'Tis the season to be wedded

In recent years I've discovered quite a trend; over 50 % of the weddings I've attended in the last five years (and I've been to quite a few-my friends are all getting to that age) have been around Christmas.

I'm not quite sure why this is, though I've several theories:

1. Maybe it's cheaper. I don't give this one much credit - surely function centres would be at a premium when there's all those Christmas parties going on?
2. Maybe it's about the weather. Do people really like getting married in mid-summer? It gets pretty hot around here in December-January...
3. Holidays. This is a time when lots of people can take leave easily. This is my favourite theory, although I'm not sure it works, since the weddings I've been going to cover a time period from early December through to mid January. Certainly school holidays here don't start till the week before Christmas.

Anyone out there got any theories? Maybe I'll do a survey of the friends whose weddings I've attended and see what they tell me about their choice of dates. Of course, many of the weddings I've attended have been Indian ones, so maybe the dates are simply chosen because of astrological advantage. Whatever the reason, I guess I should just enjoy all the extra parties and chances to socialise with friends and family, and quit trying to theorise about it all.

Audio books and teddy-bear holidays

I've been unwell lately. Very unwell. Usually when I'm sick I lie about reading books or doing something else equally useless, but this time I didn't feel even up to that. I'm not much into television and anyway violently opposed to having one in the bedroom, so if I'm staying in bed I'm not going to watch that.

So instead I've been trying out audio books. Non-fiction is highly satisfying in audio form (well, I only tried out Douglas Adams' Last Chance to See, but I really enjoyed that - as much as I enjoy the printed form), but (and here's the incredibly insightful statement coming) audio fiction is vaguely unsatisfying in a very similar way to movie versions of books. Which is strange, when you think about it, because the same story is there. It's not like a movie where they have to cut things out and change stuff to maintain the dramatic sense and time limits of a different medium. Still, they're very enjoyable, though I'd recommend listening to a book you've read many times before if what you really want to do is sleep. If it's a new and interesting book you feel obliged to stay awake and listen.

What I've also been doing is a bit of web-surfing, and in the course of that I came across a very amusing site: www.teddyinsthlm.se. This is a website that gives you the opportunity to send your teddy bear on holiday to Stockholm. The site has a link to a site where you can send it on holiday to Munich instead. Or maybe the following year. As the website puts it: "After helping us through the most difficult situations in life you now get the opportunity to reward your best friend". I really enjoyed reading about all the things teddy would enjoy on it's trip.

Anyway, I'm going to go back to sleep. Enjoy.