Married

I'm married. As unlikely as I was ever to enter into such a partnership. But I am. And I'm happy.

Carole though? I think best summed up by the email she sent me today titled "First baby steps...." which read as thus:-

""I've got a new email address on yahoo - so I'll be phasing out my old
one :-(
carole.stewart0@yahoo.co.uk""

Obviously it was a smiley face she intended rather than a sad one :)

However, our marriage was almost hastily ended only two days after the wedding. We were in the cinema, enjoying "Paranormal Activity 2" when a "clink, clunk" noise was heard. Carole's head swivelled toward mine. "Was that your ring?" she gasped. Sheepishly I nodded. Having never worn any form of jewellery in my lifetime, the presence of a ring on my finger has caused continual fiddling with said object, and a little too much of this caused the ring to spin off my finger into the inky pitch blackness of the cinema's floor

I found it. My heart, having taken residence in my mouth during my desperate search, gradually lowered

I hope everyone enjoyed the wedding. We did, and what I said in my speech wasn't simply insincere platitudes - I (we) are so grateful for everyone's help throughout. Particularly to our parents and siblings, we honestly, seriously, couldn't have done this without you

I'm disappointed no-one caught Luca's exclamation of "Mummy's a princess" during the vows however. Indeed, the only time Luca was caught on video was during his now infamous heckle during my speech. "Clouds" indeed......

As a final aside for Mum's benefit, I unconsciously muttered a favoured phrase of Granda Bill's as Luca and I drove to nursery recently. "We're off like a flash but we ain't got no cash". "That's funny" he immediately squealed hysterically, "Do it again". I did, and his head rolled with laughter. Now consciously remembering further, I regaled Luca with Granda's infamous "Beep beep galooga galooga". He wailed with laughter. "That's what your great Granda used to say" I told him. "He's a very funny man, isn't he Daddy?"

He was indeed.

I'll post more later, but in the interim see below for a selection of honeymoon pictures from Ireland:-

Outside the famous Killarney Cathedral. Notice the tea cosy Carole had stolen from a local cafe

Carole excitedly clambering astride her white steed. The guy assisting remarkably resembles Charlie from "Eastenders"

My horse. Or cart horse. This is a picture taken before the ride. It would have differed slightly after the ride, what with the leg shaped marks I left in it's side as I desperately held on for dear life. As we cantered through fields, forests and puddles both Carole and the instructor continuously turned round to make sure I was OK. On every occasion I flashed a confident smile, before replacing it with the more familiar look of sheer terror every time they turned away.

**Useless fact of the day - The population of Killarney as at Census 2002 was 12,087**