As you will notice, I have added a little countdown widget to the blog, visible (and temporarily highlighted) at right. It’s now counting down to the big day, our wedding on Friday, August 19, 2011!

To mark our “negative first” anniversary, we’re going to have a low-key celebration in Oxford tonight, probably a reliable dinner at Pizza Express and then Toy Story 3 in 3D. We’ll manage something a bit more romantic and significant when we both have more time.

At the moment, however, we’re still readjusting to normal life after a wonderfully restful week in Wales and Bristol. I’ll blog about it in more detail when I finish editing the photos, but suffice it to say that we felt a million miles from our daily grind in Oxford. We also surprised ourselves with our ability to be simultaneously self-sufficient and mobile, averaging 25 miles per day in hilly and mountainous Welsh terrain on bikes fully loaded with provisions for eating and sleeping.

And the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, which we attended at the end of our holiday, didn’t disappoint, either!