Jane, looking gorgeous just before David and Katie's wedding
Ten years ago to this very day, Jane and I decided to become a couple. It seems like less, maybe six or seven years, but it’s been the best ten years of my life. She is beautiful, and I love her so much. I can’t begin to contemplate what a horrible direction my life would have taken if it weren’t for this magnificent woman.
We’ve been engaged for about seven years, and we’re hoping to get married this year or the next, but to be honest, we’re pretty committed to each other and we don’t feel that standing up in front of some people and saying some words then getting a bit of paper would add much to the relationship. We’ll do it eventually, I’m sure. Neither of us are religious, so we’re thinking of keeping the actual ceremony very small, then having a massive party involving lots of alcohol and possibly some Lips a bit later on in the year. Maybe. Nothing is set in stone at this point, it’s just ideas.
My fingers are still crossed that we get around to having children, something always seems to get in the way though. Between me losing my job, and the long term unemployment that brought, to the big house move which we’re still settling in to, things just got in the way. It’ll happen one day, and as I’ve said before, it’ll be the happiest day of my life. I need to find a job before all this can happen though, and in the current worldwide economic situation, they’re not the easiest of things to come by.
Here’s to another ten years. May they be even better than the first ten.
We went to Maggie and George’s house today for the after-wedding Barbecue – the purpose of which was so that everyone who was not invited to David and Katie’s Wedding itself could celebrate their happy occasion. The rain stayed away, and although it was a bit windy, it was a lovely day for being outside. We arrived early, and my cousin Lisa, who had been David and Katie’s “Wedding Planner” was buzzing around, attaching Congratulations banners and balloons to every possible nook. It was great to see Stuart (another cousin, Lisa’s brother), and hear how his holiday went. He couldn’t make the wedding as he was travelling around Australia and New Zealand, living in a caravan and seeing long lost family members.
I do love Barbecues at Maggie and George’s, the food is always just so good. Once again, I ate too much. It was tempting to drink too much too, but I refrained. A few bottles and a few cups of Moon Juice was good enough for me. What is Moon Juice I hear you ask? Well, it’s a kind of improvised Sangria as far as I can tell. The ingredients are pretty much all alcoholic – Red Wine, Rum, Gin, Vodka – all massive amounts, poured into a huge pitcher! When enough alcohol has been poured in, the small space left at the top is filled with orange juice. Oh yeah, there’s chunks of apple in there too. Damn, it’s potent stuff. Quite strong (obviously), but absolutely delicious, if I had had any more then I think I would’ve been too volatile to survive Jane driving us back home!
It was great to see the family (some of whom I had not seen in years), and it was quite a stark reality check when I realised just how many family members my age (or thereabouts) have children now. And although it was the second time I’ve said goodbye to Gran thinking that it’ll be the last time we’ll ever see each other, at least this time we weren’t too sad as it was a happy occasion rather than a sad, last goodbye.
Dutch courage - Doesn't he look spiffing in his white suit?
Jane and I went over to Southampton in the morning – it was strange, as we were making the journey on the train it didn’t feel at all like we were going to a wedding later that day. It only felt like a wedding when we went to meet David at his hotel to “get him to the Registry Office on time”. We had to stop off on the way for a quick pint – Dutch courage and all that. It was lovely to see Gran when we got to the Registry Office, especially considering the very sad goodbye we had last time as we both thought it’d be the last time we’d ever see each other.
In to the service itself, and my role as Best-Man was once again tested as I had to produce the rings at the key moment in the ceremony. Thankfully I didn’t fuck up. It was a beautiful service, both David and Katie sounded very emotional as they recited their vows to one another. Then, outside, the photographer took a whole bunch of photographs, then asked us to walk around the corner to a hill so he could take some pictures of us on said hill. By this point I had randomly acquired several cards for the happy couple, their marriage certificate, the bride’s bouquet, several digital cameras and Jasmine’s flower (she was a flower girl, but did not want to carry her flower). Got a lovely picture with Jasmine and Lisa (my cousin), scroll down a little bit to see it.
Then on to the restaurant where we would be eating lovely Chinese food, and I would deliver my speech. David and Katie did a joint speech, then Ayliff (Katie’s Dad) did one, then I did mine. I was a bit nervous, I thought I would’ve had more to drink by that point, and I don’t think I did it justice. Gran said she couldn’t hear me (Jane did tell me to speak up at one point!), but everyone else who came up to me afterwards said it was a lovely speech. The food was delightful, and I ate far too much – but then it’s been so long since I’ve had lovely Chinese food. The “Wedding Cake” was typically original – rather than a traditional cake, it was a tower of doughnuts topped with little wedding-themed Lego people. Then it was on to the pub and club scene for a good old fashioned drink. We stayed ’til about 11:30, then had to be off as Jane’s throat was hurting. Poor girl, she’s had tonsillitis or something for the past week or so.
All in all, it was a lovely day. Here, have some more pictures of the lovely day.
The happy couple and the little one
Lovely pic of Jasmine, Lisa and I
Little Lego wedding people
Just a note: I’m writing this on the 28th, but I’ll publish it on the 27th (love that feature of WordPress – it’s like ret-con).
I left this post for a while on purpose, just so I could let things sink in.
Overall, I think the ending could have been much, much worse. At first I didn’t mind the whole church ending scene as I was a bit shaken by all the slow montages of the Islander’s remembering their time on the island, and watching Vincent lay himself down next to Jack as he was dying. After sleeping on it, I realised that creating a shared dimension between this life and whatever comes after it was quite a cheap way for a relatively happy ending. Christian Shepherd’s line “Everyone dies eventually, kiddo” went some way to softening the blow, but it did feel a bit preachy.
I was also a bit annoyed that Mr.Eko wasn’t in the final scene – I guess he moved on pretty much straight away as he found peace with his brother, Yemi, just before dying on the island. Also, I would’ve liked to have seen Claire reunited with Aaron, and what role Kate would play in their future. It would’ve been interesting to see how Sawyer reintegrated himself into society, maybe finally meeting his kid. I guess because Richard finally got a grey hair, his immortality had “worn off” because Jacob was gone, it would’ve been good to see him come to terms with his new found mortality. I’m not too worried about Lapidus to be honest, he never seemed to have any problems going to or from the island, so I’m sure he’d be fine. It would’ve been highly amusing to see Miles chuckling to himself as he cashed in Nikki and Paolo’s diamonds, and I would’ve loved to have been witness to Hurley and Ben slowly falling in love whilst protecting the island.
Close up, just as Charles hands his plate over
Still, it was better than the ending to Star Trek: Voyager!
Overall, taking Lost as a whole, I enjoyed it. Figuring out the mysteries every week was great fun, and trying to guess what would happen after a season finale was mind-boggling. Even trying to explain things to my Mum was brilliant, and speculating with my Brother and the guys on the forum about what the fuck was going on was brilliant (surely it’s the mark of an entertaining show that you think about it even when you’re not watching it), and I can honestly say that I enjoyed it even though the ending was a bit rubbish and not all the questions were answered.
It’s the journey, not the destination, that made it for me.
Now, you may be wondering what these two screenshots are all about, so let me explain. It’s something that it seems I may have been the only person to have picked up on.
You know in the Ben centric episode where everyone is in the 1970′s, the one where Charles Widmore (as leader of the Others) tells Ben to kill mad old lady Rousseau and little baby Alex, I’m sure Sayid is there, sitting with the Others (or the Hostiles, whichever you prefer). It was never explicitly explained that he was with them, there were never any episodes that featured him working or living with them, only one or two shots that didn’t focus directly on Sayid. The first shot I took is vague, from far away, but you can see it could be Sayid. Then, when Charles hands his plate to Sayid, it’s clearly him, even though there is no trumping fanfare to indicate that Sayid is with the Others, and it’s never mentioned again, he’s never shown with them properly and there’s no acknowledging there was ever any kind of connection.
It makes sense I guess. If Sayid couldn’t be with the Dharma folks (after shooting young Ben), he could only be with the Hostiles.
One of Claire’s rabbits died earlier in the week. They had been smelly for the past few weeks now, and when she finally got around to cleaning the hutch out, the poor thing had a huge abscess full of maggots. It was really quite something to behold. She rushed off to the vets with it, only to be told it had to be put down as they had eaten all the way through the rabbit’s abdomen and up to it’s lungs and was pretty much gonna die anyway, whatever they did. So that was exciting.
I sold some stuff on the eBay earlier in the week, so had a bit of cash to spare which I used to get some Microsoft Points. I had it in my head to get 5 Arcade games that were 400 points each, and a new song for Lips. Here’s what I ended up with and what I thought of them:
It’s been quite quiet, not only on here (which makes a change – I usually find something to write about) but also life in general. As such, I’ve not really got much to say. Still no luck on the job front, I’ve had a few interviews recently, and a few good looking prospects, but still no job to show for it.
Super Street Fighter IV is still fun, although I did have a meltdown mid-week when I just became utterly unable to perform any special move motions and lost 5 matches in a row with Adon. I felt a change of pace may help, so I switched to T.Hawk, a character who offers a slower, more considered game. He’s quite cheap but as strong as an ox – and to my utter surprise, I won 7 ranked games in a row.
The Halo: Reach multiplayer beta is over soon, which is sad, and will make the wait for the full game unbearable. I could go back and mop up the last of the Achievements on Halo 3, but I’ll really miss Sprint. I quite enjoy all the new gametypes: Invasion is just brilliant, Stockpile is a nice spin on Capture the Flag, and Headhunter is an enjoyable alternative to Oddball/Juggernaut. I’ve not tried Network Test 1 (Generator Defence) yet, so that’s something to look forward to before it disappears. I had a stupendous Arena game the other day, check out the stats. 22 kills, 5 deaths, 30 medals and a spree of 12 – pure insanity.
Lips is still great – we had a good go on it last night. We’re getting Bronze (sometimes even Silver!) Cups for quite a few songs now we’ve got the hang of how exactly to pitch our voices just right. It’s great seeing Claire and Lewis have such a good time together, and Jane is really enjoying the competitive side – if she sings a song with Lewis and does vaguely well, she wants to do it again with a more proficient partner to see if we can get a Bronze Cup. Snide remarks about my singing ability aside (it took me years to stop being a timid wallflower because of comments like that, but I don’t really give a fuck how I sound now, I’m having a good time and at least I have the balls to stand up there and sing), it’s a great way to spend an evening. And all these free Achievements people are getting for me! It’s lovely.
After years of deliberating about which singing game to get, Jane and Claire went halves on Lips: Number One Hits with two microphones. We had a quick dabble last night and it was ok, but when we properly set it up with my Gamer Profile earlier today (it was a sneaky way to get free and easy Achievements really) and downloaded some new songs (I convinced Jane we needed to get Life is a Rollercoaster by Ronan Keating) and had a go on some of the different modes and stuff it was awesome. Even Lewis had a go! He sang a bit too quietly for the microphone to pick his voice up, and he couldn’t really keep up with reading the lyrics, but he had such a great time on Saturday night, he was the one who suggested we play it tonight.
Although my singing voice is just awful, I seem to be doing quite well, scoring highly and matching notes well. Jane and I are even in the top 500 for You Get What You Give by The New Radicals. Anyway, although I sound like a dying cat, I’m enjoying it very much – years ago I would’ve never dreamed of singing out loud, engaging in such a social activity. Just goes to show, you’re never too old.
Continuing on from my raving about The Arena yesterday, I had a superb game yesterday afternoon in The Arena – One guy on our team dropped out early, but I was picking off bitches left, right and centre, camping the Hammer room with the Hammer and I got a fucking 10 kill spree. I’m pretty shit to be honest, I never get sprees of over 3 or 4, let alone 10. I was well chuffed. Went +8 (19 kills to 11 deaths) in the end, and we only lost by two kills but I was disappointed I only got a 1578 ranking for it.
One day I’ll get a 1600+ and that day will be glorious.
Oh, and I FINALLY got my 7 on 7 today too. I think I’ll be using the Double EXP weekend to boost up to Lieutenant, get that Achievement out the way too.
Here’s my one screenshot I’ve taken so far. I took advantage of the way Spartans hold their hands out when running against walls. Nice touch, that.
Oh, hi
At first I was a bit let down, or confused, maybe. All these new things to use such as Armour Abilities and the new weapons, but after a few games I found some sweet spots in terms of range with the new weapons and am getting along much better now. The Needle Rifle in particular is my new best friend – it’s just so satisfying when you kill someone and they pop in a pink haze. The Focus Rifle is just so powerful. The Grenade Launcher is obscenely fun. Even the bog-standard Pistol has been improved, it feels more like the Godly Halo: Combat Evolved Pistol than the weedy Halo 2 Magnum.
I had to switch button configurations quite early on, I was zooming in on people instead of twatting them. And it’ll still take a bit of getting used to. It doesn’t feel as easy to get to grips with as going from Halo to dual-wielding in Halo 2, or going from Halo 2 to Xbox 360 bumper reload Halo 3. Surprisingly for me, I quite enjoy the ferociously competitive Arena – 2 teams of 4 in ranked Slayer matches, with your daily results collated over a month long “season” in which you’re placed in divisions and all sorts. Highly competitive, but also quite compulsive. I will be ranked in the 1600′s one day!
All signs are good for the final game being great, and that’s not even taking the Invasion Mode into consideration – Spartans vs Elites in multi-tiered objective based battles. It looks awesome.
Here we go then. Back to one post per month as I didn’t really get through much last month. I’ve read one book, albeit an omnibus, and it didn’t grip me as much as the Harry Potter stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy it, but if I didn’t pick the thing up and read a bit of it on any given day then I didn’t feel I was losing out on valuable reading time.
Postmortem
Jane’s been reading this series for as long as I’ve known her, always keeping an eye out for the latest “Doctor Lady” (Jane’s pet name for the star of the series) book. Well, here’s where it all starts as this one introduces us to the “Doctor Lady” herself, the infamous Kay Scarpetta. As far as characters go, she’s pretty well realised – all ambition and very focused on her work, not having gotten around to having a family of her own just yet. Reminds me of someone…
As for the story, well it was an interesting CSI-style yarn – I can certainly see how this series inspired the various CSI TV series. It leant on the forensic side of things a bit too much for my liking (I think I prefer Jefferey Deaver’s action style). The ending was a bit of a letdown, it was all over too soon and the first-person narrative made it all a bit hazy as to what actually happened. I do hope Kay doesn’t end up confronting the killer every time though, that could become a little tired.
Body of Evidence
This one was really slow to start – I found myself wanting to skip pages quite early on, and I even stopped reading mid-chapter, which is very unlike me. I like to be neat, even when it comes to reading, and that means I always stop reading at the end of a chapter regardless of whether it’s convenient or not. Sadly, it didn’t really pick up until very late on – it was a very long, confusing mystery that didn’t seem to gel and by the time it did pick up I had hardly realised that I’d nearly finished it.
Too many characters, too many puzzling elements pulling the story in different directions, and once again our hapless heroine is targeted by the killer. Sigh. So, two books in, and we have two killers who end up dead at her feet. I really hope this trend doesn’t continue. She’s the person who looks at the dead bodies, not a patrol cop or the detective! They are more likely to come face to face with the guy, surely?
All That Remains
Well, this was much more like it. I was into the story form the start as the premise and set-up was pretty interesting, and there weren’t too many random characters introduced for fun. This one started much better at least. The middle was quite tedious, with long conversations between Kay and various people. This is really my main annoyance with the series – Kay Scarpetta is a coroner, not a detective. She’s supposed to examine the dead bodies, not go out and interview people. And then there was the ending.
Three books, three dead suspects, three unsatisfying endings. If I do read more then I hope the stories don’t always follow this formula. Jane has the rest of the series (there are 14 more Scarpetta books after these three), and she did say to me that all is not as it seems in these earlier books, and that they tie into later ones in intriguing ways, so that’s got me a little more interested in carrying on. I’ll slowly work through them when I’ve nothing else to read. It just so happens, we did pick up some other books during the month, so I’ll take a break from Scarpetta during May.
Continuing on from my raving about The Arena yesterday, I had a superb game yesterday afternoon in The Arena – One guy on our team dropped out early, but I was picking off bitches left, right and centre, camping the Hammer room with the Hammer and I got a fucking 10 kill spree. I’m pretty shit to be honest, I never get sprees of over 3 or 4, let alone 10. I was well chuffed. Went +8 (19 kills to 11 deaths) in the end, and we only lost by two kills but I was disappointed I only got a 1578 ranking for it.
