Special day

nother week has officially begun (one might say Sunday is the start) and today I should have a lot of free time (after a visit to Town) in which to publish many detailed articles. 31 days from now it’ll be 15 years since I met Rianne. It’ll be a Thursday, so we’ll try to do something more special.

I am told that 15 years is a long time for a marriage.

It is more so true that 15 years is a very long time for a happy and healthy marriage, which isn’t the same thing.

Why not?

few hours ago at the local Sunday Market a friend asked me, your wife buys you flowers??? I said, yes. Another friend was surprised by this (and the greeting card as well).

The lady said to me that many couples, after nearly 15 years, barely talk to one another. I explained to her that our relationship is a healthy one.

And yes, we both buy one another flowers and gifts, also many greeting cards.

Age means you get to know other people better, it does not mean boredom or resentment.

I know many couples aren’t like that (for one reason for another). But it’s totally feasible.

I get the feeling relationship between people were a lot stronger before computers.

Life is easier in pairs

week in November is over and we’re fast approaching the last month of the year, which is also when I celebrate my birthday (yesterday was the birthday of a site). December 10^th this year marks 15 years since Rianne and I first met. Our online photo album currently has 8,494,869 views (since after the wedding when we created it). That’s just a little shy of 8.5 million.

Next week we plan to relax and next year we’ll work more on focus and health. We’re not young anymore and we’re not “growing up”, we both “grow older“.

Each couple has some unique story; ours is actually rather typical. We always had good conversations because we have a Computer Science background and we’re practical.

Make Manchester “great again”?

he local Arndale Centre has changed a lot in recent decades. I remember how it was several decades back and how it made the city (or City Centre) as a whole look or feel. I purchased clothes and CDs, I bought some fresh foods there, but it was still considered a poor people’s “mall” or shopping centre.

Manchester has come a long way since then, not just because of the skyscrapers.

Today I follow some football (ManCity) and tomorrow I’ll go to the City (Town) to study why the City Council is so incompetent. I’ll bring Rianne and a notebook with me. I’ll report the outcomes here.

I love Manchester, I really do, so when something doesn’t work right I will try to fix it.

As one always should

lmost a year ago, after a trial, I said that when I married Rianne I promised to protect her, as any good husband should and would.

When Rianne was abused online it was very important for me to step in and do the right thing. I believe that I have and I still have no regrets. Principles matter and the cost of them doesn’t matter. It had to be done.

There’s further work left to be done – holding accountable the culprits.

People out there often choose what’s easy and convenient, not what’s moral.

If more people did the moral thing, evil people would perish quickly (or faster) and the world would be a better place for everybody.

Gone by so fast

oday “Sweepy” (formerly “Sleepy”, but she sweeps seeds a lot so the name changed) brought the partner. I think it’s the first time. It’s not hard to know it’s the partner because they kissed.

The birds are getting increasingly dependent on human-supplied seeds because tomorrow it is November already. It’s still not cold though, I nearly decided to sunbathe again (same as yesterday), but eventually decides not to because of plumes at the distance. Besides, I’d rather write articles than sleep while listening to Discman.

Tonight it’ll be the time kids ask for sweets, so Rianne purchased some packs of treats. I’ll need to keep the volume down (music) to hear when they knock.

Hard to believe it’s already end of October. On October 31^st at this time of day last year the trial was over already.

Latest forecast for Manchester: “Today, any lingering areas of mist and fog will eventually clear to leave dry and bright conditions with just the odd patch of low cloud.”

his year is strange because the weather is unusual. It’s mostly sunny today, so I spent hours organising the home. Along the way I found the blood pressure meter and we decided to test ourselves. We’re still both in the normal range (mine in the ideal range, as before, despite me gaining a lot of muscle mass this year).

The temperatures are something that feels like late summer. October 30^th is not meant to be a good day for sunbathing, but it is this year.

Seeing/hearing/reading/checking that Japan (Tokyo) even had 30 degrees a couple of weeks ago and northern European countries (Scandinavia) and North America have hot days (fans running in late October!), I reckon it’s premature to fold the chairs in preparation for winter.

The weather is broken. Treats in a weather like this???

I managed to be outdoors, shirtless in the sun, for nearly an hour. Got some tan, too.

I can’t believe that this weekend it’s going to be November already. Tomorrow ManCity needs to win (not on penalties) against Brighton in order to stay ahead in the PL.

The plants are getting direct sunlight right now (even indoors) and I think tomorrow will be the same. Maybe we can go out somewhere (in nature).

One week we have a storm, the next it feels like the exact opposite.