eah, erm, primarily the connection is through, erm, Russell and Jane, erm, Russell was Rachael and mine Best Man and we've been good friends since we went to University together in Leicester and originally he went out with a girl in my year called Ann SMITH and then when I was looking for accommodation Ann mentioned that he had a space in his house, so there was two girls, Russell, Paul and myself and we made up the house and we sort of shared the rental at a house there and we've sort of been friends ever since and then, as I say, he was Best Man for Rachael and I when we got married in nineteen ninety-nine, erm, and we stayed in contact pretty much since. We've been on hol... well we'll probably come onto holiday and stuff later. But through Russell I know David, who was also at Leicester Medical School, and Fiona WEBSTER, who is also, erm, Fiona PAYNE as she is now, erm, it was also at Leicester Medical School and they were two years behind me, so they graduated in ninety-four and I graduated in ninety-two, they know Gerry and Kate or they knew them on a much sort of more friendly level than, than I did. Erm, so I knew Gerry because we worked together in, I think, two thousand and two, erm, when we were at the Leicester General Hospital, so we knew each other on the, erm, on call rota, so wed be together at sort of medical meetings, erm, but we didnt sort of socialise more than sort of a quick chat at that point in time. And then we really got to know them when David and Fiona got married in two thousand and three, when we went, when they got, they were married in Italy and we, erm, there was a big group of people that went out, erm, all the group that were out in Portugal were there as well, and we shared an apartment with Gerry and Kate and Madeleine, she was about sort of four months old then, four months, it was around about September so she'd be about four or five months old then, and there were other people within the apartment, there was Stuart and Tara and, I think that was it, I think there was six adults and the children, and so we spent sort of a long weekend there for the wedding and so we got to know them a little bit at that point. But then we didn't really have any other contact, apart from, erm, hearing about them through David and Fiona and Russell and Jane, erm, from them. And then the holiday came about because, erm, independently we'd been on sort of various holidays and we'd sort of often talked about them, you know, sort of being friends and we then went on a joint holiday to Greece the year before with David and Fiona, Russell and Jane, erm, but not with the McCANNs, we'd been to Greece, erm, and sort of spent a week on the beach there and then sort of thought about booking a holiday the next year and then Dave and Fiona, I think they'd already been on holiday with Gerry and Kate on another occasion, they wanted to involve them in the group and we ended up going for a MARK WARNER complex in Portugal. Erm, that was, erm, we'd been to, as I say, some of us had been to MARK WARNER, erm, various MARK WARNER resorts before, we'd been to the Greek one in Lemnos, erm, originally before Grace was born, it was just a last minute deal and it was great, it was all inclusive, we all like sport, erm, and sunshine and, erm, it was sort of all inclusive and it was just a very, erm, sort of relaxing sort of place to go, so we went out there and we were quite keen to do that again because everybody in the group is pretty sporty, erm, and if you have a lot of people together you can share sort of the child care arrangements and it's also very relaxing for everybody. Because when we went to Greece it was like the fastest holiday I'd ever been on because there was only about an hour when they were asleep at lunch each day and a couple of hours in the evening where you were actually sort off child care duties, so the week went by in about sort of six hours, it was all sort of, it was very quick. And so we, we went, we talked about whether we'd go back to MARK WARNER, I think, and David and Fiona had looked at various resorts and, erm, chose the Portugal one because it fitted better with time. Erm, in terms of, I mean, originally we were booked, we got the, we actually (inaudible) got the week off that they, that sort of fitted, but we were originally going to go to the Lake District with Rachael's parents but we ended up going, saying that, yes, we'd move that and change that for another week and go out. Erm, and various emails, everybody got sort of tied down to doing it and we booked and then went out".
4078 "In relation to Gerry and Kate then, just to clarify what you have said. You met them at David and Fiona's wedding?"
Reply "Yeah".
)) To much drama..
