Tag Archives: people

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September Wedding

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Rose and TomaszIt seems like only last week that I was at a friends wedding (in fact it was just over two weeks), but on Tuesday two more friends tied the knot.

I’ve known R since my time in Norway. We met up a few times in Oslo and continued when we both returned to London. She had dreams of travelling, going back to Norway or Paris, or, generally, elsewhere. But she drifted back to her home-town, Bristol. Later, T, a Polish tree surgeon, moved into the flat-share she was living in. She jokes that while I tried internet- and speed-dating, she just stayed at home but had greater success.

They exchanged vows in Camden Town Hall, confusingly located opposite St Pancras station rather than in Camden as one would naively expect. It was a good service, and it was good that so many people made it, including both mothers. T’s didn’t speak much English but seemed to enjoy herself.

Afterwards we retired to a local pub for the reception.

A good day was had by all. R and T are currently in Morocco on their Honeymoon and we all wish them all the best. Congratulations!

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You Wouldn’t Buy a Toaster Drunk

Dylan Moran at the Hammersmith ApolloLast night we went to see Dylan Moran do stand-up comedy at the Hammersmith Apollo here in London.

Here in the UK he is probably most famous for his role in the sit-com Black Books where he plays, well, pretty much himself it turns out. It’s a version of Moran who works in a book store with Manny (Bill Bailey).

It’s difficult to say much about his show as he doesn’t really tell jokes as such, more a stream of observations. A couple of years ago when I first saw him live his most memorable line was “Children are just small drunks.” This time it was about relationships: “The first time you meet your partner you are generally drunk. Why would you do that? You wouldn’t buy a toaster drunk. It’s too important a decision.”

We were impressed. If you get the chance, he’s well worth seeing.

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A Very Civil Partnership

Phil and IhsanIt turns out that 2006 is a big year for weddings. I got married in April, a friend of my wife got married in May and my friends P and I had a Civil Partnership Ceremony yesterday.

Despite the poor weather, it was a great day for everyone. They tied the knot in Wandsworth Registry Office with nearly twenty people present. It was a short but touching ceremony. They said their vows and exchanged rings.

As I’s Best Man said, in general they’ve had a fairly private relationship which made such a public occasion all the more special. It was great to see so many people there in the evening helping to celebrate their commitment to one another.

Congratulations to both of them!

Oh, we were slightly amused (or is that bemused?) to see a sign behind the registrar defining that a wedding is between a man and a woman. We weren’t sure whether some people in the council objected to same-sex marriages or that they’ve just not moved it since it became legal last year.

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Geocaching

Unsuccessful geocachingI was introduced to the strange world of Geocaching over Christmas last year.

For the uninitiated, geocaching is, basically, a high-tech scavenger hunt. People hide things all over the world, typically Tupperware boxes containing various goodies, and post the co-ordinates on a website. Other people then enter the details into their GPS systems and try to find them. It sounds simple, silly even, but it can give you a good excuse to look around an old and familiar area with a new perspective.

As the above picture shows, some caches are more tricky to find than others. Here we tried a “multi-cache,” which has various clues pointing to the real location. We found all the clues but couldn’t find the actual box.

The next day, after lunch in a pub, we decided to look for another geocache. Things were not looking good for a while but just as we were about to give up and go home — two failures in as many days — we found it!

Successful geocache find

Here B and D celebrate our find. It’s the first time D has been and she got quite into it!

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Refuse to be Terrorized

Bruce Schneider again talks some sense about the recent unsuccessful terror attacks.

Our politicians help the terrorists every time they use fear as a campaign tactic.

If the security services did most of their work in the back-ground, without people knowing about it, then the public wouldn’t be in a state of terror. And — from the point of view of the police — working behind the scenes never did James Bond’s reputation any harm…

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Does faith strengthen society?

I found this interesting article that “demolishe[s] the myth that faith strengthens society.”

While we’re frequently told that religion provides a moral basis for a civillised society, the study found “that secular societies have lower rates of violence and teenage pregnancy than societies where many people profess belief in God.”

How can that be?

“Consciously or subconsciously, those who are “born again” or “chosen” have diminished respect for others who do not share their sect or their faith. Convinced that only the Bible offers “truth”, they lose their intellectual curiosity and their ability to reason. Their priority becomes not the world they live in but themselves.”

Of course it’s only anecdotal, but some of the “logical” reasoning I’ve heard supports that!