I suppose it’s really time for an update isn’t it. In fact, to be fair to you, it’s really past time. Are there any of you reading this thing anymore? I wouldn’t blame you for forgetting about the place. It’s been getting a bit neglected lately.

So, first things first. I’m a married man. I’m really sorry to do this to you all but on new year’s eve, I tied the Knott. Actually, that’s not really true. I didn’t tie it. She did. It’s been really hard typing with these shackles. ?

After the wedding, as is quite normal, we went on honeymoon for a few weeks. Because of the weather over here we thought a warmer temperature would be nice so we took ourselves off to Thailand. If you’re ever thinking of going somewhere a little different then I highly recommend there. I know I should write a blog post about our honeymoon but I haven’t a clue where to start. Maybe I can talk Emma into helping me sort out all the cluttered memories at some stage. It would certainly be a shame not to blog about it.

Let me start off by telling you a little about the wedding. It of course goes without saying that Emma was absolutely angelic and she looked stunning. But of course, you already know that don’t you! There was no sign of any stress from either of us coming up to the wedding so when the day came we easily enjoyed it. However, I really shouldn’t wined her up so much. Sometimes she actually believes me! I’ll say no more after that. I’ll leave it to your imagination. ?

The morning of the wedding was quite busy. My best man Nicky along with his girlfriend Jenny stayed with me in my parents’ house the night before and we had a few things to do before getting to the church. Showering, ordering breakfasts, having a hot towel shave for the first time. Myself, my father and Nicky did that. Jenny went to the hair dressers. In case any of you are feeling funny.

I wasn’t nervous at all on the morning of the wedding. However, sitting in the car on the way to the church with my father and Nicky was when it hit me. Some of the weirdest possibilities went through my head. What if she didn’t turn up? What if the car breaks down? Will I be late? Will guests arrive? I need to pee. Funny actually, I forgot about needing to pee for about two hours after that.

We got to the church and I was a little surprised at the amount of people from our families that were there. Of course, I knew that that many people would show up but I just didn’t expect them all to say hello within the first five minutes. I knew what my responsibilities were. I along with Nicky went to the door of the church to greet people as they went in while all the time secretly in my head wishing for Emma to hurry the hell up.

Suddenly a hurried whisper reached me that she was approaching the church so we hurried up to the alter so as we’d be in the right positions for when she arrived. Again, the weirdest things went through my head. I was thinking that the musicians need to be starting now, the brides made and page boy needed to walk nice and slow and I was hoping desperately that Emma wouldn’t start before the musicians started the wedding march so that what the musicians had planned would go off without a hitch. So many things that had absolutely no importance what so ever flooded my mind and then suddenly they all stopped when the bridal march started and it hit me like a hammer to the stomach. Oh crap. This is it. Not that I wasn’t absolutely certain. That’s not what I mean. But it was a sudden realization that from March when I got down on one knee in the muck in Wicklow all the planning led to this minute. From the time I decided to propose a long time ago until then I had always known that Emma was going to be my wife and we’d be very happy together but the one thing I kind of forgot to consider was the wedding part that marked the start of the whole thing. To say I was nervous would be like saying that the sun is a little warm. My legs felt like jelly. My hands were shaking and my nose was itchy! No. having an itchy nose had absolutely nothing to do with my nerves but it took my mind off them for a second because the age old battle of wills raged in my brain. Scratch nose or don’t scratch nose. That is the question. If I scratch, all the people in the church will see me. Ah no. Their all looking at Emma. They’ll never notice. But what about the damn photographers! They’ll see! And they’ll probably get a picture of it too! Slimy little feckers. All of these silly thoughts sprinted through my cerebellum for the two or three minutes it took Emma to walk down the aisle toward me. Then they all vanished as her father shook my hand and removed her vale. At that stage all I could do was smile, lead her by the arm to our seats and thank god the waiting was over.

The mass went smoothly enough. Of course there were the usual mishaps; the best mad. I mean man, was handed the rings by the flower boy. I mean page boy but he dropped them. Then the priest handed mine to me and yeah, you guessed it, I dropped it too. It made everyone laugh though. All I could do at the time was smile, turn and mumble uups to the people nearest me. People laughed about that one thing for hours during the reception.

After the mass we had a lot of pictures taken by the photographers. It seemed like we stood in various places and in various poses for hours. In the church, outside the church, at the hotel for the reception, outside the hotel, pretending to cut the cake, pretending to carry Emma and more that I’ve blocked from my mind. Those damn photographers drove me crazy! I’m sure they’ve done a great job and I would highly recommend them but I absolutely hate getting photographs taken so the entire time of getting pictures taken was like living in hell for a few years. That might seem dramatic but it’s true.

After the pictures were taken we got to relax and mingle with the crowd a bit. That was probably the first time we had to say a proper hello to people. It was nice to spend a few minutes with as many people as we could thanking them for being there. It is a thing that I used to think was done out of manors or tradition but I must say, for Emma and myself, we were really delighted that every single person came. There were no thank you’s said just for the sake of saying them.

Of course next came the meal. I won’t go into that too much. Basically, it was absolutely lovely. We couldn’t praise the Boyne valley hotel enough. They were nothing less than absolutely amazing. Please do consider them if you’re in Drogheda and your organizing an event. Now, one thing I will talk about briefly is the speeches. As any of you who know Nicky will agree, He’s a brilliant speaker. He can talk for hours to anyone. It’s a brilliant talent to have and he uses it well. He certainly used it well during our wedding anyway! He introduced everyone flawlessly and kept the guests laughing throughout the entire thing. Speeches can become long winded and boring but I would hope that our guests didn’t think that of ours. I was going to tell you about all the mistakes people made during speeches but it would have been a very long list. Instead, I’ll just say that the only person not to make a mistake and the most natural speaker of all was actually Emma. I say that with a little bit of surprise I will admit but it’s only because it was Emma who was the only one that really didn’t want to say anything. She agreed to stand up when we decided to give some small gifts out to parents, grandparents, the best man, the brides made, the flower girl and the page boy. The way she went around and personally thanked each one was very nice and natural. Keeping in mind that Nicky entertained us very well, I think Emma did herself very proud. The best line of the night has to be from the brides made when she got up and said very clearly; “Holy crackers. I’m a bit drunk” before launching into her speech.

We’re looking forward to getting the pictures from the photographer of course but the thing I’m really looking forward to is getting the DVD from the company who supplied us with a video booth. People who came to the wedding were able to step outside the main reception room and leave a video message for us. As the night went on and the drink flowed the messages seem to have got a lot more entertaining. There are even one or two videos that will feature me. Although, I’m a little bit afraid of them.

Of course there was some really nice music throughout the day. Two really good friends of mine Trudy and Andrew performed during the mass, the Willing fools played during the reception and two more very good friends Malachi and Noreen played at different times during the day as well. Other musicians came but didn’t play all that much of course but it was brilliant that they were there. As you’d expect, I couldn’t just sit around and listen to that much good music without joining in from time to time but I was warned by my mother not to go missing too much so I kept my participation to a minimum. Well, ok, to tell you the truth, I kept it to a minimum until about 3AM in the morning when we went to the residents bar. Then I didn’t stop until 8:30AM that morning.

The day after went by so fast that I hardly remember it. We took stuff back from the hotel, went to see my parents, left Emma’s mother back to the bus, got some food very generously offered by my mother and then got about three hours sleep before traveling to the airport very early on Wednesday morning to leave for our honeymoon.

Come back again shortly for the first post about the honeymoon. It’s something I really need to write about sooner rather than later.

Since coming back we’ve both being doing great. Life has returned to normal which is really nice. The first thing I did when returning home was collect Nama, my guide dog. It’s really brilliant to have him back again. I actually missed him when I was away.

Nama is really settling in well. Of course, being away from me for three weeks set him back a little bit but he’s back to the stage in his development that he was at before Christmas so it can only get better from here. He’s anticipating where we need to go and he knows when it’s time to relax. Now that the weather is slowly getting a little better, during the days that are nice and mild we go for a nice long walk around Dublin city centre. We start by letting him relieve himself in Stephens green then we do a lap or two of the park. We cut in and out of various pathways to vary the route a little and then we exit the green and depending on our mood we either take a route that is nice and active or quiet. Now that Nama is getting accustomed to these variations in our routine and he knows that there’s no hurry to reach a particular destination I find that he’s really starting to relax when we’re out for a pleasurable walk. It’s nice because when he relaxes I can play with him while walking. This playing can be as simple as reaching over with my right hand and tipping his ear. Or dropping the handle and trying to grab his tail. It won’t put him off his stride but it focuses his attention back on me and he knows that we’re in a good mood and work can be fun. Nama is a dog that really loves to use his teeth so after a few tips of his ear he tries to play using his mouth. This is when things can get really entertaining for him. We slow right down and he pushes right into me. Nama is not a sensitive dog at all but the change in his mood after these short play sessions can be quite obvious. He really loves the interaction.