Sunday, 1 April 2007

In the morning, we were visited by Jackie’s parents, attended Frankie’s first birthday party, and I drove to Barnet to collect Bobby. No April Fool tricks. We spent the afternoon, until nightfall, busily preparing the garden for the wedding.

The Omen

While taking a short tea break, Jackie and I saw a large kestrel land on our lawn carrying in its claws a struggling mammal (Jackie thought it was a squirrel, I thought it was a rat). The kestrel looked around and then took off again (with its prey) before landing in a neighbour’s garden. Within a second, the screeching stopped and a minute or so later I saw the kestrel fly off again with its claws empty.

What sort of omen was this to see just a few days before getting married?

Thankfully, neither Jackie or I are greatly troubled by superstition. But we inevitably reflected on how it might have been interpreted in more superstitious times: several politicians and some of our former partners came rather badly out of this idle speculation.