I'm rather enjoying living in this big new-but-old-looking house here in Antigua. I like being here because it's full of people I love. I love the fact that we're not all just here for a holiday but a wedding. Being here for a week and a half before the wedding, with a week between the civil and the religious ceremony, feels exciting. We've all gathered from the other side to prepare with Jo for her wedding. It's like we're spending a week in the French dressing room before the big event.

Go Team French.

In one room the cake is being made, in another room the sermon is being worked on, in another the bridesmaids are trying on their dresses, in another the 5pm prayer meeting is happening. To be technically correct I'm not sure that all these things have all happened at the same time, but I'm writing figuratively or something. I'm allowed to do that, this is a significant time.

Plus we go out for dinner together often, or lunch, often both. Every meal feels celebratory, every day feels significant. The bride and bridesmaids are all off on a mini-pre-wedding getaway for a few days and even their absence feels significant. We have a week of waiting, a week to finish everything we need to do, a week to be ready, a week to say farewell, and we week to bring two families together.

I'm sure if we were doing this in Australia, I'd be staying out of things a lot more. Anything I had to do, I'd be doing at home alone. Everything would be happening in different places, there would be no hub of activity, Mum and Dad's place would be central command but all the work would be done at satellite locations. I'd probably just turn up on the day of the wedding in my suit, ready to be the brother, I'd meet everyone at the church. Now we have all the joy and roughness of sticking 11 people together in a house for a week to get Jo wedded.

It's special and I like it.