Well, you may think the Gathering this year was all doom, gloom and sweaty, big muscled men, wrapped in tight leather running all over .. oh, sorry, I seem to have got carried away !

Well, anyway, as well as seeing many friends (and foes) that I have missed since the Moot, I did get to put some of my religious teachings into practice. Yes, I am pleased to announce that two of our fine friends actually got hitched!! I do hear that Drakken and Raithen were not the only ones to do so, so congratulations to Xantalia and her beloved, as well as Nanny Ogg (again!) Bacchus' blessings on them all.

Plenty of hitches

I, however, only oversaw the joining of Drakken and Raithen, which took a lot longer to organise than I expected. Having carefully prepared the ceremony, arranged some romantic music and some lovely poetry, along with a touch of firebreathing courtesy of Young John, it became increasingly more difficult to get everyone congregated! Every time we began to set out the altar and holy symbols, we got attacked, and believe me, it's extremely difficult to join people together in wedlock when one has just become paralised by marauding monsters!

Anyway, so I sat down to recover with a few other worshippers but, well, a few glasses turned into a few bottles and day crept into night. As dusk fell, I announced the joyous occasion to the faction, then suddenly the warriors were once again summoned to fight. Drakken, being a warrior, also went along, and so dusk became night and while waiting I made sure that I could never see the bottom of my glass (as one does) and by the time all the troubles were sorted out, I couldn't see the ceremonial script I had slaved over.

Fire jumping

Eventually the two were joined by the light of the fire, and jumped over the Club of Bacchus into a new life together. So, three cheers to marriage, and to love, although the path is not for us all. Some of us devote our lives to Bacchus and his religious teachings resist those carnal urges, leaving the work to our dedicated brothel. Anyway, I had better get back to my holy books, lesson 26, how to truly appreciate cute men's bums wrapped in tight leather pants - and no, this book isn't in the Temple library! Keep worshipping!