Time flies...

If time flies when you are having fun then I am Funtime Franky from Chucklesville, Laughter County. Or more likely I am realising there is WAY too much to do before the wedding. Consequently posting to this blog is an activity that hasn't been getting much of a look-in, which is a shame as there's so much going on.

Skyride Manchester

Yesterday we joined 15000 other cyclists at Skyride Manchester, riding a traffic-free loop linking Manchester city centre with the velodrome. For one day only the city centre's roads were cleared of all motorised traffic. We took the kids on the bike seats and all had a great time. There are photos from our day here. Oliver's highlight was meeting Spongebob Square pants (even though he never watches the TV show). Lucy just seemed to enjoy the whole day. Another highlight was riding inside the velodrome. But nothing beat seeing the kids smiling and dancing in their seats to the sound of a PA system being towed by a guy on a bike just behind us.

Starting off


Inspired perhaps by the Skyride, Oliver has tonight mastered setting off on his bike from a standing start.

And his speed is picking up a bit too.I took him for a ride in the park tonight and got a good jog out of it myself.

Wedding plans

With less than three weeks to the big day things are getting a bit hectic now.

Hayley has her ring. I should have mine about a week before the wedding.

We have drafted a table plan. Thanks to a combination of us pushing the numbers up and then having even more people want to come than we had anticipated, the seating will now be long tables rather than round, which is a shame but can't be helped. It did make the seating plan much harder! In fact it is still not set in stone. And sadly I am sure someone or other will be disappointed not to be exactly where they had hoped, but it's a very hard balancing act and I think we;ve done the best we can.

We have a band. It took a lot of searching (including some soul searching) but I think we made a good choice. Fingers crossed!

Hayley has her final dress fitting tomorrow. I remain completely in the dark. Part of me wonders if I'll recognise her, but then I'm thinking the wedding dress is going to be a bit of a giveaway.

Holiday plans

We've managed to make arrangements to get away for a few days at some point after the wedding. The kids will be with us so it will be a kind of honeymoon come family break. We are all looking forward to it. I can't say where we are going, but Lucy's passport has arrived.

I wish I had more time. Both kids deserve a post each right now as they are so full of character and such great fun. With all the time-accelerating fun I am having, I just need to find a way to add a few more hours to each day...