...and they're off....

Gulp

The wedding starts here

Hey Green Hotel
Originally uploaded by Stuart Davies.

Tomorrow we go to Hey Green to make the two major decision's on which everything else hinges, venue and date. All of a sudden this wedding is starting to become real. Soon it will have a date and a place. My mother will be able to buy her hat. The best man can start plotting god knows what. The bride can start planning the dress and I can start seeing my future disappear along with my bank balance.

What I would say about Hey Green is their web site does them no justice at all. Its almost as if they don't want to sell the place. Its in 14 acres of grounds up in the Peninnes which mean that its very rural. They seem to have absolutely no photos of the grounds or the lake or even the nicest rooms.

We have been there 3 time so far and every time I have been impressed with the professionalism of the staff but most importantly their openness and friendliness. They haven't hassled us and when I was booking the visit on Sunday they seemed genuinely happy that we were choosing them.

Wedding Venues

In planning a wedding these days the venue is obviously a big factor. In the old days you used to just get married in the local church of your chosen brand and then had a few vol-auvents in the local pub.

Now, especially if you aren't religious, its a whole package, with 10% added on to the price because its a wedding. Hopefully its going to be the only time in your life when you get married and its not something that you can rewind and do again. So it has to be right. The venue has to be good enough for the ceremony, the wedding breakfast and the evenings frivolity. Lets be honest its easier to find someone to spend the rest of your life with than to find a place that can provide the dream package at a reasonable price - it hard to find a place with the nightmare package at a reasonable price.

that's why I seem to have spent the last year scouring the net and looking at every possible wedding venue north of Derby and south of Hadrians wall.

You can have a check list as long as your arm but the chances are its going to come down to a gut feeling and the small things that you can't plan for.

The Falcon Manor Hotel Originally uploaded by Stuart Davies.

For example, as said the quest has been going on for the past year and it came down to 3 venues. So its decision time. The plan was to spend the weekend at the Falcon Manor in Settle, a very nice Hotel. We had visited once before but never stayed. Now the hotel is a charming hotel, friendly staff....but unfortunately missing that special something. Can't put my finger on what was missing. If your looking for a nice hotel on the edge of the dales, then yeah. Settle is unspoiled in comparison to some of the twee villages in the dales. Speaking of which....

We then drove across the dales to Burnsall to see the next possible venue, The Red Lion.

Burnsall is a wonderful little village that is quintessential English. You could almost expect to see Miss Marple cycling towards another murder. Only problem the whole place is just too clean. There were so many Range Rovers and BMW's without a spot of dirt on them.

It was more country park than countryside. Call me old fashioned but for me the place should be a community not some accountants wet dream.

The Red Lion
Originally uploaded by Stuart Davies.

This brings me on to the Red Lion. Advertised as originally a 16th century Ferryman's inn its no longer that. A wedding in this country (just for the venue, ceremony, and wedding breakfast etc) costs somewhere in the region of 5-6,000 .That's for a nice not over the top kind of place. For me therefore I have to feel right in the place.

In order to judge this we popped in for a drink. It looks like a pub, smells like a pub but it ain't a pub. It is a Hotel, with no decenable bar area and arestaurantt. End resultIi was made to feel uncomftable for just wanting a drink. You can sit on a bench against the back wall of a corridor or by the back door. The staff while not being rude did not give me the impression that they cared. I had to ask for ice in a coke that I ordered, something which in virtually every pubI'vee been in since the early 80s was either automatically put in or offered. WhenIi asked for the ice the barman looked at the rather full drink, looked at me, looked back at the rather full drink then said, "well, do you want to take a drink first?" Now I don't, because its not my drink. He looks at me but before I get to answer he sees the answer in my eyes I guess so he tips some out.

As I say its not rude and I can't say that what he did was wrong but some thing intangible gave me the feeling that I was a burden rather than a customer. If I'm going to spend 5-6,000 in place, and invite my friends and family to spend probably another 2,000 for the most important day of my life then I want to feel that the person spending 5.90 is as important as the person as the person spending 5-6,000.

Don't get me wrong if thats what you are looking for I'm sure the Red Lion is a wonderful place, but not for me. Also if you want your countryside sanitized and pristine then this is the place for you, but not for me.

I do have to say that the straw that broke the well groomed camels back was the ponced up hotel/reasurant, that will remain nameless but if you know the village you will know the one I'm on about, down the road that didn't even have one veggie option on its menu. Lots of attempted modern style and lots of staff doing not a lot but no sense that they were in the 21st century.

Which only leaves what we now think is the winner. And the winner is....Hey Green.

The Daddle

Some ideas are just so wrong that they are good. This is something that I can imagine sitting in a pub and coming up with but to actually do it? No, its just wrong. I never want one, I repeat I never want one.

I give you the Daddle.

I have no connection to this company and don't care if you buy one or not. I can't help thinking though that some one os going to buy one and put it on a dog.......with a child.......good god can you imagine.

Any way as far as i'm concerned this is a good reason NOT to have children. I do like the pads that come with it, or as they are described in the advert 'Horse Shoes for Dad'

8 billion pages and you had to walk in to mine

There are, according to google, 8 billion web pages and yet most people probably only explore narrow channels. Unless you have a high traffic blog dealing with cutting edge topics you feel like your talking to your self. That the web is yours alone, and the people you interact with are Turing fantasies. Occasionally though something happens that brings you crashing back to reality, a bit like being caught out singing along to the radio when your home alone.

If you have a presence on the web you need to be prepared for the email dropping in your inbox saying, "What are the chances of someone who searches Google to see what train line Huddersfield station is on, coming across the blog of an old and dear acquaintance???"

Ahhhhh the past catches up with you. The thoughts that go through your mind in this situation. Is it that bloke you borrowed money off just before you got caught out having friendly relations with his girlfriend. Is it that scary ex who never quite understood what closure means..........

Glad to say that is neither of these people (and yes every one in this situation including me are entirely a figment of an over active mind, but you all know who you are).

It is instead some one I lost touch with many years ago and I'm relieved to say that it was some one I was happy to make contact with again, including the chain of other people in touch with that person. But it makes you think...

All the love

All the love
Originally uploaded by genewolf.

I've had a shitty week. At work I've snatched defeat from jaws of victory. The up coming weeks are likely to be stressful beyond belief.

For the first time since getting what I thought was a great job I have been having second thoughts about my sanity.

I'm fed up with trying to rally a bunch of socially dysfunctional IT freaks. I'm losing the only member of my team who has a work ethic AND communication skills.

I was earlier today going to post something about the disgusting behaviour of British Soldiers in Iraq. I was going to post something about the danish cartoons. I was going to post something about the lack of hope in British politics at the moment. But they only depressed me.

So when some one goes and does something like this........It makes you smile a bit.

Oh and it reminds me that's it's Valentines day and I haven't sorted anything out yet and my partner is going to string me up by my short and curly's, bugger.

Freedom Of Speach

Freedom of speach is sacred to me, but today I am speachless.