Glod is Liefde

Friday I wrote my last exam for the year. With any luck, I’ve passed them all and will be heading into second year B.Ed. in 2007.

On Saturday, we went to Swartruggens, near Rustenburg, for a wedding. It was M’s cousin, and the same family who helped us out with a certain Mercedes-Benz problem in December 2005.

Swartruggens is a mining town. While we were there, I saw a coal train, and apparently it also has a platinum mine. Ironic, really, that a town that produces two of the most sought-after resources is so poor, but I guess that’s the world as we know it.

We got to the game farm, dressed for the wedding, and then had to drive back to the town for the wedding. People complained that they should have had the wedding at the farm. I agree.

There were twins, aged five, who were dressed to kill as the ring bearers. As they walked past our room, I heard one say to the other, “We’re definitely the best-looking people here”. Out of the mouths of babes, as they say.

The wedding ceremony was at the Dutch Reformed Church (as opposed to the Reformed Church), the building being 85 years old and constructed mostly out of stone (I think granite). Beautiful as architecture goes, but very stark inside. The pews were uncomfortable and the PA system wasn’t very effective. M commented that the stone-backed clock was a little gaudy. I agree.

The service was thankfully short – there were children whose parents couldn’t control them and were noisy. There’s a “cry room” for a reason, parents! Liza-Marie looked amazing in a white and red dress. The groom, whose nickname means “barrel”, looked a little anxious.

The organist got the first song wrong, for some reason. It’s the first time in my life something like that has happened.

There are 44 pipes on the organ.

There was also a banner under the altar reading “God is Liefde”, but the G was so ornate that it looked like “Glod”, hence the subject line of this blog.

We went off to the game farm for the reception, and had a four-course meal consisting of smoked salmon, roast vegetables, steak, spinach rolled in something very tasty which I think was pastry, and three-mousse dessert. I had half a glass of sparkling wine before the heartburn kicked in. I drank mostly water and Coke (in separate glasses).

The MC, a rugby player known in those parts, was quite well-spoken and did a good job of ceremony monstering (it’s an Afrikanerism, like “trek”). Speeches were short, funny, poignant, all of those good things you want but never expect at a wedding, and the general atmosphere was pleasant. Bear in mind that I was an Englishman in the heart of Afrikanerdom, and I still managed to enjoy myself.

For the record, I am the biggest arachnophobe I know. In our room (separate beds, sharing with the old people in their own bed), was a spiders’ nest. Inside this nest were about five daddy long-legs, and a rain spider the size of a small continent. That was fine. It was the dangerous one the size of my thumb that had my soon-to-be mother-in-law on the go. No, I was the one cowering in the corner. She nailed it with a towel to make sure it was dead.

The next morning I felt as though I’d had things crawling all over me during the night. Yecch.