It’s been just over 4 months since my last blog. I’ve been meaning to get back into it and have had so many different topics come and go through my head. But I’m a top procrastinator… one of those people that always says that they are busy and tired – making excuses as to why I haven’t done something.

So none of those topics have so far landed. Until now..

A big topic I have been meaning to write about, is the wedding of my brother’s brother and his now lovely wife.

Laurie & Christa are two of Adam’s closest friends. They hung out all the time – Adam going round to their place most nights and refusing to leave. In fact, Laurie recently told me a story about how Adam left their flat once, for them only to realise he had been stood outside whispering silly phrases through the front door until he was forced to go home.

Laurie and Adam were unofficial brothers, and I’m sure they began to look more and more like siblings than me and Adam ever did.

I’ve mentioned before that Adam’s friends took me under their wing back in 2016, and have since become very close friends of my own.

There’s times where you can now find me at Laurie & Christa’s place, doing face-masks with Christa, watching Laurie play Fifa, eating whatever takeaways we fancy and refusing to leave until the last minute, almost too tired to drive home.

You can probably imagine the excitement I felt when Laurie & Christa asked me to do a reading for them during the ceremony at their wedding. Not only did they want me to do a reading, but they wanted me to write something personal. They were impressed by my writing skills (😏) and thought it would be a nice touch.

Well this was a while before their wedding but in true procrastination style, I took a bottle of wine to my family home the weekend before, opened my laptop and wrote from the heart…

So today is National Poetry Day – I found out this morning when my Marketing colleague was trying to come up with an intranet software based poem for us to tweet… (I think she did quite well.)

It gave me a kick to come back to my blog, and share my poem from the wedding day.

I won’t be quitting my day job to become a world famous poet any time soon, but it went down well on the day and moved a few people…. even the cake was in tiers………..🙄

What I know about love
For Laurie and Christa – 07/09/19

Flowers, chocolates and cuddly toys
Facemasks and sleepovers, talking about boys
Movies and songs preaching romance perfection
Yearning for those over the top displays of affection
Disney’s damsels in distress
Telling you to always look your best
Act cute and coy but never alarming
That’s how you’ll find your own Prince Charming
That is what the world taught me about love.

Family: the longest thing we’ve ever known
Our friends being the family we choose on our own
Enjoying experiences that we will treasure forever
Laughing uncontrollably with each other – no feeling is better
Challenging yourself, taking risks if you dare
Whilst understanding the importance of your own self care
Taking care of yourself and learning who you are
Taking care of memories of those who are gone but never seem too far…
That is what I taught myself about love

Silly voices and weird languages
Finishing each-others strange sentences
Always welcoming friends into your home
A loving, a warming, a sometimes-messy home
Being the life of the parties, creating playlists that don’t flop
Walking down the aisle to Candy Shop
Staying calm and laid back whilst taking care of each other
Taking care of your friends, of me, and our brother
That is what you both taught me about love

Laurie, as much as you think you are, no one is perfect: but to each other you are
Enjoy your own happily ever after – not like the Disney ones mentioned above
And teach each other, and us all, some more about love.

❤️

For anyone wondering… yes Laurie and the boys did walk down the aisle to a string quartet playing Candy Shop.

The day was amazing and it was an honour to play such a huge part in a day where Adam would have been so heavily involved. He’d be so proud of you both, especially Christa’s floor slide to the Thong Song on the dance floor to rival his own.

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But what about your running?!

Naturally, I can imagine everyone is sat there wondering if I am still capable of running 5k let alone a marathon.

You’ll be pleased to know that running does still occasionally happen and I have another half marathon next Sunday. Not for charity or anything so don’t worry I won’t be asking for any more money. But I might just blog about it and keep going…

Back in April I was so inspired by the London Marathon on TV that I applied instantly and regretted it a few weeks later. I think some time in the next few weeks I will find out if I was successful…

I’m also heading back to New York in a few weeks – landing on the day of the NY marathon. I can’t quite believe it has almost been a year since the end of the 30for30 challenge. Perhaps I will feel emotional whilst walking around Times Square seeing runners with their medals…Or perhaps I will feel buzzing that I still have toenails and I don’t have a headache and I can actually enjoy NYC properly. I will let you know…

Fam ❤️