SNAP!

You are The Magician

Skill, wisdom, adaptation. Craft, cunning, depending on dignity.

Eleoquent and charismatic both verbally and in writing,
you are clever, witty, inventive and persuasive.

The Magician is the male power of creation, creation by willpower and desire. In that ancient sense, it is the ability to make things so just by speaking them aloud. Reflecting this is the fact that the Magician is represented by Mercury. He represents the gift of tongues, a smooth talker, a salesman. Also clever with the slight of hand and a medicine man - either a real doctor or someone trying to sell you snake oil.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Halloween and fun.

Wow.... 4 months to go and I'm married! It's actually not that scary. Getting a job sorted for the new year is though.

Currently I have a few options. A programming job in West Berkshire is possible, I have to see if I can get it. Then on the 21st I have an interview for a postdoc in Essex. Yep that would mean leaving Manchester but for almost tripling my pay. Let me think. YES! Also I have postdoc applications to hear from in Venice/Padua (Yes you read that right!), Warwick, Paris and of course getting the funding for the postdoc here in Manchester. Ultimately the one in Manchester is ideal (better money and not having to move) but in all honesty all the postdocs have their advantages.

In other news, Mirrors is an awesome film. Very spooky and one scene will have you fearing the bathroom. You never know who's watching!

My wedding outfit has arrived and is currently being altered to fit better! Sam has hers and well it's gorgeous.

Halloween was spent watching quite a bit of Burlesque and going to rockworld. Mr J didn't play this year since there were too many wannabes out there. So Mr Todd was the costume of choice this year, while Sam was a divine Mrs Lovett.

We also followed this up with Sunday's Carnival Divine and this weekend watching people almost set on fire at trashkitty 's bonfire night party.

Right well back to work for me!

Pics from Halloween. Grabbed from glittersavvy 's lj.



^Sweeney Todd & Mrs Lovett getting ready for the Burlesque Ball. Mr. T doesn't look very happy! :(


^I look quite scary here.








^Yeah... I have no idea.








^Cocktail umbrella at the Burlesque Ball.


^Rockworld









And pictures from Carnival Divine on Sunday. I liked my wig so much that I wore it again.








^Chris promises his eyeshadow was MP Vampire Red, not pink!






^They had cupcakes at Carnival Divine. We got a chocolate one. Here is Chris with the case on his nose.

These were taken after the show, in the Secret Hallway! in our apartment building.

Another Small update

Well things are going on well. Paper number 3 is almost finished, 4 is started, 5 has almost got all the data it needs. My thesis is maybe 40% complete and will soon bulk out with my papers in due course. Job wise I've applied to a number of postdoc positions around the country while we hope (it's not being too hopeful though) that the funding will be allocated for a postdoc here letting me stay on for another year and help get the code ready for use in a simulation package.

On the home front myself and Sam have celebrated being together for 18 months. It's amazing how quick it goes by. Maybe it's just because I've had this damn PhD deadline creeping up on me. With the wedding on the horizon I'll be very happy to have this thesis out of the way and be happy to relax once more with my bride to be, especially after keeping me sane through this period of madness. Honestly I don't think I would feel as happy as I am right now at this point in my life with out Sam there keep me from going loony!

Possibly the quote that sums myself and Sam up.

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900),


Now for one last thing....

Today...

has been spent being in awe of glittersavvy /kitty_napalm 

Now there is this woman called Sam...

...and she is gorgeous!!!!

This is from glittersavvy 's latest photoshoot with Rob McGrory and I am stunned. More than that, just blown away. Nuff said just look at the pics and click the link.



MORE MORE MORE!!!!

Right, I think I need to get back to doing some thesis writing and attending to the Princess.

Uber massive update

So yes glittersavvy  and myself have seen the Dark Knight twice. Epic. I'm sure MOST of you have seen it by now. We do plan to see it once more before it's out of the cinema (oh dear IMAX only screenings ;_;)

Lysa stayed over towards the end of July and during August which was good as it allowed Sam to have some fun, and so while I went off to a conference in Edinburgh they went down to London.

It was good to see everyone out for Luke and Michelle's wedding reception and I was coerced into dancing with Sam to the Timewarp. 'TIMEWARP!' - Tim Beasley

We've also been out to see the new Mummy film. Nice visually but the Yetis... oh for the love of god the fucking Yetis! I shall say no more.

We also picked up a copy of REC which if you haven't seen is a great little spanish horror. Very disturbing to the end. Well filmed and really takes the 'reality horror' genre to a new level. Oh and did I say I hate screaming granny like monster throat biting things???

Oh did I say my hair is white again? Go see Sam's/glittersavvy 's LJ for evidence

The conference. Well those of you who don't know the Faraday Discussions (this one was on the topic of water at interfaces) are very different to others. We get all the papers before the conference and the speakers only have 5 mins to present their work. After that they have a grueling 15 minutes of questions where their work is praised/torn apart by their peers. Needless to say it was quite interesting to learn what the state of the art is in simulations of water and has led to me outlining a project proposal and feelign quite confident about my own work and where it can lead to. My poster was recieved well and quite a few people realised the novelty of it.


Coming back I was welcomed with a nice new top that Sam got for me while I was away. It was hard no being with Sam for just those few days but I was happier knowing she at least had soem company and that she was having a lot more fun that me sat in a lecture hall dosing up on coffee.

Next film on the list of things we have seen was 'The Duchess'. Good period drama, great sets and costumes. Even quite funny in places. Oh except for the fucking harlots that were talking all the way through it sat behind us.

More importantly was Sam's 23 birthday. I think I did well on the presents this year as they are all quite personal or deeply desired. Some Dior perfume that she has been pining for ages and two awesome pictures on canvas. One a montage of Heath/Joker. We has also been out to get birthday cake and bits for a bit of a party for after the meal at Felicini's.

However no matter my efforts the birthday weekend seemed a bit blah. It's upset Sam and myself somewhat. Birthday candles seemed a bit pointless in the end. Thank you to Donda and Phil for coming round though.

Recently work has been getting crazy. I official have no more funding and really can only afford to carry on until the end of October meaning papers are being written and a thesis is being pulled together. It's kinda weird but I am amazed that I have met my objectives of my PhD... just need a job now. Time at evenings and weekends are getting channeled to get this finished.

The plans for the wedding are set and invites for the handfasting/blessing/reception have been given out. I have my outfit for Venice and Sam's should be arriving soon. I do hope everyone who has been invited can make it.

On another note hopefully I should get to see the photo's from Sam's new photo shoot with Rob. There are already 2 up on his website and 2 others which are cut downs of the main one (one in the slide show banner and the other on the faq page I think). Can't wait to see her in the wedding dress now!

A deep apology, but I have nothing to hide other than my foolishness

So this is me owning up in front of all my friends that I have hurt Sam terribly recently. I have nothing to hide, not from you or her.

Here is how. You may think what you wish but it doesn't change the facts.

A couple of weeks before I met Sam I had made a mistake, something I realized before I had even met Sam.

I slept with Jules. This was before I had moved into that flat there. I know, it made moving to that flat complicated as I had already signed contracts and put up deposits for it, and I was stupid for that.

It was foolish and childish or me to have done that. But I thought I could be mature and forget it had happened and move past it. I had no desire to revisit it and felt no better for it. But I knew that it would never happen again.

And then weeks later I met Sam. And I fell for her on day one. No matter how melodramatic that sounds. And yes it scared me because I have been a major relationship before and felt emotions that were not as strong and was hurt when it taken away. So this time I knew I would not rush things and take it as each day comes.

You may well ask why I didn't tell Sam even then that I had slept with Jules. I felt it was not her concern. It was my mistake and mattered little to me considering how much I love Sam.

2 more months past I moved to the new flat. That's two months of just me and Sam. I had also vowed never to see Sam hurt after how I had seen her when her father passed away.

So now, recently, this has all come out. I admit I was wrong for not telling Sam, but then I felt that it happened before I had met her and so did not involve her.

But it does. Because by keeping it a secret it has brought my own faithfulness into question. I understand that and cannot blame Sam for thinking that way.

But I have been faithful to Sam since day one, because that is what a relationship is about, no matter what anyone will otherwise suggest .

Now for those having read this there is also one other thing that must be made clear. The wedding had been spoken of long before all this was revealed, and so mine and Sam's desire to be wed was strong well before there was any of this doubt.

Ultimately I want everyone to know what a fool I have been and how I have hurt Sam, but that I will never hurt her like this again, not keep things from her, and that I have always been faithful to her, just as I have always been faithful to those in the past that I did not care for as much. I know there are some of you who will think less of me and doubt me, but know that  you would be wrong to doubt my faithfulness to Sam.

And finally so that you all know, that I am not leaving Sam and that I love her in a way that cannot be expressed by words.

Chris Handley