Catch up time...

What an amazing couple of weeks. It's been busy, which is why it's taken me so flipping long to blog, but it's been fantastic. Bethany arrived on the 16th, and it's been pretty much non-stop since then. I have a whole load of pictures, but there's too many to put on one post, so I'll get them on a photo album or something, and then I'll put a link to them.

As you can see from the photo, we went to see Sheffield Wednesday. They were playing Sheffield United, so it was a bit of a grudge match. We lost the game 2-1, which sucked, but to be honest it was better than we deserved. It's pretty funny to see how emotional people get at the football, actually. We scored our goal from a penalty kick, and I pretty much cried when it went in. The best thing is seeing all these double hard lads around that probably rob grannies for fun and steal the wheels from baby's buggies getting so emotional about a game. Seriously; some of these guys would kill for football. Quite scary really.

It was really good to spend time with Bethany and my family, because it's the first time that they've seen each other since we got engaged. They threw us THE BIGGEST party on Saturday night. In case you haven't read Bethany's blog, I'll tell you all about it. When they first said that they were doing us an engagement party, I thought that it would be a fairly small affair. But no. They invited half the known world, it seems. Then they got the local butcher (with whom we are fairly good friends - my dad taught their kids) to turn up and do a hog roast. That's right; a whole roast pig. Head and all. You should have seen the place. The tables were decorated like nothing else, thanks to my sister. The food was plentiful and ridiculously good. The music, provided by Brett, was varied and superb. And there were about 150 people there. We had close family, friends from my church in Leeds, my housemates and neighbour, some more distant family, some family that I'd never met before, friends from my dad's church... The list goes on.

So, we had an incredible time. We got all dressed up for it, and that was good. We were given so many gifts, it was ridiculous. We're so blessed to have so many people that are rooting for us. The food was outstanding, and my auntie made us the most amazing cake. We didn't get back to Leeds until 2:15 the following morning, but it was well worth it. It did, however, add to the lack of sleep that I'd gotten over the past week. Another incident that did my sleeping pattern no favours was our little trip to Wales. We headed over to Wrexham to see Nicola Tancock, and then went with her to Colwyn Bay to visit Lee and Sarah Houghton. We had a great time, and ate curry at a surprisingly good, clean and comfortable Wetherspoons (not an easy thing to find these days). When we completed the drive back to Wrexham, I got pulled over by the cops, who told me that I had a brake light and a headlight out. I showed the guy that I had spare bulbs in my car, and he told me to go change them before I drove the two hours back to Leeds. Well, I changed the brake light, but I didn't end up having the right bulb for the headlight. I also noticed, when I drove to Nicola's house, that the dashboard lights were only on when I pressed the brakes. I couldn't see any of the dials at all. I figured something was wrong, and I ended up calling brakedown, because there was nothing open by then. This guy came and discovered that the set of bulbs I had was for a different car. By putting in the wrong bulb, I'd blown a fuse. Anyway, he switched both bulbs for me, and the fuse, and only charged me a fiver. We didn't get home till four am though...

Another great festivity took place yesterday. Pancake day. I love pancake day. A good chance to use up all those things in your house before you use them up for lent. Well, not me. I have no intention to stop eating what I ate yesterday. English pancakes rolled up, stuffed with lemon juice and sugar; flambed bananas with grated chocolate; summer fruits with mascapone cheese... mmmmmmm. Nope, I'll be giving up meat for lent. Not fish, just meat. I think that I may just survive on sushi for the next 40 days. I love meat; I'm not sure how I'm going to get on with this. Butch has three things that he gives up - he has one that he absolutely won't go back on, one that he might, and one that he almost certainly will. Good thinking, Butcher, although it doesn't help me one bit.

Finally, in other news, my school had OFSTED in the last two days. The inspectors. I'll let you know how we got on when I hear the report. It's been good to talk, we should do this more often, you know...