It's Bridezilla Central at work at the moment, with one of the girls getting hitched in Italy in a couple of weeks' time and another who has just been proposed to, and who now spends most of her day online browsing through sites that compare venues, dresses and other wedding paraphernalia. Every lunch time this week, the one closest to the Big Day has disappeared for a passeggiata only to return with a shopping bag that contains something wedding-related - a lace dress to wear on her first night, a bikini to wear on her honeymoon, beaded flip-flops for the beach, all the time claiming that she is not one to make a fuss over the wedding. Sure! The other one is having a bit of a drama. Also Italian, she's marrying a Scottish atheist who doesn't want to get married in a church. Of course, her family are having kittens about it, and a compromise is trying to be reached. It all makes for very entertaining lunch breaks. For those not involved in it, at least.
Significant Other has brought up the marriage issue several times.
Last year, while in Madrid, a couple of months before we started living together, the first proposal was made. While being all for civil partnerships, I don't know if I'm the kind of person to do it, to be honest, so I was a bit noncommittal with the response, and have been so every time the subject is brought up. It's all that registry office stuff I'm not really comfortable with, so I suggested that if we ever got to Thailand, we could go to a temple and "say nice things to each other". (Aren't I the ultimate romantic!?!). Last week, while trying to solve this not having a holiday situation by pencilling in a two-week trip to Thailand next February (by which time I will surely be in some semi vegetative state), the subject came up again.
"Does that mean you'll marry me?" SO asked. Rather than a "yes", the "saying nice things in a temple" thing came up again!
Having said that, Kevin and Scotty's wedding on the final episode of this series of Brothers and Sisters did make me quite emotional, so you never know. But don't hold your breath!
If I was going to go for the proper way round it, what is for sure is that I won't be looking out for one Ms Lillian Ladele in my local town hall to officiate the ceremony.
Earlier this year, Ms Ladele, a Christian civil registrar employed by Islington Council to conduct civil unions, launched proceedings against the council claiming that it was against her religious principles to conduct same-sex partnerships, and took her case to an employment tribunal claiming discrimination or victimisation on grounds of religion or belief. Last week, the employment tribunal ruled that she had every right to refuse to do what is essentially her job - which is, quite frankly, ridiculous - a bit like allowing a vegetarian to refuse to serve meat in a restaurant. Thankfully Islington Council is appealing, and the reaction against this ruling has been quite vociferous. If the whole point of a civil union is that it is not restricted by any religions, why should this woman's religious views be allowed to enter the equation is beyond me!
But back to lunch hour at the office. Even the operatic wedding dramas going on have not managed to stop me from devouring the book that until last Sunday, I had sworn I wouldn't buy, but which tempted me like the Sirens did Ulysses as I passed by a bookshop which - on its first day of sale - was selling it at £5 off the recommended retail price (which should have given me an indication!).
I'm talking about Life With My Sister Madonna, the very unimaginatively titled, unauthorised tell-all written by Christopher Ciccone about, yeah, you guessed it, life with his sister. For anyone expecting anything that you didn't know before, don't bother. Mr Ciccone lets us in on how big a control freak Madonna is (like, duh!), how demanding (ditto) and how her life is now ruled by Kabbalah (yawn!).
Anything there that we didn't know already. A big resounding, "No!" Still, I didn't put it down, and read it over a period spanning about 36 hours.
Like many others before him - and I am sure many more to come - Mr Ciccone must have fallen from his sister's grace.
He blames it all on Kabbalah, and on his new brother-in-law, with whom he makes no big secret about there being no love lost (Madonna has lost a large chunk of her gay following after her marriage to Ritchie, who is not the most homo-friendly person, it is said). Rather than get on with his life, Mr Ciccone - an openly gay man - chose the cheapest way to get back at his sister - losing a lot of credibility in the process. Forget about hell having no fury like a woman scorned.
Try scorning a homosexual. Which is something Ms Lillian Ladele should keep in mind.
Significant Other has brought up the marriage issue several times.
Last year, while in Madrid, a couple of months before we started living together, the first proposal was made. While being all for civil partnerships, I don't know if I'm the kind of person to do it, to be honest, so I was a bit noncommittal with the response, and have been so every time the subject is brought up. It's all that registry office stuff I'm not really comfortable with, so I suggested that if we ever got to Thailand, we could go to a temple and "say nice things to each other". (Aren't I the ultimate romantic!?!). Last week, while trying to solve this not having a holiday situation by pencilling in a two-week trip to Thailand next February (by which time I will surely be in some semi vegetative state), the subject came up again.
"Does that mean you'll marry me?" SO asked. Rather than a "yes", the "saying nice things in a temple" thing came up again!
Having said that, Kevin and Scotty's wedding on the final episode of this series of Brothers and Sisters did make me quite emotional, so you never know. But don't hold your breath!
If I was going to go for the proper way round it, what is for sure is that I won't be looking out for one Ms Lillian Ladele in my local town hall to officiate the ceremony.
Earlier this year, Ms Ladele, a Christian civil registrar employed by Islington Council to conduct civil unions, launched proceedings against the council claiming that it was against her religious principles to conduct same-sex partnerships, and took her case to an employment tribunal claiming discrimination or victimisation on grounds of religion or belief. Last week, the employment tribunal ruled that she had every right to refuse to do what is essentially her job - which is, quite frankly, ridiculous - a bit like allowing a vegetarian to refuse to serve meat in a restaurant. Thankfully Islington Council is appealing, and the reaction against this ruling has been quite vociferous. If the whole point of a civil union is that it is not restricted by any religions, why should this woman's religious views be allowed to enter the equation is beyond me!
But back to lunch hour at the office. Even the operatic wedding dramas going on have not managed to stop me from devouring the book that until last Sunday, I had sworn I wouldn't buy, but which tempted me like the Sirens did Ulysses as I passed by a bookshop which - on its first day of sale - was selling it at £5 off the recommended retail price (which should have given me an indication!).
I'm talking about Life With My Sister Madonna, the very unimaginatively titled, unauthorised tell-all written by Christopher Ciccone about, yeah, you guessed it, life with his sister. For anyone expecting anything that you didn't know before, don't bother. Mr Ciccone lets us in on how big a control freak Madonna is (like, duh!), how demanding (ditto) and how her life is now ruled by Kabbalah (yawn!).
Anything there that we didn't know already. A big resounding, "No!" Still, I didn't put it down, and read it over a period spanning about 36 hours.
Like many others before him - and I am sure many more to come - Mr Ciccone must have fallen from his sister's grace.
He blames it all on Kabbalah, and on his new brother-in-law, with whom he makes no big secret about there being no love lost (Madonna has lost a large chunk of her gay following after her marriage to Ritchie, who is not the most homo-friendly person, it is said). Rather than get on with his life, Mr Ciccone - an openly gay man - chose the cheapest way to get back at his sister - losing a lot of credibility in the process. Forget about hell having no fury like a woman scorned.
Try scorning a homosexual. Which is something Ms Lillian Ladele should keep in mind.