I'm off to Newcastle in a bit. Flying to Newcastle. It's the only way to travel. I'm going to see my co-best man to arrange his stag night/weekend, because I'm his best man too. He gets married in April 2010 and I'm in October 2010. He's also the one flying me to Newcastle from Southampton.

I'm a little apprehensive about talking about his stag night/weekend. It means we are talking about his wedding, and that means i have to start thinking about my best mans speech. He has a little longer to worry about it.

What do i say? You automatically think you have to be funny, but then you also hear you shouldn't try too hard to be humorous. Go for the sensitive side, make people cry, stick with soppy and sentimental about how gorgeous the bride looks, what a great couple they make and how its fate that's brought them together. Avoid talking about exes, funny anecdotes that may embarrass and jokes that involve mothers, fathers, other family members and fat brides.

Unfortunately that leaves me a little dry on the content. I'm not the type of person who could miss a little bit of ridicule, embarrassment or banter. Neither is he, or our friends. I couldn't stand up and say how i love this dude and go all soppy without having a skin full and that, whilst very likely, would be a mistake and would guarantee an awful speech, and possibly a rant. I would be disappointed if he didn't do the same.

There are two many stories and events and memories i could drag up and talk about, I'm not entirely sure i will ever get the chance to be a best man again, so I'd like to make an effort. Maybe a slide show, some kind of programme to go with the main event. I doubt i will have the time or artistic ability to pull something off like that, but its one of the ideas I've got milling around up there.

You can't help getting nostalgic about things. Remembering when you were at school, the stupid things you did then, the parties, the festivals, the gigs, when you were in a band and rock stardom was an A&R guy away.

Ironically, i was on Facebook today and had a comment about a photo of me. I thought it was a recent night out, but someone had put a school photo from 1991 on there. I was 10 at the time, and there were a host of faces and names that i could not put together. There were a number of comments from different people that at first i didn't recognise and the picture on my Blackberry was too small to recognise the faces, but eventually things clicked into place and maiden names became apparent. They were discussing school trips and places we went to in junior school and remembering things that went on that i had all but banished from my memory.

Its amazing how other people talking about things that i had a vague involvement in can trigger recollection of all sorts of things that happened when i was young. Its also scary to discover people you haven't seen in 18 years are married with children. Even though it is perfectly reasonable and logical that they are you can't picture it. They are forever 10 years old and, if a girl, they smell. Not literally, just that when you were 10, all girls smelt, right?

On a day when all my thoughts have been about reminiscing, it makes you think about where you are, what you've got and maybe what you could have been or had. It makes you wonder what might have been, and also what other people are up to.

It seems to me you go through stages of your life. Chapters even. You have your childhood, your school years. Chapter 1. You have college, university, your twenties. Chapter 2. I feel like I'm coming to the end of chapter 2.

This year seems to have been a year of catching up with people I haven't seen in a long, long time.

Maybe next year will signify the next part of life. Chapter 3.