Duncan’s Blog

After a long break, I have finally got around to updating this blog. Since I last updated the blog we have been very busy, including getting married. Thank you to all the people who made our day so special to us. We had an amazing day, and a fantastic honeymoon in Lake Garda. As usual I have taken loads of photos, and I will upload them very soon.

Race for life

Originally uploaded by Duncan Flickr.

Kate and Nicke completed the race for life today. As you can see it
was v busy, with over 10,000 people running. PS this was posted from
my new iPhone!

Kate and I played in Southampton Grad Band’s second concert yesterday. It was in a really nice bandstand down by the water in Christchurch, and it would have been perfect had the weather been a bit kinder. Despite the rain at the start of the concert we ended up finishing in the sunshine with a bit of a crowd gathering – including some very young fans would came right into the band stand! (See photos)

Following that we popped home and Alan very kindly finished of the tiling in the kitchen (with some well found tiles). We then went to a BBQ (ambitious given the weather) at Andy’s house. After some problems starting the BBQ we were away, until the rain came again, and we all piled inside, apart from Adam would kindly finished the food for us, in a half BBQ, half steamed manner!

Following Kate and the girls race for life on Sunday we decided that the male members of our group should join in the running craze, so we all (9 of us) signed up to a 10 Kilometer run on the Beaulieu on the 7th of October (11 weeks time!).  I’m not sure if this was a great idea, but it is a good incentive to get fit again, and I won’t really have to do much training as I am now riding to work every day.

Please visit my sponsership page and sponser me for this run, it would be great to meet my target but anything will help.

Well the last week or so has brought about some exciting events, most significantly I proposed to Kate on the 7th and she agreed to marry me (for some reason!). Secondly Kate and I finally got our sofa’s delivered, so we now have a finished sitting room, which looks fantastic. It was also my Birthday on the 3rd, thanks to everyone who sent me presents! – So I am now another year older, but I seem to finally becoming ‘grown up’!

Finally, 8 weeks after moving into our new house we are back online! I have spent at least one working day on the phone to BT to sort out our landline, and they finally sorted it out (for the second time) today. So I have sorted out the wireless network, and we are back online.

In the intervening months of non posting Kate and I have moved into our house, redecorated some of it (with massive help from Kate’s parents – thanks again). We’ve also got southampton grad band off the ground. In fact the band played it’s first gig yesterday, despite the fact it was raining very hard we had an audience (thanks to Dad, Gillian and Grannie for enduring the rain) and it was well worth it. After finishing up in Hythe Kate and I headed up to Winchester for the second concert of the day. Winchester Chamber Orchestra played a fantastic concert, including some amazing violin and harp playing.

All in all it has been a busy few months, part of the reason why I haven’t posted (along with the lack of internet). I hope to keep up the posts in the future. Anyway we’re off to watch ‘The day after tomorrow now’.

Today Kate and I, along with Kate’s Parents and Gran went down to Dorset to visit Studland. We also happened to run into Kate’s brother and his girlfriend, who were happened to be camping in the area!
It was great to go down there, since although we live so close, I don’t think I have ever been. The weather was ok, although a little blowy, and we had a very nice lunch by the beach.
We’re now back in Southampton, and we’re planning to go and see 300 to night, which should be good, although I’m not sure what Kate will think.

Snow at Chilworth

Originally uploaded by Duncan Flickr.

As everyone in the UK knows, it snowed last night!

Kate and I went back to work today.  It wasn’t too bad for me, as I got to go back and see the results we got before christmas, which I missed as I was ill.  However Kate has to endure an entire day of behaviour management, which doesn’t sound like fun.  I thought teachers just came into school and drank tea during in service days, but obviously not!  Anyway, only two days till the weekend now, unfortunatly for me that means more thesis writing…however I did finish the first chapter yesterday, and Kate passed it with only a few minor corrections – only 6 more chapters to go!

Santa Hat, St. Johns College

Originally uploaded by Duncan Flickr.

Kate and I are in Newmarket at the moment, in the fog! We visited Cambridge yesturday, for a bit of last minute shopping. I took the oppurtunity to take a few photos.
Today we visited Aldburgh, and with the added fog it was very easy to see what inspired Britten to write Peter Grimes.