*singing* Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday ... aaagh, you get the idea!

... well not really, I am a Leo, slightly later in the season! But instead Happy Birthday to my blog; 1 year old today! So in homage to the mémé/même/mèmè, (*coughs slightly* an idea that I stole from Lisa and Fizzy) here's a little stroll back through memory lane or what I have been up to throughout the last year ~

February 2005 ~ I simply speaking introduced myself, no readers / commenters but then I was only doing this for me ... so I didn't care! I've re-designed aka done a Laurence since then and now I can't change the font colour so the very "lilac-ness" of Chez le laquet makes it almost impossible to read ... any ideas how I can go back and change things? Blogger will only allow me to look at the last 300 posts! Yes I do suffer from O.C.D. ~ no mocking of the afflicted please!

March 2005 ~ Simon and I "blind-tasted" Cava ready for the wedding. We were incredibly serious about it, we'd tried a couple of bottles and then we took it a step further ... we seriously opened 3 bottles and tasted them alongside each other. We are such piss-heads! I laughingly mentioned the fact that "Cava unlike champagne doesn't give me a headache" ~ I was so wrong! Wedding plans rushed onwards and my mother and I bankrupted my father at Box 2 in Brighton ... yes we bought frocks!

April 2005 ~ I made some new friends ... visitors started appearing Chez le Laquet! Battle Scars became my favourite post to write ever ..... it just flowed! And then there were the hen night capers! La Bella Stella told me to get with the humiliation .... I did! I drank, danced and scoffed Chinese food! Ok so the post didn't appear until May but only because I had a little itsy-bitsy headache :o)

May 2005 ~ May was pretty much about the wedding! You didn't know I was getting married *preens slightly* I'll have you know I blogged on the day!

June 2005 ~ It was Kev's birthday and my mum & dad's anniversary .... all in the same week! They moved the pipes ~ hurrah! I barely survived an ebay auction and went to the beach for a week with 25 kids! I know, most people's idea of hell!!

July 2005 ~ The baby arrived on July 16th, I spent a little time reading, there was sloganizer to play with and then I disappeared to France!

August 2005 ~ August was a quiet month, spent enjoying the sunshine in France ... not a lot of fear that much blogging was going to take place as le Laquet suffers from "the dreaded dial-up!" However I did some watercolour painting and my mum got interviewed by all you bloggers to celebrate her 60th birthday!

September 2005 ~ Ah back to reality, school and Kev's new job started, we talked about favourite places to be and I must have been marking virtously* ..... because there's not a lot else!

October 2005 ~ question of the month concerned the colour of starfish blood, my friend Chris passed away after a foul illness, I was given some proper health advice by true professionals and .... yes you guessed it I buggered off back** to France. Ok, even I can admit there's a pattern developing here.

November 2005 ~ Related the story of my first kiss, I did a little blog-trawling .... I love it, it's a great way to find delicious new reads! Everyone helped me improve my ability to eat and drink around the world and *drum roll* I got to drink hot chocolate and jaw and laugh with Fizzy in person! Hurrah!!

December 2005 ~ Tit-tape and toupees, the most amazing geeky-gadget present I ever had and I finally made it! So .... come-on what else do you think I did? Yep, that's right!

Also in December, I received a wondeful calendar with pictures of En Zed that make me want to go and visit even more ~ Merci bien Kiwi ~ a lovely gift from a certain sparkler and had my first trans-global phone call! However, thanks to the joys of being stuck in a small French hamlet (that'd be no mobile phone signal to go with the dial-up) I stood on the balcony in the snow as Lisa and I jawed for ages ... she did commiserate about the cold and tell me how lovely the weather in Wellington was!

January 2006 ~ We came back from France and I regaled you with tales of mad Belgians, snake in bottles and plumbing! I shared my holiday photos and a parcel arrived from the lovely Lisa! I shared my random thoughts and admited to weird habits.

February 2006 ~ And here we are full circle, a year later, a year older, a life richer for blogging and the good friends it has brought me! There are so many of you ... just look at my ever-swelling blogroll

I actually never thought I'd keep this up for a whole year ~ just goes to show that even if something is occaisionally a little difficult it can be worthwhile if you really enjoy it! Here's to the next year!!

**UPDATE** ... breaking news is that Broadband is coming to that little French village in April ~ hurrah! That'll really bring le Laquet into the 21st century*** ~ won't it?

* Don't panic! It didn't last
** By the way, what happened between them whilst I was away was not my responsibility ... they know who they are!
*** Yes, I know it's 2006 ... but were talking rural France here!