Yesterday I went to Liverpool Cathedral to hear Rob Bell talk about his new book – ‘Love Wins‘. I’d seen him do a Q&A at Greenbelt last year, so was quite interested to hear him in person talk about his new book which has already caused a bit of controversy within the church.

It was quite bizarre because quite a few influential people were highly critical of it via Twitter, even before the book had actually been released, so I decided I’d rather make my own mind up, rather than listen to emotional ramblings from people who can come across a bit arrogant at times!

I went with Tom Green from Vinelife, and met up with Dave Bateman (who’s now living in Liverpool), and I also bumped into Tim Follin and his wife who were both there too. The place was pretty packed, and it was really interesting to hear his thoughts, but even though I think some of the stuff he said was quite though-provoking, I’m not totally sure I agree with all the points he put across.

After he did his main talk bit, he was ‘interviewed’ by the host of the evening, but he wasn’t really very good at it and asked pretty rubbish questions.  And then they invited people from the audience to ask questions, but again I thought there were a lot of missed opportunities, and Tom went forward to ask a question, but they wrapped up just before he got a chance to which was a bit annoying!

I bought the book afterwards, and I want to read it myself to see what I reckon – I certainly think it’s good that he’s causing people to ask questions about it.

Also, two weekends ago, I went over to Ellesmere Port to celebrate John Roberts’ 30th birthday at Frankie & Benny’s at Cheshire Oaks.  I’d not seen him for a while, because he now doesn’t live in Manchester, and there was actually quite a decent turn-out for his birthday meal considering there was a bit of travel involved!  It was a good night – and it was nice to hang out and spend quality time with some of the guys I don’t really see that much of any more.

And a couple of weekends before that, Steph had a birthday picnic at Tatton Park, so I went along, but for the first bit it was basically me and Dave with a load of people we didn’t know!  So we went for a bit of a walk around the grounds until a few more people that we knew turned up!  It was supposed to be ‘Birthday Fun In The Sun’ but someone had forgotten to tell the sun to turn up!  It was quite cold for a picnic, but we still had a pretty good laugh!  There are some photos from the day here.

Back in February, I decided to pop over to Wales for the day to go to some of the Reach weekend away.  I’d gone a few years ago for the whole weekend, but not been to anything since then, but it was also a bit of an excuse to catch up with some of the old gang!

To be totally honest, it did feel a bit weird when I first turned up, and everyone was already in the middle of the first morning session, so I hung around at the back until there was a mid-morning break.

Throughout the day, I mostly hung out with Dave – he’d texted me first thing to say that he felt like the oldest person there, so was wanting me there to help tip the age balance!

Was a really enjoyable day in the end… we went for a walk up one of the hills near Cefn Lea, and some of the stuff being spoken about was pretty interesting – it was a bit of a trek back in the early hours of Sunday morning though – it’s not ideal driving a long distance after a long day!  Photos from the day are here.

Right back to January now, and I got a step closer to the kitchen being finished with Rob giving me a hand fitting a new floor.  It’s a light laminate floor, and it looks really good with the gloss white units and wood-effect worktops. Now all I’ve got to do is sort out some splashbacks, fit a narrow piece of worktop down the side, box in some pipes, and get a new washing machine and fridge freezer… so not much really!!

Also, January saw Tom and Alice’s wedding at Platt church in Rusholme.  I’d agreed to video it for them, and I nearly fell at the first hurdle when the day before, the church said I needed to pay for a wedding videographer licence to be able to film in there!

Anyway, I managed to buy a single licence to allow me to do it, although the church was a bit of a nightmare to film in because it has tightly-packed pews, and it was difficult to get tripods to fit anywhere!

The reception was at The Lowry, and it was a great night. Got some really cool footage as well, so hopefully the video will turn out alright!  There are some photos here.

Now onto more house news! The kitchen isn’t a million miles off being finished, but in the meantime, I’ve also been having the bathroom redone!  It’s been totally gutted, and I’ve had the door to a cupboard blocked up, which has given me back the corner of my back bedroom, and allows me to move the bath onto the other wall with the shower unit where the door used to be.  It’s still a work-in progress, but it’s getting there!

On top of all that, I’ve been dieting a bit since New Year – using an iPhone app called MyFitnessPal, which you use to keep a food diary so that you can see how many calories you’re eating each day, and it’s a real eye-opener!  It’s quite hard work, and not sure how well I’ll be able to keep it up, but already I’ve lost just over 2.5 stone!  I really need to get into a good routine with exercising, and eating at regular times, but often with work that’s quite difficult!  I’ll see how it goes anyway!

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I’d never been there before, so when I got an invite to Emma McNeil’s (now Patterson!) wedding to Gerald in North Carolina, I decided that it’d be really cool to be there for that, and also to discover a bit of America at the same time!

I flew out from Manchester Airport on Tuesday 7th, and got on the plane around lunchtime, but not before being selected for a security check as I was boarding!  I guess it was because I was travelling on my own, but it’s funny how you start to feel guilty when you’ve not actually got anything to hide!  About 8 hours later I made it into Newark Airport – and it was really weird being able to see such iconic views as the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty as we came in to land!  After a bit of a delay waiting for my next flight to Greensboro, I finally boarded what can only be described as a coach with wings!  It was a 50-seater, small 2-engine plane, that was incredibly narrow with just 3 seats across, and an aisle separating one of those!  It was a bit of a bumpy journey – I’m not the most experienced flier, so it doesn’t take too much to make me a bit nervous! But we eventually landed safely at Greensboro airport quite late, although my awareness of time was a bit screwy due to the time difference!

After getting through the airport, I met up with Emma and her mum, as well as her brother and his family who’d also just flown in, before picking up the car I was hiring for my time in North Carolina. It was a little automatic Chevrolet, and I then had to follow them back to her apartment on the other side of the city – which considering I’d only driven on the right-hand side once before in 1997, and this time it was also dark, it was quite an experience! I was actually quite relieved it was an automatic because it meant I didn’t have to worry about changing gear with the wrong hand!

After spending an hour or so at Emma’s catching up, I then drove back to the hotel I was booked into (although getting slightly lost on the way there!), and even though I didn’t get to bed until about 1am, I annoyingly woke up three hours later because my body-clock was still on UK-time!

Next day I didn’t really do that much – I went back to Emma’s and just chilled out with her family, as well as doing a little bit of shopping in Greensboro, and I thought that it was quite funny that I kept getting comments on my accent. In Harris Teeter (a kind-of Sainsburys but with less choice!) the woman on the till said she loved my English accent so much that she gave me a re-usable bag for free and a members’ discount on my shopping! And then when I went to buy some trainers, the cashier thought that I was Australian! I’m guessing they’ve never actually heard a real Ozzie accent then! It’s quite mad, because I don’t think I have much of an accent at all – they were the ones who were talking funny…

On Thursday, I finally got to meet Gerald and his son Josh when we all headed over to a shopping mall in Winston-Salem for the wedding party’s suit fittings.  It took quite a while to sort it all out, and afterwards all the blokes went for a meal at Ruby Tuesday, which reminded me a bit of TGI Fridays (and not just because of them having days of the week in their names!)

Then on the Friday I decided to drive down to Charlotte in the south of North Carolina, which was about 100 miles from Greensboro. It was a pretty straightforward journey down the Interstate and I arrived there late morning.

Charlotte’s a really cool place – load of public art dotted around the city, and home to two great museums – the MINT and the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art - both of which I had a look around, and I actually felt pretty cultured doing it!  Architecturally both buildings are really bold and interesting designs, and I did find most of the stuff on display really good, although a few pieces of the modern art did go over my head a bit!

For lunch I ended up in a takeaway place called Bojangles – I’d seen them advertise on local TV quite a lot with typically-crazy commercials that you seem to get there – and had spicy fried chicken and what they call a scratch biscuit. I’d not seen them before,  but basically it was a bit like having a savoury scone along with your chicken, which was a bit weird!

I then drove back up to Greensboro where Emma and Gerald were having a bit of a pre-wedding gathering with a load of their friends, and consisted of food with a couple of speeches and just general mingling!

Then the next morning, it was time for the wedding!

The service was held at Magnolia Street Baptist Church in Greensboro, and I had to get there in plenty of time because I’d agreed to video the day for them, although the kit I was using wasn’t to my usual standard!  I’d taken my mum’s small HD camcorder with me, and also borrowed a cheap NTSC DV camera from one of Emma’s friends, and also filmed a bit of video on my stills camera! Not sure how well it will all cut together, but it was the best I could do really!

It was a really nice service – and since I was videoing it, I was up on a balcony overlooking it all. Apparently, it was different to a normal American wedding because they’d incorporated some British stuff into it, which also meant it was longer than people would be used to, but to me I didn’t really notice much different to weddings I’ve been to before.

Then after all the photos were done on the steps outside the church, it was off to the reception which was quite different to what you’d get in the UK!

For a start, the layout of the tables was very different. Whereas here we have a top table where the bride and groom sit with the best man and the families, here there was just a small table at the front where just Emma and Gerald sat, with everyone else just spread over tables around the room.

And the wedding breakfast was exactly that! It was a buffet with a selection of cooked stuff like waffles, hash browns, bacon and scambled eggs, as well as fruit which you had to put on the same plate! That’s not right!! Also, I don’t get the obsession with pouring maple syrup over a cooked breakfast – I made sure I gave that a miss!  But it was a good meal apart from that!

Then there were speeches as well as cutting the cake, and that’s something else they don’t normally have in the US – traditional wedding cake. As a back-up they had some kind of sponge cake for the less adventurous!

It was all wrapped up by about 4 o’clock, so after nipping back to the hotel to get changed, I headed back to Emma’s apartment to spend the evening with her family (Emma and Gerald were staying at a hotel somewhere in Greensboro and are taking a proper honeymoon later), and we watched a DVD and ate takeaway… I went out and bought some food from Chick-fil-A, which is just like KFC but without the good old Colonel! Actually, they also didn’t have gravy either which was a big disappointment!

Sunday morning, and I decided to go over to Winston-Salem which is the next big city to Greensboro, about 30 miles west. Emma’s church is there - Morningstar Winston-Salem - and I’d met a few people from there over the last few days, so thought I’d check it out, even though Emma herself wouldn’t be there.

When I arrived, there weren’t many people there at all, but it soon filled up. It wasn’t being held in its usual place – for some reason they were in the Millennium Center in downtown Winston-Salem.  I sat near to some other visitors, so had something in common with them(!), but Emma’s friend Wendy (who I’d met at the wedding) came over to say ‘hi’ so I didn’t feel a total loner!  That morning they’d got a few guests doing stuff in the meeting- the music was by a visiting couple who I’m assuming did quite a few of their own songs, and I didn’t recognise any of them at all! As well as that, they had a visiting speaker – Bob Jones – who I’d heard of, but don’t really know much about other than he has links with Morningstar, and some of the guys from Reach met him in America on a trip a few years ago. To be honest, I didn’t really connect with him at all… I found his manner a bit weird, and some of the stuff he was saying and got people to do I very much disagreed with, so that was slightly awkward!  But apart from that, I was glad that I made the effort to go!

Then on the evening, I went to the cinema with Emma, Gerald and all of Em’s family to go and see the new Narnia film – Voyage of the Dawntreader.  It was alright, but deviated from the book a little bit, and just didn’t have the epic scale it really should have with the story that it’s taken from.  Not sure whether they’ll continue to make the rest of the series because I can’t imagine this one will do that well to be honest.  Afterwards, I went back to Emma’s for a short while, before heading back to the hotel to grab a meal in the bar, and then sorted out my packing and tried to get an early-ish night.

So Monday morning, I said goodbye to North Carolina and hello to New York City!

I got into Newark Airport around lunchtime, and took an Amtrak train into Penn Station on Manhattan, where I then took a subway train to 51st street where my hotel was.  I stayed at The Pod Hotel – a really cool and relatively cheap hotel which was walking distance from most of the main places in central Manhattan.  It was pretty basic, and there was a shared bathroom, but it was really modern and clean, with a TV and sink, and to be honest you don’t spend that much time in there!

After dumping my bags, I set out for a bit of a wander to check out the city.  It was so cool being there in the run up to Christmas because the place felt really festive.  I went up by the Rockerfeller Center where they’d installed an ice-rink beneath a massive Christmas tree, and then made my way to Times Square and Broadway. It’s so crazy actually visiting somewhere that you’ve seen on countless films and TV shows, and it was so buzzing and hectic there, but in a really good way!  It even started to snow later on in the evening as I was making my way back to the hotel, although there wasn’t really enough of it to settle, but it really added to the Christmassy vibe.

Next day, I decided that I needed to be a proper tourist, so I bought a ticket to go to the ‘Top Of The Rock‘ – the observation deck on the 70th floor of the Rockefeller Building.

The view was absolutely amazing… you could see for miles, and one of the advantages of going up the Rockefeller instead of the Empire State Building, is that you actually get to see the Empire State Building on the New York skyline!

It was so windy and cold up there – around the edges you could see snow that had collected and not melted away, but the view of the city totally made up for that!

Before that, I went exploring more of midtown Manhattan, and came across Grand Central Station which is just an amazing building – I don’t think any railway stations in the UK quite match it for its grandeur!  And then in the evening, I went to see ‘The Addams Family‘ at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway, and it was an excellent show!  I’ve since discovered that most of the reviews by critics in New York have been pretty negative about it, but I can’t understand why!  It was a fun show, beautifully staged, brilliantly acted and sung by the whole cast, and the audience reaction was amazing. I overheard people around me saying it was one of the best shows they’d seen on Broadway, so it makes you wonder what planet reviewers are on sometimes!  The girl playing Wednesday (Krysta Rodriguez) was particularly outstanding – she had a beautiful voice, and it helped that she looked pretty good too!

Then on Wednesday, I started the day with a tour of the NBC studios. It was really interesting seeing around some of the studios, but it was quite funny the way the tour guide would tell us we were standing in a particular studio where some presenter does the news or a talk show, and everyone would get really excited, whereas I had no idea of who they were talking about!  I was more interested in the kit they were using in there!

After that, I took the subway down to the south of Manhattan to look around Battery Park and the financial district.  I visited Ground Zero and saw the site of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center.  It’s pretty much hidden from view, but I managed to get on a raised walkway to get a better view of the area, and could just about see the new layout.  It’s crazy to think that’s where the attacks happened back in 2001, and I guess it will always have that day associated with it.

Then in the afternoon, I took a boat trip to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. I’d managed to get a ticket to go all the way up to the crown of the Statue of Liberty – apparently only 250 people a day are able to go all the way to the top, and often have to book months in advance, whereas I bought my ticket the day before and managed to get a cancellation!

You have to walk up the whole way – there is a lift to the top of the plinth, but they don’t let you use it if you have a crown ticket because you have to be physically fit to be able to climb the 354 steps to the top – equivalent to a 20-storey building!

It was quite a strenuous climb, the majority of it on a spiral staircase that goes up through the body of the statue.  You can see the interior of the copper body-shape, and you really do get a sense of how high up you are as you’re climbing. I’m not too bad with heights generally, but there were moments on the way up when I did freeze a little bit, because the staircase was so narrow, and you knew there was no turning back!  But when I eventually got to the top, the view from the windows in the crown was stunning – it’s just a shame it doesn’t actually point directly back to the skyline of Manhattan because then the view would then be perfect!

After walking all the way back down (and spending about 10 minutes trying to get my breath back!), I got onto another boat and made my way over to Ellis Island which is where the immigrants wanting to get into America arrived in the first half of the 20th century.  I could just feel the history of the place as I stood in the Great Hall, where people would have queued up to try and get into the country, being able to see the skyline of Manhattan out of the big arched windows running down the side of the room. The museum was really interesting as well, and really captured the sense of those times.  Then, as the sun was setting, I took the ferry back towards Manhattan, and the view of the skyline lit up was amazing.

For my last evening in New York, I met up with Dan – an old mate that I used to work with back at MUTV years ago. He works as a cameraman for ITN, and is based in New York along with a reporter producing content for ‘Daybreak’ on ITV. We grabbed a coffee in Starbucks, and then he showed me round the studio where they broadcast from inside the Reuters building, which has a great backdrop overlooking the neon and bright lights of Times Square. It was really great to catch up – it must be nine years since we worked together, though we have kind of kept in touch on Facebook over the last few years!

Then, on my final day I got up early and took a walk up to Central Park, just to say I’d been there! It’s amazing that there’s such an expanse of space with grass and trees amongst such a build up area, and I only managed to see a fraction of it in the time I had. Then at lunchtime, I checked out of my hotel and made my way back to Newark airport for the long journey home.

It was a fantastic couple of weeks and I definitely want to go back sometime soon and experience much more of New York, and the USA in general! Anyone want to come with me…?

Check out all the photos I took in North Carolina and New York on Facebook – here and here.

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Tom’s probably my oldest friend – we spend pretty much all our time together when we were kids… whilst at school we tried to start TV and radio stations, produced the school magazine and a yearbook, made a short film, wrote a ‘commercial’ computer game that earned us about £100(!), plus loads of other crazy ventures!

And then after school, we’ve kept in touch, firstly helping start up a community radio station together, and we’ve both then taken career paths in media – Tom in radio and me in tv and video.  We even shared a house together in Birmingham in the summer of 1997!

Anyway, Tom’s been living in the UAE for the last few years, and was in Cairo before that, so we don’t see other loads, but do keep in touch online, and have caught up when he’s been back in the UK visiting family.

So when I was invited to his wedding down in Devon, there was no way I was going to miss it!  It was a heck of a long journey down there from Manchester, but I stayed at a Travelodge on the M5 the night before to break it up a little bit, and then stayed in Bideford on the Saturday night after the reception.

The wedding service itself was in a really picturesque village church, and then everyone drove into the town for the reception in a hotel at the side of the river.

It was great to see them getting married – I’d not met Vicky before, but we had spoken once on a Skype call about a month ago! And I also got to catch up with Tom’s sister Ellen, who I hadn’t spoken to for about 20 years!  It was a bit mad, because when I was younger, she was just Tom’s kid sister who we didn’t really have anything to do with, because that’s how it is when you’re kids!  But it was really nice to see her now with her partner and young daughter, and just seemed really happy with life and stuff.

I also got to meet a few of Tom’s radio mates, which was cool – they were people I’ve heard him mention in the past, but never seen before.  And it was good to say hello to his mum and dad, who again I’ve not seen for a very long time!

I’ve uploaded photos from the wedding here.

One extra thing – after the robbery at our old office, we’ve now moved the business into a new place.  It’s in east Manchester, in a brand-new complex called The Sharp Project, and it’s designed to house digital and media businesses, as well as offering studio space to production companies.  It’s pretty exciting, and we’ve only been in there a month, but hopefully it’ll prove to be a really good move for us!

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Well, after seeing U2 last month (which was amazing by the way… have I mentioned that?!) I’ve experienced some more great bands in the last few weeks.

I went to Greenbelt over the August Bank Holiday weekend with Ali and her mates from Bristol. Because she was working on the set-up team, it meant we were able to camp a lot closer to the main area, which was much better than the last time I went, when we were camped so far away!

There was a great variety of music over the weekend: Athlete, Röyksopp, Sixpence None The Richer, Cornershop, yFriday, plus lots of smaller artists as well.

Also, I got to hear a bit of Rob Bell too, which was really interesting. I’ve got a few of his books, but I’ve yet to read them – that’s something I need to do when I get a bit more time! He was doing a Q&A session, so covered quite a few subjects. He did a couple of specific talks as well, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to get into those because the queues were so long that people got turned away. I need to get an MP3 of them!

The camping wasn’t too bad – I cooked a few meals on my gas stove, although I’ll admit that I had my fair share of burgers and bacon rolls from the food vans! And we did alright for the weather as well – we had a bit of rain, but generally it was pretty good. The biggest downside to festivals for me is the severe lack of showers, but on the Sunday morning I went for a swim at the nearby leisure centre so did feel reasonably clean after that!

Check out my photos here.

Then last night I saw Coldplay live, which was really good. I bought tickets last year, and the original plan was for me to go with James and Helen, and I was really looking forward to that because we don’t really ever get to do anything socially, but as I posted a while back, they had a family wedding they had to go to, so it meant that I we wouldn’t be able to go together.

I’d bought an extra ticket for the gig, which quite late on I sold to Dave who decided to go because Ralph and Tom had got hold of tickets as well. So we all left from their house and walked the 3 miles from their’s to the Lancashire Cricket Ground for the gig.

We arrived as the first support – White Lies – were already playing. The ground was already jam-packed, even though Coldplay weren’t due on stage for another two and a half hours! White Lies were alright, although they played their only real hit as we were coming in, and the rest sounded a bit samey I thought.

Then next on was Jay-Z – who it could be argued is an odd choice for support at a Coldplay gig. I did discover that Tom really isn’t a Jay-Z fan at all (although he wasn’t feeling 100% so that might be part of the reason for his pained expression during the set!) I guess the guy is a really talented producer and he certainly got the crowd on-side, but for me hearing a crowd of 50,000 joining in with with the line “I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one” really sits badly with me… when I hear those kind of lyrics, and the way they’re just so disrespectful to women, it’s just really turns me off it all.

Anyway, enough of my critique of Jay-Z, and onto the reason we were there – Coldplay.

Everything about the band’s performance was brilliant. Musically, they sounded amazing, and Chris Martin surprised me in how well he bounced off the crowd, and he’s really energetic on stage – running around a lot of the time (when he’s not sitting down at a piano!)

I often hear people criticise the band by saying that their music is really depressing and boring, but after experiencing their live show, there’s no way you could say that.

The music was really uplifting, and had such an energy to it – basically I really enjoyed it!

It’s a real shame I wasn’t able to go with James and Hel, although they apparently did make it back from the wedding in time for when Coldplay came on, but I think they were way at the back somewhere! But I did have a really great time with the guys, and we all got a free live CD on the way out which was cool. I took quite a few photos of the gig on my phone, and they’re all here.

And finally, last weekend I was down in Hemel Hemstead for Helen & Jeff’s wedding – and for some crazy reason, I agreed to do a video of it! I normally don’t do wedding videos, because they can be an absolute nightmare, and you’re basically on the go for the whole day, which means you don’t quite experience it the same way, but they had no-one else to do it, so I relented! It also removed the hassle of having to find a decent wedding present!

It was nice seeing the old crowd – in some ways it seems like it was hardly any time ago since we were all in Birmingham at uni, but in reality it’s nearly 15 years! And it was a really nice wedding, and most of us stayed over so it was good to properly catch up.

I’ve now got to try and get the video edited for them – though where the time’s going to come from I’m not sure!

You can see my photos of the day here. Most of them from the daytime weren’t actually taken by me because I was filming, but I left my camera with the other guys to takes some for me!

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It’s been a busy few weeks – we’ve had a lot on at work, which is obviously a good thing, but it would be nice to take a decent break at some point!

A few weeks ago, I went down to Soul Survivor North in Stafford as a day visitor. James and Helen had taken the Vinelife youth there for the week, so I met up with them as they were dishing up tea to a crowd of teenagers in very wet conditions! They’d taken Jess with them, which must have been interesting for them, but she seemed to be really enjoying herself, and I got to feed her a bowl of pasta which she wolfed down! It was just a shame the weather was so poor, because camping’s much better when the sun’s out!

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been to Soul Survivor, when I was working down in Shepton Mallet venue doing visuals in the Underground venue. It actually felt a bit weird being there as a punter – you kind of can’t switch off from being aware of all the behind-the-scenes stuff that’s happening!

Then that weekend it was John and Carolyn’s wedding up in South Shields.

I won the prize of being the driver for the trip, so it was a full car that set off from Manchester at 7am on the Friday morning up to the North East. Me, Dave, John, Jimmy and Mike were all crammed into my Focus, but luckily we actually had a really clear run up there, and it was a good laugh!

The wedding went off without a hitch, which is always a good thing! Terry did a talk, which looking at the minister’s face, did seem to worry him for a while since Terry basically asked them why they got married in a church when they could have had a service in much more glamorous surroundings, and then even why they were bothering to get married at all! Obviously this led to a turnaround explaining why it is done the way it is, but you could tell there was a bit of nervousness from the local church for a while!

In the afternoon, we had a few hours to kill, so went and had a pub lunch with Michael and Becci and their kids, and then took a walk on the beach and briefly went round a really crappy funfair!

The evening reception was at a really posh hotel in County Durham (£4 a pint!), and John and Carolyn impressed everyone with their first dance… choreographed ballroom dancing!! Apparently Chagit had been teaching them for quite a while in preparation for it!

We stayed overnight at Mel’s parents house in Gateshead, crashing on sofas (me) and bits of carpet (the others!), then on the way back home, we stopped briefly at the Angel Of The North to have a really cheesy boyband-esque photo taken in front of it!

There are a load of photos from the wedding and the rest of our trip here.

Bang up-to-date, and I’m on my own at the office for the moment because James is in Kenya doing some filming for a video we’re making for the American organisation that Tim Karas works for – The Reckoning. They’re a non-profit organisation that aims to mobilise people to make real changes through international development projects.

James flew out to Nairobi last week where he met up with Tim and the rest of the team, and then did some filming in one of the city’s slums, where over a million people live. Then he flew on Sunday to a more remote area to meet some people who have been able to set up businesses through loans given to them by The Reckoning. I’m really looking forward to seeing what he’s shot – he sent me a short clip that he filmed in Kibera slum, and it looked amazing. That’s probably not quite the right word to use when it’s about images of such poverty, but the footage did look impressive.

Oh, and the only other thing I need to mention… I get to see U2 live on Thursday… I can’t wait!!

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It was a nice day – they’d asked me to film it for them, so it kept me busy and gave me a job to do! Not sure when I’ll get a chance to edit it though… I’ve still need to do Vikky and Damien’s one from last September! It was a bit weird, because apart from family, I didn’t really know anyone else there – Vikky knows a lot of Ste’s mates, but being up in Manchester means that I lose touch with all stuff like that. There are photos of the day here.

It kind of makes me think about my own life a bit though. Both my brother and sister are now married, and I’d always hoped that the same would happen to me, and that I’ve have my own family and all that, but as I’m getting older, I see all that slipping away from me which makes me really quite sad at times. Also, I suppose as you see your mates around you getting married and having kids, it just reinforces it to you all the time. I know I’ve wasted my life a bit over the last few years… I’ve let my head get totally screwed up twice by someone I really liked (going back for more heartache obviously wasn’t the wisest thing I could have done – but sometimes you don’t act rationally!) It’s a bit weird how much your emotions can switch from having really strong feelings for someone to then never wanting to lay eyes on them again, especially when at the end of the day, the problem is mine not theirs… there’s no law that says they have to feel the same way! Even now though, I’m still struggling to put all that behind me and move on, but by never having to see her again, that should at least mean I can just wipe that period of my life away, and try to move forward. It is totally rubbish though – 5 years of spending your time thinking about one person is such a waste – but it’s a lot easier to say you’re over it than it actually being true!

Wow – that was all a bit more open and honest than I planned… though sometimes it’s good to get things off your chest!

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It was a completely mad morning – I was staying at Steve & Julies’, and I got up about 8.30 to watch a bit of tv… the calm before the storm! Then it was time to get my suit on, and it was going okay until the phone rang, so I opened the door to go and answer it, forgetting that the suit jacket was hanging on it. I picked it up off the floor, to discover it covered in cat hair and sawdust (Steve had been constructing a wardrobe in the room the day before!) I tried my best to get it all off, but eventually I decided that everyone would be looking at Vikky’s dress rather than my suit, so I stopped worrying too much about it!!

The weather forecast for the day was pretty horrendous – heavy rain had been predicted all week, and we certainly had a downpour first thing, but by mid-morning the heavy rain stopped and it wasn’t too bad.

I headed off to my mum’s house at quarter to eleven where they were all getting ready – my mum, sis and her four bridesmaids… and to say it was hectic there would be a massive understatement! And then at 11.15 (45 minutes before the wedding was to start), there was a major panic as it was realised that one of the pairs of shoes for the bridesmaids was missing, and no-one had ever seen them! So I was sent off to race over in my car to Vikky’s house to look for them (with no clue where they’d be!) and I eventually found them in a box in the back of their storecupboard! And when I got back at about 11.30, she still hadn’t got her wedding dress on!

Anyway, we made it to the church for noon, although it took about 10 minutes to do the photos outside, so I’m sure Damien was sweating a bit at the front of the church!

It then all seemed to happen so fast – we walked down the aisle behind the bridesmaids, and then I stood at the side of them just praying that I wouldn’t mess up the bit where I had to give her away! I did it right, but then couldn’t remember whether it was then that I was supposed to go back to my seat, or if I was supposed to stay there a bit longer… but I chose the former ‘cos I though it better to do that than be standing there when I wasn’t supposed to be!

Then after the service, it just seemed to be never-ending photographs! We had some taken outside the church – it was drizzling a bit, but it wasn’t that wet really, then we headed over to Middleton Hall for the reception and had a load of photos done in the gardens there. This was then followed by the meal (chicken.. mmm) and then a disco with karaoke.

Both Damien and Vikky had a great day, and you could see they both really enjoyed it all (except when they had to walk around everyone before the meal!), and then yesterday they came back with me to Manchester because they flew out to Cuba from here this morning.

I’ve posted all my photos here.

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Anyway, I guess I should post a quick update on all that’s happened in the last few weeks since I headed down for Soul Survivor. On the Tuesday, I went and visited Ali down in Bristol and it was really nice catching up with her again. We grabbed a pizza, chatted until late about loads of stuff, and I even tried to convert her into a Myspace junkie (but I seem to have failed with that!)

Wednesday lunchtime, and it was time to continue onto Shepton Mallet, where I met up with the 29 guys, and also with Kate who did the video stuff with me there last year. They’d moved us into a smaller venue this year, which was good because it helped make it look much fuller each night, although we were out of the way of the main venues a bit which I think meant some of the kids didn’t realise we were there until later in the week. Then for the second week, Kate had to leave because she was doing a course in London, so Andy Passey took over which worked really well. It was a great 2 weeks, and on the whole, the weather wasn’t too bad.

However, for the 3rd week, Soul Survivor was replaced by Momentum, which I was staying round for along with Andy, so we kept all the video and computer equipment in the room we’d been using as an edit suite, but put it all on the floor under the worktops to keep it out of the way of the Artshed guys who we were sharing it with.

That afternoon though, we had a major storm with torrential rain, and quite a lot of the site got flooded (although my tent was okay), but I kind of assumed the venue would be okay because it seemed above ground level. After the main meeting, I met up with Andy who’d been to the Passion For Your Name meeting in what was the Underground during the previous weeks, and he said that the water had flooded through from the back of there, right down under the stage!

Now panicking ever-so slightly, I headed off to site control who told me that the artshed had been ankle-deep in water, and the stewards had had to rescue stuff on floor level, but they weren’t aware of that storeroom! So me and Andy went down there, and we were so lucky, because right next to the storeroom was a fire-exit where the floor dipped down a bit, and basically the river had taken that route rather than flow into the storeroom! I then hastily moved all my stuff off the floor – no point taking chances!!

You can see all the photos I took here.

I got back to Manchester at 3am last Thursday morning, and it was so good being back in my own bed after spending 15 days living in a tent! Then on Saturday, I met up with Sa and we went round town looking for items for a ‘survival kit’ for Emma who’s leaving Manchester to study in Cardiff. The original plan was to try and find some Welsh items, but we struggled to find that much (surpringingly, in England!) so the main thrust of it is things to remind her of Manchester, including a beautiful postcard we found of Levenshulme’s high street – classy! Then on the evening, Jamie came and joined us and we all watched a DVD at Sarah’s. It was nice hanging out with them both again – it’s been a really long time since I’ve spent time with these guys, and it’s great to be able to do so again, after all that’s happened.

Anyway, I need to get off here to allow my sis to book a coach ticket to bring them back from the airport after their honeymoon… I’m driving them up to mine on Sunday afternoon ‘cos they’re flying from Manchester aiport early on Monday morning. Will post an update about the wedding later!

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With work this week, I had to go down to Portsmouth to give a presentation to some call centre staff who are handling a telemarketing campain for us. I’ve never had to do anything like that before, so was quite aprehensive… and the reason I was having to do it was because Pete Searle who would normally do that sort of thing is off on his honeymoon (photos from his wedding are here). You’d have thought he could have put off his wedding to Mo by a week or so to help me out…

Anyway, the presentation was to take place at 11.30am on Thursday morning, so I was at Manchester Airport for half seven to catch an 0845 flight to Southampton. But whilst I was waiting in the departure lounge, I noticed the screens changed to show that the flight would be delayed by just over half an hour, which meant I’d be pushing it for time at the other end. So I waited until 9.20, when we were then told that there were technical problems and we’d be getting more information at half ten. Obviously this caused me slight problems since it was going to take me half an hour to get to Portsmouth from the airport, and the earliest I was going to get to Southampton looked to be 11.30 – the same time as the presentation!

We actually got our update at quarter past eleven, and we were told that a new plane would be arriving at noon, but there was really no point with me getting on it – but apparently if you remove yourself from a massively delayed flight, you don’t get your money back… they only do that if it’s cancelled! Anyway, what eventually happened is that I rearranged to travel on the same flight on Friday morning, with the return flight first thing yesterday morning because the guys I needed to meet wouldn’t be around until 6pm!

Friday’s journey went a lot smoother, and since the presentation wasn’t until the evening, I had a few hours to look around bits of Portsmouth, and went to take a look at HMS Victory, and also around Gunwharf Quays which is where I was staying overnight at a Holiday Inn. The talk went okay I guess… it was a bit awkward because firstly it was someone else’s presentation, and I didn’t have Powerpoint or our DVD to use because it was rescheduled last minute!

Later on that evening, I went to the cinema (which handily was right next to the hotel!) to watch ‘Cinderella Man‘ – Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger’s new film, and it was excellent. Quite violent in parts I guess because it’s about boxing, but it all took place within the ring, so the context allowed for it. I’ll be really surprised if it doesn’t pick up a few Oscars next time round.

Then yesterday, I had to get up at 4.30am to get to Southampton for my flight back up to Manchester… so that’s 3 early mornings in a row. I feel wrecked now! I’m not a morning person at all!

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Anyway, it was fine… I was a bit worried about the ceremony bit, because you can’t really ask them to do stuff again. Although I did get Claire to walk down the stairs again before she entered the room, because I missed her coming down first time.

In the evening Pete Searle and Mo were there, as were Joanne, Gemma and Mark Hargreaves who were making an appearance for United, so at least there were some familiar faces around for part of the day.

The photos I managed to take whilst I wasn’t filming are here (make sure you check out Mike’s pink shoes!!)

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It was a good wedding, with some really nice touches…during the signing of the register, they ran a video montage of photos of them both growing up, which looked really cool, and there were some other bits that stood out as well.

I guess though that I found it pretty tough – I didn’t really feel right being there. It’s really hard to explain (and I’m certainly not going to try too much here!), but I just felt uncomfortable for most of the time, and I left at the end of the night not feeling too great. I suppose in the end it doesn’t really matter, because I won’t see anyone from there again anyway.

And to change the subject totally, the other news is that my nan died yesterday morning. It wasn’t totally unexpected, because I found out a couple of months ago that she’d had got cancer and she’s been in hospital since then, but it’s only been in the last two weeks that the cancer got really aggressive and spread like it did. I actually went to see her in hospital about a month ago, and she seemed fine – the plan was that she was supposed to be going home and starting radiotherapy this week, but then all of a sudden it really took hold. To be honest, I’m glad I last saw her like that, rather than in her last few days of life. The funeral will probably be the week after next, but no date’s been set yet.

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This year, we’d all been invited along to the main Manchester United staff Christmas party, so it took place in a massive marquee in one of Old Trafford’s car parks, which was done out in the theme of Rio (apparently!) We got a four course meal, and then there was a disco, free bar, and a mini fairground! There were loads of people there, and it was a bit weird have Sir Alex Ferguson just 3 tables away from where we were sitting! I took some photos of the night and you can see them here.

Two days earlier and it was Dave and Ceri’s wedding! It took place at Ivy Cottage in Didsbury, and it was packed!

It was a really nice service, and saw a few people I hadn’t seen for a while.

Then we headed up to Bolton for the reception, and because it’s nearly Christmas, the decorations had quite a festive feel, and was all really arty! It was a nice day, and Dave and Ceri obviously were really enjoying it!

You can check out the photos from the day here.

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Then this weekend just gone, I’ve been back in Tamworth for Dave and Hope’s wedding – and this time I was the official cameraman! I had 4 cameras there, so have ended up with 15 hours worth of footage which I now need to trawl through! It was a long day, but a really cool wedding, and in the evening we had some mini-performances from Dave along with the other 29th Chapter guys, Hope did a song with BlushUK, and then the Tribe also did a couple of tracks! Quite unlike any wedding I’d been to before!

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The wedding was really cool – and it was good seeing a load of people from Tamworth who I hadn’t seen for ages. And on the Saturday night, I stayed over at Dave’s in Willesdon Green. There are a load of photos from the day here.

Since I was in London, I headed over to Hammersmith on Sunday morning to catch up with Bin. It was a really hot day, so we grabbed some sandwiches and had lunch in a park right next to the Thames. Then, I met up with Dave because I was giving Hope a lift back to Birmingham on my way up north, and then got back to Manchester at about half six.

Then I got all patriotic because England were playing their first match in Euro 2004, and went with Sa to Exchange Square in town to watch the game on the big screen. There were quite a few thousand people there so it was a really good atmosphere, and it looked like we’d beat the French, but the score totally turned around in the last few minutes. Hopefully England will do a bit better when they play again on Thursday.

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I drove down on the Saturday morning, after picking up Jude from Stockport station who I was giving a lift to, and we got into London at one o’clock after a nice 4 and a half hour drive…

…hmmm… was slightly distraced by something then. Will come back to that in a minute…

It was a really nice day – although I was incredibly tired… especially since I’d only been able to get 3 hours sleep on Thursday night because of work. So travelling to London and back in a day was pretty hard going! It was nice seeing Rob and Lib again too – I’d not spoken to them since their wedding, so that was cool. Got back to Manchester at about 2am, so it was a VERY long day! There are some pictures of the day here.

Now to tonight’s distraction. I’m currently at work late doing a few bits and pieces, and my car’s parked right outside the office, and some git’s put their foot through my car window. Luckily they haven’t got away with anything because our building’s security guard saw him and chased him away, but there’s glass everywhere! Total nightmare! Now I’ve got to drive back with no window…

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Saturday just gone, I was up in Burnley for Rob and Lib’s wedding. We all met stewarding at Spring Harvest many moons ago, and they’d asked me to be an usher at their wedding, which was a totally new experience for me! And it meant I had to hire a suit as well (I don’t have one ‘cos I never normally need to wear one!)

Anyway, I drove up for the rehearsal on the Friday night after work, and spent the time making notes and hoping that I wouldn’t do anything wrong the next day. On the day itself, everything went really smoothly. The weather was fantastic, and Rob & Lib really enjoyed the whole day. Oh, and slightly freaky coincidence-type thing… Ben, the other guy who was ushering (who I didn’t meet until the Saturday afternoon), lives in Lichfield and works in Tamworth about 5 minutes walk from where I used to live!

It was good seeing the Skeggy guys again so soon after Spring Harvest… Spike, Su and Jude were there, and I also caught up with Lib’s sister Rosie who has also done Spring Harvest. Spike and Su came back with me on Saturday night to stay over, and they travelled back to Hartlepool and London on the Sunday.

There are some photos from the wedding here.

And then the weekend before, I drove down to Lewes near Brighton for George and Hazel’s wedding. I shared a house with both of them the first year I moved away to uni – and I was the most surprised when they eventually got together a year or so later! It’s only taken them nearly eight years to sort it out properly!!!!

Again, it was a really cool wedding, at the church in which Hazel grew up (since it was her home town!). I met up with Ali and Pete in Hemel Hempstead on the Friday night, and we then drove the rest of the way first thing on Saturday morning. Because it was the Bank Holiday weekend, we had decided to stay for the Saturday and Sunday nights, so we were booked into accommodation right over the local pub! Also at the wedding were Helen Oakes, John & Helen Fuggle, and Sally Westlay (who I hadn’t seen for years!). I met John again a few years ago at Phil Ball’s wedding, and he hasn’t changed one bit! I’ve kind of sporadically kept in touch with Helen, Ali and Pete – but I am pretty useless at keeping in touch with people properly!

After the reception, me, Ali and Pete drove across to Brighton – which is a pretty interesting place! It seems to attract all th UK’s stag and hen party crowds, as well as loads of clubbers and students! We went on the pier, and I wasted a few 10ps in those arcade things with the sliding shelves where no matter how much money you drop into them, that ledge of cash balancing over the edge never falls!

Sunday was a pretty chilled out day – went to the church in the morning, and had a pub lunch afterwards, then we met up with all those that were still around from the wedding (including George & Hazel!) for a cream-tea… which was good!

Sunday night saw a return visit to Brighton seafront – this time Helen came along with us as well – and we all watched fireworks from the pier, and also bought some pretty useless souveniers!

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Had a good day at Steve and Claire’s wedding but it was very tiring. I was shooting pretty much solidly from about 12pm until about 10pm! There are some photos that I managed to take when I wasn’t doing the video here! And a few of the shots that I took of the ceremony made it onto the end of Midlands Today the next night which was pretty cool!

Went down to Bin’s housewarming party down in London the other weekend and it was a pretty mad night! It took hours to get down there ‘cos of engineering work on the railways, so I had to do part of the journey by coach. Jon & Eve were there as well, and there were quite a few Sheffield guys who I’ve met at previous parties when I lived in Birmingham.

It was my sister Vikky’s 21st birthday on Tuesday, so I was down in Tamworth for a load of us to go out for a meal. Was quite a whirlwind trip, and drove back up to Manchester the same night – but had to pull in at a few service stations on the way just for a bit of a rest ‘cos I was so tired! It’s my birthday in a couple of weeks but I’m not looking forward to that event at all – the number is getting too big!!

I’m off to Rhona’s party down it Tottenham this weekend. It’s a Bollywood Bash, and she wants people to go in Bollywood costume! I’m kind of thinking I might conveniently forget that bit of it, and go in normal clothes! I think quite a lot of uni guys will be there as well, so that should be good catching up with everyone.

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I’ve got Jamie (from Reach/lifegroup) staying in my spare room at the moment ‘cos he’s waiting to move into James Torry’s new house which he’s going to be gutting and refurbishing. It’s a bit weird actually ‘cos I’ve lived on my own for the last two years, and now I’ve got to be considerate to someone else!!

I’m videoing a wedding this weekend in Chester which is a bit scary – I vowed never to do another one after doing the video of Reuben and Esther’s wedding back in 1997! This one I’m doing is for Steve Clamp and Claire Cartwright, who both used to work here at MUTV, and Steve is now working for BBC Midlands Today in Birmingham. Should be pretty cool though ‘cos some people that I used to work with but haven’t seen for quite a while will be there as well.

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