Ye gods...

Busy? I should say so. Where to begin? Went to Newcastle for a wedding, drove up from Hull with Neal and we found a mithraic temple while out looking for kiting spots by Hadrian's wall. Then an evening of Nintendo Wii (yes, VERY good indeed, thanks) and much Witchwood Ale and Kath/Simon became a legal entity and Neal and I fussed over Izzy while Mars fussed over Elaine. The food was very rich as I hope the marriage will be. That weekend there was also a firework show, a divorce (not finished yet, they take ages), some policemen, a heroically drunk thin lady who couldn't made head nor tail of the Wii, some kiting on the playing fields above Prudhoe (ace), a night in Zest Hull with the Nick and the Kathryn and the Lorna and the Johnny. And the Neal. Plus Branston to see Dad (somewhat less tumerous than of late, which could be good) and Mum who is in charge of purple goo and Isobel and Brian who are old school. Not seen them for over a decade. Then Pete's minus Andrea and Billy/Gaynor and that was ace.

In Cardiff we've had loads over. Karl, Ilana, Chris and Lee (Karl, Chris, Lee and I went kiting down Barry Island and I Supermanned for the first time, my board tethered to my leg with the bungee cord as it was, I careered face down across the sand unable to pull my brake lines with the accursed thing systematically whacking me in the bollocks for some distance. Jules (Costa gone! he gone, baby!), Lorna and Reiji, an overabundance of landlordship and some other dudes. The organic veg box delivery man. Window fitters, that sort of thing.

Work is great, lots of hours at the hostel, which is best and doing well, I am told.

What else have we done? Wildhearts gig, got Beautiful Days tickets (woo!) and curries and pub (smoking ban now so we can see to the far wall in our local) Atilla gig and Mars did some stuff on her own and just belly dances all the bloody time.

I've been doing lots with video games and that, a little kiting, a little too much drinking and socially the pair of us are far too active to keep up at the moment, but we like it, our friends down here are diverse, interesting, occasionally inoffensive to look at and generally rather jolly bloody decent folk. I was tipsily chatting to Billy the other day and said over the phone about how when he was moving us down I hoped that Cardiff could be the best aspects of Manchester and the best aspects of Lincoln, i..e. the locals/amenities for one, and the people for the other. It's certainly getting that way.