The One About the Flowers....

I just had to share a picture of the flowers my lovely OH came home with for me today :)  he doesn't buy flowers for special occasions, he simply brings them when he feels like it, which makes it far more of a surprise and always puts a smile on my face :)

So I'm done with my studying for the day (finally!) and really I had to put a good few hours in as I've been on a bit of a break, as I've come to the end of my first module, and so have nothing to move onto yet, and am waiting to hear back from my tutor about my third and final progress test.  All being well, I can then register for my first exam.  Which is a bit scary, as I think they're only meant to take two hours for the whole module, whereas its taken me two hours per progress test, and I've done three!!!  So I'm quite concerned, hence starting to revise today!

Following my last post where I talked about the story behind our Salsa dancing, I had a bit of a revelation.  I've finally 'got' what Shimelle is trying to get us to do with these blogs.  Its somewhere to write the memories before they get onto the scrapbook page or before they get forgotten, well thats what I think anyway!  So this might turn into an update about daily life, and a bit of reminiscing too :) So I'm going to try to write more lengthy posts about things, because up till now its mostly been heres what I did and heres a picture, I'm still probably going to miss stuff out because I find it hard to share but we'll see how I get on!

So with that in mind I thought that i would share the story of how my OH half and I first met.....

Well I did the brave thing and signed up to a dating website (I thought it was brave anyway, it was well out of my comfort zone and no-one else I knew had done it so there we are) my single friend in fact, the one brought about by Sarah Beeney.  I was at that point in my life where all my friends had partners, and I just wasn't meeting anyone, and I'm not the type of girl who goes out to a club/bar to find a man (not that there is anything wrong with it, just not for me). Then I read an article about this website, about how safe it all was, and how you messaged people first and got to know them before even thinking about meeting up, so I decided to take a look, and I lurked for a month or so before deciding to go ahead.  (IT was the success stories that swayed me, if they could do it why couldn't I?) My friends were completely supportive, and were just as excited about it by me.  So after a couple of dates, I found my OH, lets call him M, and sent him a message (again that was scary because I was sending out the first email - but I figured if I didn't try, I wouldn't get anywhere), and I had a lovely, chatty cheeky response within a day. It took three weeks of messaging before we decided to meet up, firstly because M didn't want to pressure me, and secondly there was a slight issue that M was going to the Isle of White for a few days.  And because we'd got so used to messaging through the MSF website every day we swapped mobile numbers and started texting instead while he was away.

So the actual first date... M suggested going to play crazy golf at the Trafford Centre (which I agreed to  even though it meant I had to go on a motorway, I hadn't driven on a motorway for several years because they scared me) (so two days before my best friend gave me a motorway lesson). We met at 11am and had a coffee and a chat (well mine was hot chocolate I don't like coffee), then went to play crazy golf, which was such fun, with me gently teasing him, and trying to be flirty!  I can't actually remember now who won, it probably wasn't me to be honest, my aim is rubbish.  We weren't quite ready for lunch yet, so we went to play pool. At which I was equally as bad, but that meant I could ask M to give me some pointers in lining up the shots!  Lunch was next, and different.  We went to the place that does Italian food but in small portions that you can order several of, and I can't remember the name of it now (even though we went back for our one year anniversary!)  We started with garlic bread, then I started looking at the dessert menu (I always do, to check how big a main I want and whether I need to save space for dessert - I'm sure I'm not the only one!) and the waitress said why don't you just have desserts. So thats what we did, three desserts between us! (I later found out that M isn't too fond of desserts and only did it because it was what I wanted :) ).  Then we didn't really want to part, so we went round the shops, had another drink, by which time it was 5pm and I had to get going to a family meal.  If I hadn't had to leave we would probably have stayed for hours! We had such a lot to talk about, and so much in common.  So there we go, our first date!

I also wanted to share this fab photo of my sister and I from the wedding last weekend that one of my sisters friends took.  I think it captured us perfectly :)

And after that mammoth memory I just wanted to write a short bit about how Eddie Stobart dies this week, aged only 56.  He built up the business and then sold it to his brother and another partner back in 2004, so he wasn't as involved so much in it these days.  The full story can be seen here.  And on Thursday I saw two Eddie's on the way to work, Danielle June and Jaime Anne :)

If you've made it this far I'm impressed, and thanks for reading!