Happy Easter and April Fools...

Well, it's a little over a month since I got married and much is still the same.

There wasn't this overwhelming rush of responsibility, this terrible fear of having to instantly become someone else. I'm pretty thankful for this, because, as I sit here, typing away, I realize that while I have a job, I'm writing a book, I'm married and living a foreign life, I am, in fact, still, a teenager at heart.

I find the silliest things amusing and while that does, from time to time, infuriate Mrs Wing (Troller-Habekost), she loves that side of me and when I think on it, I think, that's the side of me she appreciates and loves the most.

We had an Easter egg hunt at the In-Laws on sunday...I lost. I found my eggs last and in the noonday heat feared for their structural integrity...my fears were, happily, unfounded.

The Friday prior, I made lunch for the entire family. We don't have a kitchen, as such and as a result, had to fashion a table out of paint cans and a piece of large glass. No problem, seemed to work just fine.

I prepared and successfully cooked fish (St Peter's fish-as it's called here), with butter, cracked black pepper, lemon and served with tarragon and toasted breadcrumbs. For the veggie (the Mrs- and as it turned out, everyone else too) I made a three cheese, rocket, tomato and egg torte- served with basil.

Click here (http://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/roasted-cherry-tomato-tart-with-basil-and-goats-cheese.html) for the recipe. Surprisingly, it looked just like this. Result!

The new book is on it's way. I have a potential illustrator taking a look and currently she has sent a few sketches. All's progressing well. It's a step away from the Llama book and follows the adventures of a boy, inextricably, thrust into space and endeavouring to explore and eventually, find his way home.

I'm optimistic of finishing a first draft in the next month or so.

We're off to Sao Paulo for Clarissa's friends wedding on Saturday. I've been to Sao Paulo before, but as it was just the airport on a connection to Porto Alegre, I'm going to count this as a new city. I can't wait!

Well, that's it for the moment. I just finished painting the small bathroom a lovely shade of cherry red (bit paler than the torte above) and am a little sweaty. Off for a shower.

Here are a few images over the last few weeks you might find amusing.

Cao for now.

 Morning yawns.

 Blurry dog in a suitcase- thinks she's coming to Sao Paulo too.

 

Married

OK, here goes.

Thursday: I was a little nervous. Strike that, I was pacing the apartment and totally unable to settle. Clarissa was working in her clinic until lunch time and I had nothing to do until 5pm- Zero Hour.

So, I expect Clarissa back for lunch, but she's late, 12pm goes by, 1pm goes by and at 1:30 I start calling around for her. Her phone is dead, her parents haven't heard from her and I can't remember which clinic she's at (as her schedule changes often) so Nirlei (Clarissa's Mum) calls both. Now, I'm worried, Nirlei is worried, Cezar (Dad) is worried and the clinics are both worried.

At 2pm, Clarissa arrives back at the apartment, having been shopping for a wedding dress and failed to inform anyone.

I was both relieved and annoyed, I think in equal measure.

Anyway, so, we get dressed, I'm in a new white shirt, black waistcoat, black/dark purple tie, black trousers and black shoes (very smart-will send photos when we get them) and Clarissa is radiant in her White Dress (which she already had- she couldn't find a new dress) and off we go to the Cartorio (Registry Office).

Cezar and Nirlei are there waiting, the translator is there (as meu Portuguese esta pochino), there are two other couples in line too and we're waiting on Luciana and Mauricio (Sister and brother-in-law to be) to arrive. They end up being 10 minutes late.

So, in we go.

The judge lady stands behind her desk, the translator to the side and Clarissa and I are surrounded by family and on with the show.

Do you? Yep!

Do you? Yep.

Good stuff, ya married!

They asked me in Portuguese, our translator was a little slow and given that I was a bit nervous and very eager, I answered, "I do". I couldn't even comprehend the Portuguese and was far too excited to wait.

Kiss.

Long kiss.

Then a few more words, sign the papers, take a few photos (there was professional photographer there) one in front of the Brazilian flag for fun and off we went to the pub, nibbles, beer, lots of beer, shaking David photos and now I am a married man.

Done.

Lead up to the BIG Day

Well, here we are.

I say we, I mean me, which is still "We", but I don't mean you. Understand? I'm rambling.

Oh, well, here "We" go.

It's now 13 years plus some weeks, days and hours and here I am, gearing up to the Biggest day of my life.

We managed a shower in our new bathroom last night (first HOT shower in the apartment in 6 months)- amazing! It's tiled and the water runs and doesn't flood or leak (we hope/think) and the lights work without a short circuit, so, all in all, last night was a pre-wedding day miracle.

I spent a couple of hours last night, out on the town (in the local bar) with my brother-in-law to be, Mauricio, discussing the kind of things you discuss the night before you dedicate yourself to someone forever and drinking a beer or two (Mauricio had Iced Tea, he's hard-core!).

This morning I awoke feeling calm, no jitters, no shakes- which is good, because I've had a viral infection for the last week and have been nervous as to my health prior to the Day, but it seems I'm not only healthy in body, but well adjusted in mind also.

I'm not worried, but I am excited. I'm sitting here, having busied myself with dish-washing, garbage tidying and grocery shopping and now I'm writing this, in an effort to distract from the fact that at 5:15pm today, I'll have a ring on my finger and a new family to legally call my own.

I'm not a religious man, I believe in something, though I'm totally unsure what and I'm not superstitious, though I firmly believe that my parents will be looking on and even if they weren't, I'm comforted by the knowledge that while I may not have had the chance to tell them about re-uniting with Clarissa, they had the foreknowledge and instinct to know that this day was always going to come.

6 hours 37 minutes to go...

Time is counting down...

to the Big Day.

By my reckoning, I have fifteen days remaining of my "Freedom"/Bachelorhood.

Actually, make that fourteen.

Clarissa asked me today if I'd had my "Freak-out moment". I looked at her and smiled.

What can you say to that?

No, it turns out is the correct answer.

And I haven't.

Oddly, I've been gearing up for this day most of my life.

It's often thought that it's the girls that dream of their wedding day and I'm sure that's true, although, on this occasion, it's my turn.

Since I was a young-man I've had this belief that I would one day find that special little lady, settle down, get married and live happily ever after.

I know where this desire came from, it came from my Mum and my Dad. To my eyes, they were a happy couple. Strike that, they were a very happy couple. A pair that, as I saw them, were one person, to the point that I often found it difficult to imagine their lives before they met each other and became Mum and Dad.

I'm sure this lack of sight is common in most children, but I know for a fact that my parents were one.

One half silly, the other, even sillier.

I thank them both for a multitude of things, not least, an obsessive, book reading nature. Something that didn't really rub off on me until my early twenties but in no small part is their doing.

The nearer the 28th gets, the more I find I'm thinking about them and the rest of my family.

I will miss my Cousins and Aunt at the wedding, I won't miss my Brother, I will miss, more than I can say, my Parents.

At the end of last year I finally finished and e-published my first book. I wrote a dedication inside to Peter and Daphne- my Parents. I wish they had been able to read it, but moreover, I wish they were able to be here on the day.

I thank whoever that they met Clarissa all those years ago. I thank them that they contributed so heavily to our being able to see each other over the months and years were were together and I thank whoever that Mum knew that I was going to see Clarissa again.

To paraphrase my Fiancée, "If you're going to do something, best do something hard".

Our lives before and our lives now are hard...and worth every tear.

Family, old and new

While thirty three may not yet be old, it’s no longer young either.

And while I may look less than the sum of my collective years, I often feel vastly in advance of them.

It’s now, that marriage, a home and canine responsibilities rear their heads that I find myself revolving 180 degrees and thinking about the actions and events that led me here.

I’m not going to dive headlong into all the days and years leading up to this point, but it’s worth taking a few minutes, maybe an hour, every now and then and seriously pondering the meaning of your life to this or that point.

I sit here, in our apartment, surrounded by the dust and debris of construction and reconstruction and gaze at the photo frame across from me.

Staring right back at me is Me, a younger me, the one from 13 years ago, the one from 17 years ago and the one from almost 30 years ago. He still looks like Me.

In one image he looks sun-flushed and drunk, in another, he resembles a teenage motorbike enthusiast and in yet another, he sits with his Father to one side and his now estranged Brother to the other.

There’s even one photograph where his Mother and Father encircle him- despite his far greater height and hug him. Him, this late 20’s, chubby faced individual.

Now I sit here and I stare back. There are smiles on every face I see and in my new family I am overwhelmingly lucky enough to see these smiles again.

The smiles in the photos are gone now, but I look at them and I remember them and I know they are still smiling with me.

Rendezvous with Rama

What can you say about Mr A.C. Clarke that ain't been said before?

Dunno? Not gonna then.

Plot: Following a disaster, wherein a chunk of Italy is damn near wiped from the map, the peoples of Earth join together and create a monitoring device, to detect objects hurtling towards them. Jump forward to 2200 and low and behold, one of them nasty meteor thingies is en-route...or at least, they think its a meteor. Turns out to be a large, dark, cylindrical object, and it's massive! Well, off go a team to have a butchers at the ol' goliath. Having committed a bit of B&E (breaking and entering folks), the captain and his crew encounter a world of possibilities and curiosities.

Pretty darn good writing. 

The characters could have done with a touch more development, but the details and the imagination are second to none.

It's no real wonder that Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein were and are still the staple diet of any and all Sci-Fi enthusiasts. 

Yesterday

was a day full of events. Some small, some big.

Firstly, I collected my now, registered Birth Certificate from the Brasilian authorities.

Secondly, I rescued a Blue Tit that had become trapped in some plastic on our balcony. I released it, but it kept flying into a half window we have. I reached my finger out, it sat, calmly on my forefinger and waited for me to lift it high enough. It then paused, as is to say thanks and was away.

Thirdly, I saw a pizza delivery guy loading his 1 year old son into the box on the back of the bike. Some hungry customer is going to be a mite confused.

And finally, we completed all our paperwork.

As of 5.15pm, February 28th, we shall be Mr David Wing and Mrs Clarissa Troller Habekost.

A good day, all in all.

Now, the count down to marriage begins.