Hints and Tips

When I got my car, it was 9 months old and had done 2,800 miles. Now, it's 11 months old and has done 5,600 miles. That's crazy, I don't even drive to work! Although it could be something to do with the fact that I've driven up to the North West three times in the past 6 weeks...

This weekend it was for Catherine and Ben's wedding, and it was a beautiful day. Not too warm, but the sun was shining and it wasn't raining, and you can never guarantee that in April in the UK (or any month, for that matter), so weather-wise they did quite well.

The great thing about going to a wedding 9 weeks before your own is that you can get lots of ideas for things you hadn't thought of! And Catherine, I promise our wedding won't be exactly like yours, but we did come away with some food for thought... :)

We mislaid our camera for most of the day so only took a couple of photos. We were supposed to make a point of taking one of the two of us because we need it for something at the wedding, but we forgot. I guess we'll just use this one from a couple of years ago - I'm wearing the same outfit, anyway...

A Productive Birthday

It was Mum's birthday yesterday. I managed to change my wedding dress fitting from a couple of weeks' time to yesterday so she could come with me, so Mum, Jill and I went yesterday lunchtime.

The good news is that the dress fits me (although it's a little long so they're taking it up). The bad news is that the dress fits me - I was supposed to have dropped two dress sizes by now! I just can't find any motivation at the moment, and all the exercise I'm doing is just serving as justification in my mind to eat what I want, so I'm not losing any weight. The trouble is that since early March I haven't had a period of a consecutive couple of weeks where I can concentrate on eating healthily, which is what I need: first it was Rob's birthday, then we went to Las Vegas, then my sister came down for a few days, then I went to Wales for a week and had to eat what I was given, then my parents came to stay (they left this morning). This weekend we're going to a wedding, I've got a few lunches and dinners on next week, the week after I'm going to New York, and before I know it, it will be the middle of May!

Anyway, after the dress fitting we went into Winchester for some lunch and to look for a wedding outfit for Mum. We didn't see anything at all that was suitable in any of the dozen or so shops we went into, until the last one (which we left till last because Mum had seen something in there that was her back-up plan if she didn't find anything else). Jill and I made her try on approximately a thousand dresses in there, and we came away with a lovely one. We also bought jewellery for the bridesmaids - although Jen's not keen on it so it's back to the drawing board with that one.

All in all, a very productive day. Plus I got to bring home my veil and tiara - I have another dress fitting in about 5 weeks once they've shortened it, and I'll bring it home after that.

She was there, but didn't come out and say Hello

Ben and Jill invited us to go to Windsor with them on Saturday. What a great place! I can't believe it's taken me more than 30 years to see one of the UK's most popular tourist attractions. Here's all of us (minus Mum, who's taking the picture) in front of the Round Tower.

Rather than tell you all about the things to see there (you can just go and see for yourself), I'll just go over a couple of memorable moments from the day: -

When we got there we had to go through airport-like security. This took longer than it should have because, as usual, it didn't occur to people to take their coats off until they got to the front of the queue, despite the fact that they'd seen everyone else taking their coats off. Maybe they thought the rules would change when it was their turn? More amazing, though, was the fact that the bloke in the party in front of us had a knife on him and he had to hand it over, have it labelled and be given the drill on how to pick it up when he left. Seriously? A knife? This was no swiss army knife either; what made him think it would be a good idea to bring it in the first place? This is Windsor, not South-East London...

We arrived just in time to watch the changing of the guard so we got ourselves a good vantage point, just behind an area of lawn that had 'keep off the grass' signs all over it, so we thought our view would be good. It was, but not as good as it would have been if all the people who ignored the signs hadn't stood in front of us. It was so funny watching people 'sneak' across the grass - they looked like they were in a pantomime, you know the types, crouching down and tip-toeing, kind of slow-motion creeping. Because that makes them look less conspicuous.

While we were looking round St George's Chapel, the custodians told us that the fire alarm was going off and we all had to evacuate. Mum, Jill, Ben and I were all closest to the door of the opposite side of the building from the entrance, and in the time it took us to walk round to the front - only a couple of minutes - they were letting people back in again. Turned out there's an area near the front of the chapel, as there is in a lot of churches, where you can light a candle if you want. Apparently there were so many candles lit that they set off the fire alarm. Had it never occurred to anyone before now that this might happen???

Liz was there - the flag was flying - but for some reason, she didn't find it necessary to come out and shake our hands. Maybe next time.

The Ceramics are Back...

Mine on the left, Jen's in the middle and Jill's on the right.

Nightingale to Papa Bear, come in, over...

Got back from New World Alive late last night - it didn't finish till this lunchtime but I wasn't on duty this morning so I got permission to leave after I finished my shift at 6pm yesterday. My parents are arriving on Monday night and I need to strip the paper off the walls in the hall, stairs and landing before they get here, so I need all the time I can get my hands on.

I had a great time volunteering as a steward - although the weather was lovely all week; I might have had a different experience if it had been pouring down. I worked the same venue each afternoon between 13:00 and 17:30, then Tuesday and Wednesday I worked the late night shift between 21:00 and midnight, and Thursday I was in the main marquee for the early evening session. I particularly enjoyed it when it was my turn to have the radio - Jonny took it upon himself to give everyone code names. His was Papa Bear, Stef was Black Bear, Becs was African Savannah, so I styled myself 'Nightingale'. Well, why not? It was my choice... :)

Seriously, though, I felt like I was making a difference - my contribution, however small and insignificant, was enabling the attendees to get the most out of their week. I also got to hear some fantastic speakers while I was there - the two sessions in my venue each afternoon were on medical ethics and social justice and I got to hear most of the content, which was really thought-provoking. I was particularly struck by two statements I heard on Thursday - in the medical ethics talk, we learned that the western world has made massive leaps forward in the area of stem cell research over the last 6 months, to the extent that the legislation surrounding stem cell research passed late last year is already as good as redundant, then in the social justice talk we heard that 900 million people in the world have no access to clean water, and 2.5 billion don't have a decent toilet. That's crazy - almost half the world has no sanitation, while the other half is making scientific strides quicker than its own legislature can keep up.

So, despite the fact that I was at least a decade older than most of the other stewards (almost all of them were recent graduates), and that I had to wear a fetching yellow jacket all week, I had a really good time and I'd definitely be up for stewarding again.