Designing invites

I’m getting quite into designing stationery now! It’s all been good fun playing around with the image editing software and trying to create the design I want. This morning has been spent playing around with images of veils, tiaras and L plates trying to design hen night invitations. I have now ordered the invites for the hen night as well as the wedding and reception invites - just waiting for them all to arrive now. It is all making the wedding seem so much nearer now and I am getting really excited about it! Wedding planning is so much fun!

Eureka moments

Life-changing moments can often happen in the most unexpected places. One of my pivotal moments was the day I made the decision to become a midwife. I was a Biomedical Sciences student, sitting on the bus on the way to another lecture when I glanced up and saw the advert for the School of Nursing and Midwifery. I have always described it as my eureka moment. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. There may be days when the pressure of being on-call wears me down, but being at a birth is still such a magical experience.

Floral frustrations

When I was researching reception venues, I was shocked by how poor the customer service was at some venues. Now I am trying to find a florist and it seems the flower industry is not much better on the customer service front. At one shop my enquiries about different arrangements and prices just resulted in a rather curt “It’s in the price list” (which was littered with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors). The shortlist is down to two florists – the only two who actually spent any time answering my questions and discussing possible ideas which could work with my budget.

Attempting to give up things for Lent

I’m not very good at giving things up for Lent. Most years I seem to fail completely within the first week of Lent. This year I thought I’d try giving up grumbling about things and I’ve failed dismally on the very first day. The rehearsal ran late when I really wanted to get home on time, Michael is working ridiculously long hours this week fitting up a shipping container from work so I feel like I haven’t seen him for days… Maybe I should just start over again tomorrow and see if I can last for longer than a day.

Desk bound

Another day working in the office. I always used to grumble at Michael he was running late for things due to working later in the office than he’d originally planned and now I find that I am guilty of the same thing. I had intended to leave at 4pm today to miss the rush hour traffic, but somehow 4 o’clock came and went and I was still busy finding things to do and didn’t end up leaving until 5.15pm. It seems that every time I am in the office, I end up leaving later than I had originally planned to.

Strictly ballroom

I used to do a lot of ballroom dancing at university but have hardly done any since I left university. Michael and I first met at a ballroom class (my first words to him were “you’re very tall, aren’t you?” – not exactly the best start – but he is 6’3” and I’m only 5”). We’ve decided that we want to do some ballroom dancing for our first dance so tonight we headed off to our first ballroom class in about three years. It didn’t take too long to get back into it (once we’d gotten to grips with the unfamiliar routines).

The best laid plans...

It’s Michael’s mum’s birthday today and we are off out for a Chinese meal later. Tonight was originally supposed to have been my night off, but one of my colleagues has phoned in sick and as we share someone who is due, I have agreed to be available. Whilst it’s not so bad staying available on my night off when I have nothing planned, I had been looking forward to some plum wine tonight. Michael has kindly offered to drive me to work if needed so I can have a glass of wine but it’s probably not a sensible solution!

Monckton and friends

Tonight’s concert at church was entitled “Monckton and Friends” and featured a trio of singers from the Royal Opera chorus. The Monckton referred to in the title is Lionel Monckton who was a composer of musical comedies in the early 1900s (his most well-known show being “The Arcadians”). There were also several numbers written by other composers of musical comedies around the same period. It was one of the best concerts at church so far – the singing was absolutely superb and fortunately this time I did manage to sit down and actually listen to the music which is always good!

Shoes

I’m a bit of a shoe addict. At last count, there were around about 80 pairs of shoes in my wardrobe (most of which get worn reasonably regularly). It’s not because I buy shoes a lot, it’s more that I rarely get rid of any of them. I’ve been trying to restore my old ballroom dancing shoes this week – after hunting around unsuccessfully to see if I could get them professionally cleaned, I decided it was either wreck or restore, got out the Vanish and then popped them in the washing machine. Fortunately they seemed to have survived the experience!

Sleeping like a baby

Small babies are almost guaranteed to fall asleep in their car seats on car journeys. Michael is very similar – sit him in the passenger seat and start driving and within a few minutes, he is likely to be asleep. In fact, he has an amazing ability to fall asleep almost anywhere (in the pub mid-conversation is not unheard of). It’s an ability he has inherited from his dad who can fall asleep in the middle of talking to someone, and almost mid-word sometimes. Fortunately this knack of falling asleep in the car doesn’t tend to happen when he is driving!

Writer's block

Oh, what can I write? My brain’s gone to sleep,
I lack inspiration which makes me just want to weep.
My thoughts are a blank and my mind’s in a maze -
It would seem that today is just one of those days!
I free-write for ten minutes in an attempt to get started,
But alas my creativity has sadly departed;
Can’t seem to focus on characters or places or plot,
All my pen can produce on the page is a blot.
I’m hunched over my notebook and chewing my pen;
Looks like writer’s block has hit me once again.

Nicknames

Working in the office has caused a little confusion because it means there are now two Louises in the office. I’ve been nicknamed “George” (which will be my married surname). It’s not the best nickname in the world, I have to say and despite disliking my name being shortened, that is the more appealing option! Previous nicknames have been “Wee Louise”, “Lou-Lou”, “Weezie” and “Twiglet” (not sure of the origin of that one!). At school, my best friend and I were known as “Little and Large” as she was the tallest girl in the year and I was the shortest.

Marriage preparation

We had our second meeting with our minister this evening to discuss the order of service and wedding details. Part of the meeting also involved some marriage preparation work – we had a few sheets with questions about things that are important to us, children, our relationship with our parents and our views on their marriages, and building each other up as Christians in our marriage. Whilst we’ve discussed some of our thoughts for the future, particularly with regard to children, there were a few things we hadn’t considered which has left us with a few things to be thinking about.

Valentine's babies

Michael and I hadn’t planned anything romantic for Valentine’s Day which was fortunate as I spent virtually the whole day at a birth (but did get to welcome another lovely baby into the world which was still a good way to spend the evening!). Much as I love him, I have to say that Michael isn’t the most romantic man in the world, although he did do very well on the romance front this year with the nicest card and message I’ve ever had! It has been nice to finally spend some time together after a very busy few days.

Lost in translation

Michael has been working in Berlin for the last few days and is flying back later this afternoon. I overheard one of his phone conversations when he was trying to organise the technical requirements for the event which was very funny – he started off in German “Guten morgen. Sprechen Sie Englisch?” and then continued in broken English with a German accent! Needless to say, I took the mickey out of him for it. He’d obviously remembered this when he tried to phone me this morning as the answerphone message wishing me a happy Valentine’s day is along the same lines.

Mini-concert

I’ve been singing at a party this evening with some people from my am-dram group. As Oklahoma! opens in a few weeks’ time, it was also a good chance to promote the show, so Steve (who plays Curly) and I were asked to sing “People Will Say We’re In Love”. I was a little nervous beforehand about potentially putting people off coming to see the show if we didn’t do a good performance, but fortunately it went well, although we had to do without microphones as there were a few technical hitches with sound at the beginning of the evening.

Tap show

The dance school which runs my tap and ballet classes also has weekly classes rehearsing for the main show which is performed every 18 months or so. This week is show week for their latest production – “Circle of Life”. The plot linking the dances focused on mankind through the ages so the music for the dances included things like the Flintstones’ theme and “Millennium”. As always, the dancing was extremely good (I’m always amazed at how everyone remembers all the routines as there’s so many of them!) and other than the occasional technical hitch, it was a really good show.

Going for a walk

I used to enjoy walking. I grew up in a fairly rural area – my bedroom window looked out on the fields of the nearby farm, and at the end of the road was an area of heathland. The walk to infant and secondary school was across the heath; the walk to junior school took us along the river. I used to go out just for a walk. Now I live in a city, it’s just not the same. Walking along a busy road with the constant roar of traffic and the smell of exhaust fumes is no pleasure at all.

The new job begins

Last Tuesday was supposed to be my first day doing my new job, but got postponed because of the snow (and me being at a birth!) so my first “official” day ended up being today instead. I have been given a list of tasks to do – some have deadlines which are a little too soon for my liking! I’m slowly starting to get to grips with the admin side of things; having worked as a secretary before becoming a midwife, I thought it would be quite straightforward but it’s amazing how much time even fairly simple jobs can take sometimes!

General busyness

Both Michael and I have jobs which can have quite unsociable working hours, so when we are busy, we see very little of each other (quite frustrating if the other is having a quiet patch!). Michael is away most of this week, firstly working on a London event and then flying out to Berlin for another event at the end of the week. I’m quite glad that work is keeping me busy during the day and the social calendar is full for each evening this week (babies permitting!) otherwise I’d probably be feeling a little bit on the lonely side.

Oklahoma! update

There are five weeks left to go until the get-in for Oklahoma! and we’re now at the stage of being able to run each act at rehearsal without having to stop and start too much. Most of my “off-stage” time seems to be spent being fitted for costumes and going over dance routines. Both Jud and Curly were missing at a recent rehearsal which made it quite difficult to rehearse the ballet scene – being dragged across the floor and thrown over someone’s shoulders is difficult to act out when the other person isn’t there to do the dragging and throwing!

Wedding planning progresses

I’ve been spending most of today focusing on wedding planning. Our plans for the wedding seem to be coming together fairly well at present. Most of the time today has been spent designing our wedding invitations (and getting to grips with the quirks of the image editing software!) and researching ideas for our honeymoon. Things are beginning to come together – the other things we are focusing on at the moment are finding a videographer (Michael’s big task at present), finding a florist (might wait until after Valentine’s Day though!) and looking at ideas for music and entertainment at the reception.

Fiddler on the Roof

I went to see an amateur production of “Fiddler on the Roof” this evening. I used to act with the group who put on the production, and some of my friends are still involved (one of whom was playing Grandma Tzeitel). It was the best production I’d seen from that group in about three years – the principals were well cast, the choreography was great, the chorus were animated and the lighting and sound were good. Just some minor hiccups (like the mens’ chorus being two bars ahead of the music at one point) but all in all, a great production.

All bunged up and fuzzy-headed

I’m full of cold today and becoming surgically attached to my cup of hot lemon and honey. It’s at that annoying stage where my head feels fuzzy (so trying to concentrate on anything for longer than about 30 seconds is a bit of an effort) and my nose is so red it would make Rudolph jealous. I also have the added joy of sciatica which is causing me to walk in a way that resembles an overgrown duck waddling so all in all, I’m not exactly feeling at my most glamorous today. But apart from that, life is just great!

Talking about tea

After a long day at work, it’s nice to be able to put my feet up and have a nice cup of tea. I’m a bit of a tea addict. I don’t mind what kind of tea – green, black, white, rooibos, fruit, herbal – you name it, I’ll drink it. I counted 32 different types of tea in my tea cupboard the other day, which seems excessive although perhaps just having a “tea cupboard” is a little excessive in itself. I blame a trip to Camden Market where Gillian and I discovered Yumchaa, who sell the nicest tea in the world.

Snow babies

As I said yesterday, babies don’t stop for snow, and so off I went to a lovely homebirth this morning and welcomed a baby boy into the world. The roads had mostly been gritted so it wasn’t too hairy trying to get there, although some of the minor roads were still quite slippery. It was quite a quick birth and so I also managed to get all of yesterday’s visits done as well which was great. Plus I also managed to get back home in time to go to a tap class for the first time since spraining my toes.

Snow stops play

We’re not used to snow in southern England so when we get a day like today with fairly heavy snow (3 inches deep where I live), everything grinds to a halt. The trains and buses aren’t running and we were advised to postpone any visits that weren’t absolutely necessary (and pray no-one went into labour!). Which is fine, but will make the rest of the week very busy and because it will all freeze over tonight, the roads will probably be even worse tomorrow and the visits will still need to be done somehow. Babies just don’t stop for snow.

Demons in drag

We were focusing on Mark 1:21-28 (Jesus driving out an evil spirit) in Junior Church, discussing healing and the “evil spirits” which people may be affected by in today’s world. Each of the young people had a verse each which they rewrote in a modern setting and then we put it together (a little like “Consequences” and almost as funny). Verse 26 was rewritten as “The evil spirit of cross-dressing shook the drag queen violently and came out of him with a girly scream” (please note, I’m not denouncing cross-dressing, just sharing what was written!) which made us all giggle.