time for the maintenance and renovation jobs that I couldn't tackle whilst the cars were on wedding duty.
My last wedding was certainly eventful. I arrived at the Manor Hotel in Elstree to find a crowd of people outside who were clearly delighted to see the vintage Austin. They asked me to pull up outside the front door and then proceeded to photograph each other, posing in front of the car. It turned out to be a meeting of a group of Dennis Wheatly fans on a trip to the hotel, which happened to be the location for a film of 'The Devil Rides Out'. The film was apparently set in the 1920s and the car was perfectly in period.
Next I came close to driving off with the wrong bride aboard. It turns out there were two brides staying at the hotel both of whom were setting out at virtually the same time. I hadn't met the bride for whom I was driving, so when one of them emerged I leaped to attention and opened the car door for her. She approached, but I could sense a look of doubt and hesitation on her face so I asked if she was going to the Cathedral. Just as well I said something because it was the wrong person and her cars were tucked away in the far corner of the car park.
I finally set off with the correct passengers only to be met by a queue of car on the A5 just outside Radlett. My feelings of concern about the delay turned to sheer disbelief when I saw the reason for it; a cow had escaped from a nearby field and was wandering along the road, chewing the cud and staring at the traffic. Luckily I managed to crawl past without mishap and arrived at St Albans Cathedral just in time. If we had been late, nobody would have believed the excuse that a runaway cow had caused a traffic jam.
I do like weddings at the Cathedral, it is such an imposing structure and the car always receives lots of attention, parked outside the west door, waiting for the bride and groom.
They were a lovely couple and we got along well. Sadly, I had to turn down an invitation to join them for a drink, as the grandchildren were visiting, but I thoroughly enjoyed the day and it made me look forward to next Spring.