It's a small world after all...

It really is in the mind of Walt Disney. Small and strange and living in a colonial time warp!

When most people think of getting married and booking a honeymoon they think of an exotic destination. Of spending two weeks in a sun-soaked bliss. Two weeks somewhere remote where it is just the two of you.

We're not most people. This may be obvious with us marrying in Vegas and having a photo of the wedding party taken on a rollercoaster. 

After a final day, and the first day as a married couple, spent shopping and watching basketball in a sports bar at the Mandalay Bay we caught the "red eye" to Florida. A horrific six hours later we landed in a rain soaked Orlando and grabbed the Disney Magical Express to our Carribean Beach resort hotel. Shattered and unimpressed we checked into our themed hotel, to be told our room wasn't ready but we were being upgraded to one that was.

Sadly, that wasn't as spectacular as you would imagine it to be. We were faced with a pirate themed room that had two double beds that looked like ships, stacked crates instead of drawers and a bathroom separated from the rest of the room by a curtain that featured a large skull and crossbones on it. How romantic!

I had an amazing time during the ten days spent staying within the Disney World resort and I would encourage everybody to go and visit at some point. I'd just discourage them from taking kids. It is not a place for kids! Everyday we seemed to encounter more and more unhappy, overweight families who were annoyed with each other and everything that surrounded them. Three and four generations of family were all trying to convince each other they were there for their children when all the time they were there for themselves but couldn't enjoy it because then it would show.

Thanks to the fast pass tickets you can get from staying in a Disney resort I feel we made the most of our experience and did everything that we possibly could. We saw fireworks and light shows at the major parks, including the hugely popular Star Wars fireworks to celebrate May the 4th. We did every ride and show we could get away with without having children with us. Some we did more than once. We saw all of the parades including the Magic Kingdom parade day and night. We had a day by the pool because, sadly, we couldn't find space to sit at the water parks. We swam with dolphins and watched Shamu at Sea World. We saw wild animals on the safari and ate at the Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom before having our photo taken under the tree of life and getting drenched on the rapids. We ate way too much food and consumed more fizzy pop than is healthy.

And we left with the message that America is great and better than the rest of the world... f*ck yeah!

Going to the Chapel and we're, gonna get married...

I should apologise for the three month gap on this blog. I'd like to say those three months were a blur and that wedding planning and an actual wedding were the reason for them missing but sadly I can't. I can possibly pass May off as being lost in wedding oblivion but that's pushing it after the first 19 days.

In fairness I can't really blame wedding planning for taking up any of my time because honestly, it took up barely any. If you want a wedding without the hassle, go abroad and do it!

We were engaged for over two years but halfway through I had a wobble and cancelled the first wedding that was booked in favour of skipping off to Vegas.

I was beginning to feel there were too many family politics and too much expense in doing something that included everyone and pleased everyone but me. However, thousands of miles away I still ended up with people I'd have left at home. That makes me sound ungrateful, but I can assure you, I'm not. I'm glad those people were able to come and share our special day and I appreciate the lengths they went to to be there. It's just frustrating when you invite two people and they feel the need to bring an entourage.

Anyway, the wedding was perfect. Not entirely perfect but we had the most amazing day with a ceremony that wasn't as cold as expected, a gorgeous venue (even if it is in the middle of a highway at the end of the Las Vegas strip) and a bit of a pub crawl with the people who mean the most to us.

Getting married at the Little Church of the West is highly recommended. You have a half hour time slot in which you and your intended meet in the car park, sign in at reception, get told what to do a lot by a photographer, have a short ceremony and pose for lots of photo's which you then get to view and purchase before being sent off into the world of newly married bliss. At which point we went to the 'Welcome to Las Vegas' sign and had loads more photo's taken by a complete stranger who's job it was to make sure people queued politely.

From here we headed to Hard Rock cafe for a three course meal, really strong cocktail and heart felt speeches. Then it was on to the Brew pub at Monte Carlo for some British beer before we a selection of us ended up on the Rollercoaster at New York New York. *Apologies to everybody we pushed in front of in order to get the whole group together and shame on the two Americans that crashed our photo* Sadly Coyote Ugly was too busy for some of our impatient group so we didn't stay long enough to enjoy the entertainment before catching the tram back to Mandalay Bay and going up to the Mix Lounge. A great way to end a wonderful day.

Back home two weeks later and we finally got to celebrate our special day with all the people that couldn't make it/ weren't invited but still mean a hell of a lot to us.


*none of these photographs were actually taken by me

Maybe tomorrow...

...I'll actually go to a gig and not end up standing behind some idiot who insists on talking the entire way through the band we have all paid good money to go and watch. 

Sadly, the prat and his obviously very knew girlfriend who I had to endure at the Empress Ballroom were the worst I have ever come across. Maybe I should have been a little less British and polite and told them to just jog on rather than letting them spoil my enjoyment of an 'intimate' album preview.

Anyone who's been to a gig at the prestigious Blackpool venue will know that unless you are front row or on the balcony your best chance of a view is to stand on the step at the back. Being teeny tiny, this is always my choice. 

As it was an album preview there were a lot of new songs that many people were not familiar with. As this couple chose to talk through everything that hadn't previously been released as a single I can only assume their tickets were freebies.

This was the set list:
We share the same sun
Superman
A thousand treesGraffiti on the train
Iindian summer
Live n love
Wouldn't believe your radio
Bartender and the thief
Been caught cheating
Maybe tomorrow
Catacomb
Mo ones perfect
Vegas two times
Violins and tambourines
Could you be the one
Have a nice day
More life in a tramps vest
Just looking

Local boy in the photograph
Roll the dice

In a moment

Mr writer

Dakota

Due to an unseasonably cold and snowy March it was touch and go as to whether or not we would make the gig but thankfully we did and we had an amazing time.

I'm a Belieber...

Actually, I'm really not.

I don't understand this young man and what direction he's trying to take his life in. It's not long since I last posted a blog about him but in a few months he's really excelled himself at being a first class prat.

Not only is he still turning up hours late for concerts and seemingly not caring how this affects his young fans, but he has been seen dancing outside his tour bus whilst wearing a onesie. Onesie's are only ever to be worn in bed. They should never be worn in public, unless you are a newborn baby. 

He has also decided he no longer wants his pet monkey and has told German authorities to rehome it in a zoo. Which they have now done. How very irresponsible. What's more irresponsible is that he now owns another monkey. wtf!?

From one irresponsible event to another that is actually mildly amusing, the time he got caught speeding around a housing estate by some athlete built like the hulk who he ran and hid from! That's how big a man Justin Bieber is, hiding behind his money.

He's been caught spitting at his fans and now wants the photographic evidence of it banned from the internet. He has been caught smoking suspicious looking cigarettes. He has been in trouble for underage drinking in clubs and then for causing mass brawls with other club goers. He has also had a brief relationship with a Las Vegas lap dancer and still, for some inexplicable reason, all this moronic behaviour hasn't stopped Selena Gomez following him round like a puppy.

Me and My Monkey...

The Justin Bieber meltdown seems to be continuing in spectacular fashion as the air-head teen has now landed himself in trouble for smuggling his pet monkey from America to Germany without it's legal papers. 


How the Hell!? What the Hell!?

To begin with, how does somebody get a pet monkey? And secondly, what possesses you to take it on tour with you?

Have the parents of child stars learnt nothing form Michael Jackson!?

It's seven years since this young singer, song-writer, producer, musician and actor (his description, not mine) burst on to the scene with  a you tube video of him performing other people's music as an enthusiastic twelve year old. But it seems the seven year itch has well and truly caught him.

In recent months Bieber has been dumped by a Disney starlet who made him cry, attacked several photographers, turned up late for his own concerts upsetting his army of child fans, has been thrown out of a nightclub for trying to take his underage mates with him, has been photographed smoking something he probably shouldn't, has been accused of assaulting a neighbour and has been booted out of one of the poshest hotels in Paris for "unruly behaviour"

And if further proof was needed that he isn't right in the head, he now compares himself to jay z...

So the tour is still continuing around Europe and the boy is still on his mini meltdown turning up two and a half hours late for yet another concert and throwing tantrums because he now wants his pet monkey back.

Do one thing every day that scares you...

Well I've certainly been following this bit of advice lately, starting last week when I saw a job advertised for somewhere I've wanted to work for as long as I've known the place existed.

A few days later I had to do another scary thing and go for an interview for the job. I was very close to cancelling as I convinced myself that, though I was the right person for the job, it was really bad timing due to various factors.

By the end of this same day I was having to carry out my second scary act of the day. I had to make a decision about leaving a current job and starting a new one...

A day later and I had to do possibly the scariest task in all of this and hand in my notice. This did not go well.

Only a day later and I was starting my first shift with my new company, terrified of meeting the new work colleagues and equally scared that I would mess up.

It's a wonder I hadn't scared myself to death by the end of the week but I'm still here to tell the tale and move on to bigger and better things. No doubt facing more fears along the way and celebrating with cake...

Girls on film...

And boy too as we have just had our engagement photo shoot. Only eighteen months late but hey ho.

Technically it wasn't meant to be an engagement shoot as the photographer was initially hired to photograph our wedding. An event that was later cancelled in favour of us skipping the country and doing it to please us (or maybe just me). But I'm sure there will be more about that in a later post...

So we begin in one venue but don't actually leave our cars because we're not allowed to be there. Move to another venue that's over run with kids and families but is actually a really nice little park that I'm sure will throw out some great snaps of us. Then we move to another venue that is actually a busy high street where the groom-to-be is really not comfortable being seen. And then onto a final venue where the light is failing and the temperature is dropping but I'm sure would have looked fab earlier in the day.

I had so much fun being a part of somebody else's creativity and ideas and thinking how I would do it if I was in charge. I had so many ideas and spotted so many different locations but sadly didn't quite have the confidence to push these forward.

So whilst I'm feeling wedding photography isn't my thing - let's face it, it's way too stressful and too much responsibility of only having one day and one or two locations - I can really see myself doing the engagement photo shoot route. I also quite like the idea of doing the whole parents-to-be-maternity-style photo shoots.

Now, to build on that confidence and get myself out there...