A bit more about Mr. Bell....

Obviously Mr Bell didn't turn to the gay side, as he is now going to marry Jude. Nick and I formed a bond over rugby (he was good and I was a good talker) and we had many fun days watching and on occasions (for me anyway) playing.

We decided one year to go to Rome to see England take on the Italians in a six nations game. We flew in on the Friday, took our lives into our hands by getting a cab to our hotel. We checked in which led to some confusions, what with us both being called Nick, and then we hit the town.

I can honestly say the whole weekend was hilarious, summed upo by the first night. Nick happened to know 2 guys who were in Rome from his hometown, so we met up with them. By the state of them you would have thought they had been in the bar for 2 days non stop. The only Italian they seemed to know was "quatro martinis" - so that was what they had been drinking. We joined them for a few, and only left them when one of them decided to run into a glass door. Luckily he bounced off.

Nick and I headed home and discovered an English pub so of course we entered. The Albert was a fairly decent pub and it was good to move back to beers after all the martini. Whilst in the Albert we decided to buy some crass t-shirts ("Never mine the Trevi, have a Bevy"), and whilst Nick was getting chatted up by a young 18 year old girl from England I was stuck with her father, who was trying to get me to marry his other daughter. This sums up Nick and I, he gets the girl and I get the baldie.

I could go on with the story but it ends with me getting lost in Rome and sleeping on a bench whilst Nick made it back to the hotel, and no one wants to hear about that.

Good luck Nick and Jude, I know you will be very happy together.