Thank You

This is the last of my pre-written blog posts concerning our CP and, after today, I will be having a couple of days off before trying to get back to the usual routine. I am away tomorrow which will mean no posts for a couple of days, but keep an eye on this page and I’ll be back with my usual bits and pieces before long. Meanwhile, there are so many people to thank. If I have omitted anyone, I apologise; drop me a line of you think I should have mentioned someone and I will do so in a future post. I’m working alone here and after so much fun and festival, I may not recall everyone. This is in no particular order, but here goes…

The best men for their speeches and other duties. Captain Yiannis, Fotini, their family and the lady who made the cake. Wendy and Adriana for arranging the bus and other things. Racheal and Anna for their work on the translation and helping with the town hall process of registering the CP in the Symi records (the first one ever on the island). The town hall staff.  The Notary for her part in the process and allowing photos inside her office. Jenine for just about everything from planning meetings, to Jumbo orders, becoming ordained (a la Joey from Friends) to holding the ceremony, organising things on the boat and making sure it all ran smoothly. Sam and Harry for looking so smart, carrying the rings, being gentlemen and all their other help. Allan and Julie for the photos before, during and after. The guests who came to the drinks and those who came on the boat. We would have loved to have taken everyone, but that wasn’t possible. Everyone who sent gifts and cards – soooo many of them! And to everyone who gave money towards the honeymoon.

Andy and his team at the Old Markets Hotel for giving us two nights, a champagne breakfast and the best room in the house. Alun for his reading during the ceremony. Louise for the lasagnes and all kinds of other things and for being next door if anything was needed. Steve who arranged the music and light systems. Terri who played the CDs and did the DJ-ing. The Island boys (must discoer their names) who guarded the bay all afternoon and herded goats, tidied up and later congratulated us. Our family members for making the trip, some of them were only on Symi for 24 hours before having to head back for work. Gwen who made the wonderful waistcoats (contact me for commissions). These were lined with each other’s material, so I was blue outside and red inside, and Neil the other way around. Everyone who stepped in to help without question when asked to do something. And Anne, for her hat.

Oh, and Neil of course – and Neil’s late mother who had the good sense to be born in Ireland. I am now married to an Irish citizen and under current EU law can live in the EU by marriage to an EU citizen, no matter what the yUK does. This means, I can now say (by way of celebration) that Brexit-wrexit can chaotically shove itself up its own referendum, I don’t care.

Finally, on a more serious note, I should thank Symi itself. This was the first same sex civil partnership to be held on the island. The law was amended in Greece in 2015 and CPs have happened elsewhere in the country, but never here. The reaction we have had has been amazing. This is, after all, a pretty rural place in a very Orthodox country. If anyone locally hasn’t understood or did not approve, they have not made those feeling known. If anyone wanted to object, they have not. We have been congratulated not only by our British friends and others from Europe and around the world, but by our Symi neighbours in the village, people we hardly know who work or live in Yialos, total strangers and other Symi folk.

What was also special for me, was the way that one local lad of 18 congratulated us, another who is 14, and other young people who wanted to give us their support. Maybe it shows a shift in attitudes which will, in time, filter down to their under-generations and go some way to eliminating prejudice and ignorance (not that we have encountered any on Symi). This, I hope, will make life easier for young people in this country who might desperately want to be accepted for who they are and who they love, but who currently don’t feel able. As I write, there are – there must be – many near us who are in that boat; perhaps our CP on Symi has shown them that they too can be accepted.

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The Symi Film Festival starts today and everyone is invited to attend the screenings, which are free. Here is the programme and a PDF programme version if you’d rather download it.

Screenings start at 20:00 each evening at the Horio sports centre, outside. The Festival committee write: We have selected 41 films from 19 countries. There were 90 entries from 32 countries around the world.

The writer/director and star of the Greek film “The Lion of Pentelis” is staying on Symi with his family next week and will introduce the film before it’s showing on Thursday.

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Special Moments

Still continuing the Civil Partnership story for a few more days before I take a couple of days off from the blog to see the last of the family to their flights…

The days surrounding the ceremony and the day itself hold so many special memories for us, it’s hard to select only a few to highlight today. I am also working on my own here as Neil is currently out on the boat (it’s still last Tuesday as I’m getting this ready in advance). But, here are a few of the moments that stand out for me:

Seeing so many of our friends who had not met each other before getting along so well and having a great time – and thinking ‘this is for us.’

Seeing Harry and Sam in their smart clothes helping their mother, and their godfathers, us, carrying the rings and looking after everyone. Sam arranging to get the hat from the wedding cake because his younger brother was wearing the same kind of hat and wanted it.

The surprise birthday cake. Our CP day was also Neil’s 50^th birthday and we had no idea that Yiannis and his family had arranged this surprise cake for him and us. It was beautifully made in the shape of a camera and it was a shame to cut it, but we did and it was perfect.

The speeches by the best men (and Jenine’s words) which were so honest and heartfelt. Christopher’s was a classic best man’s speech mixed with words about his love for his father. George, my nephew, had the crowd in stitches as he nervously took the microphone, uttered his first sentence, stumbled on a word or two and then said, loudly enough for those on the coast of Turkey to hear, ‘Doh, I’ve f****d it up already.’ He went on to talk about us and also diversity and the fight for recognition of the LGBT community.

During the dancing, we had inserted another of my songs into our playlist. ‘Sleep On’ was a song I wrote for Neil in 2001, and Kinny and I performed it in cabaret; the recording we used was from a CD we made at the time. At the party, we had given everyone a ‘favour’ in the shape of a lantern with a candle inside. Some of the lights were extinguished so we could dance under the stars. Neil and I danced (it was a bit of a tearful moment) and had our eyes closed for a while. I opened my eyes and gave him a nudge; the guests had silently circled around us holding up the candles. More watery eyes followed. A very special moment.

The music we had chosen for the evening was varied. My Symi Dreams album of piano impros was played while everyone was setting up, there were a couple of my own songs involved, as I’ve said, and a selection of numbers that meant something to us. These ranged from Neil’s classic birthday song ‘Let me Entertain you’ by Robbie Williams, to ‘The Rhythm of Life’ from Sweet Charity, a fav of mine, and from the Steve Miller Band to The Monster Mash. When I was about 15, I played in a swing band and we appeared on ‘Swap Shop’ playing ‘Pennsylvania 6500’ so we played that number too. But musically, for me, there were two special moments. One was playing music by my best school friend, Andrew T MacKay, now an important composer of film and other music in India; we had this playing on the way back from Taviri, crossing the flat-calm sea on the boat with the lights of Symi twinkling us safely into port. The other was a number called ‘Nou’s Blue’ composed and arranged by my brother and recorded by him and his band. My mother and I danced to this; another special moment.

As I said, there are so many others that it’s difficult to decide which ones to write down and I don’t want to go on all day. Those are just a few, more may pop up over the next few days.

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Dancing under the Stars

As our guests were enjoying the wonderful buffet provided by Yianni and his family, Neil and I crept back aboard the boat and changed into our tap shoes. At the appointed time, we called the feasting to a pause and announced the first dance. Traditionally this is the happy couple in some smooch number that raises a lot of ahs from the audience but, as you might have noticed, we were not having a traditional wedding.

I introduced the song. It was one from a musical I wrote in 1996 that was staged in 1997 with choreography by Neil. The recording was sung by my good friends Kinny Gardner and Jo Lee and the song needed setting in context. In it, She wants to marry Him for his money. He wants to get his end away and She will do; He will even agree to marry Her for his own naughty ends. What He doesn’t know is that, once married, She is planning to do away with Him and become a wealthy widow. The song is called ‘I’ll Love you to Death,’ and involved a dance section.

There is a video and maybe, one day, I’ll see it on You Tube and you can watch it. It went well, got a few laughs and neither of us broke anything or anyone, and came out of it unscathed. Then we started the dancing proper with ‘Eternal Flame’, and others joined in.

After that it was what you might call a free for all.

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A Ceremony at Taviri

Once Steve and Terri had set up the audio and lighting system, the best men had carried equipment, the boys (Sam and Harry) had helped with arrangements, guests had taken their places, Jenine had corralled everyone into place like the goatherd herding the goats earlier, and the sun had set, we were called upon by our best men to attend our ceremony. This was a Humanist ceremony led by Jenine. She spoke wonderful words before inviting us to say our pieces to each other. Our friend, The Reverend Alun Hawkins, read a piece for us and then Neil and I exchanged rings, bourn to the table by godson Harry.

There then followed the best men’s speeches which contained a few laughs and caused a lot of the guests to have teary eyes; as had other speeches made and words spoken. The ceremony came to a close and Jenine introduced the rest of the evening: food and dancing.

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