I got married, and walked with Mary Poppins on Halloween

Well it happened, after many years I got married to Sparkling Eyes, it was a registry office do on the 19th October 2019. She's the most beautiful and perfect woman there could be in my world, not because she tells me nobody else would have me, but because I love her ridiculously. And in order to solidify our relationship a lot more Sparkling Eyes has put up with my farting, hugging and loving her since. It will be a three and a half week period of her company before I head off back to the Old Smokey and return to work and a different life. Now  a ring is on my finger. The finger hasn't gone blue with cut off blood circulation, and there may well have been moments when it had to be removed so the washing up could be done, but now it is quite nicely settled and the start of a distinctive ring finger mark is imprinting itself. This three and a half week period of wedding bliss is wonderful, this here is my woman, I'm here man and now I have a legitimate claim of a wonderful beautiful family who have been discussed many a time during these blogs. Though they've been infrequent of late. I'll do my best to write a few more blogs and maybe refresh my picture on the profile. Perhaps the biggest problem has been too much time spent keeping up with social media and the BREXIT crisis. Oh for a little bit of humour to brighten the day.

This period (just married time) is otherwise going to be referred to as the long hug, because the most magical thing in the world is a hug and there's been lots of them happening. Even an old geezer in his late 50s enjoys a hug from his new wifey, and enjoys the company of a wonderful family.

Last night was Halloween, little Princess J all 6 years of age dressed up as Mary Poppins and insisted she be taken around the houses in order to fill up her felt bucket with sweets. It is probably a time of year where the dentist gets a little excited or depressed, depending very much on the dentist as he sees his younger customers turn up to get their mouths checked. It didn't matter much to Princess J for she likes sweets and doesn't think about small things like visiting the man in a white coat who can inflict bouts of pain with a little prod here or there.

So we knocked on a number of doors, the vast majority were not opened and at the start of our trek it got to feeling my little Princess wasn't going to get much in the way of treats. After a few houses we went to a tenement block. These have about 8 flats in them and require walking up flights of stairs rather than through front gardens and knocking at doors. When in the tenement block it is hard to tell if anyone is in the property as there are no front windows with lights, just a small stair well and a door, usually solid with a number or letter and a peep hole. The first door Princess knocked at and there was no reply. She then turned around took a few steps to the other side of the stairwell and knocked on a second door. We waited. it seemed quiet but then there was a noise behind the door. It opened and out wafted a plume of cannabis smoke, pungent but of course calm and chilled. A young woman disappeared back into the flat and came out with a plastic pumpkin, she knelt down to the same height as Princess J and took a handful of sweets to drop them in our little Princess's bag. We thanked them. And so this first success led and inspired us onwards to knock on another two or three dozen doors to which various sweets and chocolates were put in to the mini Mary Poppins' bag.

There were lots of ghouls, skeletons and various other scary creatures out that night, but only a single mini Mary Poppins, the one, who's hand I held and watched over as she ran up to the doors to give them a gentle tap. When we returned to the house she was so excited and happy. But the celebrations were not over. For of all things she wanted to do it was to bob apples. This was a must. Now I'm not particularly happy with bobbin my head in a bucket to fish out an apple, the thought of cold water and getting it up my nose while half drowning just doesn't float my boat. Funnily enough neither did

it seem to work for Sparkling Eyes or Rock Chick, both had expressed they were not going to do it and both had said it was Pops duty to do. Bloody ell. Mary hadn't forgotten about it, the knocking on doors and bucket of sweets hadn't worked as an amnesiac. Sparkling went and got a large plastic container and filled it with water, Rock Chick found some apples and dropped two in the water. Mary Poppins took first go and within a few seconds had came back up with her apple. It took her no time at all. Being suspicious I asked her to keep an eye on Sparkling and Rock and said they were not allowed to push my head down. The bucket was on the floor, hesitantly my head went down, someone was pushing or holding it into the water. Up I came to laughter of Sparkling and Rock, complaining they should not hold me down and again saying to Mary don't let them drown your Pops. This happened about 4 times each time I came up the girls were laughing and I had a strong suspicion Mary Poppin joined in, Pops didn't drown and though mildly unpleasant had a wonderful time as well.

Moral of story, even a married man might have to face attempted drowning by his most loved wife, but it will be OK.