Catch up - Part one

Hello!  This is David, finally getting himself together in the online world.  It has not been an easy last few days from a tech point of view, but we are well on the way to being sorted!  This, however, means that we are now about four days behind on blogging.  So, it is time for a catch up.  I'll be posting a few blog entries one after another to bring you all up to speed.
Saturday and Sunday

So as you saw, James and his hat worked their magic and we finally left the US on Saturday evening.  We were pretty bummed that we had not been able to take our daylight flight, as it is the only way to beat jet lag, but the overnight flight on American was great.  We secured some bulkhead seats, and had a great flight over, helped in part by a steward who was drop dead gorgeous....lol.  Well, you have to have something to look at for 7 hours don't you, and he just fitted the bill nicely!  We watched some TV and movies on the PC, had some nosh, a few drinks, and managed to sleep a little.  I, of course, managed to fall asleep and wake up 2 hours and 20 minutes later, which for some reason seems to the maximum amount that I can ever sleep on planes.  Arrival into Heathrow at 6am was uneventful, and was also 1 hour early which was a real bonus.  Arrival at passport control was great.  James proudly presented his passport and enclosed Civil Partnership visa to the nice man there, and the man stamped the visa, smiled, welcomed James to the UK, and wished us both luck and congratulations on our upcoming ceremony.  It was really an amazing experience to have an immigration official say congratulations.  This may seem like a small and trivial thing to many people, but to a gay couple who are finally getting the opportunity to have their relationship legally recognised it was a significant experience for both of us.  So with big smiles on our faces, we headed off to baggage claim, picked up all the bags, and headed through customs and off to the rental car company.

The car process was quick and smooth, and we were off and on our way to the Lake District by 7.15am, a total win!  A stop off at a service area for chocolate, maps, sandwiches (thank heavens for Marks and Spencer's on the motorway), a one hour nap in the car, and we arrived in the lakes at the Winder Hall at 2pm, just in time for our meeting with Suzanne, the manager.  You will recall, dear reader, that this was to be the first time that we had seen the Winder Hall in the flesh.  All I can say is wow!

Of course I can say more than that....you didn't think you were getting off that lightly right?  We were just so excited to see the place.  It is gorgeous and is every bit as fabulous as we were hoping.  The grounds are amazing, the hotel itself is just awesome.  All oak panels, comfy leather coaches, old world feel and charm, and just fabulous people.  Suzanne gave us a tour of the property and we enjoyed every minute of it.  After two years of waiting and planning we had high expectations, and we were a little worried that it couldn't possibly meet our mental images.  But it did...and more.  We are sure that all of our guests on the 21st are going to love it to bits too!

The next three hours were spent finalising details with Suzanne.  We did ceremony stuff, dinner stuff, evening reception stuff, Friday afternoon reception stuff, Sunday morning reception stuff, and everything in between.  It was nice to see all of our plans just drop into place.  The whole weekend promises to be great.  The theme for the event is "A weekend in the country with friends".  Although it is centered around our ceremony, we have always wanted it to be more than that.  It is about spending a weekend with people that are really important to us, and who we don't get to see as often as we would like.  The whole event will start off with a tea, coffee, and cake reception at Winder from 1.30pm to 5pm for everyone to just drop by and say hello and meet each other.  I can't wait!

After we had finished with Suzanne we were supposed to be heading off to the campsite.  However, we were really tired, and the last thing on my mind was pitching a tent.  So Suzanne called a few bed and breakfast places for us, and we decided to check into the Meadow brook B&B just around the corner for a good nights sleep.  The owner, Christine, was a highly strung, swishing around kind of lady who was quite lovely.  Reminiscent in many ways of Maggie Smith with flailing arms and a wild head of blond curly hair, she directed us to our room.  Resisting the urge to have another nap, we showered, changed our clothes and of course headed off the the pub for beer and dinner!  We went to the Wheatsheaf in Low Lorton, which is next door to the Winder Hall.  It is also the venue for our Friday evening at the pub event for all of our guests the night before the ceremony.  We sampled the beer, ate lots of food, and had a great time.  We met Mark, the owner who I had been speaking with via phone/email, and firmed up all the arrangements for the Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.  Hooray for lots of planning!  Then we headed back to the B&B and hit the sack at 9pm, and slept straight through till 8am the following morning!

Monday

Showered, and freshly groomed, we arrived at the breakfast table to be greeted by a gushing Christine armed with eggs, bacon, sausages, tomato, mushroom, fried bread, toast, tea, coffee, yogurts, grapefruit, and more toast.  Not wishing to seem rude we felt compelled to eat everything in sight and we did.  We were joined at breakfast by an elderly couple who were also staying there.  She chatted away nervously to us, and he looked at us suspiciously all the way through breakfast, as if we going to swipe his toast.  I suspect it was more to do with the fact that he knew that we had come from the bedroom with only one bed in it though.  So breakfast quickly became 30 minutes of cocktail party chatter, after which we paid our bill, said goodbye to the effusive Christine and went on our way.  First stop was a trip to Cockermouth (pictured here), the village nearest to Low Lorton to do some shopping and to meet with the registrar who would be performing the ceremony.

And then it started to rain.  And just so you know, dear reader, it is now Thursday and it is still raining.......

We arrived in Cockermouth and went straight to the grocery store to stock up on a few provisions.  Then with a few hours to wait before our meeting we wandered around town.  We found a great place for haircuts and booked ourselves in for wet shaves, facials, and haircuts on the morning of the ceremony.  For those of you who have never had the pleasure of an old fashioned wet shave with a cut-throat razor, I highly recommend it.  The last time we did one was in Lisbon in 2008 where the barber spoke no English and James and he spoke in Portuguese for an hour.  This one will be in Cockermouth, and will also have a strange accent, I am sure!  A little more wandering and then it was off to the registrar!

We arrived and were met by Sandra, the registrar.  She was quite delightful, and spent about 1.5 hours going over the details of the ceremony.  She was fully supportive of what we were wanting to do, and with a few minor tweaks here and there we are now sorted.  Again, it was a really exciting process to be going through!

Next up was a quick trip to Keswick, and then off to the campsite.  The campsite we had chosen was actually quite close to the Winder Hall, but it was across the River Cocker.  Unfortunately, the floods last year had washed away the 200 year old bridge!  So we had to drive all the way around to get to it, but once there we were greeted with a very quiet campsite and about 20 chickens.  Ah the bliss of the country!  Tent up, sleeping bags unrolled, car tidied, and by then it was time for, yes, you guessed it, beer and food.  This time we were going to try the Kirkstile Inn, highly rated in the Good Pub Guide, our travelling bible.  It didn't disappoint.  Fabulous real ales, and for dinner James had Steak and Ale pie, while I had  Chicken, Leek, and Stilton pie.  The setting was beautiful and we can't wait to go back again.  Across the room was a table of four, and they kept us entertained all the way through the evening with their conversation.  One lady had a voice that would cut through a dockyard like a supersonic jet, and she had no idea as to how loud she was.  She also wouldn't let anyone else at her table get a word in.  It was fascinating watching someone talk, eat, show pictures, wave hands in the air, and not even breathe for about 2 hours.  It was little like watching a vacuum cleaner that was out of control.....not stopping for breath and maniacally devouring everyone and everything in its path! 

Tuesday

And so, off to bed once more.  Our Monday was complete!  So you want to hear about Tuesday?  Of course you do!  But in the interests of time, I'll keep tuesday brief.  We got up, cooked egg and bacon (of course) drank coffee, marvelled at the rain (again), and drove to Keswick.  Once there, we discovered that our 7 year old rain jackets were, well 7 years old and were useless. So, 400 pounds later we were kitted out for another 7 years.  Next stop the florists.  We had spoken with our florist over the phone, but now we had the chance to meet in person and finalise the flowers.  Just like everyone else, she was totally delightful and we can't wait to see the finished arrangements in the Winder Hall on the 21st!  Evergreens is the name, in case you find yourself in Keswick and need a florist.....Tuesday afternoon was spent in Penrith trying to sort out phone issues (with no luck) and then dinner was in Bowness on Windermere at "The Hole in T'Wall" pub, with more beer.  Not a Martini in sight.......might have to change that soon.

Wednesday.

Well, you'll have to wait for this one as now James needs the PC.  I'll write a little later on, and post when I can.  But it involved a trip to a good friend, and 8 bottles of wine.......ouch!

So with that, dear readers, I'll sign off for now.  We still have a few tech challenges with James' phone.  A dodgy radio in the phone seems to be the root cause, so if you can't get through to him on his UK number, then try mine.  For reference our numbers our:-

James:- +44 7904 614 970 (011 7904 614 970 from the US)
David:- +44 7950 185 421 (011 7950 185 421 from the US)

We both have email access again on our phones (service permitting), so you can also get us at dnmartin@mkaconsultants.com and james.koschoreck@uc.edu  We'd love to hear from you!

So that is it for now.

Big Love to all!

D&J