Friday

We left the curtains open last night - there barely seemed any need to close them - and so we are gently woken by the sun streaming in nice and early. After each taking a bath we pad downstairs to the kitchen to grab some breakfast and catch up with last night's survivors. We had celebrated our arrival with vigour - and as a result all the drink we had bought "to last the weekend" was predictably all gone.

After getting directions from one of the groom's ushers I jump in the car with a couple of others and head to a town called Holsworthy - which we are told has a big Waitrose. The roads in this direction are even more narrow and winding than on the way up, and at one point my nerve is tested by a lorry and a campervan coming down a single track hill towards us. I've been nervous about driving hire cars since my van crash a couple of years ago, but this Vauxhall is really easy to drive and I haven't had any problems yet.

We get back just as the caterer is delivering his equipment and tables and chairs for tomorrow's wedding, so after helping shift a few sofas into the billiard room we are able to settle back down into yesterday's familiar pattern of walking around the grounds, wandering from room-to-room in the enormous house and sitting out on the garden benches smoking, drinking and talking rubbish. We get a little tipsy again, naturally, and everyone picks up a little sun.