A holiday, a wedding and a decision.

Wow, that's been a great couple of weeks. Hope your lives haven't been too empty without updates to my blog to read, but if it has, bad luck, cos I've had a great couple of weeks, so I apologise if this post gets a bit long, but it's really three posts. I'm going to do this in chronological order so...


Holiday in Cyprus

After a rather hectic journey to the airport everything was just completely chilled. Landed at Larnaca airport at 4:30 in the morning (Cypriot time, so we'd gained a couple of hours) and was met by a taxi (although it was a brand new merc) and taken to Em's families house in Nicocea. Slept til about 10:00 then spent the morning lounging by and in the pool, enjoying the 35C sun. Had a siesta in the afternoon before heading into the centre of Nicocea to show Jo and Simon (the second married couple) around as it was their first time there. Shocked to find a Costa Coffee but Steve and Em had already made it their local haunt and we sat and had iced coffee's sat on the outdoor sofas.

The next morning we headed to the beach house in the Papadouris' (Em's family) new 4x4 BMW, which is a car I would covet immediately if it wasn't a bmw. Spent the next 5 days lounging on various beaches and the evenings eating and drinking out. The beaches are beautiful. The only drawback is the number of pink british tourists lying on them and the number of topless sunbathers that you really wish you'd never have to see topless. Spent a couple more days on Nissi beach in Agia Napa this time round. A truly beautiful beach with the added bonus of a bar to have a cold beer from in the afternoon, which felt like a real luxuary. Did a lot of snorkelling too, saw an octopus, which was good, but what was even funnier was watching Steve dive down and wave his snorkel at it in an attempt to make it move at the same time as trying to swim away from it in fear.

I'd been aware of a possible problem during the holiday. Sheffield Wednesday (the football team I support, not a day of the week like shrove Tuesday) were playing in their play off final on the Sunday I was in Cyprus and I was scared stiff that I wouldn't see it. I needen't have worried though. Found a sports bar that was showing it. Got there (on my own, the others were, possibly sensibly, not the least bit interested in football) to find about another 20 wednesday fans already singing and shouting along so I joined in. Was a wonderful way to watch a great game of football (although my accent slowly digressed as the evening went on). Had arranged to meet the others at 7:15 (15 minutes after the match finished) but hadn't counted on extra time! At full time it was 2-2, so that meant an extra 30 minutes. I ended up stood in the road outside, watching through what would have been the window, if it had glass on it, at the same time as trying to keep an eye on the road so that I could flag down Steve when he came past. Luckily he saw me, pulled over so I could shout at him 'extra time, give me half an hour' and run back into the bar. We eventually won 4-2, so all was right with the world.

After our days on the beach, we headed into the mountains to spend a day at the Papadouris orchard and village (they don't own ALL of the village, they just run it!). Was a lovely day, walking through the orchards and looking round the monastry there (which has a secret room that they discovered full of old icons and feels exactly like an Indiana Jones movie). Unfortunately, John (Em's Dad) had to leave early so we had, as opposed to previous times, a bbq in the afternoon rather then the evening, which was lovely, but meant I missed the Hucka pipe (or hubbly buubly as we call it). That evening (our last before leaving) back in Nicocea, we went back to Costa Coffee and had a great chat and saw possibly the most beatuiful woman I've ever seen in real life (Steve and Si didn't agree too emphatically at the time as their respective wives were with them, but since the wives agreed, it was fine).

The last day it rained, alot. Spent most of it inside reading and watching the west wing, then headed for the airport.
Holiday Books: The Beach (read it before, but a real favourite, Richard reminds me scraily of myself). The Sparrow (Awful, only read 100 pages), Twelve Bar Blues (a wonderful book about 4 generations of African-Americans that leads from Africa, to London via New Orleans), The Lord of the Rings (I don't need to say anything about that) and The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins (a book about evolution, natural selection and the beauty of the planet which I'm still reading.
Holiday Music: Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething, Athlete - Tourist, Radiohead - The Bends, U2.


The Wedding

Landed in the UK to discover rather nice weather, which was, well, nice. Spent the night at Steve and Em's then headed straight to Sheffield for my sisters wedding, which to be honest, I'd been dreading. I don't know why cos it was a wonderful day, but we'll get to that. The wedding was on a Friday, but I got to Sheffield on the Thursday afternoon to find my Mum and Dad's full of women, and not in a good way. Emma's (the sister who was getting married) bridesmaids were all staying the night, as was the mum of two of the three young bridesmaids, and they were all getting ready already, which since it was the day BEFORE the wedding and possibly because I'm a bloke, I just didn't get. That evening was the wedding rehersal, which I had nothing to do with, so I took the opportunity to get away from the house as quickly as possible and meet one of my oldest (as in, known the longest, not age) friends (who's name is Tina) for a drink and a game of pool. Isn't it great when you see friends like thatm and even though you've not really spoken for 6 months, you can just carry on from where you left off the last time. So got home later that evening and hid in my old room from the chaos (and the Ronin Keating) that had engulfed the front room.

The wedding day itself was exactly what wedding day's are supposed to be. Emma looked stunningly beautiful in her wedding dress (which I don't even have the right vocabulary to describe, it was cream, it had no back and a veil if that's any sort of help?). Dan (who she was getting married too) looked nervous as he waited for my sister, who was a charactistically 25 minutes late. The service was fun, the three young bridesmaids (including my cousin, Macy) looked really cute, the older bridesmaids (my other sister and Emma's best friend) looked good. The reception was really nice, the speeches were generally dull but short, the wine was good. In the evening there was a disco, which was fun, then I went home with my little sister (not the one who'd just got married). Emma and Dan are now spending two weeks in Bali. They both had a great day they say, so that's all that really counts.


The Last Two Days and a decision.

Saturday night I went out with some of my old school friends, a great night was had, even if they did drag me to a couple of bars that were way too trendy and definitely too expensive. Travelled back to Scotland on Sunday. Didn't want to go back really. Realised that there's nothing here for me now and that no matter what happens, I'm leaving at the beginning of July and I can't wait to get out of here,
Today, I got up, did a bit of work then went into town to spend the vouchers my sister gave me as a wedding present from her and Dan, to me. I have no ideea why the bride and groom should buy me anything, but since it was a £20 gift voucher and the new Coldplay album and Oasis album are both now out, I'm not complaining. Listened to them both now. The Oasis one has, on first listening, 3 good songs, 5 average ones and 3 crap ones, how the mighty fall. Coldplay's album on the other hand, is awesome. Only listened to it twice so far and it's not as immediately likeable as the previous two, there's no obvious single like 'yellow' or 'in my place', but it's consistently brilliant and beautiful and I'm looking forward to getting to know the songs better.
Back to college tomorrow, so that should bring me down to earth with a bump after the good mood I've sustained since I took off for Cyprus. Going to bed now. that was a lonong post.