Thought I would do a brief update about what we got up to while James was here. And what happened in regards to Ali's wedding. Otherwise I will never get around to it, especially since I will have new things to blog about after my holiday!

Friday August 28th - James arrives in Leicester, having spent time in London doing exciting things. Ali, Mat, my brother John and his girlfriend (and our friend) Rachel, Rob and I have pizza.

Saturday August 29th - the day of Hen/Stag fun! In the afternoon various people start congregating together. The girls all go to see The Time Traveler's Wife at the cinema, then play on dance mats and stuff in the arcades, then go to Frankie & Benny's for food. The boys all went to have Chinese Buffet and then run around in Megazone.

Sunday August 30th - after church Ali, Mat, Rob, James and I went to Nottingham to see Warhammer World. We went into the strange bar and looked at lots of lovely painted figures...

Monday August 31st - Ali, Mat, Rob, James, John, Rachel and I all went to Bosworth Battlefield, looked round the excellent exhibition (made especially funny since Mat got stuck in some chain mail - apparently it's for children) and also ate in the Tithe Barn. Yum! Then we went back to Ali's where we had BBQ. Mark joined us as well, which was nice. We met him, as we met James, via the wonders of the internet and Stargate SG-1. ;)

Tuesday September 1st - spent time doing wedding preparation including working on the silly lifesize mermaid...

Wednesday September 2nd - went to The Forge in Glenfield for food with Ali, Mat, Rob and James. He wanted to take us out for food, which was very nice of him. :)

Thursday September 3rd - had James round for dinner, and after we'd eaten we made lovely posters to put up at Ali's wedding reception.

Friday September 4th - our five year wedding anniversary! Final wedding preparations underway... Lots of mermaid work, went with Ali to get the cake, sorted out the quizzes for the train, things like that. Mum and Dad arrive and, along with James, look at what decorations we have to put up in the hall. Rob and I go to the wedding practice at 7pm. It goes well, hooray!

Saturday September 5th - the big day! Get up at 6.30 and go to have my hair done with Ali. Michael the hairdresser is very funny, he's amused by how terrified we are! He makes it all up as he goes along but it turns out pretty well. At one point he was cutting flowers off of the decorations in his shop to put into my hair. Three hours later we finally leave... Then it's getting into dresses, stuff like that. Trying not to panic. At about 1.15 the bridesmaids leave for the church, driven by Piers. When we've been there a while Ali turns up. There are photos, then we parade down the aisle. Scary... A while later and Ali and Mat are married! Hooray!

Following the church bit, we head to Kirby Muxloe Castle for a few photos. Then go to the Great Central Railway for speeches, and a meal on the train. Then the Rothley Centre for the disco. The Centre had been decorated amazingly using the stuff we'd been making by Mum, Dad, Harriet, Will, James and my brother John. Brilliant! At a bit past 10pm Ali and Mat leave. Some time later, having tidied up, the rest of us can go home. Phew!

Sunday September 6th - have a nice rest. Go out for lunch with Mum and Dad. Don't do a lot. Tired...

The rest of the week has been pretty standard, though today we did go on a work outing to Piddington Roman villa. The museum's excellent and they even let us dig for a bit (not that I know much about actual digging!).

That's about it I think. Bye for now!