Second Time Around

This is a picture of my Christening, where my parents look approximately twelve. (They weren't, of course, they were more like 29, but don't they look startlingly young?) My mother sent this to me the other day, not for the comic relief of me looking like a bald deer in headlights, nor for the hilarious glimpse of my grandma, peering through the gap between my parents while looking like she's searching for a dropped contact lens. 

No, my mum sent me this picture because it seemed suddenly relevant, because when my dad took me out into the garden like that before the Christening, all dressed up in my fancy Christening finery, our next door neighbor leaned over his fence, sitcom style.

"The next time she's on your arm in a long white dress," he said. "It's going to cost a whole lot more than this."