Gaie Paris

Music: Was supposed to be Ce Matin La, by Air but has been replaced by some Generic stuff from YouTube copyright enforcers, Warner Muscic Group

We've only gone and got hitched! Ok this picture could have been taken anywhere but we had an amazing top floor room, in an amazing location in central Paris. The first of our 'mini-moons' (mini honeymoon - we couldn't take the usual week on a beach due to child commitments etc). The next one will be at Ragdale Hall, a spa in Leicestershire, in April we are hoping.

The Wedding was exhilirating, exhausting, manic, overwhelming - an incredible day that will take months to digest I imagine. We had Carlos and Heather and Reka staying with us before they flew back to their respective continents mid week after Saturday 13th Feb. We are shattered. In every way. Roll on Ragdale! More on the wedding later. When the (star)dust settles. Thanks so much for the enormous efforts all our nearest and dearest went to, to help us celebrate. Seeing so many people we love and value dearly in one place was an experience I will never forget. Have high hopes that the pictures will have captured the essence of a day that passed us by in a flash.

How could two people possibly spend quality time with 150 people. Impossible. I had suspected it would feel that way, but hoped that i) it wouldn't be so ii) that I would have super human powers that would allow me to be able to give the kind of quality time I wanted to give to everyone there. Not possible. Boo. A quick calculation before the wedding went something like 12 hrs (720 minutes) divided by number of guests (150) equals 4.8 minutes with each person.

I knew that, as I said, but hoped it wouldn't feel like that. having 4 mins with each person. It did feel like that. Bah! I have been to enough weddings to know that as a guest you do not expect to see much of the bride and groom. But anyway, I shouldn't dwell on this disappointment (for me). The feedback has been very positive so far. Everyone seemed happy. More details to follow.

Paris was .. Paris. Beautiful but extortionate (particularly with the current weakness of the pound against the Euro). I will be posting a shot of the club sandwich (two 'corner' sandwiches that cost almost £30 ...). Ho hum. WE ARE MARRIED, it will take more than a gold-plated sandwich to stick in the throat (metaphorically speaking) that is our new life together. Something like, say ... a first disagreement about a joint family surname?!!

* 'S' stands for Something-or-other-an at the moment. We can't agree on what we should call ourselves. Damn these pesky 21st century families. We currently have 3 different family names ... and two different colours in our house. Sort that one out Mr Borders Agency officer!

Stone me!

An unexpected side product of my chest infection and 4 days in bed between Christmas and New Year was the loss of almost 5lbs in weight (just over 2kgs). This spurred me on to see if I could shed a few more, through exercise and abstinence between the new year and the wedding (approx 6 weeks). As a person whose waistline expands just by looking at food, increasingly so as I march towards 40, I did not have great hopes so my expectations were never going to be difficult to exceed. However, through daily rowing and my zero tolerance policy on alcohol I have lost a stone, a whopping 15lbs, or almost 7kg!!

What a great advert for Tunturi, makers of the rowing machine I bought in Texas back in 2001 (and used for about 6 months total in all the time since!). I can't believe that at 38, I am still able to drop weight - almost - as easily as I put it on. That said, I have a feeling that total abstinence going forward will not be quite so easy.

So it looks like I may be able to do justice to that expensive tailored suit after all. It was of course made to measure to make me look as great as possible even as a total porker, but at least I should now not only look good, but feel good inside it too. Being able to tie up my shoe laces without splitting my trousers or having a haemorrhage is just a bonus!

So let's hear it for the rowing machine. I knew it would come in handy if I hung onto it for about 10 years ... 'Merrily merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream'!

T minus 2 days

: - )

Happy Birthday Martha!

"Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy BIRTHDAY future wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!"

Great timing if I may say so too. This means that after this year, I have a wedding anniversary, birthday and valentines day all within half a week of each other! That should make the present buying (remembering) easy ... Carlito arrives later. Let the carnival begin!

"This is it ... this is it!"

'50 dates. 50 shows' ... no. stop. only kidding (harking back to MJ's ghoulish London press conference performance back in early 2009).

Paris travel insurance. Check. Euros. Check. Outfits Collected. Check. Music CDs completed and burned. Check. Final briefing lists. Check. Table Plan poster collected. Check. And the list goes on and on and on. Tonight is a natural deadline, as Carlos arrives tomorrow, then we head for Norwich Thursday morning. There are concerns about severe weather warnings, that helped us decided to travel up a day earlier than we'd planned on the Friday.

It's hard to believe it's almost over/ only just beginning. It's been both a long and short 4 months. Short because we probably would never have tried to organise it all so soon, had we known how much would be involved. We've done everything now I think - but not without a huge amount of stress and friction. The greatest irony when planning a wedding, is that wedding planning puts you off getting married completely (Good luck with that Tom & Louisa, for July). A perfectly 'normal' feeling apparently! Long, because we are itching to 'get the job done' and get on with the rest of our lives, starting with having our evenings and weekends back.

So this is it! Huge amounts of energy and cash expended. Let's hope it was worth it. Most of my blood, sweat and tears has gone into making music lists for background ambience and ice breaking moments. Music we love but hope other people will love and that will set the party tone for the day. Full listings to follow.

I am getting married! Properly this time. It's a great and daunting feeling. Had I not met Martha, I know for sure life would have turned out very differently for me. Involving, most probably cutting and running to the other side of the world with my divorce money. While that still appeals in many ways, this feels so right right now and I have not been this at peace (call it 'content' if you will) for a very, very long time (and I am going back beyond my time with J).

Time will tell. But for now, looking forward to the next part of the journey .. with relish. Da da da da da da da ..... to infinity and beyond!

: - )

See you all there. N xx

Squeaky bum time ..

"Week of 1 Feb:

• Collect Suit N
• Get table plan poster printed M
• Laminate table numbers N
• Music CDs for Sean/ Vanessa N
• Give Holiday Inn list of rooms to be billed for dinner N/M
• Birthday cards for birthday guests M
• Clear ipod of all music except wedding playlists N
• Write brief for Ray M
• Make up party boxes for kids tables M
• Pay DOL Invoice N"

A window on our world, with less than 2 weeks to go .. an excerpt from M's 'final countdown To Do list' - planned and executed with military precision (a vision of future family holidays ... : - ))