Our First Year Wedding Anniversary Weekend Part 1 - The Book of Mormon

A few months ago, in looking for a 'paper' gift idea for our first year anniversary, I found some tickets to the very popular and often sold-out show in London, The Book of Mormon. I knew Sarah had really wanted to see the show for ages, but it was not cheap nor easy to get tickets, so we hadn't gotten around to it. I quickly text Sarah about the budget, with the site on countdown.
              'Can I spend £££' on your anniversary present?' (I have to check these things, as I have a tendency to overspend for occasions - but what can I say, I love to treat my lady!)

I waited for the five minutes I had before I lost the tickets online, with no reply, so I purchased them, and felt very smug about my awesome anniversary present. About another ten minutes later, a text came in. 'WAIT NO THATS WAY TOO MUCH!! CAN YOU RETURN IT???' But they had been purchased. I was in trouble a bit more 'You spent HOW MUCH on a piece of paper??' but managed to come to a compromise when I said the present would be the full budget, so the gift would be for the both of us.

Then a few weeks later, I got a text when Sarah was on her train home from London.
              'I found some tickets, should we go see The Book of Mormon for our anniversary? Need to know quickly!!' Immediately I felt many emotions - joy that we are so meant to be, picking the same show for the same night for the same occasion!! - thankful that she had thought to ask my opinion instead of booking them as a surprise, and panic that she might go ahead with it!!

I quickly put her off with one of her lines 'Are you sure we can afford this right now, especially with my gift already costing £££?' Of course the answer was no, and she seemed a little disappointed. I decided I couldn't wait any more, and gave her the tickets when she got home that evening. Great minds!! And we were officially off to see The Book of Mormon!!

So on Friday, I headed into London on the train, and met Sarah in Soho. We were running a little late so stopped off for a quick dinner at Herman Ze German. We shared a currywurst and fries, it was delicious, and really hit the spot.

The show was fantastic from start to finish. The jokes, jokes within jokes, and within songs, it captured us from the introduction until the final curtain and became my favourite musical (surpassing Pricilla, Queen of the Desert, which I saw 5 times in London!). It was witty (and a bit crude) and poked fun at the LDS church without pulling at the religion too hard. The characters were well formed, multi-layered, and you could tell it was by South Park creators (the devil looked exactly like the one in the TV show!) but it was still genius for non-SP fans.

At intermission, we got the surprise of our lives, and were gifted a strawberry ice cream from the woman below us who got too many. Score!! We also ate the Hummingbird Bakery Red Velvet cupcakes we'd brought in, so we had a thoroughly delicious intermission. Then it was back to the laughs!!

Everyone else we know who has been to see it loved it as much as we did, so if you have the chance, DEFINITELY GO!! It is almost sold out months in advance, but it is worth it!

If we ever get missionaries at our house, we will invite them in for tea (though more to talk about their journeys and to find out if they are from my hometown than to speak about the word of Jesus!)

Brighton Pride 2015!

We love Brighton Pride.

We love Brighton.
But we especially love Brighton Pride!

The reasons are simple:

• Brighton is an awesome city
• Pride brings the city alive
• The parade is always fun
• The crowd are diverse, brightly coloured and a wonderful mix of LGBT and allies - in fact the whole city is so friendly
• Pride is always early August - perfect summer weather and allows a post parade chill out on the beach, what more could you want?
• Oh yeah the chance to enjoy fresh Fish & Chips - check!
• You can stroll through the Lanes to check out all the unique shops 

In addition I have family down in the East Sussex area so can make a family tour post or pre-Pride.
And Brighton is dog friendly (everywhere except the beach) so there were plenty of places to take Bisbee if she needed to get away from the crowd - although she is amazingly happy to be surrounded by noise and chaos as long as people are willing to give her attention.

In fact Bisbee had to watch the parade from the front so I was standing slightly back holding her against the rail, as I wasn't enough support she lent on a lady also standing on the rail. Thankfully the lady was accepting of the unexpected attention and I was somewhat dumped. They even had a selfie together!

The only downside to Brighton is the hills! Seriously if you live in Brighton you must have great lung capacity and strong legs. All I know is every time we have gone we have struggled to drag our sunburned bodies up to the car!

This time we were met by a flat tyre, not at all the end we wanted. But filled with Pride buzz it's amazing how even that can't put a negative on the day.

So here are a few of our highlights:
The Parade:

Brighton:

Love:

And of course a trip a pit stop in Nutley needed a photo - it is after all where my family originates or so rumour has it :)

Well I was a Nutley for 30 years :)

Boise, Bath, A Gig and A Monday Night Adventure!

Remember that one time just over a year ago when we got married? It was in the wilderness of Idaho and we were surrounded by family and friends. To make that wilderness wedding ready there was plenty of preparation and while Soiree Weddings did a lot of the planning, we also received massive support from Laura's school friend Julia.

Julia is a childhood friend of Laura; she is an artist and an all-round awesome person, one we have thankfully been able to catch up with on every return trip to Laura's home city. We even got her to Vegas for our bachelorette party! Julia designed our wedding invitations, save the dates, and seating plan globes, she also recommended our photographers - who were amazing - and our band Hillfolk Noir! Julia knows everyone who is talented in Boise - or so it seems.

It is actually the band that I wanted to write this post on -with all the events of the day we barely got to see the band perform so we couldn't really share our memories, we just heard our guests' reactions. They played as we walked down the aisle and as we left but it was only on the way to the cocktail hour that we finally heard a bit before being whisked off for our introduction.

We said on the day that we were sad that we hadn't been able to see more of them but we were just glad that they had been such a success. We agreed that we would track them down if they ever came to the UK though, so we could see what everyone was talking about.

So on Monday evening we made the 200 mile round trip to Bath to see them perform in the Bell Inn. We also invited my parents along and thankfully they could make it. The four of us met outside the pub and with Bisbee in tow we went and found some seats - it was a great live music venue, not particularly big but big enough to fit a crowd and get a good atmosphere going on. We got a chance to say hi before they started but only briefly. It was a good turnout!

Hillfolk Noir play 100% original Junkerdash! This is from their website:
Fronted by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Travis Ward, Hillfolk Noir is a trio of neo-traditionalists playing traditional music on traditional instruments for non-traditional times. They call it Junkerdash, and it’s a sound brewed from folk, bluegrass, punk, string-band blues and other influences musical and otherwise.

Hillfolk Noir’s touring line up consists of:
Travis Ward: Guitar, suitcase, harmonica and singing
Alison Ward: Musical saw, washboard, banjo and singing
Mike Waite: Double bass

They are not your average band - They are far better!

As they started their set we were loving it and then came the stories - they explained they from Idaho (not somewhere known by many Brits) and painted a picture of the place that made both me and L want to grab the next flight there. A few songs later they said before starting the next song they wanted to explain a memory associated with it.

Just over a year ago they had packed up their van and headed up to the mountains of Idaho for a vacation and to do some fishing. After arriving at their destination Travis decided to head further into the wilderness to find the perfect fly fishing location. Some 7 or 8 miles up the road his van blew a tyre. It was super hot, with no phone signal and no spare he thought it best to make the trip back to the cabin they were staying at rather than wait for help. En route he found a pack of beer that had (presumably) fallen off a truck. He drunk the beers as he walked and eventually made it back at about 1am, by this time to some very concerned friends and family. They were able to call for support to repair the van but it was going to take a bit of time. The next day they had a gig so time was not something they had. They called a family friend who was able to make the 3-4 our drive up with a truck, they loaded all their instruments and made the drive to another isolated part of the mountains, Garden Valley, to get to the gig.

They pointed us out at that point - that gig was OUR wedding! We had no idea. We hadn't realised that less than 24 hours before they had been stranded somewhere else, or that they turned up with their stuff thrown in the back of a truck. We were so lucky they (and all their instruments) made it. And we would had never known had we not made it to this gig.

Rocking our wedding - that's right Alison is playing the saw!

At the break we rushed over to them, we got to reminisce about the wedding and the craziness they had gone through, we chatted for a good 20 minutes. They gave us copies of their albums and we bought them drinks. They were awesome. It was like we had known them for ages. They told us about their tour of the UK and how they had spent quite a bit of time in Scotland - cue my Mum getting excited - it turns out they played gigs not far from her home town. And then the Boise link - they had met Julia at a music festival years ago, and Julia had designed the art work on their latest album. How awesome! We like to think that if we all lived in Boise we would all be friends :)

Sometimes in life putting in the extra effort is definitely worth it. The buzz we had from the concert sustained us on the 2 hour drive home and through the next day at work on 5 hours of sleep. It was worth every minute. Even Bisbee agrees. Throughout the gig she sat on my lap watching the band, making everyone around fall in love with her without making a sound. She got a quick walk at the break courtesy of my Dad and then she slept anytime we were in the car - we got so lucky with her that she is happy to go wherever we do.

However, the very next day Bisbee committed a terrible sin - she chewed the album we had been listening to! I had foolishly taken out of the laptop and left it on the table in the rush to leave for a hairdresser appointment and she had managed to reach up, pull it over......and chew it! We won't lie, there were tears!

By sheer luck my parents had stayed down in Bristol to see a football game and were able to track the band down to their next gig and get a replacement - we were so lucky! We will definitely make time to see them when they are back and if they are ever in your area we suggest you drop in :)

Sarah's Birthday!!!

Happiest of Happy Birthdays to my beautiful wife today!! This little lady is the biggest joy in my life, and I spend every birthday planning details months in advance - all with the hope of showing her, even more than usual, how much she means to me.

When this post posts on Monday, we will have been in France all weekend for a beach getaway! She said to me that all she wanted for her 32nd is to be with me and Bisbee. So I thought, instead of taking her somewhere in the UK so Bis could be with us, why not get our four legged future jet-setter a passport, and a little beret!

So off to a little town in France we have gone, to drink champagne and eat our weight in pastries. There is a dog friendly beach so we are hoping to get Bisbee in the water for the first time ever!! We will be going in with her just in case.

We will give you the full run down upon our return, but we are so excited to spend some quality time together - on our first holiday 'just us' since last October, my birthday to Amsterdam!

My love, this is my 7th time celebrating the day you were born, and its amazing how much changes in our lives each year, and how much my adoration of you grows. This year is your first with the little fur-babe you've always wanted, who I'm sure will make your day extra special.

Hope you are enjoying your big day my girl!!