Well, last weekend saw me make the journey down to Sussex to attend the wedding of my great friend Mr Andrew Best - or 'The Lothario', as he is known to many.

And it proved to be a brilliant weekend - so much so, that this report is going to to have to be a two-parter...

Where to begin then with this first part?

Well for me, the weekend all kicked off on the Friday evening, when my mate Charlene arrived in Nottingham so the two of us could make the long drive down to Sussex together.

Now Leenie and I both used to live with Andy back in 2001 and 2002 - in a dodgy terraced house, in an even dodgier part of Liverpool!

Needless to say then, much of the journey was spent reminiscing about old times - along with reassuring Leenie that the fake tan she'd had done especially for the wedding didn't make her look too orange - before we finally arrived at our B&B in the preposterously French-sounding village of Herstmonceux.

Upon our arrival, around midnight, we were greeted by none other than Andy himself - what with him and various other wedding guests also all staying at the same B&B. However, the prospective groom had to some news to break to Leenie and me - yes, he'd made a balls-up of the room bookings, meaning Leenie and I were going to have to share a double room instead of the twin room we'd been expecting!

Naturally, this situation was potentially far more embarrassing for me than it was for Leenie. I mean, this is probably way too much detail... but as any blokes reading this will confirm, it's quite common when you're a man to wake up in the morning with a particular part of your anatomy standing to attention!

Having made such a long journey though afte the long journey though, both of us were so knackered that we couldn't really be arsed to moan too much, and both of us enjoyed a sound night's sleep - though Leenie kept trying to steal all of the bloody duvet!

And so the next morning was wedding day - which, really, was split into three parts.

First of all, there was the actual formal wedding bit in the morning - a civic ceremony in the opulent Lord Mayor's parloir at Eastbourne Town Hall. Then, in the afternoon, there was a church blessing; followed by an evening shindig at a pub.

The church blessing saw me pile into a car with Andy and his two best men - Tim and Tom, and also Tom's girlfriend Sarah.

If Andy was nervous he certainly wasn't showing it - although nevertheless, Tim, Tom and me did our best to put him at ease with a barrage of the sort of filthy jokes that just seem to flow naturally when you're in predominantly male company,

This included me, within about 20 minutes of meeting her, asking Sarah if she happened to be a fluffer!

It was, of course, a comment that really could've gone either way - happily though, it actually turned out to be a great way of breaking the ice.

So what of the ceremony then? Well pleasingly, it went WITH a hitch - and a lovely service it was too. There was one very amusing element though, in that the people at the Town Hall had elected to put on possibly the cheesiest music known to man as Andy and his bride-to-be Amanda entered the room - namely a pan pipe interpretation of 'Love Is All Around' by Wet Wet Wet.

We felt it in our fingers. We felt it in our toes..!

After a bit of mingling then, it was a case of everyone outside for photos on the steps of the Town Hall. After doing all the obligatory family shots and whatnot, Andy and Amanda decided it'd be nice to have a photo of everyone - however, with no wedding photographer for this part of the day, who would take it?

Happily, I had a solution - yes, I simply accosted a passer-by in the street, and asked if he'd mind doing the honours!

Happily, the gent in question was only too happy to help - and so about ten people's digital cameras were duly lined up on the pavement, ready for our new friend to snap away!

So that was the formal ceremony then - and afterwards, we all headed back to the B&B, where we had a couple of hours to kill before we needed to get ready for the church. At this point in the day though, I had the first of several surprises lined up for Andy!

Back in Nottingham, you see, my esteemed brother Al was in a queue at the Nottingham Forest club shop - because having just published his autobiography, Forest legend Larry Lloyd was doing a book signing!

Now with me being away at the wedding, the ever-helpful Al was actually in the queue to get a signed copy of the book for me.

And at the risk of pushing my luck, I'd decided to ask Al for one additional favour.

"Al," I asked, "when you get to the front of the queue, any chance you can quickly ring Andy's number on your mobile, pass your phone to Larry Lloyd - and get him to offer him his congratulations on his wedding day?"

Happily, Al is always well up for going along with my daft schemes - and brilliantly, Andy actually answered his phone!

Of course though, the call had actually flashed up on Andy's mobile as 'Al Fisher mobile' - and so it was that a former Forest legend found himself being berated with a bemused cry of "Oh come on Al, I know it's you - your Larry Lloyd impersonation is shit!"

Priceless...

Meanwhile, Leenie and I spent the rest of the couple of hours before the church service catching up with the legendary Mickey and Bronagh - two more of the people who I lived with along with Andy and Leenie in the aforementioned terraced house up in Liverpool.

Mick and Bro had flown over for the wedding from their native County Antrim in Northern Ireland, where they have been back living for the last six or seven. It was the first time I'd seen them in a couple of years so it was great to see them - however, we got so carried away catching up that we kind of lost track of time... and there came a point when we all suddenly realised that we were supposed to be leaving for the church in about ten minutes and we still hadn't gotten changed!

So, we all dashed off to our rooms to get ready!

Now the plan had been for everyone staying in the B&B to travel in a convoy of several cars to the church - however, by the time myself, Leenie, Mick and Bro were ready, the rest of the convoy had got fed up of waiting and buggered off without us.

Which was fair enough really!

However, it presented us with a problem - because the church was a good half-hour's drive away... and none of us had any idea where it actually was!

Shit!

DO RICH, LEENIE,MICK AND BRO ACTUALLY MAKE IT TO THE CHURCH? ALL WILL BE REVEALED IN PART TWO...!

So, this is part two of a two-part series about what I got up to over the school Easter holidays.

Those of you who read part one will know all about my trips to Manchester, Paris and, um,  Doncaster!

As for what else I got up to - well, let's pick up where I left off. Specifically, Paris...

Now I had a tremendous couple of days in the French capital. However, all good things must come to an end - and so it was that I found myself up bright and early on Friday morning to make the return trip back to London on the Eurostar.

It was then a case of heading back up to Nottingham and home - however, I found myself with four hours to kill between the Eurostar arriving from Paris, and my train leaving for Nottingham.

What to do?

Well, let me take you back to July 2007, a month which saw me pay a visit to my good friend Marc up in Scotland.

Whilst hanging around at Marc's house, I happened to notice that he had a copy of a recipe book for smoothies, produced by the drinks brand Innocent. 

Now though they're quite expensive and I only tend to buy them as an occasional treat, I have long been a big fan of Innocent's range of smoothies. And this is not just because they taste fantastic.

No, whether it's CDs or books or consumables, I've always been a bit of sucker for anything that's distinctively branded or packaged.

And the style of writing that Innocent use in the wording printed on their drinks bottles is brilliantly informal and irreverent.

I won't give you any examples - instead, I shall simply implore you to have a look for yourself next time you're in your local supermarket.

Frankly though, Innocent's branding is a huge breath of fresh in this bland age where most things are completely dumbed down for mass market appeal. And one thing in particular that's always amused me is the fact that the bottles their drinks come in always have a little piece of wording printed on them inviting any of their customers to simply pop into 'Fruit Towers' - their offices in London - should they happen to be in the area!

During my stay at Marc's the two of us found ourselves idly discussing this invitation.

Did people, we pondered, ever actually turn up at Fruit Towers?

And if so, what happened?

My curiosity aroused, I decided there and then that I would try at some point in the future to find out for myself - and eight months on, the fact that I had a few hours to kill following my Eurostar arrival meant I finally had the perfect opportunity!

As such, I duly jumped on the Tube and headed to West London - where, disappointingly, it turned out that 'Fruit Towers' was a series of low-rise office units rather than the cluster of skyscrapers that I'd imagined!

Happily though, my disappointment was short-lived. For stepping inside the main entrance, I sheepishly wandered over to the reception area to reveal my reason for being there - and far from calling security to remove me from the premises as I'd feared, the reception staff welcomed me like a long lost friend, and immediately offered the opportunity to go on a tour of the building!

My tour guide turned out to be a lovely girl by the name of Natasha - and the 15 minutes or so that she spent showing me around were fascinating.

All in all, around 250 people work for Innocent, ranging from the people who create the branding to the people who concoct the actual drinks. Wandering around, one thing that struck me is the fact I've never seen a happier-looking workforce. And that's hardly surprising really, as Fruit Towers is clearly an inspirational place to work. It's largely open plan, with a big emphasis on 'relaxation areas'... and lots of funky chairs scattered here, there and everywhere.

Natasha also revealed that staff at Fruit Towers get free breakfast every day and unlimited free smoothies! What's more, on Friday afternoons, a trolley comes round the offices with free beer for everyone!

That's it then. Sod teaching for a game of soldiers - I'm off to work for Innocent!

I also discovered from talking to Natasha that I am by no means alone -as  apparently random people wander in off the street quite regularly to visit Fruit Towers! Indeed, before bidding farewell to the good people of Innocent, I was asked to sign a special visitors' book - as well as being given a large brown paper bag, which I was ordered to fill it with as many smoothies as I could carry out of the staff fridge!

Of course, you could say that this is all part of a cynical marketing game - that Innocent do all of this just so people like me who actually go take them up on their invite to visit Fruit Towers go away and rave about it.

Word of mouth, after all, is an incredibly powerful tool.

But it didn't seem that way.

I honestly got a sense that Innocent are a company where the staff simply enjoy building a genuine rapport with the people who go out and buy their products. And in my book, that's incredibly refreshing - though perhaps fitting really for a company that begin in the way that Innocent began.

It's a great story if any of you haven't heard it. Basically, Innocent was started by a small group of friends, who were all stuck in 'day jobs' that they were bored with. And one day, they decided to buy a load of fruit and a few food processors, and set up a stall selling smoothies at a music festival - with a view to it being something they could possibly do for a living.

They decided to let the punters decide on the feasability of this venture though - and so in front of their stall, they had two bins for empty cups. One of them was marked 'If you think we should all quit our jobs and sell smoothies full-time, put you empty cup in here'; while the other bin was designated for those who thought it wasn't such a good idea.

Happily, the first bin was overflowing by the end of the day - and the rest, I guess, is history..!

Meanwhile, moving onto my final notable shenanigans of the Easter holiday, also history is the beard I'd been sporting in recent weeks!

Now I tend to teeter into the realm of beardiness quite regularly.- however, this is usually not deliberate as such. Frankly, it's much more down to the fact that, in some respects, I'm simply a bit of a lazy bastard!

As soon as I broke up from school though for the Easter break, I actually began a conscious attempt to grow a beard! And this was because I knew that, right at the end of the holidays, I'd be going for a 'gentleman's grooming experience'! And so naturally, it seemed only right to ensure I arrived for this as unshaven and dishevelled as possible, in order to achieve the most dramatic possible 'before'/'after' affect!

This 'gentleman's grooming experience' was something that my mum had very kindly paid for me to have as a present last Christmas.

What's more, she'd also bought the same gift for my dad and my brother Al - and with each of us having received a voucher enabling us to book ourselves in for whenever we wanted, we decided it'd be amusing to arrange to all go along together!

And so it was that the three of us arrived on Saturday morning at Jacks, a posh hairdressing salon in downtown Nottingham.

Alas, my dad can't really grow much of a beard - however, Al and me both rolled in looking suitably hobo-ish!

Several hours later though, by which time each of us had had a haircut and proper old-school shave with hot towels and stuff, we all looked like new men!

If you're reading these ramblings on my blog, www.softbulletin.co,uk, you can see the dramatic transformation for yourselves by viewing my the sequence of photos marked 'easter shenanigans' in my photo gallery. You'll have to wade through loads of snaps of Manchester and Paris first... but you'll get to the grooming action eventually.

If you're reading this on Facebook meanwhile - well, simply click here to be redirected to my blog...