Today it’s exactly one year ago that I wed my beloved Phyllis!

So much has happened since then – Amaia was conceived and born, I left Collins, and Phyllis and I started up our own company – but it still feels like yesterday.

It was definitely one of the best days of my life.

Share and enjoy:

The family has been told, so I can now finally announce Baked’s real name: Amaia Pernilla Buchanan-Widmann.

Amaia is a Basque name (‘the end’), which is often spelt Amaya in Spanish (some name books claim it’s Japanese, but I’ve never met a Japanese person with this name).

Pernilla is a Swedish female form of Peter (which happens to be my dad’s first name).

And Buchanan-Widmann is of course Anna Bridget’s surname, too.

Share and enjoy:

Baked (real name to be announced soon) finally turned up today, at 9.12am.

Weighing slightly more than 4300g (9 pounds 10) (length still unknown), she’s a big baby, but a tiny bit smaller than they predicted.

The birth was fairly quick – Phyllis woke up with contractions at 4am, and we went into hospital around 6.30am.

Everything went fine, though, and mother and daughter are now resting in Queen Mum.

Share and enjoy:

I was speaking to my friend Sebastian on MSN the other day, and he complained that he found it hard to remember the kids’ ages and birthdays and so on.

I just know I would never remember to update a plain HTML page, so he suggested I should write a program instead.

So I did exactly that, in JavaScript.

The result is here.

It simply produces a plain table like this:

Nothing fancy there, it’s just that it’s always up to date, so bookmark that page!

Share and enjoy:

For some reason, most cars have four or five seats.

The Fiat Multipla has six, and then a large group of people carriers (like our Citroën C8) have seven seats.

However, anybody needing more than seven seats has until now needed to buy a minibus.

However, now Hyundai have introduced an eight-seater!

It even appears to have a decent-sized boot, so it would be really useful for a big family.

It suddenly seems like our main obstacle for having any more kids after the girl who is expected to come out in January has suddenly disappeared!

Share and enjoy:

Det er i dag 40 år siden, mine forældre blev gift i Odder Kirke.

Tillykke til dem!

De fejrer dagen alene i Italien, hvor de i praksis nu bor, så jeg håber, de får en god dag.

Jeg véd allerede, hvad de giver hinanden i rubinbryllupsgave, da de købte den, mens vi besøgte dem tidligere på måneden: En Gaggia Syncrony Logic, og den er altså dejlig!

Share and enjoy:

Som læsere af denne blog vil vide, blev Phyllis og mig gift den 28. februar.

Man vil måske også huske, at vi holdt brylluppet i huj og hast, fordi jeg havde fået at vide, at mit job muligvis skulle skæres væk.

Idéen var på det tidspunkt, at vi ville blive gift hurtigt og så holde bryllupsfesten, når jeg igen havde fast job.

Så langt, så godt! Vi blev gift, og det var en dejlig dag.

Vores nærmeste familie var der, og mange af Phyllis’ venner kom forbi til receptionen.

Det blev i månederne derefter klart, at jeg ville miste mit job, og vi fandt også ud af, at recessionen gjorde det meget vanskeligt at finde et godt job i Glasgow-området.

Vi startede derfor vores eget firma, og det har jeg ikke fortrudt – med fire børn i huset (og det femte på vej) er det skønt med den fleksibilitet, som det giver.

Men livet som selvstændig er også uforudsigeligt: Der er gode måneder, og der er dårlige måneder.

Det gør, at det desværre ikke er tilrådeligt at brænde en masse penge af på en stor fest på nuværende tidspunkt.

Det er vel først, når de dårlige måneder er gode nok til at betale de faste udgifter, at man kan tillade sig at spendere overskuddet fra de gode måneder, og det punkt har vi ikke nået endnu.

Reelt er det derfor udelukket, at vi holder bryllupsfest i år, og de første par måneder efter den forventede fødsel i januar er vi nok for udkørte.

Hvis vi er heldige, kan vi derfor måske begynde at planlægge bryllupsfest i løbet af foråret (2010), men hvis firmaet tager længere tid at løbe i gang, kan det også nemt blive en del senere.

Det var naturligvis ikke det, vi så i ånden, da vi besluttede at adskille bryllup og fest – dengang troede vi, festen ville blive holdt nogle få måneder senere, mens vi stadig kunne genkende os selv på billederne.

Nu står vi så i en underlig situation: Til brylluppet gav nogle folk os gaver, men de fleste gjorde, hvad vi anbefalede på bloggene, og gav os blot et kort, hvor det stod, at vi ville få en gave til festen. Og mange af vores venner, især dem i Danmark, nåede måske slet ikke at opdage, at vi skulle giftes, og vi sendte dem ingen invitationer, da vi ville gøre det til festen i stedet.

Men hvem gider komme til en bryllupsfest flere år senere?

Share and enjoy:

Så blev jeg endelig gift med Phyllis!

Iklædt Buchanan-klanens smukke kilt, med sporran foran og en sgian dubh i højre strømpe så jeg ret skotsk ud, og Phyllis var enormt smuk i sin sorte kjole med hvidt mønster.

På samme tidspunkt, som vi blev erklæret for rette ægtefolk at være, skete der noget andet: Anna blev dansker.

Loven om dansk indfødsret siger i § 2: “Har et barn af en dansk far og en udenlandsk mor ikke erhvervet dansk indfødsret ved fødslen, erhverver barnet dansk indfødsret ved forældrenes indgåelse af ægteskab.”

Efter vielsen gik vi hen til Derek og Amandas lejlighed, hvor vi havde en dejlig reception med den største og lækreste kransekage, jeg nogensinde havde set – den havde Miriam (min søster) bagt aftenen før.

Vi glæder os stadig til at holde en rigtig bryllupsfest, når vores jobmæssige situation er afklaret, men tusind tak til alle, der gjorde dagen i går til noget særligt for os!

Share and enjoy:

The fact that my job is at risk means that our original plans for a wedding in early summer aren’t feasible any more.

However, waiting for stability to return during a bad recession could mean that we’d wait for the right moment for years and years, and we don’t want to do that.

So we’ve decided to do the opposite and get married as soon as possible, but have the party later.

My parents had already announced a visit next week, so we decided to get married on Saturday the 28th of February at 2pm in Park Circus (please do come along if you get a chance!).

Fortunately my sister, Miriam, has been able to get a ticket despite the ultra-short notice!

As I wrote above, we’re still planning to have a real wedding party for friends and family at some later date, but we’ve no idea when that’ll be – it could be later this year, but it could also be one or two years hence if the recession gets worse.

Share and enjoy:

It sounded like a good plan: My parents would arrive on the 19th, and on the 25th Phyllis’s parents and brother with wife and son would come for Christmas lunch.

I was going to serve some crostini when they arrived, and the actual lunch would then be a prawn and sweetcorn bisque followed by goose and pork roast, followed by cheese and finally three-coloured chocolate mousse.

However, first nephew Gordie got a stomach bug. Then Anna got it. Then my parents. But Phyllis and I were still going strong.

Then yesterday, we had a nice Danish Christmas dinner, my parents went for church as 11.30 pm, and when they came back I was feeling queasy.

I lasted till bedtime, when I emptied my entire stomach. Phyllis lasted till 3am, and in the morning, we were both feeling dreadful.

I found my parents and asked whether they were well enough to cook some food. They fortunately agreed, so Christmas day could go ahead, albeit with a reduced menu.

I didn’t join them for lunch, but I believe they had carrot soup followed by pork roast, then cheese and finally Danish ris à l’amande.

I think the day went fine, even if Phyllis and I were completely useless!

Share and enjoy: