Second Wedding Anniversary!!

It's our second Wedding Anniversary today, hasn't it gone fast!? I've got the day off work (I'll let you know later what we manage to get up to, but one thing I do want to do is sit together and go through (again) all the photos from the day - there were quite a lot, I think we filled up about 8 large photo albums in the end - or something silly like that)!

This time last year we were away on holiday in Canterbury (nice to read back through all that, we had a fantastic time)...even more so for the fact that this year we have Thomas around, so a mini-break in a B&B isn't quite so feasible... ;) The year before, of course, we were actually doing the ceremony and then enjoying our mini honeymoon to Bath and our actual honeymoon to Mexico...incredible to read through the Mexico trip again, that really was the journey of a lifetime - the perfect celebration... ;)

Anyway, please wish us a very happy day (whatever we end up doing)!

Love you sweetheart...! xxx

A bit of a fuzzy head...

Wow, quite a weekend we've just had, probably a few pictures to come, but Saturday was Kipperfrog's wedding, which (apart from one very brief shower) was conducted in blazing sunshine (incredible considering how much rain we have had just lately)...the ceremony was extremely reminiscent of our wedding (last year) for a number of personal reasons, which made it a deeply emotional experience for both of us...but actually, the really amazing thing was the incredible amount of energy that Flyingpops suddenly managed to conjure out of nowhere, to see her running around making sure the wedding dress didn't drag on the floor, and later dancing was *not* the usual picture one has in one's mind of a typical pregnant woman 8 months gone! Still, I think she's paying for it, lots of aches and pains and a bit of a headache today...

Sunday (after popping to the supermarket for essentials) was the first of the NCT Dad's get-togethers, getting off to a slightly confused start when the pub we were supposed to be meeting at (the White Lion in Redhill) turned out to be closed when I arrived there (a handwritten sign stuck to the window, and glasses of beer left half-drunk on the bar making me picture a family emergency or something like that)...we popped back home (Flyingpops was kindly giving me a lift) and called Richard (who had got us all organised) to see if there had been a last minute change of plan, who said we should just meet at his house (as it was conveniently just down the road from the pub)...by the time we had driven back up there the landlord had evidently decided to open back up again, so no harm done, as no-one else had managed to arrive in the interim...

Anyway, I think I can confidently say that a great time was had by all, it's a bit hard to really get to know anyone when you are sat learning about messy gynaecological procedures, and this provided a chance to find out a bit about what we actually do, share a few of our experiences and drink large amounts of beer (all of which everyone embraced with equal amounts of enthusiasm)...when I got home I decided to put my chicken on to cook (for cold cuts during the week), managed the first basting and then at some stage (which I can't recall) I managed to turn the oven off, meaning when Flyingpops went to get it out (I was, by the point, snoozing on the sofa) it wasn't cooked properly...when she rang her mum, she told her to put it in the bin...so apart from a fuzzy head, today I'm not going to have much lunch to eat either...wouldn't have missed it for the world though... ;)

...(and thanks Flyingpops for putting up with me)... ;)

Happy Anniversary

Flyingpops here! As we celebrate our wedding day this weekend, we wanted to share some of our links...Happy Reading and Happy Anniversary Fink!

The day before the wedding
Wedding Pictures
Poem (on your wedding day)
All that I have I share with you
Two Gold Rings
Back from the honeymoon

Off to Canterbury soon!

1st Wedding Anniversary

Wow...It's been a year already - our first wedding anniversary is this weekend! I've still got the day so clear in my mind, just as if it were yesterday, I guess things quite so intense and personal get extra weight when the brain is burning them into long time storage...which is nice... ;)

Anyway, by way of celebration we have got Friday and Monday off as holiday and are paying for each other to get away to Canterbury (actually, more specifically a tiny bed and breakfast in a cottage near a nature reserve to the east of Canterbury)...the visits we have planned are to the "Canterbury Tales Experience" (a sort of medieval theme park), the cathedral (and the rest of the town centre), then a little trip to Whitstable, where apparenty they are currently enjoying the start of the local oyster season (not that Flyingpops will be able to join in as shellfish are off the menu for pregnant persons)...and then back home, perhaps, via Dover to check out Dover castle and the secret WW2 tunnels underneath...should be a good weekend (even better if the forecast bad weather doesn't affect us too badly, but a lot of the stuff we had planned was indoors/underground anyway)!

Anyone been to this part of the country? Any suggestions for cool things to do over a long weekend?

Christmas Update

So we then had a few days off, including my Birthday (unfortunately had to work on Christmas Eve, but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes) got an absolutely huge number of games (including everything I wanted from the Chrismas releases for the 360 - most played of that little lot so far are probably the most recent COD (which is like the older ones rather than COD 4, which is a bit of a shame as COD 4 was rather good) and Fable II (which has completely absorbed me to the point of stopping my replay of Fallout 3) although I've nearly finished that already with all the hours I put in over Christmas)...!

Christmas morning (after enjoying Midnight Mass at St Peters in Tandridge where we got Married earlier in the year) -

- we awoke at home (for the first time ever) to presents under our tiny live Christmas tree -

- rather later than intended (don't think we woke up until about 10am!) and had a lazy breakfast of four minute eggs with soldiers -

- before heading over for a fantastic meal of roasted goose at my parents and even more piles of pressies in the afternoon (very spoilt)! ;) Boxing day was another roast dinner (beef this time) at Flyingpops folks and then with barely a chance to catch our breath we were busy packing the car ready for an early start to begin our New Years break in Cornwall, first stop over was to go and visit Flyingpops' friend Dawn (who has recently moved to Okehampton) about an hour away from where we would be staying...

Wedding photograph update

After absolutely *months* and many failed attempts to go through all the wedding photos and choose the tiny amount we are allowed to have printed for free as part of the package, this is our latest attempt at a solution...Flyingpops (with some incredible negotiation) managed to get every single picture printed out for around £70 (or about half the best price they offer!)...and I bet the guy in Jessops was cursing our name by the time he had finished, the photos were extremely high resolution (just around 8gb in total), it managed to completely crash their system the first time they tried and Flyingpops had to go back in with all the images files the next day so they could have another go, in the end they had to chop them up into batches (meaning they all came out in a funny order) and when she went to collect them (three days later) they came in two (jam packed) carrier bags...thus far it's taken two hour-long sittings, one for Flyingpops to sort them roughly into the right order and one to make a start on putting them into the two albums we have - as of yesterday night she has got as far as having her hair done on the morning of the wedding day...this is an epic mission...!

Clandon Park - Tim and Gayle's Wedding

So Friday was the wedding (as Flyingpops has already mentioned), this meant the alarm going off at practically the normal sort of time in the morning thanks to Flyingpops' Mum and Charlie (the hairdresser) arriving at about half eight...I made up my mind (with a lot of unhelpful worrying from Flyingpops) as to which shirt/tie combination I was going to wear and selected a nice pair of cufflinks (camper van-shaped ones in the end) and then had about 3 hours to burn before we actually needed to set off (sooo much quicker for a chap to get ready to go out than for a young lady... ;)

So I busied myself packing everything we were going to need for the night, charged camera batteries etc. and then relaxed playing the 360 until it was time to actually put on the suit and leave the house...about a mile from Flyingpops' folks house we pulled up to a fairly blind junction in the woodlands near Holmwood and were just craning our necks to check it was safe to pull out when a taxi zoomed up behind us and very rudely honked it's horn, it was only as we pulled onto the estate that we realised it was carrying Flyingpops' dad, running extremely late from his own barbers appointment in Reigate!

After that it all pretty much went off without much of a hitch (although some nerves were evident as Flyingpops and I were doing one of the readings and we weren't sure quite when we were supposed to be doing it)...we were pretty much the last people to arrive, but everyone was still milling around outside - the venue was the stunning "Clandon Park" just outside Guildford -

- the weather couldn't have been much better (cool and bright - perfect for events requiring suits etc.)...we all filed in, passing the ladies being stopped at the door to put small bits of plastic on their shoes -

- (even though the floor appeared to be largely made of solid granite) -

- and then in for the quick civil ceremony in an amazingly tapestried room (no photography allowed though) -

- our reading was practically the last bit of the show, and thanks to our practicing we delivered a polished performance (or so said practically everyone I shook hands with afterwards - although for some reason quite a number of them seemed to have concluded that we had either chosen it ourselves or actually written it personally, neither of which could we claim credit for, those responsible being the bride and Edward Monkton respectively)...Anyway the canapés and wine came out (nor did either seem to stop for the entire duration of the photography) -

- which took us on to what appeared to be the old wine cellar for the house, where we sat down to a fine dinner/speeches etc...



When this was all concluded we were then kicked out to enjoy the glorious gardens and a spectacular Surrey sunset while the DJ set up for the evening's entertainment -

- and the staff prepared more snacks -

- probably the only down-side of the whole thing was having to leave in time for the staff to have all our mess cleared up by midnight, but all good things must come to an end... ;)

Well, or so I thought until I woke up on Saturday barely able to walk thanks to a "dancing" injury...(feeling better now though, thanks for asking)... ;)

Civil Wedding Reading - A lovely love story

Tim & Gayle will be married by the time you are reading this ... and Fink and I have had the honour of standing, together as man and wife reading the following...


A Lovely Love Story by Edward Monkton

The fierce Dinosaur was trapped inside his cage of ice. Although it was cold he was happy in there. It was, after all, his cage.

Then along came the Lovely Other Dinosaur.
The Lovely Other Dinosaur melted the Dinosaur's cage with kind words and loving thoughts.
I like this Dinosaur thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur.
Although he is fierce he is also tender and he is funny.
He is also quite clever though I will not tell him this for now.

I like this Lovely Other Dinosaur, thought the Dinosaur. She is beautiful and she is different and she smells so nice.
She is also a free spirit which is a quality I much admire in a dinosaur.

But he can be so distant and so peculiar at times, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur.
He is also overly fond of things.
Are all Dinosaurs so overly fond of things?

But her mind skips from here to there so quickly thought the Dinosaur. She is also uncommonly keen on shopping.
Are all Lovely Other Dinosaurs so uncommonly keen on shopping?

I will forgive his peculiarity and his concern for things, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. For they are part of what makes him a richly charactered individual.

I will forgive her skipping mind and her fondness for shopping, thought the Dinosaur. For she fills our life with beautiful thoughts and wonderful surprises. Besides, I am not unkeen on shopping either.

Now the Dinosaur and the Lovely Other Dinosaur are old.
Look at them.
Together they stand on the hill telling each other stories and feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs.

And that, my friends, is how it is with love.
Let us all be Dinosaurs and Lovely Other Dinosaurs together.
For the sun is warm.
And the world is a beautiful place

Day before our Wedding...

At 1.00 today my brother, Tim will marry Gayle and become the next Mr and Mrs Goodall .... having married Fink angel earlier this year, I really can’t wait...there is so much I need to blog about our wedding, the preparation, share our suppliers with the world, the day itself and the honeymoon (including the dolphin post), but for now, I just want to share with the world the emotions that I was going through, the day before I got married...

The build up and day itself were totally electric and I felt like I was walking on air for weeks – totally untouchable and extremely positive about everything. When Scott arrived, we knew there were only a few days left and I had to force myself to get the beauty sleep to prevent bags under the eyes in the pics! I had gone through the anxiety dreams of the car not turning up, or Fink hurting his knee and was well and truly bouncing off the walls with excitement (think of Tigger and you get the picture). Each dream was filled with such happiness and there were absolutely no doubts in my mind that this would be the start of our next chapter and the best days of our life!

I had lots of fun planning our wedding and had spent hours talking to mum about colours, tables, flowers, dresses, and the tiny detail that when pulled together, really do create the most incredible day. We had hired Oxted community hall for our reception and could only get in at 19.00 the night before, so I handed complete control over to Fink, the best man and my family who turned a fairly standard hall into a shrine of Fink and Net memorabilia (and one of the best receptions I’ve ever been too). I had made everyone a little folder, with photos and descriptions of how to decorate the tables and hall and they went above and beyond my expectations in pulling it all together. In the very early days, I said I wanted our wedding to be personal to us, so every item introduced from favours, to the cake, had a hint of our personalities and had gone through a rigorous analysis to make sure it fitted in with the overall theme... (Including hunting high and low for purple toilet roll!)

So, the day before the wedding... fink and I were up early and went into Redhill to purchase one last gift.. We came back, Scott packed the car and then I said a tearful good bye to Fink (the next time we were to meet, would be at the end of the aisle, before taking our vows). Scott drove me to dirking, collected the suits, whilst Fink stayed at home writing his speech ... then he dropped me at my parents, whilst he went off to finish his best man duties (get the car washed etc)... At mums/dads you could feel the anticipation, similar to when you were young child on Christmas eve, waiting for Christmas day when you get to wear your best clothes and yet your parents are all calm (even if they don’t feel it, you would never know!) Dad pottered around making sure the driveway looked good, and mum made the finishing touches to the most incredibly spotless house you have ever seen (photographer arriving the following day). An old school friend stopped by for a chat and then came in with her husband and baby for a coffee.. and since they were also coming to the wedding we chatted about hair, outfits and the fact her son had to wait until the following day before he wore his new coat!

As time ticked on, Charlotte arrived for the pampering... a manicure and pedicure for me, manicure and false nails for mum and not to leave dad out – a man’s manicure for him! By 8.00 all was finished, a quick dinner of jacket potato and salad, then I went to bed at 9.00 – in my old room (which had been decorated) for the all important beauty sleep..... ZZZZZ zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I woke up at about 4am – with dad getting a drink, then slept through till 7 – when Dad got up to take his bathroom slot... When I came down the stairs, I didn’t feel nervous, anxious or even stressed.... just happier than I’ve ever been in my life and unable to stop smiling!

As I’m typing this, I have a lump in my throat as it brings so many memories into my head.. I know I’ll be shedding a tear tomorrow when I see Gayle in all her beauty, and then when they say their vows. Having been together for 8 years, lots of people said being married would not be any different, however I have to disagree. Being married isn’t easy, you have to constantly work at it, but when you make you promises to each other and declare your vows in front of your friends, family, the church and then with the exchange of rings, you know it’s for keeps, and you get a warm, glowing feeling of contentment knowing that no matter what happens, you’ve got each other. .. Forever..

Home Alone

So, Fink is away on the stag weekend with my brother... having detoxed in preparation I must add..

I've been jealous all week (even packing Fink's case for him), but sadly, my thoughts of Cornwall, (Cornish Pasties, Cream Tea and surfing) probably aren't the same as boys on a stag do, so I'll be staying at home (in the warm)

This is the longest that Fink and I have been apart since getting married in March, so I'm beginning to wonder how to spend my time? As my thoughts move to the Home Alone movie, I may find myself jumping on the bed, setting up a DVD to protect against the Pizza delivery boy and set up marble traps to protect against the evil men!

I've arranged a girly Sat evening, and am out in London tonight with work mates.. My only real concern is who is going to cook my Sunday roast? Every week, Fink and I sit down at 6.30 for roast... being vegetarian, a minimum of 8 veg are served and nut cutlet or vegetarian alternative... I'm going to starve! .. that is unless anyone takes pity on me and decides to invite me over! ;o)

Weekend update

Well, had a pretty busy weekend (apart from managing to find a few hours on the Xbox 360 - Dark Sector and Bully at the moment, Bully being much the better game but Dark Sector has it's moments)..Saturday morning/lunchtime saw brother and sister in law (plus kids) come over to join in having mass hair cuts (and push cars full of barbies/Action men around)...Sunday morning, after doing the Tesco shopping, was spent nipping into South London (dodging speed cameras) to visit Grandpops and Hazel to fix some problems with their firewall (and install them some novelty Tomtom voices)...

Mustn't forget to mention that we have had a marriage proposal (and acceptance!) in Canada (very many congratulations to Sal and Jas!) which you can read about on their blog here (they are going to be flying back to Blighty soon so I imagine there will be some sort of celebration to be conducted upon their return)...then *this* coming weekend is another long one (for me anyway) as we are going to spend four days down in Cornwall to help Timmy celebrate his stag do, I am being picked up from home at 10am on Friday to begin the process of collecting all the attendees from around the South East (must remember to pack my stuff)! In fact, when Flyingpops was looking at the calendar yesterday morning, she announced that we don't actually have another completely free weekend now until October...!

Busy busy busy!

Jellybean Wedding Photography

Now, this is a rather long and complicated story – but please, stay with me and you will be rewarded (it ‘s probably one of the only hitches we had during the wedding planning and may give you an insight into why my “stressed lady” persona appeared before the wedding)...

Wedding Photographs – something to hang on the wall, show the grandchildren in years to come and a reminder of your day...Naturally, we wanted lots of coverage (simply due to Fink’s love of photography), so we set aside a large chunk of budget to ensure we were covered...and below is detailed the painful process I went through, to ensure we got what we wanted...

Step 1 - Find a photographer – Rating: Easy - Whilst at a wedding fair trying to source a caterer (of all things), Fink commented on the photography in some sample menus we were reviewing “Wow, who took these shots?”...The caterer told us that it had just been produced by a company called Jellybean, who usually do wedding photography and so we came straight home, googled them and within 10 minutes of sending an email, they had called to discuss our requirements - We were simply blown away by their photography and their service, then ticked the 'find photographer' box on the wedding checklist and I entered into work mode to negotiate the package (hours/price)...

When my cousin needed a photographer for her wedding at short notice, we approached Jellybean (obvious choice, considering), they pulled out all the stops and were able to cover it. We were to find out afterwards, that they had asked their close colleague Ed (and owner of www.igrooverweddings.co.uk) to photograph the wedding, for which we are eternally grateful...(but this was not all)...

Fink and Ed “clicked” at my cousins wedding (excuse the pun) and mutual approach was discovered between their shots of the day, and therefore, after several long and painful conversations with Nick (owner of Jellybean) over the difference in photographic style, lenses and cameras, Fink confirmed that he wanted Ed to cover our wedding, not Nick. Having gone so far down the line with Jellybean, my ethics prevented me going directly to Ed and so I faced what must be the most uncomfortable conversation ever - telling Nick we preferred Ed’s style and it was he we wanted to cover our day. The upshot was this was to come at an additional fee, but our decision was final – We were to book with Jellybean but they would subcontract to Ed (not perfect, but everyone’s honour was intact and we had the guy we needed for the job)...

Step 2 – Sign the contract and pay the instalments – And so (feeling happy, and) in good faith, we made our first payment. However, the service we received from Jellybean was to slowly deteriorate, with no response to emails or phone calls. All was to be revealed when we got a call from David at “the fotoshop” – who? - in February, asking us to send a cheque for our final payment...It was then confessed that Nick and his wife (co-owner of Jellybean) had split up and were selling the company (and it must be noted that this confession only came after I said that we had already made the payment into Nick’s wife’s account as per every other instalment). Still, David was very reassuring and told me not to worry...easily said... however it didn’t take long, before I was dreaming that the photographer wouldn’t turn up on the day (especially as Jellybean’s administration had proved itself to fail on more than one occasion). Upon my insistence, Jellybean provided Ed’s details so we could talk directly. Not only did this help me to sleep at night, it also proved how poor Jellybean had been. Ed returned our calls, emails and even text messages and quickly put to rest any of the last minute doubts a bride has before her day.

Step 3 – Meet Ed for the pre wedding chat – This is when it all started to become real for me... Ed embraced our love of photography and got us very excited, showing us his ideas, taking on Fink’s requests, working through my ridiculous list of group shots and giving us all the time we needed. When he left, I smiled at fink and said ‘Thank you’ All I can think is back in October, when I had the painful discussion with Nick, Fink must have had a crystal ball to spot Ed when he appeared...

Step 4 – Photograph the day – Well, Ed really went for it taking over 900 photographs (9Gb-odd) ... The pictures speak for themselves, amazing – Ed certainly works *very* hard and captures everything – good and bad (such as my dad in his pants!). We didn’t see him sit down once (other than when driving) and he was so friendly, that some of my guests were honestly of the opinion that he was a close friend of ours. He never got in the way, was just there clicking away in the background and even when the time we had paid for expired, he hung around, smiling and suggesting shots. You simply *couldn’t* ask for more. Anyone who books with Ed *cannot* be disappointed. His service is impeccable.

Step 5 – Receive photographs - Within 1 week of the wedding, Ed called me to say the pictures were ready but Jellybean had not paid him, so he would not send the final disks to Jellybean, who would (in turn) send them to us. Fink and I fully supported his decision. Yes – we were desperate to see our photos, but we wanted Ed to get paid, so were happy to wait and boy did we wait....

Despite lots of calls to David (the new owner of Jellybean), we were given lots of excuses and Ed did not receive payment until early May (remember, we had paid in full by the end of Feb). We were promised the pictures when we returned from Mexico and you’ve guessed it, nothing on our mat or online when we got home. We simply couldn’t understand why it was taking Jellybean so long to sort it out. On Tuesday, let’s just say I did a ‘Net special’ and let rip. Very polite, professional, but the words ‘watchdog and ‘solicitors’ cropped into conversation. On Thursday afternoon, the pictures suddenly appeared online (with a spelling mistake for my name and a password that didn’t work, but finally, at least, they were on their website). The disks *should* have arrived in today’s post – and they didn’t, but I (and excuses starting to wear thin) begrudgingly suspect this is due to the Royal Mail as I have an email from David confirming they have been sent...ahem... ;)

Step 6 – Share with Friends and Family

So – for those of you still with me, you’ll want to view our pictures. Go to:

http://www.thefotoshop.co.uk/galleries.htm

Click on the drop down gallery menu and select ‘Jellybean weddings’

Click on Mr & Mrs Mayer

You will then need a password – (we don’t want to put this on the blog, so please email, text or call for this and we’ll give it to you)...

Then spend your next few hours enjoying all 61 pages of our day – the good, bad and the cringe worthy!

There is a facility to buy pictures online, but please DO NOT BUY FROM the site and talk to me.

Step 7 – Waste hours upon hours reliving the day and enjoying the photographs – Small warning – Jellybean have not uploaded in any real order, so its a bit of a mess – but the pictures are there and we are certainly not complaining...

Step 8 – Decide on pictures for the album – any suggestions?

Final comment – If anyone is wanting some quality photographs taking – contact Ed - www.igrooverweddings.co.uk and avoid – Jellybean altogether. Without Ed, we would have gone insane!

Mexico Vaccinations...OUCH...

...so after having to cancel my jabs last week thanks to my work "brother in arms" being off sick mit die grippe, this afternoon was the revised occasion for me to enjoy deactivated Hep A and Typhoid cells being stabbed into my arms (in solution) for the good of the trip to El Mehico...

I knew the routine from being a kid, keep the muscles relaxed so the needle goes in easily, and in fact, I didn't even feel them pierce the skin, walked out all proud of myself, and started the trek (down through the Royal Earlswood Estate, golf course and hospital) feeling quite content...then had a rather wobbly few minutes (only five or so) coping with some rather interestingly heightened visual and auditory signals (or perhaps my alert systems were malfunctioning), some of which may have been slightly hallucinatory (I was suddenly starkly aware of a huge number of small animals that may not have actually been present) - staggered back to base and then over the course of the next few hours (trying to sit on my backside as much as possible, lower lip quivering), my upper arms (the ever-so-kind nurse having delivered one dose to each side of my torso) started to both sting and flag, by 2100hrs I could barely lift my right arm above my head, despite it being the recipient of the smaller of the two injections, and by 2250hrs even that was out of the question...and now it has spread to my shoulders...

Sulk... :(

Vaccinations for Mexico

Tonight I'm off to have the essential vaccinations for our honeymoon - (one of the down sides of going to such far away shores) ... and to make it worse, my loving 'husband' has to work late so has left me to go alone.

Think of me all at 5.00 tonight

:)

Honeymoon preperation

Never one to be caught out with any last minute preparation, Fink and I went on a wee shopping trip on Sunday to start the honeymoon shopping - Shorts for Fink and two bikinis for me.. Now, to further add to our preparation we have just opened our tickets to Mexico

So I guess, this means we really 'are' going....

Now, we are both even more excited and are starting to plan our 14 days over there.... swimming with dolphins, exploring the ruins in Tulum and getting lots of rest and relaxation time... Oh and the current weather over there is 32 degrees

Bring it on!

Mr and Mrs FinkAngel - Wedding pictures

Sorry, we *know* everyone is desperate to see the shots, but there are rather a lot to go through, so here are just two professional shots from the wedding day to tantalise you - lots more to follow -

Perfect Wedding Poem - Readings

I went through books and books, and searched the internet for hours to find a suitable poem to be read during the wedding ceremony and finally found this one which I felt was perfect. So, just imagine Tim standing at the front of the church and reading this...

On Your Wedding Day

Today is a day you will always remember
the greatest in anyone’s life.
You’ll start off the day just two people in love
and end it as husband and wife.
It’s a brand new beginning, the start of a journey,
with moments to cherish and treasure.
And although there’ll be times when you both disagree,
these will surely be outweighed by pleasure.
You’ll have heard many words of advice in the past,
when the secrets of marriage were spoken,
but now you know that the answers lie hidden inside,
where the bond of true love lies unbroken.
So live happy forever as lovers and friends,
it’s the dawn of a new life for you,
as you stand there together with love in your eyes
from the moment you whisper, “I do”.
And with luck, all your hopes, and your dreams can be real,
may success find its way to your hearts.
Tomorrow can bring you the greatest of joys,
but today is the day it all starts.

Thanks Tim, well read :)

Longleat Safari Park

So, day 3 we decided to go and check out Longleat, got there rather early (although again the Sat-nav insisted on taking us down some rather unnecessarily small roads) so we ditched it and just started following the brown signs, which *also* took us down some silly little roads, so perhaps Somerset is just mostly made up of them...

Anyway, got there in the end (after several diversions), and even though the day was young there was already a queue for tickets -

- we had cunningly bought our tickets online (saving 10% in the process) but there was no fast-track bonus benefit to having done so...when we got to the front, the lady took our number issued our tickets and "Jurassic Park" style audio guide (had to hop out of the car and put it into the multi-changer in the boot), and then we were ready to enter!

They made it completely clear, the animals are wild, they do whatever they like and any damage to the vehicle is just "one of those things"...ulp...especially as we had watched this video on Youtube the evening before...Anyway, the first area you enter is a reasonably safe one, not only allowing you to keep the car windows open (much better for photography) -


- but also allowing you to get out of the car (in certain sections) to visit the shop (full of African tat art) -


- scare some Guinea Fowl -

- and take the "Wallaby walk" (very cute) -

- then it's back in the car, past other large and small herbivores -



- past some of the "worlds largest" aviaries (which didn't look as big as the one at London Zoo to me) -


- and thence to (what was actually probably the highlight of the visit) the "Monkey Jungle", past not one huge warning sign -

- but two "Monkeys will climb on your vehicle and will cause damage - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" being the most fierce (no joke, we saw people turning their vehicles away when they saw that one) -

- and it was no exaggeration either, the little blighters were all over all the cars -

- including ours (I removed our aerial ball before we went in or we would have lost it, no question) -


- and the back windscreen wiper only just survived because a huge water buffalo scared the monkeys away at the critical moment -


- although some people weren't so lucky (zoom in to see this car in front of us lost their back wiper entirely) -

- the next (and much calmer) section was the large paddock where many more quadruped herbivores wander around in large groups, ruminating and posing -


- and then to another of the really good bits of the day, the deer feeding, you buy a cup of what look like rabbit pellets for a pound (which comes complete with an antibacterial wipe (for afterwards) -

- and then you spend the next ten minutes with your hand being completely swallowed by slathering beasts (and then discovering that the antibacterial wipe is sorely inadequate to the cleansing task at hand, so bring wet wipes with you if you are reading this in advance of your visit) -

- you then trundle past some sleepy Rhino and Pelican -


- and then you are warned, take your last breath of fresh air, it's windows closed for the rest of the visit, first past some extremely sleepy overfed tigers -

- then past some extremely sleepy overfed lions -

- then past some extremely playful wakeful lions, who were so hungry they were trying to sneak up on flocks of birds (and failing miserably) -

- (oh and at this point some *idiot* woman drove up with her young child hanging out of the passenger side window trying to take pictures, only to be yelled at extremely sternly by the game keeper in his van, she, obviously a little flustered, went to pull away and nearly crashed into a car coming up on the outside, can you imagine the insurance claim form?)...Anyway, then it was into the last area, to see some Timber Wolves busy dismembering a carcass -


- and then that was it, a small queue to exit the park itself, and then on to the other attractions -

- but more on that in another post... ;)