Duracell bunny day

Some days I wake up in the morning and it seems a huge effort just to get out of bed. Doing the simplest of household chores feels like a titanic struggle and all I want to do is curl up under the duvet and sleep. Other days, I wake up feeling like the Duracell bunny on speed. The mammoth list of tasks on the to-do list is surprisingly achievable, the flat is amazingly clean and tidy and the mountain of work is reduced to a molehill in no time at all. Why can’t every day be a Duracell bunny day?

Triumphs and taps

We seem to be having a bit of a lucky streak in the pub quiz over the last few weeks – winning the quiz again tonight for the third time in four weeks (without a tie-break this time which was even better!) Michael also won £10 in the raffle after the quiz so a good night all in all. It was also tap night - slowly, but surely the routines are coming together which is just as well as we have been told that our exam will be on 22nd November. Hopefully I’ll get to grips with the routines by then!

Lessons from marriage

Things I have learnt about marriage:

1) Changing your name does not mean you are no longer part of your own family and have instead become assimilated into your spouse’s family like being assimilated into the Borg collective.

2) Any implied comparison between your in-laws and the Borg collective is unlikely to improve your relationship with them and may offend your spouse.

3) Marriage requires give and take. Some days you will feel like you are doing all the giving and will be afflicted with amnesia regarding any times when you have taken. Your spouse will remind you of them.

Lindsay & Dave's wedding

It was almost like having two weddings in a day. A register office ceremony, followed by lunch; then a church blessing and the reception. I felt like a Disney princess in my pretty bridesmaid dress (possibly the nicest bridesmaid dress I have ever had apart from the ones my mum made!). Lindsay and Dave looked blissfully happy, the sun shone and it was just beautiful. There were a few extra nice touches – the build-a-bear workshop for the children at the reception and the bride’s first dance with her dad before she danced for the first time with her new husband.

Wedding mornings

My friend Lindsay is getting married today and I will be one of her bridesmaids which I’m feeling very excited about. The last time I was a bridesmaid was two months before my own wedding and in all the excitement of getting ready, I couldn’t help thinking that soon it would be me getting married. Today I am once again remembering my own wedding morning, the excitement and joy of it all. It looks set to be a beautiful day and I hope Lindsay and Dave’s day will be every bit as wonderful for them as ours was for us.

Thoughts from a teashop

Eating breakfast in a teashop with jazz quietly playing in the background and watching the world go by. It somehow seems less hurried than usual, until an irate driver beeps his horn and the illusion of serenity is suddenly shattered. The world is a good place today – or at least my world is! This hasn’t always been the case lately – I’ve been riding the emotional rollercoaster again. In my world today, there is no Ms Hyde, no angst, no frustrations – just peace and serenity, calmness and contentedness. In the stillness, I find myself again and know that I am loved.

Changing seasons

The summer has slipped into autumn, and with the changing season comes the expectation of changes elsewhere in my little world following some rather interesting discussions at work. Like most people, I don’t always like change – it’s much more comfortable sometimes for things to stay as they are – even when things are not quite how you would like them to be in an ideal world, at least you know where you are with them. Things at work seem set to be rather interesting over the next few months, which is a little unsettling but quite exciting at the same time!

The battle between Jekyll and Hyde

I feel like I have been battling Ms Hyde a little more frequently of late. Sometimes I can tell that there is a fight brewing; other times it seems that she sneaks up on me almost before I’ve realised it. I’m learning to recognise some of the triggers but even being aware of them doesn’t always seem to prevent the black mood descending. I keep reminding myself that the emotional rollercoaster always comes to an end eventually and at some point my emotions will get back on an even keel – fingers crossed that they do so sooner rather than later!

Eroding consumer satisfaction

On the whole, the suppliers I used for my wedding were really good, really helped and generally bent over backwards in the run-up to the wedding. Unfortunately, a couple of them were unable to provide goods or services that had previously been agreed and was told they would refund me the cost of these. More than two months after the wedding, I am still chasing them. Their service was excellent otherwise, but despite appearing to be very happy to agree a refund when asked, their evasiveness now on providing it has completely eroded my positive opinions of their customer service.

Missing the muse

There are people who just seem to have been born with the gift of being able to write and make it interesting and witty – even their Facebook and Twitter updates are always worth reading. Then there are those of us who want to write, but the muse moved out long ago. The novel stalls a few chapters in and seems immune to attempts at kick-starting it and sometimes even writing just 100 words seems an impossible task. Making myself write regularly is good discipline though so I keep persevering, but wonder sometimes if I ever actually write anything worth reading?

Proverbs and PSPs

I had my first Junior Church session since the summer holidays this morning which was interesting. Normally I take the 11+ group but I had a couple of slightly younger boys as well today which was unexpected. I had to think on my feet and adapt what I was doing so they could join in. The theme was Proverbs 31 and trying to do the best we can with the skills we have. I’m not quite sure how PSP games and guns fitted into this theme but trying to gently steer the boys away from this was an uphill struggle.

Clumsiness

As well as recently developing a reputation for tardiness, I now seem to be also developing one for clumsiness. On Tuesday I managed to knock an entire glass of Coke over a friend at the pub quiz and then tonight I managed to knock a glass of red wine over another pub quiz friend (who thankfully wasn’t wearing anything white!) as well as all over the board game we were playing. Sitting at a table opposite me is becoming a bit of a hazard. Michael is just relieved that the baton for clumsiness seems to be moving away from him…

Tips for a happy marriage?

One of our more unusual wedding presents was a little booklet entitled “All A Young Wife Ought To Know” containing various tips in preparation for married life. Some are quite sensible, for instance “do not run up long bills of credit, for thus are born arguments, hatreds and reproaches”. Useful advice indeed, given my love of Radley bags and inability to resist the Monsoon sale! Other advice is less useful – the advice that on the husband’s arrival home, the wife should “have his shoes removed before a good fire and his feet washed!” Somehow I can’t see myself doing that!

Travel bug

It’s been a lovely evening catching up with our friends James and Rachel who are off travelling next week and will be away for six months visiting Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and South America. I don’t really have much of a travel bug myself but it makes me realise just how much world there is out there and how little of it I’ve actually seen. Having a flying phobia obviously doesn’t help – although I would quite like to visit every country in Europe which would still be quite a challenge even if it doesn’t sound quite as exotic.

Nearing the end of the Facebook-free challenge

The Facebook-free challenge is coming to an end and I have managed to last a week without checking either Facebook or Twitter. It’s made me realise that I do use it as a tool for communicating with my friends and I have felt quite isolated without it. I have made more effort to contact my friends by phone (not always easy when getting home at less sociable hours!) and to try to catch up face to face. I’ve also managed to get more jobs around the house done but I’m looking forward to getting back to my online world tomorrow!

Feeling more upbeat

Despite it being a rather grey, rainy day, I’ve been feeling a lot more positive than of late. It’s been a good day overall. This evening’s tap lesson went well – the routine I was struggling with is finally beginning to sink in. I know the steps, now I just need to get more familiar with them as I can’t think of them quickly enough for my feet to keep up with the music. We also won the pub quiz for the second week running – it might have been the lowest winning score ever but it was a winning score nonetheless!

Wedding DVD family screening

It’s always nice to take a trip back home and spend some time with my family. Today was one of the days that my dad spends at the day centre, so I had a lovely afternoon, just spending time with my mum. Once my dad was back home from the day centre, we spent the evening reliving happy memories from my wedding day as I had brought the wedding DVD home for my family to watch. My two nieces really enjoyed seeing themselves on the DVD and pointing out themselves and everyone they knew each time they appeared on screen.

Sunday lunch for 30

Cooking Sunday dinner for 30 people seemed to go fairly well in the end – a few people asked for second helpings which is always a good sign and there were plenty of people willing to help serve and wash up afterwards so it wasn’t too stressful! The only minor hiccups were suddenly realising there were no tea bags and having to send Michael out to the shop whilst everyone was having dessert and Michael’s attempts at making a pot of coffee – using about four times as much coffee as he should have done! It looked more like gravy than coffee!

Preparing Sunday dinner for 30

It’s been a busy day of cooking in preparation for tomorrow’s lunch for those living on their own at church. Having no working oven has limited the menu choices and so we decided that cottage pie would be the best plan as the mince and potatoes can be cooked on the hob and then browned under the grill. Having Michael around to help peel and mash the potatoes, keep the washing up under control and generally try and be useful made things a lot easier this year – hopefully it will all go well tomorrow and everyone will enjoy the meal.

Ambulance accidents

Day 2 without Facebook or Twitter and I am still managing to resist logging on. It’s been made a lot easier today given that I’ve only just got home from work after a busy day of visits and being at a labour. We ended up having to transfer into hospital and the rather helpful ambulance driver thought he’d reverse back so that the labouring lady didn’t have to walk far to the ambulance and promptly reversed his ambulance into a wall. Fortunately, the ambulance was fine and the driver managed to get us to the hospital without any further mishaps.

Facing the Facebook-free challenge

I have a tendency to keep people at arm’s length. It is rare for me to let people get very close. I think this is one of the reasons I’m so addicted to Facebook – it allows me to be friendly, but detached. Michael is of the opinion that it’s not helping my social networking skills – it is merely allowing me to create yet another barrier. And so, the challenge has been set. Can I get through a whole week without checking Facebook or Twitter? I usually log on several times a day, but have managed to resist so far today.

Back to ballet

After a bit of a lull from social activities in the summer, it’s back to being busy again. Tonight it was the return of ballet classes after the summer, although I’d been so busy since the beginning of the year that this was probably my first class this year. It was tough. Unbelievably tough. A whole set of new routines that I’ve never done before, but everyone else is familiar with and I’m not exactly very good at ballet at the best of times. I struggled through the routines, looking about as graceful as a duck with a broken leg.

Pressure and perfectionism

I have quite a competitive streak and also tend to be a perfectionist so put a lot of pressure on myself to do well at things. I’d almost rather not do something than do it badly. As a result, I’m finding tap classes very frustrating right now – there is one routine that I just can’t seem to get the knack of. If everyone was struggling, I wouldn’t be so bothered but it just seems to be me. On the plus side, my competitive streak did at least get satisfied this evening after tap class when we won the pub quiz.

Monday blues

After the excitement of the weekend, Monday has left me feeling a little deflated. It’s not that anything negative has happened to make me feel this way; just that it’s been a pretty ordinary, mundane kind of day where I’ve been suffering from the occasional attack of “can’t-be-bothereditis” and generally feeling like I’ve got about as much energy as a dead slug. I’m anticipating a fairly busy week ahead, with the weekend looking particularly hectic as I’ve volunteered once again to cook Sunday dinner for 35 people. One minor problem – we don’t currently have a working oven. Could be interesting.

Joel & Vik's wedding (part 2)

In the evening, there was a competition for the best speech - anyone could make a speech; the only rule being that it had to be less than 3 minutes long and the prizes went to the bride’s brother and the best man. The wedding cake was a collection of individual cupcakes brought in by the guests with a prize for the most creative. During the reception, we wrote our good wishes for Joel & Vik on pieces of paper which were then attached to balloons and as night fell, the balloons were released, sending our good wishes with them.

Joel & Vik's wedding (part 1)

We had a lovely time at Joel & Vik’s wedding. As expected, their wedding was not completely conventional – the reception was held at the River Cottage (as featured on TV cookery programmes) on a farm in Devon and to get there, we had to board a trailer driven by a tractor. Down on the farm, our welcome drinks were served in the yurt and the wedding breakfast in the barn. In the fields surrounding the barn, there were cows and pigs, chickens and ducks – and the lamb being served for dinner was roasting on a spit outside as we arrived!

Clothing crisis

The dress code for tomorrow’s wedding is black tie so I have been digging out all my evening dresses from my university days out of the wardrobe. The trouble is, they seem to have shrunk in the last four years. Quite a lot. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get a single one on and done up properly. They fitted fine around the waist, but it seems that 26-year old me had no hips or bust. Normally I wouldn’t grumble about developing more curves in these areas but it is frustrating suddenly finding you have nothing to wear!

Happy car

I now have my car back again - it has been fixed much more quickly than I had anticipated and fortunately the garage bill was nowhere near as bad as it could have been. The problem turned out to be fairly simple – the car just needed a new oil pressure switch. I’m quite relieved to be back in my own car – particularly as we are going down to Devon for a friend’s wedding this weekend and the thought of having to do all the driving over the weekend was not appealing, as Michael wouldn’t have been able to share it.

Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to the garage we go...

My little car is poorly again and has gone back into the garage for some TLC. There is a problem with the oil pressure which hopefully is something simple and easily fixable and not something serious requiring a whole new engine. Michael’s car has a hole in the exhaust and is also in need of TLC so I have had to rent a car. I thought I’d go for the same type of car as my one – except it’s a newer model, and has been super-sized – it’s not quite like driving Michael’s tank but I’m still nervous about the corners!

Bank holidays and barbecues

It was one of those rare things – a bank holiday where the sun was actually shining. The barbecue was set up, the chairs were out on the lawn – and still the sun stayed out. Which in England is nothing short of a miracle. Michael’s birthday celebrations continued on through yesterday –the bank holiday being the perfect excuse for inviting friends over and having a barbecue. It was a small group in the end – there were only ten of us able to make it but it was a great afternoon spent soaking up the sunshine and being with friends and family.