Ding dong dell!

Yes, despite recent shock headlines of stingrays leaping onto boats and impaling people willy-nilly, the news that Miss Ember is going to the shrine to tie the origami knot later this year created some curious little wavelets. As mentioned to several friends, my wedding plans are moving along suspiciously smoothly. I don't want to divulge too much information (so that things are fresh for incoming guests, oops, I nearly typed gussets, Misses Gremily & Violet, and the witty but often rather smutty Sir P), but:

• the Shinto shrine, and its many foxes, have been booked for a midwinter, after-Christmas wedding;
• a kimono has been greatly admired and will be finalised in early November;
• a venue for luncheon has been booked, and surprisingly, a Samoan-American who works for the establishment is helpfully developing menus and other arrangements;
• the legal faffery is commencing this week, when a Justice of the Peace has to impress upon our No Impediment to Marriage Application Form his hallowed walrus,* I mean, seal.

Other things to be finalised in November include Sir S's whistle-and-flute and my hairstyle for the day ... I wish to have fingerwaves (as expertly done by my Adelaide hairdresser in the summers of '97 and '98) but if all else fails, a sleek bob with an artfully placed Oriental or art deco clip will just have to do.

Sir S and I have set up an Amazon Wedding Registry - will advise further details soon.

*As sagely advised by the wise and cunning Detective Inspector M.