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Unbelievably it is our tenth wedding anniversary on Thursday. I don't know how I've persuaded my wife to stick with me this long, though little tip for you lads, get them pregnant and then they have to hang around. You're welcome.
We celebrated early with a weekend away in London Town, without the kids, staying in a fancy hotel and going to see Katherine Ryan at the London Palladium. We have consolidated all our missed dates from the last five or six months into one mega-date - plus we saved enough money turning off the central heating at home to pay for the whole thing.
I bought my wife a ring as a 10th wedding anniversary present. That's the Richard Herring relationship guarantee. Every ten years of marriage you'll get a ring - and that's including one right at the start to kick you off (two actually, but let's not show off). That offer stands good either for my current wife or anyone else who wants to marry me. Yeah, a lot of the women who wouldn't go out with me because I was too short or fat or ugly or unpleasant or selfish are looking pretty stupid now. And given I've just bought a ring I'd be crazy to go into another relationship now. I'd have to buy another ring straight away. So really the opening comes in ten years when I will be 64 years old. So get your applications in now if you want that ring and then possibly another ring when I am 74, though I can't guarantee I will make it that far.
We had an amazing time on our super-date. We went to Sticks n Sushi which might be my new favourite restaurant. Once upon a time I thought Pizza Express was fancy, but not any more. Has it changed or have I?
Then we got to the hotel and spent a little time in the spa. I told you it was fancy, before ordering some eye wateringly expensive room service, which turned up late and cold but still cost a fortune. We had to wolf it down so we could get to the theatre on time. But Katherine was brilliant and effortlessly commanded the 2000+ audience and looked like the Queen of comedy.
It's been so long since a proper adult night out in London that things seemed futuristic and different -even though it's only five years since we moved out. Cabs (or at least the two that we took) now have big glass sky light ceilings so you can look up and see the buildings you're passing, the advertising hoardings at Piccadilly Circus looks like something from a sci fi movie starring Tom Cruise. I felt like a rube. Because I am one.
Even after just one night this felt like an incredible holiday. I am so lucky to have had ten years of marriage with this incredible woman (plus four years before that - how the Hell have I managed a 14 year relationship, beating my previous best by over 12 years?)
The last two years have been tough for us all and we all know that it's not really over, but tonight, under the lights of the capital city, out on the town til almost midnight (if you think 11pm is almost midnight), rolling back the years, forgetting we were parents, staying in a stupidly posh hotel that couldn't even do room service right… it felt pretty good.
I even dare say that we deserved this.
