Since January

OK so I haven't written since January. Last time I updated this blog we were just grateful to have survived. Since then we have moved house to Kings Heath, Josh has been christened, I have returned to work, Alex has been coping with his promotion, and life has dealt us a million mini personal trajedies and successes. I can't begin to describe how I feel. Half the time just tired is the overriding sensation but I pinch myself daily to check it's all real because, in truth, I feel so very blessed.

Josh is 11 months old. He loves a giggle. He took 6 steps yesterday, and says mama and dada in the right places (mostly). He claps when he thinks he's being clever. He fakes choking then laughs at me when I fall for it. He is a whirlwind of energy and fun. He is the best of me. He is clever, optimistic, a bit challenging and a social, happy little boy. He has 2 best mates at nursery, and is best buddies with Ben our godson - they are just so alike I think history may be about to repeat itself with Nathan and Alex mark 2. When I look at the last post I wrote I can't believe how much our lives have changed. As well as living in a different place, embarking on projects in the house to convert the garage into a utility room and rehabilitate the (mahusive) garden, and being at work 3 days a week in my case and 5 days for Alex the heartbeat of the home has changed because every day brings a new milestone (Oh God he can reach the telly... Oh hell he's found the playstation... Oh crikey he's not going to sit still for his nappy change ever again...) and a new dilemma. But with each dilemma comes a new reason to fall off my chair giggling or bury my head in my hands and laugh. I'm covered in laughter lines that were not there before; and yes ok they're wrinkles but I know they're from laughing not from tiredness or frustration although there's plenty of that too.

Just born

4 weeks old approx

The first weeks were a mystery and a whirlwind. Al and I talk about them in terms of shock and awe. The hardest thing we've ever done, together or apart. Words and pictures cannot do it justice. It's survival of the fittest. Eventually you come out from the cloud in about month 3 and start to feel human again and wonder what the hell has just happened.

6 weeks old

Thinks starting to get bearable and interesting. His face was beginning to get expressive and the bond was growing. The family unit and routine was beginning to replace our old life and feel like, or better said redefine what was, 'normal'.



16 weeks (just)

15 weeks

Beginning to get real feedback from Josh on a day to day basis. He was over his colic and now showing signs of being a happy baby who slept through the night and loved his food. As his energy and curiosity increased his love of life did too; cue snowball effect. Weeks of not really thriving on milk and early teething led to starting on spoon feeding on baby rice and baby porridge at a very early stage. He loved food. He'd eat anything you gave him. Josh's first love affair was yoghurt - even now nothing quite matches up to it - but any puree of fruit or vegetable was a hit!

5-6 months

 

In between these we moved house - Josh was good as gold and remarkably un-flustered.

Christening - May 6th

 

 

Both June 2012

August 2012

 

Yesterday!

 

A review

Josh is about to turn 14 weeks and we've just started to arrange his baptism. The days have a semi-rhythmical pattern of feeds and nappy changes to them and even bedtime appears to be settling down. It's as though I'm distanced enough from the birth and the chaos of the first weeks to write something constructive. So here is what we've learned:

1. If your labour is as long and arduous as mine it can really affect the first few weeks of your life together and that can be distressing. We were rocked by it all and it didn't help the breast feeding. All the literature says not to mix bottles and breast until they're at least 6 weeks old. This is I now know, pap. Utter pap. Quite a lot of the government literature is pap I've discovered. I know women who rescued their breast feeding by giving a bottle of formula at night so they could get some sleep. Some even gave it up for a week or two and then resumed it when they felt well enough, expressing all the while to keep their milk flowing. My first lesson I learned was, too late, stuff the rules.
2. From the start of his third week, when Alex went on paternity leave, I went to a mum and baby yoga class. This was a lifeline. Firstly I overcame the challenge of getting there on the bus with a baby, getting him dressed and fed, and generally functioning which made me feel wonderful. The breath of fresh air and the walk was good for him and for me and stopped me going crazy stuck in the house. The company of other mums also going through the same stuff made me feel much less alone. And the exercises we did together made me feel much more confident at handling him, knowing what to expect from him and able to encourage his development. Overall a thumbs up!
3. Sleep deprivation is absolutely the hardest thing to deal with in the whole world; no exaggeration. We were lucky that our big baby physically outgrew his moses basket and at 7 weeks (6 months is the government recommendation) had to move to his nursery. I learned that the mute button can be your best friend. This sounds awful but it is true. Babies are noisy sleepers. We disturbed him and vice versa. Add to that the basic fact that a newborn considers nighttime to be playtime and it becomes very hard going. Josh is fab though. As soon as he started to get interested in the world around him instead of sleeping all day he started sleeping better at night. And again I suppose bottle feeding came in handy here too because he could sustain playtime for longer between naps because bottles fill you up more. I'm still very sad we didn't breast feed but I don't imagine he'd be sleeping 10 hours a night like he does now if we had.
4. Colic can be overcome and medical professionals don't know what the hell they're talking about. Colic is described by the NHS as any unexplained crying. When I asked about colic and said he was crying A LOT they patronisingly said 'well babies do cry'. Colic can be made better (at least Josh's was) and here's what we did: Used probiotic; Changed him and laid him flat using a cushion/pillow; Raised his moses basket mattress at one end with a towel so his head was raised; Did a daily tummy time (it helps their digestion); Kept an eye on nappies for signs of any intolerances; Gave him water where possible; Burped him thoroughly and soothed him as much as possible; Tried Infacol (placebo effect I think) and Colief in his milk which actually worked; finally We changed his feed to Aptamil formula for colic and constipation. I couldn't say which one clinched it, maybe all of them, but at 10 weeks or so he just seemed to stop crying due to colic...
5. Only to be replaced by teething! Teething has made him crabby and I've found it easier to deal with than colic. For a start the cause is clear and by the time teething kicked in a) I was a more experienced mum and b) had discovered the dummy. The dummy was our best friend from about his 2nd week of life. To anyone who says they are unnecessary I say: pooh to you with knows on. We've tried baby Bongela and Anbesol; both recommended but the last two days Calpol had to be used as baby Joshua's cries became more anguished. But for a baby who needs to suck for comfort a dummy is an absolute must-have.
6. That said we have recently decided to cut down use of the dummy to a bare minimum and, proudly, I can report some success. He now uses it on average once a day, gets himself off to sleep for most naps without it and even some nights at least starts without it. The reason was purely because he woud thrash about at night searching for his beloved dummy; driving himself crazy he'd almost break his neck in the search. We're hoping cutting the use of it down will result in a better nights sleep for all of us. In defense of the dummy a speech and language therapist friend told us that non-nutritive sucking is very good for babies. Also, as it was one of the most familliar objects in Josh's life it was the first thing he tried to grab at, which improved his hand eye coordination enormously. Most importantly it helped to calm and soothe him at an age where very few other things could.

I think this summarises most major points but we learn new things daily. If asked would I do it again the answer is an emphatic 'yes'!

The start of the adventure

Was he really this small?

Getting out and about #1

Getting out and about #2

Al feeding

Bath time

Asleep in our bed

Xmas with dad, uncles Dave and Nathan, aunties Claire and Laura

What a good grip

Discovering the Christmas tree

On Christmas day

with Great Nan, Nan and Grandad

Godmother Danielle gets a hug too

Laughing with dad

Posing for mum

10 weeks old - Joshua's First Christmas

So, Joshua is 10 weeks old and he experienced his first Christmas! He slept through most of it and was adorable and quiet and well-behaved. We have a bedtime routine now and life has a certain amount of rhythm but we need to get better at being flexible at nighttimes - we spent Christmas Eve away from home until midnight and Josh was awake the whole time, he just refused to sleep at all!

Still, we had a wonderful time. Alex put up the Christmas decoratioons and joshua eventually noticed the tree and was mesmerised by the lights. He also made two delicious stollen that we are still eating and we collected our hamper from the butcher on his first day off. We had a relaxing Christmas Eve mooching about in dressing gowns eating stollen. Bernadette came to visit and then we headed out to Jess and Graham's apartment in Edgbaston. She'd outdone herself and made masses of food and everything looked beautiful. We introduced Joshua and he sat on my knee looking interestedly at everything, wide-eyed. Then we drove to Nathan and Laura's. Apart from a 40 minute period of irritability on the part of Joshua the evening continued to be very pleasant. We dropped off our presents and picked up some new ones and saw Dave and Claire, wished Emma and Ben a happy Christmas and goodnight and then put Josh to bed. Bless him he spent about 40 minutes wide awake just staring up at the ceiling after we'd "put him to bed" until finally he'd had enough and he hollered and we went to get him..! But then until we left he sat contentedly on Al's knee looking around. We walked home and went to bed at about 1am. He fell asleep in his pushchair at last and bless him I took him out of his car seat, coat, hat annd pout him into his sleeping bag without waking him up - he slept soundly til 6.30am.

I've never gone to bed feeling so tired on Christmas Eve or woken up on Christmas day feeling less alert!!! Still, parenthood has its benefits and the main one is seeing Josh in the morning - he's so smiley on his changing mat. Tonight in fact he displayed his newest party trick - he laughed! Three times he laughed out loud and it made my heart explode with happiness to hear it. It was especially funny because he'd just done the biggest nastiest poo in days and seemed particularly happy about it!

Christmas was tiring but very enjoyable. We dressed him up in his santa suit and me mum and dad took him to church. He was definitely the cutest member of the congregation and slept through most of it too! When we got back home Al's parents and nan were home already and the meal was well under way. Alex cooked a delicious meal and afterwards we spent hours opening the many many presents, mostly Josh's; it was lovely. Finally we put him to bed and spent the night eating turkey sandwiched and watching the Goonies on telly, surrounded by the chaos of opened presents!

It's been lovely so far and there's still the new year to go!

Big Thank You

Today is the first day we've not received post including a card or present; the generosity of our friends and family has been amazing. Friends from church Jean and Mike, Al's cousin Penny and Laura and Nathan have been invaluable sources of kindness and support, so have Pauline and Jo from church and everyone has been on the phone with offers of help and concern in the first few weeks. Countless books and toys, clothes and other gifts have arrived; I'm not sure we have even kept track properly of who has given us what as we were so bamboozled in the first days. It's been amazing.

As he's growing Joshua is starting to explore the world, meeting a great many people and seeing it from different vantage points like his swing and car seat. He's doing very well and says thank you for all his many gifts! xx

Family Time

October 15th
After a gruelling 33 hours our baby boy Joshua Tomas Harris was born at an alarming 9lb 12 oz.

Alex was a wonderful birth partner, the midwives and doctors were very good and the experience was an unforgetable one. I was so grateful when they told me it was nearly over and I could feel my baby's head come into the world. It was not the birth we had planned for. We had prepared for a natural birth in the birth centre which is how things began. However we ended up after 24 hours being transferred to the delivery suite where I had an epidural, an IV drip, hormone injection and in the end a forcep delivery. I think I was in shock for several days after and in truth the first two weeks were really hard for us both. A huge disappointment was not being able to keep up with breast feeding. Having learned from experience I now think that for the first two weeks any new mother needs to stay virtually in bed 100% of the time just eating, sleeping and feeding the baby. I think I tried to do too much, and after a traumatic birth I think I came close to exhaustion what with suffering from sleep deprivation at nights... Silly me. Not clever. So for the last 3 weeks I've been expressing and bottle feeding. It broke my heart to begin bottle feeding but it was absolutely the right thing to do.

So Joshua is nearly 4 weeks old and a beautiful, healthy, thriving baby. He's strong, with long legs, big beautiful eyes and a strong neck. Alex has gone back to work now but he's been a hands on dad and he's a wonderful parent; I'm so proud of him. Right now we're sat on the sofa together after dinner and he's winding Joshua like a pro!

Night times are hard going with Al back at work but we're doing really well overall and things are starting to feel normal; or at least the days are. Nights are... well, less normal at the moment! The first day that Al went back to work I really missed him; it's still odd not having him around but me and Josh are getting used to each other.

A summary of what I've learned before our new arrival

The whole process of making and awaiting the arrival of a new baby has been quite enlightening. If sometimes I've not dwelled on the finer details of our thought processes along the way in this blog it's either been because it was too painful (this blog is my happy space for recording achivements and fun times not heartbreak), or we felt it too soon to look so far ahead, or suddenly we felt confident but it now seemed too late for a retrospective. However now here we are at 39 weeks and 2 day and there may be no better time for a bit of a summary.

Pregnancy's been a massive learning curve. Whatever you think you know beforehand turns out to insufficiently prepare you for the reality of it all. Here's a compendium of what I have learned so far:

#1 - People are very kind. I've learned that total strangers on the bus are often delightfully kind and considerate, complete strangers on the street will ask you how you are and bus drivers pause for an extra second to let you take a seat (most of the time).

#2 - You can't rely on female colleagues to be understanding but a good working environment absolutely can make or break your state of mind during this time. A supportive and flexible environment is a must because the reality of midwife and other appointments tends to make life additionally haphazard and there's nothing you can do about that.

#3 - Taking on the part of  Olive Madison in the Odd Couple was a genius way of distracting myself from the stress of being pregnant. I had a project to focus on that seemed much more iminent, was directly under my control, and which without my full commitment assured public humiliation on a massive scale. So for those early months when I could have driven myself crazy paying attention to every fluctuation and change I had a good project to dive into to keep myself sane. Yes it was tiring but well worth it. Not many guides to pregnancy suggest this bit of advice but if you're a worrier it might actually be a good idea to take on a new separate challenge that knackers you out! After all it may be your last chance for a while to do something that's all about you.

#4 - When the chaos of the play had calmed down at nearly 6 months I was desperate to focus my attention on actually being pregnant. It was a real relief to start Cat's Pregnancy Yoga class in Moseley and to do something for the little guy inside. The last few weeks of the play had made me feel very conflicted; scared that I wasn't resting enough, guilty about not being any use around the house and desperate to prove to myself that I could achieve something special. When it was over I needed to step back and feel like I could start to support Al again around the house with little things but also start to get my head around this pregnancy lark. I also felt very fragile. The yoga class gave me back some confidence in my own physicality, connect with the changes in my body and begin to advance towards making sensible decisions! I have always liked moving around and done different dance and gym classes but when I came out of the play bubble I suddenly had no idea about what my body could do, all I knew was everyone was telling me 'Be careful' about a hundred times a day. It felt great to be with other ladies who didn't constatntly comment on the bump and find out how to avoid practical issues like back aches etc. The class has saved me!

#5 - After ages of hoping for a baby and seemingly ages of thinking this might finally be it but not being able to tell anyone suddenly everyone's saying 'Won't be long now!' and it dawns on you that you've got about a thousand things to buy and sort out. For ages we didn't dare even talk about after Bean's birth' then there was a shift and we started to accept reality and talk about things even though we didn't buy anything until about 7 months in. I'm a great list-maker and at 6 months began approaching project Bean like with my usual attention to detail. It helps me get my head around things. We got the guest room ready which was the first step towards being able to sort out the nursery. When we finally got started on Bean's nursery it felt like a massive deal to me! I kept crossing things off my lists and making new ones and eventually, now, I have officially run out of things to do!

#6 - After the play I suddenly had loads of energy because the rehearsals had been so energy sapping in the last 8 weeks. So even though I was in the 3rd trimester and officially supposed to be feeling rubbish I felt great! This carried me through until relatively recently and even now I still feel fine just with the need to sit a lot more than normal... As a result we packed in loads of socialising and I think this will have been very important when we're feeling knackered in a few months time and looking back!

#7 - Friends and family are amazingly generous. There have been so many kind gifts over the last weeks from people who really didn't have to at all that I'd like to name them here.
Lucy from CRT managed to get her hands on a beautifully crafted hand-made blanket and then because I missed my last official day she wasn't even there for me to thank!
Marilyn, also from CRT, who must have spent hours and hours sewing the most intricate and beautiful 4 traditional style gowns.
Teresa who knitted a baby hat in blue and green while they stayed with us, bless! and who also gave me loads of useful advice about breastfeeding and re-usable nappies - thank you so much!
Tieta Teresa who sent a package including 2 home made bibs and told mum it would be like she was there to give him a hug if he wore them!
The baby shower girls Danielle St Leon, Danielle Sumner, Susie Emerton, Ruth Gallagher, Vicki Gilhouly, Laura Collins with Emma, Ben (honorary girl for the day) and mum Gill Nunnerly, Wendy St Leon, my mum (of course :)), Pauline Weaver, Teresa Salter with Sian, Catherine Shelley and Claire Davies,who were so incredibly generous in their gifts.
Bernadette Anne and Laura Collins (LC) who missed the official baby shower and brought cake and MORE presents with them - just the cake would have been enough guys!
Nathan and Laura Collins who have sorted us out with so much stuff and advice we can't begin to thank them enough. All we can do is hope that over the years we can repay them!
Thanks also to Pilar Balsells for the socks and to the many people who I know have been praying for and thinking of us because they've told mum. It's very much appreciated!

#8 - The theory may not end up having anything to do with reality but I always feel better going into something if I'm prepared. I've read a lot of books and talked to a lot of women, mothers midwives and experts. The Womens Hospital in Birmingham is quite progressive it seems and follows a philosophy of 'active' rather than 'managed' birth. That's to say they try and avoid interventions. Giving birth in the birth centre means you're not tied to a bed like you see on telly, there is a bed but there are also birth balls to sit on, the use of a birth pool, a fabric loop to hang off and comfy squishy things for you or parrtner to lie about on. Instead of being strapped to a bed you're able to wander about, stretch, take a bath, eat and basically jiggle around until baby comes out. Anatomically lying down is the worst position to be in for birth as your baby has to fight against gravity. Me and Al have both taken the Parent Education (organised by the charity NCT) and Yoga Birth preparation classes now and I think feel a lot clearer about how it's supposed to work. Combined with a meditation cd and all the yoga classes I'm feeling very calm indeed. Of course we'll see once the pain kicks in but at the moment I really want to do this without any drugs at all: wish us luck!

#9 - Waiting is the worst bit. Just no idea how long he'll be but as long as he's ok I don't mind. Been keeping busy cooking but have now officially run out of tupperware and space in the freezer so guess I'll have to stop! The sun came out in a last, bright and beautiful, Indian summer and it's been easy enough to fill the time visiting nurseries, doing breastfeeding and first aid class, visiting Kings Heath Breastfeeding club, meeting other pregnant ladies for a drink and so on. Now though the bags are packed, there's nothing good on telly and the blog is up to date. There's nothing left to say except 'Come on Bean'!

A trip to Twickenham, and a last Goodbye

So, after the beautiful baby shower things haven't slowed down at all! Not one bit; we've been very busy having fun!

On the 3rd September we had tickets to see a double header at Englands spiritual home of Rugby, Twickenham. We took Al's parents as a joint fathers day/wedding anniversary present. I'd only been to see Coventry play at the Butts previously and even though both my in-laws enjoy watching rugby on the telly every chance they get they had never been to see a live game. So it was quite exciting! Alex drove us all down to Twickenham and we parked at Rosebine where we eat our packed lunches on the grass, then we walked the 10 minutes to the stadium. Here we are in front of the ground.

Les, me, Bean and Alex

Les and Fran and hubby Al

We saw London Irish play vrs Harlequins and Saracens play vrs London Wasps - see I was paying attention!

London Irish

Our seats were right at the front!

Saracens and Wasps was the better game

The atmosphere was great, loads of famillies and fun and many fans had turned up to support 2 teams; one per game. Two rows in front of us was the touch line, we were so close to everything. It was a great way to spend a day doing something different and it was the first time literally in years that we four had done something together a bit different from sunday dinner or family meals. I got asked about a million times if I was alright but really, apart from needing a good night's sleep that night I was fine and thought it an excellent way to spend a day. Me and Al really enjoyed ourselves!

The next weekend Alex went to Phil's stag do and I went to Bath. I literally had 2 days left at work and am what would be termed heavily pregnant and for any other friends I probably wouldn't have gone but boy I'm glad I did! These girls are the absolute best mates anyone could wish to have - we all lived together in the first year and they carried on for a further 2 years while I thought it clever to get a place separately. It was not and I've wish thousands of times since that I'd carried on living with them, but there you are. We're all clever with hindsight aren't we?

I arrived at Susie's home and Emily was already there, bless her, helping to tidy up. It was the first time I'd seen Susie's new flat and it's pretty nice. We went and sat in the garden with a cup of tea to admire her mum's planting and have a chat while we waited for Sarah and Hannah to arrive. Once they got there we all chinwagged some more over a glass of wine (or juice for me :)) in the garden and had a real good laugh. Sarah got a great photo of us all on timer which I must get hold of. Whenever we see each other it's like no time has passed and there's always so much to catch up on. Susie's just left her dance teaching position in Bath, Hannah's writing a book and living her new married life in Bath, Emily's loving her teaching job in Southampton and being a mummy for the first time, and Sarah is nearing the end of her maternity in London. We all have partners and lives and gossip and quite frankly there's never enough time to cover it all!

After our gossip session we sprung into action and changed and went out for a delicious meal at Wagamama's. It amuses me that every building looks like something out of a Jane Austen novel, even Wagamama's. Then we walked to a sweet little cocktail bar where we had a cocktail or mocktail or two...

Cocktails in Bath

The next morning we went for breakfast (delicious) and then to Thermae Bath Spa for the best 3 hours of my life (apart from my wedding and maybe some life-altering holidays that currently escape me - it's that good). Seriously, it's a temple to water. If you like getting wet go there, if not probably best you stay away... although I reckon it could change your mind. The picture I'll always remember is of the rooftop pool glistening in the sunlight under the blue sky with picturesque Bath spread around and the rolling countryside spreading out away from us. You're in the city centre but feel like you're in paradise. And for me, feeling light as a feather for a few hours was a real joy. Getting dressed afterwards was a real pain! The spa is 3 floors and I'm not going into detail here or you'll think I'm on comission but I think everyone should go.  Afterwards we separated to go back to homes and partners but it had been a delicious weekend

Susie Hannah Sarah and Emily

Pretty as a picture

The next day I had my penultimate day in work before maternity leave began but unfortunately I began to feel ill and went home early. I didn't make it in til the Thursday but I was fine and so was Bean, thank goodness. The girls and boys at Ernst & Young's CRT department made such a fuss over me and gave me a brilliant play mat (Ocean Wonders Kick and Crawl Gym, Fisher Price) and a gorgeous hand-made blanket that I have now packed in my hospital bag.

The play mat CRT got us, bless!

The Friday was my first day of maternity, although technically it was booked as holiday. Al had booked the day off so we could take his parents over to chez Richards for my parents' 35th wedding anniversary buffet. Mum outdid herself with delicious home made macarrones, chicken croquetas, salads, nibbles and more puddings than you could shake a stick at. It was a good chance to see auntie Shelagh and uncle David before the birth too and we were lucky with the weather otherwise I'm not sure we'd have all squeezed in! We all have a glass of Cava Codorniu and dad promised to write the children's stories down for me that he used to tell me at bed time (dad - take note; it is written down and you had witnesses, you have to actually do it this time). We all had a nice family day together and I hope that my parents had a good anniversary (a day early).

Dad, Shelagh, Al, me, mum Fran and Les

The reason my parents celebrated their anniversary a day early was that Saturday was Leon and Teresa's leaving do and I couldn't have coped with both on one day. I could barely cope with the leaving do as it was. Leon and Al lived together all through university. He's probably my best male friend (apart from Al, obviously) and the only one to have made an effort with Danielle and Lisa. We've seen each other through rough times and good. He's always been there for me. And I've tried to be there for him. In recent years I've been so proud to see him get his masters, marry the most perfect girl for him ever, become a da  and we've done 2 plays together. He also gives brilliant hugs; a vital thing in any friend. He met Teresa (who's a New Zealander) and she is sweet, fun, kind, a real laugh and has adopted all of us crazy Brits without reservation. She's also supported him, sncouraged him and generally they're the nicest couple you could hope to meet. And tomorrow they fly to New Zealand to start their new life as a family. I couldn't be happier for them. But selfishly I couldn't be more sad! We (me and Al, Danielle, Nathan and Laura) got to the pub for 6.30pm and helped them set up - Nathan got the karaoke machine set up, we blew up balloons and tied them up with ribbons and generally helped out and waited for the first guests to arrive. In the end there were loads of us and Nathan became 'the compere without compare' manning the karaoke machine and putting on music in between our shocking renditions. Leon started things off with 'Lazy (I'm wicked and I'm)' which had us all in fits of laughter and got the party going properly. We all danced about then me and Leon sang possibly the worst rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen ever sung - complete with air guitar and head banging and generally atrocious singing on both our parts. About 10 seconds in I realised what a long song it was but it was too late to back out! It was hilarious and seemed to make everyone else laugh. Finally, after hours of hilarity, and I mean jaw achingly funny, midnight came and went and we were asked to turn off the music. No one wanted to leave. So many people had cried that night, miraculously not me (I'd already blubbed at the kitchen table that morning just putting together a photo album). We played one last song by James - Sit Down and all sat on the floor, just like when I was 17 at the Colosseum. After the song ended Alex got up and said a few words which were very touching about how we all knew they were perfect for each other and how although we'd miss them we knew they were going to be happy which is what made it ok. I could have kissed that husband of mine. A few others echoed Al's words and sat on the floor I heard people crying, saw people hug and knew that very few people in the world could engender this kind of reaction of love and sadness. It was something very moving to see so many men cry. But I was numb, and it only came out the next morning before church with Danielle. So tomorrow the Salters emmigrate. Leon Teresa and Sian I have three words for you: SKYPE US, PRONTO.

Leon, Teresa, Nath, Al and Laura
before the party began

Leon Phil and Al

Bohemian Rhapsody on karaoke

Fun times