Perform a best man speech

Being asked to be the best man at a wedding is a huge honour. It is a position normally reserved for a best friend or a close member of your family as you have to put all of your trust in this person on the biggest day of your life. I have been asked to do this 4 times and I have agreed on every occasion but I am not sure if I would do this again. The first time I did it was for a friend I have known since we were at school, the bride and groom were quite young and despite the fact that I knew I was too young to be considering anything as life changing I knew that they were ready. The wedding took place in a local registry office and the reception was in a pub in our hometown.
I can’t recall much of the speech as I was nervous and possibly rushed through a few cards and messages before raising a toast and leaving the stage.
20 something years later they are still married and have 4 children.

By the time I got to do the second of my best man duties I had gained a little confidence and decided to bring props. I had known Adam and Deb for a little while so I felt confident enough to make jokes about his long hair and him loving his car more than his wife. The speech went down well and they are both still talking to me.
They are still talking to each other as well and have been married for about 14 years now.

Ian’s wedding was a pretty special affair and I was genuinely moved when he asked me if I would take part in his wedding. I met Ian years ago when he joined the band I was in, he was our drummer and we later split the band up by going travelling for a year. Sadly for me but happily for Ian he managed to emigrate to Australia so my best man task for this year would see me travelling thousands of miles to Perth in Western Australia. I am not sure if this type of wedding is typical for an Australian wedding but it was not like anything I had been to before. After the Ceremony we all went down to the beach for some pictures and the wedding party were taken down the Swan River on a boat to the reception. Ian had carefully chosen music for all of the speeches so I walked to the podium to “Let me entertain you”. During the grooms speech I had to encourage audience participation and shout out punch lines to his jokes. He called it Kare-jokey. With it being Western Australia the buffet was an incredible array of fresh seafood and other marvels, I have never seen anything like it and the waiters were obviously under instruction to not let the tables go dry as the jugs of beer and bottles of wine were replaced as soon as they were empty.

The last time I performed the Best man task was for my cousin, Mark. We all arrived for the Civil Ceremony in a limousine on a sunny October day. After the ceremony I stood up to deliver my speech and I was reminded of how seriously people take these things as one of Marks friends advised that “I’d better be funny”. Luckily I have known Mark all of his life so there was no shortage of material and I even managed to throw in a few off the cuff remarks to cover my visible nerves. The beer and wine flowed well and the afternoon faded into the night, and we were all taken outside for a firework display. Even after the music had stopped and the bar had closed a few people wanted to carry the party on and hosted their own sing a long before we arranged to carry on at the Hotel bar. I am happy now to retire from the business of standing up and making jokes at other peoples expense, Mark returned the favour in 2012 by delivering his best man speech at my wedding.

Witness a world class firework display

Every year on Dec 31st the TV starts to show pictures and live footage of the new year being celebrated across the globe. A lot of the time this means a huge firework display with the backdrop of Sydney Harbour Bridge. Australians seem to love a firework display and they do it well. The best display I have ever seen was in Western Australia when I just happened to be over there for the Australia day celebrations. I was actually over there for a wedding but the dates coincided so I found myself caught up in the revelry. The whole day was a build up to the firework display, the local radio and TV stations were covering the celebrations and we joined the masses that had gathered by the Bell Tower in Perth. We had taken advantage of the boat rides that had been arranged for these celebrations and there seemed to be hundreds of other boats on the river doing exactly the same thing. From our vantage point we could see three pontoons moored up in the middle of the Swan River, the TV and radio crews were constantly reminding us that each of these vessels contained about $1 million worth of explosives and as soon as it was dark enough to fully appreciate the spectacle then all of this would be released to the world in all of its glory. Obviously we had to wait for night to fall before anything would happen but the whole event was an incredible celebration and it gave us the chance to really get to know the family that my mate was marrying into and also spend time with his parents who had come over from the UK. In all I think there must have been about 30 people in our group and all of them were in good spirits. At about 9.00 it was dark enough for the Skyworks (as they referred to them in Australia) and the countdown began. I have to admit that I was expecting it to be a huge anti-climax but it was immensely impressive, just as you thought it was winding down there would be another onslaught of lights and explosions all as impressive as the first. After this experience I have not been to an organised firework event as there is simply no way that any other pyrotechnic experience could compare to what I witnessed here and none of the photographs or videos I have seen of the Australia day celebrations do the display any justice at all. The sheer vastness and area of the sky that was covered simply cannot be captured on film.

Learn to dance

When I was a kid my Grandparents always danced, I remember going to the club attached to my granddads work and they would always be on the dance floor doing a Waltz or the Foxtrot or any other Ballroom number that would be played so I guess it was only natural that my parents learned to dance. I had brief interludes while I was growing up where my parents tried to encourage me to learn but I was never really interested, mainly because this meant dancing with my sister and I am pretty sure she had the same feeling as I did on the subject. I am not saying that my sister and I hated each other, far from it. We actually got on really well growing up but she was always taller than me despite being 2 year younger so apart from it looking silly it wasn’t the easiest of pastimes to pursue. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I actually started to become interested in learning but even then I initially took a little convincing. My parents told me that a new class was starting for beginners at the place where they had lessons and I knew that this was something Keely was interested in so I agreed to give it a go, if it wasn’t for me then we didn’t have to go again. Oddly enough I actually took to it. The first class saw us learning the very basic moves. I am sure the first thing we did was the Square Tango which was just a 3 step basic movement to ease us into the idea of dancing together. Once we had actually learned how to do the Waltz this dance was dropped as it the basic Waltz is very similar and we soon started to add the twirls as well as other additional movements. The class was initially quite full, there were about 4 of 5 couples learning in total but one by one the numbers dwindled away until we were the only ones, we then moved into the same class as my parents. There were now 6 people in this class and we found that we improved quickly when we joined this class as we had quite a bit of catching up to do. The class is ballroom and Latin but we soon realised that the Latin stuff doesn’t really appeal and we much prefer the Ballroom. My favourite of all the dances is the Foxtrot, I really do feel like I am dancing when I do this as there are 19 basic steps instead of the 3 or 4 that are in the Waltz and Quickstep. I imagine myself looking like my Granddad when he was dancing, I probably look really clumsy in truth but it just feels like a really elegant dance. Nowadays we have the class to ourselves as my parents have moved on to sequence dancing, we have managed to pick up a few of these as well along the way but still keep up with the Ballroom and the occasional Cha cha cha, this is the only Latin number we do now but we still refer to it as “The Divorce Dance” as we normally end up getting into quite a mess and blaming each other for the errors. When we were arranging our wedding we knew we had to have a waltz for our first dance, as we had been dancing for quite a while we knew we could easily have a proper first dance rather than the clumsy shuffle that you see at most weddings so we worked with our teacher as she found us the perfect song and even helped us to restrict our dancing to match the size of the space we would have on the day. This is something that I had never considered but I am glad we did this, we were so used to having the whole room to dance in that suddenly finding ourselves in a space the size of 2 tables could have wrecked the whole thing. We rehearsed the dance many times on the run up to the big day and learned a few spins and twirls to make the dance look more interesting but also had the option to exclude these if nerves got the better of us when we were in the middle of the dance. As it happens we did OK and chatted away while we went through our moves. Our first actual dance floor experience other than the wedding dance was quite daunting, there seemed to be people everywhere and my head was moving faster than my feet as I kept on the look out to see if I was going to collide with someone or if they were going to bash into us. I can only compare it to passing your driving test and then being sent out on to the starting grid at brands hatch. I felt I was fully in at the deep end. I still find a crowded dance floor a little intimidating, particularly when there are really good dancers out there. When I am feeling that way I remember what my Dad told me when we first came off the Dance floor and sat in our seats looking dazed and confused. He told me “nobody is watching, they are all there to dance, it is not a competition. Just get out there and enjoy it, we all make mistakes, it is how we learn and improve”. He also added that if we were not prepared to go and dance on an actual dance floor with other people then we were just wasting money on lessons. Anyone can dance in an empty room, it is much more fun when you are dancing with others and everyone up there had to learn at some point. Since that little pep talk we have been to a few dances and I have even danced the Waltz, Quickstep and Foxtrot with my mom.

Eat something unconventional

Food is a big part of my life, I really enjoy cooking and until I met my wife I always thought I was pretty good at it. It seems that in actual fact my culinary expertise was quite limited and I have now been shown the error of my ways.
When I was a kid I was really picky when it came to the types of food I would actually eat, I would not eat many vegetables and there were many occasions when my dinner plate would leave the table as full as when it arrived.
I have to say that in recent years I have become more adventurous and I have tried many of the foods that I would never even consider and they have actually become some of my favourites. We nearly had a family crisis a few weeks ago when my sister in law threatened to eat all of the Cauliflower cheese before I could get to it. Luckily she was only joking and there was plenty left by the time the serving dish made its way to me. I think in some ways my present attitude towards food must be making up for my previous fussy eating habits as nowadays I really enjoy a challenge and find myself actually looking for different types of foods to try.
My first experience of unusual food was on a trip to Thailand, there was a food court just over the road from the hotel and I pointed at an item on the menu and received something that bore no resemblance to what I wanted. I was a bowl with a weird soup and even weirder contents. I somehow managed to get a description of what I was eating and it turned out to be Steamed fish innards. To make this a more acceptable dish they accompanied it with a Quails egg.
On my last trip to Australia we all ended up in a restaurant that had a platter which had 3 alternative types of meat on offer so I had to give it a go. They had Crocodile, Ostrich and Kangaroo all one plate. It is often said that the Australians are the only nation to eat the animals featured on their crest but after trying Kangaroo and Ostrich I can see no reason for them to stop. I actually tried both of these again just a few weeks ago at the Good Food show in Birmingham where they were serving up these tasty meats in a Burger. I have to say that I was not really a fan of the crocodile, it had a slightly fishy taste but the thing that put me off the most was the texture. It was a little too slimy for my liking.
Also at the Good Food show I had the chance to try a Wild Boar Hot dog, this was really nice and I am eager to try this again if the same stall is at the summer show when we return in June.

While all these are quite exotic things to try, they are still just meat and you know that this isn’t going to be too much different to any of the other types of meat you have tried in the past. One of my real challenges came when I went to a French Bistro in Birmingham and found that they had Snails on the menu as a starter. I looked at it a few times and in the end my wife dared me to have them. I asked the waiter what to expect and he told me that they were like mussels so I went ahead and ordered them. He lied. Snails are nothing like Mussels. For a start, they look nothing like Mussels, they actually look like snails. The portion I had were not served in the shell, they were just placed on the plate among the garnish so you were under no illusion on what you were just about to eat, Secondly they are a little more chewy than Mussels and finally they have a weird earthy taste that stays with you even after the Snail has gone.

I don’t think I would be in any rush to try these again, they say that they are an acquired taste but I am not really inclined to eat enough of these to acquire the taste for them.
So, that is my experience of “Alternative cuisine”, it’s not exactly a bush tucker trial but when you consider that as a kid I would not eat cabbage I really have come a long way.

Click here to read more tales of “Culinary Adventures” from Danny Davies.

Spend Christmas in a different country

Every year as it got closer to Christmas my parents would have the same conversation.
They would talk about how it was a great expense for just one day and how fed up they became because the weather was so miserable and how one year it would be nice to be waited on for a change.

Christmas is a lot of hard work, particularly when you have people coming for dinner and have a beast of a bird to cook. The general rule of thermodynamics means that the bigger the bird, the earlier you have to rise to get the dinner in the oven so, for the cook, Christmas can be a very long day.

Anyway, one year it was decided that instead of doing the traditional Christmas at home we’d go to Spain and have Christmas in a completely different environment. The group consisted of myself, my sister, my parents and my nan and we were going to spend 3 or 4 days in Salou for our festive season. I have to admit that hindsight is a wonderful thing and looking back I would not do this again. At any other time it would have been a lovely long weekend away, the weather was not brilliant but it was still good enough to walk on the beach but Sunbathing was not really on the agenda. Also, the season was finished so the majority of the bars were closed meaning that we only really had the entertainment and facilities of the hotel available to us. The Christmas dinner itself was OK but you never manage to replicate the whole family vibe when you have a large number of people in a dining area, the whole experience was lacking in atmosphere and the food was not what you would normally have when you and your family have lovingly crafted over it for hours on end but the biggest disappointment was the fact that you can’t just sit and relax afterwards and watch a James Bond Movie or the Queens speech or whatever it is that you decide to tune into as the rooms were simply a bed and a bathroom and the only sitting room available was the hotel bar.

A few years later I spent Christmas in Australia

this was more of the result of a year out rather than a decision to actually spend the festive season in a different country and that was pretty much the same experience apart from when the dessert course came out it turned into a food fight. I have tried to enjoy Christmas in different environments but it all comes down to the simple fact that it just isn’t the same as a Christmas spent at home, in comfortable surroundings with your family around you.

Eat at a restaurant that has a Michelin star

Over the years I have been lucky enough to go to some nice places to eat. When I am on Holiday I am always on the lookout for good food, I guess I am at that stage in life where a night out isn’t a quick bite and then on to drinking as much as I can and dancing like a loon. I find it much more fun nowadays to have a nice meal and a few beers, plus this rarely leads to the explosive headaches the following day and a wasted day’s holiday while I recover from the previous night’s indulgence. The first time I ate at a restaurant that had a Michelin rating was in Portugal, my wife and her family have always referred to this restaurant as “Yellow Brollies” as it had yellow canopies outside. Its actual name is Restaurante Don Sebastião and is one of our favourite places to eat when we go to Portugal. The food is quite traditional and it is a great place to go to if you like to try different types of seafood as their fresh fish selection is very good. I was urged to try the Kid in clay pot, which is a slow cooked stew of Lamb, served in a clay pot…Exactly as the description suggests. When it was initially served I was not really expecting anything too special but I was so wrong. The meat was perfectly cooked and the whole meal was incredible. It was only after our second or third visit to this restaurant that I was made aware of the plaque on the wall indicating that the restaurant was mentioned in the Michelin guide.

The latest visit took us to Purnell’s Bistro in Birmingham, my wife casually mentioned that she would like to go there one day and since she is happy to go ahead and make other people’s dreams come true I wasted no time in booking the table for the weekend of her birthday.

I decided on a lunchtime visit and the table was booked for 1.30. 

To get to the restaurant part you need to go through “Gingers” cocktail bar, even at 1.30 on a Friday this was a lively place, the bar tenders were in full flight with their cocktail shakers and there were plenty of people sampling their impressively exotic looking drinks as we were shown to our table.

I’d had a chance to look at the Menu.

online a few days before but I still hadn’t decided what I was going to eat, my wife’s eyes widened when she started reading and she looked at me and pulled the face that tells me she is impressed or excited or both.

For my starter I decided on the Black Pudding with the poached egg yolk and Potato Rosti while Keely went for the goat’s cheese. For the main course it had to be the steak for me and Keely decided to have the Lamb shank.

The starter was nothing short of amazing, the rosti was a really thin layer of potato with the black pudding underneath, this was delicately spiced so that it didn’t overpower any of the other flavours that the dish had going on.  The egg, as you would expect, was perfectly cooked and the presentation was superb.  I almost felt guilty for destroying the work of art that was placed in front of me.

Keely’s starter was also amazingly presented, the goats cheese was accompanied by thin shavings of pear and the smallest delicate leaves of Rocket you would ever expect to see.  The detail that had been afforded to these dishes made us realise how special this place really was.

With the benefit of hindsight I would not have chosen a steak for my main meal, there was such a nice variety of food on offer that I now feel that not having something different was a bit of a wasted opportunity, after all a steak is a steak and you know you will rarely be disappointed.  The steak was good but I cannot say it was the best one I have ever had.  The star of the main course was, without a doubt, the potato. It was served in a small container and was a creamy mashed potato with a gratin on the top to liven it up a little.

To accompany Keely’s main meal the Lamb was served with curried lentil. Again, this was delicately spiced so it didn’t take anything away from the flavour of the lamb.

After we had finished our meals we knew we had not left any room for a dessert so declined the menu, instead we asked for an after dinner liqueur.  The waiter arranged for the Cocktail waiter to come and chat to us and we told him what we were looking for and a few minutes later he arrived with 2 glasses of Rhubarb Mumble.  It was made with fresh fruit and spices with a generous measure of spirit but it was so comforting and smelt like a glass of Christmas.

Our first experience at Purnells was brilliant and worthy of any special occasion.

Go deep sea fishing

The stag party fishing crew.

I have never understood why people go fishing, as a pastime it looks about as interesting as waiting for a newly painted wall to dry yet people seem to love sitting on the edge of a river bank in the cold and the rain waiting for a fish to take the tasty morsel that that they have secured to a hook and dangled into the water. I suppose I can understand it a little more if you are out there to feed the family and are looking for a substantial meal but to take the fish from the pool, have a quick picture taken and then put the fish back so that someone else can do exactly the same thing a little later on completely bemuses me. I do wonder how many times the same fish has been caught from the small pools that some people visit and how much bigger it gets every time they tell the story of their epic battle between man and fish. You can imagine, then, my delight when my mate announced that he had arranged for us all to go fishing for his stag do. All of the equipment had been sorted and he had got beer. It turns out that we were not just going to be sitting on a soggy river bank though on this occasion, as we were in Western Australia we were actually getting on a boat and going deep sea fishing. We met quite early in the morning by the side of the Swan River and got on the boat, the skipper had warned that conditions were not great so we may be in for a bit of a bumpy time but at first it didn’t seem too bad. We got batted about a little but that was put down to the movement of the boat but when we reached the fishing spot we saw what he meant. As soon as the boat stopped we were aware of the swell of the ocean. It felt like the boat had been moored on top of a giant see saw as it was rocking back and forth and left to right at the same time. There were a few people on board that couldn’t handle it and said hello to their breakfast, last night’s dinner and even yesterday’s lunch but others were unperturbed and wasted no time getting the lines in the water. The sea conditions were not just bad for the humans, it seems that there were very few fish about as well as only 1 or 2 people actually caught anything so after a while it was decided that we move on. Firstly to Rottnest Island, to drop off the ones who were feeling under the weather, and then onto a better spot. The second spot was not much better but after a little while we heard an excited yelp from the rear of the boat and a few of us rushed to see what was causing the uproar. One of the more experienced fishermen had a bite. He wasn’t sure what he’d got but it was a spirited little blighter and was already giving him a little trouble.

He spent about 10 -15 minutes letting the line out and reeling the fish in a little further then letting a little more line out and reeling in until his opponent came into view. A deathly hush fell over the boat when we saw what was on the end of the line. As he pulled at the line a dorsal fin popped above the surface of the water, he’d somehow managed to hook a small hammerhead shark, it was only a baby but still upwards of 18 inches – 2 foot in length. He worked harder and harder to get the beast and eventually man was the clear winner. As our excitement grew the skipper made his way to the back just as the head of the shark left the water. Our hammerhead was not happy about his encounter and his jaws were opening and closing like he was trying to eat the world’s chewiest toffee. All we needed were 2 more winds of the reel and the shark would be landed but the skipper stepped forward and cut the line, releasing the shark with an indignant, “Not on my boat lads, sorry”. He later explained that even though he was only a small fish, once he was landed he’d be a nightmare. He was thrashing about on the line, imagine that on a boat, with people. Although I was disappointed that they had not got to land a shark I was also happy that the angry mouthful of teeth stood no chance of being introduced to my soft human flesh. After this excitement we called it a day and made our way back to shore. The weather conditions had got worse by now so it was full speed back home. We arrived at our destination a dozen cold, wet stags with no fish to show for the day and an untouched tubs of beer. But we nearly caught a shark. How about that for a tale of the one that got away??