Friday 30 October 2009

More geekery - a question for those who know.

Looks like I'll need to replace the MoBo, as I mentioned further down. Current OS plans are to stick with XP (as it's really solid until something does the equivalent of putting caltraps across the road).

Now I really dislike the idea of incremental upgrading of PCs because it's so inefficient, cashwise. However there are no cheaper MoBos (nFrorce 6100 chipset or equivalent) with enough RAM slots to just do a straight swap, so I'll HAVE to buy a modern board or go back to 2Mb RAM.

So this then begs the question, is it worth upgrading with a new processor at the same time? The original isn't slow (Athlon II 3800 X2 Windsor) but it was a good low-budget buy 2+ years ago, and things have moved on, particularly in terms of internal bus speeds and cache since then. An AM3 250 should bring a nice speed increase. I guess the question is, would there be an advantage in using a faster processor (multi-core, therefore requiring multi-threading software) running XP and office 2003? The original system (even with a 2 year old build) was certainly competitive against the Macbook (although it's younger it's burdened with a more bloated OS).

In a way it would be nice to grab a board with decent integrated graphics (to cut noise from the fan on the Nvidia 7900 card) quicker processor and slap that in the tiny dell case also laying around for a low-noise, low volume, high efficiency system. At the same time I wonder if I'm just being silly and should grab a cheap MoBo, cut the cost of repair in half and just do the proper full upgrade thing in another 2 years time.

Title is tricky

I'm going whiskey tasting tonight (courtesy of my mother generously wishing to indulge me) at a local off licence/wine shop. A few years back at a conference in Glasgow I enjoyed something similar as part of the soire that evening, however most of the guests didn't like whiskey, and I was grateful to a colleague pointing out that *now was a good time to stop. This is unlikely to re-occur as everyone will wish to keep hold of their samples, rather than offering them to everyone else.

But when thinking about this blogpost there were lots of titles that swam across my brain, all ditched for various (obvious) reasons.





*Now being when one can still talk and walk normally (this was a conference, after all). The whiskey was good, disappearing with minimal resistance, and it would have been easy to continue until walking would have required a lot of optimism.

Wednesday 28 October 2009

Nose is dripping freely

head muzzy and unfocussed, no aches yet though. Looks like I have a variation of Ben's lurgy.

Eeeuuuuwwww.

*edit*

Someone told me to go away a little wile ago, as they didn't want a cold!

Looks like it's probably the MoBo after all.

But why, I've no idea.

Seems Ben can read my 'dead' Seagate drive on his machine, so we should recover the data soon. In the mean time I'm seriously wondering about replacing this motherboard 'just in case'. The issue with that is that everything's moved on, so why not spend a little more, re-use some components and add a faster processor etc too.

Shakes head gently.

It is tempting to go for a board with onboard graphics, since I don't game now anyway, slip it in the little dell mini-case I have for a near silent micro system. Re-use the bits from this machine to create a system that doesn't matter if it falls over, running Linux.

Nuts. We already have an older box upstairs for watching DVDs that doesn't get used.

KISS.

What do we do when the denomination has it wrong?

You may have thought that this was going to be a post whinging about the Anglican church, but that's far from the case.

I've been re-reading a book by Charles Simpson 'The Challenge To care' (not in print but plenty used on Amazon). There are many interesting and good things he says, but a fundamental tenet of his view is that pastors lead churches and the elders are subject to them.

This is not a biblical model of leadership at all.

For example in 1 Timothy, Paul is instructing Timothy (as apostolic oversight in that church) about the elders who oversee the church. He refers to some specifically that teach and preach as being worthy of honour (5v6) but does not mention the pastor in charge once.

The title is a real question: what do we do when our denomination has it wrong: hope it doesn't matter too much, go with the flow, try not to notice, ignore it? Do we even try to match a picture of biblical church practice to the way church is operated now?

Tuesday 27 October 2009

Marc Vandersluys want's it all.

Well, maybe not ALL, but he put up a great post and quote here about acquisition. If it doesn't make you stop and question yourself, you're probably a Republican Evangelical. ;-)

Interesting when God decides to move.

Late last night I was preparing for a worship time this coming Thursday. I just felt God speak to me out of the words of some of the songs - pretty much all of the songs actually - words of restoration, encouragement, peace, forgiveness, love, acceptance. I went to bed with feelings of thanksgiving instead of doubt, happiness instead of distress. Sometimes words just swim in front of the eyes like alphabetti spaghetti, and sometimes they have power and reach out and take hold of us.

I have the sense that this is more an emergency airtank that can help me keep going upward than having arrived back at the surface, but I'll take whatever I can get of God. It does also make me wonder about callings.

I also seem to be THE computer crasher right now. Last night I'd virtually finished the song list using the HPC display software/laptop when it locked up, requiring multiple restarts and several sets of database repair before it recovered and would run OK. I finished the song list and went to bed just before midnight. At least I feel like I've learned more about the software and how to (hopefully) make the songs display in a way that is easy to read.

Monday 26 October 2009

Nearly done on the rebuild.

Goodness - I could almost twatter that.

Mind over matter?

Very odd. I wasn't feeling great at work, with some of Ben's symptoms, so I came home this afternoon. However after lunch I roused myself and started work rebuilding the main house PC, and noqw many of the aches and some of the fuzzy headedness has cleared.

Great, but what's going on?

Is it paranoia if they really are out to get you?

There's a sound I am coming to loathe:

DvvvvvvvTT (click)
DvvvvvvvTT (click)
DvvvvvvvTT (click)
DvvvvvvvTT (click)
DvvvvvvvTT (click)
DvvvvvvvTT (click)
DvvvvvvvTT (click)
DvvvvvvvTT (click)
DvvvvvvvTT (click)

The sound of a failing hard drive.

This is not helped by your beloved telling you that she's not been backing up her data onto the memory stick she asked for because she wanted to ask a question about how to do something first.

If the worst comes to the unlikely worst, I'll have probably lost everything done between July/August and last week, which is enough to be annoying, but not insurmountable. Ironically, the other SATA HDD that I thought was dead (I left it in the case, disconnected) appears to work fine, although I'm not sure I dare trust it now.

To cap it all off this morning, I brought the Mac home for the weekend, and when I got in this morning I plugged it in and it wouldn't recognise the external hard drive I use for backup or the mouse.

Not cool. Not cool at all.

It has now begun working, after plugging in directly and not through the hub (where it was always fine before) but I'm not a happy bunny. Like I said before, USB implementation in the macbook just stinks, and they didn't even provide firewire in this iteration.


On a different, though related, note: Ben has been at home for a few days last week with a nasty infection. Head and neck aches, sore throat, sickness and dizziness. I've a feeling Chris and I have had a mild version of what he's been through, and that has made me less robust and more down than usual, hence my outburst about the Macbook on Friday. This doesn't remove anything from the facts I described, but it does leave me able to cope with it's shortcomings better. Also, although I wasn't consciously worried, because of my mother being back in hospital again (myasthenia this time, quite a nasty bout) my subconscious may ave been getting grumpy at me and the world in general.

Anyway, they say 'where there's life there's hope', which goes to show how easy it is to make up glib mottos and catch phrases.

Sunday 25 October 2009

It's funny sometimes.

You go to church, come away feeling down like something's badly wrong, yet you can't put your finger on why. Then reading a book during lunch you just feel God talk to you, kind of stand you up, dust you off and tell you to get on with it.

I don't know how I can keep going like this really, but I need to. Not leastly it makes me ask the question "if I'm meeting God outside church more than I am inside, why am I still going?" The reason is because I've been told to, and I'm having to cling to that with white knuckles like a man on a rock in a heavy sea.

Friday 23 October 2009

Armageddon it.

To all our friends in Canada

Saw this and though of you.....



Hope the winter isn't too bad this year.

I also found this - looks old:

I'm getting to the point with the Mac where I want to chuck it through a window.

There was an update a day or so ago that was supposed to fix an issue some users had with stalled hard discs. Well, I don't know what else it's supposed to do, but my external hard drive seems to go to 'sleep' more frequently and takes longer to wake now (cue frozen computer for several seconds before the beachball eventually drags it's lazy butt onto the screen as the disc starts to spin up). Also moving 'word' windows around on screen has become jerky, with a second delay between dragging the window and it moving. And finally, I plugged in an external memory card reader yesterday and now the right mouse button doesn't work! I have become used to mouse settings being reset whenever other USB devices are plugged in (mouse suddenly becomes incredibly slow) but all the usual tricks like unplugging or restarting hasn't fixed it.

And the usual stuff still doesn't work: like clamshell mode with external monitor and keyboard, refusing to recognise the external monitor 2 boots out of 3, key strokes frequently failing to register and boot times getting ridiculously long for a 10 month old machine. The smudgy font display is an absolute nightmare when working with large spreadsheets and small fonts, and has resulted in eye strain and headaches. And windows management is simply lousy, and it's not just a case of unfamiliarity. I have become quite deft with the credit card, wedging CDs when the 'superdrive' fails to read them and having to reboot while jamming the disc so that it will spit out a perfectly good disc that I can use in any other drive. Maybe I could take another half day and go visit the apple shop in Milton keynes so that someone in the genius bar can tell me my Mac doesn't work and it will have to go away for another week or 2 to be fixed. Applecare can go where the sun don't shine, sideways.

I think I've reached the point where if I could get back £900 (original cost >£1200) for this thing then I'd be very pleased to let the damn thing go. Buying a Mac was a stupid, rose tinted spectacles mistake and entirely my own fault for being suckered by the pretty case and great trackpad.

My mood isn't helped by the main home PC suffering some kind of progressive hardware failure, resulting in increasingly frequent lock ups. Why am I not ranting about this? Because it was cheap, I can fix it myself, and it's been great to work with for the previous 2 years - until the hard drive failure earlier this year, every time I started it up it made me feel pleased about how smoothly, quickly and easily it ran. No amount of swooshy animated graphics and bouncing icons can compete with that feeling.

I never thought it would happen - I've firmly joined the Mac-hater camp.

Now I've got that off my chest I can go do something useful for the rest of the day.

*edit*
I've just removed the mouse from the USB hub and plugged it directly into the spare UBS port (apple generously provide a whole 2) and voila - right clicking works again. I wonder if USB implementation is any better in Snow Leopard, because it is put to shame in 10.5 by XP.

*edit 2*
I'm slightly tempted to resort to bootcamp and XP or even system 7, if it wasn't that I think the Macbook hardware's not that great overall.

Thursday 22 October 2009

I won't buy Levi's!

And while mooching the Times this morning I came across another interesting article: the worst highstreet retailers for exploiting their workers.

Listed first are Levi's. I remember having a conversation with someone on a forum about responsibility and purchasing, and they spouted almost exactly the line given about markets and prices finding their own level. For shame.

I will also now reconsider shopping at Clark's for shoes and Sainsbury's (who are relatively expensive as a UK supermarket - oh the irony). Matalan sell tat, at least in men's wear, so I'll continue not to buy there too. The rest I don't use, but will encourage others not to do so too.

Seriously.

Further on the maigration of Anglicans to the Roman Catholic church

It would seem I'm not the only one who's spotted that things may not completely ideal for those that migrate. Libby Purves has an editorial in todays Time that covers it quite well.

One comment I've read suggests this is a political and power-based move, both to bolster the Roman Catholic church and take the heat off over the pedophile problems seen in Ireland. These are times when the course of various parts of the church world wide is being shifted a bit, and it may not be in an entirely healthy direction. It also concerns me that, as was suggested today, with various clergy moving across would go both congregations and property as a matter of course. This does make me concerned about the reasons for welcoming these groups, and that it may not be wholly from a desire to support brothers in Christ who find themselves in a difficult place.

One good thing - I understand the fellowship of confessing Anglicans is not to transfer. At least there will remain an orthodox voice within the CoE.

Wednesday 21 October 2009

And todays dilemma - migrate from Anglican to Roman Catholic church?

Yesterday the RC church announced a route for Anglican priests to become recognised and accepted into the Roman Catholic church. Here's a partially informative article in the Times newspaper.

My personal feeling is that this is a mixed blessing for the CoE, rather than the complete disaster that it's being portrayed as in the papers. The bad side is that it is likely to absorb those with strong orthodox theological convictions, allowing the CoE to slip further into the liberal mire. The good side is that it's likely to absorb some of those whose faith is built on tradition and religious practice rather than life in the Spirit.

I also wonder if many realise what they are joining themselves to? I'm no Dan Brown, but the RC church in it's European character is very different from the Anglican church. We'll have to see how things progress.

What this does tell me is that there is going to be an even larger gap in the market for church as the body of Jesus, rather than as a drafty building with guys in funny clothes and odd religious practices. I don't want to talk about white fields, but post-Christian Britain is a great place for the church to be active right now.

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Anyone ever thought Job was fun as well as interesting?

The book in the bible that is.

In London we used to get milk from Job's dairies, but that has NOTHING to do with this post.

I was reading Job 20 & 21 this morning. In the context, Job has lost everything: his property has been stolen or destroyed, his children were killed in an accident and he's acquired a skin disease so unpleasant that he scraped the pus and gunge off himself with a piece of broken pottery. His wife, being a pragmatic kind of woman, has suggested he 'curse God and die' since God has allowed all this to happen.

Now Job is recognised as being 'righteous' in that his heart was always earnestly seeking to honour God. The reason for his loss is that Satan has suggested the only reason Job loves God is because God has blessed him with health, wealth and a large and happy family: so Satan is allowed to take away everything Job has except his life in order to demonstrate that Job's love for God is more than wealth-deep, and Satan being himself does it in a way which is astonishing and cruel.

Job has some friends who, having heard the tragedy, come over to visit and comfort him, but when they see him they are so completely dismayed that they can't speak at first. They Knew Job to be a good man, and yet the recent events of his life really don't match the expectations of their religion: God protects the righteous, but those who are wicked suffer disaster, don't they? So their 'speeches' progressively chew away at the apparent dilemma until they eventually come to the conclusion that Job must be wicked after all, and that God has brought this about because Job needed to be punished.

Job becomes increasingly exasperated as each of them speaks until he's had enough, and in Ch21 v5 tells them to "Look at me and be astonished; clap your hand over your mouth."

The rest of Ch 21 then talks about the reality of life, rather than the religious platitudes of who God will bless and curse. He describes how the wicked do prosper, live in peace, have large and successful families and die in ripe old age. But it also talks about how they are at the mercy of circumstances and although they think otherwise, their lives are not in their own control. This looked and sounded so much like the things we've seen in the last 2 years with world financial systems sliding down the pan, and so many people apparently in control suddenly finding their own behaviour has undermined themselves.

V30 is particularly interesting "that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, that he is delivered from the day of wrath?" Do we see bankers again getting large bonuses? Have there been swathing job cuts in the city? I must admit, there's a side of me that stands astonished at the outcome, 1 year on, of the crisis. And yet God has allowed men to operate this way for many thousands of years: that line of permitting free will that He is so unwilling to cross.

At the end of the chapter Job sums up masterfully. "So how can you console me with your nonsense?
Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!" Such is the value of the 'religious' view - it's just a bunch of wishful thinking and platitudes, and of no comfort whatsoever.

There's a great earthy humanity to Job despite the slightly funny language. Lot's of "you're no help at all" and "I wish you'd just shut up" in the face of accusations. Real people with real struggles, and not a stained glass window in sight.

All quotes from the NIV via www.biblegateway.com.

Sunday 18 October 2009

Just popped into the cave du vin*.

Grabbed our last litre bottle of vintage sloe gin in order to take some to our friends this evening. The bottle is unmarked (an old Taylors port bottle) and I wanted to make sure I had the right stuff.

Cork out - not much aroma, as the liqueur is cool.

Tip a little into a glass - yup, no mistaking that colour.

But I can't put it back in the bottle. Have a little sip. My GOODNESS. I'd forgotten/not realised how fragrant sloe gin can be when it's 7 or 8 years old - this stuff is scented nectar! Incredibly smooth, and yet warming in a way that comes up gently from under your rib cage and rises silkily up to your nose. Amazing, it's good enough to make you exclaim out loud.

I'm about to give 1/5th of it away. These had better be good friends.

*The wine rack in the loo upstairs.

Saturday 17 October 2009

It looks like we're having to get a new bed.

As I'm sure the old one has been round the clock a couple of times now.

We were given this one (just like our last bed - which was our first, when we got married) by my mother. My folks bought it with an extra firm mattress because my father had a damaged back. My father died in '91.

Chris has been finding that increasingly the bed was not her friend (it hasn't been my friend for at least 10 years) and that when she wakes up her shoulders ache and knees & hips hurt. So we went out trying new mattresses etc this morning, and have settled on something suitably forgiving that, hopefully, we'll both be a bit more comfortable.

Lets hope it's good.

Friday 16 October 2009

On the Sloe Gin front

We have about 3L now on the go (should that be goe?). The berries have been very ripe and softer than I remember in previous years, and I hope that will add up to a wonderfully fragrant liqueur instead of the somewhat astringent stuff that 2007 yielded.

Opera does odd things with the blog controls.

In Firefox, after posting, if I click on 'View post' it takes me back to the blog main page.

In Opera, if I click on 'View Post' I see the post alone on the template page only, with the left hand text spread across underneath, if the post is short. I have to hit 'View Blog' to see the post at the top of the blog with other posts underneath.

Odd.

FWIW I've begun using Opera almost exclusively now at work, and FF only about half the time at home.

And on a further topic, having rebuilt the home PC just a few months ago, it looks like I shall have to do it again soon. I installed something I wasn't sure would work, and it seemed to, but since then things have become increasingly unreliable. Stepping back doesn't work (the process fails, not that it doesn't fix things) so the only solution is initially an install over the top, and ultimately a wipe and reinstall.

Ben made the observation that as XP is being progressively updated it's becoming less software-bug resistant. I guess that's a bit like putting iffy petrol in an older car, where the filters have become less efficient. It's not the car's fault it stopped working, but a newer one might have coped a little better. Maybe I'll look out for a flood of cheap Vista discs on the 'bay once 7 is launched. If one of the better Linux distros could run microsoft office then I'd seriously consider migrating to that. It would be no more painful than the migration to Mac, and enormously better value for money.

Chris had a really good description

..... that she used to describe herself (applies to me too) at church. "Like a violin in a brass band".

We don't fit, and we can see as well as feel that we don't fit. We aren't like anyone else there, we don't relate to others with the same easy relationships and culturally speaking we seem worlds apart. Even those with whom we initially seemed to mesh, we now find are actually deeply and fundamentally different in their world view and attitudes. There's a danger that we are going to become increasingly isolated and isolationist, serving the practical needs, but withdrawing our hearts and personalities out of preservation.

What's the way forward?

A part of me can see a role. There those we might work with who also don't fit the present model but rub along in it with varying degrees of comfort. We might be more pro-active in developing those relationships that might work instead of wondering why those that don't haven't really worked out. I think we're feeling tired with it all, bruised a bit and struggling with our desire to get out of the stream of cold water that's chilling our bodies. But I also feel a check on the proactive side, because it's not our way to push ourselves forward, to work in a way that's a little political, to take leads (rather than be given them).

I think we're still wondering what we're doing here.

We can both see the church is changing and has grown, and I do believe that we've been a part of that; not all by any means, but I certainly think we've made a difference, tipped a balance. But there's this think of being fiddles in a brass band still there. The obvious thing would be to surround ourselves with people who are like us, build a community within a community, but that's been done here in the past, is still happening now, and is part of the problem rather than part of the answer.

For me, the last couple of weeks have been better on the depression front. I've been getting up early to pray, to push back into God and try to humble myself, and

And what? I stopped to think "and what"? On one level nothing is changed, we're not getting fed like we weren't getting fed before, all the relationship issues are still there, but I seem to be coping with them better than I was. There's nothing *wrong* - we can just live our lives like anyone else away from the church, just go along for meetings, smile and do the How Are You/Good/And You thing. But that's not what church means for us.

And at the bottom of it all, I hate being powerless, tossed around by other people's wishes, thoughts, moods, decisions, choices, wants and wishes. It's very difficult to take a stand and say "I am trusting that you will work things out for me, Lord, in YOUR church" when you hear people say "this is mine".

Obviously we are not the robust people I'd fooled myself into thinking we were. I also think God IS doing something deep inside. Whether I'll be grateful for it happening like this is another matter, as I'm not one of those people who are grateful for the pain of beating their head on a brick wall, all to experience the joy of stopping. But like we said after Sarah died, we need lots of good things to come out of this. Likewise, if we're going to have a miserable time (and God knows, it has been miserable) then I really hope lots of good stuff is going to come out.

Wednesday 14 October 2009

It is my full intention

.... to pick sloes for more sloe gin this evening on the way home. So far we've got a couple of litres going, but even with Chris getting a second lot on Monday we were still short, and have about 800ml of gin still to use up. Not far from here is a place where she found plenty of berries on Monday, and hopefully I can do the same tonight. We probably won't drink it all at once, but it's nice to 'make hay' etc.

BTW since I'm sat doing data organisation for another company I put headphones on with the MP3 player to ease the boredom. It's playing songs in alphabetical order (haven't managed to turn that feature off yet :-/ ) and so I've had a pastiche of worship songs, hymny stuff Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Winter wandering across my aural space. (note - on the hymny album they have a Sophie Bextor-Ellis disco style arrangement that's sonically sore-thumbing - even more so after Johnny Winter that's just come on. Oh yick - it's just gone into a mock-gaelic violin solo). Back to Johnny Winter JW FTW.

In other news, it seems amps are like London busses - nothing interesting for ages, the 3 wander across my path. I wasn't especially hunting for one, but 3 really interesting and very well priced (the word unmissable wouldn't be inappropriate) models have just appeared. I've been selling of other random guitar-related stuff that would help pay for ONE of them. Choices are a Vox Cambridge, Frenzel 5E3 type and Tech 21 trademark 60. I'm heading toward the trademark, because it's a highly versatile SS pro-featured amp with all sorts of features like headphone and DI outputs that I wouldn't design into my own valve based gear. The Frenzel is interesting because I've long fancied a Deluxe-style amp (I really prefer Fender cleans over Marshall or Vox). The vox is interesting because it's small, light and attractive (and cheap) plus when it dies I can gut it and build another valve amp.

I Played a Trademark 60 about 6 or 7 years ago when looking for a new amp, and rather liked it, although it was quite a bit of cash used even then. It should take effects and the processor well too, and would probably give me a few more years using the processor before I feel obliged to retire it and go fully over to pedals.

We'll see. I did go to look at an interesting guitar last night (Fender Esquire GT if you care) but there was too much structural damage around the headstock to take a gamble on it. If I can walk away from a guitar I don't need I can do the same with an amp, even if there's nothing wrong with it.

But darn, Johnny Winter's tone makes me fancy that 5E3 clone.

Back to work.

Sunday 11 October 2009

Made about 1 litre of sloe gin today

well, started it off anyway. Need more sloes now, to use up the extra gin I bought.

Thursday 8 October 2009

First frost of the season

And bloomin' cold it is too!

The radio operated thermometer outside our front door says it's 3'C there, but that's close to the house. The cars were white at 7.30am and the grass was crunchy.

Time to go pick sloes, and nice to do it properly. They should not be picked before the first frost, and I'm sure it's partly so they reach maturity, partly the so action of being frozen releases some of the flavours. Last year's sloe gin wasn't great - we need to make better stuff this time!

Tuesday 6 October 2009

Hope deferred makes the heart sick

We went to see a very good friend and his wife get set aside for eldership this evening. We've walked with these people a long time, seen their struggles, weaknesses, tragedies, joys, happiness and laughter. Steve Thomas, who is also a good friend (though I know him considerably less well than I should like) brought the word tonight, and in amongst it all (and there were lots of good things in the 'all') was this scripture (Prov. 13v12).

This landed very squarely for me.

A little while back I was being prayed for by a couple and one of them said to me "your heart is hard" to which I replied "is it?" knowing in all humility that it wasn't, and that I was trying so hard to submit I was practically laying on my back with my legs in the air. I think what was intended was this: that my heart was growing heavy with disappointment at expectations unfulfilled and hopes seeming increasingly distant.

The key part of this for me was the need to return to Jesus to have my heart refilled and hope restored. Instead I've been focussing on the issues of where we are and the issues around that, rather than finding ways to worship and express my love and thankfulness to God. If we were chained up in jail, God's grace would be there for us. When we just feel chained up in a place we're not happy about theres a great deal less grace available - seems maybe we do still have quite a bit to learn. It doesn't make the situation any more satisfactory, but it does make it theoretically possible for us to walk through this time with better hearts.

And I must remember this for those times when I am much less aware of God speaking and His Spirit moving.

Saturday 3 October 2009

About now 28 years ago.

We were sat in what was really quite a grotty hall (we didn't care or even notice at the time) in Croydon having food and speeches and all the rest of that guff, wishing we could get on with the really important business of being married. And we did, managing to sneak off around 9.30 or 10pm-ish. The start of our young, free and married days.

Now we're quite a bit less slim, less energetic and more wrinkly. But we've completed 28 years practice at being married, and I think we've got it down pretty darn well. And whatever you might have thought I meant - well that's pretty good still too.