Straight back down to earth
I'm aware that it's been a bit of a while, and I fully intend to get back into this. The problem is time, and work. Y'see, there was a time back along when I had time at work to cock about. [Well, I didn't really have time, I just made time out of the periods when I should have been actually working.]
Since returning from getting married, there has been nary a second spare to do any personal admin at all, because I have been moved into a job on the online side of things. On the plus side, I am having to use my brain slightly more now, so the days don't drag. Not that they dragged before...especially when I was organising a wedding. There was
plenty to be getting on with then.
Anyway, I give it six weeks in the new job before I have things running my way and the usual torpor has set in.
Going back to the wedding organising...I find that there is an enormous gap left by this and it makes me realise how much I fool myself. I love a project and it's my main aim in life to make things happen. Now that there is very little to do, I am a bit bereft, adrift. According to the bridezilla social network this is a common theme for people coming out of a period of wedding planning. Plus, the wedding was a handy way of pretending that my other problems didn't exist. Now I no longer have the excuse, so I have to face up to my mother's illness.
On a lighter note, I have been enjoying life. Despite what I have written above, I am not wandering around with a little black cloud over my head. We've been going out, seeing people and trying not to use the changing weather as an excuse to sit about, eat too much and do nothing. Autumn is absolutely the best time of year and the (very gradual) change of season has been a delight to watch.
Labels: autumn, blog will eat itself
Matrimonial fears: unfounded
As promised.
Labels: holy shit we're married
All the people I love are here; all the people I love are drunk
Here we are, on the other side of getting married. Feels good so far!
The day before the wedding was tense, and I spent the day in an extremely anxious state. I won’t go into detail but put it this way, I spent the whole day cursing why we hadn’t just got married abroad.
The wedding day itself went without a hitch – apart from my mobile phone going missing for a few hours (dropped in the back of the cab following the ceremony, recovered later in the day). Our wedding meal was superb. I made an off-the-cuff quip in our short speech about having eaten so much that I couldn’t wait to get out of my control pants, which made everybody fall about laughing (unintentional humour is a speciality of mine). Everyone appeared to have a good time, even those who have had real troubles recently. My Mum was cock-a-hoop and was on excellent form all day.
Sister #4 and
Small Monkey #3 had spent the day before making us a wedding sponge cake, which was a lovely gesture. I was given a horseshoe by
Sister #2, which used to be attached to my Dad’s shed (she spent two days sanding the rust off it).
Our short post-wedding break (I struggle with the term honeymoon) was lovely and took in some of the best bits of Dorset. On Saturday night, we whooped it up in Central London with 130 mates until the early hours, which was absolutely brilliant. I had the best time and feel very lucky that we both have such a great set of friends.
I hope to post some pics of the happy times soon.
Labels: weddinged
I did it my way
This is my last post before I head to the South West to get hitched. It's been an interesting road to get to this point, full of diversions and unexpected things: despite all that, right at the moment, I'm seriously tired and looking forward to my holiday (Dorset, for those of you who may be wondering).
I'll be seeing you all on the other side, where we are going to show East Central London how to party.
Labels: laters
Usually drink, usually dance, usually babble
I've emerged smiling into the new week. This is quite something. I think it's a combination of being illness-free (well, apart from the spot on my face that feels like I'm growing an extra head) and also seeing all and sundry on Saturday night for food/booze/dancing.
My night out, then. Yes. It was an absolute riot, albeit a very polite one. The vast meal we ate (an absolute banquet, with starters, cocktails, mains, desserts, coffees AND service charge for just over £25 a head - a stone-cold bargain for central London) offset the very strong tequila-based drinks, so by the time we got to the dancing we had all sobered up. That didn't last long. Before the night was out, I found myself dancing to
The Cult. Now
that hasn't happened to me in a while. Or at least, it's never happened to me in the same half hour as dancing to
Wearing my Rolex.
To sum up, it was great fun, the group was just the right size, and I feel incredibly lucky to have such a great bunch of friends.
Say I'm your number one
The back pain subsided and was replaced almost immediately with a cold. I now have kidney pain, which is less debilitating than back pain, but it’s making me jumpy, because I have a big weekend planned. I’m having a hen-do of sorts, that will involve copious amounts of tequila-based drinkery, copious amounts of Mexican food, and copious amounts of dancing at Buttoned Down Disco.
Last weekend I went to Devon. It was not the best of times, but there’s no sense going into detail here.
I wanted to post here to a part of a music blog called
Freaky Trigger, called
Popular. The latter reviews every number one record since the 1950s. I’ve been reading for about a year or so and have been contributing comments to the entries that I find most interesting. My comments aren't insightful or funny, I just enjoy chipping in. I’m sure you’ll spot me if you know my Twitter handle.
Popular has now reached the period of music that I love most of all, the mid-1980s. Such richness, such diversity, such pomposity, such hair. Each new entry transports me back to that time. Given that this period coincides with me at my most exposed (newly at secondary school/hating it; family troubles; general pre-teenage confusion about everything), the songs aren't always a pathway back to feelgood.
Two weeks to go then.
*sharp intake of breath*
Labels: freaky trigger, hen do, number one records, popular, the 1980s
Of backs and birds
I'm hanging in there, still, but this time with back pain.
Back pain. It screws things up like nothing else. At present, whenever I move, it's like I'm a shop window dummy being pushed around on a trolley. Any sudden movement is out, any bending or shifting is a chore. Thankfully, I managed to sleep last night, otherwise I'd have been all over the place today.
I got into the flat about an hour ago, and since then have been pottering around in unbending, robotic way. I heard a rustling sound, like someone eating crisps, but shrugged my shoulders and figured it was my downstairs neighbour, or a nearby child crinkling up some plastic, or some curtains brushing against something.
I just went into the bedroom to check on something, when I heard the rustling again. Then I saw it - a scruffy-looking Blue Tit fledgling. It must have flown into the flat via our bathroom window. At any rate, the poor wee thing was panicking and terrified, so I quietly opened up the window and let it out. Clearly starving, the bird flew straight to the nearby cherry tree to eat some catkins.
I find my interactions with things in the world unsettling sometimes.
Because we live at tree-height, we have a good opportunity to watch birds. The Blue Tits are always good entertainment, because they seem to hang about together in a vast, cheeping gang. Often, there will be thirty or forty hanging about in the same tree, hopping from branch to branch, fronting up to one another like a bunch of teenagers.
My encounter with the bird reminded me of the work of artist
Emily Sutton. She embroiders the most beautiful bird ornaments/sculptures. I'm a huge fan of these things, although I'm not sure I need a tiny embroidered bird in my already cluttered life.
Labels: back pain, birds
