Gareth Harrison

Well the last two weekends have been pretty busy with both taken up by weddings!

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!

Not that much more to report at the moment! I’m settling into the new house pretty well – I’ve smashed out most of the massive fireplace that was in the living room, but stopped short of totally removing it when it wasn’t totally clear whether or not the wall is being supported by the bricks that I was carefully removing! So I now have a really nice looking feature as soon as you walk into the house!

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.

I am now a home-owner!! Finally moved into my new house on the 5th September, so I’ve been in there for almost 2 weeks now. I’ve still got piles of boxes all over the place, but I am starting to get there with my unpacking. There are quite a few jobs on the house that I want to get sorted – some of it involving a bit of building work – and I’d like to get them done sooner rather than later. But, when you look at everything that needs to be done, it’s really easy to panic and think it’ll never happen!!

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.