Tuesday 31 December 2013

2013 - I am Mrs

So, another year over... 

It's been an odd mix of stories that hit the headlines this year. 

Several former world leaders and politicians died; Margaret Thatcher, Hugo Chavez and Nelson Mandela.

Pope Benedict resigned (the first Pope to do so in 600 years) and was replaced (after much chimney watching) by Pope Francis.

Another frenzy of media watching was induced by the birth of Prince George, son of William and Kate and third in line to the throne. Simon McCoy (BBC reporter) became an internet sensation with his honest reporting from outside the hospital.



 
A meteor crashed to earth in Russia breaking thousands of windows in the process, and a helicopter hit some scaffolding attached to a tall building in London on a foggy morning killing the pilot and one person on the ground. In other news about tall buildings it was found that the 'Walkie-Talkie' one of the new crop of skyscrapers in the City of London reflect rays of sunlight to such an extent that damage was caused to cars.

There were some true horror stories; the explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon (leading to an extensively covered manhunt) and the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, startlingly close to home in Woolwich. The Boston manhunt was watched for several hours in this house on CNN as it was a Friday afternoon that our internet chose not to work, so I can personally vouch for the reporting of speculation on lack of facts. The Woolwich story was even stranger as shots of areas (where I have lived for over a decade) became unrecongnisable when shown from unfamilar angles. 

Boston had their moment of glory however, at the back end of the year when the Red Sox won the World Series. Husband being a Red Sox fan (I'm a Yankees fan) that was also huge news, at least in this house.

I have to thank 'Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2013', 'Charlie Brooker's 2013 Wipe' and some of Channel 5's countdown programmes for reminding me of the news this year. I missed a massive amount of it...

This year our personal story was our Wedding. Serious planning stepped up in the last six months before the wedding; flowers, cake, suit hire and of course the dress. My endlessley patient and organised mother drove me around all over the place to facilitate these tasks. I took Husband, his best man and my brother to the suit shop (handily near Waterloo in Borough) and had an excellent shopping trip to Lakeside (hadn't been there in decades) with my bridesmaids. Then there were of course the Hen Night and the Stag Do - both excellent outings for all concerned. Finally it was the big day; just as magical, amazing and wonderful as we could have hoped and imagined. Our two weeks honeymoon as tourists in London was amazing too, although we could have done without the heatwave!!!

So what will 2014 bring? I'll think about that tomorrow...