Well, now the dust has settled, and happenins has been woefully neglected – sorry if anyone was waiting with bated breath for an update, but I’ve been staggeringly busy. And if your breath’s been bated this long, I suspect you’re past caring…. 
Well, the wedding was a lot of fun, although I feel as I’m sure most people do on their wedding day: it would have been great to be a guest there! Unfortunately, there just wasn’t time for in-depth chats with all the people who came along, which was a real bummer – and the party looked like a good ‘un!
The ceremony was short and sweet, which was just the way we wanted it. Wedding photos were fairly painless, on the basis that we’d eschewed the tedium of a professional photographer for a veritable army of very talented amateurs. My dad was there for the ‘official’ wedding photos, and mates Ian, Howard and Matt brought their own flavour to the proceedings. And late paparazzi addition Jon was snapping away like a true photojournalist, so there should be quite a selection of pics to trawl through when compiling our book of memories!
We had managed to grab a carriage on the steam railway that runs past the venue, so there was family entertainment in between ceremony & meal; it also meant there was less of a crowd in the gardens at that point. Back in for the meal, which was excellent, then some brief speeches, a cake cutting (it took a while to find the knife, so we were miming to start with!), then we vacated the room while the band set up. After a while drinking and chatting in the garden (great weather!), it was back in for drinkin’ and dancin’ the night away. I did a turn with the band, singing “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” to introduce the first dance, then John & I performed a duet on “Well, Did You Evah?” in the band’s first interval – all great fun, and I know I had a good night. As did my beautiful bride – and she was beautiful, have no doubt (still is)! 
So it was on to the honeymoon in Cape Verde, on the island of Sal, in an all-inclusive resort – it was an interesting experience for me, having never been on an all-inclusive package before, but it was exactly the kind of no-brainer holiday we needed after all the fuss & stress of organising a wedding. So we swam, tanned and sipped cocktails by the pool for a week, which was most excellently relaxing. The people of Sal are wonderfully friendly, the staff at the Riu Funana hotel were unfailingly polite and helpful, and the weather was excellent – with the possible exception of the strong breeze, but that kept things cooler, so that’s OK. Would we go back? Maybe, but I’d prefer a different island with a bit more local flavour. We’ll see…
The flights were a marked contrast to the holiday – abysmal. They put on a tatty old 757, a relic of First Choice Airways, that was inadequate for the journey and ran out of things like drinks and duty-free items on the flight. So I’d be cautious of going with Thomson again if they used First Choice flights. All in all, though, a minor blip – and they got us there and back safely, so I can’t complain too much!
So, back to planet Dartford, and back to work and normal life. We’re beavering away with the usual catalogue of home improvements, while plotting our next break to the sun. Won’t be for a while, methinks. But I am planning with my mate Pete, to climb the famed Three Peaks at the end of August. We’re recruiting people to come with us, and the response has been excellent – I think there will be a veritable mob of us tackling the slopes this summer! There’s a dedicated website if you’d like to take a look; there’s also a Facebook page all about it – check it out. Pete & I have both taken First Aid courses to make sure that we’re slightly less incapable in case of disaster…
OK – that’s all for now. Keep an eye on the gallery for wedding pics; hopefully I’ll get some on there soon. In the meantime, take care!