Like everyone I was delighted for the happy young couple but found myself more of an observer of events than ever before. There is, especially amongst regualr church goers, an expectancy that the "format" of the ceromany should be followed to the letter. Part tradition and part a religeus ceremony, she is walked down and passed the gathered family & friends by her father if he is able and present, who "gives" her away. The conregation is asked if they might know of any reason etc.., the vows are spoken and they are pronounced man and wife. 

I'm wondering if life itself, perhaps even new life, children even will also been seen as a commodity at some point. It would be sad to imagine a George Orwellian future like this. It was a young girl who said to me recently that "these days its not absolutely necessary for a woman to have a man in her life in order to have a child"! Blimey I thought, how sad. To humour her I said that it would be great if you could order your sperm kit from Facebook! It could be "browsed" from a palatte of hair and eye colours, ethnicity and "breeding" types. You might also be able to "poke" a friend of a

My new neighbourhood has lots of young kids who like to play together on the grass outside their houses after school, probably in part because our houses and gardens are relatively small, and it's a quiet narrow street allowing only slow traffic. The kids are comfortable enough with other families to drop over unannounced to play with the other children or roam through the backyards to the giant trampoline next door. One particular day we had a lot of visitors pop around to investigate the aroma of my babysitter's peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, once the word got around the