It's been a bit of a while

Well the wedding went smoothly enough. Idiot proletarians spoiled it, of course. Two of our (former) friends, who were neighbours where we used to live, were invited. Unfortunately they turned up drunk, started abusing my guests at the reception, and quaffed about half the wine we'd provided for out guests to enjoy between them.

Then the male of the couple (no names... it wouldn't be fair to expose him publicly on here as a Total Twat) thought it would be good to attack me physically. I need to admit it now, I kicked him in the chest. But he had hold of my ankle, and he was trying to bite my foot; I was only trying to free my foot. The idiot.

Still, he was turfed out, and the police called. They interviewed his wife; the report I got from the solicitors that were nearby (and present as guests) was that her version of events differed substantially from the events that actually happened.

I proceeded to get very, very drunk.

The wine, by the way, wasn't paid for by us; it was a gift from my wife's boss. A lady who has earned my respect, not because of this gift (although it was an exceptional gift), but through other matters, which might gain exposure on my blog as time progresses.

More Wedding Plans

It's Monday morning, and it doesn't feel like I've had a weekend off...

As my daughter is currently living with her mum, I had to phone her and check that arrangements for the wedding were acceptable. It's on a Friday, after all, and she'll be missing a day at school. Well to my surprise she was fine with the whole thing; this is unusual. Mind you, when I phoned her on Friday morning for a completely different matter, she sounded pretty rough - she was having a migraine, and did not sound well at all. Perhaps she was in a good mood because the pain was all but over.

Now we've only got the wedding toast and greeting bubbly to organise (17 quid a bottle from the hotel, or use their corkage fee of a tenner a bottle to bring our own - both of these a utterly extortionate). We've still got no cars organised, but Maxine was dong that, so Tracey is getting in touch with her. Plus Tracey was flapping about her shoes and earrings which she has still to purchase. But she's seen her shoes on ebay, and hopes the other buggers who're bidding on them aren't as keen as her to get them. Oh, and she needs tights or stockings, apparently. Special really expensive ones for brides and bridesmaids to wear. They're shiny.

Now we have 'Hair by Ashleen' to organise. She's away this weekend doing hair at her nan's (Tracey's mum's) where she's to do Heather (my sister-in-law) too, as her and Martin have recently moved to Church Gresley, Swadlincote, which is very close to where Tracey's folks live (Newhall, Swadlincode). So we have to fit other haircuts around that; there's Chris (the best man) and myself to do, Daniel (my son) and Glyn (Tracey's son), and my daughter, and Ash herself. Then there's the bride. Ash needs to practice doing Tracey's hair several times, it will have extensions and will be pretty spectacular. But the style is quite difficult to do, so Ash needs to work through it a few times to ensure it's perfect on the day. She has all that hair to prepare and barely enough time to do it all.

It's all go on the wedding front

Well all is now planned. Yesterday I phoned the hotel where we're having our reception, and gave them the final numbers for the meal and the wine order. There will be 27 of us altogether; one in a wheelchair, four diabetics and no (as far as I'm aware) vegetarians. All I have to do now is pay for that... We wont be invoiced until after Tuesday - and we've still to let them know what we want to do about some bubbly for the toast/greeting. So they need that before Tuesday, too. More expense!

This morning I managed to turn in over an hour late for work as I'd popped into the Rushcliffe register office to hand over the blue certificates that we need to prove we're entitled to get married. They seemed quite calm about the whole proceeding; we've yet to discuss the actual ceremony with them and there's just a fortnight to go. I asked about this, and they were happy for us to do it over the phone, which is good, but they only open from 9:30 am and only during the week (not at weekends) so having Tracey and I both together to call them is going to be tricky.

Oh, and the tickets for the Honeymoon arrived yesterday. That's a bit of a relief. I hope Maxine can still do the cars for us.

More work on the Mini

I've been working hard recently, and not just on the wedding. My step daughter pulled the fitted wardrobe from her bedroom a few weeks ago, the back of the wardrobe was damp, and it was starting to rot her clothes. She likes her clothes, so she pulled the lot out.

Now I had a pile of wood stacked in the garage; what to do about it? Well, the damp and damaged stuff has been thrown out and the good stuff stacked neatly. I did a quick search around the Mini websites and forums, and got hold of some plans for various bits and pieces. Next I got my woodworking tools and workbench out, selected a really nice piece of heavy duty plywood from the pile and over the course of about a fornight, working for an hour or two every other evening (and one late evening on a weekend), I pulled together a new dashboard.

Thank heavens for ebay too - I got a 3 clock dashboard instrument set (my Mini came with the ordinary Studio2 2-clock dials) from a mini cooper. These just plug in; all the wiring is there, all these later Minis were given the same wiring loom no matter what equipment was fitted. It plugged straight in, the speedo seems accurate (I was concerned that the final drive may have been a different ratio, putting the speedo out, butt I needn't have worried). I fixed the new instrument cluster to the new dashboard, and brought it all together. It looks pretty good. I cut a glove compartment door, fitted a small chrome handle and a catch to the glove compartment lid and gave the lot a good coat of dark oak coloured varnish. Sweet.

Now all I have to do is fit it in. For that I need some 2-inch expandible tubing (for the extra distance on the vents) and some wing-nuts, which I'm sure I've got somewhere.

Planning our Wedding

I'm more tired than ever now. For the last two months, we seem to have done nothing else other than make plans for the wedding of the week. The Beautiful Tracey and I are to get hitched on 25th May (that's a Friday - so no bloody kids. Other than ours, 'cos we've got no choice there). Anyway, we've been to see one of Tracey's friends, organised the flowers, the cake, the room, the registry office, suits for the groom, best man, and the boys, outfits for the girls, Tracey's gown, the food, the guest list, the rings, the Honeymoon (including flights and car hire), pretty much everything.

Except the wedding cars. Oh dear. Looks like Tracey is going to have to walk to the registry office.

And on top of that, I've got Dan (my lad)'s birthday on Sunday! And I've got no idea what to get him.

Mini Problems? Not any more...

So me and the Missus (that's the Beautiful Tracey) were just preparing for our trip to Stamford Bridge last weekend. Nottingham Forest were playing there in the F.A. Cup, and that co-incided with the end of the Harrods sale. So we decided it would be great to make a weekend of it, shopping in Knightsbridge, Kensington, Chelsea and Fulham, and taking in a top football match. And overeating; dont forget the overeating, it's very important on a trip like this.

Two days before I pulled up at home in the Rover Mini, and spotted as I walked round the car that one of the lenses was just leaning away from the headlight. No problem, I though, I'll pop come out in the morning and glue it back on; that'll last for the trip, then I can get it replaced. Fate had another plan. The following morning, I came outside with my Superglue in one hand and screwdriver in the other; I undid the screw holding the chrome frame around the light and the lens came completely away. I'd like to say at this point that the lenses on the front of AngelEye headlights are tough and they bounce. I'd like to say that. But all the evidence I have indicates the opposite is true. Mine burst into a million pieces and scattered itself over the driveway.

So it's out with the gaffer tape and some cling-film. It's a good job I tried to do this in the morning, 'cos it's now daylight, and I dont need to use the lights (the cling-film would melt in less than half a second...) So I get Tracey to work and head into Eastwood stopping at my favourite garage, Surf Blue. Geoff fits me a replacement headlight (one of the standard ones) and I ask him to organise some new lights. My crisis is over for the time being, but I'm only just getting started.

The next morning (Friday) I wash the car for the first time in about five months. The dirt is rather thickly packed, and it takes a bit of scrubbing to shift. The rust problem I'd been intending to work on isn't as bad as I'd expected it to be by now. It looks like that dirt kept stone chips away from the paintwork. But the front bumper is looking a little ragged (so is the back one, in fact, but the back can wait). The chrome finish is starting to lift from the mild steel bumper beneath and it's looking shoddy. Typical. I cleaned it up with a wire scrubber, dried it and packed it with polish to keep the water out. The car looked completley different.

So, with weekend completely out of the way (and the disappointment of both the football and the Harrods sale both dwindling into history) I'm now taking action. One new bumper, one new set of headlight surrounds are now on order, as are a new set of locks for the doors and boot. I've also taken this chance to get the wheel arches replaced at the back (one is broken completely, the other hanging off where the plastic loop around the pop-rivets have broken) and put on side seam trim along the top of the sills which was missing when we bought the car. These are all superficial changes, though. I dont want to touch the mechanics, the car turned in between 50 and 55 mpg on the journey to London and back.