Yak & Natter

   

I’ve finally got around to sorting out the Canada photos

The election has been called for 5th May, who’d have thought it… Some of the people in my office have already had their polling cards through. The BBC have a decent looking Issues guide to help compare the policies on offer from Labour, the Conservatives, the Lib Dems, Green and UKIP.

We spent Saturday afternoon helping Richard’s Godson James celebrate his 4th birthday in the play area at the Ock ‘n’ Dough pub in Wellingborough. We stayed with him and his family overnight, and after the boys had gone to bed, ordered a takeaway from Deans Caribbean Cuisine which was really tasty, and a complete change for me as I think the only Caribbean food I’ve had before has been at the Notting Hill Carnival many years ago. Now I’m going to have to investigate the Caribbean food options in Brighton…

We caught up on a bit of Tivo‘d tv last night, and watched A place in the Sun which was about a lady contemplating the move to Auckland, New Zealand. This was the move that we considered in 2001 and rejected on the grounds that we would be cutting ourselves off from friends and family as a lot of people seemed to be having children at this time and that was really going to prevent most people from visiting us. Also all of our holiday allowance would end up being spent travelling back to the UK to see family and friends and this would stop us making the most of our opportunities in a new country. Interestingly, the lady on the programme also ended up staying in the UK for family reasons.

It got me thinking about our choice, instead of moving to Auckland we moved to Brighton (lots more outdoor living opportunities than Ealing had. although admittedly not the climate that Auckland has) and this has worked out really well for us. I’d still like to go on a long visit to New Zealand to experience it properly though.

A few years ago, the guy who throws bottles off the pier would probably have received venture capital investment for his web site.

In less than a month we’ve gone from once-in-a-decade snow on the beach weather to t-shirt weather:

Pictures grabbed from BBC Southern Counties Webcams.

2005-12-21 00:00:01, Brighton: first gay marriages in the UK. Interesting to note that the Civil Partnership Act also allows for divorce, so there’s an opportunity for another first there for any couple interested in getting into the record books.