Top 3 things glad we've got out of the way

1. Wedding venue and date set - thank goodness. Shame it's on a Thursday! But we're not prepared to wait 2 years to get married on a weekend!

2. The wedding dress is picked. So no need to worry about the bride to be getting stressed because she can't find the perfect dress. In fact, she had it picked before we picked the wedding venue. I secretly suspect that she picked the wedding venue to match the dress...

3. The ring has been placed on her finger. And the money has been sucked out of my account. Now all I need to do is start saving for the wedding...

:-)

I'm loving it really!

Looking at venues

As we battle the tide of questions asking "have you set a date... YET", we've started to look at venues for the wedding reception.

1. Was slightly disappointed that out of 7 venues visited, only 3 venues offered us a cup of tea. We didn't even get a cup of tea at the really expensive Culloden Estate and Spa. Maybe we should have dressed up a bit more for that one. They probably saw us from afar in our jeans and immediately thought, "timewasters"...

2. Was there ever at time when weekend dates for weddings didn't book up at least 2 years in advance?

3. Would you pay £30 per head for seat covers??? OK, they do cover the entire chair, but still!!! If I did that, I think I'd have to ban people from removing their jackets and putting them over the seat. I'd want to get full value out of my seat covers!

Fireworks

Had a bit of a celebration with some friends this weekend. And, because it was getting close to that time of year, Heavy Isotope D spotted a two-for-one offer on fireworks. So we decided to scorch the earth of Nipring's garden...


1. Cool picture of fireworks
2. Fun with sparklers... Looks like Mrs Heavy Isotope D is attempting a bit of 'force lightning' in the background.

3. And finally, how NOT to set off fireworks. Shops probably shouldn't be selling fireworks to us!

Probably best summed up by a txt message from my fiance: "Take care wit the firewrks!" She knows me too well...

In our defence, we did have a large bucket of water for the sparklers and a hose at the ready (although water and burning magnesium don't really mix too well...)

Top 3 questions asked upon announcing your engagement

1. So, have you set a date yet? (definitely most frequently asked question)

2. What does the ring look like? (if you're a girl, or a bloke who's thinking about proposing to his girlfriend...)

3. Did she ask you? (Which seems to be my work colleagues top question!)

You can probably already see what direction this blog is going to take in the coming months!

Thought I'd post 3 videos to make use of blogger's new facility! Talk about grasping hold of new and emerging technology - ok, maybe not. But it's good for me!!!

Auto riding at it's chaotic best round India Gate

A rather poor quality video of the delhi metro

And walking around the local neighbourhood of Panscheel Vihar...

Forms of transport in New Delhi

I've now been on 1. Delhi bus, 2. taken the metro, 3. taken a cycle rickshaw and of course, (see previous blog) the aforementioned 'auto'. I think that pretty much sums up all the types of transport in Delhi, short of walking and paying someone to carry you around (though I don't think that happens much here). Yeah OK, there are taxis and cars with drivers, but I think the 4 modes of transport above sum up what the general public use around here.The bus - sorry it's a bit blurred, but those people aren't rushing to get onto the bus, they're holding on to it as it moves!

Autos and what passes for the village main road...

It's kinda like London, just a lot hotter, dustier and if you don't watch where you're going, you're liable to fall down a large hole or trip over a stray dog. That said, I kinda like it here!

In India now!

1 week completed in India.

Here are some pictures:

1. How my first 'auto' ride ended!!!

2. View from the office balcony!!!3. Delhi sunset - It's amazing how the smog and dust reflects the light! Taken somewhere around the Delhi University North Campus.

3 bits of web presence

I don't know, I've just got so many sites on the internet now which need updating.

Facebook,

This site,

chocolatepizza website (yes, I know I haven't updated that one for about 3 years now. But I still like the e-mail address).

someone should write a program which you update and it then updates all the other websites for you!

3 things we did in Dublin

Drink a pint of Guinness. Or if you're really thirsty, a couple at the same time. Good thing it was included in the admission to the Guinness storehouse. Can't believe they didn't have the Perez Prez Prado Guinness advert of man dancing round Guinness glass to catchy music! Should have asked for our money back.

Went on a Viking Splash tour around Dublin. Which was enlivened no end by the mad tour guide who insisted that we give 'viking roars' to unsuspecting tourists as the brightly coloured, ex WWII amphibious landing vehicle crept up behind their backs... You probably just had to be there. Viking helmets included. Therefore thoroughly recommended by all of us! Also helps if half the bus is filled with mad 20-something eejits from Belfast, Oxford, Bristol and London... Not entirely sure what the Chinese tourists on the bus with us quite knew what was going on.

And Gazman and CB entered the Irish bubble blowing hip-hop festival.

OK, the last bit isn't quite right. To be honest, not entirely sure what Gazman and CB are doing. Never mind. However, they were giving out free bottles of bubble blowing mix to children (or those having a mental age of 8) during the World Championship for Street Performers which happened to be taking place in Dublin at the time. It was all pretty cool. The standard of street theatre was definitely a lot higher than a guy who's done a metallic paint job on his clothes and is pretending to be a statue. Some of it was true comedy genius, some was amazing shows of strength and acrobatic agility and some of it involved one person biting off pieces of banana and spitting the chunks into another person's mouth to eat from a distance of 5m. So, comedy, acrobatics and gross behaviour all rolled into a day (well, actually weekend) of quality entertainment. Worth going to see, never mind the rest of Dublin!

Bank holiday blues

1. The current bank holiday weather (in England anyway) kinda reminds me of Christmas in Melbourne. What can I say, anywhere you can buy kilos of steak and huge tiger prawns for about a third the price of Tescos has got to be a good place to live. OK, maybe that's just Australia in general. Funnily enough, there's cricket going on here at the moment too. Although this time England look to be on top (yay!). However, it'll probably keep raining so we'll end up with a draw (boo!).

2. Digging through the photo archive, proof that we actually got a bit 'cultural' with a visit to the Melbourne Museum (and no, we weren't looking at pots of yoghurt in display cases - though you never know, that might be quite an interesting exhibit - yoghurt pots through the ages. Oooh, anyone remember munch bunch yoghurts? And was it just me that thought toffee yoghurt was disgusting?). It seems like they've done up the museums in Australia and New Zealand a bit more recently than say the Science Museum. There was enough in there to keep us occupied for a couple of hours. The best bit was the exhibit based on the Neighbours TV set. And the fact that they were showing the test match in the museum! Well, they did have an exhibit about the Ashes on display there. Yeah you're right. Thinking about what actually interested us the most, we probably would have got more culture standing in the supermarket looking at yoghurt pots - only the ones with the friendly bacteria in them mind.

3. And when we'd finished watching cricket in the museum, you can go shopping and then watch cricket on the big screen in Federation Square - yeah, it does sound like a good place for a Star Trek convention... Looking at the Melbourne map, it looks like we missed seeing a lot of the city. Hmm - spent too much time watching the cricket obviously. Well, I don't think any of us enjoyed Melbourne as much as Sydney (thus stoking the great Melbournite (?) - Sydnonian (??!!??) rivalry. But that is probably because we got hammered in the cricket and it rained buckets in the middle of what was supposedly summer. Maybe I'll give it another chance my next visit down under. If I can time it to coincide with the Australian Open, that might be a bonus...