wine+food+bbqs+wheelbarrow=honeymoon August 17, 2009

Aaaah, the honeymoon. White sand, clear seas, blue skies, cocktails and hand-in-hand romantic walks with the ocean lapping at our bare feet, right?

But this is us you’re talking about, so think again!

Here’s a very quick run down of our top honeybop activities:

- Lovely lovely dinner in the very posh Randolph hotel in Oxford, where the concierge parking vehicles raised his eyebrows at our camper van saying “well, this is a first…”

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Driving along Sandbanks on the way to Studland bay ferry – absolutely beautiful scenery and glorious weather

- Darts open contest at Swanage – although Husband crashed out in the first round, we had a great chat with the locals

- Climbing morning at Dancing Ledge with ex Marine, Jim Oakley - he got me up a tricky climb on my third attempt and gave us a great morning out

- Camping in a lush little field right next to another Bedford CF van! Hoorah! Had a lovely evening in the Square and Compass pub (a reverse tardis – looks massive on the outside but weeny inside!) with our camper van buddies, drinking lovely beer and cider

- Bought one of the last wheelbarrows in Wareham and took part in the Swanage carnival wheelbarrow race. A heady mix of 9 pubs, 120 people careering round in their wheelbarrows, 2 blokes in mankinis, bundling to get to the trestle tables of halves of bitter, and sprinting to the end to find piles of sick where people had overdone it somewhat. A completely random thing to do! Some brilliant pictures here…

 - The Torbay steam fair! Featuring a Tractor drive-by, steam engines, other engines, woodcutting engines, threshing machines, proper cakes and tea in china cups, old people sitting on deckchairs and good proper games like a coconut shy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Breaking even at Newton Abbot Races and buying some comedy old cookbooks (The Good Cook’s Encyclopedia, 1963) and records (Jungle Book) in the local charity shops

- Bovington Tank Museum – a great day out and loved seeing the old military boys helping out with the tanks. They obviously loved it, especially careering round in them in the ‘attack’ display at lunchtime.

- An afternoon in the rain spent cosying in the camper with sloe gin and Enid Blyton books.

- Travelling by steam train in Swanage then to Dartmouth from Paignton – both brilliant and I love the chugga chugga of steam travel!

- A luscious cream tea provided in Dartmouth by the bowling club ladies, eaten whilst listening to big band 40s music at the bandstand – very english, very lovely.

- BBQing dinner whilst drinking champagne – there’s something very incongruous about doing this, especially whilst sat next to a 70s camper; but we loved it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Skimming stones at Durdle Door – a complete throwback to my childhood; I’m still rubbish at it!

 

And the worst thing about honeymoon? Coming back…

At risk of being a bridal bore… August 14, 2009

WARNING – before reading, please know that you are at risk of being bored by the bridal bore!

I’m quite conscious that actually, not everyone in the world wants to know that I had blue toenails, that there was a power cut at the church and that the hog man got so hammered that it was a serve yourself or starve evening buffet…so I am trying quite hard to measure to what lengths I speak about our wedding. Having said that, here’s the initial ramblings on The Big Day, erm, just in case any readers are, like, interested….

It was totally, utterly brilliant and the best day of my life, for sure. In the run up to it, I was totally shattered from legging around and doing last minute jobs, painting the van and hallway so that neither looked tatty on the day, and carting stuff to and from the marquee. At 3pm on the Friday, I was scoffing chips in an unfinished marquee whilst it pissed it down outside.

Fast forward to 7pm however, and I was drinking red wine, having a pedicure and having my dinner cooked for me by the ultra-ace Bridesmaid, Mare.  I slept, as you’d imagine, a minimal amount and was wide awake again at 5.45am peering out from behind the curtains to find…sunshine! Hoooopla! I nearly high fived my sister, who was sleeping next door, in celebration.

Come 8am it was all systems go – five bridesmaids and three hairdressers were in full flow and the house was chocka. I was remarkably calm until I had to get my hair done – even applying my makeup was a relaxed affair. However, sitting still having my barnet sorted, not being able to run around in a lather was not good for my composure and I started getting nervy about the big day ahead. A few champers later though, and a bit of calming talk from lovely Mary from The Glass Slipper and I was basically ok.

Until.

Yes, there really was a power cut. As I drew up to the Church I heard house alarms going off and heard my Dad say “Oh dear” as he exited the car. I was stressed, as I knew we needed power for Dad and Brother’s musical turn later in the ceremony.  After a bit of flapping we were calmed by the presence of the completely brilliant Father John, who said in rather joyful tones “We have a piano!” (the organ was electric too).  The way he said it actually made me glad that we had a piano instead!  Anyhoo, it all panned out ok and I went up the altar with a piano playing and candles lit.  I was definitely happy at that point as some of the pics of me walking up show a grin so wide that I look slightly psychotic!  Looking back at the piano/candle/power thingy, it was completely appropriate for The Husband and I and fitted perfectly with our random comedy moments.  The wedding went on and half way through, the lights came back on too (not in reply to an expectant line on “shining light on us” from the priest – that really would have been a hollywood moment).  This meant Dad and Bro could do their turn singing a love song medley, which most of the congregation swayed along too! Brilliant. Throughout, I think if I had grinned any wider, my face would have split open – I was utterly over the moon.

The festivities carried on at our lovely marquee in a friend’s farm field (we are SO lucky with the weather, I can’t tell you), and the hay bale throwing contest got properly underway after dinner. Food btw was really fantastic and there was lots of it – washed down with LOADS of wine from the lovely Corkscrew Wines in Carlisle. Delicious pink wine was my choice and the sparklings they recommended were brilliant (i’m not a dry champagne fan, these were really lovely to quaff). With the alcohol adding to the atmosphere, many people joined the speech sweepstake contest…

My Dad’s speech was ace, culminating in a tailored version of “Always look on the bright side of life” with verses about me and the boy which Dad had written. Most people joined in the chorus which was a great random touch to our day. My speech went pretty well too and the Boy likes his ‘membership certificate’ of the Japan Aisaika organisation – or the devoted husbands association. I hope he takes my “tips” for future marital bliss on board…

Husband did a good job on his speech relating us to Tom and Barbara from The Good Life – I’d be happy with that although I’m not sure I could tolerate having goats. Pete the best man also had a blinder and recounted tale after tale of the Boy’s adventures and comedy moments aplenty, again culminating in song – this time Husband and Father in Law sang The Blackbird song – a good West Country moment!

The evening stayed fine weather wise and randomly a helicopter did a low fly-past, with many people thinking we’d organised that (we hadn’t). We’d chosen our band really carefully and The Men from Stax did us proud – our first dance was Madness’ “It must be love” which they played with aplomb, followed up by a ska mix which got a lot of people on the dancefloor early.  Tonnes of people commented on how great they were – and the dancefloor was basically packed all night – always a good sign.

The evening was a whirl and a blur of chatting, dancing, press ups (why do I do these things?!) and a sing-a-long of irish tunes, dutch songs and some rugby numbers. All in all, a top top top day.

The next morning everyone who’d camped was up early and a few of us went for a refreshing swim in the river (a very good hangover cure, I can tell ya). Then it was on to the wedding XI cricket game, in which two of our uncles took wickets and celebrated way beyond their years and agility should allow! It was ace and a nice way to chill a little bit before heading off on the honeymoon adventure in Trevor the wonder van – but more of that in a later post…

wedding jitters July 21, 2009

I finish work today. Today! Cripes!  Have just been treated to flowers and cakes from the work girls all to the wedding march tune! Bless them – a lovely surprise.  I actually drove the camper van into work today to get over any jitters I have about driving it round. It all went fabulously well and is now parked right at the entrance of work on display to all!

Aside from the camper-tastic-ness, somehow the wedding is now only four sleeps  away and it seems unbelievable that it’s crept up on us so soon! We’ve leapt from three months to less than a week and time has absolutely flown. Admittedly I’ve been focused on my bridal bootcamp regime a fair bit and painting Trevor like it’s going out of fashion, and life has been manic to say the least, so the wedding has kinda crept up on me…

Anyhoo, to add to general realisation that the Big Day is not far off, there we were in church Sunday and our names were in the newsletter as a forthcoming wedding – in black and white, there it was! Added to that, our lovely priest singled us out at the end of Mass highlighting our forthcoming nuptials – cue lots of well-wishers shaking hands, offering good luck and some dishing out advice. The priest reckons we look chilled out, which we probably do in all fairness (it was 0830 and my worry genes hadn’t woken up by then).

Having said we look chilled out though and with The Boy usually in a state of placidness as far as stress goes, this morning Boy revealed he’d had his first wedding related dream. His first, a week beforehand! (I’m shocked as I’ve been dreaming about it for years. literally.) Anyway. The dream wasn’t great and basically everything was running late. Now, this gives me an indication that under The Boy’s calm exterior is a shot of panic somewhere. Compare this to my dreams (for about 18months) of tripping over shoes, dress being ruined by peanut butter bagel on the morning, Boy being drunk, guests stuck in mudfield at reception, PA system not working, camper van being nicked, Priest ill on the day etc etc. You get the idea.  But this is all in my head and I’m telling myself to relax, be calm and enjoy the day on Saturday. It’ll only happen once and whatever happens, it’s going to be ACE!

Bride Speech July 14, 2009

I’ve decided to do a speech myself at the wedding – after all where there’s wine, a mic and an audience, I’m usually likely to strike up into song so I figured I should prepare and do something other than a rugby tune!

So, I’m well into my speech concept. I don’t want it to be slushy or too lovey-dovey as that’s not our style. I’m aiming for cute and comedic.  I think my idea is ace and it’s involving a bit of additional preparation involving a talented work colleague and a bit of internet research. Hopefully The Boy will like it and it’ll get some laughs.  I’m a bit nervous about it but I reckon by the time I get round to standing up I’ll have had at least one champers for dutch courage.

Talking of speeches, my Dad emailed me a draft of his Father of the Bride speech as Mum told him to let me look at it. I was in a total quandry as I felt I oughtn’t look at it, but some colleagues were recommending I did check it over. So, being curious, and a control freak, I did look. It was completely ace as I had expected and Dad noted that he has some more material up his sleeve so I’m expecting some surprises too! Bless him.

Dad being a doubly good Dad to have if you are getting married, is also doing our wedding cake and I’ve just seen pics of the cake topper we ordered to go with the themed cake. Totally brill, the lady doing it is soooo talented – you can see some of her work here. I can’t wait to see it altogether on the day…and to stuff my face with cake (now on week five of bridal bootcamp. I seriously can’t wait to eat good nice naughty food!!).

Bridal Bootcamp June 29, 2009

OK, yet again I’ve been slack on the blogging front but I have a very valid excuse. Exercise has taken over my LIFE!

It’s now under 4 weeks until the big day and in preparation I’d been doing a moderate exercise regime for 6 weeks, produced by my rugby physio who’s also a personal trainer.  This finished a few weeks ago, at which time I asked for another programme from physio queen, stating that I wanted to be more hardcore and go for it in the run up to the big day.
She literally took me literally! My new programme looks as though I’m an athlete preparing for a competition. If my wedding day was sporting superstars, I reckon I would totally win!  It’s intense, it’s full on and it’s time consuming.  But, it’s also working – I’m now nearly a stone lighter than I was this time a few months ago and I even let people take pics of me in a bikini on my hen weekend (Um, but I’ve asked them not to post on facebook!).

So what’s the magic recipe? Basically, hard work, and lots of it.  Week one was 35mins cardio interval sprints three times a week with toning and core, plus extra toning another two days a week. Now on week three, I’m onto exercise six days of the week. Yesterday morning I was doing 45mins of 2mins on, 2mins off sprinting round my local park.  I think the kid on the swings was a bit perplexed the third time I struggled by – by the end, my sprints were more like feeble limps.  This morning in the gym for 0730, it was core and toning, involving gym-ball pressups (inelegant, and difficult!), tricep hell and another 45 mins cardio intervals, this time on the cross trainer.

Bridal Bootcamp

The Bridal Bootcamp regime means early mornings, motivating myself when I really really really don’t want to do another set of bilateral tricep exercises, and fitting in increasing amounts of exercise at the expense of some other things (no food shop this week, and minimal piano practice).

Alongside this, top physio lady has given me lots of nutrition information. I was a bit scared by her recommendation of six small meals a day, protein before and after gym and a list of supplements.  I admit, I’m not following this to the letter preferring real food! But the mantra is the same – I’m having rice cake and tahini before the 0730 gym, followed by a yoghurt or in some instances a protein bar (ICK!!). Then I’m having half my lunch around 12 and the rest later in the afternoon. I’m off bread for now and trying to avoid caffeine and added salt and sugar (although I had salt on my potatoes yesterday).  I’m also taking a joint supplement as I’m doing so much exercise and recently a friend got osteo-arthritis so it can’t do any harm.

It’s hard work. But the end is in sight and once I am a Mrs, I am going to have a lay in, chillax on the exercise front and eat a whole loaf of lovely crusty bread!

Severe lack of kerb appeal June 1, 2009

The wedding is fast approaching – it’s less than 8 weeks away now and yesterday on return from a mate’s hen do, I was perturbed by our front garden.  I realised that on The Big Day I actually will want some pics of me leaving home as a singleton, hence images of the front garden and front door are required. Let me tell you why this is bad news.

Our front garden, although low maintenance, currently looks like Steptoe’s yard with bits of car and van strewn around, some scrap metal for welding, a trailer and a wheelie bin parked up outside the bay window.

The front door is a peeling mess of once-vivid blue paint.  It’s been sticking for ages so we’ve been using the back door and I only really noticed how tired it’s looking yesterday avo. The porch paint is pretty grubby too. It’s not got the kerb appeal that Kirsty and Phil would be looking for!

So what does our yard say about us?

- The Boy is a DIY-er who hoardes potentially useful stuff from the scrapyard, in the hope that one day, it will be useful

- We neglect what we think are small things (painting front door) with the aim of completing big things (getting van working)

- We aren’t front door people. Back door people are less formal and less tidy aren’t they?  It means when mates visit they wave to us through the kitchen window before letting themselves in.

- The Boy is not a methodical worker, but a ‘get stuck in’ type who strews stuff around him in the urgency of getting things done.

However, there’s another side to this and that is that actually although we neglect our frontage a bit, no-one really knows what’s behind our peely front door and scrapyard-esque yard.  Far from being neglected, I think we have a very happy home and although bits of it are sometimes ramshackle (just as we are from time to time), we still love it.

Having said that and romanticising it,  it still looks pants so am still adding tidy front garden and paint front door to the ‘wedding must do’ critical path list.

Whassssssup? May 19, 2009

S’been ages since I last blogged. Seriously, ages.  Sometimes I go on holiday and I’m already thinking about posts I want to write whilst I’m mid campsite.  But recently, I’ve had a mini drought of some kind. It’s been almost a month!

Missed me? 

Hmm, possibly not…but in any case, here’s a quick run down of whasss been going on!

 - Cooked Father John thai chicken kebabs and rice, and showed him our veg patch. He was impressed.  Am sure this has convinced him that as our onions are in straight lines, we have a good marriage ahead of us.

 - The Boy survived his stag do, and came back with hair intact.  Involved Amsterdam, Skis, boiler suits and oysters.

 - Went to first wedding of the season and could tell I was B2B as nearly blubbed at arrival of le bride. Tres bon do involving pianist who played Spandau Ballet!

 - Have tweaked a tendon in my foot. This is not good news for Bridal Bootcamp regime and have tried to compensate for lack of running with swimming and cycling.

 - Work has gone crazy mental, am v glad we have a good gang of mateys in the office to keep sane with! Am looking forward to cocktail-hen-do type evening with les ladies on Friday, bring on wine time!

 - Invites have gone out for wedding and replies are trickling back. It’s quite frustrating waiting for people to reply. I would like to know in an instant whether it’s yay or nay, am v impatient!

 - Tried to inspire The Boy on the John Lewis gift list front with a very mild introductory visit, after work, for one hour. Including food.  He was quite good and managed to not break glasses, walk calmly through the towel section and even find an opinion on placemats. Good effort! Lack of opinion/caring means that Gift List is now in my lap. Woah yeah!! Bring on the soft furnishings!!

 

O my god. I realise I’ve written the list above and ALL of it relates to wedding! I’m not obsessed, seriously I don’t think I am but that makes me look obsessed and freaky bridezilla-y! Must try harder next time.

Anyhoo, that’s all for now, me is tired. Off to Bedfordshire.

Campervan, in an English Country Garden (with giant bees) April 8, 2009

Two more lovely ones here, both drawing on a garden type theme.  Mary’s using a ’secret’ garden design with an ingenious blackboard paint section at the back where we can scribble stuff on.  Potential for lewd graffiti? Quite high; but I like it!!

And here’s the front and back of Mary’s design, with that all-important blackboard bit:

The other entry is from Monkey Morris, who’s developed a simpler but equally effective design, which includes the rather threatening giant-bees:

Nice work from you both!

Only two days left so remember, if you haven’t done so already, to get your entries in to : tartuptrev@live.co.uk

Wedding preparation: watch gory violent film April 1, 2009

Last night we met again with Father John from the Northampton Cathedral, who’ll be doing our wedding ceremony. He is very chilled about everything which in turn makes me chill out a bit (very useful following on from this post). Last night we got to go into the Church and experience where we’d be standing on the big day. Father John roughly ran through who goes where and what happens and then he did a nice blessing for us. Spookily, the blessing included the passage that we are having as our Gospel reading in the ceremony!!

It was really quite surreal to be stood on the altar opposite The Boy with a priest in front of us. I felt a bit emotional actually! But this is not good – must not cry and ruin mascara on the day. Must not.

Anyhoo, following on from our altar experience and The Boy quizzing Father John on the history of the church’s architecture, we were set some homework. Last month it was to finalise our readings and hymns (cue lots of early morning singing of hymns by me to The Boy and cue The Boy falling asleep whilst I read him potential readings). This month, we have to watch Gladiator, the film. That’s it!

All Father John will say is that this film shows the origins of the word “sacrament”, and as we’re going through the sacrament of marriage, it’s apt to watch it. This will be a lot more straightforward! I’m arranging to borrow the DVD from a mate and all being well, The Boy will stay awake and we’ll learn something.

Next meeting Father John is coming to our house for dinner which leads to more preparation – what to cook for a clergyman?!

Pilates = peace of mind March 25, 2009

Having missed a couple of weeks of Pilates, I was finally back in class last night and positively relishing it. I mused later on that evening that Pilates classes are one of the very rare times where my mind is not working overtime or I’m stressing about my to do list.

Even when driving, I have the radio on but once again my internal speakers are far louder, and I end up going into a sort of reverie (not the good kind), making mental lists, remembering stuff I have to do and mulling over stuff.  It’s the same when I get to bed – I end up reading a bit, and then lay awake more often than not, going through the events of the day, or worrying about things that may never happen – my mind needs an off switch!

Anyhoo, back to Pilates – it is one of the few things I do, like I say, where the outside world melts away and I focus totally on what I am doing in that moment.  That is because partly if I don’t totally concentrate, I am highly likely to fall over, roll over or stop “zipping and hollowing”.  It’s hard work – but I love it.  I also feel a bit slimmer the day after too – I reckon the stretches and moves give you an internal massage of some sort, as well.  Basically, there’s nothing bad about it.

A recent trip to the doc also convinced me that these moments where my mind actually does relax are hugely important.   I’ve been having random dizzy spells (for once, not related to my wine consumption) and after an eye test confirming I have 20/20 vision, I got a check up to see if it was something else.  I’ve got to get some blood tests done, but the doc did mention stress could be a cause.   Now; I wouldn’t say I’m overly stressy, I just have a very active mind in my view.  I enjoy my job and yes, it’s stressful from time to time but again not overly so.  Planning a wedding is of course a lot of stress but the enjoyment I’m getting from that is outweighing the nail-biting, I reckon.

Still, stress is something many of us are under all the time – and we just get on with it don’t we?  I’m even a believer that a bit of stress does you good, and I definitely work better when the pressure’s on.  Although the blood tests might reveal something else, I think the doc’s mention of the S-word was timely anyway and last night I spent the rest of the evening on the sofa with a mag.  Every so often – you need to just chill.

I’m also off to book myself in for a spa day, massage, pilates retreat and facial…