Back in 2000, I met a young lady named Fiona via the discussion boards on the handbag.com website. We became good friends.

A few months later, she got me together with a friend of hers, Naomi, who I dated for a short while.

Naomi introduced me to a musical theatre group that herself and Fiona were a member of (hence why they knew each others).

At that same group, I become good friends with Luis.

In 2002, Fiona and Luis get married. At their wedding I meet Jennie, a friend of Fionas. Soon after we start dating.

In May this year I married Jennie, with Luis as my best man.

Recently, we have a new member join our musical theatre group. Martin Holtom. He used to be the “big cheese” at…. handbag.com

Now, what are the chances?

Ok. I’ve been quiet for some time. That may be due to various events that were coming up (and have now passed). Yes, I survived my stage weekend. But equally, I’m now married and honeymooned. I’ll take this opportunity to record what happened at the stag weekend, then add in separate blogs for the wedding and honeymoon. It’s only fair, after all ;o)

Friday

I was picked up by Luis (my best man) on the Friday and driven to a secret location… Lincoln… where most of those attending the weekend met up at a bar. During this time we were visited by a local, “Sleight of Hand Walter”, an elderly gentleman who did the most amazing card tricks.

We then headed off to our abode for the weekend – a wooden lodge in the middle of no-where. We spent the rest of that day drinking ourselves silly and playing poker. Paul even stripped to his pants and decided to swim across the nearby lake. And he did it too. Boy was he drunk.

Saturday
The next morning was my “surprise”. We had to stop soon after
leaving though for Paul to barf at the roadside. He decided it would be best if he didn’t go any further and set off walking back to the lodge. Anyway, we arrived at Humberside Airport. Luis was talking about “wing walking” but as he’d been leading me astray with false comments for months, I didn’t believe it.

As it turned out… I was right to disbelieve him. Ages ago, Luis asked me what I’d always wanted to do. I told him, but knew (as he commented at the time would be the case) it would be too expensive to do this weekend. Somehow though, Luis HAD arranged it. I was to have my first lesson flying a helicopter.

There was some basic training of the controls whilst we were on the ground and then we took to the sky. At this point my instructor was flying. When we got to the Humber Bridge however, she passed control to me. I fly it over the bridge and back again, and even returned it back to the airport. My instructor, however landed it. During our return trip, she showed me what happens when you turn off the engine at 1500ft. It drops, but not too quickly. She restarted the engine in time before we reached the ground – it was all just to show that no-matter what happens, it’s all quite safe.

In all we spent 30 minutes in the air. I now have an official pilots log book with half an hours flight time recorded in it. I now only need 44.5 more before thinking about a pilots licence! Will I do it? In time – when I get my loans paid off.

We then returned back to the lodge to pick up Paul (who was now feeling better) before heading off to all go go-karting. It was great fun – I wasn’t much cop myself though.

That night we tarted our-selves up and headed into Lincoln. We “dined” at the Chicago Rock Café until it was converted into a club for the rest of the evening – we wandered into a few others bars but returned here to dance for most of the evening.

Sunday

Paul and John C left in the morning.

Sunday was an attempt to recover from the night before, as we pulled on walking boots and sturdy trousers and headed off across the fields. Unfortunately I’d brought new boots and I was in agony very quickly. For most of the walk I was in my socks.

After a good few hours, we arrived at a pub that served the most fantastic Sunday carvery. Here we stayed drinking and playing darts until later afternoon. Now it was time for Rob to return home.

The remaining of us went back to the lodge and watched some DVD’s whilst doing what we did best – drinking.

Monday

Not much to say about Monday, other than the fact that we left in the morning. I arrived home early afternoon after a fantastic weekend.

My thanks go to everyone who attended and particularly Luis for organising it all.

Went to the car park after work…. the car was dead. Bum. Rocked the car in gear and it started. Hurrah. Now I’ve got to get it booked in at the dealer at (probable) great expense. I did take a look under the bonnet when I got home but the picture of my cars started motor didn’t match what Luis thought. But then again nothing under the bonnet matched the picture.

So, assuming Luis was right, I had a careful look. The forums I chatted on suggested that this can also be down to corroded contacts - sure enough it was pretty rusty. So I got a wire brush and gave it a rub. Until I hit another contact at the same time as the other and made my own little firework display. So I gave up on the wire brush and nuked it with WD40. Let’s see if that’s any better in my non-mechanical world.

Anyway, I’m now officially going up in the world as I have… a gardener. Oh yes. I hate gardening so it’s a bit of a tip - now I can have neatly trimmed bushes (steady madam).

And last, but by no means least, I’ve sorted out the Blog - the links have gone down the right side (and how many?) and the labels have been organised.

I only realised today that maybe describing the weekend as “looming” was a bit negative. In fact I meant the opposite - and it’s Monday, which is very, very depressing.

I got a little tipsy Friday night, played a lot of Lego Star Wars and Liberty City Stories. Then Luis broke out a Megadrive that he’d bought that very evening. With Sonic. Bliss.

Saturday I was hungover. And I hadn’t drank THAT much - it’s just been a while since I drank generally. The shed roof idea went to pot. Sunday it rained so the shed didn’t get looked at again. Early Saturday morning, unable to sleep more than 5 hours, I made loads of changes to my various websites. Which then broke them. So 9am on Saturday morning, hungover, I was fixing, desperately, PHP files. Grrr.

One other “fun” thing that happened Friday night was my car breaking down. I drove up to Luis’ house, having promised to take his girlfriend and her friend to a nearby town, we got into the car and… nothing. Lights were on but nothing was at home. The key turned to the sound of nothingness. Not even a click. Embarrassed, my friends found an alternative lift and I rang my Tesco breakdown services. An hour I was told. Good drinking time wasted, but never mind. I tried the car a couple more times and it was just the same. After about 40 minutes it suddenly started. I thought I’d wait for the breakdown guys to appear anyway, in case there was anything they could fix (or at least find to explain what happened). But after 70 minutes, no one was in site. And it was raining. So I rang Tesco and cancelled.

Luis thought my starter motor may have stuck (a suggestion that members of a Renault forum have agreed with). Anyway, I parked my car in a local pub park (my breakdown doesn’t cover me for home starts, which is why I left it about a mile from my house). Saturday morning I picked it up and it’s been fine since.

I have been advised to check the leads and general connectors to the starter motor, though, just in case one is lose. All I need to do now is work out where the damn starter motor is…

Meantime, I spent much of the weekend, instead of fixing shed roofs, playing Lego Star Wars 2. Again. I’m at 60%+ with invulnerability.

Now, will someone remind me to sort out my Blog labels. Oh, and those links at the top of the page. Must do it, must do it…

Other than that, my plan for today is to thoroughly check my websites for any other issues I might have caused.

It’s Friday and the weekend is looming.

Behind on many jobs that I need to get done around the house, particularly pressing is replacing the felt roof on my shed. It blew off in the summer and I tacked it back. I now have the materials but the shed is in a corner of the garden, with a wall tightly around it. I think the original owners built it and then moved it into place. God only knows how I’m going to get around the roof to get the felt all nailed down.

Anyway, it must be done.

So, sure enough, the weather this weekend is due to be… rainy. As it is right now. Actually, no, right now it’s lashing it down with rain and there’s lightning occasionally flashing through the windows. Pah. Typical. It’s got to be done before the winter, though.

Meantime, my mate Luis has arranged for us to go a-boozing tonight. I hope the hangover isn’t too bad or I won’t get anything done this weekend!