Honeymoon: Kyoto

Japan is a country of no words. That is, there are words, but they just look like pretty symbols to me ;).

Kyoto is without doubt one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. We spent our four days here visiting temples, castles and shrines, trying new foods, sleeping on the floor and walking a LOT. I sprained my ankle the first day here, but it hasn't given me too much trouble since then, thankfully.

We stayed in a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn, which was definitely an experience. We really enjoyed it, but as we both have back problems, we think next time we come we'll stay at the Westin :). The accommodation included dinner as well as breakfast, and we had some really amazing food, including a kaiseki meal, shabu-shabu and sukiyaki. Neither of us is a great fish lover, but we tried most things - although we drew the line at a whole fish which, whilst beautifully prepared, could not tempt us to break off its head and take a bite. We declined dinner at the ryokan one night (sashimi on the menu that night) and went out for the most amazing teppanyaki, then we found a sake bar run by an Israeli ex-pat who's been in Japan for 23 years, where we tried seven different types of sake.

We visited loads of temples and shrines, including Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion), the Heian Shrine, Kiyomizu Temple, Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion) and Chion-in, whose 'Sanmon' entrance gate is the largest in the world.

Again, full photos are here but my favourites are below.

Our room in the ryokan

The Heian-jingu torii

Heian Shrine

All the gardens looked at least as beautiful as this

Kinkaku-ji

Nijo Castle

Outside the Manga Museum. Yes, it was as hot as it looks

Sanmon Gate

Ginkaku-ji with Kyoto in the background

Honeymoon: Singapore

We left Heathrow at 18:30 on Sunday evening and flew 13 hours overnight to Singapore, arriving at 14:30 on Monday afternoon. We had half-hoped that we might get an upgrade on the flight, but Singapore apparently don't do free upgrades, and it cost £1,900 per person, so we decided not to. £1,900? That's crazy! Turned out we made the right choice because we got exit row seats, plus the guy sitting next to us in the group of 3 moved seats, so we had 3 seats to the 2 of us.

When we got to Singapore, neither of us was particularly tired so we decided to get the train rather than a taxi to the hotel. It was about a half-hour journey and cost S$2.60 each (about £1.20) - plus if you handed your ticket back in at the end of your journey they gave you a S$1 refund, AND the trains were clean, air-conditioned and comfortable. Compare that to the London Underground: £4 for a one-way ticket, filthy, over-crowded and sweltering hot in summer.

Our hotel was gorgeous, and we had a great view of the marina from our balcony. We crammed quite a lot into our two days in Singapore: we went on a city tour, which was a whistle-stop tour of the most famous landmarks, designed to give you a taste of the city and allow you to choose which areas to visit in more detail. The tour took in Merlion Park, Thian Hock Keng Temple, a gem factory, the Orchid Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens and a quick stop at Little India.

We went on an evening tour of Chinatown, which included a look round the night market, a trishaw ride to Clarke Quay then a boat trip along the Singapore River to the marina and back. We also went on a night safari at the Singapore Zoo, which was great fun, and we went on the Singapore Flyer, the largest ferris wheel in the world.

Pictures are here, but some of my favourites are below.

The Merlion

Thian Hock Keng Temple

At the Orchid Garden

Rob on his trishaw ride

The Singapore Flyer

Raffles Hotel

Next stop: Japan.

Here Comes the Bride...

[NB: No, it's not the day after the wedding. It's actually 4 weeks after the wedding, but I'm going to post entries to roughly the correct day because... well, because it's my blog and I can do what I like with it.]

We had such an amazing day yesterday; the atmosphere was relatively relaxed and informal, which is what I wanted, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We'd decided to memorise our vows, instead of repeating them after the vicar, and we almost managed it: Rob got a couple of phrases the wrong way round, and I struggled to finish my vows as I started crying, but we got there in the end ;).

The whole day was just great - the ceremony, the food, the speeches, the band, all brilliant. Here are a few of my favourite photos: -
















You can see these and more pictures here. They're an amalgamation of the photos taken by guests at the wedding. The photographer has also put his photos online - if you haven't seen them and would like to, leave a comment or e-mail me and I'll send you the URL, username and password.

Now for three weeks of honeymoon :).

Countdown: 1 Day To Go

Jen's jobs for today: -

• Drop some last-minute things off at the hotel;
  
• Buy lovely stuff (croissants etc) for breakfast tomorrow;
  
• Vacuum the lounge;
  
• Have nails painted at 15:30.

Sal's jobs for today: -

• Have nails painted at 15:30;
  
• Pack non-clothes items for honeymoon (shoes, sun cream, toiletries, books etc - did clothes last night);
  
• Go to the rehearsal at church at 18:00.
  
• That's it!

We're having lunch with both families on Sunday then leaving for the airport at 14:00. We then have an 11-hour flight to Singapore and Rob's taking his laptop with him so he can put some finishing touches to his assignment (he started a distance learning Masters in Computer Science at Oxford last month), which is due to be submitted by e-mail just before we get back from honeymoon, so if I can persuade him to change his keyboard layout from Dvorak back to Qwerty, I'll try and post a couple of photos of the wedding.

I really like my photo of the day today. I couldn't get the screen to photograph very well, but I love the idea :).

Countdown: 2 Days To Go

Today's jobs: -

• Gym first thing;
  
• Have my legs waxed at 10:30;
  
• Take Clare up to the church to have a look around, as she's doing a reading during the service but can't make the rehearsal tomorrow evening;
  
• Go to the bureau de change to pick up our Japanese Yen and Singapore Dollars;
  
• Meet with the hotel's functions manager at 15:00 and give him the table decorations, favours, place cards etc.

I cried a lot yesterday. For no particular reason; I just started feeling quite overwhelmed and emotional and came to the conclusion that if I didn't have a good cry, I would probably end up in tears all day Saturday. So I used every opportunity I needed to get some tears out - I cried when my parents arrived; when Jen offered to pay for a picture frame; when I got into bed...

I feel much better today.

Countdown: 3 Days To Go

Sal's tasks for today: -

• Run 5 miles first thing;
  
• Go to the hairdressers at 10:00 for highlights and a make-up trial;
  
• Call the hotel and make some amendments to bedroom reservations for this weekend;
  
• Make sure our favours are safely delivered to the office;
  
• Take the orders of service (finally finished - yay!) and photo slideshow into the church office ready for Saturday.

Jen's tasks for today: -

• Go to the bridal shop to pick up the hoop I'm hiring to wear under my dress;
  
• Go to Winchester to collect the pottery we painted the other weekend;
  
• Wait for Mum & Dad to arrive this afternoon;
  
• Keep Sal calm.

Weather update: The forecast now says mostly cloudy, but top temperature 21° and still 0% chance of rain :).

Countdown: 4 Days To Go

Today's schedule looks like this: -

• PT Session at 11:00. I usually have my sessions on Wednesday or Thursdays, and in fact this week Ben offered me 09:00 on Friday, but I didn't want to run the risk of not being able to walk properly on Saturday so I opted for an earlier than usual session to give my muscles time to recover :)
  
• Spa treatments at 13:00. The hotel is giving us two free treatments as part of the wedding package, so Jen and I are taking them today;
  
• A quick trip to Eastleigh this afternoon to check out some shoes Jen has seen;
  
• A final session on the $£*!@%& very beautiful and yet not at all difficult-to-make Orders of Service - only 30 more to go!

Countdown: 5 Days To Go

Jen arrived yesterday! Three cheers for little sisters :).

On the agenda for today: -

• Shopping this morning with Jen and Sara - Jen's still keeping an eye out for a more comfortable pair of shoes to wear with her dress on Saturday;
  
• Finish the orders of service - 80 down, 60 to go;
  
• Still haven't made a list of group photos to send to the photographer - must do that today;
  
• Call the hotel and arrange to go in later this week to drop off favours, table decorations etc.

Countdown: 6 Days To Go

No real plans for today, other than go to the gym, go shopping (we didn't go yesterday in the end) and do another batch of orders of service. Jen's arriving later on today - the idea was that she would keep me from getting stressed in the final week, but I'm really not feeling at all stressed, so maybe we'll have quite a relaxing week :).

Countdown: 7 Days To Go

Jobs for today include: -

• Go up to the church first thing this morning to listen to the band practising the songs we're having at the service. I'm supremely confident in their ability to play the songs, but I have definite ideas about exactly how I'd like them played. Well, there had to be one thing in this whole wedding that I had strong opinions on :).
  
  
• Orders of service are taking longer than anticipated to put together. The more I do, the neater they are and the less time each one takes, but I'm still only doing about 20 per day before I get bored to tears, so that's my new plan - do 20 a day and have them finished by about Tuesday. As long as they're done by Saturday, right?
  
  
• Go shopping! Rob and I are going shopping for holiday clothes - only 8 days till honeymoon!

Looking Promising

We're still over a week away from the wedding, so the weather forecast isn't very accurate, but check out the provisional forecast for next Saturday: -

Of course, when Clare and I arranged a barbecue for the guys at the office last year, the forecast at 10 days out said there was a 10% chance of rain, and when the day came it bucketed down from dawn till dusk. However, I will be over the moon if this forecast doesn't change all that much. Not too hot, not too cold, a bit cloudy so not so bright that everyone's squinting in the photos, no rain... if I believed in luck I would keep everything crossed, but as I don't, I'll just keep checking the forecast each day and take whatever we get on the day. We have back-up plans for bad weather so it won't be a big deal if it rains, but it would be nice if it didn't...

Dressed to Impress - in Neon

L-R: Sam, Becky, me, Jill, Clare and Cathy

Yes, we really did go out in Southampton looking like this :).

We had a fantastic day on Saturday. First, we went into Winchester at 12:00 to paint pottery for a couple of hours. We all did a piece of our own, then we got a star-shaped plate and wrote 'Sally's Hen Do 6 June 2009' in the centre, and all the girls wrote their names on it - can't wait to get it back; pictures when I do.

After pottery we went for lunch, then had a look round the shops. We went back to mine and I was given the gorgeous outfit you see in the picture above. While we were all getting changed, the boys arrived back from their afternoon of clay pigeon shooting, which they really enjoyed. They had more fun laughing at us in our outfits, though :).

We went into Southampton for a meal, feeling a bit silly in our 25-years-out-of-date attire, but at least we were all in it together ;). Clare had arranged a little 'Mr & Mrs' game for me - she asked Rob a series of questions last week, then asked me the same questions at the meal and I had to give the answers I thought most likely to have been given by Rob. If I got one wrong I had to drink a shot, and out of 19 questions I drank 5 shots (although it should have been 6; Clare let me off one as I got 3 wrong in a row and was struggling!).

We left the restaurant and went to Reflex, an 80s club where we fitted right in! We were given a hen party freebie pack that included an inflatable guitar, deely boppers (4 sets so I didn't have to wear them!), a pair of oversized sunglasses, a sweatband and a microphone, and we spent most of the rest of the night dancing and posing for photographs with our new props - as evidenced by the fact that Clare had more than 200 pictures by the end of the night...

Rob and the boys turned up at about 01:30, having been to the comedy club and a couple of bars, then we left at around 02:00. I had absolutely no idea it had got that late - I'm usually yawning by 11:30, but I think it had a lot to do with the fact that I was wearing flat shoes, seriously. I survive a lot longer when my feet aren't killing me.

I got up at 08:20 on Sunday, said goodbye to James, Sam and Rob's Dad, then took two painkillers and fell asleep on the sofa for 3 hours. Felt much better after I woke up the second time :).

Here are some of the better photos :)

In the restaurant, before they made me drink shots :)

Waiting to go into Reflex - believe it or not, Sam wasn't drinking

With my swag - microphone, guitar and sunglasses. I don't really have a yellow nose - it's just a badly-positioned spotlight

Towards the end of the night - still going strong

Countdown: 2 Weeks To Go

Things to do this week: -

• Having met with Paul, the photographer, on Thursday, I need to make a list of the group photos we absolutely want to have taken on the day and send the list to Paul this week;
  
  
• I need to speak to the people providing the wedding cars to confirm the details and pay the balance;
  
  
• I didn't get the orders of service printed off last week, mainly due to the fact that the printer/photocopier at the church office was needed most of the day on Friday for other things, so I've arranged to go in on Monday and get the insides printed, then I need to make up the orders of service, using the covers that Jen has made to match the invitations and the pieces of ribbon that are currently stuck to the coffee table spelling the phrase '2 weeks to go';
  
  
• Ben, our personal trainer, is away this week so I don't have a session, but I do have a new programme for the next couple of weeks. It's heavy on running, in an attempt to move some weight off my hips and thighs - not that it really matters for the wedding as I'm wearing a hoop under my dress, so you won't see the outline of my legs anyway, but I'm looking forward to doing a couple of days a week of running outside. I haven't done any running on the road since before I got knocked off my bike, which was exactly a year ago today.
  
  
• Most importantly for this week, it's my hen party today! I wasn't at all keen on the idea of fairy wings, deely boppers, L plates, fake tiaras and veils, so I decided not to have a hen do, but Clare and Jill had other ideas :). I told Clare not to go too crazy, and other than another pottery painting session that I've arranged for noon today, I haven't been told exactly what we're doing - watch this space to see how it went! Rob and the boys are also going out on his stag do today - they're going clay pigeon shooting then to a comedy club in town.