Rugby tops and wedding chic

I have bought a Canada rugby top! I did so for two reasons, one I love rugby tops (all different ones; teams, nations, one-offs) and two, I had nothing to wear this Canada day and a girl should be able to dress for all occasions. Our very good friend who is also Canadian has talked about a Thanksgiving do – yes Canada has Thanksgiving, tsk! – so if an invite is forthcoming, I already have an outfit.

(We also said we’d bring homemade pumpkin pie. Now we just need to hope our pumpkins grow well… or at all!)

This morning I got my formal ‘competition winner’ invite to go on the Stella Artois Airship tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it, even though I am scared of heights :0)

We went round a friend’s house last night. He is the intrepid leader of the DUC (Dulwich Ukulele Club) who are, of course, playing at our wedding and we needed to sort out all those pesky little admin details like where the band is staying, what time to set up, what to play etc. It was a very pleasant evening chatting and laughing and sitting in the garden with a glass of wine…

Now those that know me, know that I’m not swayed by trendy, I don’t aspire to hip BUT there is something very cool about having the DUC at your wedding because like it or not, there is a certain cachet in having a band that’s been hyped in the Guardian and the Indy…

Bless! We're being all cutting edge and not even trying! (And yes, I'm sure it did no harm at all that brother of intended wife plays in the band...)

I walked in and found flowers on my desk this morning. This is the last day that I’ll see my boss (I’m working from home tomorrow and she’s on holiday next week). It was a sweet gesture, but what with her taking me out to lunch this week as well it feels like we’re dating!

Right enough of this random nonsense. I need to do some work and then I think I’ll do the crossword. People seem to be under the impression that I’m a clever little stick and it’s true I do have a fairly large vocabulary, but I’m rubbish at crosswords. The day before yesterday I got 12 clues (2 of which subsequently turned out to be incorrect) and yesterday I only got 5 clues. What can I achieve today? Who knows or dares to wonder!

Dulwich Ukulele Club

Yes I know I'm biased (my bro-in-law is in the band!) but they are brilliant. They've got some new material and I can't recommend seeing them highly enough. They've got a myspace and a Facebook page and that's where the primarily post info on gigs etc... see them and be a better person... or something like that anyway...

The New Forest

We went to the New Forest yesterday. It was pretty close to perfect! From us, the Forest is about 2.5 hours away. For some people that may seem far, but for someone who does a lot of driving it doesn’t feel very far and it’s a pleasant trip.

Our weekend started on Friday with dinner round at friends. We had a great evening and decided to leave the car because J offered to pick us up the next morning to go and get it. So it was decided we would get a taxi home and the wine started flowing. They are lovely people and we seemed to talk about everything and anything – silly to serious. We had a wee hangover the next morning and were running late, unfortunately, J wasn’t, so we left him in the front room reading a book about hens as we raced around getting ready.

I put together an absolute feast: sandwiches, bananas and cake for lunch, salad with tuna and new potatoes for supper with strawberries for desert!

Before long we were on the road, with an excited dog and enough food for about six people! We hit nasty traffic problems in west London but eventually got down to the Forest around 1pm. The sun was shining and we pulled off and found a quiet part of the forest to lay down our blankets and laze about reading the Guardian and eating our lunch. Pluto was very happy and took himself off to explore, occasionally he would trot back and lick our faces unexpectedly just to say hi or he would sit sunbathing at our feet. Around 3.30pm we headed over to Burley for a gorgeous cream tea and a look round the shops. Despite Burley having only about 8 shops, my partner managed to buy a new cycle helmet and wallet and bizarrely I fell in love with a peg bag decorated with witches and bought that! (Burley is famous for its witches!). We then headed to another quiet part of the forest, where Pluto was chased by an over protective mare looking after her foal, I had a nap, my partner went for a walk and then we had the most gorgeous supper outside in the sun. We popped back to Burley, went to the pub for a drink before heading back home just after 8pm...

I am finding it increasingly difficult to leave beauty to return to chaos each time. I love the countryside, and I’m afraid London does not provide the succour it once did. But as long as I have my partner and my dog, it’s fair to say I have more happiness than most, and could live pretty much anywhere. Very soon we will be house hunting again so that hopefully we can live in our own little bit of paradise...

Off to see the fantastic Dulwich Ukulele Club this evening at the Brockwell Park Bandstand.

All in all, a great weekend I think you'll agree!

Cornish dream

Back in the office, too much work to do and everything seems unorganised but there you go…

We had a magical weekend. Despite the bronchitis we did go to Cornwall. Our new tent is totally awesome! It’s absolutely massive, not that difficult to put up and really comfortable. When there was a little rain we sat inside with the porch open still able to watch the world go by and I can walk about in it without having to crouch and hurt my knees! I’m still on a mission to find a comfortable way to sleep whilst camping (2nd airbed with a slow puncture!) but we’ll get there, everything else was great anyway.

The Dulwich Ukulele Club (DUC) were tremendous... My soon to be brother-in-law is in the band and had got us two free tickets for the festival, so we were DUC groupies for the weekend and a lot of fun it was too... Their second gig especially, really got everyone going and people were dancing and having a whale of a time. In my opinion they are simply one of the best bands to see live; funny, musically very good, and incredibly original.

The festival was lovely, really gentle. I didn’t actually do much other than whoop and holler for the band at their gigs – I was trying to rest as much as possible. But there felt no need to rush, or see everything or even do anything. We had nice food, some beer, sat round the fire at night, laughed a lot and just enjoyed the atmosphere and the people. It was nice to see lots of kids running around, having a great time; perfectly safe and a just a little wild… like children should be! If you fancy a really eclectic festival Port Eliot is a fantastic choice. Not sure it’s happening next year, but we would definitely go again.

It had taken us 9 hours to get to Cornwall because the M4 had come to a virtual standstill. Newbury had suffered devastating flooding, roads had been washed out - basically it was pretty awful. Coming out of London the visibility had been down to one or two metres at times. I was genuinely scared and considered stopping the car and pulling over. I didn’t know how we were going to get to Cornwall that’s for sure. But we did, eventually. It did rain, but it was light rain that lasted only a short time. It seemed unreal that the rest of the country was suffering so much.

On the Sunday we had already decided to go a visit a wedding venue in Tintagel. It had been three years since I’d visited ‘Tagel and it was great to see it again in the hot Cornish sun. We checked out the venue, but decided for a variety of reasons that it wasn’t for us. We grabbed some fresh pasties and scones and hit the road, deciding to head down to St Ives where there was a hotel we were really quite interested in. We had originally thought we wouldn’t be able to go and visit this one; it was too far south and we had to head back to London. We were also mindful that flooding and rain may still be a problem and so we didn’t want to leave it too late before we headed home. But St Ives is only about an hour and half from Tintagel and to go home and then have to make another trip back to Cornwall so soon just seemed overwhelming.

St Ives is beautiful and I just had a funny feeling that this hotel was going to be the one for us. The wedding co-ordinator was off-duty but was happy to show us around. Her attitude (and that of her colleague whom we had spoken to on the phone) was fantastic. Nothing was too much trouble and the view of the golden sands and turquoise sea from the ceremony and reception rooms was stunning. The hotel has its own sub-tropical gardens, a private pool and direct access to the beach. We waited until we got back to the car before agreeing that we had found our venue! We’ve since booked the registrar (also super lovely) and the hotel and are having our invitations designed…

It’s such a relief to have the venue sorted. It felt that nothing could progress – and I suppose nothing could progress – before that was done. So on the 30 August next year I will be marrying my beloved surrounded by all the people I love. What a lovely thought!

The journey home did take forever, but we got home just after 11pm, safe and sound and to a very happy hound who had been staying with a friend all weekend.

Monday we did some wedding stuff but otherwise I stayed in bed reading the new Harry Potter. Bliss…