wedding (and hay) fever

Hello my friends!  Did you enjoy the Royal Wedding on Friday?  I certainly did!  Our friend Katie stayed at our place the night before and she, Tom and I headed out early to see if we could catch a slice of the action:

This was the closest we could get to the BACK entrance of the Abbey! 

We still got caught up in the atmosphere!

We live a short walk from Westminster Abbey, so even though we knew it would be packed we thought we should take advantage of being so close.  We'd heard the helicopters flying overhead the night before!  We went up to the Abbey about 9am - Katie and I had dressed up for the occasion and her fascinator and my white cowboy hat with veil got a few stares on the walk up!  Perhaps we were mistaken for official guests, ha ha ;) Even though it was a grey and somewhat chilly morning there was so much excitement in the air!  We battled the crowds for a while but eventually it became obvious that we weren't going to see anything (people had been camped out for days in the prime spots!), so we headed down the road to a pub that was decked out for the occasion:

Eventually the crowds got a bit much and we decided we'd have a better time in the pub

Pimm's!  At 10AM!!
The only time I drink that early is Christmas....it had fruit in it, I didn't feel too bad!

What country were we in again?! ;) 

I wore my own wedding earrings and brought my wedding clutch along

Me with my hat!  It's a little mini white cowboy hat with veil - it was given to me to
wear on my hen's night last year!  I thought it deserved another outing ;) 

Cheers!

We settled in with some Pimm's and got prime seats for the TV viewing, the pub was getting fuller by the minute - eventually you couldn't move in there.  The pub was only down the road from the Abbey, so you could hear the bells ringing and the crowds cheering faintly.  The pub was silent during the vows and when the Archbishop of Canterbury said "I declare that they are husband and wife", a huge cheer erupted, both in the pub and outside the Abbey, which we could again hear faintly, and everyone started clapping.   The service and hymns dragged on a bit, but then we heard the clip-clop of horses hooves outside and everyone rushed to the windows and outside to the street to see - it was the royal carriages on their way to the Abbey to collect the bride and groom, and the Queen.  There must have been about 100 horses out there, and the ornate carriages were sparkling and glittering in the sunshine.  It was quite amazing, like you had walked on to a film set!

Once the bride and groom had emerged and were on their way back to the Palace, Katie headed up there to attempt to see the balcony scene - Tom and I weren't keen as we'd heard there were going to be about a million people in the Mall (and that estimate wasn't far off in the end!) so we headed back to the flat where we kept watching it on TV, I made us brunch, we had some G&T's to toast the happy couple, and Tom went outside to watch the RAF planes and the Spitfire fly over the flat on their way to the Palace to salute the newlyweds!  The noise was incredible!!

It seemed to be the weekend of weddings, as the next day we went out to Buckinghamshire for the wedding of one of Tom's oldest friends:

In the courtyard of the registry office

It made us think of our own wedding - a very simple registry office ceremony, and then a lovely party afterwards; very intimate, very heartfelt.  It reminded me of why I love going to weddings - it feels wonderful to be in the presence of so much happiness and joy.

Tom was driving, so lucky me got to take advantage of more Pimm's (!) and a very classy French red wine with dinner at the reception.  It was lovely to be out in the country, breathing the fresh air and seeing rolling green fields and roads lined with trees.

The cake was delicious - the bride's mother made it to a traditional
Sri Lankan recipe, it had cinnamon and cardamom in it

The rather dapper MC!  

Us

Tom and I had the dance floor to ourselves at one point in the evening, where we danced and sang loudly to "It Must Be Love" by Madness, one of our favourite songs (we love The Tall Guy!) - I had had many red wines at that point so didn't feel too self conscious!

We also spent some of the long weekend running - yes, I said we!  In the spirit of true love and all, Tom and I are doing the BUPA 10k at the end of the month!  Over the past few months as I trained for the marathon, Tom has got more and more interested in having a go at running.  On the journeys back from my various half marathons and other races, he would mention that he might like to give it a try, as I certainly looked like I was having fun!  He's never been a sporty guy but is a very keen walker and swimmer when he feels inclined.  We've had many conversations about how planned exercise, as well as incidental, helps keep muscles and bones strong as we get older (I'm sure you've all heard it before!) and  I always thought he had a good build for running - he is very tall and has very long limbs - so the plan was that once the marathon was over, I would train him for a 5k that we could do together over the summer.  The deal was that I had to buy Tom a pair of runners...because he didn't have any ;)

But then last week Lucozade put me forward for BUPA, and mentioned that they had a spot for Tom too if he felt up to the challenge....with NO coercion on my part, Tom said he'd do it!!

So I got him some shoes.......

Green! 

 And now we've started training in earnest!  We have 4 weeks!!  What a challenge!  I wonder if my coaching skills are up to it?!  But so far so good - we went out on Friday evening, yesterday morning and this morning and Tom is doing brilliantly!  We've done a combo of walks/runs and are trying to build up the distances.  I even had him doing strides yesterday (which he hated but they get results!).  I'm really enjoying running together - I wasn't sure whether it would be his kind of thing, but we're both having a lot of fun!  Apart from when I get grumpy that the wind keeps blowing my cap off, or when the pollen gets really bad (spring in London is not much fun if you suffer from hay fever!).  We've improved on the walk-run ratio each time, and today we covered about 5km all up, including a walk warm up.  Because Tom's legs are longer than mine he can actually run faster than me (!) so I was also getting a good workout!

With my coaching hat on (!) I've been very mindful about making sure we stretch properly - sometimes when it's just me I get a bit lazy about it - so we do a proper cool down.  It's so interesting, learning about how running affects someone else's body other than my own.  Tom has different fuelling needs, and different stamina, so I've had to take all this into account when planning what we'll do in training - but it's really fun!  We haven't got a lot of time, but our goal so far is to run as much of it as possible, and break for a walk when he needs it.  But who knows - whatever happens, he'll get over the line with me right by his side.  I'm so proud of him, and really looking forward to it :)

But don't think I've got out of this easily - as an exchange for him giving something that I love a go, I have to do the same!  I have agreed to watch every single Paul Verhoeven film he owns!  We started with Basic Instinct (which I actually quite enjoyed) but I'm not looking forward to Robocop....but oh well, the things you do for love!

He's tweeting about his progress, and I might get him to guest post while I'm away next week to let you know how he's going.  Can a complete beginner do a 10k in just 4 weeks?  We're going to find out!!

He was warned that life with me wouldn't be boring ;)

Do you exercise with your partner, or have you ever done a sporting event together?

Have a great week everyone! xx