I call this the heart shaped dune. Which, as you can see, is exactly what it is. I took this pic at 8am on the day I got married while walking Edward on St Annes beach.

Today I hired an industrial power washer. I needed something super-powerful to wash our drive and back yard area. After a winter by the sea our concrete areas are coated with a layer of lichen, salt and moss which is impossible to remove except with a wire brush (fuck that) or an industrial power washer. Best. Power. Tool. Ever.

What better way to spend the day after getting married than visiting a steam railway museum. It was a lovely sunny Sunday so we headed over to the Ribble Steam Railway in Preston. We arrived in time for the first train ride of the day in original 1940's carriages (naturally we sat in 1st class). We were issued with thick cardboard tickets and a man came into our carriage and clipped them with his thingy. Speaking of 'clipped', we couldn't resist talking in uppper class clipped accents during our ride due to the ambience the 1st class carriage was oozing ("have you caught the new Noel Coward play yet at the Rialto? It's simply too funny!"). If we'd had an old lady wearing a fox fur, a vicar reading his paper and a schoolboy off to boarding school it would have been perfect.

Mr & Mr
"I'm gonna take you up the aisle!" oooooo, er missus. Me and him are off to jump the broom in 2 hours (wasn't Roots just brilliant?) .

The first (and probably the only due to how 'low key' we've made this event) wedding present arrived today from Blue Witch. A lovely box filled with civil partnership honey and candles and a lucky bee brooch. The candle will be lit on Friday night to bring to bear goodness spells upon the following day what is the day that the two males will be joined together for the benefit of switching each others life support machines off or on. I'm off to put some home-made bread into the toaster and test this bee-autiful honey.

It's not often that Darren is up in the morning before me but a few mornings ago he was. He took this pic while I was still dozing (please be under no illusion that he was trying to capture my sleeping beauty, he was merely testing his new camera phone). When we go to sleep at night Edward is on his bed at the foot of ours but by morning he has somehow wormed his way onto our bed and into the middle.

A*s H*le
Remember a a few weeks ago when I posted a pic I took of the petrol price sign at Tesco in Blackpool? Well, last night I was sitting on my bus at 10pm outside that same garage when I noticed that the phantom sign operator had been up to his old tricks again (apologies for picture quality, taken on camera phone):

Here's the previous pic in case you missed it:

So, sexy dentist informs me that what I thought was a front tooth crown is actually just a front tooth which has had root canal work done on it years ago (explains why it didn't hurt when it broke off). He numbed me up, extracted the remaining bits of teeth under the gum-line, drilled a post into my jaw, hollowed out the fallen tooth and then cemented it onto the post. I've got to return to be fitted with a crown in a few weeks, along with a cheque for £400! At least I won't be gap-toothed on the wedding pictures next week.
Off to cut the grass now. I'll post a pic when I've finished cos I love our lawn.

As promised:

Parents gone back to Newcastle. I'm back on night shift. Flights to Tokyo have been booked for December (I had enough 'points' for a free premium economy seat with Virgin). Front tooth/crown fell out last night while eating granola and hopefully being re-cemented back in place by sexy dentist (see here) at noon today. Off to Skelmersdale with Darren after dentists to visit his family. Now on series 4 of Oz and still loving it (box set, series 1-6, christmas present from Darren). Lost 2 stone since going vegan in January (bought this on holiday in Florida in December and took it to heart). Off to the beach now with Edward cos the sun just popped out.

We're English and it's a bank holiday so we went to a garden centre. Not just any garden centre though, we went to Barton Grange (£15m refurb and opened by Princess Anne last year, though they've been trading since 1945). BG is a bit of an institution in this area and the new place is eeeeenormous. It even has its own marina attached for over 20 narrow boats and a boutique hotel. There's a cafe, a restaurant, mega-posh loos (I pee'd into a large ceramic tulip bulb) and acres and acres of overpriced plants on sale. There's a huge dome over the whole place and at the first spot of rain the roof mechanically moves into place to keep you outdoors shopping longer but apart from a cake at lunch time I bought nowt.
It's all a far cry from the local 'garden centre' we used to shop at in East London just two years ago:

Was just re-reading some old posts on this blog and saw that in October 2006 I predicted that future careers might include plumbing, tiling, dog walking and bus driving. Most unlike me to actually achieve something that I dreamed up while sitting on my fat arse in an office in central London.
Nowadays I sit on my fat arse on a bus and ferry the elderly and unemployed between their homes and the hospital/poundland/dole office/college/pub.

Went to Carnforth today with Darren and my parents. We went specifically to visit the train station and we were not disappointed. Carnforth station is where Brief Encounter was filmed and the tea rooms have been restored to their pre-war majesty (though thankfully the food has been updated and I had celeriac and ginger soup). A museum is attached which charts the history of the famous station and its restoration. A good gift shop too where I spent £12 on transport related tat. On the way home we popped into Morecombe to visit the renovated Midland Hotel. STUNNING! SUPERB! BEAUTIFUL! What an art-deco mastrepiece, loved it.

So, we're getting married in two weeks time. Darren hates calling it a marriage, says it's not 'legally' a marriage so shouldn't be described so. 'Civil partnership ceremony' just sounds so wanky though. We've agreed to differ on the matter and I shall continue to refer to my marriage. Anyway, they don't have a 'civil partnershipped' option on facebook so I shall be listed as married.
We've chosen the minimum/mini/minimalist ceremony at Preston town hall. Just us two and two straight friends at 10.30 and then a nice Lunch at The Sparling. Naturally, we're both more excited about the food that day. Rings: titanium, suits: Mark Powell, music: none, carriages: our car (might give it a hoover).