Just two creatives blogging about living a married life.
Our ups, downs, and everything in-between.

‘Is this place cooler than Stratajet?’ Was a question that was asked to me after being at Octopus Labs for nearly two weeks. In my head the answer was, 'no’, but I didn’t say that at the time, I sort of avoided answering it. After being there for nearly a month now, I think I would have answered that question a bit differently.

My time at Stratajet was fairly long as working in a tech company goes–almost six years. So when redundancies came although it was a shock, I was more than happy to move on. After a few months of searching; interviewing, and doing many code tests, I found a place I thought would be a fantastic place to work and took the offer given to me by Octopus Labs. Octopus is much larger, more established, and had many more projects to work on. Would I be able to make a smooth transition? Would I be able to make new friends? Would I be able to keep up with the workload? Those were challenges I was happy to step up to and anticipated. Walking through the large revolving doors on my seventh day of work I suddenly realised there was something I didn’t consider that I should of before I started working.

When I started at Stratajet I was in a room with 3 other people and the company generally grew since then hitting a maximum of  50. I saw the highs and lows and became close friends with all of the employees there, even the receptionists of the many offices we moved into. I had conversations with people in the lift, in the kitchen, on the way to the office if I bumped into someone, everywhere and anywhere basically. Octopus Labs has just over 100 people but there are many different 'tentacles’ of the Octopus Group. There’s Labs, Ventures, Investments, Property, Energy and Healthcare, together totalling around 700 employees, but that’s not all. Octopus share the same office with Sainsbury’s HQ, yep Sainsbury’s the massive supermarket chain, which brings the employee count to around 3000. A massive jump from the 50 at Stratajet I was used to.

Instead of greeting the receptionists when walking into the office, I get my pass ready and show it to a security guard without even looking at the receptionist or speaking to the 10 people I walk past on the way to the lift which is a silent ride all the way to the eight floor. The silence continues on my walk from the lift, to the kitchen, to my desk, that’s probably my fault for getting to work early but I still pass a handful of people who I don’t know and chances are, I will never get to know purely because they work for a side of the business I don’t need interact with. Working in a large company has its benefits, but a massive disadvantage if you’re new, only the people you work with know you’re new, everyone expects you to know how things work. This was evident for me in two scenarios, once when I walked into the canteen at breakfast for the first time, was clearly lost and uncertain of how the system worked, but no one bothered to help. The second time when I tried using the microwave, couldn’t figure out how it worked and the group standing next to me continued their conversation as if oblivious to what was happening around them.

It makes sense that an employee who’s been working in a large organisation and sees different people from different departments daily will expect everyone to know what they’re doing because, they usually do, but that might lead newcomers to pretend they know things and never ask questions and therefore will never know about a cool part of the office or an unusual feature the place has. I found that to be the case with some of the employees. 'How do you use the printer?’ 'What goes in those cupboards?’ 'what do they do in the offices next to us?’ 'What do they do in the offices behind us?’ All of there’s questions and a few more were answered with 'I don’t know.’ Although I later found the answers to all those questions later on by asking different people, it didn’t really help at the time with me getting to know the place more.

It’s easier to hide in a larger company, not in terms of work for Octopus Labs since the teams are so small it’ll be obvious when someone isn’t pulling their weight. Easier to hide in the sense that you could probably get away with saying pretty much nothing, which I’ve noticed some people do. They come in, walk straight to their desk, talk to people on slack all day, then walk out without saying goodbye. If you’re that sort of person that’s absolutely fine, just pointing it out as something that didn’t happen at Strarajet or something more difficult to do in a smaller company.

All that aside I’ve found some things I really like about working for Octopus and the more I work there, the more things I find I like. The work-life balance here is much better than it was at my old company. Bring a startup most people worked late to achieve difficult deadlines to reach targets set by the CEO to ensure we got the next round of funding. We worked weekends, stayed so late in the office the company had to pay for UBERs to get us back home. A typical day for me started at 08:30 and I left no earlier than 18:30, at Octopus, I’m out of the office by 17:45. There’s complete freedom to work anywhere in the building and you can also work from home whenever you want to as long as you mention it in the Slack channel around 09:00 which is perfect for times I need to let the plumber in.

My exploration of the office has lead me to discover a few things. A free pick and mix section which I’m surprised I wasn’t told about before as it’s a pretty unique selling point. A fire exit close to where I sit which gets me around the building quicker, especially if I need to make a quick dash to the sixth floor for a handful of yoghurt covered peanuts. Peanut butter hot chocolate from the coffee shop right behind the building, and a wide array of different food types which I didn’t really indulge in whilst at Strarajet, and finally, improving my table football skills. I never used the Ping-pong table at my previous company because everyone was a pro compared to me but I feel like foosball is something that’s easier to get into.

So back to the question that started this article, 'Is this place cooler than Stratajet?’. Well, Octopus is cooler than the Stratajet that exists now at the beginning of 2018 post redundancies. However, if we were to compare to Octopus now to Stratajet in its hay day (just before I was made redundant) I would say both companies are cool in their own way. Both companies are opposites in terms of stages in their life and I thank the Lord He’s given me the opportunity to work in both of them.

Ollie

Personally I think we put too much pressure on brides to be perfect. I’m not one of those perfect people. I feel uncomfortable in heels and self conscious in dresses. I just knew my wedding dress had to be white/ivory, I wanted to be able to move in it, and for it not to cost too much…after all, I was only going to wear it for about 8 hours of my life.

As someone who loves a good creative challenge I decided to undertake the dress making myself! I have sewn a handful of things in my life, however I would by no means class myself as an expert. I have always enjoy the process of creating with fabric and my mum says it’s in the blood (my great grandfather was a tailor apparently). 

So, without a style in mind or a pattern to assist I went gun-hoe to the fabric shop. I bought a vast amount of light ivory fabrics and a cheap polystyrene form in size 10.

It is a very simple dress with personal hand made touches, and very much not perfect. But it fit me exactly and is white(ish), saved us hundreds of pounds and was really enjoyable to make.

In hindsight I should have taken good photos of the whole process. This post will just have to do with the handful of blurry pictures I took on my old cracked phone.

Here is my process:

I started making the skirt first. I wanted it to be big and in a princess style, so bought reams of light ivory tulle (which is a brilliant an inexpensive fabric to create volume with). I based the underskirt pattern on a big full skirt off a Vouge dress pattern which I got from amazon. The lining had a sheen on it so that the tulle would look extra magical on top. The tulle was fiddly to sew but didn’t need any hemming which was great. I set the stitch large and proceeded to sew skirt pieces together. It took 4 layers of these tulle skirts before I was happy with the size. It totally buried me for an evening.

I’m not a superstitious person so Ollie hung out with me and played PlayStation while I sewed away. It was so much fun to have his company. I love that we are happy to do our own personal projects or hobbies while still in one another’s company:)

The skirt with very baggy waist was then put on the form and synched in until it fit the model perfectly. I hand sewn this in place before running it through the machine. Skirt done, so far so good!

The bodice part was a little bit more of a challenge but fun! After watching an amazing YouTube tutorial on draping fabric and making your own bodice I decided I could figure it out!

The form was a lot smaller in the chest than myself so the solution was to buy the exact bra I would wear on my wedding day, stuff it out with fabric and work around that. I got a strapless wonder bra which fit perfectly and put it on the form. The draping process was so much fun and creative and as someone who loves working with my hands and particularly sculpture it came relatively easily. I thought I’d have to have several goes before it was right, however my first attempt at bodice building is the one I wore!

Queue my biggest error…. Fabric choices! due to the fact that I didn’t plan out the fabric buying very well I came to realise the fabric I made the bodice out of and the one for the skirt clashed, I was super unhappy with my blunder. This was a little bit of a set back. I was so happy however with the fit, and didn’t like the idea of remaking the bodice that I had to find a way around it. I decided to search online for light ivory lace embellishments and found just what I wanted in a most unlikely place, eBay! I ordered a bunch of individual pieces of lace for a couple of pounds each and they were perfect. So began the hand sewing! With the bodice and skirt attached I pinned the lace (which matched the skirt colour) all over the bodice. It was strategic and took a lot of thought choosing nice places for the lace. I tacked it all over then it was time for a trip home to wales.

My lovey sister Lucy who also shares my joy for being creative was very kind and sat with me hunched over the dress for almost the best part of a whole day firmly attaching the lace to the bodice with small careful invisible stitches.

The back of the dress was a little bit of a puzzle. I hadn’t planned how to fasten the dress. I bought a really super long white zip and sewed it in place, however it was pretty ugly and took away from all the beautiful lace we sewed in place. So after a trip to the fabric shop I found a strip of button holes exactly for the purpose wedding dress backs! The buttons are fake half pearls and entirely covered the zip so it was invisible and appeared as if the dress was solely sealed up by the buttons… Bingo!

The finishing touch to my dress, which made me feel extra special was an old pearl necklace which my mum gave me. It was one she never wore and she kindly allowed me to break it and sew the tiny pearls across the lace bodice. It was supper fiddly and needed me to use the finest beading needles I could find, but it worked.

The dress wasn’t perfect. Looking back at it now in photos I do cringe a little at parts of it. It wasn’t my most prettiest of days. But I married the love of my life, we have had many more wonderful days since being married.

And VOILA, in a nutshell that is the story of how I made my wedding dress:)

Here are some pictures of it in action on the day!

I’ve just been sorting through photos on our computer from the last year and thought it would be nice to share a little selection of some of my favourites!

Here are a bunch of snaps from our African engagement/surprise wedding. It was such a colourful day full of lots of laughter, dancing and giggles.

If you want to read an explanation of these photos and a detailed retelling of what happened during the day, Ollie has written a post on it : What’s a Ghanaian Engagement like?

(Photos by Ernest Simons)

Enjoy!

Hannah

It’s a new year, a new month and therefore time for a new article. I’m starting off by finishing the task I set myself at the end of last year, to visit all the independent coffee shops in Brockley. For those who live in the area, you’ll notice I haven’t included _all_ of the cafés/coffee establishments in the area. There are a handful of places that, let’s say are less artisanal than others and those I haven’t included purely because I don’t think it’s the type of place that one would find comfortable spending four or so hours behind a laptop at. With that out of the way let me share my thoughts on 6 Brockley-based cafes.

The Brockley Deli

If you have a sweet tooth this is definitely the place to visit. It has an array of freshly baked cakes and pastries that greet you as soon as you enter and that display alone is worth visiting the Deli to see. The cafe itself is quite small with a few tables in the centre and a counter at the far end. The staff are incredibly friendly and helped me decide on what to order from the wide variety of things on offer. For toast, I was told I could have any bread I wanted with not just butter but jam, peanut butter, Nutella, marmalade, and after I chose jam I had a choice of strawberry, plum, raspberry. I probably spent more time at the counter here than at any other place. The WiFi here is good and so was the hot chocolate, the only problem for me was that it’s pretty popular. I wasn’t there for long before I felt the need to leave and give my seat up.

Pistachios Hilly Fields

This is the place to come to after you’ve done anything in or around Hilly Fields park, this isn’t quite the place to come to for a morning of work. Let’s get the good things out of the way. I really like the wooden decor of the place the art on the wall, the WiFi and the fact they provided a cooked breakfast. The bad, for being the only cafe in the park it’s a bit too small. The majority of visitors were people who walked dogs; mother’s with prams or young children, groups who have done some sort of outdoor exercise, or people who are exploring the area, and there definitely wasn’t enough room for them all on a January weekday morning. There was plenty of outdoor seating but it was far too cold for that. The place also didn’t have any fresh pastries which are more of a comparison to the rest of the cafés than a disadvantage of this one. The croissants on offer were small, cold, and looked like they came from a supermarket. I’ve been to this place in the summer and it’s great to pick up an ice cream or milkshake and sit outside in the sun, it’s not, however, the best place to work with a laptop in the winter.

The Orchard

I love the Orchard, love the homely feel, the wall full of second-hand books, the fish tank, the section with sofas, and the section with old wooden tables and chairs. I bought just a hot chocolate but never felt the need to move because those who came for food would simply sit in the section with tables and chairs and leave me on a sofa. The staff were super friendly and the WiFi was good. Two bad points though. One, the hot chocolate was far too sweet, and it was presented with a small cup of brown sugar which was unnecessary. Two, the Orchard opens at 11 am. This makes sense since it is a restaurant as well and closes at 11 pm, but for someone who plans to spend the day working from a coffee shop that’s a bit too late.

The Brockley Mess

At the start of this post I mentioned avoiding non-artistic builders like cafés, this place felt like one of them in the way its tables were arranged, nevertheless, the back section was designed as a minimal art gallery with a sofa, and there was leather green setting on the left side of the entrance so it wasn’t too boring. On the whole, I enjoyed this place, good WiFi (although it wasn’t obvious they was any so I had to ask), and the hot chocolate was–alright. One thing I wasn’t a fan of was my mildly pushy waitress who kept asking if I was going to get anything else. Yes, I was there for longer than anyone else but the regular prompting was still unnecessary. I ended up spending the most amount of money here than any other place I visited so I guess it worked. A massive downside to this place is that it’s only open from Friday to Monday, closed on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday so, not the place for a daily visit but maybe the occasional one.

Arlo & Mo

This place had really nice decor, I liked the use of colour and the way it’s designed. As I mentioned in the previous post it’s unusually busy around the time parents have dropped their kids off at school (about 09:30), and picked them up after school finishes (about 15:30). Considering the place isn’t particularly large it gets packed very quickly. It’s in a great location close to Crofton Park station, the hot chocolate was great, the wifi was good, and so was the food, it’s just a bit too small and busy at times for my liking. Again a place worth showing friends how cool and hipster the area is but not for daily work.

Browns of Brockley

I’m not a coffee drinker but I’ve heard this is the place to go if you are. People travel from different parts of the country to visit it and I can see the appeal. It’s incredibly minimal, decorated very well and has possibly the best tasting hot chocolate I have ever had in my life. The people I sat next to were very creative with someone starting a fashion magazine called Vanguard sitting on my left, and behind me a lady interviewing someone else for a blog. I felt my creative juices flowing just being around them. There are unfortunately a few downsides to people who would like to work here. At the time of writing this, there was no WiFi at all, and there was not a functional toilet, so I had to hold in my pee and steal internet from Parlez. It’s also very small, in fact, the smallest and most expensive cafe I’ve been to in Brockley. I can definitely see myself coming back here for a drink and sitting outside in the summer but alas, not the best place to work.

The Noak

I thought I’d mention this place as it’s one of the cafes that came up in my google search, it’s the closest one to where I actually live but it has never been open. I’ve been told it’s something to do with the management. I may review it in the future when they’ve got themselves sorted but until then it’ll just get an honourary mention.

So there you have it, a review of 10 artisanal independent cafes in Brockley split up into two different articles. I’m blessed to have so many establishments close to where I live and it’s been fun exploring them during my time of redundancy, now I know where to take people who visit. I hope someone finds this helpful especially those who want to find somewhere to work and drink some hot chocolate. One final tip if you’re that person, make sure your laptop is 100% charged before you leave the house. I’ve learnt that lesson the hard way by starting a day on 30% and not able to sit near a plug.

I’ve lived in Brockley for just under 6 months at the time of writing this and it’s a fairly quiet part of London. It doesn’t have the commercialism of Peckham Rye, the [poshness] of Dulwich or the history of Greenwich but what it does have is independent coffee shops, lots of them. So during my time of redundancy, I decided to spend one morning in each place to see what working out of them would be like. As a non-coffee drinker, each place will be reviewed on atmosphere, WiFi quality, and quality of hot chocolate 😊.

Fred’s

Fred’s is a really small cafe opposite Crofton Park station with a green canopy. Although I didn’t walk around the place much it came across as a very child friendly not only because of the colourful plastic cups that were near the jug of water, or the high stack of wooden baby seats, but because of the outdoor play area and the large cartoon bear sculpture that guarded it’s entrance.

After ordering a hot choc and croissant, I found a place with a plug for my laptop, got the wifi password and waited for my drink to arrive. The corridors were very narrow with a larger section at the back which was full of people on laptops when I got there so I sat closer to the front. Hot chocolate-wise, it was quite sweet for my liking but getting the croissant for £1 was an awesome compromise. Crofton Park station is really close to a school so both Fred’s and Arlo & More (another cafe nearby), are full of mothers and prams on weekday mornings, so as the place filled up I felt the pressure to leave. Overall it’s a nice place with good wifi, unfortunately for me and anyone reading this who would like to use it as an office, it’s not quite the place for that.

Broca

This is possibly the most colourful cafe in Brockley, yellow on the outside with a purple door and blue and green text. Inside there was a wall dedicated to selling, vegetables which were transported from a farm in Kent, another wall with a shelf that had all sorts of organic and fairtrade products. I stared at the place in awe as I waited for my hot chocolate. The layout was very chaotic but I could see the appeal. I sat down right next to the toilet which in hindsight wasn’t the best place but there weren’t many free seats available. There were only about four people in the place but the layout didn’t allow for a large number of individuals.

Sitting on my large round table I saw a huge poster behind me of the cafe employees in gardening gear as well as a handful of pamphlets in the corner to my left advertising local events, the yoga and meditation ones stuck out to me the most. To be fair the hot chocolate was really good, it tasted of actual cocoa not sweet at all just the way I like it, and I spent the most amount of time there than I did in any other cafe,. Although I don’t think I would visit it again mainly because I can see it getting full really quickly, and I don’t fancy the smell of sitting close to the toilet again.

Bella Nova

Compared to the other two cafe’s this one was very spacious, it had tables laid out in rows like a restaurant and there was such a variety of things to purchase, from breakfast and lunch menus to milkshakes or freshly squeezed orange juice, although I only went for a hot chocolate and pastry I was really impressed with the options. I continued my routine of ordering, finding a place with a plug for my laptop, then testing out the wifi. Unfortunately, this wifi was the type that only allowed you to visit https:// URLs so that limited the sites that could be visited.

Bella Nova wasn’t close to any stations or schools so the cafe itself didn’t get too busy throughout the morning which is a perfect atmosphere for getting lots of work done. The hot chocolate was a little on the sweet side but I liked the artisanal touch in the form of a light chocolate Christmas tree on the top. It’s unlikely I would visit the place again to work but I would definitely visit it again in the summer for a milkshake.

Parlez

This is one of the newer establishments near Brockley station and it may look a bit empty from the outside but don’t let that fool you, out of the four this has been my favourite place to work in and I have visited it multiple times since. The place is incredibly large and has a great selection of breakfast as well as lunch and dinner if you want to visit there in the evening.  With every order no matter how small or large a jug of water is brought to your seat and although a few mothers with prams pop in from time to time, it’s not near a school so it doesn’t get as busy as Arlo & Moe.

Wifi works great here although you have to sign up with your email or social media before it can be used. There are so many seats available I’ve never felt pressured to leave the place, maybe move to a different seat but I that’s not a massive undertaking. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of tables with sockets so I make sure my laptop is fully charged before entering. Unlike the cafes mentioned above, you only pay when leave which is more akin to a restaurant but it works fine, I was still able to get a hot chocolate which, although not as good as the Broca, still not sweet and tasted very good.

For those who live in Brockley, I know there’s are many more coffee shops than these four but I’ve taken a break for the Christmas holidays and resume daily drinking of hot chocolate in the new year. Even those who don’t have jobs take holiday :). Places I’d like to visit for the next article include; Browns of Brockley, The Orchard, the Brockley Deli, the Brockley Mess, Hilly Fields Cafe and of course, Arlo & Mo.

Living in the UK we’re very spoilt when it comes to traveling without much hassle. Airlines like Easyjet, Ryanair and the like have made it incredibly affordable to get to other parts of Europe. Train companies like Virgin make it possible to get to other parts of the UK. And a little-known company called Eurostar make it quick and easy to get from London to Paris; Brussels, and Amsterdam. After our day trip to Brighton, a day trip to Paris was the next milestone to cross, and what better way to spend the day before Hannah’s birthday than in the ‘city of love’.

We were woken up by ’Shake it Off’ by Taylor Swift and yawned as our vision came into focus. It was 5 am and we needed to get to Brockley station soon to get our train from Kings Cross at 07:01. Luckily we didn’t need to pack much as we would be back the same day so our main priorities were; entertainment for the journey, a water bottle, passport, and a list of things to do while we were there. We walked out of our flat like zombies barely realising where we were as we hobbled down the stairs. The streets were completely empty and quiet, no cars or pedestrians just us and the cool autumn wind. We got to the station with time to spare before our train arrived, everything was going to plan, in fact even better than planned. We even had time for some breakfast at Benugo, a trendy looking cafe in Kings Cross, for some reason it was the only place open so early in the morning. A porridge for me, a tea and bacon egg muffin for my wife. Once our bellies were satisfied, we made our way to the Eurostar kiosk, printed out our tickets, and made our way through the various barriers. Passport control, baggage check, you’d think there would be less security in a train station compared to an airport but it was more or less the same with less walking between each checkpoint before getting to the waiting area.

I really enjoy the look and feel of the Eurostar, Kings Cross lobby. It’s the closets feeling of business Class an economy traveler can have. Dark oak wooden floors and surfaces that always looks freshly varnished, well-kept leather blue seats, large plasmas screens hanging from the ceiling some specifically for displaying train times, others for displaying adverts, as much as I loved this area, I couldn’t stay there for too long on this occasion. Unbeknown to us our train was boarding earlier than we expected which resulted in us being rushed up to the platform soon after we got through security. We jogged up the ramp, found our coach, then made our way through to our seats. After taking out the essentials; headphones, iPad, PlayStation Vita, we slumped ourselves onto the comfy seats and enjoyed what felt like a relatively short trip from one capital to another.

Arriving at Gare du Nord didn’t feel like we were in a different country; the people looked similar, adverts were primarily in English, and the station looks like any other train station, the new country feeling began to hit us once we escaped the designated Eurostar part of the grandiose. Conversations were loud, stores had French words outside of them with euro signs on their posters instead of pounds signs, and the ticket machines for the Metro were–difficult to understand. After we pulled what we thought were day trip metro passes out of the architecture when hit the underground bridges going the Centre de Pompidou, personally my favourite part of Paris.

Centre de Pompidou was the place where I had my first Nutella Crepe and French hot chocolate, it was the place where I purchased my first fridge magnet and the place where I saw some really impressive french art. The area was a large art gallery surrounded by trendy shops with entertainment and outdoor works of art, sadly, the queue to get into the gallery was more than the length of three double-decker buses outside of the building so there was no chance we were going to get in, nevertheless we enjoyed the area and the various bits of art around it. Next top, Notre Dame.

I visited this illustrious church on my first visit to Paris and was impressed with the architecture, just not with what was inside. On it again that sentiment didn’t change. The inside of Notre Dome was dark, full of candles, statues, and the colourful light from the stained glass windows. As one of the few free attractions in the French capital it was unsurprisingly busy, people in the central seated area of the church were either kneeling to pray or doing it in front of the altar, there was plenty of Catholic merchandise at various areas for those so inclined. The sculptures were impressive, but I’m not much or a medieval sculpture person, neither was I much into catholicism history so I was eager to leave the place no soon after entering. The foliage on the outside was well kept, and I was surprised to see a group of sparrows moving around inside the bushes, I don’t remember seeing it on my first visit and was completely enamored by it. The other tourists–busy taking selfies in front of the famous building unlike me had no interest in the natural spectacle that lay before them which was a shame. Notre Dame done, it was time to get something to eat, and we obviously went for the most French lunch we could ever think of eating. Pizza.

Freshly made pizza with ham and melted bits of blue cheeses, the taste wasn’t authentically Italian but was a very impressive meal, like a French take on classic pizza. The place we ate at was called Margherita on a quaint cobbled street off Rue De L'ancienne Comêdie. This street was full of restaurants, notably the Un Dimanche à Paris which is a Michelin guide restaurant right opposite where we sat. Definitely somewhere to check out if you fancy good pizza in Paris. Our next destination was Jardin Du Luxembourg which, if you know your Parisian geography you’ll quickly pick up on the fact that going from Gare du Nord, to Pompidou, to Notre Dome then to Jardin Du Luxembourg probably was not the most efficient route to visit all the places but it was good exercise for the both of us.

Jardin Du Luxembourg was completely empty on my first visit to Paris, maybe because the weather wasn’t so good, maybe because I visited it on a weekday when most Parisians would be at work or school, but for some reason on this Friday it was incredibly busy. There were a group of school kids on some sort of art trip with sketchbooks walking around the park, a lot of people sitting on one of the many free metal green chairs soaking up the sun, some were lying on the grass, and some were tourists taking pictures of and admiring the park. We found a slightly less popular part, took two chairs each and rested from all the walking we had done. Although it was much quieter where we were,  we could still hear a combination of conversations, footsteps, and birds nearby which hindered how relaxed we were. After around half an hour of rest, we got up and continued walking around the park. We walked to an area with much less grass but a few sectioned off areas for playing French game called boule, I had never seen anyone play it before and Hannah explained the rules to me. I’ve got to say, the game itself didn’t seem that interesting, but there were a handful of people enjoying the sun and entertainment. Our next destination was Musee d'Orsay which was originally built in a train station. You learn something new every day.

Our visit started and stopped outside the museum primarily because we had planned to visit many other places, also ticket prices were more expensive than we anticipated, although the statues outside were impressive (yes they weren’t medieval). We walked at a leisurely pace towards the Eiffel Tower, the view of the Seine and the grounds below the raised part we walked on was impressive. The bottom section loved very modern and hipster with a row of pop-up stores and colourful art on the pavement, Hannah even spotted a longboarder she knew down there, sadly he was too engrossed in his conversation to look up and notice us. We made our way to Champs Elysee and the weather changed from sunny blue skies to gloomy grey ones, however, we were still impressed with the scenery, the autumnal colours from the trees and many leaves that were on the ground. The grandiose buildings with impressive architecture, and golden statues on top of bridges and long poles, Paris is truly a marvelous city to walk around it. After making a pit stop to a convenience store and getting some water and chocolates we made our way towards the tower from the back, instead of the front which had a grass runway leading up to it. It was the closest I had ever been to the tower and I took many pictures to reflect that. We stayed there for a few minutes to further admire the tower and people watch before heading to the next attraction, Arc de Triomphe.

As I mentioned before to one who knows Paris well it will sound very unusual to walk from Musee D'Orsay to Champs Elysee to the Eiffel Tower then to the Arc de Triomphe since the Arc de Triomphe is on the Champs Elysee, but we now know for next time. The famous Arch built in commemoration to Napoleon’s triumph couldn’t have been in a more decorated part of Paris. Placed in the center of a large twelve road roundabout with streets that contained the most expensive and high-class stores in the whole of the capital, stores like Luis Vuitton, Dior, and Chanel. The place wasn’t only bustling with plenty of tourists but cars too. We didn’t spend too long looking at the Arc as we were taken away with the glitz and glamour of the place, but during our exploration, we stumbled across a film premiere. The film 'Detroit’ starring John Boyega, (Fin from Star Wars) was having it’s opening night on the day we happened to be in Paris and in the exact location we were, what a coincidence. We waited for no longer than two minutes before large black vehicles started pulling up towards the red carpet, we both had our cameras at the ready trying to get a good view of the stars amongst the myriad fans and paparazzi. We weren’t aware of the other actors that walked out, but when the main star of the film emerged from his vehicle–we started snapping like crazy. Luckily he appeased the crowd for much longer than those before him, shaking hands and signing posters as he strode so we had plenty opportunities to get good shots.

It was dark, we were exhausted, and our train back to London would depart in around an hour so we found the closest metro station and made our way back to Gare Du Nord but soon realised–we couldn’t. We hadn’t bought a ticket for the whole day but just for one journey, we were told by the metro staff member after trying and failing to get through the barriers. Good thing we walked instead of taking the public transport everywhere, our inner city travel might have ended up a lot more than it did. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only mess up we encountered that evening.

On approach to the Eurostar section of Gare Du Nord we spotted a large crowd at the base of the stairs, people were agitated and confused as to why staff members weren’t letting them get onto their trains. We picked up on a few conversations that said trains had been delayed but it must have been delayed by a lot for a crowd of roughly 200 to congregate inside the station. About an hour later, a Eurostar staff member walked halfway down the stairs and announced there was a signal failure in the tunnel and all the trains schedules form 19:35 onwards had been canceled until further notice. The whole crowd was shocked and bewildered as were we. Phone calls were being made to loved ones, a group began chanting to be let on the train, and many just walked out of the station in anger. We stayed for as long as we could waiting to hear further announcements, we really wanted to get back to London for Saturday to further celebrate Hannah’s birthday but there was a slim chance of that happening, until. A member came down, possibly the same one that made the first announcement the 19:35 train is now ready for those who booked it. We got excited, although ours was the 21:13, maybe they might announce ours in a few hours, we’d get home really late but at least we’d get home. Alas, our wishes didn’t become a reality, no more trains were announced instead, compensation leaflets were passed around saying Eurostar would cover our food, hotel and any return tickets we would buy so–we took them up on it.

The Kyriad Hotel next to Gare De l'Est station was close to being fully booked and we were lucky to have got a room, we were told by the hotel staff. Although the Kyriad was about a ten-minute walk from the Gare du Nord, and we’d eaten a pretty filling dinner of chips and steak, we were still frustrated at the whole scenario. We hadn’t packed to stay overnight so we had to purchase essentials like toothbrushes and toothpaste, we didn’t have a change of clothes or underwear. Hannah was in tears at points and I tried my best to comfort her, to stay calm and thank God in all our circumstances. Eventually, we went to sleep, hoping that tomorrow would be better.

We got back to Gare du Nord long before our 09:10 train but the queue was the longest I had ever seen for a train. People who hadn’t booked a new train but left from in the confusion last night were there waiting to get on, people for later trains were waiting in different lines. We were still queuing long past 09:10 but when we finally got through our security checks and arrived on the platform–we were told our train had left. There was nothing we could have possibly done to have avoided that scenario and weren’t in the minority. About 60 to 70 people had also missed the 09:10 train because of the long queue, some had even left the station completely. Yet more tears, confusion, and calls to loved ones were made, people thought they’d have to stay in Paris for another day. The group grew angry complaining to the staff members who they there. Their response was the 'the train was at 09:10 so you should have been here for that time’, but they weren’t in the queue, they didn’t know that we were powerless as to what time we made it onto the platform. We gave them our names and waited by the doors to see what would happen next, the magic of Paris had definitely worn off now and we weren’t looking forward to staying another night.

Soon the 10:30 train arrived and people started boarding, we didn’t expect anything to happen but suddenly, names started being shouted out, names of those who had missed the 09:10 train. We were among the few who sat near the person announcing, many had walked to the other side of the station expecting their names to be called on a tannoy but it was just being shouted out. Many names disclosed fell on deaf ears, but those who were around responded; snatched their temporary tickets, and ran to the platform at full speed. The announcer eventually got to my name, I asked for two tickets and ran down to the train with Hannah. We both got seats in two different coaches but it was fine, we were on our way home at last. Well, we were until an American couple sitting in Hannah’s newly designated seat refused to move resulting in her being kicked off the train.

Understandably the couple probably had a rough previous night and had a family to get back to so their urgency to stay on the train made sense, but it wasn’t fair at the cost of someone else losing their seat. I’m not the arguing type so I had no intention of going up to them and making them move, instead, I walked off the train with my wife giving my seat to someone else who needed to get home. Now we were back to square one, not knowing when we would get out of the French capital, not knowing if we would need to stay another night. We stood on the platform close to a young woman wasn’t able to get a seat, looking for assistance, waiting for someone to tell us what to do, we were three of 27. The manager of the train came up to us and told us there were no more seats available at all, Hannah began to communicate in her best French saying it was her birthday and she really wanted to get home. He spoke to someone on his walkie then told us there were two seats available in business class, it was between the two of us, and one girl, I didn’t know what to do. On one hand, we would get home on time, on the other, this girl won’t get home on time or at all today. Hannah, however, knew exactly what to do. She burst out into tears and told the conductor how her birthday had been destroyed by what had happened the night before and this morning. He hesitated, but in the end, let us get on the train, I would have been surprised if he didn’t after that.

Aside from the debacle with the Eurostar, we had a fun time in Paris, seeing all the attractions we did, and eating all the great food. We wouldn’t go back there in a hurry but I’m super thankful we were safe whilst there and had safe travels overall. I’m grateful for the fact we had the finances for a trip like this and I’m super thankful to my lovely wife who agreed to spend the day before her birthday in a foreign country with me.

Ollie

Weddings can be stressful to plan, organise, and participate in, from picking venues to tasting cakes, trying on items of clothing and, writing speeches. Seeing other grooms do their speeches with ease long before I had mine made me think it wasn’t too difficult to accomplish, all you have to do is write something about your new wife, how you’re looking forward to being married. So when it came to my wedding I didn’t give it much thought. I was too worried about not messing up the first dance and not being nervous during the actual reading of the speech to care about its contents. Little did I know there are some very important do’s and don'ts of groom speeches.

The first draft of my speech, which I’m pretty proud of, was a bit of a short sermon on unconditional love, a speech more to show my future father-in-law how spiritual I am. I showed it to Hannah with pride to see what she thought, here is the speech verbatim;

I’d like to say a big thank you first of all to everyone who is here today. Those who travelled long distances from all parts of the country.

Thank you to the bridesmaid’s groomsmen, those who decorated,  those who helped organise and pay for the wedding, none of this would have been possible without you.

Also thank you to those who have helped us prepare for this journey we are about to start, whether it’s been coming to your homes and going through passages of scriptures, or the odd comment here and there based on past experiences. I’m fully aware one can never truly be ready for marriage, but I believe the spiritual, practical, and financial guidance you all have given and will give us, will help us strengthen this union of friendship and love.

I fondly remember applying for universities during sixth form, calculating my UCAS points based on my predicted grades to see what unis I could get into. A group of my friends were doing the same, but a handful of students, mainly art ones weren’t affected by the need to work anything out. They didn’t seem worried at all, and when I asked they told me they had something called an unconditional offer, meaning no matter how well or badly they performed, no matter if they missed every class till the end of the term, they were guaranteed a place at a university. That’s the type of love I believe a husband should have for a wife or vice versa, unconditional love.

It is easy to stay together and have conditional love for one another when things are going well; when lovely words are exchanged, when gifts are being bought, but the test is to still have love when times are tough; when horrible words are being exchanged when gifts are being thrown across the room. Guaranteeing love no matter what is a very difficult to achieve in one’s own strength, nevertheless as Christians we believe the best way for us to love unconditionally is to look to one who has provided the ultimate example of unconditional love, Christ.

I won’t take any more time talking about the great sacrifice of love that has been made on behalf of all of us there are people in the room who can do that much better than I can, but I will end by saying this. It is because of unconditional love we are saved, it’s because of unconditional love is why we save others, and it’s unconditional love (amongst other things) that will keep our union going for our lifetime.

Let’s raise our glasses to unconditional love.

To my surprise, she wasn’t impressed with it, at all. I needed to thank more people, talk about how we met and mention her as my beautiful new wife. I had only been to a handful of weddings before but I never really took notice of the format to which the groom speeches were in, I didn’t even know there was one, however, a few minutes of research proved me wrong. I looked at a few example speeches online and they all had the same pattern. Thanks needed to be given to the bridesmaids, the groomsmen, the father of the bride as well as the bride’s family, mention of the bride herself, and all sprinkled with a few clever jokes. I wrote a completely different speech which went through a few revisions.

Okay, so firstly I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who made it here today. For those who travelled long distances from all over the country, and those who live less than half an hours drive away.

Thank you to those who helped organise, coordinate and decorate the church and this building, everything has been wonderful.

I also want to acknowledge those who wanted to make it but were unable to make it, I won’t mention names as there is a chance I will miss someone out, but if you are in contact with them, please let them know they were acknowledged.

I’d like to once again thank Jonathan and Helen not only for accepting me into their wonderful family, not only for all the help you have given us throughout the year but also for bringing up your daughter in the knowledge of Christ and letting me have her hand in marriage.

I would also like to thank my parents and those involved in my upbringing in some way for making me the person I am today. They have done a tremendously good job in bringing me up, I have learned so much from their words and even much more from their actions, I only hope I could be as much of a blessing to my children as they have been to me.

And last but not least, I would like to thank my new wife who looks absolutely stunning today, she has put a lot into making sure today is a success, from picking the ice cream flavours to sewing her own wedding dress I am truly grateful for her organisation

Hannah has honestly been the best thing that happened to me last year and this year too and, a lot of things have changed or been put in motion since we decided to get married, for example, the purchase of a flat which is possibly the most grown-up thing I’ve ever done, the regular scramble to find a new place to visit and a new restaurant to eat at each week. And of course, coming up with new games that only make sense to us. Such as; are you sitting up or lying down, which is a popular one over the phone when we’re tired. Do you remember a time when? Where we have full conversations in another accent, usually a northern one. Going into an empty restaurant, apologising for not making a booking and asking if there are any seats available, at last, but not least, am I playing a video game, on my laptop, or giving you my undivided attention over the phone, which is Hannah’s personal favourite. As you can tell, we’re in for an exciting marriage.

Anyway, I’ll start wrapping up before I bore you further. Thank you, bridesmaids and all of Hannah’s friends here for the support you’ve given Hannah over the years.

Since the speech was written and finalised in short notice I didn’t have time to practice and memorise it, so on the morning of the wedding I came up with a sort of ‘mind map’, an A4 paper, borrowed from the hotel I was staying at. It’s pretty much a series of hand-drawn images I came up with that helped me remember what I wrote down, here’s what it ended up looking like.

If it were down to me I would say the groom’s speech should be in whatever format it needs to be in, in fact, any wedding speech can be written in whatever way the speaker would like, but as it’s not down to me (which is probably a good thing). I would say to anyone else who finds themselves in a similar predicament, do what your future wife says, especially if you don’t have much knowledge on what a speech for a wedding should sound like. All jokes aside I’m super thankful for the prayers and help I had from both families on this wedding, the help from my wife, and friends who participated, most of all to God without whom none of this would be possible.

Ollie

If you had asked me last year to name the top ten Mediterranean places I would like to go on holiday Santorini certainly would not have been among them, in fact, it wouldn’t even be on a top 20 list. I had never even heard of the place until Alex, a friend of mine, told me how beautiful and tranquil it was. I loved the blue domes and white buildings I saw from a Google image search and thought to myself, it would be a great honeymoon destination, a valid thought for one who lived where the sun scarcely shone. However upon visiting the Greek island things weren’t what I expected.

Our journey to Perissa-Perivolos was as I expected, small European Mediterranean airport, slightly rural looking environment and stoic taxi drivers who barely spoke any English. What wasn’t expected was the scenery, which got more rural the closer we got to our destination. Lots of dilapidated abandoned homes, stray dogs, tall dried grass, goats, and horses, this wasn’t at all what I saw on my Google image search. Our hotel was an oasis compared to its surrounding with what looked like newly painted white and grey walls, a turquoise pool at the back, and lush green vegetation. Apart from the fact, we were placed in a less than satisfactory room on our first night we were generally happy with the Fenix Collection. The room had a pool view, breakfast was good, and Manos–one of the staff members, was incredibly helpful. One advantage to staying in Perissa was it was about ten minutes away from the beach, the first beach I had ever seen with black sand. We regularly visited that part of Santorini in the evenings at the end of our day to relax with a meal by the sea which made us feel relaxed as we heard the waves as they crashed onto the shore. That section of Perissa came alive particularly at night with a pedestrian-only road full of well-lit Greek and Mediterranean restaurants although–we didn’t truly enjoy Santorini until we ventured out of Perissa, with a quad bike.

Yep, you read the last sentence of the previous paragraph correctly, a quad bike, a very unusual mode of transport we noticed a lot of people using when we got on the island. To be honest, it’s not something we thought we’d end up using, but Manos, our hotel concierge was incredibly persuasive and told us it’s the best way to see the island. So with the flash of a three-year-old driving license and 35€ later we were the proud owner of a 150CC quad bike, well, just for two days. I wouldn’t say I’m a terrible driver–I hadn’t driven in a while since I passed my test so I was a bit nervous at first driving on the narrow Greek roads. I practiced in a dusty alleyway for about 5 minutes with a training bike before I was given the more powerful one and I quickly got the hang of it.

Our first destination was Thira/Fira which was honestly the first sight of beauty we saw on the island after being there for two days. The place was busy, full of tourists, locals, and shops with surprisingly cheap goods. We walked around the area with no particular agenda or place to visit and found a spot to eat our packed lunch right on the side below a bus stop. It was quiet, and although the temperature was north of 25 degrees, the wind where we were was cool. Upon finishing we continued walking towards a crowd until we saw a large, white church in the distance, and upon reaching the sea became more visible, hidden a row of white bars and swimming pools on the cliff. It was incredible, I had never seen anything like it. Cramped and tight, taking up all the possible space on the cliff with a haphazard but unique layout. The view was fantastic, we spoke about how much it must have cost to book a room at one of these places.

The heat was unbearable and we had somehow walked into a place full of narrow two-person wide streets which somehow with shops on them. Shops that sold sunglasses, tote bags, trendy clothes that you could add customise the designs of, shops that sold greek ornaments and expensive jewellery. We looked into a few of them and made a pit stop at an ice cream place. Once finished we walked up to another church for a few minutes before we decided we’d had enough, walked back to our quad, and drove to our next destination, Imerovigli.

Looking at beautiful pictures of Santorini you’d never think the paths and walkways were so narrow, the doors and gates were so low. Imerovigli was definitely one of those places where it all came to light. Much quieter than Fira with much fewer tourists, shops and congestion this was the place where many of the popular hotels and villas were, more or less stacked above of each other with only narrow roads and low roofs separating them. The views here were also very impressive and this is the place where I got most of my amazing shots, but once that was done, we found nothing else interesting to explore. So we set off back on the quad and traveled back to Perissa.

One place we were definitely told to visit was s place called Akrotiri. This place didn’t have impressive views, hotels or tourists shops, but the remains of an advanced civilisation native to Santorini. Sadly, the museum wasn’t open when we got there and after walking around for a few minutes we discovered there wasn’t much more to this place so we hopped back onto the quad and drove around. We came across a few modern buildings which were perfect for photos because of the Mediterranean surroundings. To end the evening, we stopped by at a place that claimed to have the best view of the sunset in Santorini, I was skeptical at first since I was told Oia was the best place for that, but after seeing a number of seats that were reserved my skepticism subsided somewhat. We were there too early for the sunset so we ordered some drinks and a pizza. As the evening came closer the place started to fill up, soon there was a crowd around us, we had stumbled on a gem, unfortunately, I’m unable to remember its name, therefore, have no way of recommending it, but they weren’t wrong. The views of the sunset here were wonderful, and the clear sky definitely helped with how good the images I took looked.

On our penultimate day on the Greek island in of Santorini, we exchanged our quad bike for a sailboat and spent the day at sea. Regrettably, we didn’t plan the trip very well and although we had heard about the cruise the previous morning, we only decided to go on it a few minutes before we were allowed to. Manos was shocked once we told him and quickly filled in forms, called the cruise company, and wrote out our tickets once they confirmed our places. We jogged to the coach stop (which the locals called the Big Coop) and hopped onto the coach. In no time we were on the coast surrounded by masses of tourists all getting on their relevant boats and ships, ours was the King Thiras and our tour guide, Nadia, was a multilingual, energetic, brunette with weathered skin and a slightly crooked nose. She wore a long autumn brown dress, golden sandals, and a straw hat for when the sun hit her face. We all sat around in various places on the boat before we were given instructions in four different languages, English, French, Spanish, and German. Once all instructions were understood, we set off to the Volcano.

The trip took longer than we thought which soon made us realise our first error due to lack of preparation we didn’t pack any food. The island views and sea breeze could only mask the fact that we were hungry for so long and not only did we not bring anything to satisfy this urge, we didn’t bring any cash with us to purchase food on the boat, living in London lead us to believe cards were accepted pretty much everywhere, apparently not. The sight of paninis, snacks, and drinks people were purchasing around us made our stomachs rumble but the thought of us stopping at a place with food carried us through. We arrived at the Volcano but couldn’t actually walk on it because surprise surprise, we needed to pay money to do that and, they didn’t take cards, so we sat on the boat until the others were back. Luckily we weren’t alone and had an unusually well-dressed English group to keep us company. One dressed in red, another brown and the third, more of a tan colour, I’m not entirely sure what they were expecting but their attire definitely didn’t fit in with the heat and the amount of exploring that was expected to take place on our trip. Once everyone returned we set off again to the hot springs of Santorini. This was the least impressive part, not because I couldn’t swim and therefore had to watch others dive out of the ship, but because they didn’t look that particularly impressive. The springs were outdoors not in a cave or an enclosed space, they didn’t look vastly different from the majority of the sea, and they didn’t have water shooting out of them, it didn’t look particularly warm either. An experience nevertheless I guess, it was good we only spent 20 minutes there or I’m certain people would have questioned if our time was being well spent. Our next destination was a rural part of the island that I’ve also forgotten the name of, luckily this place had a few restaurants that took cash cards.

Sitting near the sea and waiting for a steak and chips was a good feeling. We could see small fish swimming by the pebbles on the shore and people in knee deep water splashing around and snorkeling, it was busy, but calm at the same time. After our lunch and ice creams, we walked around the area and I noticed an incredibly high vertical winding path, the urge to see what was on the top there ignited my curiosity, Hannah, on the other hand, wasn’t too fussed so–I decided to brave it solo. The first few steps were not too difficult at first, but the higher it got, the more obstacles came in my path. For starters it got much hotter, sweat was dripping from my face like I just had a shower, there were donkey feces all over the floor which I had to weave in and out of in my flip-flops. The ground became more rocky and uneven and worst of all, people who I assumed were less fit than I was were walking past me effortlessly. Eventually, I got to the top and took some time to catch my breath, then did some exploring with camera in hand.

It was quiet and very rural, there were a lot of rocks around the place, abandoned old Mediterranean buildings with rusty metal and paint peeling off the wood. There must have been about three or four stray cats which was not an unusual sight considering the number of stray animals we say in Perissa, I spotted some old ladies having a conversation in their front garden and a large yellow building with an ATM, which was pretty weird considering there were no other shops up here apart from that one. Exploring done, I went back down to the ground level, reunited with my wife, and got back on the boat ready for our next and final destination Oia.

Oia was I place I was told I ‘had’ to visit. It was the place I was told had the best sunset and the best views of the sea, so I had high hopes for this place even before setting for there. The ship was much emptier on the trip to Oia was an extra expense we had paid for (although Nadia had no way of checking so I’m sure there were a few who didn’t pay who came along). Once we got there we were given some important instructions, we should meet at the church with three blue domes, six bells, and three blue dolphins below it at 6 pm, on the dot, simple right. With that said we headed off towards Oia, but we had to walk up a steep winding path to get there. With my previous training, I found this easy, I walked past people, dodged the donkey mess on the floor, but had to take a few pit stops for Hannah to catch her breath. I was still sweating a lot but I was used to it now, wiping it off my brow whilst powering through the heat, the effort was definitely worth it for what we encountered at the top. Marble, marble everywhere, on the floors, on the walls of shops, even on some ornaments, Oia was indeed beautiful, with golden poles holding up white canopies and blue pools with wooden stools, red prickly plants, and white pebbles. We were shocked by how good this place looked compared to the rest of the island it was like night and day. All the stores and restaurants that were around looked incredibly expensive and the caliber of tourists here was definitely a cut above normal, you could tell by the way they dressed and the way they walked. We decided to locate the church building we had to be at by six so we’d know where to go when the time was right, it looked exactly as she described it. A small town square with a round golden image of three dolphins, then a large church with six bells and three blue domes. There were a few people near it taking pictures and starring, we didn’t stay too long as we didn’t want to miss the sunset. We followed the crowd down narrow paths till we got to the top of the town. We purchased some water and ice creams then found somewhere with the best view.

Around half an hour later and the sun had only moved down by what looked like three inches, we were too early, but so were many others, and the crowd increased dramatically as time went on. There were no seats so everyone had to either stand, or find a roof to sit on. People stood and climbed wherever they thought they would get a good view. When the sun did eventually come down for it hid behind clouds, the sky was clear for most of the day but only became cloudy just when the sun was setting, typical. All in all, we weren’t very impressed with the view, luckily we went to the place before that claimed to have the best sunsets in Santorini. Attempting to make our way back to the designation point via a different route was a bad idea, we saw some really interesting places but nothing that was familiar to us, we were very lost and with not that much time left. Luckily, we bumped into the very well dressed girls we saw on the ship (the way they were dressed made sense in Oia) who led us back to the church with a few minutes to spare. We really enjoyed Oia, apart from the fact that the sunset wasn’t great and there was only one public toilet which was difficult to find and charged you money to use it (I was bursting at one point), it’s definitely a place we’ll visit if we ever went back to Santorini.

Our last day in the Greek Island was spent by the pool, staring at the sky, going for the occasional dip, and saving a German lady form a locked toilet door. Santorini was a great place to spend a honeymoon, and although we should have done way more research, we ended up having a good time and going to some interesting places.

1. The UK in Spanish-speaking

The Rock of Gibraltar is an interesting place for many reasons. First and most obvious of all are the many British elements around the place. Yes, it is counted as part of Great Britain, but it has enough Spanish elements to make the British ones look very much out of place. Red telephone boxes, London-like policemen in green fluorescent jackets, BBC news on the televisions, the use of pounds as a currency, not to mention the many British high street shops and banks in the town centre. All of these items were around palm trees, many Spanish-speaking people, warm weather and right-hand driving. It’s a sight that takes a while to get used to, however, after I did, the charm of it all becomes quite apparent.

2. British people everywhere

The majority of tourists there were British which makes sense as it’s not a very drastic transition from place to place (well, minus what was mentioned in the previous point), there were a few Spanish, although the majority of them actually worked on the peninsula, and even fewer tourists from other parts of the world.

The morning and the early afternoon crowd were mostly young families and elderly people, lots of elderly people. It almost felt like it was a retreat for old British folk on our first morning there, we were shocked by the sheer amount of them at first, but it wasn’t long till we got used to it. In the late afternoon and evening, the crowd got younger and after the sun went down on the pubs and bars were filled with young Brits on different levels of intoxication. It wasn’t as rowdy as the atmosphere in Brighton, but I have a feeling it might have ended up that way if we stayed out a bit longer.

3. The Spanish border

As I’ve mentioned before Gibraltar is part of the UK, not Spain, so in order to get to Spain, one would have to go through border control. Now living in England for most of my life I had never seen the border of two different counties on the same land before, especially one that was so busy. There was always a traffic jam going through it and being so close to the airport didn’t help since people were probably also driving from either side to get there. I heard that most of the people that work in Gibraltar actually live in Spain and commute in every day which definitely must have added to its numbers. Although I didn’t see as many people as cars going through, there were a handful tourists and locals waddling through every so often, in fact, we even gave it a go.

I’d never been to Spain before and even setting a foot in for five seconds was good enough for me. To our surprise it was incredibly simple, just flash a passport which the border control really didn’t bother to scrutinise, walk through a few doors and voila, ‘Bienvenido a España’. The difference between the places was immediate, everything was in written in Spanish, the colour palette architecture included more oranges and yellows, and the place felt, less looked after. Streets were littered there was more vandalism around, and the few people we saw weren’t as well dressed. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the food from the Spanish McDonalds restaurant before heading back to familiar ground.

4. Gibraltar Airport runway

This is something Hannah picked up on immediately but I didn’t notice until we landed from England. As the plane started approaching the short runway we noticed traffic and pedestrians waiting behind a red and white barrier on either side, as a train was about to pass. At first, I took no notice of this. It wasn’t until after we landed were the barriers lifted and the traffic moved, across the runway. I had never seen anything like it, I knew that the peninsula was small but I wasn’t aware it was so small its airport runway had to intersect with a busy road. To make matters more interesting, the main road from Gibraltar to Spain cut through the airport, so not only did traffic accumulate from the border control–but also traffic from the airport runway barriers. We experienced this first had when we discovered we had to walk across the runway to get to our hotel, I couldn’t stop looking around at how close I was to the planes and ground support equipment.

5. Monkeys

The rock of Gibraltar isn’t called that for the same of it, there is an enormous rock that makes up almost a quarter of the land, naturally, this was the main tourist attraction. In order to reach the summit, we took the cable car which showed amazing views of the peninsula from a great height. Once up it was possible to view attractions such as the Moorish castle and St. Michael’s Cave which, although we didn’t personally visit, I heard promising things about, and last but not least, the monkeys, lots of them all over the rock, for people to look at and take pictures of which was pretty much all you were allowed to do. No petting, no feeding, no taunting them, and definitely no plastic bags in sight of them. We saw first hand what happened when someone showed off their white bag they must have got from a food shop, all their belongings fell to the ground when a primate ripped it open and scavenged for things inside before being chased away by a larger one. The monkeys were very confident and would climb onto car roofs, peoples heads and would not flinch or move away no matter how close someone got to them.

6. Swift marriage

The main reason Hannah and I were in Gibraltar was to get married, legally. Doing it in the UK would have involved both of our councils and taken over a month which wasn’t ideal for us. A friend of ours suggested we Gibraltar as a possible solution since their laws allowed for a legal marriage in 24 hours. The other option was, of course, Las Vegas, however, we had no intention of making a quick trip there just before our wedding.

Being one of the only [few] places in Europe that allow for a quick marriage is one thing that makes Gibraltar very unique, whilst there we saw many people who were married and spoke to others who planned to do the same. The queue to the registry was incredibly long, and although most of those looking to get married were British (surprise surprise), there were a few others from different parts of the world. This law no doubt helps with their economy, tourism and is probably one of the reasons why the hotels were incredibly expensive.

7. Pricey hotels

To be fair, we did book the hotel quite late, and I’m sure it would be much cheaper to book a hotel in Spain and travel into Gibraltar, however, our predicament didn’t allow that. In order to be legally married in Gibraltar, both participants had to spend a period of 24 hours in a Gibraltar hotel, not a Spanish one. To my understanding, this was a law introduced by the hotels to make some money for couples aspiring to be married which, makes sense but it’s very sneaky considering they were around 5 times more expensive than hotels across the border. There are only a handful of hotels on the great Rock so a lot of them were fully booked so I guess that’s one explanation for their hefty price tags, and the one that we did end up booking had a pool, a gym, and a games room, and some amazing Mediterranean views from our room, or at least we were told. The gym and games room matched the size of a bedroom in a studio flat, the pool was being refurbished and was out of order until the following year, as a result, the hotel was surrounded by scaffolding blocking out any picturesque scenery from our windows. Our request for a discount of some sort wasn’t completely honoured, I mean we had to stay in order to fulfil the task we were there to do in the first place, so we were in their hands more than they were in ours.

In conclusion, would we visit Gibraltar again? It’s very unlikely as there isn’t much to do and we visited most of the popular attractions, but there is a chance we might ‘pop over’ if we’re around that part of Spain. Did we have a good time there? Yes, it was fun. We had a beautiful legal marriage in The Alameda botanical gardens, our wedding assistants were fantastic, and the whole ordeal was fairly smooth. Would I recommend it? If you’re in Europe and want to get married quickly then I can think of no better place. On the other hand, if you’re looking for somewhere interesting to travel to, Gibraltar is great for observing the British items on the land, but there is no need to spend longer than a week there as there is a chance you might get bored.

Ollie

Brighton is the closest beach to where I’ve lived for most of my life so it’s no surprise that it’s been my most visited one. I can recall my younger self, screaming on the pier roller coaster, dipping my toes in the sea from the pebble beach, playing arcade games in Sega World, and being there when my step mother was tricked into buying a bag of stones she thought was a mobile phone, (which is a story my wife has never stopped laughing at). Brighton beach is in most of my beach memories growing up so it was a destination I had to visit with Hannah during our courtship. We purchased tickets, hopped on a train from East Croydon, and in 45 minutes we were in the bustling seaside town which, didn’t look as I remembered.

I had never travelled to Brighton by train before always by car, so when we arrived at the station I expected us to exit straight onto the beach, I didn’t expect us to be met with large crowds, a high street, and all manner of stores that could be found in Croydon shopping centre. The weather was a scorching 21 degrees Celsius which explained why there were people everywhere and why we could feel the breath of someone close to us every few seconds. We even checked our bags to make sure nothing was stolen soon after someone who previously behind us, plucked up the courage to overtake. The type of people there was a mixture of young people in 90s, grunge rock attire, tourists, and people who looked homeless. 

Hannah has some familiarity with the area and led me to a trendy part of the town, a street with colourful walls, ‘arty’ stores and multicoloured bunting above us going from one row of buildings to the next. The number of people there didn’t reduce, but this crowd had some knowledge of personal space. We visited a Photomatic store with old, American style photo booths and took three sets of four images, two black and white, one colour. Unbeknownst to us, this was the first of many photo booth shots we would take throughout our relationship, I’m sure we’ll create an album out of all the ones we have at some point. Continuing weaving in and out of crowds we said our final farewells to Gardner Street by purchasing some ice lollies then made our way back to the main road.

On one of my occasional Google map checks for our current location, I spotted a place on the way called the Royal Pavilion which became the start of our second detour. This was definitely the most unexpected building of our trip. The Royal Pavilion is a sort of palace possibly built as a seaside resort for some royalty, but based on the Indian architecture of the place I wasn’t sure if it was for Russian royalty, British or otherwise? Nevertheless, the large building was incredibly beautiful and the well-kept garden surrounding it matched its beauty in every way. It contained very colourful flora which either of us were familiar with, and a pond full of koi (which is something we were familiar with). We searched for a way to get into the pavilion itself but were unsuccessful, and didn’t have the confidence to ask the people on the balconies how they got up there. Done with our second detour, we progressed to the reason we were there in the first place, Brighton Beach.

The beach was pretty much how I remembered it, pebbles instead of sand, lots of activities mainly for children, people selling items along the promenade and last but not least, the famous pier which was where we went first. There were a multitude of food vendors claiming to have the best type of food in Brighton, clothes stores, and music coming out if various speakers placed around the pier. The view of the beach from there was fantastic and so was the view if the sea, it was even possible to see water beneath us by looking through the cracks in the floor, this ordinarily would be scary for someone like me who isn’t a strong swimmer, but I had full confidence of Hannah coming to my rescue if I fell. We bought some fish and chips from a navy blue store not far from the entrance and sat by the side of it. We were extremely surprised by the size of battered cod and the number of chunky chips we were given for £7 each, one box would have been more that sufficient for the both of us.

Our hunger satisfied and stomach settled we continued down the pier and made our way into a large, carpeted hall packed with all sorts of arcade games; [slots, coin pusher, candy crush and a few arcade ones]. Although we had no interest in playing them–well, Hannah did put a few coins in one of the machines hoping for the money over the edge to tip over but she had no luck. We made our exit after that defeat and continued wandering. Taking some pictures from a few cutouts before I noticed a shop that claimed to have the best milkshakes in Brighton, I just had to see how good these milkshakes were. We made our was back to the entrance to find a Moo Moo’s Coffee and Shakes, I was spoilt for choice, their flavours were very creative ranging from milkshakes made from Maltesers, toffee crumble and chocolate flakes called 'the Teaser’, to one made out of banana, Twix and digestives called 'Banoffee Pie’ which is the one I went for. 

Now at the time of writing this article, I haven’t yet written a post about the best milkshakes I’ve had but when I get round to writing that this one will be in the top three. The thought had never crossed my mind to put Twix, digestives and banana in a milkshake but ever since that experience I believe I will do it more often. The taste of this shake was fantastic but what sold it to me was its course nature, bits of digestives mixed with the chocolate caramel of the Twix gave such a unique, desirable flavour which makes me want to experiment with ingredients for milkshakes even more. Once done with the wonders of the pier we made our way to the pebble beach to enjoy the sound of the sea and the feeling of pebbles on our skin. With no parasol or beach towel, we found an empty spot near the sea and lay down. We were surrounded by other couples, families, of people who wanted to stare at the waves alone. For some reason, we spent much less time here than at the pier, but we soon got up and began to walk along the promenade. The familiar architecture came before us. Green railings, red brick walls, and arches. This was always the first thing I saw when I got out if the car as a child and seeing it then brought back so many memories.

The sun was setting, it began to a little bit colder and the crowd changed from the 90’s grunge type to the 'chav party animal’ type, and that was our cue to leave the area. The day was definitely one time remember and we’re both very excited to make a future trip to Brighton, although we’ll need to do some research for different thongs to do before we set off.

There was a time when conversations at work or between friends would purely be about what shows we’ve been watching and what we expect to happen in future episodes. Popular shows like ‘The Walking Dead’, 'Suits’ and 'Silicon Valley’ were what usually sparked office conversations, however, I’ve found myself watching less and less shows to point where now I’ve only really kept up with one show this year, ’Designated Survivor’, yes I know – not the best show but entertaining enough to keep me interested. I use the word kept up loosely as now I’m two episodes behind the latest one at the time of writing this and it feels like I watch an episode once every three weeks. So what happened in my life? What has caused me to spend less time catching up with the shows I loved last year? Well, a few things.

1. Jeff Sheldon

In the grand scheme of things watching TV shows; playing video games, reading certain books, watching certain films, and a handful of other things are a waste of time. No matter how you look at it, there’s always something more productive, more fulfilling and more beneficial one could be doing with their life.

Jeff Sheldon is the founder of an online clothing line called Ugmonk. He’s someone whose story I’ve heard before on podcasts and someone I really look up to. Late last year he arranged an AMA on Instagram where people including myself asked a bunch of questions. I can’t remember what I wrote or his response verbatim, nevertheless, I believe my question was along the lines of; ’do you play any video games?’ His response was, ’No, they’re a waste of time.’

At first, I was shocked and slightly offended that someone I admire could say such things about a hobby so near and dear to my heart, however, after a bit of thought, I don’t believe he was saying it in an offensive tone, which is difficult to grasp in a text. Jeff himself wouldn’t have the time to play even if he wanted to. Running a business and being a father are already quite time-consuming, he would probably want to spend the little free time he has with his child, working on a new idea, or probably losing himself in a tv show, maybe? Everyone has their own way of 'wasting time’, and I guess video games was not his. This made me look at the things I do that aren’t really productive and watching TV series was definitely one of the things I could do less of in place of something else.

2. Video Games

This section follows very closely from the point I made on wasting time and Jeff Sheldon’s comment on wasting time. No video games haven’t taken up the free time I’ve gained from not watching tv series, well, not all of the time. Playing video games is something I’ve done from childhood, it’s shaped the kind of music I listen to, the kind of people I associate with, and even the job I have today. Although it’s a waste of time, it’s something I don’t intend to give up. With the aim of spending more of my free time wisely, tv series are one of those things I am more than happy to reduce and something I was willing to do in its place was play more games, even if it’s two hours or thirty minutes more than the usual amount of time I played for. Nothing beats the escapism of playing a great story driven video game and yes, I do love tv series, the immersion isn’t as strong and, I’d much rather have conversations about games at work than tv shows.

3. Relationship and marriage

Following on ever so slightly from both of the points I made above. Spending time with my fiancé definitely isn’t a waste of time and is something I’m more than happy to give up tv shows for. Although we sometimes watch shows together, New Girl being our current one, it’s not something we’ve kept up with regularly. And we’ve never really had any shows in common to start conversations over so there has been no obligation on either of our parts to keep anything up. Who knows, maybe in the future we’ll spend more lazy afternoons together behind a screen catching up on box sets, but currently that doesn’t look like an avenue we’d go down. We’re more into working on small projects (like this blog) or travelling to places we’ve never visited.

In short, everyone has a thing they do that is a 'waste of time’, and although I haven’t completely stopped, I’ve decided to cut mine down by a chunk to do the things that aren’t a waste of time. I hope you find this post useful in some way.

The past 10 months of being with Oliver have not only expanded my taste buds but also my waistline! 2017 has brought with it so many different eating experiences it is hard to choose only 5 for this post. Here is a concise a run down as I can make.

SNAPS AND RYE
Having a grandfather who hales from Denmark I feel like I have an inherent love for all things Scandinavian. I point out Danish design constantly and praise their style so often that Oliver decided to treat me to a wonderful evening eating at a Danish restaurant. It was such a thoughtful surprise. After a blissful afternoon wandering around various galleries, we headed to our reservation. On arriving we felt like we couldn’t be at the correct place. It looked more like a cafe than an establishment to serve evening meals. Don’t let the deli counter or size of Snaps and Rye fool you though, it was a delight. We were seated close to the door on entering, however as it was a fresh January evening there was quite a draught coming in through the window and door. I felt a little too foolish to wrap myself up in one of the provided blankets so we asked to be seated a little further into the restaurant. I’m so glad we did. We were tucked away in the back, near the kitchen. The atmosphere as other guests nestled into tables around us was so lovely and friendly. The design of the place made us feel immediately at ease and the lighting was sublime and very Danish. Once we were settled the set menu for the evening was brought out to us so we could see what food we would be tucking into, and in what order. Then the food followed. I Lost count of a number of plates brought out for us. Each of our courses was exquisitely presented and packed with the most wonderful flavours. It was so much fun to chat over and discuss each course, and the experience was as lovely as the food we were eating. I would highly recommend Snaps and Rye, particularly to celebrate a special occasion or maybe just to treat a loved one. We definitely plan to return and are keeping it on our list of fancy places to go for birthdays.

DUCK AND WAFFLE

The duck and waffle is an experience. Prior to going, we heard so many good things about this restaurant. Oliver was especially excited to see what the fuss was about. The process of booking a table resulted in staying up until midnight and deciding what time we wanted to eat 2 months in advance! We thought it must be worth the wait! After booking so far in advance our reservation crept up on us out of the blue, like finding a £10 note in the back pocket of an old pair of jeans, it was a lovely surprise. We dressed up for the first time going out on a date together and headed out. It felt like such a special evening. Because we had booked in advance we were able to skip the queue at the bottom of the heron tower. The glass fronted lift rose at speed and London was laid out before us. We were seated at a table by the window and had spectacular views of the city in all its brilliant nighttime glow, watching little London buses like ants working their way through the streets below. Now, this is the part where I have, to be honest. If we hadn’t been given a window table I would have been quite cheesed off. 

The view made the experience memorable, but unfortunately, neither of us particularly enjoyed the food. We asked the waitress serving us what she recommended, and how many plates to go for (it was a tapas-style small plate place). After this discussion, we settled on creme brûlée foie gras, ox cheek doughnut, sourdough bread, apple pork skewers and the classic duck and waffle. Firstly there was about twice as much food there as we needed. If we were to go again we both agreed that the duck and waffle alone would be more than sufficient. As for the other dishes, they were very difficult to stomach. the brazen mix of sweet, sugar and bitter savoury did not suit our taste buds and we struggled to hide as much as possible under our cutlery and around our plates to look like we had given it a good go. So it was a mixed bag, we may return, we may not… I hear that the best time to go is actually for brunch, the menu is different and a little less unusual which probably would suit our taste more.

PING PONG 

There are Ping Pong’s all across London, and unlike the title might suggest it is not a table tennis place (I was a little disappointed when I found this out). We went to the ping pong on the south bank. It was a spur of the moment meal choice as we were hungry one evening and wandering around looking for a place to eat. We were sat near the kitchen on a sharing table, though none came to join us which was nice. We had a brilliant view of the dishes being prepared and popped on the counter ready to distribute to their allocated tables. 

Oliver had a great time taking photos of the business. The buzz and atmosphere of the restaurant was contagious and we had an enjoyable evening of wonderful conversation and merriment. The food came all at different times as an when it was ready. It is Chinese cuisine, where you order several small plates to share for your meal. As with the duck and waffle, we enquired as to how many dishes we would need, and again found there to be much too much food for us. I was a real fan of the food and Ollie took some pics so you can check out the deliciousness of our meal. As someone who doesn’t drink alcohol there usually isn’t much exciting on offer in the soft drinks department… not at ping pong! There were so many cool drinks to order, we chose quite a few! My very favourite was a homemade lemonade with separate raspberry and strawberry syrup you add yourself. It was amazing, I highly recommend Ping Pong!

OZONE

 
Shoreditch is such a great place to mooch around. After a morning of people watching, window shopping and just generally feeling pretty cool, hip and smug with ourselves we decided it was time ‘do brunch’ and search out some food. You know an establishment is good when the queue is out of the door. The wait was so worth it, Ozone doesn’t disappoint. We were sat next to each other on the bar table which surrounds the kitchen so were able to see all the plates being laid and food prepared. I could have happily chosen anything from the menu, there was a lot of indecision before we came up with our final choices. I went for eggs benedict and Ollie, an English breakfast with scrambled eggs. It was a gorgeous taste explosion, the memory of this place is making my tummy rumble. The staff we spoke to were all from Australia and New Zealand and were so super friendly. Go eat brunch!!

ON THE HOOF

On The Hoof was one of those places we discovered by accident. In our search for a property, we decided it would be a good idea to check around areas where we might potentially be able to afford to live before buying. One evening after work we looked on the tube map and decided to start with Sydenham. The high street was pretty bland shop wise with a plethora of estate agents, in fact, it was like the Hatton gardens of estate agents! We walked up and down looking for an eatery, there was one sit-in place. It looked pretty empty but we decided to check it out. 

The decor inside was so interesting. I’m assuming that at some point it was an optometrist because the walls were covered in framed black and white photos or people wearing opticians lenses. One wall was covered in mirrors. The bathroom had an eye test in it and a reading card on the back of the door. A touch I enjoyed the most which tied the theme together beautifully was the bill arrived presented in a glasses case. That all said, I’m not sure why it was called 'on the hoof’, without asking we might never know! The service was great and the place had such a lovely homely feel. I think it was only lacking music for the atmosphere maybe. It was quite quiet while we were in there, it became about half full but the close proximity of guests felt like we could hear other people’s conversations and I was conscious of being overheard. Our plates were piled with decent portions of wholesome food very reasonably priced. I hope this place stays in Sydenham for a long time and receives lots of custom. It is definitely the jewel in Sydenham high street!

It’s easy to assume that someone who grew up with people from Ghana, went to church populated primarily of West Africans, and attended very culturally diverse schools would have experienced or at least have some knowledge of what takes place in a traditional Ghanaian engagement, however, this assumption isn’t at all correct in my case. My upbringing has been somewhat westernised and although I had heard of such events, I have never been interested in attending one. To me, it came across as a quick and cheap alternative to having a white wedding and therefore didn’t deserve as much attention. The closest I have ever been to attending one was when my mother got married. A marquee was set up in our garden and many attended the ceremony, I however, was not amongst them. I observed it for about 5 seconds, got bored, then scurried up to my room to continue playing video games. Don’t worry, my mother is very relaxed and wasn’t offended in the slightest (at least that’s what she lead me to believe)

The proposal to my gorgeous, beautiful, long term girlfriend of eight months wasn’t a surprise to my family, what was a surprise however, was my mother’s request for us to have a traditional wedding. It isn’t something any of our cousins did before they got married so I didn’t see the need, nevertheless my mother was adamant. She wanted to give Hannah’s family a taste of the African culture, which to be honest was very admirable on her part. Preparations for the event involved plenty of gift buying, getting measured for, and trying on some traditional West African clothing, as well as the organisation of a venue, decoration, and food (which I didn’t have much of a hand in). I stayed relatively calm leading up to the event my main worry being it would run on for too long, or the non-African participants would find the ordeal incredibly weird. To my surprise, the whole thing went quite well.

I wasn’t present for the beginning of it, but I’m aware both sides were split up. Hannah side stayed in the venue (which was the hall of my church), while my side stayed outside until they were called in. The idea being that the hall was meant to represent Hannah’s parent’s home where the engagement traditionally is supposed to take place. Her side was briefed on what would take place then my side were called in and sat down. Five seats were placed at the bottom of the stage in the middle and key members of the family faced each other while conversations took place. Neither side spoke to each other directly, but through a spokesperson, the aim was for both parties to barter on a reasonable price or dowry for the woman. Replicating what was said at the event in this article wouldn’t do it much justice, nevertheless, there was a lot of laughter and mistakes made as it was a first for many. After the back and forth conversation, the actual engagement took place. I was brought in behind four of my close friends walking in as robotically as humanly possible, we’re not the best dancers. I greeted Hannah’s family twice, first normally, and the second time kneeling down to show respect which was all part of the theatrics. I also wasn’t permitted to speak directly to anyone, but also through a spokesperson. Later on, a girl in a veil was brought in behind a few of her friends (well one person). Now I knew this was Hannah’s sister Lucy because I had seen her only a few minutes before this so a veil wouldn’t do much to disguise her, but I believe the idea was for me to get shocked and annoyed that I had been given the slip. I played along for the audience. One thing I was told about but didn’t believe was the exchange of money from the woman’s side, this happened every now and again during the engagement. I heard a story one where the girl’s father wasn’t happy for her to be given away (because the man had impregnated her) and asked for a large sum of money before he was satisfied. Anyway, I had to give Lucy some money, five pounds or so, which was given to me beforehand, I was told for her transportation but again, this was for theatrics. I’m not sure where the bait-and-switch tactic in these ceremonies originated, but I believe it has something to do with the Bible but I haven’t done enough research to be certain.

Around half an hour later another woman covered in a veil walked in behind her friends, again I was meant to pretend I had no idea this was Hannah, but I saw her get her dress fitted weeks before so again, it was obvious. She danced in behind the other ladies and stood in front of me. I unveiled her, messing up her hair in the process (which she never lets me forget), but she looked stunning, and she gave me such an amazing, happy smile, we hugged deeply for a long period of time, posed for the photographer, then another 100 mobile phone cameras, and went to sit down as more conversation took place. Then, a wedding-esk section preceded which involved us bowing to a prayer, my pastor picking up the engagement ring I bought for Hannah when I proposed, said a bunch of stuff about the importance of marriage, the slipped the ring on her finger, we hugged again, then sat on the lavishly decorated couch on the stage for more pictures. The latter half of the event wasn’t as nervous as the first. We all had something to eat from various Ghanian dishes to choose from including; Jollof rice, Fried Plantain, Wache, and so much more, which went down really well. After the food had settled, dancing took place and surprisingly, almost everyone there got up and showed off some of their moves on the dance floor. All in all, the event was a success thanks to the people who attended; especially Hannah’s family members who travelled long distances, the people who presented, the people who decorated, made food and last but not least, my mother for putting all this together in such short notice and a limited budget. None of this would have happened without her.

So why am I putting this article together in a packed Starbucks opposite Clapham Common station? Well, one reason for this is so that the people who wanted to attend but didn’t, could get a quick overview of what happened however, the main reason is for those who are clueless of what takes place during a Ghanaian engagement ceremony, especially for those who are about to have one. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post I was completely clueless as to what happened during one and if there was an article like this out somewhere on the internet it would have put mine (and Hannah’s) mind slightly at ease. So if you are planning to go down a similar path that we did my final words of advice are as follows; don’t panic, it’ll be over a lot faster than you think, and you probably won’t remember much, so relax, and focus on having a fun time.

(Photos by Ernest Simons)