Our father, who art in heaven.....

Hola blogers,

Made a few promises to God at the weekend .......in relation to the guidance and teaching of my niece Isabella. Jose and I are her godparents and it was her baptism last Sunday. The poor thing was full of cold, as was the whole family, so she wasn't as angelic as she can be. I did the ritual draping of the shawl over her and Jose held the candle that was lit for her. It was quite amusing to see Jose squirm when the Father gave Jose the candle and started blessing it. The ceremony involves quite a few responses from the parents and the godparents and Jose was panicking in case the Father was going to expect him to respond to any blessings at this point - in solo. Nothing like that was required though so his "Can you repeat plesase Father" wasn't rolled out.

On Monday morning we went up to the statley home where we are having our wedding reception, to look over the terraces and lawns where the drinks and marquee will be situated. We were both very happy and excited after seeing it all again. We can't wait!

Jose was subjected to his first night out in Leeds last Saturday. It was doing itself proud with herds of hen parties and other ridiculously clothed (barely) young girls. Everyone seriously drunk and talking to everyone else in the street. You can't beat that Northern confidenceand humour. Jose was actually loving it and said he could live there. He likes the fact that everyone has "got balls" as he put it. He's certainly not wrong. I quashed any silly idfeas of living there though - the weather is just unbearable for me.

Unlike in Leeds, the sun has continued to shine here for the last few weeks. In fact, yesterday I was sat on the beach! We went down to a village just south of Valencia because Jose had a meeting down there. While he worked, I went for an hour long walk along the sea front and then bought myself a plastic chair and took to the beach with my book for a couple of hours. There were people in bikinis and people swimming. I personally woudn't go that far just yet - but it was certainly warm enough to be sitting there in a t shirt reading. What a hard life I have!

This weekend is our first weekend in a long time which we have to ourselves. We are looking forward to being able to lie in bed, go shopping, watch videos, eat out ....all the normal weekend things. We have been in the company of others at the weekend for what seems like forever. Mum says my life always ends up like that. I think I am probably to blame as Jose is often commenting on how he thinks I need to learn how to do nothing. I like to be busy and sociable you see. I get my quiet me time through the week though so I don't think there is anything to worry about - only Jose's stress levels (whoops!).

Oh I am sporting my engagement ring now! So, I'm taking peoples' eyes out left right and centre. It had been waiting in England because the wedding band was being made to fit next to it. Picked it up from my sister's safe last weekend. Hurrah!

S xx