Our friends, Alessandro and Virginie, are travelling around the world for six months. They’ve got a blog as well:

The Blobs’ Blog

Their photos are online, too: Travel photos

Check it out!

Who would have believed that another year has passed and that Aude is another year older? Although she likes to remind me that she’s still in her twenties, I like to remind her that she’s on borrowed time, and that before long, we’ll need to introduce ourselves as a couple in our thirties.

To celebrate the occasion, we had a party at Fusion, the new bar around the corner. We got really lucky and had the bar more or less to ourselves — and with the clocks going back this weekend, we got an extra hour of partying time!

Matthew smoking a shisha

We’re not smoking marijuana. Honestly. Aude just gets excited very easily.

Gino making a grand entrance

Jiri

Anne Marie, Jiri’s girlfriend

You’ve got to keep a close eye on Aude. Lose your concentration for one second and another man is kissing her…

Vinka

Clearly a very happy girl, despite her advancing years. This sort of giddiness is characteristic of old age senility

More old age senility. Neil, at his great age, is already further down the path than the rest of us.

Neil and Anne-Laure looking very “Sex in the City”

A face for radio…

Aude and Darren

Aude, Jerome and Ivano

Lina

Matthew has a bit of a reputation with his camera. This is the reaction it normally provokes. What you can’t hear is Lina saying “would you please put that f*cking camera away?”

Alcohol + salsa lessons = who leads whom?

Our gatecrasher. This guy came in, ordered a full bottle of champagne for himself, and drank it in the middle of our otherwise private room. A particularly stylish touch was his shirt and tie, cut from exactly the same material. I’ve seen this look twice this week — I pray to God this isn’t the new fashion!

We had a great time at the party, but the reality of old age hit us hard this morning. We all had the heads that we deserved — including Aude, which was a real surprise!

Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe that Anne-Laure is another year older. It seems only yesterday we were wishing our French amie a “Very Hoppy Birthday”. Here she is a year ago, young, single, happy and free.

A year on and it’s all “my boyfriend this…” and “my boyfriend that…”, sighs and groans as her aging muscles and joints fail on her, and claims that she has to go to bed at 9pm because she’s too tired to cope.

All kidding aside, we had a great meal at the Dog Inn in Wingham. Even though it was her birthday, and she was already the centre of attention, Anne-Laure had to up the ante and shine the spotlight squarely on herself by spilling her wine rather spectacularly over the most of the table (and what didn’t hit the table went straight into Dave’s lap). She maintained it was an accident and that she felt terrible about it, but we secretly all know that it was an attention-seeking ploy.

Anne-Laure, the birthday girl

Her friend Juliette…

…and Juliette’s husband, Dave

Aude’s rather daring Tarte Tatin with flambeed Calvados

Has her birthday wish come true?

The gang outside the pub

The gang outside the pub

I just looked back to my first entry on this blog, just over a year ago, and what an amazing journey it’s been. Three jobs with three companies. Travel to Thailand, USA, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Reunion Islands, Mauritius. Nearly Malaysia and Alaska. A new house. One (careless) prang of the car. Nearly 25,000 miles around the M25. Countless birthday parties, dinner parties, and other celebrations. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Friends coming, and sadly, even more friends going.

I never kept a diary when I was younger, which is a shame. It’s amazing how much you forget. But you cover a lot of ground almost without noticing.

I don’t know if anyone else has enjoyed or appreciated my blog. But reading back over the past year, I’m glad I’ve maintained it — if only to remind myself where I’ve been.

Imagine the story it will tell ten years from now.

Just a quick note to say bon voyage to our world travellers, Sandro and Virginie, who are taking six months to travel around the world.

Sandro and Virginie looking smug about their trip

While they may look smug about their trip, and on the face of it I am very jealous, I’m sure I’ll feel less jealous when they’ve both got a case of Delhi Belly in the middle of Asia without a flush toilet or toilet paper for 700 miles.

They’ve threatened to start a blog like mine — we’re anxiously awaiting news of their travels!

One of the reasons I wanted the new 35mm lens is that it captures the world very much as the human eye sees it, making it a great “walk-around” lens. To that end, I thought I’d include pictures of “us as we are.”

Jerome, surgically attached to his Blackberry

Matthew, pulling faces as usual

Aude, on the telephone

Daisy, cleaning her arse