Pterodaktyl…

So much has been going on this year, and I’ve failed miserably when it comes to blogging most of it! Here’s a brief look back at the highlights of 2007, in a vaguely chronological order:

• Proposing to Lil in the bird hide overlooking the Otter Estuary - and her saying “yes”.
• Finally going back to Bath, the city where I spent so much time as a child - and seeing some of the wonderful buildings we never got round to visiting when we lived there.
• In June, Lil and I became the proud owners of our very first house - it’s so great not to be at the mercy of a landlord any more!
• Getting the chance to play around with one of Virgin’s full-size Voyager driver training simulators.
• Dawlish Airshow - a wonderful location (10 minutes walk from our front door!), spectacular flying, and a brand-new telephoto lens to play with.
• Camping on a beautiful organic farm and being woken at 5am by a cockerel right outside the tent.
• Getting married to Lil - both the ceremony (in a lovely old house in Exeter) and reception (on a boat cruising along our local World Heritage site) were as close to perfect as anyone could wish for, and we got to share it with family and friends!
• Our honeymoon in California - the Pacific coast, the giant trees, the mountains of Yosemite and the streets of San Francisco were all brilliant, and we can’t wait to go back! Our aunt and uncle housed, fed, entertained and chauffeured us for two weeks, as well as getting us a trip to Yosemite as a wedding present. We can’t say thank you enough!
• Demoing our upcoming product at the country’s biggest model railway show. It was great to meet potential customers face to face and see their enthusiasm.
• Finally getting our oven installed, just in time for Christmas dinner!

2008 should be fun - the past year has been wonderful, but it will be nice to live at a slightly more relaxed pace for a while, and get properly settled into our new home. We’re hoping to go on a wildlife-watching trip to Sweden in the summer though, so we’re not short of stuff to look forward to!

We now have a website dedicated to our upcoming wedding at http://www.tomandlil.co.uk/.

At the moment it’s all very basic, but we’ll gradually be filling it up with useful info for guests. After the big day we’ll add pictures of the event, as well as updates from our honeymoon trip - California, here we come!

Yesterday I finally proposed to Lil, who I’ve known for 2.5 years and loved since the moment I met her! We were planning to do it on the commons, which are one of the most beautiful areas of East Devon and our favourite place to spend a weekend, but the weather was rather unpredictable so instead it happened in the bird hide overlooking the Otter Estuary (luckily the rain had scared all the other birdwatchers away, and it was just us, a Kingfisher, a Raven and a Mandarin duck!).

I’ve very glad to say that she said “yes”, so now I feel like the luckiest guy in the world! We are so very much made for each other, and I’m looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together!