The week of weddings

To avoid hordes of travelers, I had originally planned to stay at home during the National Day holidays. However, an invitation to the wedding of my old college roommate finally saw me on a plane to his hometown of Chengdu in Sichuan province on Oct 1.

When I apologized to my parents for not being able to spend the holiday with them, I was relieved to find that they would be busy attending a number of weddings too, so my absence would not be missed.

My appointment in Chengdu meant I also had to turn down two other wedding invitations, this time from classmates in primary school. This was the third straight year I'd spent the National Day holidays attending a wedding; in 2010, it was a friend from high school and last year my cousin got hitched.