These last few weeks have been quite extraordinary in a positive and happy way.
First there was the build-up and anticipation, then the “big day”, followed by the “getting back to normal” syndrome.
I am in fact referring to our civil registration which took place on Saturday as an extremely quiet affair.
In fact for personal reasons (mainly cultural and partly health) what many people describe as “the happiest day of my life” was an unassuming, happy little event indeed. But actually we would not have it any other way as we aren’t into all the flimflam and showing off that some people might enjoy. That doesn’t mean that we are thoroughly miserable, it’s just the way we are.
We decided that our best option was to go through the official and legal method, to quietly celebrate in our own way and then just get on with our lives.
While we were sat in the registrar’s office apart from the objective only two other things were on my mind:
The fact that I had gone my entire adult life (about 40 years — I am now 56) avoiding, indeed dismissing the whole concept of a personal and person-to-person contract. So it is very true to say that the other person involved in this “contract” is extremely important indeed. In actual fact the pressure to go for this arrangement came from myself. It wasn’t just a “flash in the pan” idea it was something that I wanted to do providing my partner was happy and easy with it.
The other thing on my mind was how Great Britain has really moved on in the last 10 to 15 years. The very fact that a civil registration can happen in our culture and in our country is a legal and dare I say political victory. So on Saturday I sat there feeling comfortable if rather like the cat who got the cream!
Our only slight shadow on the entire affair was the very slight inequality that I felt (and always will feel) between myself and my partner. The fact that such an event in his culture is unheard-of and hated beyond belief will always follow me around.
In a great many ways we are very proud, happy and above all totally chilled out as our daily lives have just carried on as normal. In fact life round here really is “business as usual”.
We are both busy people in our own way. My partner has a few things to achieve and has a determination like no other get on. And as for me? There’s never enough hours in the day and for our next trick we would like to put in an application for the measurement of time to be extended so we can fit everything in!
