Proud

We walked home this evening along Parkland Walk in a sort of blueish half light. We were joined on our journey by a riot of bats. They seemed to be flying towards us from all directions. I felt incredibly privileged to be amongst them, and indeed, walking in the warm evening breeze.

The weather was so wonderful today. We sat eating breakfast in the sitting room, looking out across a misty London. The sun was obviously about to burn through because everything was glowing and bathed in a sandy-coloured light.

We drove from Highgate to Wood Green with a young Canadian lad called Colin Ratushniak, who's working as a co-producer on the film. What's perhaps a little more interesting about Colin is that he was one of the pro-skaters in last year's Dancing On Ice, coming second overall, which I find hugely impressive.

The purpose of our trip to Wood Green? To announce our marriage! It's an official process, which involves separate interviews with the chief registrar of Haringey Council, one assumes to establish our legitimacy. It's the first (and last) day that gay men can register themselves to get married on March 29th, and, perhaps surprisingly, only two gay couples were expected to come in from the entire borough.

It seems that fewer LGBT people than initially expected are getting married on the 29th. Mostly, one suspects, because couples who have had Civil Partnerships are not yet permitted to "upgrade."

The staff at Haringey couldn't have been more supportive. They were even flying the rainbow flag outside the council offices. They proudly showed us a series of framed pictures which had been ripped down from the walls ceremonially. These pictures reminded us that marriage was "defined as the union of one man and one woman." This is no longer the case. And, oddly, until the legal eagles put their heads together, we are living in an era where, in England and Wales, there is actually  no official definition of marriage. How crazy and sort of exciting is that? One of the senior registrars told us this fact with a huge grin on his face. Even more delightfully, the entire team of registrars have asked if we'd mind them coming to cheer us on. They want to be at our wedding to celebrate a significant event for all them. I am finding the love almost overwhelming.

Of course, in true British style, the entire registrar central computer system went down before we arrived. Homophobic software! Nathan had to do his interview with a paper form, which, of course, the registrar had never seen or filled in before. Fortunately, the (more user-friendly) computer system was back up and running by the time I arrived for my part of the interview. Everyone seemed much relieved!

We went back to Julian and Carla's and spent the afternoon in the daffodil-filled garden talking to a charming journalist about the project whilst poor Julian mixed A Brand New Future upstairs; that's the mayhem song at the start of the film! It took ten hours of mixing! How horrific is that?

Is now the time to acknowledge I'm coming down with a cold?