Feb 22nd. Another day of the year.

Today is the 22nd of February.
Its not an unusual day.
Much like any other day I start it lying down, do some standing and walking (Which when you think about it is rather amazing - Having the skill to get what is essentially a medium sized bag of flesh and water to topple forward gently - then magically move one of the longer thin bits of flesh in a forward motion using a series of muscles, in built gyroscopic sensors and 3D vision to ascertain just the correct time to place the dangling flat part of this 'leg' onto the ground. All the while adjusting for angle, grip and type of ground. Then repeating the entire process hundreds of times over a short period of time in order to take your brain somewhere. (We are basically brain taxis)

Its a plain as day miracle that we can also do this whilst reading a book,listening to music or in the case of 'the Yoots of today' all of this without dying at every road junction. We really are special aren't we!

Its a miiiiracle!!

Anyway - as I said I walk a bit, eat, sit, talk even sometimes drink a special liquid which cam make you feel funny inside and the whole world spin! Life can be so jolly! I do all this on Feb two two (as I sometimes call it) as well as all the other days.

So, its a day like any other. The 53rd day of the year doesn't change much. Sometimes it may fall on a weekend which means you may prefer it rather than the 23rd or 24th which may be work days. But its not in any way a special day for most people. That was until 2011 when something very special happened.....

Yes, it was the 5th anniversary of Britain's biggest robbery in 2006, when £53 was stolen from Securitas in Tonbridge, Kent.

It was also the day of the Earthquake in Christchurch,  New Zealand. A sad day when many people in that beautiful city lost their lives. I had travelled through Christchurch just a couple of days earlier and really liked it. I know I remember that day with sadness each year that passes.

I am lucky though that I can also remember the day with happiness because it was that very same day that Buffy Jonina Cowtan got onto the bus in which I was travelling through New Zealand.

Little did either of us know that as she asked the girls on the bus 'What was your worst first date?' that the slightly drunk and sleepy 40 year old foul mouthed English man sitting a few rows back would eventually ask her to marry him and 5 years later they would be planning a wedding.

I was that man (If you hadn't realised that then you should probably go see a doctor)

We get married in September this year and there may well be a few of these kind of posts between now and the wedding, but for now to celebrate 5 years since we met, I wanted to share the video I made for Buffy when she left me in Vietnam about 10 months later. She went home to Winnipeg and I continued travelling for a few months.

This video was posted a few minutes after she got onto the plane in Hanoi to travel home to Winnipeg and she didnt see it until she got home to Canada.

5 years Buff. You knob. x