10 years ago today... THIS happened!!!!

Three cheers for Mrs Shan, as gorgeous now as she was back then, although *I* have "one or two" more grey hairs... :-) :-)

The decade has flown by, and has been one of huge changes, not least of which have been the addition of Master and Miss Shan! If I'd known what lay ahead of me a decade ago, I'd have turned tail and fled!!!

Our wedding day still stands out in my memories as one of my happiest days. We were surrounded by our closest friends and families. Everything went smoothly, although a few guests were delayed when they got caught up in the bedroom tax march which shut down much of central London that day. We got married on Whitehall, in the last remaining building of what was once London's premier palace -- apparently Henry VIII died in the room where we had our pre-meal drinks and nibbles -- and I always smile when I pass it on foot or on the bus. (I got a #12 bus to the ceremony, from the pub where my parents used to work when they lived in the London in the 1960s and 70s.) The food was great, we didn't run out of drinks, and the band got everyone up dancing.

We've lost some of the people who were there that day, people who were incredibly close to us, but in my mind's eye I remember them as they were that day, when they all came together to wish us well and launch us on our way as a married couple, so I don't feel that they're truly lost. Rather, they've been misplaced in this time and place, but in THAT time and place, they're dancing and smiling still, and Mrs Shan and I are dancing and smiling with them, and will be until we too are no longer able to dance and smile, when it will be the turn of others to remember us as we remember those who are already gone.

Here's to the decade just gone -- and the decades, hopefully, still to come.