Three Weddings and a Tax Refund

The end of the year rolls around with the intelligence from my bank that I have been given a 63p tax refund. It is a somehow fitting end to a year that I had high hopes for, but which by and large, I shall not be unhappy to consign to the rubbish heap of history largely unmourned.

That said, it's not been all bad; there have been highlights: January saw the wedding of belle_fille1982 and mrtonylee, followed by a reception in which I encountered probably the finest wedding cake I've ever seen. I wrote that up in more detail and with a photo of said cake here. A week or so later, we were back in that part of London to pick up Furtle's engagement ring from the jeweller's in Wanstead.

At the beginning of February, Furtle's cousin had a nasty accident involving a horse that saw her in hospital for some months. Of immediate consequence to us was the fact that we temporarily adopted her cat, one Jasper, a gingery Cornish Rex. I am not a cat person myself, but I have to say that despite the inconvenience of having to keep the little sod inside all the time and operate an airlock policy upon leaving and entering the house, I rather came to like the little fellow and rather miss him now he has gone home. If you can face it, the first write up is here.

The end of March saw the big accident outside the Gin Palace, which saw our front fence written off, though we were lucky to get away with no more damage than that unlike our unfortunate neighbours, ingenue_the and harold_chasen, who still, all these months later, require quite extensive work on their house.

I think we have now largely finished furnishing the Gin Palace, though there may yet be the odd acquisition here and there. We have, during the year, obtained no one, but two sofas, including a small Chesterfield, which adds just that touch of luxury to the establishment.

Work-wise, 2011 was dominated by the so-called restructuring of both mine and Furtle's places of work. This as it turns out, ended well, with both of us retaining our employment, but the prolonged nature of the exercise (in my case, late October 2010 to late September 2011) left us in a kind of continuous and sustained nervous limbo of a sort that we didn't truly realise existed until it was taken away, but it lay over us for a long time like a cloying wet blanket. It is this that has soured the year for us, despite the many good things that happened - and writing this note has proven to me that on balance, there have been far more positives than negatives, though the negatives have been epic.

Still, I managed many times to bore for England on the subject during the year. I do not propose to continue here; it's done and dusted. On with the good stuff.

April saw the Royal Wedding. I am not the Monarchist I once was, but I am always up for a day off and the fun that both the loony fringe and the unwary manage to come up with. This was it that we saw the story of the memorabilia company that had managed to get the wrong prince, by putting pictures of Kate and Harry on its merchandise by mistake. I don't buy royal memorabilia, but I really wish I'd got a hold of one of their plates or tankards, I really do. The Karma Pixies saw to it that Kate Middleton's face manifested in a baked bean, putting her in the same rarified league as Elvis in the toast. You know you've arrived when your face appears on a bean.

The Nutter Brigade made a welcome reappearance in 2011. Having forgotten that the Mayans have, by dint of not bothering to up date their calendar (on account of having their civilisation wiped out by the Conquistadors in the 16th century) beyond sometime in 2012, have given us the date of the End of the World^TM, I had assumed that all such nonsense had died with Millennium fever. Not so. Enter Harold Camping and his pocket book calculation that the Rapture would happen in late May and the world end finally on Trafalgar Day, 21 October. Strangely we're still here, he is rather richer and his followers rather poorer. A rapacious, cheating evangelist. What are the chances? Still, it afforded me a great deal of amusement at the time, particularly over on Twitter.

In August, Furtle and I spent a restful few days in Edinburgh, followed by a rather more stressful visit from my folks. On balance, the latter went better than I feared, the stress being mainly self inflicted.

Mid-September, we hosted my old friend, telemeister and Stacey on a short visit from California, to see Stephen's ailing Dad. It is always good to see the grumbly old curmudgeon (Stephen) and hopefully one day soom when we have saved the resources, we will be able to pop in and see them in California.

Speeding on with the year brings us to November in which Messrs pax_draconis and averylaterabbit got married - technically and pedantically a so-called 'civil union' but I call 'em as I see 'em and that was a wedding - and a damned fine one too. I have rarely seen two people happier and I am glad for it. Plus I got to dress in my finery and developed tricorn hat envy.

And so to the end of the year. One day before the anniversary of the proposal, Furtle and I got married in Redbridge Registry Office. A small affair that I have written up previously. The taxi failed to arrive just to prove that the Karma Pixies were taking note.

A little over a week later, we are still happily married and still on holiday. Tonight we will toast the end of the old year and the accession of the new.

I leave you now with the single best photograph of 2011 to ensure that then year ends with a smile:



I think that now I have come to the end of this post, I shall rethink my opening paragraph. 2011 wasn't so bad after all.