Thank You

We've arrived at Madrid Airport and have a bit of time waiting for our connecting flight on to the Canaries. So I'm gonna take the chance to beat Simon to the first post marital blog entry ;-)

As Simon is hanging over my shoulder desperate for me to get on with it, so that he can blog, I'd just like to say thank you to everyone for their best wishes and kind thoughts. Photos and a tedious minute by minute breakdown of the day will come later, once I've got a couple of beers into my husband and he doesn't care that he's paying for the internets time on his card anymore.

Wedding Flowers

That's It

If I haven't don't it now or remembered to do it, it won't happen for tomorrow. There are flowers in the sink, packets of tissues by the gross, presents all around and I've just deprincessed the house.

We're done.

I can start enjoying myself now.

Pink Mist

It really is dark when I set off in the morning now, it won't be long until I have to scrape the frost off the windows so far I've been lucky but I'm sure that won't last long after we get back. The upside of these pre dawn starts is that I get to see the sun rise over the fens and it is beautiful. The dawn light catches the early morning mists turning them and the surrounding countryside various shades of pink. As the days get shorter this pink treat is retreating westwards, today it was March tomorrow it will be the road to Chatteris.

There must be an important trial going on in Norwich because for the past few weeks I've past on my way to work a convoy going eastwards of 4 police cars and typical prisoner transporter, white boxy vehicle with high up blacked out windows - they must be hellish for the travel sick claustrophobic criminal. Simon's boss has seen the same convoy, on his stretch of the A47, heading towards Swaffham.

One of the hints and tips that a bride is supposed to take notice of, is making sure that your hands look beautiful on the day. I'm a bit stuffed here - I've got a big scab (relatively) on the back of my left hand as I managed to scrape some of the skin off when I was ferreting about in my briefcase for my passport on my way to Sweden last week. Half my fingernails have broken or split, I've got paper cuts and a scar on my middle finger. I think the joys of photoshop may have to come to my aid.

On Getting Back

I was tired after my flight back from Sweden. Being vibrated for hours on end is not condusive to rest or wellbeing. Yesterday I had to leave work early in order to pick up my new contact lenses, I have switched to soft lenses after almost two decades using gas permeables. The lenses are far more comfortable to wear but a palaver to put in and remove seeing as they are the size of small pudding bowls. I building up my tolerance so I should be up to full wearing by the wedding.

I went to Cambridge today to pick up the dresses - mine and Anne's. They are hanging up in white dress bags in the living room now. I am so tempted to show Simon but the groom not seeing the dress until the day of the wedding is one frippery I want adhere to.

This afternoon Si and I went into Lynn, we had an al fresco lunch by the river then, fortified by baked potatoes and beans we headed into the town to do the hard shopping for next Saturday. M&S, Monsoon, Woolworths were all gone through like hot knives through treacle. There were some lovely skirts and tops in the Per Una range that had to be admired. Monsoon was a cavern of jewelled coloured dresses and accessories which was very distracting and Woolworths a confusing mess of cheapness. But we got what we wanted.



We are now in the final throws - this is our last week of being separate, we can now say "this time next week we'll be married" etc. I'm often asked if I'm nervous: about getting married - no. About the wedding and its organisation yep I'm worried that it all won't pull together, I think I'll relax properly when it's Friday night and the shops are shut, it will be like Christmas eve - finally too late to worry about anything. You should not get too concerned for me though, I'm pretty sure we've sorted out almost everything and if we've not thought of something now it can't be too important.

Back

I'm back but I'm too tired for much more than saying look at this pretty picture.


More tomorrow

I Forgot To Mention

That the plane and Stockholm, the bits we've seen so far anyways had more than a fair smattering of Northern Irish football fans who all seemed to be ever so slightly well oiled but jovial with it. Northern Ireland are playing Sweden tomorrow it appears and Sweden if they win will go through I don't think that Northern Ireland's chances are so good.

Sweden

I'm here in Stockholm, sat in my hotel room after a meal at a near by Mongolian BBQ restaurant, it wasn't bad, pretty good value for money for an all you can eat and they did excellent green Thai curry. My hotel room is small but perfectly formed and there is free wifi in every room as well as a complementary bath towel and proper flannels in the bathroom and a phone for some reason. My room overlooks the central atrium of the hotel, the lobby below is lit up with blue lights, its rather ethederal.

As to what Sweden looks like, right now I've not got the foggiest, we got here in the dark as the flight was an hour late taking off from the UK we haven't ventured far from the hotel tonight so have no feel for the place. Tomorrow we are going to spend most of the day at the company we are here to visit and most likely it will be dark by the time we leave their site. I might get to see a little bit of Stockholm on the last day before we head off back to the airport.

Turing Test - xkcd

As Neil from the Young Ones would say "Like, Wow."

Turing Test - Wikipedia

Al Gore - Nobel Laurete

Well congratulations are due to Al Gore and his posse on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for winning the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change". For a politician he's doing very well with the non political awards collection. His neighbours are going to have serious mantelpiece envy.

Of course there is a huge suspicion that Al and team got the award this year because the Swedish committee knew exactly how much it would get up the nose of some of the non-reality based community in the US. I know that not every Climate Change Doubter is a fundamentalist, faith based, SUV driving, mouth breathing right winger, but I've not heard of a fundie who does subscribe to the hypothesis that humanity has increase the rate of change in the climate.

I've not actually seen the film, but I do find the idea that man's activities have increased the amount of climate change to be credible. But besides that point we should be looking to decrease our carbon footprint because the hydrocarbons we all rely on so much are a finite resource so we should be trying to eke them out for as long as practicable.

Hair

This evening I have been mostly dyeing my hair. I'm waiting the 15 minutes before I can wash the dye out of my hair and off my cheeks, neck, ears, nose and arms. Right now I look a bit piebald. Hopefully in an about half an hour's time I won't look so grey.

Been Busy

On Saturday we went to Norwich, we did our bit for Norwich's economy well, John Lewis's, getting the last of Simon's outfit for the day and other sundries. We were on our way to Castle Mall when we spotted a Charity shop - The Big C that had a bridal boutique upstairs.

It was a treasure trove I got myself a tiara £6.50, we had a look around, of course a charity shop's stock is always changing, they had some great stuff amongst perhaps the slightly tired and worn. Retro wedding dresses mostly from the 60s 70s and 80s but they even had one that dated back to 1947, it was stunning, in ivory satin with shoulder pads and a bias cut. Definitely worth a look for anyone looking for clothes for a wedding.

And then today we made chutney, rather like Dan we had a bit of a surfeit of produce but unlike Dan we didn't grow it ourselves rather Simon's granddad donated it to us either from his garden or from when he went scrumping in Sandringham. I prepared the spices first, I had to make the quatre épice then spoon out the right amount for the chutney (the rest is in the fridge awaiting the next casserole). The smell of cloves, light brown sugar, ground ginger, raisins and nutmeg was Christmas cooking. We had to start out in two pans as I underestimated the volume occupied by the uncooked ingredients but we got down to one in the end.

We bought jars especially for the chutney yesterday, there was more than enough of the mixture to fill all three jars.


We zizzed up what was left over in the blender to make our very own special brown sauce and boy is it smashing! Very smashing indeed.

Free Burma

The generals have apparently pulled the plug on most of the internet and other forms of communication in Burma because they don't want the news spreading at home that they are being watched by the world and the world don't like what it sees.





A show of solidarity is still worthwhile though because China, India and Russia all have links and influence and can be influenced themselves. Probably not by a small bunch of bloggers but a big bunch of bloggers can help raise the issue in the news, just think how much journalists love to cover interweb stories, it can all be done from the safety of the office and cheaply too.

Music

It's not a matter of whether I will cry at the wedding, I think it is more in the area of do bears shit in woods, no the question is how much? A slight moistening of the eye or the full inconsolable, mascara ruining howl. I am very susceptible to emotion, it's a family trait; my cousin when a little girl could be made to cry by just saying to her "poor Kate" and she would howl. Simon has chosen a track for the ceremony that makes me cry every time, it moves me inordinately, but I've been trying to inoculate myself to it by playing the track on my ipod on the way to and from work, so far it hasn't worked, we do have time for exposure to take effect however if we sign the register to "The Sun Has Got His Hat On" you'll know why.