Hi. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Since last I updated the journal we have:
- Been to Australia
- Got married
- Moved house
And before we left the UK my sister and nephew came to stay with us. Gosh that was a long time ago.
First things first, in case you don’t know – maybe you came to my site trying to find pictures of Hot Kath – we got married. It was fun!
Following the relaxing 24hr flight – although ours was more like 36 with a little 14hr stopover in Malaysia thrown in – yeah, no problem, we’ll just sleep on the plane… – we were greeted at Adelaide International Airport by more customs officials than we had ever seen in one place. Australia really doesn’t want to let in anything undesirable. This includes microbes as well as dodgy looking people. The potential Foot and Mouth Disease was taken care of with an inflight cabin fumigation before we landed, and as we looked particularly dodgy our bags were searched after we had landed. I’ve not experienced this anywhere else. All the other airports seemed more concerned about what you might bring on to the plane rather than what you were taking off.
Failing to find the hidden compartments in our luggage where the drugs and rabies ridden animals were stored we exited customs film star style to be greeted by our family and friends.
What followed in the next two weeks was a whirlwind of appointments to see cakes, friends, family, flowers and pets (not necessarily in that order).
When the big day arrived everything went accoring to plan. Matt and Andrew made sure I was at the venue and hadn’t forgotten to put my trousers on (cheers!) Obi kept the rings safe, and Wendy and Petrea checked that, yes, Kathryn did look stunning. There was a moment of concern when a couple of drops of rain fell just as we were forming up on the grass but the rain was just teasing and we got married without resorting to umbrellas.
After leaving Australia we spent four days in Malaysia. Our first night was at the Ritz Carlton in KL, probably the fanciest place we have stayed in. Then we spent the rest of the time on the island of Langkawi, sitting by the beach, looking for monkeys and eating satay (not necessarily in that order).
A highlight was taking the new cable car to the top of the mountain above our resort. It had only just been finished and they were giving free (test) rides, presumably so they wouldn’t have to give a refund when the car plumeted to the forest floor below.
Soon after we returned to London we moved house – from a shoebox to a medium sized packing crate. It is really nice; much more room, a separate kitchen with wood floor and a huge living room. It is also really close to Kathryn’s work. She just has to walk over Battersea Bridge and she is there. It takes about four minutes.