To celebrate the wedding, the family had a week's stay in Jersey.

Peter finished a series of nightshfits commissioning Tyneside IECC and after the last one got on a train about 08:00 from Newcastle to Bristol Temple Meads before changing to the Southampton service to arrive at Bradford on Avon to sleep for the remainder of the day and through the night. The previous night had been that for the census, but it seemed appropriate to claim that it had also been spent in Bradford on Avon than the hotel in Newcastle from where he had checked out at 19:00, or British Rail Signalling Centre where he had actually been, or the train he subsequently caught- accuracy would all have been too complicated!

Peter therefore joined John and Sheila prior to the holiday and we travelled by car and ferry.  Karen and Paul however flew from London. Karen needing to have her doctor's permission as she was pregnant with Ben.

We couldn't think of any particular Ruby wedding gift that we could give in the circumstances and for the holiday itself resorted to 40 ruby coloured balloons that we arranged to inflate and leave filling their bedroom to surprise them after a day out- we don't think this was appreciated!  After the holiday we met up at Rye Walk, where we had arranged 40 small gifts, all with a ruby connection, set out on the floor to form large characters "4" "0".  This had taken quite a lot of pre-planning in selecting and organising; we are glad that this was appreciated rather better than the balloons.