The Gallery - Expressions

Last week for The Gallery I shared me and my best friend in a fashion rite of passage:

Low and behold, I saw her last night, and during a fab girls' night  in - which she expertly hosted, with dinner, vino, cupcakes, choccies and facepacks - she presented me with a photo in a frame.  She is a girl for whom actions speak louder than words, and I love her for it.

It immediately hit me as the image I hadn't yet found for this week's The Gallery, where the theme is expressions. So moving on twenty years...

It's at A's wedding last summer.  The band The Jungle VIP were amazing.  My mum was just about to leave but a tune we couldn't resist came on, and A, mum and I had one last impromptu dance together.  I love our expressions...

A looks absolutely radiant, she had the biggest grin I have ever seen all day.  (She married very well, in fact her husband cooked for all eight of us girls last night, before making himself scarce). 

Mum loved to dance, round the kitchen every Friday with  G and T in hand.  Her dancing was infectious and soon pulled everyone in.  And she was a professional smiler.

I am loving being a bridesmaid, and my expression, well... that's jazz, funk appreciation.

Check out all the other expressions in the lovely Sticky Fingers The Gallery

The Gallery Togetherness

So many choices for this week.  I am being inundated with togetherness from good friends and family at the moment.  But this picture just jumped out at me and asked to be posted.  My best friend from school and me c1990.

Last week she read a poem at my Mum's funeral.  We both read at each other's weddings.  We've been friends since the start of secondary school where we fell in love with drama together. You can see our love of performing in this picture I think.  We both went on to become drama teachers. 

It struck me at mum's funeral that she's someone who has witnessed and been there for the major rites of passage of my life, and ceremony and rituals mean a lot to us dramatists.   We're not on each other's doorsteps so we dip in and out, but we are always going to be a big presence in each other's lives.

For more togetherness, visit Tara's lovely Gallery.