Emily & Rich \u2013 a winning team<\/font><\/CENTER>
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Last night saw a very special family event, the engagement party of our son Richard and his partner Emily. The venue was a basement room of the Cinnamon Club near Westminster Abbey in central London. Emily & Rich \u2013 a winning team Since Rich works at the Institute for Public Policy Research and Em works […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-life-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSince Rich works at the Institute for Public Policy Research<\/a> and Em works at the Department of Trade & Industry<\/a>, many of the bright young people there were from Left-leaning think tanks or the offices of Labour Cabinet Ministers or similarly political employers, so I had a great time mixing with them.
\nRich made a really good speech, the text of which you’ll find below.<\/p>\n
\nRich’s speech<\/b>
\nIt’s great to see so many of you here tonight \u2013 thanks for coming.
\nEspecially thanks to Emily’s mum [Claudia] and sister [Jessica] for coming all the way from Los Angeles and for my dad [Roger] and step mum [Vee] for coming all the way from Wembley which, on the Piccadilly Line, is almost as far.
\nThere are some absent parents but, as is wedding tradition, I asked them to send ‘telegrams’. My best man Douglas can’t be here tonight to read them out because he is fighting the Liberals and the Nationalists north of the border in defence of the union. So I’ll read them out.
\nEmily’s dad [David] from Montreal says:
\n\u201cWe are delighted that you are taking this step but sad that we can’t be there to celebrate this special day. Of course, we look forward to reading all the details of the party on Roger’s blog!\u201d
\nMy mum [Carole] in Manchester offers what she describes as a statutory ’embarrass your son’ story and a statutory ‘wedding related story’:
\n\u201cFor the first few years, Rich’s secondary school reports said: ‘Richard brings lots of ideas into the classroom. We just wish he would learn to read and write.’We didn’t at that point predict a career in the media!
\nA new bridegroom was worried about what he and his new bride would talk about at breakfast each day. So he wrote himself a list of topics, one for each day. But Rich and Em won’t have that problem!\u201d
\nI don’t write them \u2013 I just read them!
\nBut it is true that Emily and I have a lot in common, but we also have a lot to argue about. That said, there’s no doubt in my mind who wears the trousers.
\nWe also often think alike. On Monday, we went to see the new James Bond film \u201cCasino Royale\u201d. I don’t want to spoil it for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, but there is a moment when Bond turns to the girl and says ‘That is why I love you’.
\nAnd, at that moment in the movie, Emily and I \u2013 and probably every one who goes to see that film \u2013 turns to each other and says \u201cShe is so dead!\u201d
\nWell that moment reminded me of our second or third date. We ended up back at her place … One thing led to another … I won’t embarrass her mother or my father with the details …
\nThe next morning, I wake up first and, on my way to the kitchen, I stumbled across her passport which was on her bedside table. It was a British passport but, underneath it, was a Canadian passport and, underneath that, was an American passport. And I’m thinking to myself: who is this girl?
\nAnd at that point she starts to wake up. And that moment, although I didn’t say it out loud until later, my internal narrator announced that I love her.
\nAnd the metaphorical audience in the existential cinema of our lives turn to one another and say \u201cHe’s so dead!\u201d
\nAnd they were right. Because every day since that day, she’s been killing me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"