Yeeha!

As ever, it’s been busy!

It was my stagette do on Saturday. My best man and his partner arrived late afternoon with a spectacular bunch of flowers, a bottle of champagne and a card. I felt very special! We headed out for dinner just the four of us, then I said goodbye to my partner and we headed over to the Yard for drinks and a several more bottles of champagne. It was a really good turn out – about 30 people for little ol’ me! And some friends I hadn’t seen in ages. My only fear is that I didn’t get to speak to everyone as much as I would have liked – especially when the beer, champagne, Guinness and vodka shots kicked in! My best man had organised a lovely notebook for people to write messages in and several disposable cameras so people could take lots of silly pictures. What are the odds of loads of unflattering shots of me turning up on Facebook?!

Unfortunately my best man wasn’t feeling too well so had to head back to ours so some friends whisked me in a cab to the Two Brewers in Clapham where the night got even fuzzier. Apparently I spilt half a pint on one of my friends… I felt really bad… what a waste of beer? :0)

Then another friend and her partner deposited me back home – unable to remember my name, but safe and happy! Seeing as they live the other side of London, dropping me home was particularly generous and I think I owe them several drinks for that.

All in all a very good night with very good people – you can’t ask for any more than that…

Sunday I was very, very ill!

Today I had a job interview. Really good job and if I got it, it would mean I jump from redundancy to employment without all the usual stress and fuss! It went really well and I’ve got everything crossed, but I need to wait until the end of the week before I hear anything.

And in the meantime, Bess has been settling into the Livingstone household with remarkably little fuss. Her tail is something of a menace – she gets overexcited and wags it with such force that it actually really hurts if she catches you. She belted Pluto in the eye and it went all red and bloodshot and we had to bathe his eye several times before we saw an improvement. He’s been avoiding her back end ever since! We’re having a few problem on walks i.e., she doesn’t want to walk. She’s excited to go to the park and then freezes when we’re there so I’ve been standing there letting Pluto burn off energy while she and I watch on. I’m keeping things calm and positive – even though deep down I am a bit frustrated because I enjoy walking the dogs and want her to have fun and have exercise. I hope she will very soon come to realise that walks are fun and that there is nothing to fear, but that’s the thing when you take on animals that have been so badly treated, they often need a little longer to settle and you just have to be patient and loving. We’ve already discovered she has a good appetite and a sense of mischief!


I’m hoping the rest of the week is calmer and then Saturday we’re off to the Cotswolds to help a friend celebrate his 40th with a Wild West themed party. Can’t wait!

Smile for the camera...

I’m as giddy as a kipper! We have sorted out the wedding photographer! For some reason – for some very strange reason seeing as I am a photographer and know how important it is – we didn’t initially give much thought to wedding photography. (Well only enough to realise that it was hugely expensive!) Anyway, lately we’ve come round to the idea that whilst we would like our friends to take lots of photos and send us copies, there really is no substitute for a proper set of wedding pics. We asked one person and they thought they could do it, we negotiated a price but then it turned out he couldn’t do it after all. But I have now asked a work colleague to do the job and he said yes!

He may not do photography full time but you wouldn’t know it. He is very professional and his photos are stunning. Some of his landscapes are truly breathtaking and his style with ‘people shots’ is flattering and intimate. (As you can tell, I rate him very highly!) Anyway, I didn’t even think of him to start with and then yesterday in an apple falling on your head sort of way, I suddenly thought, what about Robin!? Like I said, he said yes this morning and we’ve agreed a price and we are good to go…

He’s also a genuinely nice man and so will be easy to work with. I think to be a good photographer you have to be able to get people to relax. A tense subject is very difficult to photograph!

We pick up Bess later which is another reason I’m excited.

I slept long and well last night. I was in bed uber early and probably asleep by 8pm. I did wake up a couple of times. Pluto who was lying by the side of the bed, helpfully decided to warn me of some impending doom – right in my ear, at full volume – around 11pm. I had to scrape myself off the ceiling and we never did establish what the problem was. Probably a leaf fell past the window or some such... He got put in the kitchen after that.

I pick up my wedding suit tomorrow which is another reason to cheer – not least because it’s another fat tick on our wedding ‘to do’ list!

45 days!

Its 45 days until I get married. FORTY FIVE DAYS! I can remember just after getting engaged last summer, how the year leading up to the wedding stretched out before us – the actual event being so far away as to seem almost unreal. (Except when we had to start paying for stuff of course!) And now it’s only FORTY FIVE DAYS away! I’m very excited. We’ve done well. We’ve organised the wedding we want, within our budget and with all the frills but none of the fuss. And I thoroughly recommend this getting hitched malarkey because marrying someone you really, really, really love is very cool!

We have run into one minor issue of wedding etiquette and I sought counsel from a lovely friend of mine who got wed last year. Our gift cards (saying we have a gift voucher list at John Lewis if you would like to get us something) were not ready when we sent out the invites. Consequently we’re having to send them out now, which I did yesterday. But although the vast majority of people can make it, a few can’t and so we were left wondering, do you still send them a gift card? Now we’ve been told, just because someone can’t make the actual day doesn’t mean they wouldn’t want to contribute – they don’t suddenly become invisible just because they are not there at the wedding! And so yes, if they are good friends, then they would like to have the option of getting a gift voucher or not. Anyway, he recommended I blogged about it in case others had opinions. So if you do, drop me a line…

I will send cards to the few who sadly can’t be there and hope they know my partner and I well enough to know that really, their good thoughts are far more important than a gift voucher any day of the week.

I should probably change the subject entirely by telling you I’m a scab. Two unions have gone on strike and I had to cross the picket line this morning. It’s hardly like the miner’s strike but it still didn’t feel very nice. They have a point: low pay rise + high cost of living = unfair, but it does feel a little futile. I don’t think the council will offer more.

I only got three hours sleep last night and bless me, I do look a bit rough. It was hot and I had lots on my mind so I lay there hour after hour thinking quite the strangest thoughts (including remembering the day I left home!) Part of me thought I should get up and do something, but then another part of me thought if I lay there and tried to stay relaxed I would eventually drift off. I did. At 5.30am and my alarm went off at 7am!

My organic burgers and homemade sweetcorn relish was a big success last night. Unfortunately I made rather a lot and we have to have it again tonight!

Only one day left before we pick up Bess…!

Not much, but hello anyway...

I have been super organised today – its pay day and I’ve done lots of personal admin and paying of bills. But I made the mistake of going to the post office in my lunch break and ended up queuing for over twenty minutes. But I did get to listen to people talk REALLY loudly on their mobiles about their pointless lives which was… interesting… and then I picked up the wrong sandwich in M&S but apart from that, everything went well!

I haven’t blogged in a couple of days because I’ve been tired and busy. Not a great combination. And to be honest, this won’t be the most interesting entry I’ve ever done either! We’re looking forward to picking Bess up on Thursday and I’m making homemade organic burgers and salad tonight but that’s about it…

Anyway, hello all!

(PS. My partner had the best stagette do ever!)