My Blog Posts

I’m aware that I haven’t been posting with my usual regularity, and my apologies for that. I have been somewhat busy, but I’ve also been somewhat lazy as well. Still, we have been out and about doing things. I’ve managed to get a job, but I don’t start work until the 14th of October. So, in the mean time we are trying to do London on a shoestring. The previous two sentences are connected you see, its hard to do things when you haven’t got a job (and thus no money coming in) but its a little career challenging to leave work at two o’clock in the afternoon because you must just pop into the V & A dahling.

We are back, and trying to integrate ourselves back into polite society. For the curious our honeymoon destination was Las Vegas. We stayed at the Bellagio and did our best to enjoy ourselves flat out for ten days. We are now in Bracknell but will be relocating to the big smoke in the next day or so. If anyone is in London and fancies a refreshing beverage we are available for trips to the pub and other social occassions. Just call me on my mobile and we will see what we can sort out.

Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking… Oh hang on, that comes later. I just thought I would take a couple of minutes on this, our wedding day, to say hello to those who can’t make it. Hello. We hope you will be thinking of us and we will do our best to raise a glass to you. I was going to write something about my beloved, but try as I might I couldn’t quite put into words what today means to me. So I have taken the easy way out and resorted to poetry.

So, after six weeks of shopping enough was enough and I have escaped to the midlands. Three days of peace, quiet, cable tv and a little bit of surfing the internet. My future bride is at Perry central in Bracknell and is spending her days sorting the contents of her underwear drawer and other pre-marital rites of passage. Oh, and Mr Kenway, I haven’t spotted that nice man from the Moccona adverts.

No, I couldn’t just stop like that. I was perusing Accordian Guy’s always amusing discussion of life in Canadia when, bugger me, if he hasn’t been attending weddings. He has a few words of advice for what gentlemen should wear. Anyone coming to our nuptials should remember that the invite says “dress expensive and glamourous”. Love your work Joey.

Today’s research task - the waltz. From Ask Jeeves we get a list of songs and some music tips, all very high class, and none of them will be appearing at my wedding reception thank you very much. From Google we get Waltz Steps. Perfect, and one-nil to the best search engine in the world. Altogether now; one, two, three. one, two, three …

Judging from the lack of activity on this here blog you could be forgiven for thinking nothing much has been doing recently. But you would be wrong. Since I last posted an entry we have been all over the place in a flurry of driving and the occasional stop. Let me start from the top. I last blogged from the master of ceremonies’ house. Since then we spent a couple of nights Chez Molland (he is the best man you know), we then showed by soon to be in-laws around the wedding venues and were present at the meeting of the parents over lunch. This all went surprisingly well. The next day we met the registrar (you can call her Wendy) and took completely the wrong road from Exmouth to Lymington to see the photographer. We had arranged to see him at 3pm but because I took us on the picturesque A30 (as opposed to the much faster A303) we got there at about 5. It didn’t help that the New Forest show was on the next day either. Anyway, we met the man, had a chat and decided that we were are all lovely. Have a look at his web site if you don’t believe me.

We saw Francis Dunnery on Saturday. There is only one word to describe the gig - fan-bloody-tastic. Alright, that is two words, but the expletive was definitely required. Go and buy one of his records now.

A break from tradition. The observant will have noticed a theme running through my blog post titles for the last two months, well the theme has now changed. For the clueless - and that must be most of the people reading this because no one has said to me “Andy, all of your blog posts are titled with Wonder Stuff song titles.” - I have now moved on to Francis Dunnery lyrics. Mainly as an homage to the man who we are going to see in concert tomorrow night. I for one can’t wait.

Spotted. In a London pub. Someone serving actual drinks who isn’t a smelly commonwealth backpacker. Wonders will never cease.

Wedding preparations continue apace. If you haven’t had a look yet, I’m constantly updating the Where are they? page on this site. To summarise the latest progress, we have been to both venues and finalised arrangements as much as possible (barring any changes of mind of course), the bride is fully kitted out and has arranged hair and make up for the ladies, the groom has a suit, a pair of shoes and some cuff links, so only shirt and tie to go, the disco is booked - no there will not be karoake - the notice of marriage has been made and we are seeing the balloon lady this afternoon. We have a meeting with the chef at Woodbury Park this evening because the standard menus are apparently not up to scratch and I am going for a dry run hair cut tomorrow morning - no laughing thank you very much.

Thanks to the lovely people at Intelynx I’m back on the internet. It took a bit longer than expected, but then doesn’t everything. We’re in the mother country and the weather is what you would expect of an English summer - cold, wet and miserable. So good, in fact, that I have been out and bought a coat today. I brought jumpers with me, I’m not that stupid, but foolishly forgot anything waterproof. Thanks to the sale at the YHA shop that oversight has now been corrected. Marvelous.

We made it through the twenty four hours with very, very little sleep on the paraffin budgie and are now safely in the mother country. Or England to those of you who are just a little too Aussie. I have managed to acquire a functioning mobile telephone but the laptop isn’t talking to the internet yet. Manana, I promise.

A new record for me. I’ve managed to take some photos and then publish them on this web site within twenty four hours. Have a look at some pictures from our farewell to Sydney dinner.

We are now officially homeless. We’ve also spent a week in the south island of New Zealand, which is why this page has been a little quiet of late. We are now back in Sydney for our four day hiatus before heading for the mother country. Bobo is currently working on our itinerary so the Where are we? page will be updated really soon - probably.

The rings have been purchased and are in our possession. I’d show you a picture, but apparently its bad form to see them before the ceremony, or something. So you will all have to wait until the 16th of August to see the results of Jason’s work. Now, back to packing.

Found, on Rock.com a picture of the three amigos. From the left, we have Mr Rath, Mr Bilton and Mr Gladstone. Boys, I’m saving this photo and will be bringing it out the next time any of you starts talking about credibility. For the irony free, that last sentence was meant to be just a little bit tongue in cheek. Now, you all know I’m not one to criticise, but Geezer, you really need to read up on web design. Can I point you in the direction of Mark Pilgrim, Dorothea Salo and Jeffrey Zeldman. Read, and discover the joys of CSS, XHTML and the W3C. Oh, and lose the frames son, they are so1997.

This is the best blog post I’ve read in many a long while. Sorry Jonathon and StavrostheWonderChicken, you were close, but no cigar.

Its been non stop today. I am officially the king of the chores. So far, I’ve got the car serviced, undertaken the great fridge swap 2002 ™, been to the dentist (no fillings required, a miracle) and been for a swim. Blimey, time for a sit down methinks. Meanwhile, Bobo has returned home from work and is doing her best to reduce the size of the sofa cushions. For those who are interested, the fridge swap story is fairly simple. When we moved into this house, unlike every other rental property in Sydney, it came with a fridge. Because we already had a fridge we had a dilemma. Luckily, Warren came to our rescue and took the house fridge off our hands, leaving Bobo and I to enjoy the delights provided by Fisher and Paykel - the official supplier of white goods to this household, by fiat of SWMBO. Unfortunately Wozza upped and left and the fridge duplication reared its ugly head again. Even more fortunately for us, Mark and Sophie stepped into the breach and offered to take on custody.

The motor is on the market. Check out the online ad here. Oh, if you are reading this after the 21st of June, 2002 that link will take you to a page that doesn’t show much. I wish I could duplicate the ad but the terms and conditions of drive.com.au don’t allow me to do so. Now just join me in daily wishes that someone actually reads the ad and calls me up to buy the car.