Planet Mad

Have spent the entire day lounging in bed, reading, listening to music and generally achieving very little. Have eaten nothing but Kettle Chips. Holidays are great!!

The weekend was spent back in the north east - I miss it a lot: Derby's just not the same. Friday was the staff Christmas party at my old school in Barnard Castle, County Durham. It was lovely to see people again, especially the Boy Kirkland (who left when I did and is now teaching in Newcastle) and Peter (who's still looking quite fine). The Head was there, and although tempted to through sprouts at the back of his head, I resisted and the evening passsed in blissful drunkeness!! Saturday was the wedding of K, a friend from SSAGO. It was a grand day: the service was short and sweet (highlight: the priest starting the homily with the words, "I think it's ironic that you ask a celibate male to talk about marriage!!"), the food was good and the barndance was spectacular (a Rannygazoo classic). Even though the photos took forever - hopefully links from here soon - it was good to see K in a dress, and at least there's evidence of it!! However, there was a No Doc Shock, as the lovely K was discovered to be wearing high heels under her frock... most uncommon!! K had thoughtfully provided two bottles of port for the reception (and very nice they were too) and Pinky and I soon saw them off, with a bit of help from Caz. Unfortunately, this left me in a bit of a predicament, and I paid for it big time the following day! To be fair, the cigar I smoked probably didn't help matters. Dear blog, I was a wreck on the Sunday!! It was spent staggering gently through the old stomping grounds of the north east - I even got up to Durham and had lunch in Vennel's Cafe - their chicken, tarragon and grape sandwich is the best hangover cure in the world.

It was lovely to be at K's wedding, and she looked radiant. It was much the same at Charlotte and Dave's wedding in June. I think them very lucky to have found such happiness, and I wish them all the joy in the world. It seemed that everyone has babies/small children at the moment, and I found myself quite wanting one. I'm obviously going to have to wait for one of the couples to have sprogs (even though K baulked at the "bring forth children" part of the marriage service!!) as chances of me having children are currently zilch (unlessI get visited by an angel called Gabriel, I suppose!!) :-)