Wow, That's Been a While!

So much has happened since I last posted on this blog I thought it would be wise to do a quick update. 

The most significan personal development for me is that I am now married.  Actually, last Sunday saw my wife and I celebrate our first anniversary.  The wedding was an amazing experience, one that far exceeded my expectations.  We were married at Pinewood Studios on the only sunny day in a rainy week.  It is funny how focussed on things like the weather you become in the build up to a wedding.  Wedding and flowers if I recall correctly.

The wedding was followed by our honeymoon in St Lucia.  It was a beautiful place, but probably less luxurious than the Maldives in my opinion.  We had helicopter transfers though which was a brilliant experience.

Post wedding was settling down to a life of no wedding-planning.  We just enjoyed being married really.  We booked flights to Australia as my new father-in-law was unable to make it to our wedding for health reasons.

The end of the summer saw The Fat Disciples do our first gig - a set of covers at a friend's wedding.  I think The Bear described it best when he said that we were one-nil down at half time, but it finished a stunning two-one victory to the FDs.  We invited the groom up on stage to sing Live Forever (a favourite of his), this got the crowd on side.  Finishing with Killing In The Name seemed to go down better than expected as well.

The Australian trip saw me spend my first Christmas away from home.  My mum decided to have Christmas a week early at home, so we flew over for that before flying to Oz.  Our trip was amazing.  We experienced record temperatures in Sydney and had an amazingh New Year in Melbourne.  The trip made me realise that I really want to live in Australia, at least for a little while.

Since that trip we have been planning for our move.  It is proving easier said than done.  We want to keep our flat in London, so we need to save up to allow us to have money behind us in Oz.  That is alongside the fact that we are planning to take up to a year to get there.  More saving....

But plans are afoot.

How to Feel Festive

So we're flying towards Christmas and I have officially started to feel festive.  I am the sort of person who enjoys Christmas.  I don't like the fact that it seems to start in October, but I am more than happy to fully give in to the Christmas feeling from the second week in December.

This year we had our traditional early Christmas Dinner and gift giving with Fra and Jennie.  We do this every year before we all head home for Christmas. I cooked turkey and we ate, drank and felt full rather than merry.  It's a bloody great tradition and I love it.

In addition to this probably the most festive thing we have done in the run up to Christmas has been going to see an Adults Only screening of The Muppets Christmas Carol.  It was awesome!  Mulled wine, drinking games and The Muppets - very festive.

The Bear visited Rina and I last night.  He brought me a Christmas/birthday present - Batman: Noel. It is a Batman retelling of A Christmas Carol and is beautifully drawn.  It was also very kind and unexpected.  He's a good bloke The Bear.

It is Wednesday today and the staff Christmas do is tonight.  That will be fun.  I will partake in the free beer and have my dinner and then head home before it become rowdy.  It always does - the way good Christmas dos should!

Friday sees Rina and I head home.  I can't wait.  It has been ages since I was last at home and it is brilliant to spend time with my family (that and the fact I have two nieces means I get to enjoy having kids around - which MAKES Christmas).

So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and see you in 2012!

Ella, Ella, Ella

A couple of times during the summer I got caught in torrential rain.  This summer was like that - really sunny one minute, the sky open the next.  One evening when I got home after being soaked to the skin I decided action needed to be taken.

I decided to buy an umbrella.

We have a couple of umbrellas in the house.  Rina has a nice black one and a small red one that fits in her handbag.  I have one of those £2 ones you buy at Sports Direct.  My umbrella is awkward to carry, but also, after a couple of rainfalls it had started to come apart (what happens when you make an umbrella out of tissue I guess).

I decided to buy a nice umbrella. A strong umbrella.

I did a little research online and found that there was a make of umbrella called Fulton that were strong and well regarded.  They also did umbrellas small enough to fit in my back pack.  I bought one of those. (It cost £10, which seems a lot, but hopefully will negate the need to buy multiple £2 tissue umbrellas).

Well, that was about 2 months ago, and has it rained?  Has it fuck.  there has been flooding all over the UK, including at home, but not a drop in London. That was until this morning.

I was starting to hope it would rain to be able to break out the umbrella, watching the weather forecast each morning.  But now that it has rained, well... the umbrella did its job admirably. Thank you.  That's enough rain thanks.

I guess there is no pleasing some people.